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Filson Club Publications
1
NUMBER TWELVE
BRYANT'S STATION
:
AND—
THE MEMORIAL PROCEEDINGS
Held on its Site under the Auspices of the Lexington Chapter,
D. A. R., August the 18th, 1896, in Honor of its
Heroic Mothers and Daughters.
PREPARED FOR PUBLICATION BY
Reuben T. Durrett, LL. D.
President of The Filson Club.
*

AUST TA
nere SPRING
THE BOMEN OF ANGEERT SPART
POINTED T
The Memorial Wall erected by the Lexington Chapter D. A. R. around the spring at Bryant's Station, from which the women
and girls got water during the siege.
FILSON CLUB PublicATIONS NO. 12.
BRYANT'S STATION
AND
THE MEMORIAL PROCEEDINGS
Held on its Site undER THE AUSPICES OF The Lexington
CHAPTER, D. A. R., AUGUST THE 18TH, 1896
IN HONOR OF ITS
HEROIC MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS
PREPARED FOR PUBLICATION BY
REUBEN T. Durrett, LL. D.
PRESIDENT OF THE FILSON CLUB
Wz
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
JOHN P. MORTON AND COMPANY
Printers to the Filson Club
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1897
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COPYRIGHTED BY
The Filson Club
1897
PREFACE.
TH
HIS twelfth number of The Filson Club publications is
the first of the series to partake of a miscellaneous
character. All the others, The Life and Writings of John
Filson, The Wilderness Road, The Pioneer Press of Ken-
tucky, The Life and Times of Judge Caleb Wallace, The
Historical Sketch of St. Paul's Church, The Political
Beginnings of Kentucky, The Centenary of Kentucky,
The Centenary of Louisville, The Political Club, The Life
and Writings of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, and The
History of Transylvania University, are monographs.
While, however, the present number has the appearance
of a miscellany, it is hardly any thing but a monograph
when Bryant's or Bryan's Station is considered the
subject. It was the siege of this station which gave its
female inhabitants the opportunity to immortalize them-
selves by going to the spring for water, and it was this
act of the women and girls which led to the monument
over the spring they had made famous. When the monu-
ment had been finished, its unveiling by those who had
originated it naturally followed, and hence the commem-
orative ceremonies on the 18th, which make up the prin-
B
-
Adm
iv
Preface.
cipal matter of this publication. In this sense, therefore,
the seemingly separate articles are parts of one whole,
and really make but a monograph on the subject of
Bryant's or Bryan's Station and the memorial services
there.
There has been no attempt in this publication to recon-
cile differences of opinion as to the name of the famous
station on the Elkhorn, nor as to the date at which it
was besieged by the Indians. This difference of opinion
is of modern origin and harmless in character. For ninety
years our historians uniformly called the station Bryant's,
and for a period yet longer gave the date of the begin-
ning of its siege as the 15th of August, 1782. When the
Canadian Archives were opened to the public in 1881,
and the Virginia Calendar began to be published in
1875, contemporary accounts of the siege were made
accessible, which induced some writers to change the date
from the 15th to the 16th, and the name from Bryant's
to Bryan's. In making these changes, however, they seem
to have lost sight of the fact that their newly discovered
authorities were not uniform. Some of them gave one
date and name and some another, which made them pre-
sent a difficulty to be gotten over only by a guess as to
which might be right. They enabled no one to be more
certain of the right date or name than he was before he
-
Preface.
V
1
saw them. Nor is it likely that reasoning persons will
ever be able to satisfy themselves beyond a doubt whether
the right name of the Station was Bryan or Bryant, nor
whether the siege began on the 15th or 16th. Fortunately
both names and both dates are good enough, and rest
upon ample authority for their use. In this publication,
therefore, the different articles are given as the authors
prepared them, with their own choice of the name of the
station and date of the siege. The editor of this volume,
however, with the same liberty accorded to others, adheres
to the name and date with which he has been familiar
all of his life.
An historic sketch of the Lexington Chapter of the
Daughters of the American Revolution occupies a place in
this publication, as it should. The patriotic ladies of this
organization, many of whom are members of The Filson
Club, were the first to conceive the thought of honoring
the memory of the brave women of Bryant's Station.
These heroines had been neglected while one hundred
and fourteen years glided silently over their unknown
graves. Their act in going outside of the protecting walls
of the fort to secure water from a spring surrounded by
savages ranked them among the bravest celebrities of the
world, and yet no one thought of honoring their memory
with a monument until the Lexington Chapter of the
vi
Preface.
Daughters of the American Revolution undertook it. Now
that the work has been done, and a monument so simple
and yet so appropriate is seen at the famous spring, the
wonder is that some one had not thought of it before.
If any one, however, did think of it before it was only a
thought, and the honor of conception and execution belongs
to the Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of the Ameri-
can Revolution. The undertaking originally derived en-
couragement from some excellent articles in the Lexington
Transcript, written by the Honorable James H. Mulligan
and his accomplished wife, both members of The Filson
Club, nevertheless it is not too much to say that the
Chapter singly and alone began the work and prosecuted
it to completion.
The addresses delivered by the speakers at the memorial
celebration on the 18th present the story of Bryant's Sta-
tion more elaborately and more authentically than it has
ever been presented before. It is the new historic matter
contained in these addresses which entitles the proceed-
ings at Bryant's Station to recognition as a Filson Club
publication. The Filson Club was organized for the pur-
pose of collecting, preserving, and publishing original his-
toric matter, and this kind of matter is abundantly found
in these addresses. They really make up a new chapter
in Kentucky history, and their authors are all members
of The Filson Club.
Preface.
vii
There was nevertheless something beyond these ad-
dresses that was wanted to complete the story of Bryant's
Station. This was an account of the Battle of the Blue
Licks which followed the siege and which was really the
closing scene in the bloody drama. This want was sup-
plied by the paper prepared by Colonel Bennett H. Young
and read before The Filson Club. It is embraced in this
publication, and completes the history of the most remark-
able siege and the most disastrous battle with the Indians
that ever occurred in Kentucky.
R. T. DURRETT,
President.
?
CONTENTS.
1. The Lexington Chapter, D. A. R., with a list of its officers
and members, and the memorial proceedings at the un-
veiling of the monument erected to the memory of the
heroic mothers and daughters of Bryan's or Bryant's
Station. By Mrs. Elizabeth Slaughter Bassett Scott, .
2. The first act in the Siege of Bryant's Station, embracing
the memorial proceedings there on the 18th, a list of the
inhabitants of the Station when the siege began, and a
list of the brave mothers and daughters who went to the
spring for water. By Reuben T. Durrett, LL. D.,
3. The Women of Bryant's Station-an original poem. By
Major Henry T. Stanton,
•
•
4.
The story of Bryan's or Bryant's Station, embracing its full
history from its beginning to its end. By Professor
George W. Ranck,
7. Index,
5. The Battle of the Blue Licks, embracing its full history,
with an appendix containing a list of Kentuckians en-
gaged. By Colonel Bennett H. Young,
By
6. An historic sketch of The Filson Club, with a list of its
officers and members, alphabetically arranged.
Reuben T. Durrett, LL. D.,
I
15
62
69
131
· 233
. 259
•

Olizabeth D. 13 Doors Donetary
Mr.
Mer. Srabella Millig
Coleman
Mrs. Maria C J
Miss Quentin Toh Clo
Via Rez
Regent
Miss Mary
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Megistrars.
Is Bagan
Treasurer.
Officers of the Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution; all members of The Filson Club.
1
The Siege of Bryan's Station.
THE LEXINGTON CHAPTER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THEIR COM-
MEMORATIVE PROCEEDINGS.
BY MRS. ELIZABETH SLAUGHTER BASSETT SCOTT,
Secretary of the Lexington Chapter D. A. R. and Member of the Filson Club.
IN
N response to a call from Miss Elizabeth Shelby Kin-
kead, a number of ladies met with her, in Lexington,
Kentucky, on the afternoon of September 19, 1891, for
the purpose of organizing a society, the aim and object
of which should be the promotion of patriotism, and the
preserving and upholding of American liberty. The result
of this meeting was the foundation of the Lexington Chap-
ter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The first officers were:
Regent,
Registrar,
Secretary,
Treasurer,
•
S
The charter members were:
Miss Bessie Darnall.
Miss Mary Carty Ranck.
Miss Mary McClellan.
Miss Elizabeth Shelby Kinkead.
Miss Eleanor Talbott Kinkead.
Mrs. Isabella Milligan Coleman.
Mrs. Mary Lovell Sayre.
Miss Elizabeth Shelby Kinkead.
Miss Eleanor Talbott Kinkead.
Miss Lizzie Agnes Lyle.
2
The Lexington Chapter D. A. R.
Mrs. Mary Gratz Morton.
Mrs. Maria C. Lyle.
Mrs. Laura Stone Kinkead. Mrs. Barton Shelby Kinkead.
Mrs. Mary Lovell Sayre. Mrs. Lavinia Herndon Morgan.
Mrs. Isabella Milligan Coleman.
Mrs. Laura Russell Hawkins.
For some months the Chapter held very pleasant and
profitable meetings, with a comparatively small member-
ship. In 1894-'95, however, an increased interest was
manifested, and at every meeting new names were pre-
sented for membership. Now, in 1896, the Chapter is a
strong and influential body, having the second largest
membership in the State, and is doing work that is felt
in the community in a most desirable and wholesome
manner.
It has invariably responded to calls of a patriotic char-
acter. It contributed to the fund for the portrait of the
wife of President Harrison; it sent money and relics to be
melted into the Liberty Bell, and it has recently forwarded
a generous contribution to the suffering Armenians. It
has placed in each of the public schools of Lexington a
large likeness of our country's first President, and is ever
aiming to instill into the youth of this place a pride and
love of country, and a reverence for the American flag
above every other emblem on earth.
Among the notable and successful undertakings in the
history of the Chapter was the reception given to the
And Their Memorial Work.
3
Mexican Veterans on the evening of June 10, 1896. The
following was said of it by one of the daily papers:
"The club rooms looked their gayest to honor the occasion.
Flags, of course, were everywhere. High aloft hung the familiar
shield-across the stars the legend 'Welcome,' across the stripes
the dates '1846-1896.' Flowers, luxuriant and profuse, decked the
The
mantels and piano, and a generous table held the tea service.
Regent, Miss Clay, assisted by a large number of the Daughters,
constituted the receiving committee. At five o'clock the strains of
the band came floating up the street, heralding the approach of the
honored guests. Very imposing did they look, preceded by the
Drum Major, twirling his silver mace, and making a spectacle
interesting and impressive. The Veterans entered the room two
and two, headed by the President of the Association, Major
Tufts, of Illinois, and Colonel McFadin, of Indiana.
Each was
presented individually to the circle of ladies awaiting them. The
hour that followed was one of the most animated those precincts
had ever known. The gray-haired guests most highly appreciated
their gracious hostesses. While they were discussing coffee, sand-
wiches, etc., a male quartette sang the old-fashioned but always
lovely 'Robin Adair,' 'Annie Laurie,' and 'My Old Kentucky Home.'
There were both pleasure and pathos in the scene. At the close of
the reception Colonel Tufts moved that the hearty thanks of the
Veterans be tendered the Daughters for their charming hospitality ;
it was enthusiastically seconded, and after the applause had subsided,
Mr. Perrin, of Illinois, made a speech, in which he paid an eloquent
tribute to the hospitality and beauty of Kentucky women. At last
the afternoon, ever to be remembered, was over, and the guests
regretfully departed, after the entire company had joined in singing
'My Old Kentucky Home.'
})}
4
The Lexington Chapter D. A. R.
The next public event celebrated was the Centennial
of Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the
United States. Through the request of the Chapter all
of the newspapers published the address. All citizens
were asked to display the American flag on this anniver-
sary, and in the evening public exercises were held, at
which Mr. James Livingstone kindly read Washington's
Address. Mr. Rogers Clay made an appropriate speech,
and several vocalists rendered beautiful patriotic selections.
But the occasion concerning which this Chapter feels
the deepest pride and satisfaction is the unveiling of the
memorial wall around the spring immortalized by the brave
act of women at Bryan's Station. Early in the life of
the Chapter the plan so long in developing was discussed.
But the time was not ripe; and it was not until 1894 that
active steps were taken to mark the spot so famous in
Kentucky history. In January, 1896, a committee con-
sisting of Mrs. J. R. Morton, Mrs. Wallace Shelby, Mrs.
John Morgan, and Miss Fannie Todd was appointed to
receive designs and specifications for the purpose of erect-
ing a suitable monument. After much deliberation and
many meetings the design agreed upon was an octagonal
wall, five feet in height and twelve feet in diameter, to
be built of enduring stone around the spring from which
the heroic women carried water into the fort during the
And Their Memorial Work.
5
fierce siege of bloodthirsty savages who surrounded it.
Much care and trouble did the Chapter and the various
committees incur in the perfecting of all the details con-
nected with the work. Finally, on the 18th of August,
1896, the memorial wall had been completed and the
ceremonies of unveiling took place, with an attendance of
citizens and impressiveness of services fully up to the
fondest hopes of the most zealous Daughter.
The Chapter had extended invitations to the Governor
of the State, to many of the State officials, to the Presi-
dent-General of the Daughters of the American Revolution,
to the Regents of every State, to the Regent and officers of
every Chapter in Kentucky, as well as to the Mayor and
all citizens of Lexington to be present at the ceremonies.
Bryan's Station is situated about five miles from the
city of Lexington, and all along the road the farm-houses
and toll-gates were gaily decorated with flags. An almost
endless procession of carriages passed for a long time
before the appointed hour. The large audience gathered
showed the deep interest taken by the community in the
celebration.
A platform had been erected on the crest of the hill
overlooking the spring, and upon it sat the distinguished
speakers who were to take part in the dedicatory services,
and the officers of the Chapter. The memorial wall around
#
6
1
The Lexington Chapter D. A. R.
the spring was in full view from the platform. Promptly
at four o'clock Miss Lucretia H. Clay, Regent of the Lex-
ington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revo-
lution and member of the Filson Club, called the meeting
to order and said:
"Our well-known and honored townsman, Doctor Lyman
Beecher Todd, will open the exercises with prayer. Doctor Todd
is much interested in Bryan's Station, and indeed has a personal
interest, because his grandfather, Colonel Levi Todd, was the com-
mander of the first party that came to the relief of the besieged
station in 1782. No one more appropriate could ask a blessing
upon our memorial work, and Doctor Todd will now open our
proceedings with prayer."
THE PRAYER OF LYMAN BEECHER TODD, M. D.,
Member of the Filson Club.
"Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us
from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory
forever.
"O thou eternal, immortal, and invisible God! we praise
Thee; we worship Thee; we acknowledge Thee to be the only
living and true God; God over all, blessed forever! Thou hast
been our dwelling-place in all generations. Thou reignest in the
heavens and doest Thy will among the children of men. We would
give thanks unto Thee, and would praise Thee at all times; but we

DOCTOR LYMAN BEECHER TODD,
Member of The Filson Club.
And Their Memorial Work.
7
1
would especially desire to do so on this occasion-on this memorial
occasion, when, assembled in Thy name and invoking Thy blessing,
we now would consecrate and dedicate forever these memorial
stones erected around this famous spring by loyal and reverential
hearts and loving hands to the memory of the patriotic, brave, and
heroic women and girls who, one hundred and fourteen years ago,
braved greatest danger-went out of the fort on yonder hill and
passed within a few feet of where they knew five hundred savages
with rifles in their hands lay concealed in ambush, came to this
spring, filled their vessels with water for the famished garrison, and
with Thy ever watchful eye over them, and Thy protecting arms
around them, returned to the fort in safety. Their feet faltered
not, their hearts failed not, their cheeks blanched with no fear, for
their trust was in Thee, in Thee alone, O our God! For this now
we thank Thee and bless and praise Thy great and holy name, O
our God! We thank Thee for the family Bibles they brought with
them as their most precious treasures to their wilderness homes.
We thank Thee for the family altars set up in those log cabin
homes, from which morning and evening sacrifice went up as a
sweet incense unto Thee. For this Christian civilization, bequeathed
as a precious legacy unto us, their descendants, we thank Thee.
We do sincerely thank Thee that Thou didst put it into the hearts
of these Thy servants, the Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of
the American Revolution, thus to desire and determine to perpetu-
ate the memory of the heroic deed of our ancestors—those noble
women! And wilt Thou greatly bless them and all gathered here to
participate in these memorial services in their efforts to promote the
love of God and country to coming generations? And now, O our
God! we do sincerely invoke Thy special blessing upon the descend-
ants of these heroic women, wherever they are, scattered over our
broad land: and when they shall hear what we have done this even-
4
•
8
The Lexington Chapter D. A. R.
ing, and shall tell it to their children under their own vines and fig
trees, may they with us, praising and thanking God, as we do now,
declare that the God of those grand, brave pioneer mothers shall be
their God; that they whom we honor were their ancestors, and
we who honor them are their kindred, and our home is their dear
old Kentucky home forever. Make us worthy of them, what they
were and what they did for us. And, as we go forth from this ever
and forever hallowed spring-hallowed by the sacred memories of a
noble race
may we be inspired to become more faithful servants of
the living God, to a loftier patriotism, to be a purer people and
better citizens. Amen."
A
At the close of Doctor Todd's invocation the children
of the Washington and Lafayette Chapter of Children of
the American Revolution sang the national song, "Amer-
ica." The Regent then made the following address of
welcome:
"In the name of the Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of
the American Revolution, I bid you welcome to the site of Bry-
an's Station, and to our memorial exercises in behalf of those
who made it famous. I feel almost inspired to deliver an address
myself on this occasion, but, unfortunately, I am not gifted with
eloquence, and must leave speaking to those better prepared.
Before I retire, however, to give place to the distinguished speak-
ers on the platform, I wish to state that the names on the Bry-
an's Station Memorial are those of persons who were associated
with the station. It gives me great pleasure now to introduce to
you Colonel Reuben T. Durrett, of Louisville. He is personally
known to many present, and to all his name is familiar as the
founder and President of The Filson Club, of which the whole
And Their Memorial Work.
State has just cause to be proud. The subject of the address he
will now deliver is 'The First Act in the Siege of Bryan's
Station.'
درد
Colonel Durrett then delivered an address highly fin-
ished in style and remarkable for the original historic and
biographic matter it contained. It was confined to the
first act or stage in the siege of Bryan's Station, because,
as he stated, it was at the beginning of the siege that the
women of the station performed the act which made them
immortal, and because there was a blank in Kentucky
history concerning these females which he wanted filled.
He gave the names of twenty-five of the women and girls
who went to the spring for water during the siege, not
one of whom had ever appeared in any of our histories.
He also corrected names and dates in our history, and
gave a new coloring to events which may do away with
some important errors of long standing. His address was
purely historic.
Following Colonel Durrett's address the band played
"The Star Spangled Banner." The Regent then pre-
sented Major Henry T. Stanton, the poet-laureate of
Kentucky, with the following remarks:
"I feel that it is a privilege to introduce Major Henry T.
Stanton, who will read an original poem written especially for
this occasion. You are doubtless familiar with many of his beau-
tiful poems, and will now listen to one never heard before.
>>
2
Io
The Lexington Chapter D. A. R.
After the applause which greeted his appearance had
subsided, Major Stanton read an original poem, written for
the occasion, entitled "The Women of Bryan's Station."
It was very beautiful, and thoroughly enjoyed by all. The
Regent then announced that to Miss Mary B. Bryan, the
great-great-granddaughter of William Bryan (the first set-
tler of the station), had fallen the honor of unveiling the
memorial. While the strains of "My Old Kentucky Home"
filled the air, Miss Bryan gracefully removed the covering
and disclosed to view the memorial work which was the
result of so much time, labor, and expense, and which was
the realization of a long-cherished design by the Chapter.
Nor was there one present who did not feel the deepest
gratification and pleasure in the form which the memorial
had assumed, for it was not only satisfactory from an
architectural standpoint, but was eminently useful in pre-
serving and protecting the waters of the spring-thus
proving a lasting benefit to all the surrounding country.
The ceremony of unveiling concluded, Mr. George W.
Ranck was introduced by the Regent with the following
remarks:
"Mr. George W. Ranck will now deliver an historic address.
Mr. Ranck is too well known to need an introduction to a Lexington
audience, but it gives me pleasure to present him to the strangers
who are with us to-day."
And Their Memorial Work.
I I
7.
It was late when Mr. Ranck took the stand, and he
only read some extracts from his elaborate address cover-
ing the whole history of Bryan's Station.
The Regent then closed the memorial exercises with
the following words of thanks:
"In the name of the Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of
the American Revolution, I thank the distinguished speakers who
have made these exercises at Bryan's Station a memorable event
in the history of Kentucky, and I also thank the patriotic men
and women who have assembled here in such numbers to witness
the exercises."
In the evening a brilliant reception was given by the
Chapter, in Lexington, to the distinguished guests. The
entertainment lasted until a late hour, and the speakers
of the day found themselves in the midst of an array of
beauty and wit, at the reception, of which they spoke in
the most laudatory terms.
Thus closed the celebration of the most important event
in the history of the Lexington Chapter of the Daughters
of the American Revolution. The officers at the time of
the celebration were:
Regent,
Vice-Regent,
Registrar,
Secretary,
Treasurer,
Miss Lucretia Hart Clay.
Mrs. Isabella Milligan Coleman.
Mrs. Maria C. Lyle.
Mrs. Elizabeth Slaughter Bassett Scott.
Miss Mary B. Bryan.
12
The Lexington Chapter D. A. R.
The members of the Chapter are as follows, alphabet-
ically arranged:
Akers, Mrs. Katherine Blair.
Alexander, Mrs. Lucy Fullerton.
Anderson, Mrs. Dovie Blythe.
Apperson, Mrs. Margaret Thomas.
Bassett, Miss Emma Latham.
Bassett, Miss Anna Whitney.
Bassett, Mrs. Martha Kenney.
Boswell, Mrs. Hannah Moore.
Boswell, Miss Mary.
Bryan, Miss Mary B.
Brown, Miss Mattie Wingfield.
Burgin, Mrs. Sallie Johnstone.
Cary, Mrs. Theodora Sydney Sayre Bell.
Casey, Mrs. Sybil Foote.
Clay, Miss Lucretia Hart.
Clay, Mrs. Lucie Chenault.
Clay, Mrs. Josephine Russell.
Clay, Mrs. Anna Gratz.
Clay, Miss Miriam.
Colcamp, Mrs. Emma Forsythe.
Coleman, Mrs. Isabella Milligan.
Des Cognets, Mrs. Anna Russell
De Long, Mrs. Ida C.
Edwards, Mrs. Lutie Kall.
Emmal, Mrs. Annie Prewitt.
Estill, Miss Martha Rodes.
Graves, Mrs. Adeline.
Greene, Miss Nanci Lewis.
And Their Memorial Work.
13
Guthrie, Mrs. Mary Thomas.
Hamilton, Mrs. Emma Van Meter.
Hanson, Miss Jennie M.
Harbison, Mrs. Cecilia McClarty.
Hawkins, Mrs. Laura Russell.
Humphreys, Mrs. Mary Taylor.
Johnstone, Mrs. Hermine Cary Gratz.
Kerr, Miss Elizabeth H.
Kinkead, Miss Elizabeth Shelby.
Kinkead, Miss Eleanor Talbott.
Kinkead, Miss James Pindell.
Kinkead, Mrs. Barton Shelby.
Le Compte, Miss Margaret Jane.
Lyle, Mrs. Maria C.
Lyle, Miss Lizzie Agnes.
McClellan, Miss Mary.
McDowell, Miss Madeline.
Massie, Mrs. Lillie Higgins.
Metcalf, Miss Maud.
Milligan, Mrs. Ellen M.
Morgan, Mrs. Lavinia Herndon.
Morton, Mrs. Mary Gratz.
Mulligan, Mrs. Genevieve Morgan.
Nuckols, Mrs. Martha Thomas.
Parker, Mrs. Virginia.
Pepper, Miss Belle.
Pepper, Miss Dixie.
Peter, Mrs. Mary McCauley.
Railley, Mrs. Ada Pepper.
Reese, Mrs. Florence Sullivan.
Ross, Mrs. Mary Ranck.
14
The Lexington Chapter D. A. R.
Sayre, Mrs. Mary Lovell.
Scott, Mrs. Elizabeth Skillman.
Scott, Mrs. Elizabeth Slaughter Bassett.
Scovell, Mrs. Nancy D.
Shanklin, Mrs. Martha Bryan.
Shanklin, Miss Mary Elizabeth.
Shelby, Mrs. Margaret Bryan.
Shelby, Miss Lucy Goodloe.
Shelby, Miss Alice McDowell.
Short, Mrs. Mary Dudley.
Skinner, Mrs. Julia Leuvir.
Stevenson, Mrs. Fannie Van de Grift.
Strong, Mrs. Isabel Osbourne.
Sweeney, Mrs. Margaret Prewitt.
Swigert, Mrs. Annette Broadhead.
Threlkeld, Mrs. Frances Bassett.
Todd, Miss Fannie Swift.
Van Meter, Mrs. Evaline Swope.
Ward, Miss Nora.
Williams, Mrs. Mary Sayre.

REUBEN T. DURRETT, LL. D.,
President of The Filson Club.
THE FIRST ACT IN THE SIEGE OF BRYANT'S STATION.
AN ADDRESS.
BY REUBEN T. DURRETT, LL. D.,
President of the Filson Club.
THE
HE Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of the Amer-
ican Revolution have honored me with the position of
one of their speakers on this occasion. If any present,
however, expect of me an attempt at oratory or display of
eloquence, they will be disappointed. I am here in the
interest of history, and it is my duty as well as my wish
to deal plainly with facts only. I shall confine what I
have to say to the first act or stage in the siege of Bryant's
Station on the 15th of August, 1782. It was during the
first few hours of this siege that the women of the fort
performed the heroic act which made them and the fort
famous, and to these I propose to direct your attention
on this occasion.
OBJECT OF THE MEETING AT BRYANT'S STATION.
We have assembled here to-day for an extraordinary
purpose. We
propose to commemorate an heroic act per-
formed by some of the pioneer women of Kentucky. The
brave deeds of men, as they well deserved, have been
16
The First Act in the Siege
celebrated in every age and clime. From the building of
pyramids and the rearing of monoliths five thousand years
ago until the present time the noble acts of brave men
have been emblazoned on monumental stone.
When Pericles pronounced his funeral oration over the
Athenians who had lost their lives in the battles of their
country he said, "This whole world is the sepulcher of
illustrious men.' Women were not specifically included
in this splendid eulogium of the great Grecian orator, and
could not have been with truth. Exceptional gifts, like
those of Sappho and Aspasia in the classic era, Heloise
and Joan of Arc in the middle ages, and Madam Roland
and Florence Nightingale in modern times, enabled their
possessors to rise above the general oblivion of their sex
and to receive from the world its monumental recognition.
Such fortunate heroines have been few, however, and where
one of their names has escaped the effacing fingers of time
millions have been erased forever.
رو
The world has never dealt justly with woman. Through
ancient, through mediæval, and down deep into modern
times she has been rated and treated as an inferior being,
as a creature put into this unequal world not for her own
benefit but for the benefit of man. Her better day has at
last dawned, and we now see her, where she should always
have been, recognized in schools, colleges, and universities,
Of Bryant's Station.
17
in the learned professions, and in innumerable business pur-
suits, the avenues to which had been closed against her for
thousands of years.
This is but the beginning of the end.
It is the glorious light of a brighter morning risen upon the
noonday of human progress.
Our purpose here to-day is not to rear a stately monu-
ment to the memory of women whose fame fills the world,
but to insure against oblivion the names of obscure heroines
who helped to rescue Kentucky from the dominion of the
savage. The pioneer women who aided in laying the foun-
dation of the Commonwealth of Kentucky are worthy of any
honors we can pay them, and we propose to begin to-day
with commemorative ceremonies in behalf of the wives
and daughters who, at the risk of their own lives, enabled
the garrison of Bryant's Station to escape the tomahawk
and the scalping-knife of besieging savages by going out
from the protecting walls of the fort and securing water
from an exposed spring surrounded by the savage enemy.
We propose to dedicate to their memory a wall of enduring
stone inclosing this spring and bearing their sacred names.
These ceremonies, under the auspices of the Daughters of
the American Revolution—the act of women in behalf of
women—are peculiarly appropriate. If they should suggest
the importance and justice of similar ceremonies in behalf
of other pioneer women who sleep in unknown graves in
3
18
The First Act in the Siege
different parts of our State, they will accomplish a good
work beyond the immediate purpose of conferring honors
on the heroines of Bryant's Station.
Before entering upon the specific act of the women
which made famous this spring and fort and hallowed the
very ground* we now occupy, let us recall the old fort
itself, and look upon it as it appeared in the day of its
usefulness. All readers of Kentucky history are more or
less familiar with the conventional pioneer forts in which
our ancestors lived as a safeguard against the Indians, but
the fort which stood here differed considerably from others
and demands some particularity of description.
LOCATION OF BRYANT'S STATION.
It was beautifully located on the gradually sloping south
bank of the head branch of the Elkhorn, in the midst of
a dark forest of noble trees, here and there relieved by
* Bryant's Station was situated about five miles from Lexington on the
road leading to Paris. It stood near where this road crosses the Elkhorn
Creek. The topography of the country, except in the absence of its once
dense forest, differs but little from what it was when the station was besieged
by the Indians one hundred and fourteen years ago. The land on which it
stood, after remaining in the Rogers family for three generations, passed to
Thomas Wood, who is the present owner. It is yet remarkable for a fertility
which has survived more than a century of cultivation. It is literally in the
heart of the bluegrass region of Kentucky, renowned for a soil as productive
as the exuberant delta of the Nile. Our pioneers determined the rich land
of the new country by the trees that grew upon it, and when they saw the fine
walnuts and locusts and ashes and maples that grew here they knew the
land was fertile and selected it.
Of Bryant's Station.
19
smiling canebrakes. From the summit of its northeastern
block-house the waters of the Elkhorn could be partially seen
between obstructing trees as the creek flowed in a crescent
bend, near the center of which on the south side was the
bluff-hidden spring which supplied the inhabitants with
water and above which stood the fort on a commanding
elevation. From around it on all sides several hundred
acres of the dense woods had been cleared away for the
purpose of giving uninterrupted range to the rifles which
defended it; but in full view, around the rim of the encircling
forest yet uncut, stood great black walnut trees and blue ash
trees and honey locust trees and sugar maple trees, seeming
in their strength to boast of the soil that nourished them,
while along the Elkhorn stood giant sycamores* like sentinels
of old looking down upon the fortification they guarded.
On the trace which led to Lexington on the southwest
and to Limestone on the northeast was a field of more
than one hundred acres of corn growing in the rank luxury
which the rich soil from which it sprang imparted to it.
*In one of these grand old sycamores tradition has located an enter-
prising Indian during the siege. He had climbed high enough in the tree to
look down into the fort and to pick off his white victims without being in
danger himself while hidden by the foliage of the tree. The sound from his
discharged rifle, however, directed the sharp eye of Jacob Stucker to his
hiding-place, and the next moment he was on his way to the ground beneath
with a deadly rifle ball through his body. The stump of the tree still stands
on the bank of the Elkhorn, and indicates in its decay its dimensions while
living.
20
The First Act in the Siege
DUAL NAME OF THE STATION.
It was built in 1779 on ground which belonged to
Colonel William Preston, of Virginia. In 1774 Colonel
John Floyd surveyed a tract of one thousand acres here
for Colonel Preston, who afterward exchanged it with
Joseph Rogers for land in the Horseshoe Bottom on the
New River. The fort was built principally by the Bryans
of North Carolina, some of whom were in Kentucky as
early as 1776, but who resided at Boonesborough and other
stations until 1779. For some unknown reason it took the
double name of Bryant and Bryan from the beginning, and
was widely known by both names in early times. More
than thirteen thousand acres of land in the neighborhood of
this station were entered in 1779 and 1780 by different
members of the Bryan family, but none of them seems to
have secured the land on which this station stood nor to
have given it his distinctive name. William Bryan, James
Bryan, Morgan Bryan, Joseph Bryan, George Bryan, David
Bryan, Samuel Bryan, and John Bryan each entered a por-
tion of these lands more or less distant from the station,
and, while the entries are in the name of Bryan, some of the
lands are described as being such a distance or such a direc-
Of Bryant's Station.
21
.
tion from Bryant's Station.* Cave Johnson, in his autobiog-
raphy, states that he and William Tomlinson helped to
erect this fort in 1779, and calls it Bryant's Station. The
Commissioners, who were here in 1780 to adjust settlers'
and improvers' rights to land under the law of 1779, called
it Bryant in the certificates they issued, and Colonel
William Fleming, one of the Commissioners, entered it
as Bryant in his journal. While, therefore, it must be
conceded that persons by the distinctive name of Bryan
were the principal builders and the most numerous and
respectable first inhabitants of the fort, there may have
been others of the equally distinctive name of Bryant
concerned sufficiently to affect the name. I continue to
call it Bryant because I was first taught this name by
our historians. From Filson in 1784 to Collins in 1874,
a period of ninety years, our historians uniformly call
it Bryant's Station. The first of our historians to call it
Bryan's was Richard H. Collins in 1874. Bryan would
suit me equally well but for something of an antiquarian
proclivity for primitive impressions. In fact, the names
*The records of our land office also show entries in 1780 and in subse-
quent years by persons of the distinctive name of Bryant-Joseph Bryant,
William Bryant, John Bryant, and James Bryant each entered lands in
different parts of the State, and their entries, though not so large as those
of the Bryans, amounted in the aggregate to nearly six thousand acres.
+ I have seen but one of these certificates which bore the name of Bryan,
and that was not an original but a copy of the one issued to John South,
December 25, 1779.
All the others that I have seen gave the name of the
station as Bryant's.
22
The First Act in the Siege
Bryant and Bryan seem to have been indiscriminately
applied to this fort in early times, as if Bryan meant
Bryant, and Bryant meant Bryan. It is therefore but a
matter of choice or taste whether we of to-day shall retain
or discard the final t in the spelling. "De gustibus non
est disputandum.
ܙܙ
*An example of this confused or indiscriminate use of the two names is
supplied by the autobiography of Colonel Cave Johnson, a pioneer of more
than average intelligence. While Johnson was on his way from Virginia to
Kentucky, in 1779, he met on the Cumberland River some emigrants from
North Carolina also on their way to Kentucky. There are reasons for
believing that the right name of the persons thus met by Johnson was Bryan,
and yet, after journeying with them to the Elkhorn and helping them to erect
a station, Johnson calls them Bryant and the station they built Bryant's.
The records of suits tried in our early Court of Appeals furnish other
examples. In the case of George Bryan, &c., v. John Bradford, &c., Hughes'
Kentucky Reports, page 55, and David Bryan, &c., v. Caleb Wallace, page
194, the complainants, who are seeking title to lands in the neighborhood of
this very station, are called Bryan and the station itself Bryant.
In the book of land entries kept by George May for the State there is an
entry on the 20th of May, 1780, in the name of William Bryant, for one
thousand nine hundred and thirty-two acres, and another entry of the same
quantity of land on the 1st of August, 1783, in the name of William Bryan.
In this second entry the original entry on the trace from Louisville to Bullitt's
Lick is withdrawn and land near Chenowith's Run substituted, so that the
same man must have first entered as Bryant in 1780 and as Bryan in 1783.
Daniel Boone, in his letter to the Governor of Virginia, written soon after
the siege of the station, calls it Bryan's, but soon after, when dictating his
biography to John Filson, he calls it Briant's. And Filson himself, while
calling it Briant in the text of his life of Boone in his history of Kentucky,
published in 1784, on his map to accompany his history enters it Bryan's.
In the midst of such a confusion of names by those who knew one another
more than an hundred years ago, it is hardly to be expected that we of this
late day can straighten out the tangle. We may properly enough follow the
example of our ancestors and call the station Bryant's or Bryan's, as choice
or occasion requires.

DAM
Bryant's Station, drawn by Miss Jean H. McHenry, from the ground plan of General George Rogers Clark, now owned by Reuben T. Durrett.
Of Bryant's Station.
23
DESCRIPTION OF BRYANT'S STATION.
The fort was built in the form of a parallelogram six
hundred feet long and one hundred and fifty feet wide. In
this extreme length, compared with its breadth, was the
principal difference between it and other forts. Most of the
forts were parallelograms having a length of about one third
in excess of their breadth. Many of them were as wide as
Bryant's, but none of them so long. Its extreme length,
possibly, came of the wish of the inhabitants to have as
much open space between their cabins as possible. Placed
at irregular intervals on both of the exterior long sides of
this parallelogram were twenty log cabins, sixteen feet
square and one story high, some with dirt and others with
puncheon floors, but all with inward-sloping board roofs and
wooden chimneys. The outer walls of the cabins, with
pickets filling the spaces between them, formed the walls of
the fort on each of the two long sides. There was a folding
gate of heavy timber, eight feet wide, on each of the long
sides. There were no cabins on the narrow ends, but
pickets only. The outer cabin walls and pickets were
twelve feet high, and formed a good protection against
any thing but cannon. At each of the four corners was a
+
24
The First Act in the Siege
strong block-house extending two feet further out than the
other cabins and two stories high, with the upper story
projecting two feet outside of the lower. This extension
beyond the outer walls of the other cabins gave the garrison
an enfilading fire at the enemy along the walls, while the
projection of the upper story beyond the lower gave them a
perpendicular fire at the enemy below. It was very unsafe
for the enemy to attempt a lodgment near the fort walls or
at the gates when these block-houses were properly manned.
These corner houses were generally occupied by the men of
the fort who had no families, and were large enough to
accommodate a goodly number of this important class
of inhabitants. The cabins were generally occupied by
families. There was a fine spring which poured a generous
stream of clear, cool water from the southern bank of the
Elkhorn, but it was not included within the walls.
It was,
however, within range of the rifles of the fort, and thus
erroneously considered safe. It was the act of the brave
women of Bryant's Station in coming here for water, within
range of hundreds of loaded rifles in the hands of concealed
savages, that made this spring a leading object of com-
memoration to-day. Like the famous spring near Rome,
which has for twenty-five centuries borne the name of the
nymph whose fair form melted into its crystal waters and
became a part of them, this spring, with its wall and its
Of Bryant's Station.
25
tablets of stone dedicated to-day, should preserve the name
and the fame of those heroines who made it immortal. *
HOW THEY LIVED IN BRYANT'S STATION.
The life lived in the cabins at Bryant's was not unlike
that of other stations. There could be no such thing as
luxury or even comfort there in the wilderness of Ken-
tucky, five hundred miles distant from any other abode
* When Bryant's Station was besieged there were, perhaps, as many
as sixty other similar stations scattered over the State. Some of them,
however, consisted of only a few contiguous cabins, and were hardly worthy
of the name. The fort at Boonesborough, the first built, and a kind of
model for all others, was about two hundred feet long and one hundred and
twenty feet wide, and consisted of thirty cabins, including the block-houses
at the four corners. Harrodsburg, Lexington, and Stanford had forts that
differed but little in size and cabin capacity from that at Boonesborough.
Linn's and Floyd's and Sullivan's and the Dutch and Spring stations on
Beargrass occupied a little more ground, but did not materially differ from
the Boonesborough model. Fort Nelson, at Louisville, was the next largest
in the State after Bryant's. It was two hundred and ten feet square, and
was surrounded by a ditch and wall as well as by pickets. It was built to
resist cannon, and was the only fort in the State that could stand a bombard-
ment. It was never assailed by cannon, although Bird intended to try it in
1780, but changed his mind. He attacked Ruddle's and Martin's stations on
the Licking instead, and made them surrender to his two field-pieces without
any damaging shots. None of the forts had the springs which supplied
them with water inclosed within the walls except Spring Station on Bear-
grass and the Lexington Station, and none of them except Bryant's had all
the cabins covered with shed roofs that sloped inward. It was this form of
roof which saved Bryant's from being consumed by the lighted Indian arrows
fired upon them at the siege. The boys who were raised to the roofs to
extinguish the fire would have been picked off by the Indians except for this
form of roof which protected them.
4
26
The First Act in the Siege
of civilization. The rich and the poor lived almost alike,
for the simple reason that there was but little for those
with money to buy which was not equally enjoyed by
those without money.
The cabins contained furniture of
the rudest kind, which could be made with the ax, the
saw, and the auger. The bedstead was made by inserting
forks in the floor and running poles through the prongs
to bear boards on which the bedding lay. A buffalo
robe formed the mattress, while bear skins and deer skins
supplied the covering. The dining-table was a puncheon
hewed smooth with the broadax and supported by four
sticks set into as many auger holes at the corners. The
chairs were three-legged stools without backs.
The cup-
board consisted of boards laid on pegs driven in the
corner wall. The table furniture was made up of wooden
plates, bowls, and trenchers, usually turned from the buck-
eye. There were a few pewter plates and spoons, and delft
cups and saucers, and two-pronged iron forks, and case-
knives, and tin cups which had been brought from the old
settlements, but they were not in general use. It required
an itinerant preacher or a distinguished stranger to bring
such finery to the table. The fireplace occupied nearly
one whole side of the cabin; the window, where the light
entered through greased paper, was a hole left by sawing
out a few feet of one of the logs, and the door was
Of Bryant's Station.
27
simply a larger opening made by sawing out parts of
more logs and covering the aperture with a buffalo skin.
Near the door two prongs of a buck's horn were fastened
to the wall and on them suspended the long-barreled,
flint-lock rifle, without which no cabin was considered
furnished. After the clothes with which they came from
the mother country were reduced to rags that could no
longer be patched, the men
the men wore buckskin breeches,
hunting-shirts, and moccasins, with raccoon or fox skin
caps; and the women, such coarse linsey gowns as they
could make by spinning on the little wheel and weaving
on the hand loom the lint of the wild nettle and the wool
of the buffalo. The buffalo, the deer, the bear, and the
wild turkey furnished the principal meat, while Indian
corn supplied the usual bread.* The constant struggle
for something to eat and to wear and the ceaseless dan-
ger from the Indians left but little time for amusement,
and yet the men had foot races and horse races and
shooting matches, while the women enjoyed quiltings and
knittings and maple sugar makings. Of rainy days and
nights the young, and sometimes the old also, assembled
* When corn was scarce the breast of the wild turkey was considered an
excellent substitute for bread. Especially was this the case after the hard
winter of 1779–1780, when the little corn that had been raised the previous
season was consumed by the large number of immigrants who came into the
country.
28
The First Act in the Siege
in one of the block-houses to hear the merry sounds of
the fiddle, in the hands of some old Virginia negro, and
to dance away loneliness and sorrow and care.
*
We have now had something of a view of Bryant's
Station as it existed when besieged by the Indians, and
let us next consider the movements of the enemy which
made the bringing of water into it so dangerous and so
necessary.
ORIGIN OF THE ATTACK ON BRYANT'S STATION.
In the spring of 1782 Captain William Caldwell,† a
British officer in Canada, collected a large body of Indians
* Fighting may also be listed among the pastimes without seriously violat-
ing the truth. It was certainly deemed a kind of amusement for two men to
engage in a rough and tumble contest and for others to look on and enjoy the
skill, strength, and endurance displayed. So long as the combatants confined
themselves to blows with the hands and kicks with the feet no particular harm
was done; but now and then they would bite and gouge, and the result was
not unfrequently an ear or nose bitten off or an eyeball dislodged from its
socket. If one called another a liar, the one so denounced must resent the
insult by a fight. He might be worsted in the encounter, but could hardly
come off with less injury than would be his lot if he did not resent the insult
and save himself from the name of coward.
+ Caldwell was an Irishman by birth who lived in Pennsylvania at
the commencement of the Revolution. Contrary to what might be expected
from his nationality, he became a loyalist and fought against the Colonies.
He went to Detroit and became efficient with McKee and Girty and Gibson
and others in leading the savages against Kentucky, Virginia, etc. The
company he kept shows him to have been about upon a par with the rest
of the renegade scoundrels who forgot their white blood and became enam-
ored of the red stream of Indian barbarity.
Of Bryant's Station.
29
for the purpose of attacking Wheeling, Virginia. While
on his way to Wheeling, runners from the Shawnees
informed him that General George Rogers Clark was
marching an army of Kentuckians against their towns.
Caldwell at once abandoned his expedition and counter-
marched to Chillicothe and Piqua for the protection of
the Indian towns where Xenia and Springfield, in Ohio,
now stand. He had a large army consisting of eleven
hundred Indians collected, and three hundred more within
supporting distance, and was anxious to be attacked by
the Kentuckians; but the information he had received
turned out to be false. Some of the Shawnee spies had
seen the gunboat which General Clark had invented to
patrol the Ohio River land men at the mouth of the
Licking, and had concluded that Clark was collecting an
army there to invade their country. This false news
disgusted both Caldwell and his Indians, and the greater
part of his savage allies deserted him. He had a consid-
erable force left, however, among whom were three hundred
Wyandot and Lake Indians. These Wyandots were the
warriors who, man to man, defeated Captain Estill's com-
pany in March, 1782, and were justly regarded as the
best fighting men of all the Indian tribes. With this
force he resolved to march against Bryant's Station in
Kentucky, rather than return home without a victory or
30
The First Act in the Siege
even an engagement. He was ashamed to return home
without a fight.
*
THE RENEGADE SIMON GIRTY.
It is probable that when the disappointed Indians
were returning to their towns, and Caldwell was doing
all he could to retain enough of them for an expedition
to Kentucky, the infamous Simon Girty attempted to
inspire them by his celebrated speech. Girty was a
white man by birth, but had been so long among the
Indians that he was as much a savage as the worst of
* Official letter of Captain William Caldwell to Commander A. S.
De Peyster, at Detroit, giving his account of the siege of Bryant's Station
and the Battle of the Blue Licks. Haldeman Manuscripts, in Canadian
Archives, Series B, Volume 123, page 297. Also official letter of Captain
Alexander McKee, page 302.
This Alexander McKee was a notorious renegade, who went hand in
hand with the Girtys in conducting Indian raids into Kentucky. Previous
to the Revolution he was a loyal white citizen of Pennsylvania, and acquired
two thousand acres of land on the south branch of the Elkhorn, in Ken-
tucky, for services in the French and Indian wars. In 1778 he deserted
the cause of the Colonies, and with Girty and Gibson went among the
Indians to help them to scalp and tomahawk his own former countrymen.
His lands on the Elkhorn were confiscated in 1780, and became the property
of Transylvania University. Kentuckians are indebted to his fiendish intel-
lect and cruel heart for the murder of many innocent women and children,
who but for his ability and ferocity might have escaped. He no doubt
enjoyed the slaughter of Kentuckians at the Battle of the Blue Licks,
which occurred so near to the lands that had been escheated from him.
He was a savage in every thing except birth and color, and, unfortunately
for humanity, had a head with brains enough in it to make him more to be
dreaded than even the Girtys.
Of Bryant's Station.
31
them. He seems to have cultivated a fierce hatred of
his own race for the purpose of making himself the more
acceptable to the Indians. While he had considerable
influence over his savage allies, he does not seem to have
risen to the command of them in any very important
military expedition. The most important office he ever
held was that of Indian interpreter, and he sometimes
disgraced this position by false and malicious translations.
Kentucky historians have made him the commander-in-
chief in the siege of Bryant's Station and the Battle of
the Blue Licks, but later information, not accessible when
they wrote, shows this to have been a mistake. Captain
Caldwell was the first in command, and Girty, though
prominent and efficient, occupied a secondary position.
Girty's speech at Chillicothe to inflame the Indians against
the Kentuckians, and his plea for a surrender during the
siege of Bryant's Station, were parts of the important
but dirty and subordinate work assigned him by his
superiors. The following is his speech at Chillicothe, as
given in Bradford's Notes on Kentucky:
GIRTY'S SPEECH TO THE INDIANS.
Brothers: The fertile region of Kentucky is the land of
cane and clover, spontaneously growing to feed the buffalo, the elk,
and the deer; there the bear and the beaver are always fat. The
"
32
The First Act in the Siege
Indians from all the tribes have had a right, from time immemorial,
to hunt and kill, unmolested, these wild animals and bring off their
skins to purchase for themselves clothing, to buy blankets for their
backs and rum to send down their throats to drive away the cold
and rejoice their hearts after the fatigue of hunting and the toil of
war. [Great applause from the crowd.] But, brothers, the Long
Knives have overrun your country and usurped your hunting-ground;
they have destroyed the cane, trodden down the clover, killed the
deer and the buffalo, the bear and the raccoon. The beaver has
been chased from his dam and forced to leave the country. [Palpa-
ble emotion among the hearers.] Brothers, the intruders on your
lands exult in the success that has crowned their flagitious act. They
are planting fruit trees and plowing the lands, where not long since
were the canebrake and the clover field. Was there a voice in the
trees of the forest, or articulate sounds in the gurgling waters, every
part of this country would call on you to chase away these ruthless
invaders who are laying it waste. Unless you rise in the majesty of
your might and extermine their whole race, you may bid adieu to
the hunting-grounds of your fathers, to the delicious flesh of the ani-
mals with which it once abounded, and to the skins with which you
were once enabled to purchase your clothing and your rum."*
*If this speech was not vouched for as here given by John Bradford
in his Notes on Kentucky, and substantially by Humphrey Marshall in his
History of Kentucky, I should entertain grave doubts as to its authenticity.
It is, to say the least of it, a pretty high order of speech for such an
unlettered miscreant as Girty to make. Of course it was not delivered in
the English language, as here given, but in the Indian tongue, and then
translated. We know that there were some Kentuckians taken two years
before, at Ruddle's and Martin's stations, prisoners, with the Indians when
the speech was made, and it is possible that one of them might have
secured and sent or brought home a copy. In behalf of the Indians it
would have been difficult for any orator to have made a more effective
speech, but coming from a white man it was the speech of a monster of
iniquity monstrously uttered.
Of Bryant's Station.
33
NUMBER OF INDIANS WHO ATTACKED BRYANT'S STATION.
Bradford, unlike Humphrey Marshall and other histo-
rians, has given this speech in the first person, as delivered,
with the plaudits of the hearers to indicate the impression
it made. We can not say that he may not have had a
manuscript copy in that form, since we know that the
celebrated speech of Logan to the whites at Camp Char-
lotte, and that of Bullitt to the Indians at Chillicothe,
have come down to us in the first person. Not long after
Girty's harangue was finished the march for Kentucky
began. How many Indians were in the expedition can
never be known with any degree of certainty. Captain
Caldwell, their commander, says in his official report that
he had three hundred Wyandots, Lake Indians, and
Rangers. Alexander McKee, who also made an official
report to the Canadian authorities, adds some Delawares
and Shawnees to those mentioned by Caldwell, and thus
swells the number beyond three hundred. Bradford, in
his Notes on Kentucky, makes the Indians five hundred
and sixty, and the Canadians and Tories sixty, or a total
of six hundred and twenty; Colonel Boone estimates them
at from four hundred to five hundred, and our historians
who give numbers generally mention from five hundred to
5
34
The First Act in the Siege
six hundred as the strength of the invading army. It is
possible that a mean of some four hundred, between the
two extremes, will be nearer the truth.
DATE OF THE ATTACK ON BRYANT'S STATION.
There is also conflicting authority as to the date at
which the Indian army reached Bryant's Station. Colonel
Daniel Boone, Colonel Levi Todd, and Colonel Benjamin
Logan, neither of whom was at the fort when the siege
began, but the first-named two of whom were in the Battle
of the Blue Licks which followed, in their letters to the
Governor of Virginia, published in the Virginia Calendar,
agree as to the date of attack having been August the
16th. On the contrary, Captain Caldwell, who commanded
the expedition, and ought to have known the exact date
as well as any one else, in his official report, already
alluded to, gives the 15th of August as the date. All
Kentucky historians, from Filson, in 1784, to Smith, in
1892, as well as journals and letters of private citizens
written at the time, agree with commanding officer Cald-
well that the 15th of August was the day on which the
siege began. There is authority therefore for different
dates, and I have adhered to the 15th of August, 1782,
because I have been made used to this date by our his-
Of Bryant's Station.
35
torians, and have not yet seen sufficient reasons for
changing a date thus permanently fixed in our history.
*
PLAN OF THE ATTACK ON THE STATION.
When Bryant's Station was reached before daylight on
the morning of August 15, 1782, it was immediately sur-
rounded by the Indians. Caldwell's plan seems to have
been to place a detachment of Indians in full view on the
southeast side of the fort, where the road led to Lexington
and to Limestone, while the main body were concealed
on the northwest side near the spring from which the fort
was supplied with water. At daylight the exposed detach-
ment were to fire on
on the fort and make such noisy
demonstrations as would draw out the garrison to engage
them. When this should be done, the main body on the
opposite side were to rush upon the fort, break down its
gate, and carry it by storm.
*Three of our earliest historians, John Filson, Humphrey Marshall,
and John Bradford, were in Kentucky when the Indians besieged Bryant's
Station. They were men of superior intelligence, and as likely to know as
well as any one else when such important events as the siege of Bryant's
Station occurred. Each of them gives the 15th of August, 1782, as the
date of the siege. They must be regarded as contemporary historians of
the event, and for this reason entitled to the fullest credit. Another
contemporary writer was Colonel Andrew Steel, who, in his letter to the
Governor of Virginia, dated August the 26th, 1782, says the siege began
on the 15th of August, 1782.
36
The First Act in the Siege
COUNTER PLAN OF THE DEFENDERS OF THE STATION.
This plan of Caldwell would have been excellent, pro-
vided there had been no one in the fort capable of
interpreting it so soon as it began to be executed. The
garrison had been preparing the previous night to march
at daylight to the relief of Hoy's Station,* and, as the
gates were opened in the morning for the exit of the men,
the decoy party of Indians began firing and inviting an
engagement by their boisterous demonstrations. The gates
were immediately closed and the action of the Indians
subjected to scrutiny. Their conduct was so contrary to
their usual secret mode of attack that it was at once
interpreted as a ruse. Caldwell's plan of attack was as
plainly read by those in command of the fort as if it had
been written out and diagrammed before them. They
determined at once that this boisterous display of a small
* Hoy's Station was in Madison County, on the site of the present village
of Foxtown. The Indians had defeated Captain Holder on the 14th in an
engagement at the Upper Blue Licks, and it had been determined to assemble
all available help at Hoy's for its protection, and for another engagement
with the Indians. It is possible that this was just what Caldwell wanted. He
may have aimed at this result for the purpose of the more easily taking
Bryant's Station when part of its garrison had gone to Hoy's. If such was
his plan, he came very near accomplishing it, and would have been fully suc-
cessful if those about to march from Bryant's to Hoy's had had a little more
time to make their start.
•
¡
37
Of Bryant's Station.
party of Indians in full view of one side of the fort meant
that the main body was concealed on the other side, and
would assault the fort so soon as it should be emptied of
men by an engagement with the decoy detachment. The
Indian plan of attack had therefore to be counteracted,
and this was done with the prompt decision peculiar to
the pioneers. It was determined to repair any defects
that might exist in the fort on the northwest side, and to
station there all available men with loaded guns ready
for a concentrated discharge. When this should be done,
a party of men were to be sent out on the opposite side
of the fort to pursue the decoy Indians a short distance,
and help them to as much noise and firing as possible,
so as to make the main body of the Indians concealed
on the northwest side think that the garrison was really
engaged with the decoy party, as they themselves had
planned, and the fort consequently left inhabited by only
women and children.
THE WANT OF WATER IN THE STATION.
All things having been arranged in accordance with this
plan, and the men and boys large enough to handle rifles
stationed with loaded guns on the northwest side, there was
one more important want to be provided for. There was no
38
The First Act in the Siege
water in the fort, and the burning August sun would soon be
sending down his perpendicular rays upon the beleaguered
garrison. The thought of successfully resisting a siege
without water was out of the question. The tongues of the
men swollen by dry heat would fill their mouths and render
them speechless, while the burning brain would succumb to
the fatal torpor of sunstroke. However abundant might be
guns and ammunition, their use in the only way that they
could be beneficial would be hurtful from the fact that the
gas from the burnt powder would help the blazing sun to
increase the deadly thirst. Death by the tomahawk and
scalping-knife could not have been more certain than by
the delirium and coma of a burning brain.
How to obtain the necessary water was a serious ques-
tion. The spring* from which it was to be brought was
near where the main body of the Indians were concealed.
Hundreds of rifles in the hands of bloodthirsty savages
*This spring was on the southern bank of the Elkhorn, a little to the
westward of a line drawn northward from the westerly fort gate to the creek
and about sixty yards from the northerly end of the fort. The creek bank.
or bluff that rose above it and from which it issued concealed it from view
at the fort, and it was surrounded by trees and shrubs and cane and weeds
which afforded ample hiding-places for the Indians. From their conceal-
ment near the spring they could move among the trees and undergrowth
along the creek into the cornfield on the other side of the fort almost
without danger or exposure. This does not speak very well for the mili-
tary genius which planned the fort, especially as concealed enemies so near
it could have been avoided by simply clearing away the growth about the
spring and along the creek.
t
Of Bryant's Station.
39
were in point-blank range of the only source of the indis-
How was the water to be obtained without
pensable water.
the risk of life? The Craigs, who were the principal men
in the fort, solved this question with the same wisdom with
which they had interpreted the plan of Caldwell. They
assumed that the Indians were in ambush at the spring and
that they would not unmask until their decoy party on the
other side of the fort gave evidence of being engaged with
the garrison. If, however, the women of the fort, as was
their habit, should go to the spring for water, it was
believed that the Indians would not interfere with them
that they would not, for the sake of capturing a few women,
risk the loss of the whole fort which they expected to take
by remaining concealed until the proper time. It was be-
lieved, moreover, that Captain Caldwell, having formed his
plan, would have neither time nor opportunity for changing
it for the purpose of capturing the women.
THE FEMALES OF THE STATION GO TO THE SPRING for Water.
The women of the fort were therefore brought together
and the situation explained to them. Even if some of
them may have thought that it would have been braver and
at least more gallant for the men to go to the spring for
water, there were leaders among them who promptly took
40
The First Act in the Siege
the same view of the situation that the men had presented.
Tradition has handed down the name of Jemima Suggett
Johnson, the wife of Colonel Robert Johnson, as the heroine
who first spoke approval and led the way to the spring.
Her husband was far away at the capital of Virginia, and
she had an infant son in the cradle and two little boys and
two little girls with her in the fort. She hesitated not,
however, to leave her infant child to the care of his little
sister Sally and his little brothers James and William,
while she took Betsy, aged ten, to help bring water, and
marched with the bold water-bearers to the spring. Under
her lead all moved with firm step and fearless eye along the
path that led from the northwestern gate to the spring, like
Amazons of old following their Queen Myrena from the
seclusion of the Island of Hesperia to the open field of
danger. When they had reached the spring and filled their
pails and piggins and noggins with water and returned to
the fort without having been disturbed by the Indians, the
wisdom of the whites in divining the plan of attack had
been vindicated. But what a mistake the Indians made
in their own interest in not seizing the women at the spring
and holding them as prisoners! With these wives and
mothers and daughters in their possession they might have
compelled a surrender of the fort which their arms could
not accomplish.
Of Bryant's Station.
4I
THE ATTACK AND REPULSE OF THE INDIANS.
When the women, with their vessels filled with water,
re-entered the fort and the northwest gate had been closed
behind them, the southeast gate was opened and a dozen
or more young men went out to make a mock attack upon
the decoy party of Indians. The rapid firing and the
tumultuous noise made by these deceptive assailants and
assailed-for both were instructed to make all the noise they
could-induced the main body of Indians on the northwest
side to believe that the whole garrison were warmly engaged
with their decoy party, as they themselves had designed,
and that the undefended fort was at their mercy. They
rushed out from their ambuscade and, like famished tigers
in sight of blood, sprang upon the fort; but to their surprise
found it manned at every point on the side of attack.* A
deadly shower of rifle balls was poured into their dense
ranks, dealing wounds and death in every direction, and
*When the siege began there were forty-four men in the fort, as stated
by Bradford in his Notes on Kentucky (MSS.), Section 13; but two of them,
Nicholas Tomlinson and Thomas Bell, were sent out to procure help from
other stations, so that the force was reduced to forty-two. To this number,
however, must be added the boys in the fort big enough to handle rifles, who
probably swelled the defensive force to fifty or more. After the siege had
progressed for several hours a party of sixteen mounted men made their way
into the station; but we are at present concerned only with the defenders
who were in the fort when the siege began.
6
42
The First Act in the Siege
compelling them to retreat without having done much
damage beyond having set fire to some of the cabins.
They set fire to some out-buildings near the fort, which
might have proved serious except for an easterly wind
which blew the flames from the fort. The flames that had
been kindled within the fort walls were speedily extinguished
by the children who were lifted to the burning roofs by their
mothers and handed water for the purpose. It is known
that James Johnson, a boy of eight, was lifted to a cabin
roof fired by a lighted arrow and given a piggin of water
to pour on the fire by his mother, and it is reasonable to
assume that the mothers of the Craig, the Saunders, and
the Cave children did likewise with their boys, who were
too little to handle guns, but too big to be idle in such an
emergency. And, as if to add a brighter glow to the halo
which already encircled the brows of the water-bearing
females of the fort, a lighted arrow from an Indian bow fell
upon the sugar-trough cradle in which the infant, Richard
M. Johnson, was lying. His little sister Betsy promptly
extinguished the flame, and thus saved from certain injury
and possible death him who afterward became the hero of
the Battle of the Thames, and rose to the vice-presidency
of the United States.
The first assault on Bryant's Station had thus proved
a failure, and the prospect of increased strength in the
Of Bryant's Station.
43
garrison from neighboring forts which had been applied to
for help was ominous of even worse results should another
attack be made. A victory so far as the fort was con-
cerned was practically won by the garrison, and was so
considered by the besieging and the besieged. Indians
are not the kind of soldiers to make a second assault
upon a fortified place when a first attempt has been a
bloody failure.*
Let us at this point drop the narrative of the siege
and make such a record as we can of the names of the
men, women, and children who were in the fort when it
was besieged. Especially is such a record due to the
heroic women and girls who were there, but whom our
historians up to this time have failed to mention by name.
The heroic men who resisted the siege have been mentioned
by name and by deed, as they should have been, but the
women have been neglected. Jemima Suggett Johnson
* Quite a number of Indians were killed during the siege, but how
many we shall never know. Caldwell, in his report to the Canadian author-
ities, before cited, only admits five killed and two wounded. This small
number is not reasonable, however, when the concentrated fire of the gar-
rison at short range into the thick ranks of the assailants is considered.
Colonel Boone says thirty Indians were killed. In the fort, Robert Adkin-
son and David Mitchell were killed, and Nicholas Tomlinson wounded.
Tomlinson recovered from his wounds and was afterward killed in Harmer's
expedition in 1790. He was in the advance of the detachment of Colonel
John Hardin when he was riddled with bullets by Indians in ambuscade.
(Bradford's Notes on Kentucky, MSS., page 119.)
44
The First Act in the Siege
was incidentally mentioned in the Centenary Address on
the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Kentucky,
published by the Filson Club in 1892, but with this single
exception history has been silent as to the names of these
heroines who performed an act which for cool and delib-
erate courage has never been surpassed.
INHABITANTS OF THE STATION WHEN THE SIEGE BEGAN.
There were but few families in the station when the
siege began. None of the Bryans, who at first formed its
most numerous and efficient inhabitants, was there. They
had been so discouraged by the capture of Martin's and
Ruddle's stations, by the breaking up of the station of
their relative, Grant, by the death of John Bryan and the
killing of William Bryan* by the Indians in 1780, that
they had all returned with their families to their old homes
in North Carolina in August, 1780, and did not come
*There were two William Bryans who figured in the early records of
Kentucky-William Bryan, senior, and William Bryan, junior. The records
of our land office show land entries in both of these names. Our historians,
however, have not sufficiently drawn the distinction between them to enable
us to distinguish whether it was the senior or the junior Bryan who was
killed in 1780, while leading out a hunting party to procure meat for the
station. Colonel William Fleming in his journal (MSS.) states that William
Bryant, junior, was killed on the 10th of March, 1780, about four miles from
the station. He uses the name Bryant, but as no one named William Bryant
is known to have been killed at that date, and as one named William Bryan is
known to have been killed about this time, he must mean William Bryan,
junior.
Of Bryant's Station.
45
back until 1784.* Neither Colonel Robert Johnson nor
his brother, Cave Johnson, was there. Colonel Johnson
had been elected to the Virginia Legislature that year,
and he and his brother Cave were in Virginia at the time.
Had it not been for the coming of the Johnsons and the
Craigs and others under their influence after the departure
of the Bryans, the fort would have been abandoned. At the
siege it had but twelve families to occupy its forty cabins,
and was principally garrisoned by men whose services were
in demand as hunters, land locators, surveyors, and In-
dian scouts and spies. We may never know all who were
in the fort at the time, but the subjoined list, made up from
history, from court records, from land entries, from official
surveys, from manuscript journals, from unpublished let-
ters, from old newspapers, and from tradition, though not
claimed to be perfect, may suffice to rescue from the neg-
lect of one hundred and fourteen years some names too
precious to sink permanently into undeserved oblivion. In
the difficult task of making up this list, it is due to Miss
Lucretia H. Clay, of Lexington, to Mrs. John C. Sherley,
of Anchorage, to Colonel J. Stoddard Johnston, of Louis-
ville, and to the pioneer, Doctor Stephen F. Gano, of
Scott County, that I should here acknowledge my indebt-
edness for valuable aid and confirmatory information.
* David Bryan, &c., v. Caleb Wallace, Hughes' Kentucky Reports,
page 195.
46
The First Act in the Siege
It has been generally accepted as true that Elijah
Craig was in command of the fort when the siege began.
That the Craigs were the principal men in the fort at
the time there can be no doubt, but there is good ground
for want of faith as to the fort having been under the
command of Elijah Craig. There were two Elijah Craigs
prominent in pioneer times in Kentucky, one the Reverend
Elijah, a Baptist preacher of great intellect and character,
and Captain Elijah, his nephew, also possessed of rare
endowments; but as the Reverend Elijah did not settle
in Kentucky until after the siege of Bryant's Station, he
could not have been in command. Captain John Craig,
the father, and Captain Jeremiah Craig, the uncle of Cap-
tain Elijah, both men of considerable military reputation,
were in the fort at the time, and it is more likely that
one of them was in command. In a list of the children of
Taliafero Craig, senior, embracing all the Craigs who came
to Kentucky, by Albert G. Craig, of Vevay, Indiana, it is
stated that Captain John Craig commanded the fort when
it was beseiged, and such is my belief.
Some of those named in the list here given are known
to have been in the fort, and it is believed that most if
not all of them were there.*
* Some of the men have been mentioned by our historians, but none of
the women and children. Marshall, edition of 1812, page 161, and edition of
1824, volume 1, page 135, mentions some of them; Bradford (MSS.), Section
Of Bryant's Station.
47
LIST OF PERSONS IN THE FORT WHEN THE SIEGE BEGAN.
Jemima Suggett Johnson and her children, Betsy,
James, William, Sally, and Richard M.
13, others, and Collins, volume 2, page 767, others. Collins also mentions
others in an article on the Battle of the Blue Licks, published in the Courier-
Journal August 19, 1882. Ranck, in his History of Lexington, page 79, and
McBride, in his Pioneer Biography, volume 1, page 206, add others. Sub-
sequent historians and biographers add no new names but simply repeat those
given by their predecessors. A manuscript genealogy of the Craig family,
prepared by Mrs. John C. Sherley, a great-granddaughter of the Reverend
Elijah Craig, gives all the names of the Craigs as well as those of the Caves
and Saunderses; and a similar work, prepared for the Johnson family by the
Honorable Thomas L. Johnson, supplies the names of all the Johnsons. The
records of land entries kept by George May in Kentucky while it was a part
of Virginia show the names of nearly all of the men mentioned in this list
who had secured farms in Kentucky before the siege of Bryant's. Some
of these entries were of large bodies of land, and especially those of
Captain John Craig, which aggregated over 20,000 acres. Doctor Coleman
Rogers, a distinguished Louisville physician in early times, stated to the
author that his father, Joseph Rogers, and his uncle, Barnett Rogers, were
both in the fort; and Doctor C. C. Graham, another distinguished physician,
who lived beyond an hundred years, made a similar statement as to his
father, James Graham. Both Doctor Graham and Doctor Rogers had recol
lections of nearly every one in the fort which they had heard from their
parents and from others. The Herndons of Henry County preserved family
traditions of those of their name in the fort, and so did the Mitchells of the
same county as to their ancestors. Doctor Lyman Beecher Todd, in a
letter to the author, mentions John Suggett and his wife and child; the
Honorable French Tipton, in a letter to the author, names Edward Nelson
and wife; William D. Hixson also, in a letter to the author, adds Wainright
Lea and wife and John Hammond and wife; and Jennie M. Hudelson
also, in a letter to the author, gives the names of Thomas Ficklin and his
wife and two children. Combining all these scattered authorities together
they embrace nearly every name in this list of persons in the fort when the
siege began.
48
The First Act in the Siege
1
Captain John Craig, his wife Sara Page, and their chil-
dren, John H., Betsy, Elijah, Sally, Benjamin, Lewis,
Nancy, Philip, Frank, and Polly.
Captain Jeremiah Craig, his wife Lucy Hawkins, and
their children, Elijah, Polly, Frankey, and Hawkins.
Toliver Craig, senior, his wife Polly Hawkins, and
their daughter Sally.
Toliver Craig, junior, his wife Elizabeth Johnson, and
their children, John, William, Nathaniel, Toliver, Elijah,
Polly, and Nancy.
John Saunders, his wife Jane Craig, and their children,
Polly, Betsy, Lydia, Nathaniel, and John.
-
Richard Cave, his wife Elizabeth Craig, and their chil-
dren, Reuben, Hannah, and Polly.
Thomas Ficklin, his wife Mary Herndon, and their
children, Joseph and Philadelphia.
John Suggett, his wife Mildred Davis, and their child
William.
Wainright Lea and his wife, Fanny Sanders Lea.
John Hammond and his wife, Sarah Clement Ham-
mond.
Edward Nelson and his wife, Harriet Morgan Nelson.
Aaron Reynolds, Thomas Bell, Jacob Stucker, Nicholas
Tomlinson, William Tomlinson, Richard Mitchell, David
Mitchell, William Mitchell, Dudley Mitchell, Thomas Hern-
Of Bryant's Station.
49
"
don, Samuel Herndon, Edward Herndon, Zachariah Hern-
don, Robert Adkinson, James Graham, Daniel Wilcoxen,
Martin Hammond, Ezekiel Field, William Field, Elison
Williams, Barnett Rogers, Joseph Rogers, Jesse Yocum,
Whitfield Craig, William Ledgerwood, James Ledgerwood,
James Mitchum, John Mitchum, and James McBride.*
From this list of men, women, and children, ninety
in number, it is not difficult to select the names of the
females who went to the spring for water and became the
heroines of the occasion. They were women and girls,
mothers and children, wives and daughters. All of the
boys in the fort who were old enough acted as men in firing
rifles at the besieging Indians, and all of the girls who
were old enough helped the women to bring water from the
spring. The little girls could not, like their mothers, carry
a pail of water in each hand, but they could manage one
pail, or piggin, and thus two of them might equal one
grown woman. It must be said, however, that some of
*I have not included in this list James Morgan and his wife and child,
who were in one of the cabins outside of the fort when the siege began.
Morgan escaped with his child to Lexington, and his wife was taken prisoner
by the Indians, so that neither of them got into the fort. They met after
the Battle of the Blue Licks, and became the hero and heroine of one of the
most thrilling adventures in pioneer times. Morgan, believing his wife had
been consumed in their cabin, had laid himself down to die of wounds
received in the Battle of the Blue Licks, when she, after escaping from her
Indian captors, came upon him and saved his life.
7
50
The First Act in the Siege
the women carried a pail on the head and a pail in
each hand, so that it would require three girls to equal
one of them.
Here, then, is the final roll of honor, made up of the
mothers who went to the spring and their daughters who
were old enough to help them bring water:
LIST OF WOMEN AND GIRLS WHO WENT TO THE SPRING
FOR WATER.
Mrs. Jemima Suggett Johnson, wife of Colonel Robert
Johnson, and her daughter, Betsy Johnson.
Mrs. Sara Page Craig, wife of Captain John Craig, and
her daughters, Betsy Craig, Sally Craig, Nancy Craig, and
Polly Craig.
Mrs. Lucy Hawkins Craig, wife of Captain Jere-
miah Craig, and her daughters, Polly Craig and Frankey
Craig.
Mrs. Polly Hawkins Craig, wife of Toliver Craig,
senior, and her daughter, Sally Craig.
Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson Craig, wife of Toliver Craig,
junior, and her daughters, Polly Craig and Nancy Craig.
Mrs. Jane Craig Saunders, wife of John Saunders, and
her daughters, Polly Saunders, Betsy Saunders, and Lydia
Saunders.
Of Bryant's Station.
51
Mrs. Elizabeth Craig Cave, wife of Richard Cave, and
her daughters, Hannah Cave and Polly Cave.
Mrs. Fanny Sanders Lea, wife of Wainright Lea.
Mrs. Sara Clement Hammond, wife of John Ham-
mond.
Mrs. Harriet Morgan Nelson, wife of Edward Nelson.
Mrs. Mary Herndon Ficklin, wife of Thomas Ficklin,
and her daughter, Philadelphia Ficklin.
Mrs. Mildred Davis Suggett, wife of John Suggett.
THE ACT OF THE FEMALES OF BRYANT'S CONTRASTED
WITH OTHER BRAVE Deeds.
It thus appears that there were twelve grown women
and sixteen misses who performed the perilous act of sup-
plying the fort with water. Their act has scarcely a par-
allel in history. The aquatores, whose duty it was to
supply armies with water, encountered great dangers, but
they were professionals paid for their services, while these
women and girls were volunteers with no hope or desire
of reward. Captain Thomas Speed, in a beautiful address
to the alumnæ of the Female High School, of Louisville,
compared the act of the women of Bryant's Station to
the daring deed of King David's three mighty men who
broke through the ranks of the Philistines to secure water
52
The First Act in the Siege
·
from the well of Bethlehem for their King. Their act
was similar to that of the females of Bryant's Station in
the object sought and in the risk of life to obtain it, but
there the parallel ceases. The mighty men of David were
professional warriors who had before them the reward of
a great king if they succeeded and an immortal record
in the sacred annals of their country if they failed. And,
indeed, the names of these ancient heroes, Adino, Eleazor,
and Shammah, were recorded by Samuel, as they should
have been, and have come down to our times. But who
has seen a record of the names of the heroines of Bryant's
Station? In our histories you will look in vain for one of
them. The heroes, Thomas Bell, Nicholas Tomlinson,
Aaron Reynolds, and others, have had their names and
deeds proclaimed to the world, as they should have been,
but all is silence as to these heroines. Alas! they were
but women, and we are left to infer that our historians
did not deem them worthy of an immortal place in their
undying works. We of to-day think differently, and have
begun the good work of rescuing each of their names
from undeserved oblivion.
*
* McClung, in his sketches of Western Adventure, after a wonderfully
graphic and thrilling description of the siege, indulges in a light vein as to the
quick steps of the women to reach the fort gate when they returned from the
spring. There was, however, nothing amusing in their act from beginning to
end. All was too solemn for any thing like humor. We can imagine the
Of Bryant's Station.
53
The Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of the Amer-
ican Revolution are to be commended for the good work
they have done to-day. They have not only builded a
monument upon ground hallowed by sacred memories of
the pioneer period of Kentucky, but have associated their
memorial work with an act of their own sex which ranks
with the noblest deeds ever performed by mortals. Trained
soldiers and private citizens accustomed to danger have
appearance of the procession of women and girls as they came out from the
fort gate and made their way along the foot-path beginning at the gate and
zigzagging down to the spring. They had to walk in single file because
the path was not wide enough for two to walk abreast. When they reached
the spring their natural inclination was to do their work as quickly as possible
and return to the protecting walls of the fort. But here a difficulty presented
itself which they had not probably noticed before. The basin of the spring
was not deep enough to plunge the vessels and thus fill them at once. They
had to dip the water with gourds, and thus tediously and slowly fill their
vessels. During this slow process, which lengthened moments into hours, a
glance to the right or left might have met the glittering black eyes of blood-
thirsty savages peeping from behind trees or from among the undergrowth
which concealed them. Soldiers are trained to face such dangers, but for
women and girls, unused to such things, the determination to defy the danger
must have been great. Caldwell had fortunately so impressed upon his
savage allies the necessity of remaining concealed until guns were heard on
the other side of the fort that they moved not while the women walked from
the fort to the spring and filled their vessels with water and then walked back
to the fort. The women might have consoled themselves with the assurance
that if it was hard for them to thus appear in the presence of concealed
savages, it was yet harder for these savages to restrain their impulse to seize
and scalp them. The girls were not probably fully aware of the danger
incurred, but the women comprehended the situation fully, and by an act of
cool and deliberate courage won for themselves a name which should never
pass from the memorial page of our history.
54
The First Act in the Siege
*
performed daring deeds in every age and country, but
this was the act of women used to the peaceful fireside.
Had men to whose guidance they were used gone out
from the protecting walls of the fort with them their case
might have been less trying, but they went alone, and
their act stands in our history alone.
OTHER HEROINES AND PLACES WORTHY OF MONUMENTS.
It is to be hoped that the work begun to-day on this
consecrated spot may continue until a public sentiment is
created in the State which will cause suitable monuments
to be reared to the memory of other heroines who now
sleep in unknown graves. Kentucky's unwritten history is
full of such noble deeds as have been commemorated here
to-day, and the occasion demands that reference be made
to some of them as kindred acts to share these honors.
Boonesborough, the site of the first fort worthy of the
name in Kentucky, the seat of the first legislative assembly
in the valley of the Ohio, the headquarters of the great
Transylvania Company which helped to plant civilization
in the transmontane wilderness, the first safe home for
women in our State, and the place selected by Boone,
the pioneer, for a great city that was to endure forever,
has passed away like the ocean wave that leaves no
Of Bryant's Station.
55
trace behind. There is nothing in the beautiful landscape
on the Kentucky River, in Madison County, to indicate
where Boonesborough stood, and yet it lives in the mem-
ory of the three young girls who were captured there by
the Indians in 1776. They were Jemima Boone, and Betsy
and Frances Calloway, daughters of Colonel Daniel Boone
and Colonel Richard Calloway. They fought the Indians
with the paddles of the canoe in which they were captured
until overcome, and then in their forced march through
the untrodden woods, in defiance of the uplifted toma-
hawk, they marked their way with bits of their clothing
and with bent and broken twigs, so that their course
might be found by those they knew would follow for
their rescue. What could be more appropriate or patriotic
than to purchase the site of this vanished town, surround
it with a picket fence, replant it with forest trees, and
erect on it a fac-simile of the old fort! The cabins might
be used for the habitation of those who cared for the
property, for the storing of relics of the pioneer period,
and for such other wants as time might develop, while
the grounds, enlivened by deer and other wild animals,
might be the paradise of visiting parties. Thus arranged
it might become a kind of pioneer Mecca instead of per-
petuating the cheerless waste it now presents.
The act of Mary Wood, a delicate young girl of seven-
56
The First Act in the Siege
1
;
teen, in killing with an ax a savage who had invaded her
home near Stanford in 1782, entitles her to rank among
the heroines of her day.
In 1783 Mrs. Nathaniel Hart rode on horseback through
the dark forest from White Oak Station to Logan's, a
distance of fifty miles, not only to administer upon the
estate of her husband, who had been killed the year
before by the Indians, but to meet there and aid and
comfort twenty-three other unfortunates who had likewise
been made widows by the Indians during that terrible
year of 1782.
Mrs. John Merrill, of Nelson County, should never pass
from the memory of those who honor brave deeds. In
1787 a party of Indians attacked her house, and her
husband was disabled by them when he opened the door
to see what caused the outside disturbance. The Indians
then attempted to hew down the door with their toma-
hawks, but Mrs. Merrill stood by with an ax, the favorite
weapon among pioneer women, and as their heads appeared
through the hole hewed in the door killed or wounded
four of them. Two others then attempted to descend
the low, broad, wooden chimney, but Mrs. Merrill threw
her only feather bed on the fire, which so smothered
them that she easily dispatched them with her ax. All
the Indians, including those she had wounded, then left
her mistress of the fortress.
Of Bryant's Station.
57
In 1789 an abandoned wretch, who was a fugitive from
justice in the older settlements, and who lived in the new
country by plundering his neighbors, made his appearance
at the home of Samuel Davis, near Whitley's Station, in
Lincoln County. Mr. Davis and some neighbors were then
in pursuit of the miscreant, of which he was ignorant.
When the renegade entered the house, Mrs. Davis invited
him to a seat and offered him a drink of whisky. The
fellow suspecting nothing, set his gun against the wall, and,
while swallowing his drink, Mrs. Davis seized his gun,
cocked it, and pointing it at him ordered him to remain
seated. And thus she held him at the muzzle of his own
gun until her husband and the party in pursuit of him
arrived and took him in charge.
In
Innes' Bottom, near Frankfort, has been made famous
by the act of two pioneer women, each of whom was
named Elizabeth Cook. Among the settlers here were
Jesse and Hosea Cook, with their wives and children.
1792 they were attacked by a large body of Indians.
Jesse Cook was killed at the first fire and Hosea mortally
wounded. He made out, however, to get into the house,
where he expired so soon as his wife had closed the door.
The Indians then tried to break down the door of the
house, in which were the two women with their children.
Failing in this they made several attempts to fire the house
8
58
The First Act in the Siege
by flashing powder in their gun-pans. The fire was at first
extinguished by the women with water, then with eggs, and
finally with the blood-saturated clothing of Hosea Cook lying
dead on the floor. The Indians having thus been baffled
in their efforts for a considerable time, and fearing the
coming of the whites upon them, left the heroic widows to
undisturbed sorrow over the bodies of their dead husbands.
And thus I might go on relating the heroic deeds of
Kentucky women until the day were ended and the shadows
of night were upon us.
THE PARTS OF THE SIEGE OF BRYANT'S OMITTED IN THIS
Address.
The narrative of the siege of Bryant's Station was
dropped by me at the failure of the first assault by the
Indians. To complete the story it would be necessary to
take it up where it was suspended and pursue it to the
close of the events which followed, embracing the arrival
of the mounted men from Lexington, the return to Lexing-
ton of the footmen who could not enter the fort, the
attempt of Simon Girty to negotiate a surrender which
his arms could not accomplish, the characteristic speech
of Girty and the witty reply of Aaron Reynolds, the raising
of the siege and the departure of the Indians, the gathering
Of Bryant's Station.
59
!
of the pioneers from other stations to the site of Bryant's,
the pursuit of the Indians and the disastrous Battle of
the Blue Licks. The want of time, however, will not
permit even a partial presentation of these subsequent
events, important as they may be to the completion of
the story.
Fortunately they have all been more or less
fully set forth in our histories, which was not the case with
the first act in the siege of Bryant's Station, in which the
women were principally concerned. I have confined what
I had to say to this first act of the siege because there
was room there for the presentation of new matter, and
because it afforded the opportunity to fill an important gap
in our history with the neglected names of pioneer mothers
and daughters who, at the risk of their own lives, supplied
a besieged station with water by going to the spring for it
within point blank range of hundreds of rifles in the hands
of blood-thirsty savages. This noble act, in my opinion,
entitled them to especial consideration on this occasion,
and hence they have been made the principal subject of
my address.
A PROPHETIC POEM.
Our poet, William D. Gallagher, had in his mind just
such women as we have been honoring here to-day when
he wrote his stirring verses entitled
verses entitled "The Mothers of
60
The First Act in the Siege
the West!"
These singularly appropriate lines, written
more than fifty years ago, seem with prophetic vision to
have anticipated our exercises here to-day, and with them
I shall close my address, already too long drawn out:
I.
The Mothers of our Forest-Land!
Stout-hearted dames were they;
With nerve to wield the battle-brand,
And join the border fray.
Our rough land had no braver
In its days of blood and strife-
Aye, ready for severest toil,
Aye, free to peril life.
II.
The Mothers of our Forest-Land!
On old Kentucky's soil,
How shared they, with each dauntless band,
War's tempest and life's toil!
They shrank not from the foeman,
They quail'd not in the fight,
But cheer'd their husbands through the day,
And sooth'd them through the night.
III.
The Mothers of our Forest-Land!
Their bosoms pillow'd Men;
And proud were they by such to stand
In hammock, fort, or glen;
To load the sure old rifle-
To run the leaden ball-
To watch a battling husband's place,
And fill it should he fall.
Of Bryant's Station.
61
IV.
The Mothers of our Forest-Land!
Such were their daily deeds;
Their monument-where does it stand?
Their epitaph-who reads?
M
No bravers dames had Sparta –
No nobler matrons Rome-
Yet who or lauds or honors them,
Ev'n in their own green home?
V.
The Mothers of our Forest-Land!
They sleep in unknown graves;
And had they borne and nursed a band
Of ingrates, or of slaves,
They had not been more neglected;
But their graves shall yet be found,
And their monuments dot here and there
The Dark and Bloody Ground!"
((
1
THE WOMEN OF BRYANT'S STATION.
ORIGINAL POEM.
BY MAJOR HENRY T. STANTON,
Member of the Filson Club.
FOR
OR meet companionship to man,
With life and love in common,
And for perfection of his plan,
God's afterthought was-woman.
Whilst Adam slept, from out his side
Was wrought this final feature,
To give His imaged Self a bride-
A reproducing creature.
Then flowers bloomed in Eden's wild,
And birds and waters greeted,
And every scene the eye beguiled,
And earth was all completed.
The crowning act of God was done,
The King of Kings had rested,
And man and woman, two as one,
With royal right invested.
What had been life to Him alone,
On mountain, vale, and river,
Had Adam held his mighty throne,
To live and rule forever?
What had been power, love, or life
To him in isolation,
But for God's afterthought a-wife,
His last and best creation?

MAJOR HENRY T. STANTON,
Member of The Filson Club.
The Women of Bryant's Station.
63
From her the royal scions came
That hold the world in leashes;
The lines that set all life aflame,
The God-like human species
These be the hands that sway the earth,
That constant point its steerage,
That bring their royalty to birth
And proudly hold its peerage.
God drew no parting line between-
To favor one or other -
The King is master, and the Queen
Is mistress and is mother.
The right to reign and rule this sphere
Is granted to the human,
There is no sex in soul, and here
It may be man or woman.
Throughout the ages that are dead,
With all their glaring errors,
Most legends show how men have led
The bloody way to terrors.
Great battles fought with brand and blade
That live for us in story,
To man's eternal shame are made
His monuments of glory.
The robbers of an older day,
Reliant on their power,
Who through the weaker cut their way,
Were heroes of the hour.
64
The Women of Bryant's Station.
They held their tenures wide and grand
Through right of brigand forces,
And kept dominion of the land
By base and brutal courses.
Their names are carved on granite stones
Set up in honored places,
Above the ashes and the bones
Of slaughtered feebler races;
But nowhere on this field of fame
The arch of ether under
Is carven any woman's name
Who dyed her blade for plunder.
And few on earth have lived to see
In deathless lines of story
The woman's real history
And charter right to glory.
But here and there across the lands
Her fame has wide extended,
When boldly and with willing hands
Her home has been defended.
There is no brutal force in her,
No muscle built upon her,
But courage in her blood runs clear
When virtue calls or honor.
And sturdy men who meet in war
As valiant foemen-brothers,
Are debtors deep for all they are
To proud and fearless mothers.
The Women of Bryant's Station.
65
No need to cite a woman's acts
In common scription worded,
Her courage shows in living facts,
Unnoted, unrecorded.
In what she does, how brave so e'er,
She flaunts no glaring feature,
But careless shows with danger near
The highest moral nature.
Sometimes, when ocean's beaten shores
Are lined with waiting wreckers,
Grace Darling plies her ashen oars
Across the angry breakers;
Sometimes, in battles' blast and blare,
When wounded men are dying,
A Florence Nightingale is there,
Her hands of mercy plying.
But yesterday, when death was rife
In madly raging water,
A mother freely gave her life
To save her helpless daughter.
Such acts as these are not for fame,
Nor done for self-revealing-
They come uncalled, in mercy's name,
From noblest human feeling.
A hundred years and more have sped
Since here at Bryant's Station
The woman nature grandly shed
Its luster on creation.
9
66
The Women of Bryant's Station.
A simple act it seemed to those,
The sister, mother, daughter,
Who in the front of savage foes
Went down this path for water.
These lands about were virgin then,
No plow had scarred their faces,
And canebrake rank and forest fen
Usurped these grassy places.
On every side the dark trees stood
To cast their leaf-made shadows;
No shining ax had shorn the wood,
No bloom stood over meadows.
Some pioneers had made their way
Across the rugged border,
To give this spot the light of day
And bring its soil to order;
Some iron men who braved the wild,
Through rude, untrodden courses,
To find where kindly nature smiled
Amid her rich resources.
Here, with their little household bands,
Were flecked their cabin quarters,
New castles built by knightly hands
For noble wives and daughters.
No feudal lord restrained their toil,
Their strong limbs held no bondage,
They came as masters of the soil,
Its waters, fruits, and frondage.
The Women of Bryant's Station.
67
But though they claimed and held it all
With holder's right invested,
The red-skinned aboriginal
Their brave advance contested.
From out beyond Ohio's bend,
Kentucky's leaf-shade under,
He made his predatory trend
For murder and for plunder.
To shield themselves from raiding bands
That left this savage nation,
Those pioneers with stalwart hands
Erected Bryant's Station.
You know the story-how they came
For mad rapine and slaughter,
And how our women went to fame
Along this path for water.
In history, though briefly told,
Is found the graphic story
That proves the woman-nature gold
And radiant of glory.
Here, fronting death, in battle's fen,
For love's divine relation,
They brought the draught to thirsting men
That saved old Bryant's Station.
And meet it is, when years have passed,
That by these living waters
A noting stone should come at last
As tribute from their daughters.
68
The Women of Bryant's Station.
How good it is, that where this spring
Flows down to join the river,
There now should stand a speaking thing
To tell their fame forever.
Thank God that in creation's mold,
When He conceived the human,
There lay enough of purest gold
To form the perfect woman.
Thank God that in His afterthought,
Through kindness to his creature,
His mighty hand with cunning wrought
This last, this crowning feature.
Through every way of human life
That mortal man is going,
From mother, daughter, sister, wife,
This courage high is showing,
And to all thirsting souls on earth,
From every clime and quarter,
The woman best and fairest birth-
Is nobly bringing water.
C
J

PROFESSOR GEORGE W. RANCK,
Member of The Filson Club.
THE STORY OF BRYAN'S STATION.
AN ADDRESS.
BY PROFESSOR GEORGE W. RANCK,
Member of the Filson Club.
M
ADAM REGENT and Ladies of the Lexington
Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revo-
lution, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have been honored by the
Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Rev-
olution with the commission to write for this notable occa-
sion* The Story of Bryan's Station. The ladies gave me
no easy task, for while much of the material that has come
down to us on this subject is good, all of it is fragmentary,
some of it is confused and inaccurate, and not a little is
mere repetition embellished by an exuberant fancy. It is
for these reasons partly that Bryan's Station has not taken
the place it deserves in general American history, a place
from which, let us hope, it will no longer be missing after
the events of this auspicious day.
I have tried in this address to remove these blemishes
and to overcome these disadvantages. To do this I have
gone back to original sources of information entirely — to
eye-witnesses of the events and actors in the scenes at
* As the date of the anniversary of the event commemorated August
16th — fell this year (1896) on Sunday, the dedicatory exercises at Bryan's
Station were, for convenience, held on Tuesday, August 18, 1896.
70
The Story of Bryan's Station.
Bryan's Station, and to authorities who actually lived when
the pioneers lived, who knew them personally and received
their facts directly from them.
If this address, therefore, has any merit it is mainly due
to the use of contemporary evidence which furnishes the
strongest material from which history can be written; to the
fact that the writer has conscientiously endeavored to make
it accurate, impartial, and reliable, and because it is the
first attempt that has ever been made to give to our litera-
ture a full, complete, and consecutive
STORY OF BRYAN'S STATION.
An eloquent and perpetual reminder of the coming of
the pioneers to the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky is an
English name.
In 1773, when the McAfees penetrated for the first time
to these luxuriant depths, an elk was killed that so surpassed
all others they had seen that his grandly branching antlers
were set up as a trophy on the bank of a new-found stream,
and from that day to this the once unheard of water has
been known by the beautiful name of "Elkhorn.”*
The earliest known explorers identified with the north
fork of this romantic stream, and with the ground now
known as "Bryan's Station," came here in 1774 and 1775,
* McAfee's Pioneer Sketches.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
71
and included John Floyd, James Douglas, and Hancock
Taylor, three deputy surveyors of Fincastle County, Vir-
ginia, of which Kentucky was then a part; William Bryan,
a hunter from that section of North Carolina now known as
Rowan County, and John Ellis, a Virginia veteran of the
French and Indian wars.* The land they sought was all
that even the land-craving heart of the Anglo-Saxon could
desire, and claims were located, surveys made, and tempo-
rary improvements were started. But the day of posses-
sion was not yet. The explorers were suddenly forced to
abandon their camp, which remained abandoned for years,
for war had broken out between the outraged Ohio Indians
and the colony of Virginia, and it had barely ended when
the great struggle for American independence commenced.
The experiences of the adventurous spirits we have named
strikingly illustrate the perils of the Kentucky wilderness at
this time. They all endured almost incredible privations
and sufferings, all of them were wounded by the Indians,
and three out of the five met death at their hands. †
* Henderson's Journal; see also Fayette records, Denham v. Johnson,
in which William Bryan proves settlement of John Ellis on North Elkhorn.
Taylor was killed in Madison County in 1774, Bryan in Fayette in
1780, and Floyd in Jefferson in 1783. Douglas died in Bourbon in 1793,
and Ellls in Fayette in 1797. Floyd secured an immense amount of Ken-
tucky land, and Fayette County records credit Ellis with the enormous
number of ninety-three thousand acres, variously located. Ellis and Floyd
both served in the Continental Army after the visit to the North Elkhorn
region detailed above.
72
The Story of Bryan's Station.
In 1779 that remarkable and mischievous land law of
Virginia was enacted which turned such a tide of immigra-
tion into Kentucky, and permanent settlements were made
for the first time within the present limits of Fayette
County. One of these was Bryan's Station.
It was
founded by four Bryan* brothers from North Carolina,
William, Morgan, James, and Joseph, of whom the above-
mentioned William was the leading spirit, and with them
was William Grant, who, like the leader, had married a
sister of Daniel Boone. All five were elderly but stalwart
woodsmen, and as each was blessed with a great family of
children, in accordance with a striking feature of the day,
and as the children themselves were nearly all grown, they
felt prepared for straggling Indians at least, as with dogs
and flint-lock rifles, pack-horses and cows, they set out
from the valley of the Yadkin. At the Cumberland River
*We give the name as it was used by most of the members of the
family in Kentucky at that time, though it was then known as "Bryant”
also. The certificates issued by the Land Commissioners at the session
of their court held at the station in December, 1779, and January, 1780,
called the family "Bryan" and the locality Bryant's Station." (See
Bryan and Owens v. Wallace, Fayette records.) And this precedent was
followed by the Court of Appeals. (See same case.) In the official reports
of the Battle of the Blue Licks, August, 1782, Boone gives the station
name without the "t," while Caldwell (British) and Levi Todd both use
that letter. John Filson, 1784, prints it one way on his map and the
other way in his book, and so on from the settlement of the station down
to the present time both forms of the name have been used in court
records and by historians and the public.
""
The Story of Bryan's Station.
73
*
they were joined by two land hunters they accidentally
met there, Cave Johnson and William Tomlinson, from
Virginia, who for their better protection made the journey
with the party, and helped to build the station when the
trip ended. They all came by way of Boonesborough,
where they stopped to replenish their supply of corn, and
from that fort, after a laborious march, they came to the
North Elkhorn Creek, where they made a final halt at a
spot about five miles northeast of the little stockaded settle-
ment of Lexington. Here, in the very heart of the neutral
ground of the Northern and Southern Indians, in the center
of their choicest game park where all might hunt, but where
no tribe might remain, and in that section of it which Ban-
croft describes as "the matchless valley of the Elkhorn,'
was Bryan's Station planted. How little did these rich
acres cost in gold-how much did they cost in suffering
and in blood! The new station was quickly built.
It was
a rude and solitary habitation, but as strong as it was
rude. It consisted at first of twelve or fourteen cabins of
logs with the bark on, with roofs of roughest clapboards,
and provided with chimneys of sticks and clay, but un-
lighted by one pane of glass, and all arranged as a hollow
square by the aid of great pickets made of the trunks of
"}
* Autobiography of Cave Johnson. He and Tomlinson went back to
Virginia in a few weeks, but both returned.
IO
74
The Story of Bryan's Station.
trees split in two and planted firmly in the ground. And
the whole, green as the forest from which it had been
hewed, was fashioned by the ax and put together by
wooden pegs and pins without the help of a nail or hinge
of iron. The station was more noticeable at this time for
its situation than for its size. It stood on an elevated
point* that had been cleared of trees big enough to screen
an enemy, and which tapered steeply down to the southern
bank of the heavily wooded creek. At the foot of the hill
which hid it from the station, and facing the creek, was a
spring of almost ice-cold water that issued from a ledge of
rocks that long jutted from the hillside, but which was
covered by wild vegetation and thick primeval mosses, and
the clear little stream that came from it, uniting with
another like it, flowed unseen into the creek through a
thicket of waving cane. This spring, which had much to
do with determining the location of the fort, t was destined
through the heroism of Kentucky women to become the
most famous fountain of the western wilderness. A foot-
path, zigzagging through the freshly made stumps of trees
* Marshall's History of Kentucky. John Bradford's Notes on the Early
Settlement of Kentucky.
A spring was such a necessity of early pioneer life that it nearly
always determined the location of a settlement.
It was a spring that
caused the erection of the cabins at Harrodsburg, Boonesborough, George-
town, Lexington, and a multitude of other forts and stations in Kentucky.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
75
;
and past some saplings of dogwood and pawpaw, led down
from the station to this spring, while a much broader track
sloped from the main gate on the southeastern side of the
stockade to a road a little distance away, and nearly front-
ing the fort, that was a pricelesss boon to the pioneers. It
seemed an ancient product of human skill, but was, in fact,
a "trace," hard and firm, made by the buffaloes alone
which had thundered over it for a thousand years in their
journeys to the Salt Licks. Near by was a clearing planted
in corn, but all else but the hill itself- the forests, the cane-
brakes, the wilderness stream, the wild rye, the peavine,
and the white clover-was unchanged by the hand of man.
The settlers were very busy, for they had to depend upon
themselves alone for the commonest comforts and neces-
saries of life. Pots and skillets and a few ordinary imple-
ments they did possess, but nearly every thing else they
had to make, from slab tables to buffalo tallow dips, from
hand mills to deerskin moccasins. And hunting seemed
never to stop, for the settlers lived on wild game, and
times were bad indeed at Bryan's Station when the ranger
came back without his usual load.
Thanks to the blow inflicted by the genius of Clark
in his Vincennes campaign, the Indians halted for a little
season in their work of murder, and game could be had
without the constant risk of life, and more immigrants
76
The Story of Bryan's Station.
found their way to the Bluegrass Region in the fall of
1779. Some of them settled at Bryan's, greatly to the
delight of its lonely little band, and among them were
Stephen Frank, Nicholas Tomlinson, Thomas Bell, David
Jones, James Hogan, Huttery Lee, and Daniel Wilcoxen.
Others under the leadership of Colonel John Grant, of
North Carolina, and Captain William Ellis, of Virginia,
went five miles further toward the spot where Paris now
stands and established Grant's Station. *
As the new settlers were mostly kinsmen or friends of
those at Bryan's, and as neighbors were not overly plen-
tiful, a trace was quickly cut and cleared between the two
forts, and it, like the buffalo trace to Lexington, now gave
signs of human travel.
Bryan's Station was unusually animated in December,
1779, and January, 1780, in spite of the bitterly cold
* Colonel Grant, who was a Revolutionary soldier, was one of the
most active of the pioneers. He and Captain Ellis seem to have first met in
the Continental Army, to which they both returned when their settlement
was broken up by Byrd in 1780. They both came back to Kentucky and
settled permanently, Ellis in the winter of 1781 and Grant in the spring of
1782 (not in 1784, as Collins has it). Colonel Grant died at his home on
the Licking, where he had erected salt works years before. There were five
of the Grants, including William, at Bryan's, and all came from the Shallow
Ford of the Yadkin, and all were conspicuous as frontiersmen.
Israel was
with Boone in his pursuit of the Indians who killed Edward Boone, brother
of Daniel, in October, 1781. Samuel Grant was killed by the Indians near
the Ohio in 1794.
William was wounded in the tragic hunt on the Elkhorn.
Squire was State Senator from Boone County in 1801.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
77
weather, as the Commissioners appointed by Virginia to
settle land claims held their court within its snow-covered
walls, and the pioneers gathered in to get the certificates
that meant so much to them, for these documents secured
to each holder four hundred acres of land actually settled,
and a pre-emption right to purchase at the State price a
thousand acres or less adjoining his settlement, provided
the settlement had been made before January 1, 1778, on
unappropriated land, to which no other had a legal right.
Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Robert Patterson, the
Todds, Ellis, McConnells, and many others of the early
pioneers of Fayette County visited Bryan's Station at this
time. It was while this court was in session that the
Bryans, who had rested secure in the belief that they were
the owners of the station land by right of settlement,
met the first of a series of discouragements that caused
them to abandon the place. Their settlement was found
to be within the limits of a survey made in July, 1774,
for William Preston, then surveyor of Fincastle County,
Virginia, who had already traded it off to Joseph Rogers,
also a resident of Virginia.*
The
* Deposition of Joseph Rogers in 1791, Fayette County records.
patent says: "Granted to Joseph Rogers and John Seabury;" Bledsoe
v. Tandy. Preston was never in Kentucky. He died in 1783 in what
is now Montgomery County, Virginia.
78
The Story of Bryan's Station.
This misfortune, a long spell of terribly severe weather,
and other adverse circumstances made the winter a gloomy
one at Bryan's. As the season advanced the little store
of corn
was exhausted, owing to the presence of new-
comers, who increased the consumption of it and had
arrived too late to plant for themselves. So there was
no bread, and even meat was scarce, for the larger game
went further away as settlers increased.
The spring of 1780 came, and with it came the Indians,
as they always did at that season of the year. All the
traces were infested with them, and several hunters had
already been killed, when the salt gave out both at Lex-
ington and at Bryan's, and as salt was indispensable, a
party of men made up from both places started for Bul-
litt's Lick, near Salt River, to get some. But they had
hardly passed the little cluster of stockaded cabins called
Leestown, and reached the bank of the Kentucky River,
when they were suddenly attacked by Indians, who killed
Stephen Frank, and wounded Nicholas Tomlinson, William
Bryan, and several others of the party, who, however,
quickly recovered, but the expedition had to be abandoned.
Frankfort, subsequently settled near the site of this occur-
rence, is said to have taken its name from the unfortunate
hunter killed that day. More Indians than ever now beset
the traces and the fort, and neither the pioneers nor their
-
-
The Story of Bryan's Station.
79
stock could go beyond the clearing without danger; meat
grew scarcer still, and hunting parties, to avoid the savages,
had to slip out of the station before daybreak, make a
wide circuit and return at night. When a man went out
at this time he was never certain that he would ever get
back.
About the 20th of May this year (1780*) meat was
so badly needed that twelve mounted men rode from the
station in quest of game to some woods near where George-
town now stands. There they divided, with the under-
standing that one party under William Bryan, and another
under James Hogan, should range down the Elkhorn-
each party taking a side-and meet at night at the
mouth of Cane Run. Soon after they parted Hogan and
his men were pursued by Indians, and, abandoning a led
horse brought along to carry game, they distanced the
savages and galloped back to the station. Early the next
morning Hogan, with reinforcements, went to the relief of
Bryan's party, which had camped at the place agreed upon,
but they arrived too late to prevent disaster. The Indians
had used the captured pack-horse, which was provided
with a bell, to lead the other party into an ambuscade,
and had defeated the hunters, mortally wounding William
* Several writers, including Collins, have incorrectly given the year
as 1781.
80
The Story of Bryan's Station.
Bryan and severely wounding William Grant, when Hogan's
band rode up and finally routed the savages in turn. In
this last fight one of the Indians was killed and scalped,
and three of the white men were wounded. One of the
wounded was David Jones, after whom "David's Fork,"
a tributary of the Elkhorn, was named.* He was shot
through the middle of the chest, but survived. The suf-
fering hunters, supported in their saddles, were brought to
the station, where protracted anxiety gave way to successive
feelings of joy, sympathy, and fear as the faint and bleeding
little party filed slowly through the gate. William Bryan,
who had been mangled by three bullets, was carried to
his cabin in a dying condition, and before the dawn of
another morning the unfortunate woodsman expired. And
then, in the midst of sorrow and great depression, while
four wounded men required attention, and with every male
mourner carrying a rifle, occurred the first funeral at Bryan's
Station. No church bell tolled as the little train went
carefully over the rocks and logs where the buffalo trace
crossed the creek, and there was no music but the rippling
of the forest stream when the settlers halted in the woods
on the other side opposite the station. A good man made
"David Jones' Fork," and afterward
but for nearly a century has held
David's Fork."
"David's Fork." See depositions,
*The stream was first known as
familiarly shortened to "Davy's Fork,"
to the more dignified appellation of
Fayette County records.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
81
a simple prayer, and William Bryan was laid to rest under
the spreading branches of an oak which stood at his head,
with his initials deeply cut into the bark.
The Bryans had talked of leaving the station as soon
as they found that they were not the owners of the land,
and now after the death of their leader they were more
inclined to abandon it than ever. One more event settled
the matter, for they barely escaped destruction. On the
22d of June, Colonel Byrd, of the British Army, at the
head of one of the largest and most formidable bodies of
Indians and Canadians that had ever invaded Kentucky,
captured Ruddle's Station in the present Harrison County,
and immediately took Martin's also, which was only a few
miles from Bryan's.* Consternation reigned in all the log
forts, for the invaders had brought to Kentucky for the
first time the one thing the pioneers dreaded — artillery.
Grant's Station was instantly evacuated, much to the dis-
gust of scouting Indians, who managed, however, to kill
some of the rapidly retreating garrison, and then pushed
on to Bryan's, where they seized many horses, ruined
much of the growing corn, and were confidently expecting
the arrival of the army, when Colonel Byrd, either through
* Ruddle's Fort was about a mile and a quarter above the site now
known as Lair's Station, while Martin's was still closer to Bryan's, as it
was on Stoner Creek in Bourbon County. It was about five miles from
Ruddle's.
II
82
The Story of Bryan's Station.
fear of the sudden falling of the waters of the Licking,
from disgust at the utter disregard of his authority by
his wild allies, or from horror at their atrocities, hastily
retreated, and the station that seemed doomed to imme-
diate destruction was saved as by a miracle.
The Bryans and others from the same State were now
utterly discouraged, and determined to return to North
Carolina. But it was no easy matter to get away, with
land selling for a song, and every thing else enormously
high, and with women, children, household goods, and pro-
visions to move, after the Indians had stolen nearly all
the horses. In July corn was selling at one hundred and
twenty dollars per bushel in Continental currency, and
one man was known to have given as much as nine hun-
dred acres of pre-emption land for a horse. All the
wounded hunters in the station had time to get well before
the arrangements for the trip were completed, but the
emigrants were ready at last, and early one morning at
the close of the month of August, 1780, the pack-horses
were loaded, farewells were said to the few who remained,
the conch shell was blown, the train moved off on the old
buffalo trace, and the Bryans and their party abandoned
the station forever.* They had been there but little more
* Morgan Bryan, one of the four brothers, in a deposition before
James Trotter, taken March 10, 1795, refers to the movements of the
The Story of Bryan's Station.
83
*
than a year, but troubles and privations had made the
time seem infinitely longer. Some years after this, when
the war was over, and pioneers could live outside of the
prison-like forts, members of this family and party came
back to other lands they had taken up in Fayette County,
but to Bryan's Station they returned no more.
So, at the beginning of the autumn of 1780, only a few
of the cabins at Bryan's Station were occupied, and the
place seemed about to be entirely deserted when its pros-
pects brightened. Clark's expedition against the Piqua
Indians, immediately after Byrd's invasion, restored confi-
dence; immigrants began to pour into the country, and a
number of them from Virginia settled at Bryan's, making
the station stronger than ever. Among them were John
Ellis, one of the original explorers, with his family and
negroes; three Craigs, Elijah, John, and Jeremiah; Joseph
Stucker and relatives, and John Martin, John Suggett, and
several Hendersons, Herndons, and Mitchells. Later in
the fall came Mr. Williams, of North Carolina, with his
young son Ellison, and about the same time arrived Robert
20
Bryans and others in May, 1780, and says, All of whom and myself
removed from the Kentucky country in the August following, and none of
us returned, as far as I know, before the year 1784." Daniel Bryan and
George Bryan depose that they left in 1780, but state that they returned
at a later date than 1784, while Samuel Bryan simply deposes that he
remained at the station until the summer of 1780. See Fayette records,
Bryan and Owens v. Wallace; Bledsoe v. Tandy, and other suits.
84
The Story of Bryan's Station.
Johnson, brother of Cave Johnson, from Beargrass, near
the present Louisville, with his family, including his infant
son, Richard M., born at that place, and afterward dis-
tinguished as a soldier and Vice-President.
The new-
comers added more cabins to the station, increased its
comforts and conveniences, and, what was of vital impor-
tance, increased its strength, for now since the fall of
Martin's and Ruddle's it was the most exposed of all the
stations north of the Kentucky River. Lexington was
superior, but it was mainly because her founders had the
forethought to include a splendid spring within her walls,
an advantage, strange to say, that none of the other
stations enjoyed.
When the winter came on the Indians left the settlers
to fight the snow and ice and starvation, but they were
back again as soon as the spring of 1781 brought pleasant
weather. Before the dogwood bloomed they had crept up
to the station and killed a man who was on the lookout
while Daniel Wilcoxen plowed the corn, and it was only
by a lucky accident that Wilcoxen escaped with his life.
June opened with another tragedy, for Huttery Lea was
killed while trying to give his horse grass outside of the
walls so incessantly watched by the skulking foe. His horse
*
* Autobiography of Cave Johnson. Both of the Johnson brothers had
to go to Virginia in the spring of 1782, and did not return until the fall
of that year.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
85
was shot and he himself was scalped, dying while yet a
youth. Both of these victims of the Indians were buried
by the side of William Bryan in the rude station grave-
yard across the creek. But the settlement survived in
spite of every thing, and the hearts of the inmates were
strengthened when the news was brought in December that
a whole congregation of Virginians had arrived at Gilbert's
Creek, and that a number of old friends and neighbors
who formed part of it would settle near them in the coming
spring. Not only were more strong arms needed, but all
hungered and thirsted for news from their far-distant old
home, for letters were few and hard to get, and not a
single newspaper was published in the entire Kentucky
wilderness. The winter was monotonous, but the spring
of 1782 was marked by an early omen of a tragic year,
for the station was shocked on the 23d of March by the
news of Estill's defeat, brought by two survivors of the
fatal engagement. One was William Irvine, helpless from
three gunshot wounds, and the other was Joseph Proctor,
who had rescued him after the most desperate and gallant
exertions. In April, about two weeks after this incident,
the expected Virginia families arrived from Gilbert's Creek,
reinforcing Bryan's and other Bluegrass forts to some
*Near Lancaster, Kentucky. See The Traveling Church," published
1891.
*
86
The Story of Bryan's Station.
extent, but mainly uniting to settle on David's Fork.*
None, however, were distant from Bryan's, where their
leader, Captain William Ellis, and some of his riflemen
were destined soon to gather.
Bryan's Station was at its best in the summer of 1782.
It then included about forty cabins with clapboard roofs,
all of which sloped inwardly, and like all the larger pioneer
forts in Kentucky was a parallelogram in shape, with a
block-house at each angle, and every space not occupied
by the back or outside wall of a cabin was filled in with
pointed log pickets twelve feet high. Commencing a little
distance from the northeastern brow of the hill overlook-
ing the creek, it ran back two hundred yards in length by
fifty yards in width, and was provided with two big gates
that swung on enormous wooden hinges - one of the gates
being on the southeastern side nearest the buffalo trace,
which long afterward developed into the Bryan Station
Turnpike. On the outside and close to the palisades were
several cabins, in one of which lived James Morgan, his
wife and one infant child, and there were other structures
that sheltered tanning vats, rude contrivances for making
rope and other absolutely necessary articles. The live stock
* Now known as the Chilesburg neighborhood. History of Fayette
County, Kentucky, page 232.
↑ It remained a “dirt road” until 1859, when the five miles from the
city limits of Lexington were macadamized.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
87
had increased, more land had been cleared and fenced, a
vegetable garden was flourishing, and a hundred acres of
full grown corn extended along one side of the buffalo trace
past the fort and down to the forest-covered bank of the
creek. Trees still thickly lined the other side of the trace,
making it now a narrow lane. There was a heavy growth
of hemp west and north of the present old brick residence
which stands on the ground, then clear of every thing but
stumps and tall weeds; wild rye and a thicket of lofty cane,
in which a man on horseback could hide, covered the
marshy bottom between the hillside and the creek in the
neighborhood of the spring, so that the station, though it
stood in the midst of cleared and elevated land, was
rimmed around at no great distance by luxuriant vegetation.
Such was Bryan's Station before the sun set on the 15th
of August, 1782, but there was excitement in the little
garrison of forty-four riflemen, and among the women and
children, by the time the bear grease lamps and buffalo
tallow dips were lighted, for a messenger had galloped up
with the news that Captain John Holder, with men from
his own station, from McGee's, and Strode's, had been
defeated at the Upper Blue Licks by a band of Indians
he had been pursuing, who had committed depredations
and captured children at Hoy's Station in the present
Madison County. The word was for the settlers to ren-
88
The Story of Bryan's Station.
dezvous at Hoy's.* Lexington had already been notified
and was preparing to go and hunt down the savages, and
now the garrison at Bryan's hurried to get ready to do
the same, which was exactly what a wily foe had com-
missioned his advance guard to effect, with a view to the
destruction of both places, † for one of the largest forces
that had ever come against the settlements was even then
at their very gates.
.
The northwestern tribes, though often at variance with
each other, never forgot that Kentucky was the common
hunting ground of them all, and their inveterate hatred of
the pioneer intruders upon it had been repeatedly worked
by the British to their own advantage. Such was now
the case. Early in August the British Commandant of the
Northwest, Lieutenant - Governor Henry Hamilton, whose
headquarters were at Detroit, had ordered Captain William
*Hoy's Station, which had then (1782) been established about a
year, was close to the site of the present Foxtown, in Madison County,
and as Holder's was on the Kentucky River, only two miles from Boones-
borough, the alarm soon reached him. In his pursuit he increased his
party first at McGee's Station, which was on Cooper's Run, in Fayette
County, three miles from Boonesborough, and then at Strode's, which was
two miles from the present Winchester, and then the principal settle-
ment of what is now Clark County. "Strode's Road" is still a reminder
of the old station.
+ Holder was defeated on the 14th or 15th of August; and if the set-
tlers could be drawn away to Hoy's, Bryan's would not only be without
a garrison itself but it could obtain no aid from the neighboring stations,
as they too would be depleted.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
89
Caldwell to collect militia and Indians and "destroy the
rebel settlements south of the Ohio."* Caldwell,+ who
seems to have been a militia officer of foreign birth and
a Tory, if not an actual renegade, gathered one company
of Tory and Canadian rangers, and figured as the official
and ostensible head of the movement, though its real leader
was the notorious Simon Girty, who had been captured
by the savages when a child and adopted by them, and
had finally become an Indian in every thing but complex-
ion, and was a power both in the council house and on
the war-path. A grand conference of the dusky allies of
the Crown, to consider the invasion of Kentucky, was held
at old Chillicothe, | about three miles northwest of the
present city of Xenia, Ohio, and the best known of the
Shawnee towns or camping places in the Miami country,
* Haldimand MSS., Ottawa, Canada. Sir Frederick Haldimand was
Governor of Canada from 1778 to 1784.
+ Caldwell figured conspicuously at Sandusky in June (1782). A prej-
udiced writer makes him the inactive captain of a company of Tory
militia disguised as Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timber, in 1794.
Shortly after this, when the British delivered up the military posts of the
Northwest, he settled at Amherstburg (formerly Malden), Canada, along
with Byrd, Girty, and McKee.
See "Girty the White Indian" in Magazine of American History for
March, 1886, which the author claims as the first attempt in more than a
century to give Girty's life after a careful and unprejudiced study of the
most reliable original authorities, both British and American.
||This ancient camping ground of the Shawanese and favorite rendez-
vous of the savage tribes when on the war-path was near the head of the Lit-
tle Miami River. Traces led from it to other so-called "towns," including
those of the Piqua and Pickaway Indians on the Big Miami.
12
90
The Story of Bryan's Station.
and here, mainly through the influence of Girty, the tribes
again united to make another and a supreme effort to
drive the whites from their ancient domain forever.
A force was immediately organized for this purpose, and
included quotas of warriors from the Shawanese, Wyandot,
Huron, and five or six other tribes, in whose overshadowing
numbers the handful of militia was lost, and the authority
of Caldwell seems to have been even more completely
ignored than was that of Byrd at Ruddle's and Martin's
two years before.* In fact, most of the assembled war-
riors had participated in that very movement, and, uncon-
trollable as ever, had chosen a leader of their own, and
from this time until the campaign ended Girty had the
whole Indian force at his back, and was the real com-
mander and master-spirit of the expedition.
He was
certainly recognized as such by the pioneers, who mention
no other opposing leader, and the British records show
that he had already played nearly as prominent a part at
Ruddle's when, supported by the savages, he and not Byrd
demanded the surrender of the place.† Backed by such
* Ruddle remonstrated with Byrd about the barbarities of the Indians.
Byrd confessed himself unable to restrain them, saying they so greatly
outnumbered the British that he was in their power.
Haldimand Papers. The British governor was not unmindful of the
influence Girty exerted among the northwestern tribes. Kiernan says, in
Volume 2 of American Pioneer, that Girty was armed by Hamilton with
a proclamation from his own hand to guarantee pardon and protection to
all who would swear allegiance to the Crown.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
91
a force he did not need a commission from Hamilton to
make him a leader.
The exact strength of the invading force will never be
known. The lowest estimate on the British side* puts it
at three hundred men, and the highest from one of the
best American sources + makes it considerably over six
hundred. Boone, who was a close personal observer of
this matter, and whose written statements are singularly
calm and unprejudiced, says at one time that "the Indians
exceeded four hundred," and at another time that “the
Indians and Canadians together were about five hundred.
There is every reason to believe that they amounted
to about five hundred, but no matter how estimated, by
friend or foe, the force appeared overwhelming for the end
in view.
Exulting in their strength, unimpeded by baggage of
any kind, and equipped only for a very short campaign,
during which they expected to live mainly upon the enemy,
the warriors started out from the Shawanese camp, speeded
down the Little Miami, swarmed across the Ohio in canoes,
* Caldwell. McKee makes the number larger.
+ Bradford, who says, "There were five hundred and sixty Indians and
about sixty Canadians and Tories, forming an army of more than six
hundred to fight forty-two men."
Filson.
|| Marshall adopts Boone's figures as given to Filson. None of the
Kentucky historians we mention had access to the British accounts we
quote from.
1
1
92
The Story of Bryan's Station.
moved rapidly up the Licking, and, on the night of August
15th,* arrived at Bryan's Station and silently settled them-
selves about it. Not a single note of warning had been
sounded. Boonesborough had been twice besieged, and
Martin's and Ruddle's had been destroyed; but no steps
seem to have been taken to guard the settlements against
surprise, and Girty and his warriors reached the heart of
the Bluegrass Region unseen and unchallenged by scout,
picket, or sentinel, a circumstance which provoked soon
after some exceedingly lively comments from George Rogers
Clark. The whole force took positions either on or near
the bank of the creek, and as close to the fort as it could, to
be effectually concealed by the tall and abundant vegeta-
tion. One detachment was posted among the trees and
corn where the trace neared the creek, or about where the
southern end of the bridge now is, while the main body
buried itself in the canebrake and full grown weeds, "so
near the spring," says Marshall, "as to render it useless
to the garrison." The Indian leaders were evidently in
doubt as to whether the volunteers for the relief of Holder
had yet left the fort, and with a view to obtain positive
information some scouts were sent before daylight to
* Caldwell, Boone, Ellison Williams, Bradford, and Marshall give the
15th as date of arrival. See note on page 117.
† Virginia State Papers, Volume 3, pages 385-387.
Bradford agrees with Caldwell about "the fire of the savages before
sunrise."
The Story of Bryan's Station.
93
capture an early riser, or make enough excitement to cause
the garrison to expose its strength. It was one of these
pretended stragglers probably who fell before the rifle of
James McBride, who, it is claimed, killed the first Indian
shot at the siege, * and it was at this time that James
Morgan escaped from his cabin on the outside of the fort,
with his baby strapped to his back, after concealing his
wife under a slab of the cabin floor.
The thrilling expe-
rience of Mrs. Morgan, the burning of the cabin, and the
strange meeting of the husband and wife after the Battle
of the Blue Licks, is one of the most dramatic features
of the siege. The effort of the scouting party not only
failed, but, as the captain of the British Rangers admits,
was badly managed, and in some unexplained way the
quick-witted settlers detected at once the presence of a
hidden army, the ambuscade near the spring, and the
meaning of the ruse to entice the men away to the relief
of Holder. How they learned this, whether from the tenant
of an outside cabin who escaped into the fort, or whether
they caught some swift warning from the Ruddle Station
prisoners that the Indians had forced to come along with
* See McBride's Pioneer Biography. Captain James McBride was a res-
ident of Lexington and one of the first lot owners. It is not explained
how he happened to be at Bryan's Station at this time. He was killed
in 1789 while surveying near the Licking, but though shot from his
horse he killed an Indian before he was tomahawked.
† See full account on page 94, History of Lexington.
94
The Story of Bryan's Station.
them, has never been explained.* The besiegers, uncon-
scious that their real strength had been discovered, and
believing that such an every-day occurrence as the appear-
ance of a few straggling Indians would excite no suspicion
of a great force, waited silently and confidently for the
departure of the company, or some tell-tale effect of the
alarm. But the relief party so fortunately warned did not
march, nor did the garrison exhibit itself; but while the
enemy waited, the suddenly-aroused and greatly-startled
inmates set to work with might and main under the alleged
leadership of Captain Elijah Craigt to prepare the post
for an effective defense, and to beat the savage at his own
game of deception. Thomas Bell and Nicholas Tomlin-
son immediately undertook the dangerous experiment of
riding to Lexington after reinforcements, and made good
their escape, owing, perhaps, to the desire of the enemy
not to expose
expose his presence, and for the same reason,
* Deposition of Nicholas Hart that he and others captured at Ruddle's
in 1780 were forced to accompany the Indians when they marched to Bryan's
Station and the Blue Licks. Some of the prisoners were released shortly
after the close of the Revolution, but the Ruddles remained in captivity
fourteen years, or until the treaty of Greenville in 1794.
The identity of the commander of the garrison, who was doubtless
only a nominal and temporary leader, is not established on contemporary
authority. A later writer, Collins, Volume 2, page 766, names an Elijah
Craig in this connection, and says that after the siege he removed to
what is now Woodford County, Kentucky. Whoever he may have been, he
is not to be confused with Elijah Craig, the Baptist preacher, who did not
come to Kentucky till 1785, and who died in Scott County in 1808.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
95
doubtless, the live stock that congregated every night about
the station was allowed to go out unattacked to its familiar
range.
The gates had hardly been closed on the messengers
when everybody thought of water, for the daily supply had
not been brought up, and as it was mid-August all realized
in a flash, not only that the fort could not be held without
it, but that it must be obtained at once, and by the women,
or not had at all. For the men to go to the spring would
be to do exactly as the savages desired, and devote the
garrison to destruction. If the women went in accordance
with their regular early morning custom, the enemy would
be confirmed in the delusion that their presence in force
was undiscovered, * and would withhold their fire to insure
the complete success of their plans. The suggestion was
full of hope, but all the same the savages were known to
be mere creatures of impulse, hard to control, and regard-
less of sex. The effort which promised success might
end in a massacre, but the women were convinced of its
vital importance, and resolved to go. Never was a
demand for heroic self-sacrifice more suddenly made or
more simply and sublimely answered. There was no time
for tears and lamentations, only time enough for the
*The Indians evidently believed all this time that their presence in
force was entirely unsuspected by the garrison, and all the important con-
temporary writers convey the impression that they so believed.
96
The Story of Bryan's Station.
gathering of pails, piggins,* noggins, and gourds, and for
hasty embraces; and as the sun was rising on the mem-
orable Friday of the 16th of August, 1782, the devoted
women of Bryan's Station left its protecting walls, and
with looks of pretended cheerfulness, but with wildly
fluttering hearts, went down the hillside, beyond the reach
of the garrison's guns, and gathered at the never-to-be-
forgotten spring, † in point-blank range of hundreds of the
enemy's rifles, and under the very eyes of a swarm of
savages who crouched like panthers in close and deadly
ambush about them. The coolness and audacity of the
movement so completely convinced the Indians that their
presence was unsuspected that they allowed neither sign
nor sound to betray them, as one after another the women
dipped their dripping gourds into the water, filled the pails,
*The piggin was a wooden bucket with one upright stave for a handle.
The noggin was a wooden bucket with two upright staves for handles.
†The identity of this spring as the one so daringly visited by the
women of the station at this time is clearly and completely established.
It is the only spring mentioned in connection with the siege by the two
historians personally familiar with the station at the time, and the only
one that answers to their descriptions. Marshall, in his History of Ken-
tucky, says "a very fine spring ran from the foot of the point on which
the fort stood near the bank of the Elkhorn." Bradford, in his " Notes,"
located the enemy "on the bank of the creek, convenient to the spring,
and out of sight of the fort," and then adds that the women got the water
from the spring near the ambuscade. The spring now enclosed with a
memorial wall is the only one at the foot of the point" and "near the
bank of the Elkhorn." (See a succeeding note.) The location of the spring
is certain, no matter how the lines of the fort may have extended.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
97
carried them up the foot-path, and entered the fort. It
was a splendid deed. Think of the lofty character of
the women who could endure that sudden parting from
the nearest and dearest they had on earth; of the
grandeur of their self-sacrifice as they passed down the
hillside and out of sight of those protecting walls to
which they would return, perhaps, no more forever; of
the agony of that long and sickening suspense as they
waited their turn at the spring, and of the shining courage
that would have done honor to the bearded warrior of
any land that they exhibited as going and coming with
pretended unconcern they grazed the very precincts of
captivity, of torture, and of death. The annals of the
world do not contain a more illustrious or a more thor-
oughly authentic* instance of female devotion than this,
* The genuineness of this incident has never been questioned but once,
and then in the shape of an assertion absolutely unsupported and betray-
ing an astonishing ignorance of long-established facts.
Albach says, on
page 250 of Western Annals, published in 1846: "We have it on the
best authority, however, that Simon Kenton said this was all romance
by his account there was a covered way to the spring." The value of
this assertion will be understood when we state that neither the name of
this "best authority" is given, nor the time nor place of the revelation,
which was not published until ten years after the death of Kenton, and
sixty-four years after the incident happened. Only one station in all Ken-
tucky ever had even the suggestion of a covered way connected with it,
and that was Harrod's, and it is in the shape of an uncertain legend with
no satisfactory data to support it. We will add in the interest of historic
accuracy that the very nature of the ground at Bryan's Station a steep
hillside and the distance between the fort and the spring would have
Categ
13
98
The Story of Bryan's Station.
but so common were heroic deeds to the pioneer women
of Kentucky, and so well was this one already known,
that the historian only mentions it incidentally and in
the most matter-of-course way. Such was the mettle of
the foremothers of Kentucky, who so grandly made pos-
sible the successful defense of Bryan's Station.
Hope and joy and pride filled the fort as the stout-
hearted women returned in safety with the water for
which they had risked their lives and all that made life
valuable, but the imminence of the danger allowed no
time for the display of those feelings, and the heroines
hurried at once to the moulding of bullets and to be
ready to load the extra rifles that would be rapidly
made a covered way useless or impossible, nor has the memory of any such
thing ever been handed down in any shape by any of the occupants of
Bryan's Station, including Joseph Rogers, who saw the fort in 1782, and
lived on the spot for fifty years. Albach's assertion in such questionable
shape, and at so late a date as 1846, was not creditable to him in view
of the fact that Marshall's description of the spring had then been extant
for thirty-four years, for the first volume of his history was published in
1812. Marshall, who was not only a resident of Fayette County in 1782,
but was then a surveyor and familiar with the ground, declares it was an
open spring, for he described it as so exposed during the siege as to be
practically useless to the garrison, who could not approach it even at night
to get water, except at the risk of life, "notwithstanding which," he
significantly adds, "it was, however, obtained." Mr. Roosevelt, in his
Winning of the West" (note, page 123, volume 2), accepts the incident
as true, but after saying "it is recorded by McClung, a most untrustworthy
writer," adopts it from others as authentic tradition. Mr. Roosevelt is in
error as to the incident resting on tradition only. It is plain that he did
not know it had long been a matter of substantial history also. He evi-
(6
The Story of Bryan's Station.
99
passed to them during the fight. It was shortly after
the spring incident, according to both the British and
American accounts, and some time after the demonstra-
tion of the scouts, that the real attack upon the station
commenced.* When the early morning advanced without
the departure of the relief force from the station, Girty
determined to wait no longer, and commenced operations
with an attempt to draw the garrison away from the
northwestern side of the fort, so as to expose it to a sur-
prise from his main force, which was so admirably situated
to quickly overwhelm it. To accomplish this, a squad
from the detachment at the bridge site, posing as the
only Indians present, made a demonstration on the side of
<
"
dently knew nothing whatever of Bradford's Notes," nor had he noticed
that McClung in his preface gives Bradford as his authority for data about
the siege. McClung could not have cited better authority, for Bradford
was not only a man of high character and ability, but he was in Kentucky
the year Bryan's Station was settled, and if afterward he was not an actual
participant in the siege, was so early, so long, and so well acquainted with
the fort and its defenders as to make his account of the incident contem-
porary history and absolutely unimpeachable. Moreover, when it was
published in 1826 many of the fort's defenders were still alive to pass
judgment upon it if incorrect. They most certainly did not do so, but
Ellison E. Williams, who took part in the siege when twelve years old, and
was an eye-witness to the incident, confirmed Bradford's statement in a
contribution to Cist's Cincinnati Miscellany, page 230 of volume 1. Heroic
actions were so common to the pioneer women of Kentucky that but little
effort was made to preserve them. Not the half of them has ever been
told, and even Bradford treats this one in the most matter-of-course way.
* Bradford says "the Indians rushed up about two hours after the first
fire."
100
The Story of Bryan's Station.
Maou
the fort nearest the trace and furthest from the side that
was really threatened, Girty expecting the garrison to follow
the usual course and mass itself where the firing com-
menced, and hoping above all things to provoke a pursuit
that would leave the station utterly defenseless. But the
crafty foe overacted his part. The watchful pioneers,
mindful of the heavy ambuscade so close to the other
side, caught at once the meaning of a ruse that betrayed
itself in the boldness of so small a party and its evident
desire to be pursued. This desire was gratified, but not
in the way Girty expected, and not until the garrison
had also set a trap, and had arranged itself to the best
advantage to meet the emergency. Then the gate over-
looking the trace was opened, and thirteen of the garrison
dashed out of the fort, firing as they ran, in an apparently
reckless pursuit of the decoy party. But they did not
go far only far enough to draw an effectual fusillade
from the Indians between the trace and the bridge site,
and then, running back with the greatest possible rapidity,
they reached the fort in the very nick of time. The
impatient warriors in ambush near the spring had heard
the firing, which was to them the signal of the success
of their ruse, and, believing that the garrison was fully
engaged on the other side, they darted from their hiding
places, with Girty at their head, and in a moment of
}
:
}
The Story of Bryan's Station.
IOI
•
time, as if by magic, an overwhelming force of savages,
whooping, half naked, and hideously painted, was rushing
up the hillside toward the western gate. And flaring in
their midst was the incendiary torch, a new and totally
unexpected danger to the settlers, and one more dreaded
by them than all the rifles and tomahawks of the dusky
horde, for their cabins were as dry as tinder, from the
protracted summer heat. The distance to the fort was
short, and the Indians were clearing it, with shouts of
exultation, when, suddenly, and as unexpectedly as light-
ning from a clear sky, one volley of rifle shots after
another crashed from the port holes of the station into
the dusky mass. The Indians were dumfounded and
panic-stricken. The triumphant war whoop ended in
terrific yells of pain, consternation, and fear. Confusion
reigned. Some wild shots were indeed directed to the
fort, and a few daring warriors even reached the stockade
and fired some cabins with their torches; but all were
caught in the swift stampede as the savages dashed from
right to left to avoid another volley from the garrison,
and before the echo of the flintlocks had died away along
the Elkhorn none but the slain could be seen upon the
grassy slope.
*
*In his Walketonika" letter or report of August 26, 1782, Caldwell
says five cabins were burned. See Haldimand MSS. No report of the
expedition from Girty seems to be extant. Savage-like, he troubled him-
self but little about written statements.
102
The Story of Bryan's Station.
But there were no sounds of rejoicing as the savage
disappeared, for the fired cabins were burning rapidly and
fiercely, and for a few awful moments the station and its
inmates seemed doomed to destruction. But deliverance
came as by a miracle, for a stiff wind from the east blew
the flames and sparks directly away from the station, and
though the cabins were quickly reduced to ashes the fort
was saved. The siege went on, but the pioneers were
greatly encouraged; and not only because they had
repulsed the enemy and escaped a conflagration, but
because they knew now for a certainty from the long
delay of the besiegers and their use of small arms alone,
that they had no cannon, that Bryan's was not as com-
pletely at the mercy of the savages as Martin's and Ruddle's
had been, and that they could at least hope to hold out
until the arrival of reinforcements. But, nevertheless, as
the leaden hours dragged by, they tortured themselves
time and again with the thought that the messengers
might be killed or captured after all, and help would
come too late. But the brave messengers were safe.
They had galloped at the top of their speed to Lexington
only to find, to their dismay, that all its available men,
commanded, it is said, by Major Levi Todd, had been
decoyed away from the real scene of action, and were
pressing toward Hoy's Station, six miles northwest of the
The Story of Bryan's Station.
103
present Richmond, which it was supposed the Indians
would attempt to capture now that Holder was defeated.
The couriers flew after the hurrying volunteers as fast
as their heated horses could go, caught up with them at
Boone's Station, which stood near the site of Athens,
where some settlers on horseback had already assembled,
and shouted out their thrilling news. As Boone happened
to be absent at Boonesborough, + which was only about
five miles away, Captain William Ellis was called to the
command of the Boone's Station force, and in a few
moments both parties, consisting of sixteen mounted men
and thirty footmen, were anxiously and excitedly marching
for Bryan's Station.
In the mean while the Indians, so badly beaten in an
open assault, returned at once to their usual tactics of
doing all the damage possible with the least personal
exposure, and labored with persistent energy to pick off
the garrison in detail. Rifle balls were poured into the
fort from the corn, the hemp, and the cane, from every
stump and tree and clump of weeds that could hide an
Indian marksman, and the fusillade resulted before the
*
* Collins' date of the settlement of Boone's Station (1783) is incorrect.
The station was in existence at least a year before that time. It was there
on the 30th of August, 1782, that Boone wrote his official account of the
Battle of the Blue Licks.
Boone was the leader of the party that went from Boonesborough to
the aid of Bryan's Station.
104
The Story of Bryan's Station.
close of the day in the killing of two of the garrison,
Atkinson and Mitchell, and in the wounding of the gallant
Nicholas Tomlinson, who afterward met with such a tragic
fate in Hardin's expedition.* But the sharpshooting was
not all one way. Jacob Stucker, who was with Boone in
1780 when the famous woodsman pursued the savages
who had killed his brother Edward, seems to have had
a hand in the fray; for the tale is told that at this stage
of the siege little Betsy Johnson ran to her mother with
the news that "Jake Stucker has just killed an Indian!"
"Pshaw," replied the stout-hearted mother, "what's one
Indian!" Tradition says that some of the most annoying
shots came from a sycamore tree on the north bank of
the creek, near where the bridge now is, until a disgusted
settler saw something move" and fired, when an Indian
tumbled through the branches and hit the ground to rise
Only the big hollow trunk of the tree remains,
and it is charred and blackened from the torch of a
thoughtless hunter, but it is none the less an interesting
relic of the tragic scenes of more than a century ago.
no more.
((
as a spy.
* This brave messenger, who was wounded twice in the service of the
Station, was killed in the fall of 1790 while employed in this expedition
At the defeat of a detachment of the army under Colonel John
Hardin on the Oglaze, the daring Tomlinson, who was in advance, was
literally shot to pieces by an ambuscade of more than a thousand Indians.
Bradford.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
105
This desultory fighting, which went on for hours, was
marked by constant efforts to destroy the station by fire,
a weapon that had already proved so nearly fatal to the
garrison. As the torch could only be used by openly
facing the terrible rifles of the white men, it was aban-
doned for arrows bound around with the most combustible
materials at hand, and shot burning and blazing at the
fort from close but safe retreats. They fell in showers
upon the dry cabin roofs made of clap-boards, which
were fastened down with cross-poles, which gave them
easy lodgment. Fortunately all the cabins were shed-
shaped and all the roofs sloped inwardly, so that the
boys of the station who were posted there for the purpose
swept off the arrows as fast as they fell, without danger
from the bullets of the enemy.
As Girty had failed to capture the fort by surprise,
he took measures to prevent its being strengthened by
reinforcements, which he knew, by the escape of the two
men in the morning, might be expected at any time;
and, as the relief party would aim to enter the station
by the northeastern gate, the heaviest part of the force
was transferred from the camp near the spring to the
upper end of the trace leading to Lexington, and placed
in ambush on both sides of it. This maneuver was exe-
cuted without the risk of a single shot from the garrison,
14
106
The Story of Bryan's Station.
for the Indians passed around by the creek and were
completely screened from observation by the woods and
the corn that extended all the way from one point to
another. The firing ceased, and the hidden savages waited
in silence for their prey. It was about two o'clock in the
afternoon when the hot and tired volunteers came in sight
of the station, and then they halted, not only to confer,
but in amazement, for there was nothing whatever to
indicate the presence of an enemy-not a gun was heard,
not an Indian was seen, and it was hard for the inexpe-
rienced to even believe that the savages had been there
at all. But the subtle ways of the enemy were understood
by many an anxious-looking pioneer to whom the silence
was ominous of evil, and the little force was arrayed for
the desperate effort that they knew it would require to
reach the fort. It was settled that the few mounted men
from both Boone's Station and Lexington were to make
a dash together by the trace for the gate that faced it,
while the footmen pushed around through a large corn-
field on the same side of the trace as the fort. The
advance was ordered and the footmen moved at once, as
quickly and as noiselessly as possible through the luxuriant
corn. The sixteen mounted men, led by the gallant Ellis,
*
* Captain Ellis seems to have been singularly adapted for this emer-
gency, for he was an experienced Indian fighter, a natural leader of men,
The Story of Bryan's Station.
107
and urging their horses to a rate of speed that loaded
the heated air with clouds of blinding dust, flew like a
whirlwind along the narrow trace. Instantly there was a
burst of rifle shots and terrific yells from more than three
hundred savages, who poured into the obscured and
swiftly moving shapes a cross-fire that extended for a
hundred yards. That they could ever have emerged from
such a gauntlet of death seems incredible, but the fact
that they did so is vouched for by an unimpeachable
authority,* who attributes their escape to "the great dust
that was raised by the horses' feet," and says they got
safely into the fort without the slightest wound on man
or horse. Was the charge of the Kentucky pioneers so
much less heroic than the charge of the Light Brigade,
simply because it lacked the "pomp and circumstance of
war, or failed to engage the genius of a Tennyson?
"}
and well known to the settlers, especially those from Virginia, many of whom
had served with him in the Revolution, or had been with him at Grant's
Station, founded the first year of the county's settlement. He had just dis-
tinguished himself as the military leader of "The Traveling Church," the
most unique and remarkable expedition ever made into pioneer Kentucky.
He was a native of Spottsylvania County, Virginia, a son of the patriotic
Ellis imprisoned by Governor Dunmore in 1775, and descended from a
branch of the Ellis family sketched by Bishop Meade in his Old Churches
and Families of Virginia." He died in 1802 and was buried in the fam-
ily burying-ground on the farm now known as the R. B. Graves place,
on the Winchester pike. See History of Fayette County, page 496, and
"The Traveling Church."
* Bradford.
108
The Story of Bryan's Station.
Cheer after cheer went up from the garrison as the
dust-covered squad dashed with steaming horses through
the quickly opened gate; but the wild rejoicing suddenly
gave way to deep anxiety as the infantry failed to appear
and the indications of a violent tumult increased without.
Their fears were well grounded, for the footmen, beset by
terrible odds, were fighting for their lives.
They had
rapidly neared the fort unseen by the Indians, and might
have reached it but for the generous devotion to their
comrades and that precipitate courage which so distin-
guished the Kentucky pioneers. The moment they heard
the storm of rifle shots at the head of the trace, without
a thought that such a fire betokened the presence of an
overwhelming force, they turned back and rushed to the
aid of their friends, only to find that the horsemen had
already gained the fort, while they themselves were cut
off from it by a surging mass of disappointed savages,
who greeted them with yells of fury. Nothing but the
high corn and the fact that the rifles of the Indians had
just been discharged saved the heroic band from a massacre
quick and complete. The savages, great as was
was their
force, were careful about advancing on loaded guns, with
nothing but tomahawks, and the moments that some of
them devoted to the use of the powder horn, the pouch,
and the ramrod, delayed themselves and others behind
The Story of Bryan's Station.
109
t
them and gave the pioneers a chance to plunge deeper
into the corn, through which they dodged and darted in
every direction in a desperate effort to confuse and elude
the swarming Indians. It was then that John Sharp, one
of the Lexington Militia, escaped, for he was too old to
have ever saved himself except for the confusion. The
wild flight, the deadly pursuit, the yells and cries, the
tossing and breaking of the trampled corn, the rapid
movements of a multitude of bodies, and the flashing of
a multitude of tomahawks, made up a scene that was
thrilling but curious, for the sounds of rifle shots were
rare while rifles themselves were everywhere. The In-
dians, uncertain most of the time whether the quickly
shifting figures were friends or foes, could use their guns
effectively but little, while the footmen hardly dared to
fire at all, not only because one loaded gun would, under
the circumstances, keep a crowd at bay, but because they
would have no time to reload it when it was once dis-
charged. A notable instance is given in this connection.
One of the retreating men, whose name unfortunately is
not preserved, was so closely beset by James Girty (brother
of Simon), who was leading on a band of the enemy, that
he was unwillingly compelled to fire, and his pursuer fell,
which brought the savages to a halt, and the settler
escaped. But the fallen man, though apparently killed,
IIO
The Story of Bryan's Station.
was soon upon his feet again unharmed, for he had only
been thrown by the force of the ball, which had been
stopped by a thick piece of leather he had taken from
the station tan vat and wrapped around the strap of his
powder horn for future use. And so his miserable life
was saved. The bewildering turmoil ended with the
escape of most of the infantry through the woods and
the canebrakes to Lexington, so that the casualties were
few. Only two of the gallant footmen were killed, and
four wounded, while the damage to the enemy was less
still, if any at all.
It was nearly sunset when the chagrined and exasper-
ated savages abandoned the pursuit, and from that time
until night they wreaked their vengeance on every thing
they could lay their hands on. They burned all the out-
buildings and fences, damaged the hemp, pulled up the
vegetables, cut down the corn, and swept the settlement
of its live stock when it returned as usual to the station
in the evening. According to the British account, three
hundred hogs and one hundred and fifty head of cattle
were killed, the few sheep were totally destroyed, and
every horse outside the stockade was appropriated. The
work of ruin only ended at nightfall, when the camp-fires
were lighted and the tired and sullen warriors roasted
themselves a supper from the best of the slaughtered
stock and prostrate corn.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
III
The Indians were discouraged, their rifles became
silent, and a final council of the chiefs and leaders was
held. It is worthy of note that Moluntha* was there,
the veteran sachem who was afterward basely murdered
by the same McGary whose rashness precipitated the
Battle of the Blue Licks, and there also was the infamous
Alexander McKee, the Tory, who had hoped that savage
conquests would bring back to him his landst on South
Elkhorn that had been confiscated and settled on the
infant Seminary of Transylvania. The conference was
short and gloomy. All agreed that the fort, rude and
simple as it was, was impregnable to small arms, and
could not be taken by assault; that their failure to seize
* Moluntha, the noted Shawanese, and brother-in-law of the great Corn-
stalk, was the only one of the many Indian chiefs at the siege whose name
has come down to us. Four years before this (1778) he was with Du Quesne
in the last attack on Boonesborough, and it was there that he accused
Boone of killing his son, declaring that he had tracked him to that fort, a
charge which Boone emphatically denied. Moluntha participated in the
Battle of the Blue Licks, and led his people against Clark in his unpopular
and unfortunate Shawanese campaign of 1786, but was forced to surrender.
It was while he was then a prisoner that he was brained with an ax by
McGary, on the miserable plea that the old warrior had been at the Battle
of the Blue Licks. At a court-martial held at Bardstown, March 2, 1787,
McGary was found guilty (Volume 4, page 259, Virginia State Papers),
but was never punished.
↑ He owned two thousand acres of land on South Elkhorn, surveyed
for him by James Douglas, in June, 1774, but he succumbed to British
gold, and the land was confiscated by an inquest of escheat - Daniel Boone
and John Bowman being on the jury—and devoted to Transylvania Sem-
inary. Fayette County records.
I [2
The Story of Bryan's Station.
the place by stratagem early in the morning had given the
settlers a whole day in which to scatter the news of the
invasion, and the fact that some reinforcements had already
arrived was proof enough that the white men would
quickly rush to the rescue. The council favored an imme-
diate retreat, but Girty, burning to avert, if possible, so
signal a collapse of the siege, determined to try first the
virtue of diplomacy. Forcing a way through the tall,
damaged hemp, he managed to reach a big stump that
stood near the site of the present old residence, but which
was then a part of the clearing northwest of the station;
and thus protected, he hailed the grim and silent fort,
announced himself to the beleagured inmates and asked
if they knew him,* evidently courting recognition for some
* Probably no Indian leader of his time was personally known to so
many of the Kentucky pioneers as Simon Girty. Kenton was not only his
comrade in the Cresap War of 1774, but his life had been saved by Girty
four years after that. Clark, Boone, and Harrod all knew him in Virginia,
where he was one of Dunmore's scouts; immigrants from Pennsylvania
saw him at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), where he was employed as interpreter
and otherwise for several years, and up to 1778, and during the four years of
the Revolutionary War, between that date and the time of his appearance
at Bryan's Station, numbers of Kentucky settlers, who had been captured
by the Indians, and had escaped, must have seen him at Old Chillicothe,
Upper Sandusky, and Detroit, where he spent much of his time, and where
most of the white captives were taken. The prisoners from Ruddle's and
Martin's doubtless knew him only too well, for he was conspicuous at their
surrender. It is plain from Reynolds' remarks that Girty was personally
well known at Bryan's Station. There was no doubt whatever about his
identity.
S
The Story of Bryan's Station.
113
reason from the settlers who had known him either before.
or since the commencement of the war. He proclaimed
himself in the hearing of Caldwell and his Tory rangers.
as the commander of the besieging force, * boasted of the
multitude of his warriors, and demanded the surrender of
the place. Further resistance, he said, would seal the fate
of the inmates, for he was hourly expecting reinforcements
with artillery that would quickly blow the stockade to
pieces. He could protect them now, he said, before the
extremity was reached, and solemnly assured them that
he would do so if they capitulated at once, but he earn-
estly and impressively declared that if they allowed the
place to be taken by storm, as it certainly would be that
night on the arrival of his artillery, it would be impossible
*That the authority of Caldwell was thus publicly ignored is incon-
testable. (See Bradford's Notes.) Girty was the actual commander, and,
however a writer may detest his savagery, the prejudice is puerile and
unworthy that causes a historian to deny the truth. Levi Todd, who
fought against The White Indian in this campaign, knew personally
whereof he spoke when he said in his letter of September 11, 1782, to
Governor Harrison, of Virginia, that "Simon Girty alone had led the
enemy during the invasion." (Virginia State Papers, volume 3, page 300.)
Boone, Marshall, and Bradford, who were themselves pioneers, confirm the
statement. The writer is, at this date, more than ever convinced of the
correctness of this statement, that Girty was the de facto leader, made
in his sketch of The White Indian," published in the Magazine of
American History for March, 1886. Even certain recent writers on Girty,
either from ignorance or prejudice, are unreliable. One of them, who
dogmatically instructs (?) the public, seems to know nothing whatever of
Bradford, one of the highest authorities in the case.
(
""
15
114
The Story of Bryan's Station.
for him to save them from the Indians, who would then
be excited to fury and be entirely beyond his control.
The speech of the White Indian made deeper than
ever the depression already felt by the settlers at the
repulse of their friends, the destruction of their property,
and the knowledge of the desperate straits that even one
more day would reduce them to for water and provisions.
They doubted the coming of the cannon, and they had
no confidence whatever in savage promises of protection,
but the camp-fires so boldly lighted seemed to proclaim
a settled persistence on the part of the enemy, and the
dreaded guns might come after all. They would fight to
the last, but all the same they shuddered and ceased to
speak as they thought of the deeds "too barbarous to
relate," as Boone said, that followed the boom of Byrd's
artillery at Ruddle's Station.* They remembered that
*It is strange that such a tragedy as that enacted at Ruddle's Sta-
tion in 1780 should have figured so little in Western annals, and should
be so unfamiliar even now. Certainly the settlers at Bryan's never forgot
to their dying day. Some of the women and children were killed and
scalped as soon as the fort was taken, and their quivering bodies thrown
together in a pile. All the rest of the inmates were seized and scattered
indiscriminately, and, bewildered and agonized, and loaded down with
plunder looted from their own cabins, were driven off into a captivity
which some endured for fourteen years, and from which others never did
return. As fast as the women or children became exhausted from the
weight of their burdens and the miseries of the march they were toma-
hawked, scalped, and left unburied. (Filson's Boone.) Was it surprising
that the defenders of Bryan's Station grew suddenly silent as they coupled
recollections of Ruddle's with Girty's threat about his artillery?
The Story of Bryan's Station.
115
Girty was there, and that the trail of the savage force from
the Licking to the Ohio was marked by the disfigured
corpses of women and children who had been murdered
and scalped on the route. The gloomy silence was sud-
denly broken by an unexpected incident, especially char-
acteristic of the early Kentucky pioneer. An impulsive
young rifleman named Aaron Reynolds, who could boast
and swear like Falstaff when the humor seized him, but
who soon proved that he was capable, none the less, of gal-
lant deeds, was so wrought up by Girty's speech that he
forgot all the restrictions of age and discipline, and, rushing
unbidden to a port-hole, he hailed the savage leader and
answered him in genuine backwoods style in "words with
the bark on." "We all know you," he scornfully cried.
"I have a trifling dog named Simon Girty, because he
looks so much like you. Bring on your artillery if you've
got any, and be damned to you," he yelled; "and if you
or any of your naked rascals get into this place we will
thrash you out again with switches we have gathered for
that very purpose, for we would n't use guns against such
as you.
He ended his reply with the loud and confident
statement that "We, too, are expecting reinforcements, the
whole country is marching to us, and if you and your gang
of murderers stay here another day we will have your
scalps drying in the sun on the roofs of these cabins. Rey-
""
"}
116
The Story of Bryan's Station.
nolds did not exactly believe his own brag about switches
and scalps, but his bold talk served its purpose, for Girty
was convinced that the siege was hopeless. He ended the
parley with baleful expressions of sorrow at the destruction
which he declared would certainly overwhelm the station
by the rising of another sun, and retired to his camp
insulted and incensed to plan the most subtle and suc-
cessful movement he ever made-one which at last drew
the settlers away from their wooden strongholds* and
brought upon them the most terrible defeat they ever
experienced on Kentucky soil. Any amount of mere balder-
dash about Girty was let loose as history nearly a century
ago, and much of it has been perpetuated, but in spite of
it the fact is plain that the pioneers were not outgeneraled
and overwhelmed by a fool, but by a man of more than
ordinary military capacity.†
* One writer, ignoring the plain object of Girty's retreat, and the fact
that he had no cannon, says that he changed his plans because he found
that the Lexington fort was "proof against small artillery,' a reason
strangely irrelevant and not mentioned by any one of the accepted author-
ities.
">
The war ended too quickly for Girty, closing as it did so soon after
the Battle of the Blue Licks, his most important and successful experience
as a warrior, and when he was at the height of his popularity and influ-
ence among his dusky brethren. One of the melodramatic incidents about
Girty, included in the balderdash already alluded to, pictures him as con-
veniently and appropriately slain by Kentucky troops at the Battle of the
Thames, October 5, 1813. One is amused to see such an item accepted
in so late a book as The Winning of the West," by an author who
The Story of Bryan's Station.
117
That night was the longest and most terrible that
Bryan's Station had ever known, and many a fervent
prayer went up from its suffering but resolute inmates.
They were encircled by enemies, cut off from the world,
faint from thirst, grieving for their dead, tortured by
alternate doubts and fears about the coming of the
artillery, and hoping for a relieving force with that hope
deferred that maketh the heart sick. Time and again a
volley of rifle shots would cause them to spring to the
port holes, but no attack was made, and the alarms
served only to remind them of the sleepless vigilance
of the savages.
And so, with the dread of the coming
of another day, they watched and waited under arms
through the interminable hours until their almost despair-
ing eyes saw the dawning of the 17th of August and
*
"
rejects much of McClung's sketches as sheer fiction." Girty took no
part whatever in the Battle of the Thames, and was not killed anywhere,
but died in the same old way, more than five years after the battle, in
February, 1818, near Malden, Canada, as stated by the writer in The
White Indian."
* Some confusion as to the time of the appearance, stay, and retreat
of the Indians was occasioned by the departure of McClung, Butler, and
Morehead from the dates of the pioneer witnesses on this subject. The
writer, therefore, consulted no authorities but such as were living at the
time of the siege, and the dates he gives are established by official and
other contemporary evidence, some of which was unknown to the authors
above named. Such discrepancies as seem to exist among the original
authorities mainly arise from a misapprehension of terms, and do not
affect the above clearly established dates. A statement of the writer's
118
The Story of Bryan's Station.
beheld the sunlight flooding again the beautiful valley of
the Elkhorn. They saw the smoke of innumerable camp-
fires, but the silence was ominous. Would it be broken
by the thunder of artillery? All at once they were
startled by a distant shout and the sound of a galloping
horse, and in another moment they saw a rider in familiar
buckskin excitedly waving his hat. Their hearts leaped
investigation of the matter may be of interest. Boone, in his official
report of the Battle of the Blue Licks, without stating when the enemy
arrived, says: "They attacked on the 16th, and the siege continued from
about sunrise until about 10 o'clock the next day." Levi Todd agrees
with him and says (Volume 3, Virginia State Papers): They attacked on
the 16th and went off on the morning of the 17th." Both of these state-
ments were made only a few days after the siege was abandoned. Two
years after this, 1784, Boone, though apparently contradicting himself,
really reaffirms what he had said before (Filson's Boone), and makes the
siege begin on the 15th. Ellison Williams, a participant in the siege, says
the fort was invested on the 15th. (Cist C. Miscellany.)
Marshall says
the enemy appeared on the 15th," but errs about the length of the siege.
The latest contribution of evidence is from Caldwell, captain of the Tory
rangers. In his letters of August 26, 1782, to Governor Haldimand, of
Canada (See Haldimand MSS.), he says he "surrounded it (the station) on
the 15th, commenced operations before sunrise the next morning (16th),
and retreated on the 16th." Bradford, who particularizes with unusual
care, reconciles all apparent difficulties in his statement (Notes on Ken-
tucky) that the fort was completely surrounded on the night of August
15, 1782, that all the fighting occurred on the 16th, that the main body
of the enemy retreated that night, but that the rear guard or party detailed
to keep up the pretense of continued siege did not retreat until the morn-
ing of the 17th. We believe Bradford's statement covers the whole ground,
and as his authorities are all contemporary, including Boone, Todd, and
Caldwell, we accept it as absolutely correct. The date given by the writer
on page 78 of his History of Lexington is from McClung, and was accepted
when some of the evidence here stated was unknown to him.
""
The Story of Bryan's Station.
I 19
.
into their throats; they tore open the gate, and the
messenger with wild delight dashed in, yelling at the
top of his voice: "They are gone; the redskins are gone!"
The great news, instantly verified by a sight of the deserted
camp, electrified the astonished defenders of the station,
and gloom gave way to thankfulness and joy, to a turmoil
of excitement and happy sounds, and to a half-mad
quaffing of fresh, cold water. For a little while they
fairly reveled in the intoxication of sudden freedom, for
though they had only known imprisonment for one day
and a night, dangers, anxieties, and desperation had made
the brief period seem a very age. Then there was a
quick hunt for Indian "signs," which showed that the
enemy had retreated northward along the buffalo trace,
after which the hungry settlers made a hasty breakfast,
partly from the meat the savages had left on the roasting
sticks, and then they proceeded sadly to pay the last
simple duties to the gallant four* who had died in defense
* Boone gives the loss of the garrison as four killed and three wounded,
and the Indian loss thirty killed, wounded uncertain. Marshall follows
Boone, and says that of the whites two were killed and four wounded in
the cornfield, and two killed and one wounded in the fort—making a total
of four killed and five wounded, with loss of the Indians very consid-
erable." Caldwell (Haldimand Manuscripts) gives his losses as "five killed
and two wounded," a highly improbable statement, without he means Tories
only, when the complete exposure of the enemy during the charge on the
fort is considered. There is no reason to doubt Boone, who had the respect
and confidence of both his own people and the enemy.
I 20
The Story of Bryan's Station.
of the fort. Down past the ruins that the torch and
tomahawk had made the fallen pioneers were carried
and reverently laid to rest under the spreading branches
of the forest trees in the little station graveyard across
the creek. The disposal of such of the thirty slain
Indian warriors as had not been secreted by their comrades
was no small task, even with the scant ceremony that
was shown them; but they were buried at last, according
to tradition, in the bottom at the foot of the hillside on
which most of them had fallen in the fatal charge of the
early morning, not far from the spot afterward used as
the burial place for the negroes of the station.
And thus ended one of the most remarkable sieges
known in the history of Indian warfare, and so especially
notable for the number of strange events in favor of the
garrison that were crowded into so short a time that, to
use the words of another, "a fatalist would see the hand
of destiny in every stage of its progress." The early
firing that prevented the march of the riflemen, the
wonderful escape of the couriers, the wind that saved
the station from the flames, the almost miraculous success
of the desperate cavalry charge, and the trifling loss of
the apparently doomed footmen, seemed indeed to prove
that "fortune fought the battle of the settlers from first
to last."
The Story of Bryan's Station.
I2I
The burial of the dead and the efforts to save as much
as possible from the wreck the Indians had wrought were
enough of themselves to make Saturday, the 17th, a day
of excessive labor and commotion at Bryan's Station, but
to all this was added the bustle and excitement occasioned
by the arrival of settlers who began at once to gather
there for the pursuit of the retreating savages. But that
night the worn-out defenders of the battle-scarred fort,
relieved from all duties by fresh and willing hands, slept
in peace the sleep of exhaustion. The next day, Sunday
as it was, the commotion was greater than ever, for one
small detachment after another came in from Lexington,
Boonesborough,* and Harrodsburg, where they had gath-
ered, and from whence they had come as soon as circum-
stances would permit, and all the morning was consumed
in eager preparations for the pursuit. That Sunday after-
noon they marched a little band of one hundred and
eighty-two against an overwhelming force-and the hero-
ines of the spring were left to guard the lonely fort.
* A curious error of Mr. Brown is noted in this connection. He
says in an article in Harper's Magazine for June, 1887, that "The
arrival of Boone and Todd caused Girty to draw off his force and retreat.”
Reference to Filson's Boone, Marshall's History, and McBride's Pioneer
Biography will show that Boone and Todd did not arrive at the station
until Girty had been gone a day at least. Enough men to meet such
a force as Girty's could not be gathered, and even the most ordinary
preparations be made, at a moment's notice.
16
122
The Story of Bryan's Station.
And then came that fatal 19th of August* when, lured
by the subtle Girty, the impetuous hunters rushed into
the slaughter-pen made ready at the Blue Licks, and the
pride and valor of pioneer Kentucky were crushed as by an
avalanche. The horror and the frantic grief that so quickly
overwhelmed the stricken settlements came first to Bryan's
Station. To this, the nearest outpost to the tragic field,
were driven back the bleeding and fainting survivors of the
great disaster, and the groans of the wounded and dying
that were sheltered in her cabins mingled with the wails
of the widows and orphans who were not even to have
a farewell look at their beloved dead.
This was the darkest and most critical period in the
history of the Kentucky settlements, and for awhile their
very existence trembled in the balance, for a return of
the savage army in the fall was already dreaded, and if it
came with British cannon the settlements would be swept
from the face of the earth. Fortunately for the pioneers,
they were aroused from a paralyzing apathy of despond-
*The Battle of the Blue Licks occurred on the 19th, or as Bradford
says, "It took place two days after the siege." Joel Collins, in McBride's
Pioneer Biography, says that he was a boy in the Lexington fort in 1782;
that he sat on a fence with other boys and saw the men march from the
fort on Sunday morning to reinforce Bryan's Station, and on the next
day (Monday) he saw Logan's men pass. As Sunday was the 18th, this
not only confirms the date of the battle, but our own statement that the
siege ended early on the morning of the 17th.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
123
23
ency and grief by a trumpet call from the indomitable
Clark for a counter movement to make impossible the
anticipated invasion, and a few weeks after the Battle of
the Blue Licks they were again in motion. With them
was a company of mounted men from Bryan's Station,
under Captain Robert Johnson, which had joined the
quota from the interior of Kentucky as it halted at the
station en route to the general rendezvous at the mouth
of the Licking. The expedition returned from the Ohio
country on the 4th of November. Five of the Chillicothe
towns, in the region where Girty's army had assembled
in August, were burned, the crops destroyed, and the
country for miles around made desolate.
But Kentucky's most romantic era was drawing to a
close. In a short time, to the inexpressible relief of the
crippled settlements, the struggle with Great Britain ended,
and though for years after that the torch and the tomahawk
of the predatory savage brought ruin to many an isolated
cabin, no formidable body of Indians ever again invaded
the district, so that the winter that followed the burning
of the Chillicothe towns was the last one that saw Bryan's
Station with a regular garrison.
In the spring of 1783 most of the men and women of
the fort, who had suffered so much together, loaded their
pack-horses with their pots and skillets, spinning wheels
124
The Story of Bryan's Station.
and "plunder," scant supplies of provisions, seeds, and
farming implements, and, with their children, negroes, and
hunting dogs, scattered to their own lands in the Blue-
grass wilderness.
For the rest of the year the fort was
occupied by a few of the settlers who had formed part of
the garrison, and who from time to time during the sum-
mer and fall gave temporary shelter to many a soldier of
the disbanded Continental forces who had joined the great
stream of land hunters that now began to pour into the
Canaan of the West. In 1784 Joseph Rogers, who with a
brother had already visited the place in 1782, took possession
of his North Elkhorn land, which included Bryan's Station,
and his family occupied some of the cabins of the fort.
-
Religious services seem to have been occasionally con-
ducted in one of the station cabins about this time (1784)
by Lewis Craig, who in the year of the siege doubtless
preached the first sermon ever heard inside the stockade.
A large majority of the early settlers of this part of
Fayette County were Baptists, and on Saturday, the 15th
of April, 1786, a number of them met at the fort and
helped to regularly constitute "The Baptist Church of
Jesus Christ" at Bryan's,* which has continued to exist
* See the original church book, still extant and well preserved. The
meeting was composed of Lewis Craig and Benjamin Craig, delegates from
South Elkhorn; William Cave and Bartlett Collins, from Big Crossing, and
William Ellis, Augustine Eastin, Henry Roach, Joseph Rogers, Annie Rogers,
The Story of Bryan's Station.
125
of
from that day to this, and is an inseparable feature of
the locality. The most notable delegates to the meet-
ing alluded to, to organize this church, were Lewis Craig
and William Ellis, the leaders of that heroic march *
the fall and winter of 1781, which so signally demonstrated
that the pioneer Baptists of Kentucky could fight and
endure as well as pray. It is an interesting fact that the
church at Bryan's had but two pastors in nearly a century,
Ambrose Dudley, elected in August, 1786, and his son
and successor, Thomas P. Dudley, who died in 1886.
The meetings of the Baptists in the cabin on the hill
ceased in 1783, when the first regular church building
was erected on the present site, across the creek, and
it was about that time that the custom began of burying
members of the church and neighbors in the church-yard
there. The first church edifice was succeeded by another
in 1806, and the present, and third one, was built about
the year 1867. In early days, when churches were few,
Elizabeth Darnaby, Judith Tandy, and Elizabeth Price, from Bryan's
Station and neighborhood. They adopted the Philadelphia Confession of
Faith. Before the summer ended the membership was increased by the
addition of Ambrose Dudley, Agnes Ellis, William Tomlinson, William E.
Waller, Annie Dudley, Sarah Ellis, and John Darnaby. John Mason was
first clerk, Augustine Eastin first moderator, and Ambrose Dudley first
pastor. Some of the Bryans, Grants, Hunts, Thompsons, Boswells, Mon-
roes, and Richardsons became members after 1786.
*See The Traveling Church," read by the author before the Filson
Club, and published in 1891.
126
The Story of Bryan's Station.
the congregation was very large, and in August, 1801,
when the Upper Church," which was afterward known
as David's Fork, was constituted, two hundred and ninety-
four members were dismissed from the mother church for
that purpose.
((
The year the pioneer church
the pioneer church was planted (1786)
was also the year of the unfortunate Shawanese campaign
of General Clark into the Wabash country, and Lexing-
ton riflemen, on their way to join the expedition, saw
changes at Bryan's Station. A worm fence partly inclosed
the famous hill, several of the log cabins of the fort had
been combined into a rude but comfortable farmhouse,
and the tall palisades were disappearing, for though the
Indians continued to steal and murder, their parties were
small, and the strong cabins alone were now the defenses
in the most settled sections of the district. Some of the
old cabins were used as negro quarters, and the place
could claim a loom, a horse mill, and a primitive arrange-
ment for breaking hemp. The trace was wider and
enlivened by trains of pack-horses going to and from
Lexington, some of which carried out cargoes of skins
of wild animals, while others came back loaded with
salt from salt camps at the Lower Blue Licks, or with
settlers' "traps" and Eastern merchandise from Limestone,
now Maysville, to which point they had come by flatboat.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
127
The number of "clearings" in the neighborhood of Bryan's
Station showed how rapidly the lands had been taken up,
and if the fields did abound with tree stumps that still
plainly exhibited the marks of the ax, they also abounded
with crops whose enormous yields verified the truth of
the reports that had gone abroad of the wonderful fertil-
ity of the virgin soil of the Bluegrass Region.
*
About 1796, or shortly after Wayne's victory, which
ended the Indian troubles and encouraged the farmers to
improve their dwellings, Mr. Rogers built a one-story brick
house outside of the bounds of the old fort and close to
the spot on which Girty had stood when he tried to trick
the garrison into surrender. Much of the wood-work is
said to have been made from seasoned timbers from old
station cabins removed about this time, and it is also
asserted that parts of the old cabins were utilized when
the negro quarters were built that still remain back of the
residence. In the year 1800 a two-story brick house was
added to the one-story structure, which was undisturbed,
and so the building remained until 1830, when it was
extended and given more frontage toward the ancient
-
* The vegetable mold that had accumulated undisturbed for ages
made this region a regular hot-bed. J. Morrison, in a letter from Lex-
ington to J. Dodge, of Philadelphia, in 1789, says in referring to the
soil: "Grain is raised in such abundance as to stagger belief. one
hundred bushels of corn have been gathered from one acre, and eighty
bushels often." See American Museum for 1789.
128
The Story of Bryan's Station.
#
buffalo trace, which is now a turnpike. No other changes
took place up to the death of Mr. Rogers, which occurred
in 1834,* nor from that time to the present, so that the
entire house has remained substantially the same for sixty
years, while the original one-story part of it, which forms
the kitchen and "L" of the building, is a century old
this year.
And now, one hundred and twenty-two years from the
time when the earliest known explorers reached this spot,
another chapter, and one of grace and beauty, is added
to the eventful story of Bryan's Station. The Lexington
Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution,
descendants of the veterans of 1776, and many of them
descendants of the early settlers and heroic defenders of
Bryan's Station, have with grateful appreciation and
abounding admiration for the immortal Women of the
Spring, erected in their honor, and upon the spot they
made famous, a memorial which, in its simple and sub-
stantial beauty, is a faithful type of the true, the devoted,
and the great-hearted heroines of the historic fort. The
Lexington Daughters have been singularly and signally
fortunate in this matter, for they commemorate a deed
that stands alone, that is without a parallel. Individual
* Mr. Rogers died at the age of ninety-three, and was buried on the
place in a walled lot in the old orchard.
The Story of Bryan's Station.
129
instances of heroic women are plentiful, from Judith of
Israel to the Maid of Saragossa; from Flora McDonald,
of Scotland, to Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Duree, of Kentucky;
but as an act of cool and deliberate daring, by women
collectively, by a band of women only, by women unac-
companied and unaided in any way by men, the instance
now celebrated is unique in the authentic history of the
world.
In honoring the Women of the Spring the Lexington
Daughters have honored themselves and their sex; have
exemplified their motto, "For Home and Country;" have
sounded a note of civilization and inspiration for the
better preservation of our historic places, and for the
payment of the debts of gratitude we owe to the
departed men and women who did so much to make us
what we are.
And this memorial, may it continue to designate the
spot made glorious by the women of Bryan's Station
when the spring it incloses shall have ceased to flow;
may it endure while the waters of the beautiful Elkhorn
make their way to the waters of the picturesque and
castellated Kentucky; may it remain as long as the blue-
grass bends and blows above the graves of the pioneers
about it, and be as everlasting as the hill where the
fated Red Men and the indomitable Anglo-Saxons battled
17
130
The Story of Bryan's Station.
for the possession of a garden of the gods. And, so
enduring, may generations yet to come, mindful of the
glorious deed that has consecrated the spot, stand with
uncovered heads before this memorial and still be able
to trace this inscription* which the gratitude and patriot-
ism of women have caused to be graven upon its sides:
IN HONOR OF
THE WOMEN OF BRYAN'S STATION,
WHO, ON THE 16TH OF AUGgust, 1782, FACED A SAVAGE
HOST IN AMBUSH, AND, WITH A HEROIC
COURAGE AND A SUBLIME
SELF-SACRIFICE
THAT WILL REMAIN FOREVER ILLUSTRIOUS,
OBTAINED FROM
THIS SPRING
THE WATER THAT MADE POSSIBLE THE SUCCESSFUL
DEFENSE OF THAT STATION.
THIS MEMORIAL WAS ERECTED BY THE
Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
AUGUST 16TH, 1896.
The Women of Ancient Sparta pointed out the Heroic Way-
The Women of Pioneer Kentucky trod it.
(
* The inscription was composed by this writer at the request of the
Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, with a
view to its use as a whole, but it was found necessary to divide it to suit
the shape of the memorial, which was done without change. We give it
in its original consecutive form.

COLONEL BENNETT H. YOUNG,
Member of The Filson Club.
THE BATTLE OF THE BLUE LICKS; A SEQUEL TO THE
SIEGE OF BRYANT'S STATION.
BY COLONEL BENNETT H. YOUNG,
Member of the Filson Club.
THE
HERE is nothing more glorious or more heroic in all
Kentucky's history than the siege of Bryant's Station,
nor is there any thing more tragic or more dreadful in that
same history than the Battle of the Blue Licks. The one
was the sequel to the other. Hardly had the plaudits of the
pioneers for the women of Bryant's Station died on the
stillness of the sultry August air ere summer breezes
carried the story of the awful carnage and destruction
at the Battle of the Blue Licks, from the valley of the
Licking, by the buffalo traces, to the settlements on the
Kentucky River.
The learning, the eloquence, and the scholarship of
our distinguished President have placed in attractive and
charming narrative the story of Bryant's Station. You
have heard with delight his beautiful and thrilling account
of the sublime courage of the pioneer Kentucky women
on the 16th of August, 1782, and now to me has been
assigned the task of giving this club some account of
that terrible battle, which so left its impress on Kentucky
132
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
!
7
hearts and homes that a century has not been able to
efface it.*
Before entering upon the history of the battle it is
necessary to deal with a few historical facts and charac-
ters, so that you may more fully understand what that
battle meant, and what was its cost to the people of
Kentucky.
The slain represented one thirteenth of the fighting
men in the three counties into which the State was then
divided. They were related to nearly all the families
within Kentucky's borders, and comprised in an unusual
ratio the enterprise, the leadership, and the courage of
Kentucky defenders and settlers. The sacrifice that day
made was the most costly which on any single occasion
war's demand had ever exacted from the infant territory.
* There has been more written about the Battle of the Blue Licks than
any other event in Kentucky history. It is impossible to reconcile all the
statements in these many accounts. A correct story of this battle has only
become possible since 1882. The issue of what is known as "The Calendar
of the Virginia State Papers" and the copying for the Canadian Archives the
Haldimand Papers in the British Museum have unfolded all the facts about
this event, parts of which had remained concealed for over one hundred years.
The publication of the third volume of the Virginia Calendar was made
in 1883.
Here first became public the Kentucky contemporaneous accounts
of the Battle of the Blue Licks. The papers most important and interesting
were:
Letter of Andrew Steele to Governor Harrison, dated Lexington, Ken-
tucky, August 26, 1782. Virginia Calendar, volume 3, page 269.
Report of Colonel Benjamin Logan to Governor Harrison, dated Lincoln
County, August 31, 1782. Virginia Calendar, volume 3, page 280.
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
133
It was not so much that they had died. Its commonness
had robbed death of its terrors to the Kentucky pioneer.
In the seven years immediately preceding this battle nine
hundred people had been murdered in their homes or
gone down to death in the storm of battle. In this
period as many had died by violence as now lived in
the State. It was the suddenness of the calamity which
gave it so many horrors. It came when every heart was
full of pride at the heroic defense of Bryant's Station.
When removed from the din and excitement of battle
the offering appeared so useless and so reckless, and
it did more to excite public fear, to unsettle public
confidence, and stimulate public alarm than the dreadful
array of all the deaths which had marked all the years
since 1775.
Letter of Levi Todd to Governor Harrison, dated Lexington, Kentucky,
September 11, 1782, Virginia Calendar, volume 3, page 300.
Report of civil and military officers of Fayette County to Governor
Harrison, dated Lexington, Kentucky, September 11, 1782. Virginia Calen-
dar, volume 3, page 301.
Daniel Boone's letter to Governor Harrison, giving an account of the
battle, dated Fayette County, Boone's Station, August 30, 1782. Virginia
Calendar, volume 3, page 275.
Report of Major William Caldwell, the British Commandant, dated Waka-
tamiki (now Zanesfield, Logan County, Ohio), August 26, 1782. Haldimand
Manuscripts, Series B, volume 123, page 297.
Also report of Captain Alexander McKee, who was in command of the
Indians, dated same place, August 28, 1782. Haldimand Manuscripts, Series
B, volume 123, page 302.
All these papers are given in full in the appendix to this article.
134
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
In 1782 there were only about a thousand fighting
men in the entire State. One hundred and fifty of these
were in Fayette County; that is, all of the territory east
of the Kentucky River and its middle fork. Five hun-
dred more were in Lincoln County, substantially bounded
east and north by the Salt and Kentucky rivers; and
the remainder were in Jefferson County, principally in and
around the then town of Louisville. The vast territory
comprised within Fayette County had only five forts within
its boundary. Savage invasion had caused the remainder
to be evacuated, and now only Lexington, McClellan's,
McConnell's, Bryant's, and Boone's were left to assert the
demands of the whites for the ownership of the land.
General George Rogers Clark was at Louisville; he
was the ranking officer in the territory. He had built
the fort at the Falls of the Ohio, and constructed a row-
boat, on which were a few pieces of artillery. The boat
could be pulled up and down the Ohio River by fifty
oarsmen, to the point where danger was most imminent.
John Todd was commander in Fayette, Benjamin
Logan in Lincoln, and John Floyd in Jefferson County.
There has been quite a difference of opinion as to the
exact date upon which Caldwell, McKee, and Elliott, the
British officers, accompanied by Simon Girty, George
Girty, and the Indian allies, appeared before Bryant's
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
135
Station. Levi Todd and Daniel Boone both say that
the Indians appeared on the morning of the 16th of
August. Colonel John Mason Brown has it on the 15th.
Alexander McKee, one of the British officers, says they
arrived at Bryant's Station on the 18th. Major Cald-
well, the British commander, says it was on the morning
of the 15th. It is not probable that Caldwell and McKee,
in their wilderness campaign, were able to keep very
accurate diaries, and a careful calculation backward from
the day of battle demonstrates that it was the 16th of
August when Caldwell and McKee, piloted by Simon
Girty, assailed the place. They had surrounded it during
the previous night. They came like the pestilence that
walks in the darkness, unexpected and unseen. They had
marched along the buffalo traces or stolen through the
forests without having given to any one any notice of
their intention. They had crossed the Ohio River at the
mouth of the Licking, a place where at this season it
was fordable, and in a little over two day's time they had
reached Bryant's Station; no spy or scout had brought
tidings of the coming storm, and when the morning light
dawned on the 16th of August, as the men in the fort
were about to emerge from the gates for the purpose of
succoring Hoy's Station, the crack of Indian rifles spoke
to tell them that they themselves were besieged.
Al
136
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
Before the smoke of the first discharge had ascended
so as to clear the scene for conflict, two gallant and
courageous men had broken through the Indian cordon
and, with the swiftness of the wind, carried the story to
Lexington that Bryant's Station was in peril.
Colonel John Todd, the county commandant, was
in Lincoln County, but Major Levi Todd, his brother,
instantly dispatched messengers to all the stations west
of Lexington, and called upon the men of Lincoln to
come quickly to the rescue of the beleaguered fort. By
the night of the 16th the hard riding pioneers had car-
ried the news to Harrodsburg, and a little later to St.
Asaph's or Stanford, and when the sun
when the sun arose on the
morning of the 17th the men of Lincoln, under Trigg,
Harlan, McBride, and the Bulgers, were well under way
toward Lexington in response to the call of their com-
rades, and when, on Saturday night, the gates at Bryant's
Station were closed one hundred and thirty-five of the
bravest and most gallant of the men of Lincoln were
within its walls ready for consultation and to set out for
the punishment of the invaders. With the haste of a
rapid courier John Todd had hurried from Lincoln to his
own county, and was there now, ready for action as well
as for counsel with those who had come to help his peo-
ple in their dire distress.
-
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
137
One hundred and thirty-five men from Lincoln and
forty-seven from Fayette had now assembled. Fully one
third of them were officers who in many a combat and
on many an expedition had shown their skill and their
courage. In those days, cowards did not come to Ken-
tucky. Men who faced the dangers and difficulties of
pioneer life were not only heroic, but they were fearless,
and of all the band assembled there that night there was
not a single officer or soldier whom death could alarm,
or who was not ready to face an Indian foe on any call.
White men then in Kentucky were brothers; the peril
of one was the peril of all, and none hesitated to rush to
the defense of any station or cabin where the savage foe
had come; and the camp-fires which Caldwell and his
Indians had left kindled had not died out ere the chivalry
and comradeship of the pioneers had brought them to the
spot where danger and peril were thick on every hand.
The situation was one which called not only for cour-
age but for sagacious counsel. This Saturday night,
sultry and warm, and rendered even more so by the
wooden inclosure surrounding this little army, was spent
in large part in the preparation and consultation for
the morrow's work.
C
-
A council of war was called, and by the lamps sup-
plied with bear's grease, in the cabins and fort, these
18
138
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
soldiers and these officers gathered for the
gathered for the purpose of
determining that which was the wisest and best under all
circumstances.
The women and children joined in the excitement of
the hour, and long after darkness brooded over the fort
they mingled with the new comers and told them of the
incidents, dangers, and triumphs of the siege. The day
and night of this beleaguerment had made heroes of even
the tots who clung to their mothers' hands, and the story
of the courage and daring of all who had battled within
the wooden station was rehearsed with sympathetic hearts
and to appreciative ears. The night had well advanced
before any had sought repose on the rude beds of the
pioneer cabins, or rested themselves within the open square
bounded by the palisades.
John Todd, Stephen Trigg, and Daniel Boone were
the ranking officers, and around and about them stood
men who had spent a full share of their lives in this
wilderness, encompassed by the dangers which Indian
warfare everywhere introduced, and with an experience
which not only rendered them courageous and self-reliant
but conscious of superiority as warriors and men.
What a picture for a painter was presented that
night! The oldest and best versed of all in Indian war-
fare was Daniel Boone, who was then about fifty years of
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
139
age. * Thirteen of these years he had hunted and fought
in Kentucky. Twice captured by the Indians, thoroughly
educated to all their methods and wiles; even then, his
record for skill and daring was unequaled by any man
in all this country, where every man was skilled and daring.
He had already given a brother and a son to die for
Kentucky's freedom, and he came with another son in
his company, and was ready to go where danger was
greatest and foes were thickest.
Loved and respected by all, and chief in command,
was John Todd, who, though only thirty years old, had
already made a profound impression upon all men with
whom he had come in contact. He had been in the great
struggle at Point Pleasant in 1774, and endured its baptism
of blood; he had ridden beside General Andrew Lewis as
his Adjutant General in the Scioto campaign; he had been
a member of Henderson's Legislature at Boonesborough in
*The date of Boone's birth is stated so differently that it is impossible
to give his exact age. Collins says he was born in 1731; Flint, 1746;
American Biography, 1735; Marshall, 1746. John M. Pick, who visited
Boone and gathered biographic facts from his own lips, in his life of him,
in the thirteenth volume of the Spark's Series, gives his birth in February,
1735. In the genealogical chart of the Boone family, made out by James
Boone, the birth of Daniel is given July 14, 1732. Boone himself, while
dictating to John Filson, his first biographer, the events of his life, does not
seem to have thought the date of his birth of sufficient importance to be
recorded, and hence it does not appear in Filson's History of Kentucky
in 1784.
140
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
1775; he had been one of the men who had risked their
lives to go after powder in 1776; he had explored South-
western Kentucky as far as Bowling Green in 1775; he
had been one of the judges at the first court of quarter
sessions in Kentucky in 1775; he had been elected to the
House of Burgesses in 1777 and 1780 and 1782; he had
been with George Rogers Clark at Kaskaskia and Vin-
cennes in 1778 and 1779; he had been valiant and true
and brave in all these years of campaigning, of fighting, of
danger, of surveying, and of legislating. He was the most
brilliant and best educated man in that distinguished
assemblage, and, aside from rank, its recognized leader.
Beside Todd was Stephen Trigg. Only three years
before he had come to Kentucky as a member of the
Court of Land Commissioners, but when he came he left
all behind him; he made Kentucky his home, and he was
ready now to give up his life for its defense. With a high
degree of intelligence, with a splendid physique, and with
a chivalrous bravery, he had become noted for his activity
as an Indian fighter, and was now Lieutenant-Colonel of
Lincoln County. He had been one of the trustees who
laid off Louisville, and had also been elected a mem-
ber of the House of Burgesses as a representative from
Kentucky County. He had been a Justice of Lincoln
County; he was a member of a court organized in Har-
C
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
141
rodsburg in 1781, and no man commanded more of the
confidence and admiration of these hardy pioneers than
Stephen Trigg.
Close by him stood Silas Harlan. He had emigrated
to Kentucky eight years before, and none had been more
active in war. He had commanded a company of spies
with Clark in the Illinois campaign in 1779. Six feet two
inches in height, of magnificent bearing, Clark had said of
him that he was one of the bravest and best soldiers that
ever fought by his side. In 1778 he had built a stockade
on Salt River, seven miles from Harrodsburg; he was one
of the men who went with James Harrod for the five
hundred pounds of powder which had been brought down
the Ohio River for the succor of the pioneers. They
started out on the 7th of January, 1777, passing by George-
town and Blue Licks, and they had been successful in
their efforts to transport this most important of all supplies
into the Kentucky forts. He had signed the protest of
the pioneers against Henderson and Company to the
Virginia House of Burgesses in 1775. He came to Ken-
tucky with James Harrod in 1774, and in courage and in
experience he had no superior.
Then close by him was Major Levi Todd. While
less brilliant and not so well educated as his brother
John, he was yet a real soldier. He had settled a station in
-
142
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
Jessamine County, not far from Nicholasville, in 1779, and
had moved in 1780 to Lexington for safety. He had been
captain of the company from Lexington and Bryant's
Station in Bowman's expedition in 1779; he had been clerk
of the court of sessions at Harrodsburg in 1777, and sheriff
of the county.
In the absence of his brother he had hur-
ried the messenger forward with tidings of the assault
on Bryant's Station. It was his inspiration and noble
example that had nerved the seventeen horsemen to break
through the Indian lines and enter the fort during the
afternoon of the 16th. He himself was on foot, and had
been driven back to Lexington, but now he was at Bryant's
again to endure all and bear all that awaited his fellow-
countymen and their allies.
McGary and the Bulgers and McBride were there too.
They had seen nearly all that was to be seen of the battles
in and about Kentucky, and though less known to history
they were not wanting in that same high courage which
marked the other leaders.
$
((
-
The year 1782 may be justly styled in Kentucky
'The Black Letter Year." Only seven years had elapsed
since the permanent settlement of the Commonwealth,
reckoning permanent settlement from the time when
women and children came into its borders, showing that
the men who brought them had determined to establish
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
143
here their domestic shrines. It was hardly two years
since the territory had been divided into three counties.
Already the influx of white men into these hunting
grounds had alarmed the braver and more enterprising
Indians of the Northwest, comprising now Ohio, Indiana,
Michigan, and Wisconsin. The Southern Indians, less
warlike, in their trading with Henderson had received a
golden anodyne, and these looked with but little concern
on the peopling of Kentucky with the pale-faced race.
Twenty-two months before Ruddle's and Martin's sta-
tions had surrendered to Colonel Bird and his Canadian
and Indian army, backed by two pieces of artillery, and
Fayette was now to bear the brunt of other Indian inva-
sions. Before the leaves had budded on the trees in
1782 the news of Estill's defeat had sent a gloom and
despondency through the souls of all the pioneers, and
scarcely had the horrors of this event passed from the
minds and hearts of the settlers when Captain Holder's
misfortune, in his defeat at the Upper Blue Licks, pre-
pared the public mind for another chapter of woes, and
these were to be the forerunners of the most horrible
of all that had come into the lives of the struggling
settlers.
In the months preceding 1782 a new enemy had come
to make incursions into Kentucky, and the name of these
144.
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
Indian warriors soon became a by-word and terror to its
inhabitants. *
The Wyandot Indians were oftenest discovered making
assaults on the Kentucky cabins and forts, and by their
courage and cunning and skill and their cruelty they
made the terrors of wilderness life more disquieting than
ever before.
These Wyandots were a part of the Indians compos-
ing the Western Confederacy; they had been known as a
fragment of the Six Nations. They had fought the
Mohawks in earlier days, and a century and a half before
they had lost their prestige temporarily in a great battle
fought in canoes on Lake Erie, near Long Point, and had
been compelled to move further west. But before the
close of the Revolution they had forged their way back
eastwardly and had repossessed themselves of their old
lands on the Sandusky River. The vicissitudes of one
hundred and fifty years of war had thinned their ranks,
but had increased and perfected their valor. They had
* HALDIMAND PAPERS.-The future historian of this period must draw
much of his material from the Canadian archives. The Haldimand collection
is invaluable to him who deals with the story of the conflicts in the country
west of the Ohio.
He was
Sir Frederick Haldimand was a British Lieutenant General.
born in Neufchatel, Switzerland, in 1718, and died in 1791. He joined the
British army in 1754. In 1777 he was made a Lieutenant General, and
in 1778 succeeded Sir Guy Carleton as Governor of Canada. He held
this office until 1784. He was a severe and arbitrary man. His nephew,
·
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
145
been chosen as the chief nation among the members of
the Western Confederacy, as the tribe worthy to have
the most distinguished of all honors, the possession of the
great calumet, the emblem of the co-operation and the
pledge of the confederacy. They had this to commend
their past prowess and guarantee their future gallantry,
and they had demonstrated that this honor was worthily
bestowed.
It was the men of this tribe who most loudly called
for war on the white settlers of Kentucky, and doubtless
in the minds of their ablest leaders the dream had been
nourished that if the white men could be driven from
Kentucky that land would become the possession and the
home of the warlike Wyandots, who for so many hundred
moons had found no abiding place, and whose wanderings
and vicissitudes should at last find a solace and rest in
that land of buffalo, cane thicket, and salt springs, which,
in obedience to the call of the Great Spirit, produced all
that savage life and savage desire could suggest.
or grand nephew, William, bequeathed General Haldimand's Papers to the
British Museum. They cover two hundred and thirty-two volumes of man-
uscript. The papers included in the years from 1778 to 1784 are peculiarly
valuable to the Kentucky reader. These papers have been copied for the
Canadian archives, and their contents throw much light on the transactions
with the British and Indians. It was General Haldimand who permitted
and approved the use of the Western and Southern Indians against the
settlers in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky, and first gave British
official sanction to their savage atrocities.
19
146
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
Earnest discussion, calm deliberation, thoughtful coun-
sel consumed a large share of that eventful Saturday night,
and the small hours of the morning were upon these
sturdy warriors before they found opportunity to seek
repose for the labors and trials of the morning. The great
and all-absorbing question was, should these men now
assembled await the coming of Colonel Logan before pur-
suing the enemy.
All understood that the commandant in Lincoln County
had heard the news of the Indian invasion, that messen-
gers were dispatched to every station, calling upon the
militia to hasten to St. Asaph's and prepare to march to
the relief of their friends in Fayette. It could not be
more than a day, they said, until he would come, and
with these reinforcements they would be able to cope with
any enemy who might invade Kentucky.
Up to this time there had been no very accurate knowl-
edge of the number of men engaged in this incursion.
There were supposed to be anywhere from four hundred
and fifty to six hundred, but the men who assembled at
Bryant's Station that night never calculated danger and
never feared Indians, it mattered not how great the dis-
parity in numbers.*
G
•
-
* The Kentucky historians in their statements of participants in the battle
put the number of whites and Indians at from four hundred to six hundred
and fifty. That they outnumbered the whites even the British commanders
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
147
Some historians have ascribed base motives to Colonels
John Todd and Stephen Trigg in arriving at the conclu-
sion to march the following morning in pursuit of the
fleeing savages, and charged the fear of Logan's ranking
them and thus securing the glory of a victory when the
battle should be fought as the reason for haste. No greater
injustice was ever done to the memory of brave men.
Logan did not outrank Todd. They marched because they
were confident they were able to cope with the enemy,
notwithstanding his superiority in numbers. They believed
that the welfare of the settlements and the future main-
tenance of the white men in Kentucky depended on prompt
and effective punishment of the Indians who had assaulted
Bryant's Station; and these patriotic and statesmanlike
views brought them to the determination that the best and
wisest thing to do was to make a vigorous pursuit at once.
in their reports admitted. Caldwell says he crossed the Ohio with three hun-
dred Indians, and that one hundred of them left him the day before the
battle. He says nothing of the white troops he had with him. These
have always been estimated at sixty. Caldwell exaggerates the number of
Kentucky slain, placing it at one hundred and forty-six, and his own loss.
seven killed and ten wounded. If he thus mistakes the killed it is not
unreasonable to believe that he also underestimates the number of his troop.
Weighing all the conflicting statements, I put his force at about three hun-
dred nearly double the number of Kentuckians engaged.
McKee says that the British and Indians were not much superior to
the whites in number. He gives the white force at two hundred. He also
states that there were upwards of one hundred and fifty Kentucky whites
killed.
148
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
In these the darkest days of Kentucky history, here
and there cropped out the jealousies and bickerings which
are sure to arise in all human relations.*
The promotion of General George Rogers Clark to the
position of Brigadier - General in the Continental Army,
thus making him the ranking officer in Kentucky, and his
efforts to build up Louisville and the Jefferson County
forts and strengthen the Ohio River defenses, and the
drafting of the militia of Fayette and Lincoln to do
a part of the work on the Ohio, had caused Logan,
Boone, Trigg, and others to feel that too much was
being done for Jefferson, and that much of this was at
the expense of the safety of the forts in Fayette and
Lincoln.+
The great military mind which foresaw the benefits of
breaking British power in the West, and that planned the
Vincennes Campaign and the capture of Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor Hamilton, and that constantly urged the capture of
Detroit, looked deeper into military problems than the
militia commanders of Lincoln and Fayette, and with his
masterful genius for war decided that the safety of Lin-
coln, Fayette, and all Kentucky lay in so arranging as to
prevent the passage of the Ohio, or in case the passage
was made, by a system of scouting to discover the enemy's
+ See Appendix B.
* See Appendix A.
(
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
149
intentions and route and give timely warning to all large
stations so as to make vigorous and safe defenses.*
In carrying out this, the true and only sure means of
defense, General Clark had come into contact with the
methods and views of the Central Kentucky leaders, and
already mutterings of dissent and dissatisfaction had begun
to cross the mountains and to knock at official doors in
Virginia, and when the story of Blue Licks was told, it
bore along with its harrowing details a full share of com-
plaint and criticism of General Clark.†
The militia of Jefferson could not come to the succor
of Lincoln and Fayette, and it was not unnatural that
the men of these two counties when drafted and forced to
go to the Ohio River's defense, as had been done for two
summers past, felt that they were bearing unjust burdens
and were forced to do double work for the common defense.
Daniel Boone wrote: "I trust about five hundred
men sent to our assistance immediately, and them to be
stationed as our County Lieutenant shall see most nec-
essary, may be the saving of this our part of the country;
but if you put them under the direction of General Clark
they will be little or no service to our settlement, as he lies
one hundred miles west of us and the Indians northeast,
and our men are often called to the falls to guard them."
* See Appendix C. + See Appendix D.
See Appendix E.
150
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
On this Saturday night, twenty miles away, at the old
site of Ruddle's Station in Bourbon County, a far different
scene was enacted. Here Caldwell and his Canadian
Rangers, with McKee and his Indians by Hinkston Creek,
had gone into camp.
The failure to take Bryant's Station, the loss of the
men, and the distress of the wounded they were bearing
to their own country, filled all hearts with a sense of
humiliation. They camped at a spot full of great memo-
ries to some of the company. Alexander McKee and
Simon Girty had been present two years ago when brave
Isaac Ruddle had been forced by Bird's artillery to sur-
render, and the spot could but awaken a recollection of that
dreadful day, when McKee's and Bird's promises to give
British protection were so ruthlessly and cruelly broken,
and when the Indian thirst for blood had shattered Bird's
pledges, and in his very presence the helpless women,
children, and wounded had been slain before the eyes of
British officers-men who wore the uniform of the most
enlightened nation of the world. As the highest expression
of studied cruelty, they had brought with them Nicholas
Hart and other prisoners taken at this station, and as they
slept amid the wreck and ruins of this once strong fort
and loved home, or lay bound by the side of Indians,
guarded by a watchful sentinel to prevent even the possi-
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
151
bility of escape, they must have had emotions that the
human soul can with difficulty even attempt to fathom.
A wierd scene passed before their vision, as at night-
fall the savage army prepared for its rest. The march of
a score of miles since the morning, encumbered with
plunder and burdened with the wounded, had fitted all
for soundest repose. Meat brought from the slaughtered
cattle at Bryant's was broiled, corn taken from its wasted
fields was cooked, and the wearied and disappointed sav-
ages, after stationing double lines of pickets, laid themselves
down to rest.
The four white leaders were not so soon to sleep-a
curious quartette that now gathered to discuss the future
of the campaign, and to map out the plan for the mor-
row's march.
The commander of all was Major William Caldwell.
Born in Ireland, he had drifted to America before the
Revolution and made his home in Pennsylvania. He had
refused to espouse the cause of the Colonies, and became
a refugee loyalist.
He went to Detroit, united his fortunes with England,
and enlisted in Butler's Rangers, an organization com-
posed in part of Canadians, but mostly of refugees like
himself. He had fought with his Rangers against Colonel
Crawford, and received a severe wound, but, recovering,
152
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
he had organized the forces gathered for the attack on
Wheeling, in August, 1782, and, to revive the disappointed
hopes of the great Indian army of eleven hundred braves,
had undertaken this raid into Kentucky and the siege of
Bryant's Station. He hated the American people because
they were rebels, and he used his savage allies as a part
and parcel of the means required in the war to restore
English supremacy over the American Colonies.
By his side sat Alexander McKee, whose hatred of
the men of Kentucky was intensified by his treachery and
broken parole at Pittsburgh, and quickened by the recol-
lection of the confiscation of two thousand acres of land
in 1780, which land had been surveyed for him on the
Elkhorn in 1774.
He was a born Pennsylvanian; had been a Justice of
the Peace for Westmoreland County in that State in
1771 and 1773; he had kept up a traitorous correspond-
ence with the British, and finally, on March the 28th, 1778,
escaped with Matthew Elliott, Simon Girty, and others,
to the Indian tribes, and then made his way to General
Hamilton at Detroit, where he had been rewarded with a
captain's commission, and had been assigned to the work
of inciting the savage tribes to make war on the Amer-
ican settlements in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky.
He was cruel, but he was brave. He had been in charge
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
153
of the Indians at the capture of Ruddle's and Martin's
stations. His soul was black with the recollections of
his broken faith to those who trusted him in their hope-
less helplessness on the day of that surrender. Now and
then a gleam of mercy broke through and over his soul.
Here and there he had helped a captive boy or girl,
yet he had urged his savages to repeated raids and mas-
sacres. He had been at Floyd's disaster in September
of the previous year, had fought with his red allies against
Crawford three months before at Sandusky, and now had
command of the Indians on this incursion into Kentucky.
With these was Matthew Elliott, possibly a little less
brutal but none the less brave or enterprising than his
two companions in his efforts to murder the white men
against whom his British masters ordered him to hurl his
savage corps.
Ireland mothered him, but he emigrated
to Pennsylvania and removed to Fort Pitt as an Indian-
trader before 1774. He was captured in 1776 by some
Wyandot Indians in Ohio, and carried a prisoner to Detroit,
but he had been released and returned with dispatches to
Alexander McKee in 1778. He escaped from Pittsburgh
with McKee and Girty, and from that hour became an
implacable foe of the white men.
His voice with the Indians (over whom his influence
extended) was only second to that of McKee, was always
20
154
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
for slaughter and rapine. He devoted his life to pur-
suading the savages to make war on his race. He betrayed
no trust in his escape to the wilderness when he took up
his abode among his brutal allies. Here and there a
merciful act cropped out of his long line of destruction.
He never hunted the rear in any engagement. He led
his red men in battle, and always kept well up to the front
in every conflict, and it was only at the Battle of the
Fallen Timber, with Wayne, in 1794, twelve years later,
that he ever failed to lead where he called upon his Indian
troops to go.
Sullen and thoughtful, but not apart, sat another man
whose history has run a full course in human infamy. He
was then just forty-one years of age, about five feet nine
inches in height, with black hair, deep, piercing eyes, short
neck, heavy frame, with round, full face, and with a great,
deep, hideous scar across his forehead, made there by
Brant's sword a year before, but with a frame muscular,
strong, and agile, a deep chest which betokened great
strength and endurance, and with a countenance which
said, "I know not fear nor shame." A curious life this
man had led. He had been born in 1741, in Pennsyl-
vania, on the Susquehanna, near where Harrisburg now
stands. His father had been killed by Indians, and he
himself had been captured by the Senecas at fifteen years
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
155
of age, and at this early period of life he had witnessed
the torture at the stake of his step-father by his captors,
and he had lived among them until he was twenty-one
years of age. He had been a scout and spy for Lord
Dunmore. He had been a lieutenant in the American
Army, and his company had fought the British in 1777,
at Charleston, in the assault on Fort Sullivan. He had
been an Indian - trader and interpreter at Fort Pitt for
years, and had, at last, under the influence of his present
vis-a-vis, McKee, deserted the American cause and fled
with him to the Indians in March, 1778. He had led
numerous marauds into Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsyl-
vania. He had given Kenton (an old friend), then a
captive prepared for the stake, his life in 1778. In 1779
he learned that a price was on his head, and this turned
his heart to hate. He could neither read nor write, but
he was shrewd, strong, and brave. He had seen and
acquiesced in the cruel massacre of Ruddle's and Martin's
stations; he had witnessed the tortures of Colonel William
Crawford, and had refused to give him help or give him
death, and day in and day out for four years past he
had guided his savage confederates to the white man's
abode, and with profoundest satisfaction witnessed the
murder of women and children and the torture of men of
his own color with a complacency which must have pleased
156
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
even the devils in hell. He had probably made the tra-
ditional speech put in his mouth by white men at Chilli-
cothe, urging an invasion of Kentucky. He had insisted
on this incursion into the State, had attempted to persuade
the people at Bryant's Station to trust the mercy of himself
and associates, and now his soul was filled with chagrin
and distress at the unsuccessful termination of the maraud.
This man was Simon Girty, and to him and his three
superior officers came now the discussion of the succeed-
ing work of the army of savages who now lay about the
cleared space of Ruddle's Station in deepest sleep. Even
his cruel soul did not catch a whispering from Fate of
the great and complete revenge which would fill his heart
and life before two suns again should set. He had no
command. England never honored him with a military
office. He was the counsellor and guide of the Wyandot
warriors who comprised more than a majority of the
Indians now in the detachment, and he inspired their
savage action and instigated their most cruel deeds, and
on the march and in the camp his soul was busy with
schemes for murder and revenge."
*
*The hate of border white people for Simon Girty gave him a promi-
nence in the history of the Indian wars which was undeserved. Brown,
Ranck, McClung, Collins, Marshall, and others have made him a greater
reputation than he was entitled to. He was never any thing but an inter-
preter. Two years before this battle he had gone to live among the
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
157
When the sun was well up on Sunday morning the
Kentucky soldiers were formed in line. They were all
mounted. Accounts differ somewhat as to the numbers.
Colonel Robert Patterson said one hundred and forty-
four; Steele says one hundred and eighty-two; Boone,
one hundred and eighty-one, and Logan, one hundred and
eighty.
A motley band in many respects was that little army of
whites as on that August Sabbath morning it emerged from
Bryant's Station, in linsey or buckskin hunting - shirts,
buckskin moccasins, buckskin breeches, and coonskin caps.
The mounts all differed in color and size; most generally
their horses were fourteen and a half or fifteen hands
high, pony built, and each man carried his provisions in
his haversack or saddle pocket, and every man carried his
trusty rifle, his knife, tomahawk, and his patchen pouch
Wyandots by order of the British officers, but he held no commission, like
McKee and Elliott, and it was years after the affair at Blue Lick before he
acquired any great influence with the Indians.
McKee and Elliott commanded all the Indians on this raid. Simon
Girty and his brother George were both along more to interpret and to
encourage the Indians than to command them. Simon Girty acquiesced
in torture at the stake, and there was no cruelty his word and example
would not encourage, but he was ignorant and besotted, and never had either
the genius for or the opportunity of command, and the speech at Old
Chillicothe against the Long Knives claimed to have been made when this
incursion set out is in large measure the creation of the brilliant imagination
of early writers of pioneer history. (See Butterfield's History of the Girtys,
Robert Clarke & Company, 1893. Pages 193-4, 198, 200, 205, and 208.)
158
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
and powder-horn, with a full supply of powder and
bullets, with here and there a stray gun flint wrapped in
a rag or in tow, so as to be fully prepared for any emer-
gency.
The scenes of desolation around the fort were enough
to inspire the keenest desire for revenge. Three hundred
dead cattle, one hundred and fifty hogs, many sheep, flax,
hemp, potatoes, vegetables of all kinds pulled up, a large
one-hundred-acre corn-field nearly all cut down, and on
every side the touches of savage desolation warmed their
hearts and nerved their arms for the coming conflict. Every
man pressed more tightly his rifle and his knife, and each
felt the impulse of quick and noble hope to wipe out in
the red man's blood the wrongs now pictured to the
mind of every soldier joining in the pursuit, and each
vowed with silent oath to repay in kind the wanton and
useless wreck which abounded everywhere in the fields
and cabins about the station.
A few men who were not mounted, or who were not
able to make the journey, or who had been told off to
protect the fort, stood out in the open space in front of
the fort, and these, with the women and children, with
hearts full of dread and uncertainty, and yet with cheer-
ful exclamations and tenderest affection, waved adieu to
these warriors who were now going forth, as they hoped,
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
159
to punish the savages who had wrought this destruction
to their homes and their property.
It was not difficult to find the road on which the
departing enemy had marched. They had taken what was
known as the middle buffalo trace, leading along near
where Paris and Millersburg now stand to the salt springs
at Blue Licks. It was easy to follow these roads which
the buffalo, the pioneer engineers of the great West, had
laid down as best for travel. Once having ascertained the
route which the Indians pursued, the marching was rapid.
Vedettes and the advance guard kept a careful lookout,
while the main body pressed on behind, and toward the
middle of the afternoon, near the site of Millersburg, on
the banks of Hinkston Creek, the Kentucky Army came
upon the place where the previous night the camp-fires of
the Indians had been built. Here, to the eyes of the
experienced Indian fighter, were signs that boded no
good to the pursuers. In many places on the line of the
trace the trees close to the road showed the marks of the
Indian tomahawk. From the official reports, only within
the past few years made known to the public, it was
apparent that Caldwell and McKee anticipated pursuit.
They knew the spirit and policy of these Kentucky set-
tlers, and they rightly judged that as soon as the soldiers
from Lincoln could rush to the help of the men of Fayette
160
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
an army would march on their trail, and in battle, and,
if need be, in death, avenge the depredations of the past
week. * But those who were pursued were men inured to
war's worst horrors. Of late they had drunk deeply of
white man's blood and glutted their souls in shameless
revenge. The smoke of the fires which burned Crawford
and his companions had hardly lifted its hideous pall from
the earth, and the blood stains from the successful forays in
Virginia and Pennsylvania were not yet washed from their
garments. They had met the white man before and had
vanquished him, and they were not afraid to face him
again, even in equal combat if the occasion required. There
were white men and red men with them who had assailed
and defeated Estill and Holder, and the recollection of
these victories made them careless of the pending conflict
which the Kentuckians were anxious now to force.
It would have been impossible to have deceived the
men who were following the trail as to what these signs
meant, and they had already resolved to punish the foe;
and there was no one in all the army of one hundred and
eighty-two men who suggested for one single moment the
idea of a change in the plans which had been prepared
for forcing a battle upon the invaders.
There was something to the Kentucky pioneer dearer
* See Appendix F.
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
161
than life, and that was his own consciousness as well as
his reputation for unflinching courage.
This sight of the camping-ground of the Indians quick-
ened the marching, and a little while after sundown the
pioneers rested a brief while and decided upon a plan of
battle when the foe should be overtaken, which all now
judged could not be many hours delayed. The enemy
might be found at any moment, and the method of battle
was fully explained to all. Half of the men mounted
were to ride hard upon the Indians, and the other half
dismounted would follow close behind and attack the sav-
ages at short range when their formation should be broken
by the dash of the horsemen. All understood and all
were ready to carry out the orders. After a brief rest,
the command was again given to mount, and near mid-
night they went into camp hard by the site of the little
town of Ellisville in Nicholas County.
*
All the indications showed that on the morrow they
would likely find those for whom they were searching,
and none doubted that when the conflict came they would
execute prompt vengeance upon those who had killed their
comrades and wantonly wasted their property and broken
in upon the quietude of their homes.
Since leaving Bryant's Station in the morning they
had marched thirty-three miles, which, considering the
*See Appendix G.
21
162
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
character of the road and the necessity for caution, as
well as scouting, was an extraordinary ride.
They were required to do no cooking. The food which
had been prepared by the loving hands of the women at
the fort served them for their evening meal. The horses
they tied to the limbs of the trees or small saplings.
Around these the men slept, while pickets well out in
the woods guarded the slumbers of the wearied riflemen.
Ere the rays of the rising sun had lifted their beauteous
light above the horizon the camp was aroused and the
march renewed.
away.
The enemy in front of them had showed no haste in
their journey to their own land. Leaving on the morn-
ing of the 17th, they had camped some twenty miles
During the day of the 18th they had marched
about eighteen miles more, and now, on the morning of
the 19th, they were only three miles in advance of their
pursuers, on the east side of the Licking, at the point
where the Maysville and Lexington road now crosses
that stream over a suspension bridge. *
The red men had not shown any disposition to run
away from the fight which the white men were so anxious
to bring about. They understood well the courage and
impetuosity as well as the promptitude of the white men
to punish invasion, and yet they did not avoid a conflict.
* See Appendix H.
-

WEL
The ford of the Licking, from which the Indians were first seen and where the Kentuckians crossed to engage them.
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
163
The contending armies had slept within four miles of
each other-neither aware of the other's presence and
neither afraid of the other.
Forming in line and riding in the narrow trace, which
rarely exceeded seven or eight feet in width, two or three
abreast, the pioneers soon struck a little branch, along
which the trace wound its way to the bottom of the Lick-
ing River. About a mile from the ford the trace left the
hillside and turned northwestwardly into this branch and
followed it down to the mother stream.
-
At this point some consultation was held among the
officers, and it was here that Boone, whose great experi-
ence and whose thorough knowledge of the country gave
his opinion much weight, suggested that, instead of fol-
lowing this trace and going down to the river, they should
follow the ridge and strike the Licking two miles above,
cross at Abnee's or Bedinger's mills, and thus come down
to the banks of the Licking some two and a half miles
above Blue Licks, and cross the Licking into a wide
valley from which, a mile eastwardly, they would gain the
ridge along which the trace pursued its way into Fleming
and Mason counties.
Boone, with all his woodscraft and his knowledge of
Indian ways and Indian life, and with his splendid record
as the best of Indian fighters and hunters, backed by the
164
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
You
1
truest courage, had never possessed the quality of impress-
ing himself upon the men with whom he came in contact,
or assuming or commanding their leadership. His advice
was disregarded.*
The command "Forward!" rang through the woods
and echoed along the hillsides, and down the fateful trace
to the Blue Licks ford the cavalcade pursued its march.
At the point where the trace strikes the Licking the val-
ley is a quarter of a mile wide. It is two hundred feet
on the western side, where the Kentucky pioneers emerged
from the forest, and some eight hundred feet wide on the
east side, where the foe for hours had been waiting the
advance of the pursuers, whose presence by this time was
thoroughly known to them.
Men like Caldwell, McKee, and Elliott, and their Indian
associates, were not ignorant of who were pursuing them.
Spies had been sent back along the trace to reconnoitre,
and it is said that an Indian conjurer had, after inquiring
of the Great Spirit, told his red brethren that in a few
hours the pale faces would be at the river and engage
them in battle.
Across the Licking the trace followed up the hillside
of the ridge, which was rocky and barren of all trees and
vegetation. For ages the buffaloes had come to these
* See Appendix I.

Buffalo trace ascending the bank of the Licking and leading along the ridge to the battle-field.
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
165
licks to find salt. Instinct had taught them the neces-
sity of periodical visitations to these saline springs, where
nature had provided this essential for animal life, and for
hundreds of years, along these narrow paths, cut out of the
woods by the ceaseless trampings of these mighty herds
of buffalo, had come millions of these animals to find
health and life in the waters which gushed from the
Licking bottom. When they had satisfied nature's call
for salt, these herds would climb the adjacent hills to lie
down and rest through the day and sleep through the
night. On those eminences thousands of them would
stand and watch the incoming buffaloes as they emerged
from the trace on the western side, and, plunging into the
waters of the Licking, swim across the stream and slake
nature's demand for this necessary product, which here the
Great Provider for all animal life had laid up in unlim-
ited quantity.
As the advance guard of the pioneers struck the river
and formed in line in the narrow bottom on the west side,
they caught sight of a few Indians hurrying to and fro on
the bare and rocky hill a mile beyond the stream. Twenty-
four hours of marching had now received its reward. The
foe for whom they had sought, and for whose presence
they had longed, was close by. But the willingness of
the Indians to be found, their tardiness of marching, and
-
166
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
their efforts to conceal their real number, so apparent
to the true woodsman, had caused the wisest men of
this command to hesitate about pressing the conflict, when
behind them, only a single day's march, were four hundred
soldiers as brave as they, and which, added to their number,
would have made them a match for any Indian foe that
ever crossed the Ohio River.
The Colonels and Majors were called in hasty con-
sultation. In the presence of the enemy, renewed caution
and the highest wisdom were requisite. As these experi-
enced fighters and gallant soldiers gathered around the
commanding officer, Colonel Todd, the difficulties of the
situation were quickly discussed. Boone, always cautions,
advised delay and suggested, even though now in the
presence of the foe, that it would probably be wiser to
await the coming of reinforcements before forcing a battle.
He had been frequently at the Blue Licks from his earliest
coming to the country. He had made salt many a time
near to the very spot where they now stood. He had once
been captured a little way above on the Licking. With
that memory of his, so remarkable as to be able by day or
by night to recognize his surroundings in the woods or to
locate the meanderings of streams or the situation of
mountains years after he had seen them, he told his com-
rades of the topography of the land just over the hillside
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
167
Along
from which they had seen the Indians disappear.
the neck of the hill the eyes of the pioneers could reach
for a mile in unbroken vision; not a single obstruction
obscured their sight. When this hill was ascended, the
Licking, by a tremendous swing to the north, came close
to its side, and from its top down to the river bank led
a ravine filled with timber and covered with thickest cane,
while five hundred feet across on the other side flowed
out a little stream which, passing northwestwardly, ran
down into the Licking, one and a half miles below the ford
where the army had just crossed. This ravine, too, was
thickly wooded.
Boone suggested that at this point they were likely to
be met with an ambuscade, and prudence at least sug-
gested that spies should be sent out who should ride
along the barren hillside and over to the head of the
ravines to find, if possible, the location of the enemy.
Two volunteers quickly came forward, and in obedience to
the orders of their superior officers they spurred their
horses into the river and, following along a narrow bar
which formed in the stream, quickly passing over, ascended
the bend on the opposite side and then up the hillside.
For a mile and a quarter they rode, prospecting carefully
on either side, and returned in a little while with the
tidings that they had seen no foe. But the foe had seen
them.
168
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
When they had returned and made their report a new
council of war was called, and still it was suggested as to
whether it was not part of wisdom to remain encamped
on this side of the river where they now stood until
Logan and his horsemen, quick and eager, on the march,
should come to their help. They knew that before the
sun would set Logan would be there.*
In the discussion on Saturday night at Bryant's Station,
as to whether pursuit was advisable, some one unfortun-
ately had insinuated to Major McGary, who was Major of
the Lincoln militia, that it might be fear rather than wis-
dom which suggested the delay until Logan's coming.
This sting had gone deeply into his soul. That he was
a brave man, those who knew him had never questioned.
He is and was a unique character in pioneer history.
He had come to Kentucky from North Carolina in 1775,
and had known Boone while in that State. He had
brought his wife to Kentucky, and she was one of the
* Bradford in his Notes details the colloquy between Colonel Todd and
Colonel Boone in the following words: "Colonel Todd addressed Colonel
Boone as follows: Skilled in Indian warfare and familiar with the ground
in the vicinity of this place, we require your opinion on the expediency of
attacking the enemy in their present position.' To which Colonel Boone
replied: 'I am of the opinion, and indeed fully persuaded, that the enemy
exceed us in number fully three hundred; that their main body is at no great
distance; and that they are lying in ambush. Their position is equal to an
host should we continue our march up the river and be drawn in between
the ravines they occupy.
I therefore advise that we divide our gallant band,
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
169
three white women who first came to the State. He had
gone with Clark as a captain to Kaskaskia and Vincennes,
and in 1781 he was made major of the militia in Lin-
coln County. He had helped to build the block-house in
Louisville; he had been a Justice of the Peace in Lincoln
County, and only a little while before he had, by this
same taunt of cowardice, forced some of his comrades to
pursue some fleeing Indians in an attack that had been
successful, when without loss they had destroyed a large
part of the Indian invaders.
In the midst of these conferences, while the soldiers
were standing in a circle around their leaders, McGary,
always impetuous, and, as was shown by his subsequent
declaration, malignant, his spirit burning still under the
suggestion that lack of courage had caused his advice for
delay at Bryant's Station, and, desiring to vindicate him-
self in the eyes of his comrades, raised his rifle above
his head and spurred his horse into the river, exclaiming,
that one half march up the river on this side and cross over at Elk Creek,
fall upon the upper side of the ravine, whilst the other half take a posi-
tion (to co-operate with them) in another quarter. By this means the great
advantage of their position will be changed effectually in our favor. But,
gentlemen, whatever be your ultimate decision, I caution you against cross-
ing the river at any rate before spies have reconnoitered the ground.'
}">
This conversation is couched in rather too lofty style for Colonel Boone.
The use of many words betrays that the language spoken could not have been
known to Boone, and that some man of more cultivation and education than
he framed the speech.
•
.
be
22
170
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
"Delay is dastardly; let all who are not cowards follow
me, and I will show them where the Indians are."*
From a military standpoint the proper thing to have
done with McGary, under the circumstances, was to have
shot him dead on the spot. His insubordination, coupled
with his rashness and his attempt to assume command of
the forces where he was of inferior rank, as richly deserved
death as if he had with cowardice run away in the face
of the enemy. Yet, in extenuation of Todd and his asso-
ciates, it must not be forgotten that the men who composed
this command were socially equals; one third of them were
officers hastily thrown together by the exigencies of the hour
and the dangers surrounding the people at the endangered
station. They were all ready and willing under any cir-
cumstances to fight; they were also full of self-confidence,
full of spirit, and each thoroughly conscious, not only of
his own courage, but of a wide experience in Indian warfare.
With a foolish pride aroused by the dread that they
would be thought afraid to go where any man would lead,
a considerable number of the pioneers rushed their horses
into the river to follow the reckless and disorderly Major,
who was now leading the entire force.
In less than a hundred seconds the remainder had
made their choice. They yielded their judgment to a
*See Appendix J.

Place where the Battle of the Blue Licks began by the Indians firing upon the advance guard.
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
171
foolish taunt, and they plunged into the river, pressing
after those who had gone before under the lead of
McGary.*
The horsemen quickly caught the inspiration and enthu-
siasm which come to those who enter battle. In a dis-
organized mass, each striving to find a place alongside
the impetuous McGary, they rode across the narrow bot-
tom for a few hundred feet, and then striking the buffalo
trace, which led up the hill a little north of the ford,
followed it in a northeastwardly direction. Recklessly, cour-
ageously, and yet tumultuously hurrying forward, they
soon reached the top of the ridge, and then descending
for a quarter of a mile they came in sight of the two
heavily timbered ravines which, starting a few feet apart
on the very top of the ridge, run down north and south
to empty their waters in the Licking four miles apart.
When they had reached the slight depression in the
ridge, through which in later years the Sardis turnpike
has been built, they received a few shots from the enemy
posted in the timber and underbrush two hundred and
fifty feet away.
Through the exertions of the officers some sort of
order had been formed out of the military chaos which
existed in the little army which had forded the Licking
* See Appendix K.
172
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
but fifteen minutes before. Boone was thrown to the left
and given command. The backbone of the ridge along
which the fight was to occur was about four hundred and
fifty feet in width. Trigg was ordered to the right, and
his route was close to the edge of the ravine which comes
up from the bank of the Licking and reaches the top of
the hill close to the point where the Sardis turnpike leaves
the Lexington and Maysville road. Todd commanded the
center. An advance guard of twenty-five men was ordered
forward. These were all Lincoln County men, and they
were under the command of Major Silas Harlan, Major
Hugh McGary, and Captain William McBride.
Preferring to fight on foot, a majority of those who
were not officers now dismounted. It was at once apparent
that the enemy in full force was at hand, and that a con-
flict was immediate and inevitable.
The various positions had not been taken by all the
troops before the fire from the Indian rifles quickened,
and in less than half a minute a tremendous volley was
poured into the advance guard, all but three of whom
fell at this first round.
Colonel John Todd, mounted upon his white horse, hur-
ried the center to the support of the advance guard. They
had not reached the spot where Harlan and his comrades
had fallen before they were made a target for two hun-
{
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
173
dred rifles. Out in the open, with no protection, the
mortality was tremendous, and the crash of this volley
had not died, nor the smoke lifted from the surface, when
from the ravines on the left and on the right rushed the
savage foe.
Protected by the trees and the underbrush, those who
had fired had taken deliberate aim, and almost every shot
told. Within less than three minutes about forty pioneers
lay weltering in their blood.
Outgeneraled, and led by a wily foe into a trap of
death, they were not the men to run away under any fire,
and they quickly opened upon the advancing and the con-
cealed foes.
The right wing was pushed back by a tremendous
onslaught. The Indian line had been extended so as to
outflank Trigg and his men, and they yielded to the pres-
sure and recoiled on the left where Boone had made an
impression on the Indian right and had driven in their
advance line. But when the right, by the overlapping of
the Indian left, was pushed toward Boone's rear, then the
left wing became unsteady. At this moment it received
a galling fire from the enemy, large numbers of whom
were soon running back toward the rear of the whites
and closing in upon them like a wall of fire. Todd, Trigg,
Harlan, Bulger, McBride, and Gordon were dead. One
174
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
fourth of the Kentuckians had fallen never to rise again,
and more than a dozen were already wounded.
It was not often that the men who composed this
command had turned their backs to the foe, but it was
obvious to the most casual observer that no courage could
avail against the men who had made this mad assault,
and the merest military tyro could understand that the
only chance for safety lay in flight. To remain was mad-
ness; to flee gave some slight hope of escape.
The pioneer soldiers had not been trained to fight as
organized bodies. Each man had hitherto fought on his
own hook, selecting his own tree, and using, in large
measure, his own judgment about when it was best to
stand together or flee, and no sooner was it thoroughly
apprehended that the Indians were rushing to the rear
and from both ravines were encircling the whites, than
each man by common consent began to look out for
himself, and at once the retreat began and immediately
became a rout. A few had not dismounted; they rode
hard for the ford; only a portion were able to mount the
horses toward which they were now running, a few hundred
feet in the rear, while nearly half of those who were fleeing
were pursued so closely that they had no time even to
attempt to mount, but on foot they made their way as rap-
idly as possible to the ford. Their guns had been emptied
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
175
at the first fire; the whole action had not lasted much over
five minutes; there had been no time to reload, nor did the
enemy intend to give them opportunity for any such pur-
pose, but rushed out with tomahawk and scalping-knife,
and forced a hand-to-hand encounter.
A new type of Indian had now
of Indian had now come to face the
pioneers, and he had inaugurated a different and more
savage style of war. This was shown at Estill's defeat,
at Holder's fight, and at Blue Licks. It required men of
the noblest courage to throw away a rifle and rely on a
tomahawk and scalping-knife, but these red men who
were now fighting the Kentucky settlers were
men of
magnificent physique, and behind this had as nervy hearts
as ever entered a human frame. They reckoned death
of little consequence, and they had trained themselves to
abandon trees after the first fire and to rush out to meet
the foe face to face and end the conflict by personal en-
counter with tomahawks. They deemed this the quickest
and the surest way to end a struggle. It was a new sort
of experience to the pioneer; he had not then quite
adapted himself or accustomed himself to it. The wan-
dering Wyandot, who had been roaming westwardly and
now eastwardly for so many years, had schooled himself
to this kind of battle, and he had learned that it was
less dangerous than to stand behind trees and watch
S
•
176
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
for an opportunity to shoot a foe who was hidden like
himself. *
The white man, quick to learn, soon prepared himself
to meet this new phase of war. The use of the toma-
hawk he could not acquire so as to be on equal terms
with the Indian, but the pale-face brought the bayonet
to his help and gave its cold steel as a match for the
hatchet, and in the future wars the wrongs of Estill and
Blue Licks were amply atoned for with the blade now
fitted over the muzzle of the rifle.
The unprotected ridge along which the Kentuckians
advanced at the battle-ground was four hundred and fifty
feet wide. Colonel Todd and his associate commanders
had no reserve line. The twenty-five men in the advance
guard led by Harlan, McGary, and McBride were scarcely
two hundred feet in front of the center. Taking these
from the white force, every man of which was engaged,
it left less than one hundred and fifty men in the line of
* Colonel Arthur Campbell, in writing to Colonel William Davies, Octo-
ber 3, 1782 (see Volume 3, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, page 337),
says: "The method of arming and arraying our militia ought to be varied.
The bayonet and scymeter must be introduced to enable us now to face
the Indians."
Colonel William Christian, in writing to Governor Harrison from Mont-
gomery County, Virginia, on September 28, 1782 (see Volume 3, Calendar
of Virginia State Papers, page 331), says: "Even musket men with bayonets
would be of more use than is generally thought, as the Indians of late
depend more upon the use of their tomahawks and spears than their fire.
">
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
177
battle. The left wing had thrown out a couple of spies
as a skirmish line, but they quickly fell back to Boone's
line of battle. This thin line, composed of horsemen and
footmen combined, was one third already dead or wounded.
It had been forced in on either side and stood on the
ridge helpless, as the Indians on the north and south fired
into the fleeing mass now deprived of its leaders and
fully realizing that impetuous courage had brought them
to almost inevitable disaster.
No discipline could be maintained. A compact body
only drew a more galling fire, and organized resistance
meant a more certain destruction and increased mortality.
A minute's delay would insure the closing of the circle
from which escape would be impossible, and which, once
effected, would put all the whites within an impassable
wall composed of brave savage Indians who would shoot
or tomahawk the entire number as quickly as blade and
bullet could dispatch them.
To succor the wounded only meant surer death. Το
remain together was to invite a more deliberate and cer-
tain fire; to hesitate meant instantaneous destruction.
No order was necessary. No command was required.
Officers and men quickly and clearly perceived that sep-
arate flight, each for himself, and the crossing of the river,
to plunge into the trackless forests on the opposite shore
23
178
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
·
of the Licking, was the only course which offered the
slightest possibility of safety. War has horrors no courage
or gallantry can avoid. To leave the dead and wounded
kindred on the field, to flee away from comrades in a
race for life was full of terror for brave men. But battle
frequently knows no sentiment, and often hushes and
destroys every emotion, and so brother and friend on the
ridge parted, each guided by the highest of all instincts,
self-preservation, to do that which was best, each for
himself. In an instant all by common consent began
immediate and swiftest flight.
They had passed over the river a few minutes before
one hundred and eighty two strong, full of courage and
battle's enthusiasm. They returned now, leaving a large
portion of the men and all their leaders but one dead,
and the whole force a band of fugitives only bent on seek-
ing escape. They had suffered a fearful and tremendous
mortality. Forty-one per cent were killed, wounded, and
captured; of the captured four were subsequently tortured
to death, and this made Kentucky's offering on this fatal
day seventy-one of her noblest, bravest, and most heroic
sons.
-
Nothing could exceed the dreadfulness of the conflict
on the return to the river. The horsemen rode in fierce
madness, communicating their terror to their steeds;
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
179
while the despairing footmen, wearied by their long run
under the burning rays of the August sun, with over-
powering fear rushed down the hill in their wild race for
life, while the enemy, with delirious thirst for blood already
quickened by the fearful slaughter, struck down the flee-
ing white men with their tomahawks and plunged their
knives into their backs, and, sometimes tripping them to
a fall, drove the blades into their palpitating hearts.
The terror was only that which was born of the hope-
lessness of the situation, and the fright only the fear
which came from pursuing the only line of escape.
*
When the Kentuckians began the retreat it was the
first impulse to reach and mount their horses; pursuit,
however, became so warm that many abandoned this best
chance for flight, for the Indians ran in among them as
they endeavored to spring into the saddle, and a number
were killed as they attempted to rise on their steeds.
The deserted horses were taken by the Indians, and
on these they rode among the fleeing white men, cutting
them down with their tomahawks, or waited to slay them
as they ran down the hillside. Others of the Indians rode
directly to the river above and below the ford, and then
watched for the coming of the doomed fugitives, while
still others yet, driving harder, crossed the stream and fol-
* See Appendix L.
-
Tan
180
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
lowed the fleeing pioneers through the forest or hunted
them from their hiding places in the thickets.
Boone, deserted by his soldiers, ran forward to find
his son mortally wounded. He had only time to lift him
upon his back, rush with him into the forest skirting the
ravine along which he had fought, and then, bearing him
a little way from the scene of the conflict, swam with
him across the river and hid him in a cave on the west
bank, hoping that by this act of paternal devotion to save
his child from impending death. But affection could not
stay the crimson tide or stop the flow of his life blood,
and beholding the death-damp on his brow, accompanied
with the pallor which presages approaching dissolution,
his instinct of safety forced him to leave him to die alone.
He had done all that love could do to save his son, and
without companionship, his soul bowed down with deepest
sorrow, he fled into the forest.
Into the river, speeding across the narrow bottom,
dashed horsemen and footmen side by side, while down
to the very banks the Indians, now rendered more daring
the unopposed pursuit, followed the white men to the
brink of the water, tomahawking them and scalping them
in the presence of their comrades, or shooting them down
as they waded or swam the stream.
In this moment of despair and terror and woe two
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
181
real heroes appeared on the scene.
Such men always
come at the call of great occasions. Providence, having
hitherto hidden its power, responds to the demands of
the hour, and men, before obscure and unrecognized, in
a moment and without warning rise to the supremest
heights and then and there by a single act of courage or
heroism win imperishable fame and undying renown.
Three days before, when Simon Girty had made his
speech to the beleaguered people of Bryant's Station,
demanding a surrender, Aaron Reynolds climbed upon the
ramparts to answer his proposition.
Reynolds had not been selected as the orator to answer
Girty, but having an abundance of self-confidence, and
desiring to exploit himself in the presence of his neigh-
bors and friends, in response to Girty's inquiry if the
garrison knew him, said that he (Girty) was very well
known; that he himself had a worthless dog which he had
given the name of Simon Girty in consequence of his
striking resemblance to the man of that name. That if
Girty or the naked rascals who were with him found their
way into the fort they would disdain to use their guns
against them, but would drive them out with switches, a
great number of which had been prepared for that pur-
pose; and that if Girty and his band remained any longer
their scalps would be found drying upon the roofs of the
cabins.
1
182
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
Reynolds had been a member of Colonel Robert Pat-
terson's Company, who had been drawn for service in
conjunction with General Clark on the Ohio River some
sixty days before. His profanity had disgusted Patterson,
who promised Reynolds if he would quit cursing, on
reaching the Ohio River he would give him a quart of
spirits. At the end of four days Reynolds demanded
the promised reward and received it, and from that day
on was never heard to swear.
In the retreat Colonel Robert Patterson, who with
Boone had commanded the left, was making his way to
the river. With a few men around him he was falling
back slowly, and attempting to hold the enemy in check
so that the fugitives might gain time to cross the river.
He struck the stream a hundred yards below the ford-
savages behind them, the river in front.
A
Colonel Patterson had been severely wounded in a
march to Pittsburgh to secure powder in 1776. He had
been fired upon by the Indians, one of his arms broken,
and a tomahawk driven into his back. He had never
entirely recovered from these wounds, and the long run
from the battle-field to the river, together with his size,
had so told upon him as to render a continuation of his
flight impossible. At that moment Aaron Reynolds rode
up to Patterson's side, dismounted from his horse, lifted
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
183
Patterson into the saddle, and then threw himself into the
river and swam across, a little later to be captured by
Indians who had crossed below and were searching for
the whites. A few moments afterward, left alone with
one Indian, he knocked his guard down, ran off into the
forest, continued his journey to Bryant's Station, and
reached there before Patterson was able to make the trip
on horseback. He told the story of what he had done
for Patterson, which was discredited and was not received
until Patterson himself appeared in the fort and verified
his statement. He was presented with two hundred
acres of ground by his grateful friend, joined the Baptist
Church, and became a most exemplary and useful citizen.
The other man of the hour was Benjamin Netherland,
and without question he was the true hero of Blue Licks.
Robert Wickliffe, whose second wife was the only daughter
of Colonel John Todd, in a political speech at Nicholasville
in 1848 said that the majority of the men who escaped
from this destructive conflict owed their preservation to
Benjamin Netherland, and that he was a fearless man,
fruitful in resources, and the impersonation of nobleness
and courage.
Robert Patterson, writing to Netherland in
1826, says, "I can not ever forget the part you acted in
the Battle of Blue Licks." In Marshall's history it is said
of him that he presented a singular phenomenon, and
184
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
that by his conduct many were saved; and Butler re-
echoes Marshall's statement, and accords Netherland the
honor of having saved many of the fugitives. McClung,
in his Western Sketches, says, "A man by the name of
Netherland, who had formerly been suspected of coward-
ice, here displayed a coolness and presence of mind equally
noble and unexpected."
Major Benjamin Netherland was born in Powhattan
County, Virginia, in 1755. His ancestors were from Hol-
land, and came to Virginia as part of that great Protest-
ant host which settled along the James River in the first
half of the eighteenth century. His father was a tobacco
planter, and he sent his son Benjamin to Cuba and Mar-
tinique to dispose of his crop. While there he heard of
the conduct of the British foe in the attack which Sir
Peter Parker was making on Charleston. He left his
cargo and ran the blockade into Charleston and helped to
defend Fort Moultrie against the British assault. In his
trips to the West Indies he had become fluent of speech
in both French and Spanish. He accompanied Lafayette
on his journey from Charleston, in 1777, as far as Meck-
lenberg County, North Carolina, when that officer was on
his way to Philadelphia to tender his services to Wash-
ington in defense of American liberty. He stopped at
Charlotte, North Carolina, until 1781, when he took part
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
185
in the Battle of Guilford Court-house, and after this
drifted into Kentucky. In May, 1782, he was at Estill's
Station, and was with Estill in the defeat at the hands
of the Wyandots. He fought in nearly all the Indian
battles from 1781 to 1784. He was with Clark on his
expedition in November, 1782. He was also with General
Harmar in his defeat, and with General Wayne in his
victory, and assisted in the punishment of the very men
who had perpetrated the slaughter at Blue Licks. After
seven years' absence in Kentucky he returned to North
Carolina and married his boyish sweetheart, Theodosia
Bramlette, who was the daughter of a distinguished Rev-
olutionary fighter, Colonel Bramlette.
Netherland came to Jessamine County in 1788 with
his bride, and settled on a farm five miles east of Nicho-
lasville; in 1791 he moved to where Nicholasville now
stands, and built a hotel and called it Mingo. Tavern.
This house was kept by him for forty years; it was torn
down in 1864. I have often seen it when a boy, and I
have now a drawing of it in my possession. Netherland
was made the first postmaster of Nicholasville in 1801.
He was the first Chairman of its Board of Trustees, and
his children were the first white people born within its
limits. He died in 1838, and was accorded a splendid
military funeral. He was buried in his lot in Nicholas-
24
186
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
ville, which is now in the rear of the Northern Methodist
Church, and a simple head-stone with his name tells
where the brave pioneer finds his last rest. His funeral
was preached by Bishop Kavanaugh, who was then Pre-
siding Elder of that district. General Leslie Combs, Gen-
eral John McCalla, Major D. B. Price, and Robert
Wickliffe were the pall-bearers. *
At the Battle of the Blue Licks Netherland was only
twenty-seven years old. He was a member of Robert
Patterson's Company from Lexington, and being finely
mounted he gained the ford in safety and crossed the
stream unhurt. As he reached the west bank he looked
back over his shoulder, and his soul was stirred with
deepest emotion and his heart filled with the grandest
courage as he saw his comrades struggling and swimming
and plunging into the river or rushing down the bank
pursued by their savage enemies with unsheathed knives
and uplifted tomahawks. He dismounted from his horse,
and, throwing the reins over his arm, with loud, sharp,
and commanding voice ordered the fleeing horsemen who
* Major Netherland's experience in the Battle of the Blue Licks justified
him in his subsequent love of horses. He bred a great many fine race horses
in his day, and in a letter written by him to General John McCalla, in 1830,
now in my possession, he begs him to come to Nicholasville on the following
Sunday to dine with him, and promises to show him the damndest best
three colts in the world."
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
187
were thus deserting their comrades to halt, fire upon the
Indians, and save those who were still in the stream.
His bravery and his splendid presence, for he was six
feet two inches high, restored the spirit of these fear-
stricken riders. A dozen or twenty men instantly obeyed
his call, and facing about with Netherland, and standing
in line, they opened a fatal and deadly fire upon the fore-
most of the pursuing savages.
The counter attack was so sudden and unexpected
that it checked the fierce pursuit of the Indians, and they
instantly fell back from the opposite bank. Netherland
and his men maintained their position and drove the
Indians to cover, while the wearied and almost helpless
footmen were enabled to ford or swim the river in safety.
Only a few minutes were necessary for those who were in
the stream to reach the shore.
The footmen quickly left the buffalo trace and disap-
peared into the thickets, each striving for himself by
hidden and circuitous routes to reach some station.
So soon as these distressed, wearied, or wounded foot-
men were enabled to secrete themselves in the dense forest,
large numbers of the Indians were seen crossing both
above and below, but Netherland and his comrades, mount-
ing their horses, galloped along the trace and in safety
reached Bryant's Station that evening.
$
188
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
1
The pursuit of the Indians was feeble after crossing
the stream. Very few persons were thereafter killed. Scat-
tered through the woods it was with difficulty that the
savages could find them, and after a search through a
couple of miles they abandoned the search and returned
to the battle-field. Here the horrors were to open anew.
Those who were wounded were quickly tomahawked and
scalped; their dead bodies were mutilated in every possi-
ble way that savage cruelty could suggest; that of the
manly and courageous Trigg was quartered. From their
still warm but lifeless forms every vestige of clothing was
removed, and the bodies left where the tomahawk or
scalping-knife or the bullet had brought the end. Some
of the wounded were tied hand and foot, and subjected
to a slow death. Four were taken away to the Indian
towns to bear the vengeance of their savage foes in the
presence of their squaws and children, or were tortured
on the battle-field. Three were spared, who returned a
year afterward and told the story of their suffering and
terror.*
On the journey to Kentucky Caldwell, McKee, Elliott,
and Girty had, as said before, brought a portion of the
men who had been captured at Ruddle's and Martin's
*The three prisoners who returned after captivity were Ensign John
McMurty (reported killed by Major Todd and others) and Privates Lewis
Rose and Jesse Yocum.
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
189
stations in June 1780, and the mind stops still with
terror when it realizes what they must have suffered as
they witnessed the battle, and then, subsequently, the
murder and mutilation of those they had loved and
respected, and who had fought with them in the great
struggle to win Kentucky for the white man.
Nearly the whole day the Indians roamed over the
battle-ground gathering up the guns, equipments, and
effects of the dead white men. Here and there one was
piled close to another, and their arms entwined, and then
in a new outburst of savage brutality new cuts and stabs
were inflicted upon the corpses. After gloating over these
scenes of death, outrage, and barbarity until in the after-
noon, Caldwell marched his forces a few miles toward
Maysville and camped, and on the day following (the 20th)
crossed the Ohio River.
Colonel Trigg had sent an express to Colonel Logan
on the 17th day of August, telling him of the report of
the attack on Bryant's, and informing Logan that he and
such troops as he could call together had gone to the
relief of Fayette stations.
On the morning of the 19th Logan, with the remain-
der of the Lincoln men, reached Bryant's Station, and
toward the middle of the day started to follow along the
track which Todd, Boone, Trigg, and their company had
190
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
gone twenty hours before. They were pushing along
the trace a few miles from Bryant's Station near one
o'clock in the afternoon, when the advance guard heard
the sounds of swiftly-going steeds, and before orders to
halt could be given twenty-five Lincoln and Fayette men
rode in among them. Their steeds, driven to highest
speed, were jaded and fagged, the men themselves, some
with bleeding limbs, and all with torn garments and
blackened features, told in rapid speech the horrors of
the morning's battle, and of the dread havoc at the Blue
Licks. In frenzied excitement brother asked for brother,
neighbor for neighbor, friend for friend.*
The full command coming up, four hundred and
seventy comrades formed around the wearied and excited
fugitives, as in short and broken sentences the terrible
repulse at the Licking was detailed to the rescuers. With
blanched cheeks, quickened pulses, and sickened hearts
they listened to the story of the awful tragedy, and in
subdued and breathless suspense took in the pathetic and
harrowing history of the day's dreadful sorrow.
And now, during the halt, came another and another
and still another of the escaping soldiers. With anxious
longings and strained vision each of the new-comers peered
along the narrow trace, or with acutest tension turned their
* See Appendix M.
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
191
heads to catch the sound may be of others who had
escaped from the calamity.
A strong advance guard was thrown forward, and the
main force was halted in the woods on either side of the
trace, waiting to see if yet more of the fated company
would reach friends and safety. All prepared for battle.
None knew but that the blood-thirsty and numerous foe
were close behind the whites who had just come in, and
none knew how quickly they might be required to meet
the same victorious enemy.
Straggler after straggler, riding or running hard for
life, pressed within the friendly lines, and each arrival
had something worse to tell of the sweeping destruction
of the conflict.
Now came one who had seen the brave and brilliant
Todd go down in death. Another was close by the superb
Trigg as he fell under the fatal fire; and yet another
had witnessed the heroic and courageous Harlan sink in
the very fore-front of the advance, and yet another had
witnessed McBride and John Bulger perish in the leaden
storm, while others had borne Edward Bulger away with
a mortal wound pouring out his life's blood; and yet others
had looked on Kincaid, Gordon, Overton, and Lindsay as
they too were stricken to earth by the murderous shots.
Till near night Logan remained encamped, receiving each
192
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
escaped comrade with joy as he rushed under the pro-
tection of his regiment, and then he turned and retraced
his steps to Bryant's Station.
A few of the survivors had gone on with all possible
haste to tell the sad story at the station. Of the gallant
band who had so grandly defended it, at least one fourth
were with Todd and Boone in the Fayette battalion. It
was already known now that Lieutenant Barnett Rogers,
Ezekiel Field, and James Ledgerwood were dead, and
that Jesse Yocum was missing; Jeremiah Craig, whose
wife and daughters were among the women who went to
the spring for water on the 16th, had gone with Todd,
and he had not returned.
The rapidly-riding express emerged from the trace and
entered the clearing. His appearance told the story of
disaster, and with beating hearts, crushed hopes, and tear-
dimmed eyes, the direful story was told again, and each
with earnest questioning sought to learn who was safe.
A change had come into the fort. The exultation of
the 17th was changed on the 19th into deepest grief and
humiliation. No words can paint and few hearts can
measure the terror of the scene, and all in silent despair
awaited for the tidings from the field of battle.
As the shadows of the night come, darkness only cre-
ates new fears and arouses new apprehensions. From
"
J
193
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
out in the stillness and gloom of the forest here and
there comes hallooing, and a footman, exhausted, clothes
torn to tatters, with limbs all cut and pricked, and with
broken spirit and feeble strength calls for aid and recog-
nition. Wives, mothers, children, soldiers, all mingle in
common grief, and sit in hushed and earnest expectation,
and with hearts lifted to God in prayer for mercy
watched through the long and everlengthening hours of
the night.
This was the sequel to the glorious and splendid
defense of the fort a few hours before. There were
mothers and wives who, on the 16th, walked fearlessly to
the spring to dip water for the besieged garrison, who
now in abject hopelessness bewailed the absence of sons
and husbands, whose mangled forms they pictured lying
on the battle-field or writhing under the tortures of a
savage foe.
When daylight came nearly one hundred had arrived.
With speedy foot they had run through the cane and
timber, guided by the stars, toward a place of refuge, or
on horseback, by the traces or circuitous paths, had found
the friendly fort once more.
To the experienced woodsman at dawn it was appar-
ent that few more would come, and increasing hours
stifled further hope. It was now certain that those who
25
194
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
had not come had been victims in the conflict or in the
chase. Messengers were sent to neighboring stations.
Boone had found safety in his own fort; Captain Ellis
was with him. Some had gone to Lexington, but still
nearly eighty were missing, and there were none brave
enough to offer to go where the ruin had fallen. At
Harrodsburg, Trigg's, and other stations, even deeper deso-
lation was felt. The worst had come to Lincoln; Trigg,
Harlan, the Bulgers, McBride, Gordon, were a terrible
offering for that county to pay for the common defense.
The cries of the widows and orphans and the sobs of
mothers went up from every station in Fayette and half
of those in Lincoln, and gloom, distrust, and disquietude
brooded over the whole territory.
During the 20th, 21st, 22d, 23d, and part of the 24th
Logan and his command remained at Bryant's.
The spirit of the bravest men seemed cowed. The
blow the savages had given was so tremendous and so
stunning that none seemed to recover from
recover from its force.
Andrew Steele* in his quaint words told the story thus:
"To express the feelings of the inhabitants of both the
Counties at this Rueful scene of unparalleled Barbarities
barre all words and cuts Description short."
With the list of honored and brave dead and the roll
* See Appendix N.
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
195
of those hitherto invincible recoiling before the Indians,
it seemed unwise again to face such an enemy, and the
stoutest hearts hesitated before again grappling with such
foes.
The friends of the dead both in Lincoln and Fayette
were now clamoring for news from the battle-field, and on
the 24th Colonel Logan, with five hundred men, began
the march for the Licking. On the morning of the 25th
they commenced the descent into the valley. Long
before they caught sight of the hills on the eastern
bank, where here and there vision broke through the
dense shade of the trace, they saw high in the air great
troops of winged scavengers swarming and sailing over
the battle-ground, and these told in unmistakable signs
of the shocking sights soon to greet their eyes.
In the river, in the valley, on the hillside, on the
ridge, it was the same terrible, harrowing sight of savage
desecration. Brothers, relations, and friends began the
eager search of mutilated forms, but only in a few
instances could identity be established. A common grave
on the field where they had died was decreed them, and
within a few feet of where Todd, Trigg, Harlan, and
McBride had fallen, on the side of the ridge where the
left wing had felt the shock of the fierce storm and the
quick assault with the blade, the thin earth was scraped
196
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
away. A stone wall, forty feet in length and four feet
high, was built, and in behind this the bodies of the gal-
lant slain were sepulchered; over them were thrown rocks,
logs, and brush, and the story of the Blue Licks was
closed. *
Logan marched back to Bryant's Station, reaching
there the 26th, and on the day before Caldwell and
McKee had reached Wakatamiki, now Zanesfield, Logan
County, Ohio, one hundred and forty-two miles distant,
and from there reported to their British masters of their
bloody work.
In short season after the battle the buffaloes, driven
farther west by the presence of the white men, ceased
their coming to the springs to which they had so long
journeyed. Nature, sympathizing with the sadness and
glory which centered around this treeless eminence,
exerted its forces to hide the nakedness and ruin and
clothe the sterile area with beautiful evergreens. It bade
the cedar with its never-dying leaves and unchanging
verdure to spring from the rocky soil and stand as a
monument to the noble heroes who rest in death beneath
its protecting shades in unknown and unmarked graves.
Over the once barren hillside this beautiful tree has
grown in such luxuriant abundance as to cover every
* See Appendix O.
·
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
197
rock and crag with its perennial freshness, and those
who approach it now look only upon a mountain of
never-fading green; fit emblem of the memory of the
brave, chivalrous, and gallant men who here died for
Kentucky.
Appendix.
199
APPENDIX A.
OFFICERS OF FAYETTE COUNTY, KENTUCKY, TO GOVERNOR
HARRISON, OF VIRGINIA.
(Virginia Calendar, Volume 3, page 301.)
Lexington, FAYETTE Co. Septem 11th, 1782.
SIR: The Officers, Civil as well as Military, of this County,
beg the attention of your Excellency & the H'ble Council. The
number of the Enemy that lately penetrated into our County,
their Behavior; adding to this our late unhappy defeat at the Blue
Licks, fill us with the greatest concern & anxiety. The Loss of
our worthy officers & Souldiers who fell there the 19th of August,
we sensibly feel and deem our situation truly Alarming. We can
scarcely behold a spot of Earth, but what reminds us of the fall of
some fellow adventurer massacred by Savage hands. Our number
of militia decreases. Our widows & orphans are numerous, our
officers and worthiest men fall a sacrifice. In short sir, our settle-
ment, hitherto formed at the Expense of Treasure & much Blood
seems to decline, & if something is not speedily done, we doubt
will wholly be depopulated. The Executive we believe think often
of us & wish to protect us, but Sir, we believe any military oper-
ations that for 18 months have been carried on in consequence
of Orders from the Executive, have rather been detrimental than
Beneficial. Our Militia are called on to do duty in a manner
that has a tendency to protect Jefferson County, or rather Louis-
ville, a Town without Inhabitants, a Fort situated in such a man-
ner, that the Enemy coming with a design to lay waste our Country,
would scarcely come within one Hundred miles of it, & our own
Frontiers open & unguarded. Our Inhabitants are discouraged.
tis now near two years since the division of the County & no
Surveyor has ever appeared among us, but has by appointment
from time to time deceived us. our principal expectations of
1
200
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
strength are from him. during his absence from the County
Claimants of Land disappear, when if otherwise, they would be an
additional strength.
We entreat the Executive to examine into the Cause, and
remove it speedily. If it is thought impracticable to carry the
war into the Enemy's Country, we beg the plan of building a
Garrison at the mouth of Lime-stone & another at the mouth of
Licking, formerly prescribed by your Excellency, might be again
adopted and performed. A Garrison at the mouth of Limestone,
would be a Landing place for adventurers from the Back parts of
Pensyl'va & Virg'a, adjacent to a large Body of good Land which
would be speedily settled-would be in the Enemy's principal cross-
ing place, not more than fifty miles from Lexington our Largest
settlement, & might readily be furnished with provition from above,
till they would be supplied from our Settlements here. Major
Netherland, we expect will deliver this. he will attend to give
any particular information that may be deemed necessary.
Humanity towards Inhabitants destitute of Hopes of any other
aid, will surely induce your Excellency to spare from the interior
parts of the State 200 men, and a few pieces of Artillery for
those purposes above mentioned.
We are Sir, yr. Excellency's mo't ob't &
vy: H'ble Ser❜nts
DANIEL BOONE.
LEVI TODD.
R. J. PATTERSON.
B. NETHERLAND.
ELI CLEVELAND.
WM. HENDERSON.
WM. MCCONNALL.
JOHN CRAIG.
Wм. MCCONNELL.
Appendix.
201
APPENDIX B.
G. R. CLARK TO GOVERNOR HARRISON.
(Virginia Calendar, Volume 3, page 345.)
Cove Spring, LINCOLN COUNTY, October 18, 1782.
SIR: Yours by Maj. Walls came safe to hand the 30th
July. Nothing could be more timely than the cloathing, for
desertion was so common, that I believe in a month more there
would not have been a soldier left. The works at the Falls was
forwarded by every means in our power, until they were supposed
sufficiently strong to withstand any attack from their Enemy but
not yet compleat.
Those preparations that were made and the measure taken to
let the Enemy know that we were fully acquainted with their
design (which in fact we were) I believe has saved the Western
Country, by their losing all hopes of Reducing the falls, divided
their force, sent some to Weeling, and the main body to make a
diversion on Fayette County. And had it not have been for that
Imprudent affair at the blue licks, the country would have sus-
tained very little damage. I learn Col: Logan has sent you a
full acct. of the whole transaction. The Conduct of those
unfortunate Gents was Extremely reprehensible. The Enemy con-
tinue to sculk in small parties in different parts of the country
but do little damage at present. The movements of the Enemy
last Spring and Summer put it entirely out of our Power to Estab-
lish the posts at the mouth of Kentucky, licking, &c., they may
be begun this fall.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
A late stroke of your Excellency hath added greatly to the
strength of this Country, That of ordering the delinquents of the
Counties to do duty with the Regular troops in this Quarter; it
26
202
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
will have most salutary Effects altho' few Examples may be
made. . The works at the falls was at the Expense of a
considerable quantity of flour, as were Obliged to make a fund of
it. The Gallee I had built answered the design Exceedingly, and
hath been of Infinite service. Our Circumstances would not admit
of her being as Compleat as I could have wished, but I hope to
have her so this fall. I have discovered that open small boats
will by no means answer the purpose of Cruising on the River as
they are often liable to be ambuscaded when they came near the
shore, or in narrow parts of the River. But those on the Con-
struction of the Gallee, where gunnils are four feet bullet proof
with false Gunnils that play on strong hinges, Raise her sides so
high that she can Lay within pistol shot of the shore without the
least danger.
I have the honor to be D'r Sir, your Excellency's Devoted
and very humble Serv't, &c. &c.
·
APPENDIX C.
COLONEL S. CLARK TO GOVERNOR HARRISON.
(Virginia Calendar, Volume 3, page 385.)
LINCOLN, KY., November 30, 1782.
"Colo. Todd's militia was excused from all other duty but that of
keeping out proper scouts and spies on the Ohio and Elsewhare to
discover the approach of the Enemy, to give time and to Imbody
a sufficient force to Repell them, as it could not be previously
done, not certainly knowing in what quarter they would make
their stroke. instead of those necessary duties being done in
which their salvation apparently depended, the Enimy was suf-
fered to penetrate deliberately into the bowels of their Country
•
Appendix.
203
and make the attack before they ware discovered. this I believe
is what is wished to be blinded, and the neglect to be one of the
principal springs to that mad pursuit and carnage of the Blue
Licks, as the Reverse of fortune would have obliviated the former
neglect. I must confess that I have been defitient in my duty in
not given you an ac't of every circumstance attending this
unhappy affair, but hope to be excused as it was only owing to
my Delicacy in affecting the memory of the gentlemen who Fell,
not conceiving it to be of singular advantage to government, and
knowing it would fix an Eternal Stigmy on others Characters, but
as the Scale has turned to the amazement of many, I shall imme-
diately collect every circumstance relative to the whole affair for
you perutial." . . . He begs the governor not to listen to further
complaints, and feels persuaded that if he knew "the true char-
acter of many of these Gentlemen" that he would never refer to
them again. Gives as apology for this remark, the zeal he has
for the public interest, and the estimate he has of his goodness.
Referring again to the memorial from Fayette County, he adds,
it was "to cover their misconduct, and a prelude to a Maj'rs
Commission for a Triffle and a Col's for a person something more
deserving, to the prejudice of a valuable man Mr. Swearingin,
their former Major who had been absent for some time and was
Dayly expected, which would have prevented their design. to
my certain knowledge they now dread the Execution of what a
few of them were deluded to pray for again, Col: Donoldson,
who was last spring chairman of the Committee that endeavored
to subvert the Government and cost us soe much trouble to
overset, since bearing an important Commission, &c."
204
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
1
APPENDIX D.
ANDREW STEELE TO THE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.
(Virginia Calendar, Volume 3, page 303.)
FAYETTE COUNTY, KENTUCKY, LEXINGTON, Septem 12th, 1782.
SIR: The present Important & allarming Crisis claim the
serious attention & mature Deliberation of Your Excellency & the
Honorable House. The frequent Incursions & Hostile Depredations
of a Savage Enemy upon our Exterior Posts, our Dispersed Legions,
our veteran army defeated, our Widows Tears & orphans cries grate
strongly on the Ear, nay Thunder at the Door of your Council,
not only for acts of consideration, but Protection & redress.
To express the feelings of the Inhabitants at the Ruefull scenes
of Barbarities daily perpetrated amongst us, barrs all words & cut
Description short. So fatal is the stroke that a second similar to
that we have already Rec'd will close the Catastrophy & Term-
inate the Intire Devastation of our County. I would beg leave to
inform you that annually since the seventeen Hund'd & seventy-
eight, an army of not less than three Hund'd Saveges Infested our
Territories & since seventy-six, Eight Hundred & sixty Effective
men fell, the matchless massacread victims of their unprecendented
Cruelty. A few of the primitive adventurers yet survive, who sup-
plicate your Excellencies Immediate Interposition in their behalf,
in granting them such strength, as may enable them to carry on
an offensive war, or at least Act in the Defensive with safety, for
if some mode of preservation is not speedily adopted the welthy
will forthwith Emigrate to the Interior parts of the Settlement &
the Poor to the Spaniards. Dreadful alternative!! Nature recoils
at the thought! — further, from the Jealous apprehension of the
Inhabitants I am under the Disagreeable necessity of Informing
your Excellency that from the Detainour of our County Surveyor
Appendix.
205
(from whom their greatest Expectations of strength was derived)
they are Induced to believe you have either withdrawn that Paternal
care which they have long Rely'd on or rather the Executive Body
are Dubious of the authenticity of their claim to those Western
Territories- I would also observe that the many Military Opera-
tions hitherto Effected, or rather intended for our safety (the Seven-
teen Hundred & Eighty Indian Expedition excluded, the Honour
whereof is Justly due to the militia) have centered at Louisville,
a Town distant one Hund'd miles from the Center of our County,
to which together with Fort Jefferson, Elinois & St. Vincennes,
may the Innormous Expence of the Western frontiers be Attrib-
uted & not to the Counties of Kanetucky, which in competition
would be less than a Mathematical Point. To conclude, Permit
us, once more the Indigent Offspring of an oppulent father, if not
Equally to share, yet to partake of your Kind patronage & Pro-
tection & beg you would adopt such measures as your Superior
wisdom mey suggest to Promote the Peace, welfare & Tranquility
of your Suppliants in particular & the Interest of the Common-
wealth in Genl. Then shall we Congratulate ourselves in having
you the Illustrious Patron & Protector of our Lives, Laws & Relig-
ious Liberties, when the annals of History will rank your name
among the Bravest & Wisest Politicians & Gratitude like a Torrent
will flow from the Heart of every Kanetuckian, whilst we Experi-
ence with what firmness you have supported our interest. Our
universal Joy & fervent Expressions of Allegiance & Gratitude.
These public Testimonials of our Felicities will be Too con-
vincing Proofs to Require any argument to support them.
The Author begs leave to subscribe himself a Friend to the
Commonwealth & your Excellency's most obed't humbl. Servant.
206
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
APPENDIX E.
EXTRACT FROM BOONE'S LETTER TO GOVERNOR HARRISON.
(Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Volume 3, page 280.)
See also report of Logan. "I am inclined to believe that
when Your Excellency and Council become acquainted with the
military operations in this country, that you will not think them
so properly conducted as to answer the general interests of Ken-
tucky. From the accounts we had received by prisoners, who
had escaped this Spring, we were confident of an invasion from
the Detroit Indians. Common safety then made some scheme of
defense necessary for which purpose I was called upon by General
Clark to attend a council, and after consulting matters it was
determined to build a fort at the mouth of Licking, and shortly I
received his order for one hundred men to attend this business
with a certain number from Fayette. Before the day of rendez-
vous, I was instructed to send the men to the Falls of the Ohio in
order to build a strong garrison and a row galley, thus by weak-
ening one end to strengthen another, the upper part of the coun-
try was left exposed and the enemy, intercepting our designs,
brought their intended expedition against the frontiers of Fayette."
Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Volume 3, page 281.
See also address of Civil and Military Officers of Fayette
County: "The executives, we believe, think often of us and wish
to protect us. But sir, we believe any military operations that
for eighteen months have been carried on in consequence of
orders from the executive, have rather been detrimental than
beneficial. Our militia are called on to do duty in a manner that
has a tendency to protect Jefferson County, or rather, Louisville, a
town without inhabitants, a fort situtated in such a manner that the
enemy, coming with the design to lay waste our country, will scarcely
BARS
Appendix.
207
come within one hundred miles of it, and our own frontiers open
and unguarded." Virginia State Papers, Volume 3, page 301.
Nor was General Clark slow to express his dissatisfaction of
the conduct of the officers in charge at Blue Licks.
He thought
the sacrifice the result of imprudence and recklessness, and he has-
tened to inform the Governor of Virginia that the responsibility
in the matter was none of his.
See also letter of General Clark to Governor Harrison, dated
Cove Spring, Lincoln County, October 18, 1782: Had it not
been for that imprudent affair at the Blue Licks the country
would have sustained very little damage. I learn Colonel Logan
has sent you a full account of the whole transaction. The con-
duct of these unfortunate gents was extremely reprehensible.
The enemy continued to skulk in small parties in different parts
of the country, but do little damage at present." The Calendar
of Virginia State Papers, Volume 3, page 345.
See also letter, Clark to Governor Harrison, dated Lincoln
County, November 30, 1782: "Colonel Todd's militia was ex-
cused from all other duty but that of keeping out proper scouts
and spies on the Ohio and elsewhere to discover the approach
of the enemy, to give time and to embody a sufficient force to
repel them, as it could not be previously done, not certainly know-
ing in what quarter they would make their stroke. Instead of
those necessary duties being done, in which their salvation appar-
ently depended, the enemy was suffered to penetrate deliberately
into the bowels of their country and make the attack before they
were discovered. This, I believe, is what is wished to be blinded
and the neglect to be one of the principal springs to that mad pur-
suit and carnage of the Blue Licks, as the reverse of fortune
would have obliviated the former neglect." The Calendar of Vir-
ginia State Papers, page 385.
(6
208
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
APPENDIX F.
EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM CAPTAIN CALDWELL, Dated at
WAKITAMIKI, AUGUST 26, 1782.
(Haldimand Papers, Series B, Volume 123, page 297.)
When I last had the pleasure of writing you I expected to have
struck at Wheeling as I was on my march for that place, but was
overtaken by a messenger from the Shawnese who informed me the
enemy was on their march for their country which obliged me to
turn their way, and to my great mortification found the alarm false
and that it was owing to a Gondals coming up to the mouth of
Licking Creek and landing some men upon the South side of the
Ohio which when the Indians saw supposed it must be Clark. It
would have been a lucky circumstance if they had come on as I had
eleven hundred Indians on the ground and three hundred within a
days march of me. When the report was contradicted they mostly
left us.
Many of them had left their towns no ways equipped
for war, as they expected as well as myself to fight in a few
days; notwithstanding I was determined to pay the enemy a
visit with as many Indians as would follow me: accordingly I
crossed the Ohio with three hundred Indians and rangers and
marched for Bryants Station, Kentuck, and surrounded the Fort
the 15th in the morning, and tried to draw 'em out by sending
up a small party to try to take a prisoner and shew themselves,
but the Indians were in too great a hurry and the whole shewed
too soon. I then saw it was in vain to wait any longer and
so drew nigh the Fort, burnt 3 houses which are part of the
Fort but the wind being contrary prevented it having the desired
effect. Killed upwards of 300 hogs, 150 head of cattle and a num-
ber of sheep, took a number of horses, pulled up and destroyed
their potatoes, cut down a great deal of their corn, burnt
Appendix.
209
their hemp and did other considerable damage. By the Indians
exposing themselves too much we had 5 killed and 2 wounded.
We retreated the 16th, and came as far as Riddle's former
Station, when nigh 100 Indians left me as they went after their
things they left at the Forks of Licking and I took the road by
the Blue Licks as it was nigher and the ground more advantageous
in case the enemy should pursue us, got to the Licks on the 17th
and encamped.
On the 18th, in the morning one of my party that was watch-
ing the Road came in and told me the enemy was within a mile
of us, upon which I drew up to fight them. At half past seven
they advanced in three Divisions in good order, they had spied
some of us and it was the very place they expected to overtake
us. We had but fired one Gun till they gave us a volley and
stood to it very well for some time, till we rushed in upon them,
when they broke immediately. We pursued for about two miles,
and as the enemy was mostly on horseback, it was in vain to follow
further.
We killed and took one hundred and Forty six. Amongst the
killed is Col. Todd the Commander, Col. Boon, Lt. Col. Trigg,
Major Harlin who commanded their Infantry, Major Magara and
a number more of their Officers. Our loss is Monsr. LaBute
killed; he died like a warrior fighting arm to arm, six Indians
killed and ten wounded. The Indians behaved extremely well and
no people could behave better than both Officers and men in general.
The Indians I had with me were the Wyandots and Lake Indians.
The Wyandots furnished me with what provision I wanted, and
behaved extremely well.
Endorsed: - Entered in Book marked B No. 3 Page 31 Extract
of a letter from Capt. Caldwell to Major De Peyster, dated at
Wakitamiki Aug. 26th, 1782.
27
210
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
APPENDIX G.
COLONEL LEVI TODD TO GOVERNOR HARRISON AND COUNCIL.
(Virginia Calendar, Volume 3, page 300.)
LEXINGTON, FAYETTE COUNTY, KENTUCKY, September 11th, 1782.
SIR: Enclosed is a copy of the Recommendations made at
our last court; so great a change proceeds from a cause truly lament-
able, the Loss of our County Lieutenants, and a number of subaltans
at the late attacks, but particularly at our defeat at the Blue Licks
when the Enemy put us wholly to the Rout-the circumstances
& particulars are these - On the 16th of August a party of Indians
appeared at Bryants & by their behavoir a large Party was sup-
posed to lie around the Fort. An Express was sent here, my
Brother being absent, I went with about 30 men Discovery and
force my way into the Fort. near Bryants I was joined with about
Io more, finding the enemy lay round, we attempted forcing our
way. 17 men on Horseback rushed in, the greater part of rest
being on foot were prevented and overpowered, obliged to seek
safety by flight with the loss of one killed & 3 wounded, one of
which died the next morning-I immediately despatched an Express
to Col: Trigg the highest officer in Lincoln, demanding assistance,
& also Notice to Colo. Jno. Todd then in Lincoln.
The Enemy commanded by Simon Girty made an attempt to
fire the Fort, but were prevented with much Loss. They however
kept up a smart fire till the morning of the 17th when they went
off — the same evening Col: Jno: Todd & Colo. Trigg arrived with a
party of men, who with what we could raise soon made 170. On
the morning of the 18th we pursued on their Trail. On the morn-
ing of the 19th we came within sight of the Enemy about 3/4 of a
mile, north of the lower Blue Licks—we dismounted & began the
attack with vigour, from our left the enemy retreated & we gained
Appendix.
2II
ground. Our right within a minute or two gave way & found them-
selves to be flanked by the enemy. Our line then gradually gave
way from our Right to our Left till the whole broke in Confusion.
The action lasted about five minutes. Our loss as near as we can
ascertain is sixty-six, among whom were our commanding officer Col:
John Todd, Col: Trigg, Capts: Gordon, McBride, Kinkaid & Over-
ton, Major Harlan, Major Bulger (who since died of his wounds)
Mr. Jos: Lindsay & several gentlemen of note-the Enemy we sup-
pose consisted of three or four Hundred-they took some prisoners,
we suppose tho' very few, upwards of 40 were found, but we think a
number more lay near the Battle ground. The Enemy must have
suffered considerably, a great part of our men fought with much
Resolution & Activity. The conduct of the Officers is by some cen-
sured & charged with want of prudence in attacking at any Rate, but
as we had no chance to know their number, we thought ours was not
much Inferior & supposed we should by a fierce attack throw them
in confusion & break their Lines. We are much alarmed in this
County & fear the Consequence will be very detrimental if govern-
ment cannot give assistance, tho' our great dependence is that if the
County surveyor would attend, we should be strengthened with addi-
tional settlers not a few.
I am Sir, Your Excellency's most obedient & very Humble
serv'nt &c. &c.
APPENDIX H.
FROM CANADIAN ARCHIVES -COLONIAL OFFICE RECORDS.
SERIES II, VOLUME 20, PAGE 288.
SIR: My letter of the 22nd. and 23rd. of July informed you
of the reports brought us of the enemy's motions at that time
which was delivered by the Chiefs of the Standing Stone Village
212
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
$
and confirmed by Belts and strings of Wampum in so earnest a
manner that could not but gain credit with us.
We had upon
this occasion the greatest Body of Indians collected to an advan-
tageous piece of ground near the Priowee Village that have been
assembled in this Quarter since the commencement of the War
and perhaps may never be in higher spirits to engage the enemy
when the return of Scouts from the Ohio informed us that the
accounts we had received was false. This disappointment not-
withstanding all our endeavors to keep them together occasioned
them to disperse in disgust with each other; the inhabitants of
the country who were the most immediately interested in keeping
in a body were the first that broke off and tho' we advanced
towards the Ohio with upwards of three hundred Hurons and Lake
Indians, few of Delawares, Shawnese or Mingoes followed us. On
our arrival at the Ohio we remained still in uncertainty with
respect to the enemy's motions, and it was thought best from
hence to send Scouts to the Falls, and that the main Body
should advance into the enemy's country and endeavor to lead
out a party from some of their Forts by which we might be able
to gain some certain Intelligence; accordingly we crossed the
Ohio and arrived the 18th. inst. at one of the enemy's settle-
ments called Bryan's Station, but the Indians discovered their
numbers prevented their coming out and the Lake Indians finding
this rushed up to the Fort and set several out houses on fire but
at too great a distance to touch the Fort, the wind blowing the
contrary way. The firing continued this day during which time
a Party of about twenty of the enemy approached a part that
happened not to be guarded and about one half of them reached
it the rest being drove back by a few Indians who were near the
place. The next morning finding it to no purpose to keep up a
fire longer upon the Fort as we were getting men killed and
Appendix.
213
had already several men wounded, which were to be carried, the
Indians determined to retreat and the 20th. reached the Blue
Licks where we encamped near an advantageous Hill and expect-
ing the enemy would pursue determined here to wait for them
keeping spies at the Lick who in the morning of the 21st. dis-
covered them and at half past seven o'clock we engaged them and
in a short time totally defeated them. We were not much
superior to them in numbers, they being about two hundred
picked men from the settlement of Kentucky commanded by the
Colonels Todd, Trigg, Boone and Todd, with the Majors Harling
and McGary most of whom fell in the action; from the best
inquiry I could make upon the spot, there was upwards of one
hundred and forty killed and taken with near an hundred rifles,
several being thrown into a deep River that were not recovered.
It was said by the Prisoners that a Colonel Logan was
expected to join them with one hundred men more; we waited
upon this ground to day for him, but seeing there was not much
probability of his coming we set off and crossed the Ohio the
second day after the action. Capt. Caldwell and I arrived at
this place last night with a design of sending some assistance to
those who are bringing in the wounded people who are fourteen
in number. We had ten Indians killed with Mr. LeBute of the
Indian Department, who by sparing the life of one of the enemy
and endeavoring to take him prisoner lost his own. To our dis-
appointment we find no provisions brought forward to this place
or likelyhood of any for some time and we have entirely subsisted
since we left this on what we get in the woods and took from
the enemy.
The Prisoners all agree in their account that there is no talk
of an expedition from that Quarter, nor indeed are they able
without assistance from the Colonies, and that the militia of the
214
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
country have been employed during the summer in building the
Fort at the falls and what they call a Row-Galley which has
made one trip up the river to the mouth of the big Miami and
occasioned that alarm that created us so much trouble. She
carries one Six Pounder, six four Pounders and two, two Pound-
ers and rows eighty oars. She had at the Big Bone Lick one
hundred men, but being chiefly draughts from the Militia many
of them left her on different parts of the River. One of the
Prisoners mentions the arrival of Boats lately from Fort Pitt and
that letters have passed between the commanding officer of that
place and Mr. Clarke intimating that preparation is making there
for another expedition into the Indian Country.
We have since our arrival heard something of this matter and
that the particulars have been forwarded to you. A Detachment
of Rangers with a large Party of Delawares and Shawnese are gone
that way who will be able to discover the truth of this matter.
I am this day favored with yours of the 6th. August contain-
ing the report of Isaac Zeans concerning the cruelties of the
Indians. It is true they have made sacrifices to their revenge
after the massacre of their women and children some being
known to them to be perpetrators of it, but it was done in my
absence or before I could reach any of the places to interfere,
and, I can assure you, sir, that there is not a white Person here
wanting in their duty to represent to the Indians in the strongest
terms the highest abhorrence of such conduct as well as the bad
consequences that may attend it to both them and us being
contrary to the rule of carrying on war by civilized Nations.
However it is not impracticable that Zeans may have exaggerated
matters greatly being notoriously known for a disaffected Person
and concerned in sending Prisoners away with Intelligence to the
Enemy at the time Capt. Bird came out as we were then informed.
Appendix.
215
I flatter myself that I may by this time have an answer to
the Letter I had the honor of writing to the Commander in Chief
on leaving Detroit.
Mr. Elliott is to be the bearer of this who will be able to give
you any further Information necessary respecting matters here.
I am with respect Sir, Your most obedt. and very humble
Servant,
(Signed) A. MCKEE.
Shawanese Country, August 28th. 1782. Major De Peyster.
Indorsed 5 1782 From Capt. A. McKee to Major De Peyster,
Datd. Augt. 28th. 1782. In Govr. Haldimand's No. 5 23rd. Oct.
1782.
APPENDIX I.
COLONEL DANIEL BOONE TO THE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.
(Virginia Calendar, Volume 3, page 275.)
FAYETTE COUNTY, BOONE'S STATION, August 30, 1782.
SIR: A Circumstances of affairs Causes me to write to your
Excellency as follows. On the 16th of this Instant, a large num-
ber of Indians with some white men, attacted one of our fronteer
Stations, known by the name of Bryan's Station. The seige con-
tinued from about Sunrise til ten oclock the next Day, then they
marched off. Notice being given to the Different Stations adja-
cent, we Immediately collected 181 Horsemen commanded by Colo.
Jno: Todd: Including some of the Lincoln County Militia Com-
manded by Colo. Trigg, and having pursued about 40 miles, on
the 19th Instant we Discovered the Enemy Lying in wait for us,
on Discovery of which we formed our Column into one Single Line
and marched up in their front within about forty yards before
there was a gun fired: Col: Trigg on the right, my Self on the
Left, Major McGary in the centre, Major Harlin with the advance
party in the front and from the manner we had formed, it fell
1
216
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
to my lot to bring on the attack, which was done with a very
heavy on both Sides: and extended back the lines to Colo: Trigg,
where the Enemy was so strong that they rushed up and broke
the right wing at the first fire. So the Enemy was immediately
on our backs, so we were obliged to Retreat with the loss of 77
of our men and 12 wounded. Afterwards we were Reinforced by
Colo. Logan, which with our own men amounted to 460 Light
Horse, with which we marched to the Battle ground again. But
found the enemy were gone off. So we proceeded to bury the
dead — which were 43 found on the ground, and many more we
Expect Lay about that we did not see, as we Could not Tarry to
search very close, being Both Hungry and weary, and some what
Dubious that the enemy might not be gone quite off, and by what
discovery we could make we conclude the number of Indians to
exceed 400-now the whole of our, militia of this County does not
exceed 130. By this, your Excellency may draw an idea of our
circumstance. I know Sir, that your Situation at present is some-
thing critical. But are we to be totally forgotten. I hope not.
I trust about 500 men sent to our assistance Immediately, and
them to be stationed as our County Lieutenants shall see most
necessary, may be the saving of this our part of the Country.
but if you put them under the Direction of Genl: Clarke, they
will be Little or no Service to our Settlement, as he lies 100
miles West of us, and the Indians north East, and our men are
often called to the Falls to guard them. I have encouraged the
people here in this County all that I could, but I can no longer
Encourage my neighbors, nor myself to risque our Lives here at
such Extraordinary hazzards. The Inhabitants of these Counties
are very much alarmed at the thoughts of the Indians bringing
another Campaign into our Country this fall, which if it should be
the case, will Break these settlements. So I hope your Excel-
Appendix.
217
lency will take it into consideration and send us some Relief as
quick as possible.
This Sir, is my sentiments without consulting any person. I
expect Colo. Logan will immediately send to you by Express. By
whom I most humbly Request your Excellencies answer, mean-
while
I remain, Sir,
Your Excellency's most obedient Humbl. Serv't.
Lieuts: Rogers,
McQuire,
Hinson.
A List of the Slain-Colo. Jno. Todd,
Colo. Trigg,
Maj: Harlin,
Capts: - Gordon,
((
Kincade,
McBride,
Overton.
((
(6
Officers, 10
Privates, 67
77
Wounded 12
APPENDIX J.
HUGH MCGARY.-McGary never himself entered into any writ-
ten defense of his conduct in this battle. Newspapers in that day
were unknown in the State, and his only chance to justify his con-
duct would be by oral explanation.
Forty years after the battle McClung in his Sketches gives the
statement of a gentleman who had conversed with McGary as to his
part in the action. This gentleman related that he met McGary
several years after the battle, at one of the circuit courts, and in
conversation McGary acknowledged that he was the immediate cause
of the battle, and with great heat and energy endeavored to justify
himself. He asserted that in the council at Bryant's Station the
night before the march he strenuously urged Todd and Trigg to
await Logan's coming, telling them the Indians would not make
28
218
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
a precipitate retreat. He said Todd scouted his advice, claiming
that a single day lost would enable the Indians to cross the river
and escape; that the time to strike them was while they were in
a body; that the talk of their numbers was nonsense, the more
the merrier, and that he was resolved to pursue at once, and that
there were brave men enough on the ground to enable him to
attack with effect.
This nettled him, and he joined eagerly in the pursuit, and
when they came in sight of the enemy, and Todd and Trigg
began to talk about numbers, position, and Logan, he burst into
a passion and cursed them for a set of cowards, and swore that
as they had come so far for a fight they should have it, and that
they should fight or he would disgrace them; that now it should
be shown who had courage or who were d-d cowards, and
that he then dashed into the river and called upon all who were
not cowards to follow him.
McGary spoke, the gentlemen said, with bitterness of Todd
and Trigg, and swore they had received what they deserved, and
he, for one, was glad of it.
This story was wisely withheld for forty years after the battle.
McGary's subsequent conduct was not such as to restore him to
public favor. The atrocious murder of Moluntha in 1786, when
with Logan on his invasion of the Indian town in Ohio, stamps
him as cruel, base, and brutal, and the declaration that in the
presence of their troops he cursed Todd and Trigg and denounced
them as cowards will never be credited upon either second hand
or first hand statement of McGary.
The failure to find his name connected in any prominent transac
tion in the history of Kentucky during his after life is demonstra-
tion that his conduct was condemned by those who were his
contemporaries.
Appendix.
219
APPENDIX K.
EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM Colonel Levi Todd To His Brother,
CAPTAIN ROBERT TODD.
}
(Virginia Calendar, Volume 3, page 333.)
LEXINGTON, Aug: 26th, '82.
On the 16th Instant, in the morning an Express arrived
from Bryant's Station informing us it was expected a Body of
Indians lay round the Fort. I set off with 30 men to see if it
was so, and before I got there (which is five miles distant) was
joined by 10 men from Daniel Boones. I found the Place sur-
rounded & intended to force our way in. Seventeen of the foremost
Horsemen rushed in; but being attacked at the mouth of a Lane;
the remainder, some on Horseback, and myself and Ten others on
Foot, were forced to retreat, leaving one man killed, and having
three wounded, one of whom died next morning, but the other
two will recover.
Our Brother being over in Lincoln, I sent Expresses there
desiring assistance. In the mean time, the Indians made a violent
attack upon Bryants Fort and continued it all day & night: and
a storm was expected. However they met with some Loss, and on
the morning of the 17th went off. In the Evening, our Brother,
Col: Trigg, and Major Macgary came with 130 men. On the
morning of the 18th we collected 182 men all on Horseback, and
pursued the Enemy till 8 o'clock in the morning of the 19th,
when we got sight of them forming in a Ridge in a Loop of the
River, about three Quarters of a Mile North of the lower blue
Lick and over the Licking. We had then pursued about 40
miles. We rode up within 60 yards, dismounted, gave and sus-
tained a heavy and general Fire. The ground was equally favorable
to both Parties and the Timber good. The left wing rushed on
220
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
& gained near 100 yards of ground. But the Right gave way,
and the Enemy soon flanked us on that side, upon which the
center gave way & shifted behind the left wing. And immediately
the whole broke in confusion After the Action had lasted about
five minutes. Our men suffered much in the Retreat, many
Indians having mounted our men's Horses, haveing open woods
to pass through to the River, and several were killed in the River.
Several efforts were made to rally, but all in Vain. He that could
remount a horse was well off, and he that could not saw no time
for delay. Our Brother received a Ball in his left Breast, and
was on Horseback when the men broke. He took a course I
thought dangerous, and as I never saw him afterwards, I suppose
he never got over the River. Col: Trigg, Major Harlin, Major
Bulger, Captains McBride, Gordon, KinKead and Overton fell upon
the ground, also our friend James Brown. Our number missing
is about seventy-five. I think the number of the Enemy was at
least 300, but many of the men think five hundred. Colo. Logan
with 500 men went to the ground on the 24th, and found &
buried about 50 of our dead men. They were all stript naked,
scalped & mangled in such a manner that it was hard to know
one from another. Our Brother was not known.
As people in different parts of the Country will be anxious to
know the names of the Killed, I will add a List of what I can
now remember
Colo. John Todd, Col: Stephen Trigg-Major Silas Hardin,
Major John and Edward Bulger-Captains Wm. McBride, John
Gordon, Joseph Kinkead, and Cluff Overton - Lieutenants Wm.
Givens, John Kenneday & Rogers-Ensign John MacMurtry.
Privates Francis McBride, John Price, James Ledgerwood, John
Wilson, Isaac MacCracken, Lewis Rose, Mathias Rose, Hugh Cun-
ningham, Jesse Yoeum, William Eadds, Esau Corn, William Smith,
(
Appendix.
22I
Henry Miller, Ezekiel Field, John Folley, John Fry, Val Stern,
Andrew MacConnell, James Broown (Surgeon), William Harris,
William Stewart, William Stevens, Charles Ferguson, John Will-
son, John O'Neal, John Stapleton, Dan'l Greggs, Jervis Green,
Drury Polley, William Robertson, Gilbert Marshall, James Smith,
and Joseph Lindsay.
APPENDIX L.
COLONEL ARTHUR CAMPBELL TO COLONEL WILLIAM DAVIES.
(Virginia Calendar, Volume 3, page 337.)
WASHINGTON COUNTY, VIRGINIA, October 3rd, 1782.
SIR: From Colonel Christian and the accounts sent by
Major Netherland, the Executive may be fully informed of the
State of the War in the Kentucky Country. What if it should
be the policy of the British Ministry to drive in from the other
side the Apalachian mountain before the signing the preliminaries
of peace.
At any rate they are united the Savage Tribes, and endeav-
oring to sow the seeds of deep laid animosity, which will lengthen
the Indian war to a longer period than most imagine. Nothing
now will put an end to it, but a decided blow in the enemy's
country, and a peace given them in the hour of their panic and
misfortune, afterwards conducted by a proper Superintendency, or
that Canada becomes ours, or our Allies.
The method of arming and arraying our militia ought to be
varied. The Bayonet and Scymeter must be introduced to enable
us now to face the Indians. And Evolutions suited to the woods
should be learned by both Foot and Horse. All our late defeats
have been occasion thro' neglect of these, and a want of a proper
authority and capacity in the Commanding Officers.
Never was
the lives of so many valuable men lost more shamefully than in
222
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
the late action of the 19th of August, and that not a little thro'
the vain and seditious expressions of a Major McGeary. How
much more harm than good can one fool do. Todd & Trigg had
capacity, but wanted experience. Boone, Harlin and Lindsay had
experience, but were defective in capacity. Good, however, would
it have been, had their advice been followed. Logan is a dull,
narrow body, from whom nothing clever need be expected. What
a figure he exhibited at the head of near 500 men to reach the
field of action six days afterwards, and hardly wait to bury the
dead, and when it was plain, part of the Indians were still in the
Country. Genl. Clarke is in that country, but he has lost the con-
fidence of the people, and it is said become a Sot; perhaps some-
thing worse.
The chance is now against General Irvine's succeeding; dis-
appointed in Clark's co-operation, which he was promised, and it
is said set out with only 1,200 men. Simon Girty can outnum-
ber him; and flushed with so many victories, to his natural bold-
ness, he will be confident.
This state of our Western Affairs calls for the united wis-
dom and most serious attention of the Executive.
The Carolinas are gone on with their Expedition against
those Cherokees, they say that gives an asylum to Tories.
I wish they may succeed, but still dread the consequence of
multiplying our Enemies. Two Chickasaw Chiefs have been at
the Carolina settlement on the Shawanee or Cumberland River,
from thence they came to our settlement on Kentucky. Peace
are their profession, but complain of our making settlement at the
Iron Bank, on the Mississippi.
I esteem your person, and like your politicks, therefore send
you this communication, merely for your private information.
I am, sir, with usual respect your very humble servant, etc.
Appendix.
223
APPENDIX M.
COLONEL BENJAMIN LOGAN TO GOVERNOR HARRISON, GIVING AN
ACCOUNT OF THE DISASTER AT BLUE LICKS.
(Virginia Calendar, Volume 3, page 280.)
LINCOLN COUNTY, August 31st, 1782.
SIR: I beg leave to present your Excellency & Council with
one of the most melancholly events that has happened in all this
Western Country. On the 14th inst., Captain Holden, from Fay-
ette, pursued a party of Indians who had made prisoners of a
couple of boys in his neighborhood; he overtook them and was
repulsed with the loss of four men. On the 16th, a considerable
army appeared before Bryant's Station, Under the command of
the noted Simon Girty, and many other white men; they attacked
the Station closely, and defeated different parties endeavoring to
throw in assistance, but without much loss on our side. An
Express was immediately dispatched to Col: John Todd, who at
that time was in this County in the neighborhood of Col: Trigg.
On the 17th, at night, I received a letter from Col: Trigg, wherein
he informed me of what had passed. Orders were immediately
given for every man to turn out, and on Sunday, the 18th, I
crossed the Kentucky with a considerable detachment, & the day
after arrived at Bryant's, where I understood the Indians had
raised the seige & were followed by Col: John Todd, with 135
of the Lincoln militia under Col: Trigg, and 45 of the Fayette
under Col. Bowman. Dreading the consequences that might ensue
from this precipitate affair, I immediately pushed within a few
miles from Bryant's. We were met by about 25 men, who
informed of a total defeat at the Big Blue Licks on Licking. I
covered their retreat, and marched back to Bryant's, where I col-
lected 470 men, and the 24th went to the battle-ground and buried
*
224
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
43-our loss in this action is 50 missing from Lincoln, and 15
from Fayette, among whom are Colls: Todd and Trigg (Trigg was
quartered), Major Harlan, Capts: McBride, Gordon, Kinkaid &
Overton, & Lieuts: Givings, Kennedy, McMartry, Rogers & McGuire,
and Mr. Joseph Lindsay, our Commissary.
From the situation of the ground, on which our men were
drawn up on (the plan whereof I have taken the liberty to enclose)
I hardly know how it was possible for any to escape.
I am
inclined to believe that when your Excellency & Council become
acquainted with the military operation, in this country, that you
will not think them so properly conducted, as to answer the gen-
eral interest of Kentucky. From the accounts we have received
by the prisoners who had escaped this spring, we were con-
fident of an invasion from the Detroit Indians; Common safety,
then made some scheme of defense necessary; for which purpose,
I was called upon by Genl: Clark to attend a Council, and after
consulting matters, it was determined to build a Fort at the mouth.
of Licking- & shortly I received his orders for 100 men to attend
this business, with a certain number from Fayette. Before the
day of rendezvous, I was instructed to send the men to the Falls
of Ohio, in order to build a strong Garrison, and a row Galley,
thus by weakening one end to strengthen another, the upper part
of the country was left exposed, and the enemy intercepting our
designs, brought their intended expedition against the Frontiers of
Fayette. The immense expenses incurred by the state in this
western Country, we know is enough to prevent the Government
from giving us any further aid; but when your Excellency and
Council are informed that the people have never been benefitted
by those expenditures, we still hope your compassion will be
extended to a detached, distressed part of your country, as it is
not in the power of the People to answer the misapplication of any
Appendix.
225
Genl: Irwin, commanding at Fort Pitt,
D
thing by a proper officer.
as a continental officer might probably be more assistance to this
country could he receive proper supplies from the state of Virginia,
than any other measure that could be adopted-As he has the
same enemies to encounter that trouble us, and stores of every
kind seem to be of little account to us (ammunition excepted) –
Col: Trigg being killed there is a Field officer wanting in this
county: however I am at a loss how to proceed on the occasion, for
all our magistrates have been killed except three; and there can
be no Court to send a recommendation. Col: Harod formerly
acted as a Colonel, and who agreeable to seniority ought to have
received a commission, is now in being & I think a very proper
person for that purpose.
Before I conclude I must beg leave to suggest to your
Excellency & Council, that a defensive war cannot be carried on
with the Indians, and the Inhabitants remain in any kind of safety.
For unless you can go to their towns and scourge them, they
will never make a peace; but on the contrary keep parties con-
stantly in your country to kill; and the plunder they get, answers
them instead of Trade. Some days past, a white man, one Mr.
Simon Burney, with his Indians, arrived at this place in company
with two warriors, with talks from the Chickasaws nation-wherein
they inform us of their desire to conclude a peace, and the reasons
that urged them to war; which was Genl: Clarke's settling Fort
Jefferson on their Hunting Grounds, without consulting them first,
and are now enquiring for him. They own they have done mis-
chief in this, as well as the infant settlement on Cumberland.
Should your Excellency & Council think proper to hold a treaty
with these People, Col: John Donelson, who has before served as
an Agent for the state is willing to transact any business of that
kind.
29
226
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
Since writing the foregoing lines, I have received certain
information that Kinchelow's Fort in Jefferson was burned, and
37 souls, made prisoners. Your Excellency & Council will please
to indulge me a few moments longer, when I take the liberty to
add the situation of 470 persons who surrendered themselves
prisoners of war to a British Officer, then in command from
Detroit, with a great number of Indians. As well as I recollect
these unhappy people were captured in June 1780. And from
authentick intelligence that we have received, they were actually
divided in the most distressing manner that could be invented.
Many of the men were taken to Detroit & their wives retained
among the Indians as slaves. Some of the men are now at Mon-
treal & others in different parts towards the Lakes. As the
British were the perpetrators of this cruel piece of mischief. I
think by the articles of the Cartel, for the exchange and relief of
Prisoners taken in the Go: Department, and subsequent measures
taken by the different commissioners for that purpose, it is their
business immediately to deliver up in this country, at some Amer-
ican Post, all the prisoners then taken or retaliation be had
on our part. Unless they are guarded back, they will never get
through the Indian country.
I have the honor to be &c. &c. &c.
The diagram of the battle-ground contains the following note:
"The Indians kept the path from Bryants to the licks, and when
Colo. Todd arrived at the Top of the hill on this side of the
river, the enemy made a shew of ab't 30 in the bend. Our men
marched over upon the Hill. The indians had a very strong line
in front which extended from one point of the river to the other.
They had flankers and also a party in the rear in order to pre-
vent a retreat. As the river was very deep only at the licks and
Į
Appendix.
227
•
the clifts so steep that a passage was impracticable only where
they first marched in. thus circumstanced the Savages, sure of
victory rushed immediately up and threw our men into confusion.
What escaped returned mostly by way of the Lick. many were
killed after they were made prisoners, as they were seen tied.
"From Bryant's Station to the Blue licks ab't 40 miles &
from thence to the Ohio ab't 20 or 25. The Bent of the river
was generally ab't ½ mile over & from the top of the ridge each
way made down small dreans. In these places lay many indians
undiscovered until the attack begun.
"It appears near all the warriors on this side of De Troit
were on this expedition; some allow 600 or more.
"Major Bulgar was mortally wounded, and is since Dead."
APPENDIX N.
ANDREW STEELE TO GOVERNOR HARRISON OF VIRGINIA.
(Virginia Calendar, Volume 3, page 269.)
LEXINGTON, KY. August 26, 1782.
Sir. Through the Continued series of a Seven Years vices-
situde, nothing has happened so alarming, fatal & Injurious to the
Interest of the Kanetuckians in Particular & all its votaries in
General, as the present Concatination of Hostilities, wherewith I
am now to acquaint your Excellency.
The Fifteenth of this Inst: Bryan's Station was Beseiged by
a number of Indians, whereof I am not able to form a Just Esti-
mate: the Attack continued warm for about Thirty Hours, During
which Period, the Enemy burned several exterior Houses, killed
three of our men & made large Depredations on the neat stock
& Crop. they then Retired leaving three of their Savage party
dead on the ground, besides a number circumstantially so.
228
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
The Seventeenth, we were Reinforced from Lincoln, with
one hundred & fifty Horse men, Commanded by Lieut: Col:
Stephen Trigg & Joined by a few of the Fayette Commanded by
Col. Jno. Todd, who composed an Army of one Hundred & Eighty
Two. We followed them to the Lower Blue Licks, where Ended
the Direful Catastrophy. in short we were defeated-with the
loss of seventy-five men-among whom fell our two Commanders
with many other officers & soldiers of Distinguished Bravery. To
express the feelings of the Inhabitants of both the Counties at
this Ruefull scene of hitherto unparalleled Barbarities Barre all
words & cuts Description short.
The Twenty fifth, five hundred of the Lincoln militia com-
manded by Colo. Benjamin Logan (who hitherto had neither
been consulted nor solicited to our assistance) marched to the
Battle ground in Expectation of a second Engagement, but the
Enemy had march'd several Days before. from the order of
their march, with many other accruing circumstances, their num-
ber was supposed to be nearly six Hundred.
Forty seven of our Brave Kenetuckians were found in the
field, the matchless massacraed victims of their unprecedented
Cruelty-We are led to conceive that none were captivated,
from a number found at the crossing of the Creek tied & Butch-
ered with knives & spears.
Laboring under these Distressing Circumstances we rely on
your goodness (actuated from a principle of Universal Benevo-
lence which is the distinguishing Characteristic of the truly great
& noble soul) that we will not only become the subjects of your
commiseration, but of your Patronage & Protection also. the Bal-
lance stands upon an Equilibrium & one stroke more will cause
it to Preponderate to our Irretrievable Wo, & terminate in the
Intire Breach of our Country, if your Excellency is not concerned
in our Immediate safety-
Appendix.
229
The Author of this narrative is a Person in a private
sphere of life & hopes that your forgiving Candour, will induce
you, to not only pardon the Intrusion, but the many Inaccuracies
that may appear through the whole of this Illiterate & undi-
gested Detail-as it comes from a welwisher to American Liberty
& your Excellency's most obed't H'ble Servt.
Todd, John,
OFFICERS AND MEN WHO WERE KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF THE
BLUE LICKS.
Harlan, Silas,
Beasley, John,
Bulger, John,
Gordon, John,
Kincaid, Joseph,
APPENDIX O.
Givins, William,
Hinson,
Kennedy, John,
COLONELS.
MAJORS.
CAPTAINS.
LIEUTENANTS.
SURGEON.
Brown, James.
Trigg, Stephen.
Bulger, Edward.
Lindsay, Joseph,
McBride, William,
Overton, Clough.
McGuire,
Rogers, Barnett.
230
The Battle of the Blue Licks.
Boone, Israel,
Corn, Esau,
Cunningham, Hugh,
Eads, William,
Ferguson, Charles,
Field, Ezekiel,
Folley, John,
Fry, John,
Graham, James (little),
Greggs, Daniel,
Green, Jervis,
Harris, William,
Ledgerwood, James,
Marshall, Gilbert,
McBride, Francis,
McConnell, Andrew,
McCracken, Isaac,
PRIVATES.
Todd, Levi,
OFFICERS AND MEN WHO ESCAPED AT THE BATTLE OF THE
BLUE LICKS.
Patterson, Robert,
Johnson, Samuel,
COLONEL.
Boone, Daniel.
MAJORS.
Miller, Henry,
Nelson, John,
O'Neal, John,
Price, John,
Polley, Drury,
Rose, Mathias,
Robertson, William,
Smith, James,
Smith, William,
CAPTAINS.
Stewart, William,
Stephens, William,
Stapleton, John,
Stern, Val.,
Willson, John,
Wilson, John,
Wilson, Israel.
McGary, Hugh.
Ellis, William.
Appendix.
231
..
ENSIGN.
McMurtry, John.
Graham, James,
Grant, 'Squire,
Hayden, Benjamin,
Harget, Peter,
Kincaid, James,
Boone, Samuel,
Boone, Squire, junior,
Bradford, John,
Cooper, Benjamin,
Craig, Jerry,
Craig, Whitfield,
Field, William,
PRIVATES.
May, William,
Morgan, James,
McCullough, James,
Netherland, Benjamin,
Reynolds, Aaron,
Rose, James,
Rose, Lewis,
Smith, John,
Steele, Andrew,
Twyman, Stephen,
Wilson, Henry,
Yocum, Jesse.
THE FILSON CLUB: AN OUTLINE OF ITS HISTORY AND
A LIST OF ITS OFFICERS AND MEMBERS.
BY REUBEN T. DURRETT, LL.D., PRESIDENT.
THE
'HE Filson Club is an historical association which took
its name from John Filson, the first historian of Ken-
tucky. In 1784 Filson published at Wilmington, Dela-
ware, the first history of Kentucky, and accompanied it
with a map, which was also the first map of the State.
This map was a marvel of merit for the early day at
which it was produced. It laid down rivers and creeks,
mountains and hills, prairies and canebrakes, salt licks and
mineral springs, towns and stations, mills and dwelling-
houses, roads and traces, and did it all so accurately that
the early history of Kentucky can not be understood
without it. The history was a small octavo volume of
one hundred and eighteen pages, the chief merit of which
was the life of Daniel Boone which it contained. Both
the history and the map have now become very scarce,
and command almost any price that a holder chooses to
ask for them. The last sale known to have been made
of the history was many years ago, at the price of one
hundred and fifty dollars, and no sale of one of the maps
is remembered.
30
234
The Filson Club
When this history and map had reached the venerable
age of one hundred years The Filson Club was established.
It was organized in Louisville, Kentucky, on the 15th day
of May, 1884, by Reuben T. Durrett, Richard H. Collins,
William Chenault, John Mason Brown, Basil W. Duke,
George M. Davie, James S. Pirtle, Thomas W. Bullitt,
Alexander P. Humphrey, and Thomas Speed. At the
meeting for organization it was given the simple name of
"The Filson Club" in preference to The Filson Histor-
ical Association, or any other name, and has retained it
ever since without any disposition or effort to change it.
Of the founders of the Club, Richard H. Collins and John
Mason Brown have since died. The other eight are still
living and actively engaged in the work of the Club.
The object of the Club was to promote historic studies
among its members, and to secure combined effort in the
collecting, preserving, and publishing of original historic
matter. Kentucky history was made an especial and
leading object, and the archives of the Club have been
enriched with some valuable papers on this subject. Selec-
tions have from time to time been made from the papers
read before the Club and filed among its archives for
publication. These publications have now reached the
twelfth number, and have been much admired, not only
for the original matter they contain, but also for the
And List of Its Members.
235
ĭ
attractive style in which they appear. The Club adopted
the quarto form in its first publication, and has adhered
to it ever since. The book has been so designed that it
can be changed from the quarto to the octavo form if
any one so wishes, but it is so attractive in its present
form, with broad margins on pure white antique paper,
that no one has had the courage to mar its beauty by
contracting its dimensions.
At least one of these volumes or monographs will here-
after be published each year. The probability is that after
the present year as many as two will be published annually,
or one every six months. It has been suggested that a
monthly or quarterly periodical be published in place of
the monographs, but it is not likely that any such change
will be made in the near future. The following is a list
of the publications of the Club to date:
THE FILSON CLUB PUBLICATIONS.
1. The Life and Writings of John Filson, the first his-
torian of Kentucky. By Reuben T. Durrett, LL.D., Presi-
dent of The Filson Club. Likeness of Filson, fac-simile of
one of his letters, and photo-lithographic reproduction of his
map of Kentucky in 1784. 4to, pp. 132. 1884.
2. The Wilderness Road. By Captain Thomas Speed,
Secretary of The Filson Club. Map showing the routes
1
236
The Filson Club
•
of travel by which Kentucky was settled. 4to, pp. 85.
1886.
3. The Pioneer Press of Kentucky. By William Henry
Perrin, member of The Filson Club. Fac-simile of the Ken-
tucky Gazette and Farmer's Library, cut of the first printing
house in Kentucky, and likenesses of John Bradford, Shad-
rack Penn, and George D. Prentice. 4to, pp. 93. 1888.
4. The Life and Times of Judge Caleb Wallace. By
William H. Whitsitt, D.D., LL. D., member of The Filson
Club. 4to, pp. 154. 1888.
5. An Historical Sketch of St. Paul's Church, Louisville,
Kentucky. By Reuben T. Durrett, LL.D., President of The
Filson Club. Likenesses of Reverend William Jackson and
Reverend E. T. Perkins, D. D., and views of the church as
first constructed and as it appears at present. Small 4to,
PP. 75. 1889.
6. The Political Beginnings of Kentucky. By Colonel
John Mason Brown, member of The Filson Club. Likeness
of the author. 4to, pp. 263. 1889.
7. The Centenary of Kentucky. Containing the proceed-
ings of the celebration by The Filson Club of the one hun-
dredth anniversary of the Statehood of Kentucky, June 1,
1892. By Reuben T. Durrett, LL. D., President of The
Filson Club. Likenesses of Colonel Durrett, Major Stanton,
Sieur La Salle and General Clark, and fac-similes of the
music and words sung on the occasion. 4to, pp. 200. 1892.
)
And List of Its Members.
237
8. The Centenary of Louisville. A paper read before
the Southern Historical Society, May 1, 1880, in commem-
oration of the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of
Louisville. By Reuben T. Durrett, LL.D., President of
The Filson Club. 4to, pp. 200. 1893.
9. The Political Club. An account of a debating society
which existed in Danville, Kentucky, from 1786 to 1790.
By Captain Thomas Speed, Secretary of The Filson Club.
4to, pp. 180. 1894.
10. The Life and Writings of Constantine Samuel
Rafinesque. By Richard Ellsworth Call, M. A., M. Sc.,
M. D., member of The Filson Club. Likenesses of Rafin-
esque and fac-similes of pages from his Fishes of the Ohio
and Botany of Louisville. 4to, pp. 239. 1895.
11. The History of Transylvania University, the first
seat of higher education west of the Alleghany Mountains.
By Robert Peter, M. D., and Miss Johanna Peter, mem-
bers of The Filson Club. Likeness of Doctor Peter, and
unusually full index. 4to, pp. 202. 1896.
12. Bryant's or Bryan's Station, and the memorial pro-
ceedings on its site under the auspices of the Lexington
Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, August
18, 1896, in honor of its heroic mothers and daughters.
Prepared for publication by Reuben T. Durrett, LL. D.,
President of the Filson Club.
4to, pp. 280. 1897.
238
The Filson Club
It was the original purpose of the organization to
limit its membership to such persons only as have a taste
for historic studies and a disposition to pursue them.
It was soon found, however, that historic students are
few in number, and that an organization kept up by them
alone would be both burdensome and doubtful of success.
It was determined, therefore, to broaden the field of eligi-
bility to the Club so as to embrace members who, though
having no disposition themselves to write history or to
collect historic facts, yet took enough interest in the matter
to contribute to the expense of others engaged in such
work. Hence after the first year new members began to
be added to the Club, not especially for their knowledge
of history, nor for their disposition to collect and preserve
historic facts, but because of their success in other pur-
suits and their willingness to contribute to the success of
this. The Club began with ten members in 1884, and
now numbers about four hundred at the beginning of the
year 1897.
During the first seven years of its existence the Club
was a simple association of individuals banded together
for mutual benefits. In 1891, however, it was incorporated
under the general statutes of Kentucky, and given a charter
and perpetual succession. By this act of incorporation it
was empowered to hold property and to make by-laws
And List of Its Members.
239
for its government. The management of its affairs was
committed to its officers by its charter, and every thing
made to proceed with the utmost simplicity. Now that
the Club is an incorporated body capable of holding prop-
erty it is expected that an effort will be made at an early
day to secure a house of its own in which to hold its
meetings and to store its books, manuscripts, relics, etc.
The Club meets the first Monday night in each month
except July, August, and September. At each meeting a
paper prepared for the purpose is read by a member, and
the subject then opened for general discussion. These
papers are voluntarily prepared and read. The Club
exacts no duty of the kind from any member. Each
member is required to pay annually three dollars for a
publication and expense fund, and when this is done all
his or her obligations cease. There are no initiation fees,
no fines, no charges, and absolutely no obligations beyond
the payment of the annual dues of three dollars, and for
this payment the members get free of cost the publi-
cations of the Club.
When it was determined to enlarge the eligibility of
new members ladies were included. Women who had
distinguished themselves in literature, in science, in art,
etc., were deemed as worthy of becoming members as
men. Intellect and culture were considered the passport
240
The Filson Club
to membership, and not sex. Hence ladies have from
time to time been admitted to the Club until they con-
stitute a large proportion of its members and exert a
corresponding refining influence upon its membership.
It was also intended to have members in each county
in the State, for the purpose of placing the Club in touch
with the historic matter of every section. This end has
not yet been fully reached, but it is hoped it will be in
the near future.
Membership has always been confined to citizens of
Kentucky. No one residing outside of the State has yet
been elected a member, although some citizens after being
made members have moved out of the State. Their
membership was not forfeited by the change of domicile
if they wished to retain it.
Neither has the Club as yet elected honorary members,
though it will probably do so in the future. Applications
have frequently been made for the election of eminent
persons as honorary members, but the Club has always
postponed action on the subject.
During the existence of the Club it has lost a number
of its members by death. Among these were some of
the most distinguished citizens of the State. General
William Preston and the Reverend Edward P. Humphrey
died in 1887; the Reverend James P. Boyce, Richard
And List of Its Members.
24I
H. Collins, and the Honorable Harrison D. Taylor, in
1888; Colonel James F. Buckner and Colonel John Mason
Brown, in 1889; the Honorable Harvey M. Watterson and
General Alpheus Baker, in 1891; the Honorable Richard
J. Brown and John K. Goodloe, in 1892; Richard J. Men-
efee, the Honorable John H. McHenry, Doctor William H.
Galt, and Judge Samuel E. DeHaven, in 1893; the Rev-
erend Richard H. Rivers, Doctor Robert Peter, and William
D. Gallagher, in 1894; the Reverend John A. Broadus, the
Honorable John A. Murray, Colonel Lewis E. Harvie, and
the Honorable Charles Anderson, in 1895; Mayor Henry
S. Tyler, General John Echols, Judge George B. Eastin,
Doctor H. K. Pusey, the Reverend William D. Young,
and Professor Jason W. Chenault, in 1896, and Professor
Maurice Kirby and the Honorable Albert S. Willis, in
1897.
Once in every five years the Club publishes a list of
its members. In 1892 a list appeared in The Centenary
of Kentucky, which was the Club publication for that
year. Five years have now elapsed since that publication
was made, and the time has now arrived for another
quinquennial list. The following is a full list of the officers
and members of the Club at the beginning of the year
1897, with the names of the members alphabetically
arranged:
31
242
The Filson Club
OFFICERS OF THE FILSON CLUB.
REUBEN T. DURRETT, LL. D.,
. . President.
THE HONORABLE J. STODDARD JOHNSTON, Vice-President.
CAPTAIN THOMAS SPEED,
. Secretary.
Treasurer.
COLONEL ATTILLA COX,
MEMBERS OF THE FILSON CLUB.
Adams, Honorable George M., Louisville, Kentucky.
Alexander, Alexander John, . . Spring Station, Kentucky.
Lexington, Kentucky.
Allen, James Lane,
Allen, Miss Eva,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Allin, Philip T.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Anderson, Colonel Latham,
.. Kuttawa, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Anderson, Miss Mary Dorsay,
Anderson, Wilkins G.,
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Anderson, Miss Annie S., . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Armstrong, Russell,
Pewee Valley, Kentucky.
Atkinson, John Bond,
Atherton, John M.,
Atherton, Peter Lee, .
Averill, Doctor W. H.,
Bacon, Byron,
Balke, Rudolph F.,
·
·
•
·
•
Earlington, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Frankfort, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
. Louisville, Kentucky.
•
And List of Its Members.
243
Barret, John,
Barret, James S.,
Barret, Henry W.,
•
Ballard, Charles T.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Barnett, Mrs. Evelyn S. S., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Barker, Maxwell S.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Barkhouse, Lewis,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Barlow, Miss Florence,
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Barr, Honorable John W., . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Barr, Garland H.,
Lexington, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Beckham, James C.,
Shelbyville, Kentucky.
Beckner, Honorable Wm. M., Winchester, Kentucky.
Belknap, William R.,
Belknap, Morris B.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.
Richmond, Kentucky.
Bell, Captain W. E.,
Bennett, Honorable John,
Bierbower, Frederick H., . . . . Maysville, Kentucky.
Blain, Miss Lucia,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Blain, Randolph,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Blanton, Reverend L. A.,
. Richmond, Kentucky.
Bloom, Doctor I. N.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Bohannan, Doctor Thomas,
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Bohne, Ernest C.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Booker, William F.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Booker, William F..
Springfield, Kentucky.
•
•
·
•
·
•
244
The Filson Club
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Boyce, Miss Lizzie F.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Boyd, Mrs. Lucinda,
Cynthiana, Kentucky.
Bransford, Clifton W.,
Owensboro, Kentucky.
Brown, George G.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Bruce, Honorable Horatio W., Louisville, Kentucky.
Bruce, Helm,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Bryan, Honorable James W.,
Bryan, Miss Mary B.,
. Covington, Kentucky.
Lexington, Kentucky.
Buck, Honorable Charles W., . Louisville, Kentucky.
Buckner, Governor Simon B., Rio, Kentucky.
Bullitt, Major Thomas W., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Burnam, Honorable Curtis F., Richmond, Kentucky.
Burnett, Honorable Theo. L., Louisville, Kentucky.
Burnett, Henry,
Paducah, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Burton, George L.,
Bush, Honorable W. P. D.,
Cain, Paul,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Caldwell, Mrs. Minnie Norton, Louisville, Kentucky.
Boone, Samuel H.,
Bourne, Captain James M.,
Bowser, Mrs. Annie C.,
·
·
•
•
•
•
Call, Doctor R. Ellsworth, ... Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
Canine, Doctor George E.,. Louisville, Kentucky.
Cantrill, Honorable James E., Georgetown, Kentucky.
Cantrill, Mrs. Mary C.,
Georgetown, Kentucky.
And List of Its Members.
245
Lebanon, Kentucky.
Carlisle, John B.,
Carrington, Professor John B., Louisville, Kentucky.
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Castleman, General John B.,
Castleman, Mrs. Alice B.,
Castleman, Breckinridge,
Catlin, Miss Olive B., .
Cawein, Madison J.,
Chamberlain, Miss Catherine,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Chenault, Honorable William,
Richmond, Kentucky.
Chenault, C. D., .
Richmond, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Newstead, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Childress, Rufus J.,
Clardy, Doctor John D.,
Clarke, Peyton N.,
•
•
•
Clay, Honorable Cassius M., jr. Paris, Kentucky.
·
Clay, General Cassius M.,
Clay, Colonel Thomas H., . . . Lexington, Kentucky.
Lexington, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Clay, Mrs. Annie Gratz,
Clay, Mrs. Mary Rogers,
Clay, Miss Lucretia Hart,
Coates, Mrs. Ida Symmes,
Cochran, Robert,
White Hall, Kentucky.
· Lexington, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Cochran, Gavin H.,
Coleman, Reverend Henry R., Louisville, Kentucky.
Collier, Reverend James R., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Coleman, Mrs. Isabella R. M., Lexington, Kentucky.
246
The Filson Club
Cooke, Honorable Lyttleton, . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Lexington, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Cox, Attilla,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Cox, Luke O., .
Louisville, Kentucky.
Craik, Reverend Charles E., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Dabney, Doctor S. G.,
Danforth, Miss Josephine L., Louisville, Kentucky.
Davie, George M.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Davidson, Reverend A. C., . . . Georgetown, Kentucky.
Davis, Major William J.,. . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
DeFuniak, Colonel Fred., . Louisville, Kentucky.
Deppen, Very Rev. Louis G., Louisville, Kentucky.
Descognets, Mrs. Anna R., . . . Lexington, Kentucky.
Dickey, Reverend John J., . . . London, Kentucky.
Dickey, Mrs. Fannie Porter, . . Glasgow, Kentucky.
Diehl, Conrad Lewis,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Henderson, Kentucky.
Dixon, Doctor Archibald,
Doolan, John C.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Owingsville, Kentucky.
Dougherty, William H.,
Dudley, Right Reverend T. U., Louisville, Kentucky.
Duke, General Basil W.,. . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Duke, Mrs. Henrietta Morgan, Louisville, Kentucky.
Cooper, Albert R.,
Cooper, John G.,
Cottell, Doctor Henry A.,
Cowan, Colonel Andrew,
•
•
•
And List of Its Members.
247
Dulaney, Hon. William Leroy, Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Duncan, Mrs. Fannie Cassedy, Louisville, Kentucky.
DuRelle, Honorable George, Louisville, Kentucky.
Durrett, Reuben T.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Durrett, Doctor William T., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Durrett, Mrs. Sarah E.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Durrett, R. T., junior,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Eastin, Mrs. Fannie C.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Estill, Reverend Reverdy,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Evans, Honorable Walter,... Louisville, Kentucky.
Fairleigh, David W.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Farnsley, Burrel H.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Field, Honorable Emmet,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Fink, Colonel Albert,
Ford, Arthur Y.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Fowler, John,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Fox, John, junior,
Frankel, Henry U.,
Frazee, Doctor L. J.,
French, David Humphrey,
Galleher, John B.,
Gardner, Miss Lizzie,
•
•
•
·
•
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
La Grange, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Garnett, Virgil A..
Pembroke, Kentucky.
Garnett, Honorable James, .
Columbia, Kentucky.
Garvin, Doctor Samuel H., . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
•
•
Big Stone Gap, Virginia.
1
248
The Filson Club
Gaulbert, George,
Gaulbert, J. William,
Geppert, Mrs. Hester Higbee,
Gibson, Charles H.,
•
•
•
·
Atlanta, Georgia.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Gilbert, Doctor Richard B., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Gilbert, G. G.,
Shelbyville, Kentucky.
Goodloe, Miss Abbie Carter, . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Goodnight, Thomas M., Frankfort, Kentucky.
Grant, Doctor Thomas P., . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Grant, Doctor E. A.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Grant, William T.,
Greene, Doctor Waller O., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Greene, Miss Nanci Lewis, . . . Lexington, Kentucky.
Green, Colonel Thomas M., . . Danville, Kentucky.
Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Grimes, Joseph S., .
Griswold, Howard M..
Griswold, Alexander,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Grubbs, Charles S.,
Hagan, Frank,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Haldeman, Walter N.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Haldeman, Bruce, .
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Halsey, Edward T.,
Hamilton, Miss Annie J., . . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Hamilton, Reverend Sam. L.,. Louisville, Kentucky.
Hamilton, Reverend S. M., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
•
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
•
And List of Its Members.
249
Harris, Honorable Walter O.,. Louisville, Kentucky.
Harrison, Mrs. Ida Withers,
. Lexington, Kentucky.
Versailles, Kentucky.
Hart, Mrs. Rebecca T.,
Hartwell, Frank N.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Harvey, Reverend Wm. P., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Hays, Major Thomas H.,
Hegan, Miss Alice C.,.
Nashville, Tennessee.
Helm, Miss Lucinda B.,
Helm, James P.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
Helm, John L.,
.. Louisville, Kentucky.
Hemphill, Reverend C. R.,
Henry, John F.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Henton, Mrs. Sara H.,
Hermany, Charles,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Hewitt, General Lafayette, . . . Frankfort, Kentucky.
Heywood, Reverend John H.,. Louisville, Kentucky.
Williamsburg, Kentucky.
Hill, Reuben Douglas,
Hill, Thomas P.,
•
•
·
•
•
·
Stanford, Kentucky.
Hite, S. S., .
Louisville, Kentucky.
Hirst, Miss Gertrude M., . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Hobson, General Edward H., Greensburg, Kentucky.
Hoke, Honorable William B.,. Louisville, Kentucky.
Hopper, James W., .
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Howard, Honorable Henry L., . Harlan C. H., Kentucky.
Humphrey, Honorable A. P.,. Louisville, Kentucky.
32
250
The Filson Club
Humphrey, E. W. C., . . . . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Humphreys, Mrs. Sarah G., . . Versailles, Kentucky.
Hundley, John B.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Huntoon, Benjamin B.,
Hurst, William L.,
Compton, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Ingram, Doctor Julia A.,
Jacob, Honorable Charles D.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Jacobs, Robert P.,
Danville, Kentucky.
Jefferson, T. L.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Johnson, Charles F.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Johnson, Colonel E. Polk,
... Louisville, Kentucky.
Johnson, William P.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Johnston, Honorable J. Stod., Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Johnston, Miss Mary,
Kearns, Doctor Charles,
•
·
Covington, Kentucky.
Kelly, Colonel Robert M.,
Kerr, Charles,
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Lexington, Kentucky.
Keyes, Miss Idelle,
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Kinkead, Robert C.,
Kinkead, Miss Elizabeth S., Lexington, Kentucky.
Knott, Richard W.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Lebanon, Kentucky.
Knott, William Thomas,
Knott, Stuart R.,
La Bree, Benjamin,
Lafon, Miss Mary,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
·
•
And List of Its Members.
251
Lawrence, Doctor Anna F., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Leathers, Captain John H., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Lee, Miss Fanny B.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Lewis, John C.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Lewis, Henry John,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Lewis, Mrs. Virginia W.,
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Tallahassee, Florida.
Lewis, Alvin F.,
Lewis, John F.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Lewman, George W.,
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Lindsay, Honorable William, . Frankfort, Kentucky.
Lithgow, James S.,
Logan, Emmet G.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Lexington, Kentucky.
Lexington, Kentucky.
Loos, William J.,
Loving, Hector V.,.
Lyle, Miss Lizzie Agnes,
Lyle, Mrs. Marie C. N.,
MacKoy, Honorable Wm. H., Covington, Kentucky.
Mac Leod, Colonel John, . . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Mark, Professor Edgar H., . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Miller, Shackelford,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Morris, George W.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Morton, Reverend David, . . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Morton, Honorable J. R., .
Lexington, Kentucky.
•
Miller, Miss Elvira S.,
Miller, Howard,
·
•
252
The Filson Club
Moses, Reverend Adolph,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Moss, Thomas Edward,
Paducah, Kentucky.
Muir, Honorable Peter B., Louisville, Kentucky.
Mulligan, Honorable James H., Lexington, Kentucky.
Mulligan, Mrs. Genevieve M., . Lexington, Kentucky.
McCarthy, Mrs. Lily Pyles, Louisville, Kentucky.
McChord, William C., . . . . Springfield, Kentucky.
McClosky, Rt. Rev. Wm. George, Louisville, Kentucky.
McCreary, Honorable James B., Richmond, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
McCulloch, J. G., . . .
McDermott, Edward J.,
McDonald, Harry P.,
McDonald, Donald,
McDowell, Doctor Hervey, . . . Cynthiana, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
McDowell, Major Henry C., . . Lexington, Kentucky.
Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.
Princeton, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
·
•
McKee, Lewis W.,
McNary, Hugh F.,
Newcomb, Herman Danforth,.
Nones, William C.,
Nold, Miss Annie F..
•
•
Obenchain, Professor Wm. A., Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
O'Neal, Joseph T.,
Ouchterlony, Doctor John A., . Louisville, Kentucky.
Owsley, Honorable William F., Burkesville, Kentucky.
Palmer, Professor Chase,. . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
And List of Its Members.
253
Patterson, Reverend James K., Lexington, Kentucky.
Patterson, Professor John, Louisville, Kentucky.
Parker, Doctor John W. F., . . Somerset, Kentucky.
Pearce, Doctor Robert W., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Peck, Mrs. Josephine E., Louisville, Kentucky.
Perkins, Benjamin T., junior, . Elkton, Kentucky.
Perkins, Honorable George G., Covington, Kentucky.
Perkins, Reverend Edmund T., Louisville, Kentucky.
Peter, Miss Johanna,
Lexington, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Pettus, Joseph,
Phillips, Harry R.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Pickett, Doctor Thomas E., . . Maysville, Kentucky.
▼
·
Pirtle, Honorable James S., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Pirtle, Captain Alfred,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Pope, Mrs. Sallie Ewing,
Pope, Doctor Curran T.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Porter, Doctor Newton,
Eminence, Kentucky.
Powell, Reverend Edward L.,. Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Price, General Samuel W.,
Price, Miss Sadie F.,
Priest, William C.,
Pryor, Hon. William S.,
Quisenberry, John A., ·
Quisenberry, A. C.,
Ranck, George W.,
•
·
•
·
Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
New Castle, Kentucky.
Danville, Kentucky.
Washington, D. C.
Lexington, Kentucky.
254
The Filson Club
Revill, Joseph C.,
. Burlington, Kentucky.
Reyland, Reverend William S., Russellville, Kentucky.
Reynolds, Doctor Dudley S., Louisville, Kentucky.
Richardson, Orla C., . . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Richie, Hon. Charles G., Louisville, Kentucky.
Riddle, Honorable Robert, . Irvine, Kentucky.
Robinson, Richard A., senior, Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Robinson, Charles B.,
Rodman, Doctor James,
Rolph, William T., .
Rucker, Reverend James J.,. . Georgetown, Kentucky.
Russell, John C.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Lebanon, Kentucky.
Russell, Hon. William E.,
Rutledge, Arthur M.,
Sampson, John R.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Middlesborough, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Sanders, Major David W.,
Sayre, E. D., . .
Lexington, Kentucky.
Sayre, Mrs. Mary Lovell, ·
Lexington, Kentucky.
Scott, Mrs. Elizabeth S. B., . . Lexington, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Scott, Miss Jeanie P.,
Sea, Mrs. Sophia Fox,
Sebree, Elijah Garth,
Semple, Mrs. Patty B.,
Henderson, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Semple, Miss Ellen C.,
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Semple, Miss Lillian,
Louisville, Kentucky.
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•
•
Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
And List of Its Members.
255
Hartford, Kentucky.
. Lexington, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Smith, Doctor David T.,
Smith, Milton H.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Smith, Honorable Zach. F., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Midway, Kentucky.
Barbourville, Kentucky.
Stewart, Miss Jessie,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Stewart, Doctor John Q. A., . . Frankfort, Kentucky.
Stites, John,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Stone, Doctor Barton W.,
Shanks, Quintus C.,
Shelby, Mrs. Susan Hart,
Sherley, Thomas H.,
Shipp, Bernard,
Simonson, D. G.,
·
Speed, James B.,
Speed, Captain Thomas,
Stanton, Major Henry T.,
Steele, John A.,
Stephenson, Daniel,
. Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
Strother, Professor James M.,. Louisville, Kentucky.
Strother, John C.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Swearingen, George W.,
Swearingen, Embry L.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Lexington, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
•
Swift, Henry Clay,
Taggart, John D.,
Taney, Miss Mary Florence,. . Covington, Kentucky.
Taylor, General Thomas H., . Louisville, Kentucky.
256
The Filson Club
Frankfort, Kentucky.
Taylor, Edward H., junior,
Taylor, P. Fall,
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Terry, Alvah L.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Thomas, Reverend Frank M., Louisville, Kentucky.
Thornton, Robert A.,
Lexington, Kentucky.
Versailles, Kentucky.
Thornton, David L.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Thixton, Miss Mary M.,
Thruston, R. C. Ballard,
Tipton, Honorable French, . . . Richmond, Kentucky.
Todd, Honorable George D.,. Louisville, Kentucky.
Todd, Doctor Lyman Beecher, Lexington, Kentucky.
Todd, Doctor Charles H., Owensboro, Kentucky.
Trabue, Edward F.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Tucker, Mrs. Mattie B.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Turner, Clarence F.,
Sulphur, Kentucky.
Tyler, Mrs. Mary Creel,
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Walker, Miss Lizzie,
. Hartford, Kentucky.
Walker, Walter, .
Louisville, Kentucky.
Versailles, Kentucky.
Wallace, Edmund M.,
Walter, Lewis A.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Waltz, Reverend S. S..
Louisville, Kentucky.
Ward, Honorable John Q.,
. Cynthiana, Kentucky.
Ward, Colonel John H.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Warren, Eugene C.,
. . Louisville, Kentucky.
Warren, Reverend Edward L., Louisville, Kentucky.
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•
And List of Its Members.
257
Watkins, Thomas G.,
...Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Watts, Mrs. Margaret A.,
Watts, Miss Lucy,
Watterson, Honorable Henry, Louisville, Kentucky.
. Louisville, Kentucky.
Wells, Lewis G.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Weissinger, Harry,
Owensboro, Kentucky.
... Nicholasville, Kentucky.
Stanford, Kentucky.
Danville, Kentucky.
·
•
Weir, James,
Welch, John Harrison,
Welsh, William G.,
Welsh, G. W.,
White, John,
White, Honorable John D., . . . Salt Creek, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Grayson, Kentucky.
Whitesides, Mrs. Adelaide S.,
Whitsitt, Reverend Wm. H.,
Wilhoite, E. B., . . . .
Williams, Miss Margaret C., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Willson, Augustus E.,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Wilson, Miss Annie E.,
Winter, Julius, senior,
Wood, George T.,
Wood, William F.,
Woodson, Isaac T., .
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Woods, Robert Emmett,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Woolley, Colonel Robert W.,
Yager, Professor Arthur,
Georgetown, Kentucky.
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258
The Filson Club
Yandell, Doctor David W.,
Yandell, Mrs. Louise E.,
Yandell, Miss Enid,
Yerkes, John W., . .
Young, Colonel Bennett H., . . Louisville, Kentucky.
Younglove, John E.,
Zorn, Sebastian,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Danville, Kentucky.
•
"O
Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Accessions to Bryan's Station.
Adkinson and Mitchell Killed
Adkinson, Robert
•
INDEX.
Akers, Mrs. Katherine Blair..
Alexander, Mrs. Lucy Fullerton.
Anderson, Honorable Charles...
Anderson, Mrs. Davie Blythe..
Apperson, Mrs. Margaret Thomas..
Arrival of Succor for Bryant's
Assault and Repulse of the Indians..
Attack on Bryant's Station
Attack on Bryant's, Date of..
Attack on Bryant's as planned by Captain Caldwell.
Baker, General Alpheus..
•
•
•
Baptist Church at Bryant's..
Battle of the Blue Licks..
Battle of the Blue Licks as planned by Enemy.
Battle-field of the Blue Licks...
·
•
•
·
•
•
•
• •
43, note
·
•
•
•
•
•
*
76
104
48
I 2
195
131
214
218
Battle of the Blue Licks, a Sequel to Siege of Bryant's Station. ..
Battle of the Blue Licks, Account of by Colonel Daniel Boone
Battle of the Blue Licks, Account of by Colonel Levi Todd
Battle of the Blue Licks, Criticism on by Colonel Authur Campbell.. 220
Bassett, Miss Emma Latham
Bassett, Miss Annie Whitney
Bassett, Mrs. Martha Kenney
Bayonet against Tomahawk..
Beasley, Captain John ...
12
Beginning of the Battle of the Blue Licks..
Bell, Thomas.
12
241
12
12
121
41
99
34
29
241
124
I22
226
12
I 2
176
229
173
41, 48, 52, 76
260
Index.
Bird, Captain Henry
Black Letter Year in Kentucky
Blue Licks, Battle of..
Blue Licks Battle, Captain Caldwell's Account of.
Blue Licks Battle, Colonel Levi Todd's Account of
Blue Licks Battle, Captain McKee's Account of
Blue Licks Battle, Colonel Logan's Account of
Boone, Daniel...
Boone, Israel. . .
Boone, Samuel...
Boone, Daniel, Escapes to his own Fort..
Boone, Daniel, Letter to Governor Harrison
Boone, Daniel, His Account of the Battle of the Blue Licks.
Boone, Squire, junior
• ►
•
•
• •
• •
Boonesborough Station...
Boonesborough Worthy of a Monument.
Boone, Jemima . . . .
Boswell, Mrs. Hannah Moore..
Boswell, Miss Mary....
Boyce, Reverend James P....
Bradford, John
Breast of the Wild Turkey for Bread
Brick House on the Site of Bryan's ..
Brave Acts of Women too little regarded..
Brave Act of Bryant's Water-bearing Women.
Broadus, Reverend John A..
Brown, Colonel John Mason
Brown, Doctor James
Brown, Miss Mattie Wingfield .
•
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•
•
•
·
Brown, Honorable Richard J.
Bryan, Miss Mary B....
Bryan, William
Bryans, William, Morgan, James, and Joseph.
•
222
72, 77, 135, 138, 139, 149, 163, 166, 180, 230
230
231
194
214
214
231
25
54
54
• •
• •
•
•
·
...note 25
142
122
•
·
•
•
•
•
•
·
•
•
•
note
•
·
•
240
·35, 231
note
27
127
16
•
207
209
210
↑
51
241
135, 241
229
I 2
•
12
I2
241
IO, II, 12
•
71, 78
72
Index.
261
Bryan, William, senior, and Bryan, William, junior.
Bryans find their Claim to Station invalid..
Bryans, the Lands owned by them in Kentucky.
Bryans, Different Members of the Family in Kentucky..
Bryans Not in the Station During the Siege..
Bryan's Station at First Consisted of Twelve Cabins
Bryan's the Night After the Siege..
Bryan's Station in 1786..
Bryant's Station, When Established.
Bryant's Station Built by Bryans
Bryant's Station, Description of its Location..
Bryant's Station, Mode of Life Within its Walls
Bryant's Station, its Dual Name
Bryant's Station, First Act in the Siege of
Bryant and Bryan Indiscriminately Used
Bryants, the, Members of the Family..
Bryants, the, Lands Owned by Them..
Bryant's Station, Account of Siege by Colonel Boone
Bryant's Station, Account of Siege by Alexander McKee.
Bryant's Station, Account of Siege by Colonel Levi Todd
Bryant's Station, Account of Siege by Captain Caldwell.
Buckner, Colonel James F. .
Bulger, Major Edward .
Bulger, Captain John
Burgin, Mrs. Sallie Johnston
Burial of the Dead at Bryan's..
Burney, Simon.
Buffalo at the Blue Licks.
· •
•
• •
·
•
•
•
Building of Bryan's Station..
Caldwell's Plan of Attack on the Station.
·
•
• ·
•
•
•
•
Caldwell's Plan Understood by the Defenders of the Station
Caldwell, Captain William...
Caldwell's Letter in Haldimand Papers.
•
•
note
•
..note
..note
•
•
•
•
·
18, 23, 73
25
44
77
•
20
20
44
73
117
126
20
20
20
15
21
21
2 I
214
210
225
165
73
35
36
.note 28, 135, 151
207
209
207
241
229
229
I 2
I 20
262
Index.
Calloway, Betsy.
Calloway, Frances
Campbell, Colonel Arthur, on the Battle of the Blue Licks
Canadian Archives; Effect on Early Kentucky History..
Cary, Mrs. Theodora Sydney S. B.....
Casey, Mrs. Sybil Foote..
Cave, Mrs. Elizabeth Craig .
•
Cave, Polly
Cave, Hannah
Cave, Richard
Cave, Reuben.
·
•
• • •
•
•
•
•
•
Character of Those Assembled to Defend Bryant's
Chenault, Professor Jason W..
Chickasaws' Reasons for War.
·
• •
Citizens Only Elected Members of The Filson Club.
Clark, Colonel S., Letter to Governor Harrison..
•
• ·
•
•
•
Commander of Station When Siege Began.
Coleman, Mrs. Isabella Milligan
Colcamp, Mrs. Emma Forsythe.
Collins, Richard H.
•
·
Conflicting Estimates of Number of Indians.
Cook, Mrs. Jesse..
Cook, Mrs. Hosea.
Cooper, Benjamin. . .
Corn, Evan.
•
225
240
201
Clark, General George Rogers, Avenges the Battle of the Blue Licks. 123
Clark, General George Rogers
134, 148
Clark, General George Rogers, Letter to Governor Harrison.
Clay, Miss Lucretia Hart..
Clay, Rogers.
Clay, Mrs. Josephine Russell.
Clay, Mrs. Annie Gratz
Clay, Miss Miriam...
·
•
•
•
•
·
·
D
·
•
·
•
•
1
I 2
48, 50
48, 50
48, 50
48
•
·
55
55
220
vi
I, 2, II,
..6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 45
4
I 2
I 2
•
·
48
137
241
•
200
I 2
12
21, 241
46
I2
I 2
33
57
57
231
230
Index.
263
Council of War at Bryant's.
Council of War on the Licking
Craig, Albert G...
Craig, Benjamin..
Craig, Betsy....
Craig, Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson
Craig, Frankey....
Craig, Captain Elijah...
Craig, Reverend Elijah .
•
Craig, Elijah...
Craig, Frank..
Craig, Hawkins..
Craig, Jerry..
Craig, Lewis...
Craig, Reverend Lewis
Craig, Nathaniel.
Craig, Philip..
Craig, Mrs. Lucy Hawkins ..
Craig, Nancy.
Craig, Mrs. Polly Hawkins...
Craig, Sally..
Craig, Polly..
Craig, Mrs. Sarah Page.
Craig, John H...
Craig, John...
Craig, Captain Jeremiah
Craig, Captain John
Craig, Toliver, junior. .
Craig, Toliver, senior.
Craig, Whitfield.
Craig, William
•
•
· •
•
·
• ·
•
•
•
•
·
•
Cunningham, Hugh
Damage Done by Indians at Bryant's
•
•
*
D
·
·
·
•
• •
•
•
·
137
166
46
47
47, 50
.48, 50
48, 50
46
·
•
•
46
47, 48
•
•
47
.48, 50
47, 48, 50
47
48
231
47, 125
•
•
47, 48, 50
•
47, 48, 50
124
48
•
48, 50
47
48
..46, 48
·48, 50
46, 47
48
48
48, 231
48
230
110, 158
* 264
Index.
Dancing a Favorite Amusement in Bryant's Station.
Darnall, Miss Bessie..
34, 117, 134
Date of the Attack on Bryant's
Davis, Mrs. Samuel...
56
Day's March by Kentuckians
Day's March by Indians
161
162
Dead of the Battle of the Blue Licks all Buried in a Common Grave... 196
Dead Members of The Filson Club...
Deceit of Assailants Turned to Their Own Deception.
240
41
241
•
•
DeHaven, Judge Samuel E.
DeLong, Mrs. Ida C.
Detection of Ruse in Attack on Bryant's..
Des Cognets, Mrs. Anna Russell
Desecration of Dead on the Battle-field of the Blue Licks.
Different Opinions as to Date of Attack on Bryant's ...
Disorganized March Toward Indians at the Blue Licks.
Douglas, James
Dress of Kentucky Militia..
Dual Name of the Elkhorn Station
•
•
·
• •
•
• •
Dudley, Ambrose..
Dudley, Thomas P..
Durrett, Reuben T.
Durrett, Reuben T., First Act in the Siege of Bryant's
Durrett, Reuben T., The Filson Club..
Durrett, Reuben T.
Dutch Station on Beargrass.
Eads, William
•
•
• •
• •
Earliest Explorers of Site of Bryan's Station
Eastin, Judge George B.
Echols, General John ..
Edwards, Mrs. Lutie Kall
Elkhorn, Origin of the Name
Elliott, Matthew..
· ·
•
·
· • • D •
•
•
•
•
•
•
·
•
•
•
•
•
·
•
.note
·
•
Preface
·
..
•
•
27
I
12
15
233
1, 8, 9, 15, 233
note
25
230
70
241
241
100
I2
188
34
171
71
157
72
125
125
I
I2
70
153
Index.
265
}
Ellis, John
Ellis, Captain William
Emmal, Mrs. Annie Prewitt.
Estill, Miss Martha Rodes.
I 2
Evergreens on Blue Licks Battle-field...
196
Examples of Double Name of Bryant's Station
note 22
Extracts from Letters Showing Military Dissatisfaction in Kentucky.. 205
Families of those Slain in the Battle of the Blue Licks...
Fayette County Officers, Letter to Governor Harrison.
Ferguson, Charles
132
198
Fertility of the Soil around Bryan's
Ficklin, Thomas..
Ficklin, Joseph.
Ficklin, Mrs. Mary Herndon..
Ficklin, Philadelphia...
Field, William..
Field, Ezekial..
Field of Membership of The Filson Club Enlarged
Fighting Men in Different Counties in 1782
Fighting a Pioneer Amusement .
Fighting Men in Kentucky in 1782.
Filson, John....
Filson, John: His History and Map of Kentucky
Filson Club..
•
Floyd, Colonel John.
Floyd's Station
•
•
D
• •
Filson Club, List of its Publications
First History and Map of Kentucky
First Act in the Siege of Bryant's Station..
First Sight of Indians at Blue Licks...
First Shots from the Enemy at Blue Licks .
Firing of Cabins at Bryant's..
Fleming, William.
►
•
• ·
•
·
• •
•
•
71
76, 103, 106, 194, 230
I 2
•
• ·
•
•
230
.note 18, note 127
48
•
•
•
•
134
.note 28
48
.48, 50
48, 50
48, 231
.48, 230
338
·
•
•
•
233
233, 234, 235, 238, 242
235
233
15
165
171
ΙΟΙ
•
134
21, 35
•
•
•
21, 44
71, 134
25
. note
34
266
Index.
Folley, John
Food of the Indians at Ruddle's
Food Prepared at Bryant's for the Campaign
Footmen Fail to Enter Bryant's.
Forts in Fayette County in 1782
Fort Nelson, at Louisville.
Founders of The Filson Club.
Frank, Stephen
Fry, John
•
•
Goodloe, John K
Gordon, Captain John..
Graham, Doctor C. C... .
Graham, James (little)
Graham, James
•
•
•
•
Galt, Doctor William H.
Gano, Doctor Stephen F
Girls Who Went to the Spring for Water..
Girty, Simon.
Girty, James...
Givins, Lieutenant William..
•
Fugitives from Blue Licks Battle Escape Through the Woods.
Gallagher, William D., His Prophetic Poem...
Gallagher, William D., His Death
•
•
•
Grant, Squire.
Grant, John
Grant, William.
Graves, Mrs. Adeline
Greggs, Daniel.
Greene, Miss Nanci Lewis.
Green, Jervis
Guthrie, Mrs. Mary Thomas
Haldimand, Sir Frederick
Hamilton, Mrs. Emma Van Meter
•
·
...
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
·
•
•
•
• •
•
134
25
234
..76, 78
note
59
241
241
45
50
30, 31, 100, 112, 113, 116, 150, 154
109
229
241
229
note 47
230
48, 231
231
76
72
12
•
•
•
230
151
162
108
•
230
188
•
230
I2
230
13
note 144
13
✔
Index.
267
Hammond, John
Hammond, Martin...
Hammond, Mrs. Sarah Clement
Harrodsburg Advised of the Siege of Bryant's
Harrodsburg Station
Hard Winter of 1779-80...
Hart, Mrs. Nathaniel...
Hart, Nicholas
Harlan, Silas .
•
• ·
Harget, Peter .
•
•
Harbison, Mrs. Cecelia McClarty.
Harvie, Colonel Lewis E.
Harris, William
Hanson, Miss Jennie M.
Hawkins, Mrs. Laura Russell
•
• •
•
•
Hayden, Benjamin..
Heavy Firing on Bryant's Station
Help Sent for to Neighboring Stations
Henson, Lieutenant . .
Heroines Who Went to the Spring for Water
Herndon, Thomas
Herndon, Samuel....
Herndon, Edward
Herndon, Zachariah
History of Lexington Chapter D. A. R..
Historic Importance of Siege of Bryant's.
Hixon, William D...
Hogan, James
Honorary Members of The Filson Club Not Yet Elected
Horrors of the Retreat from Blue Licks..
• ·
Horses of Kentuckians Mounted by Indians
Hudelson, Jennie
Humphrey, Reverend Edward P.
•
·
•
• ·
•
•
48, 50
136
.note
•
·
25
78
55
150
141, 229
231
13
241
230
13
2, 13
231
103
136
229
50
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
note
.note
48
48
•
48
48
48
48
I
131
47
76
240
178
179
47
240
268
Index.
Humphreys, Mrs. Mary Taylor.....
Impression Made by Girty's Speech
Indians Alarmed by Gunboat on Ohio
Indians Surround the Spring at Bryant's.
Indians Killed in the Siege
Indians and Spring of 1780 Come Together
Indians Think Themselves Undiscovered at Bryant's..
Indian Killed in Sycamore at Bryant's..
Indian Signs Along the Road They Went
Indians did not Avoid Pursuit...
•
•
:
•
• •
• •
Indian Spies had Watched Advancing Kentuckians.
Indians Protected by Trees at Blue Licks...
Inhabitants of Bryant's when Siege Began..
Inmates of Fort Move to Open Country.
Inscription on the Spring Monument.
Invasion Necessary to Conquer Indians.
Invocation for Endurance of Monument.
Jealousies of Early Kentuckians . .
Johnson, Betsy....
•
Johnson, Captain Robert
Johnson, Captain Samuel
Johnson, Cave..
Johnson, Colonel Robert.. .
Johnson, James
Johnson, Jemima Suggett.
Johnson, Richard M..
Johnson, Sally .
•
Johnson, William.
Johnstone, Mrs. Hermine Cary Gratz
Johnston, Honorable J. Stoddard
Jones, David...
•
• •
•
• •
• •
• •
•
Kentucky Historians Agreed as to Date of Siege..
Kentucky Historians on Name of Station..
•
•
·
•
•
43
78
95
104
160
162
164
173
44
123
130
225
129
148
40, 42, 47, 50, 104
123
230
21, 45, 73
·40, 45
42, 47
note
•
"
• •
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
13
114
29
38
•
··40, 43, 47, 50
42, 47
47
47
13
45
76
34
vi
Index.
269
Kentucky Historians on Date of Siege.
Kentuckians Reach Licking Bottom.
Kentuckians Defeated at the Blue Licks
Kentuckians Killed at Ford of Licking.
Kennedy, St. John.
Kenton, Simon..
• •
·
Kincheloe's Station Destroyed..
Kincaid, James..
Kincaid, Captain Joseph...
King David's Three Mighty Men..
Kinkead, Miss Elizabeth Shelby.
Kinkead, Miss Eleanor Talbott
Kinkead, Mrs. Barton Shelby.
Kinkead, Mrs. Laura Stone.
Kinkead, Miss James Pindell
Kirby, Professor Maurice
Land Commissioners at Bryan's.
Lea, Mrs. Fanny Sanders..
Lea, Wainright . . .
Lee, Huttery.
•
LeCompt, Miss Margaret Jane
Ledgerwood, William
Ledgerwood, James.
Kerr, Miss Elizabeth H. . .
Killed in the Battle of the Blue Licks...
Killed in the Retreat from Blue Licks..
•
• •
•
•
•
•
Letter of Daniel Boone.
Letter of Colonel Arthur Campbell
Letter of Captain Caldwell
Letter of General Clark..
Letter of Colonel S. Clark..
Letter of Fayette County Officers
Letter of Colonel Benjamin Logan
+
•
•
•
•
• •
·
·
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
·
•
•
vi
164
173
180
13
241
77
48, 50
48
·
229
77
13
219
174
226
49, 230
.205, 214
220
231
229
51
1, 13
I, 13
2, 13
2
76
13
48
207
200
201
198
222
•
270
Index.
Letter of Alexander McKee..
Letters of Colonel Levi Todd..
Letters of Andrew Steele
Lexington Chapter D. A. R.
Lexington Chapter D. A. R. First to Honor Women of Bryant's
Lexington Station...
Lighted Arrows on Cabin Roofs at Bryant's
Lincoln Volunteers Greatest Sufferers
Linn's Station .
List of Filson Club Publications
List of Inhabitants at Bryant's when Siege Began
List of Killed in the Battle of the Blue Licks .
List of Members Lexington Chapter D. A. R...
List of Members of The Filson Club.
List of Survivors of the Battle of the Blue Licks
List of Women and Girls who went to the Spring
Livingston, James.
• •
·
•
•
•
•
·
•
•
·
•
·
205, 227
·
1, 2, 4, II, 12, 53, 128
vii
•
•
·
·
•
•
242
230
50
4
Logan, Colonel Benjamin.
119, 134, 189, 190, 195, 196, 222
.note 119
Loss of the Besieged and Besiegers at Bryant's
Logan's Arrival at Bryant's..
189
Logan Starts for Battle-field...
189
Logan Meets Returning Fugitives...
190
Logan's Second Start for Battle-field
Logan's Return to Bryant's...
195
196
222
Logan, Colonel Benjamin, His Letter to Governor Harrison.
Logan, Colonel Benjamin, His Account of the Battle of the Blue Licks . 222
Lyle, Miss Lizzie Agnes
Lyle, Mrs. Maria C...
Manner of Living in Bryant's.
Marshall, Humphrey
Marshall, Gilbert . .
Martin's and Ruddle's Stations
March of the Kentuckians from Bryant's .
210
209, 218
•
.note
. note
•
⇓
•
·
•
•
•
•
25
105
194
25
235
47
229
12
I, 13
2, II, 13
25
35
230
.note 114
157
•
Index.
271
Massie, Mrs. Lillie Higgins..
May, William..
•
McBride, Francis.
McBride, James .
McBride, Captain William
McClellan, Miss Mary
1, 13
McClung's Humor in Wrong Place.
52
McConnell, Andrew
230
McCracken, Isaac
230
McCullough, James
231
13
McDowell, Miss Madeline..
McGary, Major Hugh
III, 168, 170, 216, 230
McGuire, Lieutenant.
229
241
McHenry, Honorable John H.
McKee, Alexander.
.note 30, III, 135, 150, 152, 210
McKee, Alexander, His Account of Siege of Bryant's and the Battle
of the Blue Licks..
·
•
•
·
▸
•
McMurtry, Ensign John
Members of the Lexington Chapter D. A. R.
Members of The Filson Club ...
•
• ▸
•
Menefee, Richard J.
Merrell, Mrs. John
Messengers Overtake Help at Boone's
Metcalf, Miss Maud
Mexican Veterans
•
•
·
Miller, Henry..
Milligan, Mrs. Ellen M.
Mitchum, James.
Mitchum, John.
Mitchum, David.
Members of The Filson Club in Every County.
Meetings of The Filson Club.
Men, Women, and Children in Bryant's When Siege Began.
·
•
•
•
•
•
·
•
·
•
•
•
•
·
•
.note
·
•
•
•
•
•
13
231
230
49
229
❤
210
242
240
239
47
241
56
103
13
3
230
13
49
49
note 43, 48
231
I 2
272
Index.
Mitchell, Dudley
Mitchell, Richard..
Mitchell, William..
Mitchell and Adkinson Killed.
Moluntha, the Shawnese Chief.
Mounted Men Enter the Fort.
Morton, Mrs. J. R.
Morton, Mrs. Mary Gratz
Morgan, Mrs. Lavinia Herndon
Morgan, James.
Morgan, Mrs. John..
Mothers and Daughters who went for Water..
Murray, Honorable John A..
Mulligan, Honorable James H.
Mulligan, Mrs. Genevieve Morgan..
•
•
• • ·
•
· •
•
• •
•
•
· • •
•
•
•
• •
►
• D · •
• •
•
Name of Station According to Author of Article.
Names of Those in Bryant's when Siege Began...
Names of the Women and Girls who went to the Spring for Water.
Name of The Filson Club...
Narrow Path from Fort to Spring
Nelson, John..
Nelson, Edward .
Nelson, Mrs. Harriet Morgan.
Netherland, Benjamin. . . .
•
•
•
•
I04
.note and III
тоб
·
•
•
•
·
•
4
2, 13
.2, 13
note 49, 231
4
50
241
viii
viii, 13
vi
•
News of Departure of Indians..
Noggin Described. .
•
No Order Given to Retreat, but all Retreated by Intuition.
Number of Killed in Kentucky from 1775 to 1782..
Number of Indians who Attacked Bryant's.
Number of the Enemy..
Number in Bryant's when Siege Began..
Number of Women and Girls who went to the Spring for Water....
Nuchols, Mrs. Martha Thomas
•
•
· •
47
50
234
52
230
48
48, 50
183, 186, 231
118
96
177
133
33
.note and 146
.note 4I
5 I
13
•
.note
48
•
48
•
48
•
Index.
273
Object of Meeting at Bryant's..
Officers of Lexington Chapter D. A. R...
Officers Killed in the Blue Licks Battle
Officers of The Filson Club...
Officers Manage Affairs of The Filson Club
O'Neal, John....
Original Historic Matter Brought Out at Bryant's Station
Original Membership of The Filson Club.
Original Poem by Major Henry T. Stanton.
Original Sources of the History of Bryan's.
Origin of Lexington Chapter D. A. R.
Order of Command in the Battle of the Blue Licks.
•
• •
•
•
· •
•
•
·
•
•
· •
•
• •
•
Percentage of Killed at the Blue Licks
Percentage of Officers at the Blue Licks and Bryant's.
Pericles on Illustrious Athenians
• •
Peter, Mrs. Mary McCauley.
Peter, Doctor Robert
Piggin Described ..
•
Pioneer Women should be Honored with a Monument.
Plan of Defense by the Inmates of Bryant's .
•
Poem by Major Henry T. Stanton
Polley, Drurey..
Prayer of Doctor Lyman Beecher Todd...
Preston, Colonel William
Preston, General William
President of The Filson Club.
•
172
Overton, Captain Clough
229
Papers Necessary to Understand the Battle of the Blue Licks...note 102
Parker, Mrs. Virginia
Patterson, Robert..
Pepper, Miss Belle
Pepper, Miss Dixie
•
Price, John..
Prisoners Who Returned from the Blue Licks .
35
•
•
•
•
·
•
•
II,
•
·
•
•
•
•
•
•
15
I 2
173
242
239
230
viii
13
.73, 182, 230
13
13
178
238
62
70
I
20, 77
240
131
230
. note 188
137
16
13
241
96
17
36
62
230
6
{
274
Index.
Prisoners taken in 1780 by Captain Bird...
Proportion of Fighting Men Slain at the Blue Licks..
Proceedings at Bryant's fill a Gap in Kentucky History
Public Spirit in Lexington Chapter D. A. R..
Purpose of The Filson Club
Pusey, Doctor H. K.
Quinquennial List of Members of The Filson Club
Question of Waiting for Logan.
Ranck, Professor George W...
Ranck, Professor George W., Story of Bryan's Station.
Ranck, Miss Mary Carty
Railley, Mrs. Ada Pepper..
Rash Insubordination of McGary.
Reese, Mrs. Florence Sullivan.
Religious Services in Bryant's..
Reported Deaths in the Battle of the Blue Licks
Repulse of the Indians at Bryant's....
Retreat or Death at the Blue Licks.
Retreat of Kentuckians at the Blue Licks
Return of Women to Bryant's with Water
Reynolds, Aaron
Rivers, Reverend Richard H
•
•
·
•
•
•
•
• •
Road from Bryant's to Blue Licks
Robertson, William
▸
· •
•
•
• •
•
Rogers, Joseph
Rogers, Barnett.
Rogers, Doctor Coleman
Roll of Females who went to the Spring for Water
Rose, James
Rose, Lewis
Rose, Matthias.
Ross, Mrs. Mary Ranck
Ruddle's and Martin's Stations.
Ruse of the Attack on Bryant's.
·
•
•
•
•
· ·
•
•
•
•
•
•
• · •
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
IO,
•
177
174
98
..48, 52, 115, 181, 231
241
159
230
note 18, 48, 77, 124, 126
48, 229
47
•
13
170
13
124
191
41, IOI
•
226
132
58
2
•
234
24I
242
146
69
69
note
I
50
231
231
230
13
.note 25 and 114, 150
99
Index.
275
Saunders, Betsy
Saunders, John
Saunders, Lydia
Saunders, Mrs. Jane Craig
Saunders, Nathaniel
Saunders, Polly.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sayre, Mrs. Mary Lovell
Salt of the Blue Licks
•
•
Scovell, Mrs. Nancy D... .
Sharp, John
•
•
•
•
•
Salt, Unsuccessful Expedition for.
Saved from Burning by an East Wind
Saturday Night's Council at Bryant's..
Scott, Mrs. Elizabeth Slaughter Bassett: The Lexington Chapter D. A. R.
Scott, Mrs. Elizabeth Slaughter Bassett.
Scott, Mrs. Elizabeth Skillman
•
Skinner, Mrs. Julia Leuvir.
Smith, James.
Smith, John
Smith, William..
Speech of Simon Girty at Chillicothe
Speed, Captain Thomas
Spring Station..
•
•
•
•
•
•
Shanklin, Mrs. Martha Bryan
Shanklin, Miss Mary Elizabeth.
Shelby, Mrs. Wallace
Shelby, Miss Alice McDowell.
Shelby, Mrs. Margaret Bryan
Shelby, Miss Lucy Goodloe.
Sherley, Mrs. John C...
Short, Mrs. Mary Dudley...
Siege of Bryant's Followed by the Battle of the Blue Licks.
Siege of Bryant's and the Battle of the Blue Licks described by
Andrew Steele....
..48, 50
48
.48, 50
48, 50
48
.48, 50
14
165
78
102
146
•
I, 2,
•
I, II,
•
•
·
I
14
14
14
109
14
14
4
14
14
14
45
14
131
227
14
230
231
230
31
51
.note 25
276
Index.
Spring at Bryant's
Stations in Kentucky when Bryant's was Besieged..
Stanford Station...
Stanton, Major Henry T., the Women of Bryant's
Stanton, Major Henry T..
Stapleton, John
Steele, Andrew
Stewart, William
Stephens, William.
Stern, Val.
•
•
•
•
• •
• •
Stevenson, Mrs. Fannie Van de Grift
Story of Bryan's, by George W. Ranck
Strong, Mrs. Isabel Osbourne
Stucker, Jacob
St. Asaph's Advised of the Siege of Bryant's
Suggett, William
Suggett, Mrs. Mildred Davis ..
Suggett, John....
Sullivan's Station ..
•
·
•
·
•
•
·
. •
•
•
•
•
· •
•
•
•
Swigert, Mrs. Annette Broadhead .
• •
Sweeney, Mrs. Margaret Prewitt...
Scyamore at Bryant's in which an Indian was Killed
Taylor, Hancock
Taylor, Honorable Harrison D.
Threlkeld, Mrs. Frances Bassett.
Three Vessels of Water Carried by Each Woman.
Things Necessary to Understand the Battle of the Blue Licks
Tipton, Honorable French
Todd, Colonel Levi..
Todd, Colonel John..
Todd's and Boone's Words in Council
•
•
·
•
•
Todd, Doctor Lyman Beecher .
Todd, Doctor Lyman Beecher, Invocatory Prayer..
Todd, Miss Fannie
•
•
·
•
•
24, 38, 74, 96, 128
.note
25
.note 25
62
62
• • •
·
230
35, 194, 205, 227, 231
230
230
230
14
釁
​·
·
• •
69
14
note 19, 48, 104
136
48
.48, 50
48
25
14
14
104
71
241
14
49
132
note 47
102, 135, 136, 141, 209, 218, 230
134, 136, 138, 139, 147, 172, 229
.note 168
·
•
• •
•
·
• 9,
•
•
•
•
•
.note
•
•
•
6, note
· •
47
9
4
Index.
277
Todd, Miss Fannie Swift .
Tomlinson, Nicholas
Tomlinson, William
•
•
• U
Trigg, Colonel Stephen..
Truth of the Tradition of the Women Going for Water
Twyman, Stephen
Tyler, Mayor Henry S.
Unveiling of Memorial Wall and Tablets at Bryant's.
Van Meter, Mrs. Eveline Swope
Virginia Calendar: Effect on Early Kentucky History.
Washington's Farewell Address.
• ·
•
Wall around Spring chosen for Memorial
Ward, Miss Nora....
Water Wanted in the Station.
Water Gotten Slowly by Dipping.
Water, Want of in the Fort...
Watterson, Honorable Harvey M.
Wilcoxen, Daniel...
Williams, Mrs. Mary Sayre.
Williams, Ellison....
·
•
•
• •
· •
14
notes 41, 43, 48, 52, 76, 78, 104
21, 48, 73
Willis, Honorable Albert S.
Wilson, Israel....
Wilson, John ..
Wilson, Henry...
Women and Girls of Bryant's Station..
Women Become Members of The Filson Club
Wood, Miss Mary...
Wood, Thomas, Present Owner of Bryant's Station.
Wounded on the Battle-field Tomahawked and Scalped..
Wyandot Indians..
•
•
• •
•
138, 140, 147, 229
.note 97
231
241
•
Yocum, Jesse....
Young, Colonel Bennett H., the Battle of the Blue Licks..
Young, Colonel Bennett H.....
Young, Reverend William D
• •
·
4
4
14
37
52
95
241
.48, 76
14
48
241
230
230
231
16, 17, 39, 50, 62, 95, 129
239
55
18
188
•
•
•
note
•
•
·
·
.note
4
14
vi.
29, 144, 175
.48, 231
131
.. ix, 131
241
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