The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-08-05

umphed at last! The Revolution is over!
Such is the picture which the school histories,
have PAINTED in our minds. But the impression
they have given us that the surrender at York
town meant the dawn of peace and the prosper,
GUS beginning of new nation is only half
truth. True it is that 1871 was the last year
of the Revolution in the main theater OF war
the Atlantic seaboard. But there was one peo-
pie in the new nation who were to know an
other year of the horrors of war such as their
eastern neighbors had never known.
To the scattered border settlements west Of
the Alleghenies there had not yet come q
winged Victory with smooth brow laurelled to
teach US to forget the holocaust" Instead, the
year 1852 was to be repetition OF l777. the
"year of the bloody sevens," and again, virtually
deserted by those governments to whom they
had a right to look for aid, the pioneers in the
Ohio valley, especially those in Kentucky, must
crouch behind the log walls Of their stockaded
forts with the savage war-whoop ringing in (
their ears and a shower Of Indian arrows and
bullets whistling over their heads. So in its
sesQui-c centennial year, we Americans should
not forget what these ancestors Of ours who
won the West for us suffered and endured In
1882. the last year Of the Revolution. ge
1t opened with an affair which must ever be
a blot on our history, the massacre of SO of the
"Moravian Indians" at Gnadenhuetten, Ohio. by
q party or PennSyvan1dnS, LED Dy Col. OaVlu
Williamson. Maddened by the slaughter Of their
brethren, the Delawares rallied to their aid the
Wyandots and other Indians allied with the
British and waited for good chance for re-
venge, which soon came. In May body OF 4SO
Pennsylvania and Virginia militia gathered at
Mingo Bottom on the Ohio and prepared to
march against the Wyandot and Shawnee towns
on the Upper Sandusky. }l
The commander of the expedition was Wiz
ginian Col, William Crawford, personal friend
Of Washington, who had won reputation as
brave and active officer in the Continental army
but who was utterly untitled for leadership
against such an enemy as the trbesmen he was
ordered to crush. Crawford hoped to surprise
the Indians but enemy scouts discovered his
force soon after he started and Indian spies fol-
lowed every movement of his army.
On June Crawford reached one Of the Wy
andot towns but found it deserted. He marched
on to find another and encountered small
force of Indians and Canadian rangers, under
the command of Captain Caldwell which had
been sent by the British in Detroit to aid the
Indians. There was a sharp skirmish with
neither side gaining any advantage, although
Crawford had the superiority in numbers. The
next morning, instead of forcing battle and
crushing the enemy, Crawfords army lay idle
Caldwell also was willing to delay proceedings
for he was expecting reinforcements. They
came in the afternoon in the person OF lao
Shawnee warriors.
At the sight of this, Crawford's militia began
to waver and Crawford decided that the only
course left for him was to retire from the field.
That night his force began hurried ana dis
orderly retreat. In the darkness the troops be-
came scattered and when morning came there