Archibald Lochry Colonel Archibald Andrew Lochry ( Lockrees / Lochry / Lockery / Loughry / Loughrey ) ( 15 April 1733 – 1781 ) was a colonial American military officer whose command ended in disaster when he and nearly every member of his force were killed or captured by Mohawk forces led by George Girty ( brother of Simon Girty ) and under the command of Chief Joseph Brant . This skirmish was famous in early American history as " Lochry ' s defeat " . Biography . Archibald Lochry was born 15 April 1733 at Octorarro Settlement , Ireland to Jeremiah Loughry and Mary Murphy . Perhaps that same year , but certainly by 1737 , the family had immigrated to the colonies and first settled in York County , Pennsylvania . In about 1775 , Archibald married Mary Erwin . ( This may have been his second marriage , the first being in 1756 ) . The Lochry family became prominent in Pennsylvania and Archibald Lochry was one of the strongest men in Westmoreland County . He also successfully acquired large tracts of land , which he used to support his fellow settlers . The colonists on the Pennsylvania frontier had been vulnerable to attack by Shawnee , Delaware , and Sandusky Indians , necessitating a blockhouse as an armory and safe haven between the forts at Hanna ' s Town and Ligonier . The blockhouse was built on Lochry ' s land . ( In 2002 , the Archaeological Institute of America reported that this blockhouse had been rediscovered and preserved as an historical landmark . ) He began his military career on 18 July 1763 as an ensign in the Second Battalion in the provincial service . Both he and his brother William were appointed justices in Bedford County at its organization , and later when Westmoreland County was organized , he was made a justice there as well . In a listing of the deputies to the provincial convention held at Philadelphia , July 15 , 1775 , Lochry is named as a Westmoreland official in several capacities . In 1777 he was appointed County Lieutenant and Prothonotary in Greensburg , Pennsylvania . In 1778 he was clerk for both the Court of Quarter Sessions and the Orphans Court . In 1781 he was Clerk of Court , Westmoreland County , Pa . Also in 1781 , Archibald was made a Colonel and given command over 100 men to discomfort Indian and British forces in the Ohio Valley during the Revolutionary War . Military expedition to Ohio . Following the French and Indian War and during the colonization of Western Pennsylvania , Virginia and Kentucky , friction between Europeans and Native Americans was an almost constant feature . Repeated depredations and killings by Native Americans and by the European Americans had led to a breakdown in relations on the frontier and formerly neutral or friendly Indian leaders were now generally allied with the British against the Americans . In 1781 , Lochry as the County Lieutenant for Westmoreland County and Colonel Daniel Brodhead , who commanded the Colonial forces at Fort Pitt were unable to agree upon a strategy for meeting Indian attacks upon colonial settlements on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Ohio . As a result , no effective action was taken and attacks increased . Finally , General George Rogers Clark of Virginia came north to prosecute the war in Northern Virginia ( now West Virginia ) and Pennsylvania . Clark requested that Lochry organize a militia of Pennsylvania Rangers and join him . At the same time , George Washington ordered Broadhead to support the expedition with supplies and ammunition . The Indian activities were of such a grave concern to settlers that Lochry had no problem enlisting and organizing a unit of 107 men by July 1781 . The plan of attack was developed by General Clark . It ' s declared mission was to take an army into the heart of the Indian country , to burn their houses , devastate their country , destroy their warriors , and to so weaken them that they would thereafter be unable to disturb the settlers of Western Pennsylvania . ( Privately , Clark ' s grand objective was the capture of the British outpost at Detroit . ) The specific attack strategy began with an expedition down the Ohio River in a manner to similar campaigns that Clark had led in the past . General Clark ' s plan was to divide his forces into two groups , one commanded by himself and the other commanded by Lochry . The two forces were to move down the Ohio River together and then split up . Lochry was to move north against the Sandusky tribe while Clark would go west and south , join up with troops from Kentucky and move against the Shawnee and Delaware . Once they had their enemies defeated , they would rejoin and march on Detroit to capture it from the British . Initially Clark ' s forces and Lochry ' s forces would be supplied at Ft Pitt , resupply at Fort Henry in Wheeling and then begin the trek down the Ohio River . Lochry ' s party of one hundred & seven mounted volunteers rendezvoused at Carnahan ' s Block House , eleven miles west of Hanna ' s town , on the July 24 , 1781 , but then things did not go as planned . They were delayed as they waited for supplies from Brodhead , which never materialized and so they began their march on 2 August . General Clark was already on his way toward Forth Henry . Rushing to catch up , Lochry ' s troops arrived on the 8th of August , only to find that Clark and all the men , boats and stores he could gather had departed just twelve hours earlier . Clark left a letter for Lochry , affixed to a pole , directing Lochry to follow him to the Falls of the Ohio . Clark was in a difficult situation . His troops were farmers and were desperate to get back home to start bringing in crops . They were deserting whenever he would stop for a period ( Lochry apprehended a Lieutenant Baker and sixteen men who were deserting from Clark at Fishing creek . ) So even though he needed to have a larger force for penetrating the enemy lands , he was also obliged to keep moving in order to curtail desertions . But , leading the way for Lochry , Clark was uncertain that Lochry was even following him and so , did not leave the supplies that Lochrey desperately needed . Though Lochry ' s troops were not deserting he also had a difficult situation . At Fort Henry , his stores and forage gave out . So , he detached a Captain Shannon with seven men in a small boat to overtake Clark and secure supplies . Shannon carried this letter with him : Shannon ' s party had not proceeded far when the Indians , who were carefully watching the expedition , captured him and all of his men . They also obtained the letter to General Clark detailing Lochry ' s situation . The Indians , having learned of his lack of ammunition , immediately arranged to attack Lochry . They called in their braves and raised a force of about 150 warriors . The attack party was commanded by George Girty , who along with his brother Simon Girty ( a more notorious traitor ) , led the hostile Indians against the colonialists on the frontier . Captain Shannon ' s small group was forced to accompany the Indians for several days , while they followed Lochry down the river , at a discrete distance and waited the arrival of additional 500 men with which they intended ultimately to attack . " Lochry ' s defeat " . Traveling down the middle of the Ohio River offered some protection against attacks . However , it also made it difficult for men and horses to obtain food . At about 10 : 00 in the morning on 24 August 1781 , Lochry ignored the danger and ordered his men to put into shore on the north side of the Ohio River about ten miles below the mouth of the Big Miami , near the present town of Aurora , Indiana . The horses were left to graze , while the men killed a buffalo to prepare for their sustenance . Girty had his Indian scouts out along both banks of the river , and the news of the landing was immediately communicated to his now larger force of 648 warriors . Some of these men took up positions quietly on a bluff overlooking the sand bar where the Pennsylvania Rangers were located . Others approached stealthily from the opposite bank of the river . Once in position , they took the militia by surprise with a sudden volley of shots . The soldiers seized their arms and fought for their lives as long as they had ammunition . They then tried to escape in their boats but the Indians pursued and closed in on them before they could get away . Unable to escape or defend themselves , Col . Lochry surrendered . Every member of the expedition not already killed , was captured . Colonel Lochry was tomahawked by a Shawnee Indian after the battle while sitting on a log , and all the wounded who were unable to march were similarly dispatched . The prisoners were marched eight miles up the Miami River , subsequently taken to Detroit , and sent from there to Montreal . Along the way they were sold to the British . The average price for a soldier was one gallon of whiskey . The initial number of deaths was 37 , however perhaps as few as 25 soldiers returned from captivity to describe what happened . In the intervening years , family and friends had no news of the expedition or the fate of the men . Even General Clarke was not aware of Lochry ' s defeat until several months later . Lochry has been remembered to this day in the name of places near the battle site , including Laughery Creek and Laughery Island . Members of the expedition . British officers confiscated letters and other information from the captured and dead militiamen . These documents have been re - discovered in England and help provide insights into the battle . Among the documents is a roster of the troops killed or captured . It may have been prepared by Simon Girty . In addition , some of the members officers who were captured kept records and pension applications make mention of some individuals in this group . A list of the members of the expedition is shown below along with variant name spellings and if available , approximate age at the time of the capture . : Killed Prisoners Additional members may include : This list of 103 persons compares to a total of about 107 men reported in contemporary documents . Some men may have escaped the capture and are missing from this list .