Crawford expedition The Crawford expedition , also known as the Sandusky expedition and Crawford ' s Defeat , was a 1782 campaign on the western front of the American Revolutionary War , and one of the final operations of the conflict . Led by Colonel William Crawford , the campaign ' s goal was to destroy enemy American Indian towns along the Sandusky River in the Ohio Country , with the hope of ending Indian attacks on American settlers . The expedition was one in a long series of raids against enemy settlements which both sides had conducted throughout the war . Crawford led about 500 volunteer militiamen , mostly from Pennsylvania , deep into American Indian territory , with the intention of surprising the Indians . The Indians and their British allies from Detroit had already learned of the expedition , however , and gathered a force to oppose the Americans . After a day of indecisive fighting near the Sandusky towns , the Americans found themselves surrounded and attempted to retreat . The retreat turned into a rout , but most of the Americans managed to find their way back to Pennsylvania . About 70 Americans were killed ; Indian and British losses were minimal . During the retreat , Crawford and an unknown number of his men were captured . The Indians executed many of these captives in retaliation for the Gnadenhutten massacre that occurred earlier in the year , in which about 100 peaceful Indians were murdered by Pennsylvanian militiamen . Crawford ' s execution was particularly brutal : he was tortured for at least two hours before being burned at the stake . His execution was widely publicized in the United States , worsening the already - strained relationship between Native Americans and European Americans . Background . When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775 , the Ohio River marked a tenuous border between the American colonies and the American Indians of the Ohio Country . Ohio Indians — Shawnees , Mingo s , Delawares , and Wyandots — were divided over how to respond to the war . Some Indian leaders urged neutrality , while others entered the war because they saw it as an opportunity to halt the expansion of the American colonies and to regain lands previously lost to the colonists . The border war escalated in 1777 after British officials in Detroit began recruiting and arming Indian war parties to raid the frontier American settlements . An unknown number of American settlers in present Kentucky , West Virginia , and Pennsylvania were killed during these raids . The intensity of the conflict increased in November 1777 , after enraged American militiamen murdered Cornstalk , the leading advocate of Shawnee neutrality . Despite the violence , many Ohio Indians still hoped to stay out of the war , which proved difficult because they were located directly between the British in Detroit and the Americans along the Ohio River . In February 1778 , the Americans launched their first expedition into the Ohio Country in an attempt to neutralize British activity in the region . General Edward Hand led 500 Pennsylvania militiamen on a surprise winter march from Fort Pitt towards the Cuyahoga River , where the British stored military supplies which were distributed to Indian raiding parties . However , adverse weather conditions prevented the expedition from reaching its objective . On the return march , some of Hand ' s men attacked peaceful Delaware Indians , killing one man and a few women and children , including relatives of the Delaware chief Captain Pipe . Because only non - combatants had been killed , the expedition became derisively known as the " squaw campaign " . Despite the attack on his family , Captain Pipe said that he would not seek vengeance . Instead , in September 1778 , he was one of the signers of the Treaty of Fort Pitt between the Delawares and the United States . Americans hoped this agreement with the Delawares would enable American soldiers to pass through Delaware territory and attack Detroit , but the alliance deteriorated after the death of White Eyes , the Delaware chief who had negotiated the treaty . Eventually , Captain Pipe turned against the Americans and moved his followers west to the Sandusky River , where he received support from the British in Detroit . Over the next several years , Americans and Indians launched raids against each other , usually targeting settlements . In 1780 , hundreds of Kentucky settlers were killed or captured in a British - Indian expedition into Kentucky . George Rogers Clark of Virginia responded in August 1780 by leading an expedition that destroyed two Shawnee towns along the Mad River , but did little damage to the Indian war effort . Clark then recruited men for an expedition against Detroit , but Indians decisively defeated one hundred of his volunteers along the Ohio River , effectively ending his campaign . As most of the Delawares had by then become pro - British , American Colonel Daniel Brodhead led an expedition into the Ohio Country in April 1781 , and destroyed the Delaware town of Coshocton . Survivors fled to the militant towns on the Sandusky River . Several villages of Christian Delawares lay between the combatants on the Sandusky River and the Americans at Fort Pitt . The villages were administered by the Moravian missionaries David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder . Although pacifists , the missionaries favored the American cause and kept American officials at Fort Pitt informed about hostile British and Indian activity . In September 1781 , to prevent further communication between the missionaries and the American military , hostile Wyandots and Delawares from Sandusky forcibly removed the missionaries and their converts to a new village ( Captive Town ) on the Sandusky River . In March 1782 , 160 Pennsylvania militiamen under Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson rode into the Ohio Country , hoping to find the warriors who were responsible for raids against Pennsylvania settlers . Enraged by the gruesome murder by Indians of a white woman and her baby , Williamson ' s men detained about 100 Christian Delawares at the village of Gnadenhütten . The Christian Delawares ( mostly women and children ) had returned to Gnadenhütten from Captive Town in order to harvest the crops they had been forced to leave behind . Accusing the Christian Indians of having aided hostile raiding parties , the Pennsylvanians murdered them all by hammer blows to the head . The Gnadenhutten massacre , as it came to be called , would have serious repercussions for the next American expedition into the Ohio Country . Planning the expedition . In September 1781 , General William Irvine was appointed commander of the Western Department of the Continental Army , which was headquartered at Fort Pitt . Although a major British army under Lord Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781 , virtually ending the war in the east , the conflict on the western frontier continued . Irvine quickly learned that the Americans living on the frontier wanted the army to launch an expedition against Detroit to end ongoing British support for the American Indian war parties . Irvine investigated , then wrote to George Washington , the American commander - in - chief , on December 2 , 1781 : It is , I believe , universally agreed that the only way to keep Indians from harassing the country is to visit them . But we find , by experience , that burning their empty towns has not the desired effect . They can soon build others . They must be followed up and beaten , or the British , whom they draw their support from , totally driven out of their country . I believe if Detroit was demolished , it would be a good step toward giving some , at least , temporary ease to this country . Washington agreed with Irvine ' s assessment that Detroit had to be captured or destroyed in order to end the war in the west . In February 1782 , Irvine sent Washington a detailed plan for an offensive . Irvine estimated that with 2 , 000 men , five cannons , and a supply caravan , he could to capture Detroit . Washington replied that the bankrupt U . S . Congress would be unable to finance the campaign , writing that " offensive operations , except upon a small scale , can not just now be brought into contemplation . " With no resources available from either Congress or the Continental Army , Irvine gave permission for volunteers to organize their own offensive . Detroit was too far and too strong for a small - scale operation , but militiamen such as David Williamson believed that an expedition against the American Indian towns on the Sandusky River was feasible . It was to be a low - budget campaign . Each volunteer had to provide at his expense a horse , rifle , ammunition , rations , and other equipment . Their only payment would be an exemption from two months of militia duty , plus whatever plunder might be taken from the Indians . Because of ongoing Indian raids — the wife and children of a Baptist minister were killed and scalped in western Pennsylvania on May 12 , 1782 — there was no shortage of men willing to volunteer . Because of Washington ' s reservations , Irvine believed he was not authorized to lead the expedition himself . However , he did what he could to influence the planning of the campaign . Irvine wrote detailed instructions for the yet to be chosen commander of the volunteers : The object of your command is , to destroy with fire and sword ( if practicable ) the Indian town and settlement at Sandusky , by which we hope to give ease and safety to the inhabitants of this country ; but , if impracticable , then you will doubtless perform such other services in your power as will , in their consequences , have a tendency to answer this great end . Organizing the expedition . On May 20 , 1782 , the volunteers began gathering at the rendezvous point at Mingo Bottom ( present Mingo Junction , Ohio ) , on the Indian side of the Ohio River . They were mostly young men of Irish and Scots - Irish ancestry , and came primarily from Washington and Westmoreland counties in Pennsylvania . Many were Continental Army veterans . The exact number of men who took part in the expedition is unknown . An officer wrote to General Irvine on May 24 that there were 480 volunteers , although additional men may have subsequently joined the group , bringing the total to more than 500 . Given the daunting nature of the task ahead of them , many of the volunteers made out their " last wills and testaments " before leaving . Because this was a volunteer expedition and not a regular army operation , the men elected their officers . The candidates for the top position were David Williamson , the militia colonel who had commanded the Gnadenhütten expedition , and William Crawford , a retired Continental Army colonel . Crawford , a friend and land agent of George Washington , was an experienced soldier and frontiersman . He was a veteran of these kinds of operations , having destroyed two Mingo villages during Dunmore ' s War in 1774 . He had also taken part in the failed " squaw campaign " . Fifty - year - old Crawford had been reluctant to volunteer , but he did so at the request of General Irvine . Williamson , although popular with the militia , was in disfavor with regular army officers such as Irvine because he had allowed the Gnadenhütten massacre . Hoping to avoid a repetition , Irvine made it known that he favored Crawford ' s election as commander . The election , which was acrimonious , ended in a close vote : Crawford received 235 votes to Williamson ' s 230 . Colonel Crawford took command , and Williamson became second - in - command with the rank of major . The other majors included John B . McClelland , Thomas Gaddis , and either James Brenton or Joseph Brinton . At Crawford ' s request , Irvine allowed Dr . John Knight , a Continental Army officer , to accompany the expedition as surgeon . Another volunteer from Irvine ' s staff was a foreigner with an aristocratic bearing who called himself " John Rose " . Rose asked to serve as Crawford ' s aide - de - camp . Unknown even to General Irvine until several years later , " Rose " was actually Baron Gustave Rosenthal , a Baltic German nobleman from the Russian empire who had fled to America after killing a man in a duel . Rosenthal is the only Russian known to have fought on the American side of in the Revolutionary War . Journey to the Sandusky . Crawford ' s volunteers left Mingo Bottom on May 25 , 1782 , carrying provisions for 30 days . In planning the operation , General Irvine had estimated the journey to Sandusky would take seven days . The campaign began with high spirits . Some volunteers boasted they intended " to extermenate the whole Wiandott Tribe . " As was often the case with militia , who were poorly trained amateur soldiers , there was difficulty maintaining military discipline . The men wasted their rations , and often fired their muskets at wild game , despite orders to the contrary . They were slow to break camp in the mornings , and often failed to take their turn at guard duty . Crawford also proved to be a less capable leader than expected . Rose wrote that Crawford in councils " speaks incoherent , proposes matters confusedly , and is incapable of persuading people into his opinion . " The expedition often halted as the commanders debated what to do next . Some volunteers lost heart and deserted . The journey across the Ohio Country was mostly through woods . The volunteers initially marched in four columns , but the thick underbrush compelled them to form just two . On June 3 , Crawford ' s men emerged into the open country of the Sandusky Plains , a prairie region just below of the Sandusky River . The following day , they reached Upper Sandusky , the Wyandot village where they expected to find the enemy . However , they discovered it had been abandoned . Unknown to the Americans , the Wyandots had recently relocated their town eight miles ( 13 km ) to the north . The new Upper Sandusky , also called the " Half King ' s Town " , was near present - day Upper Sandusky , Ohio ) and close to Captain Pipe ' s town ( near present - day Carey , Ohio ) . The Americans were unaware that Pipe ' s town was nearby . Crawford ' s officers held a council of war . Some argued the abandoned village proved that the Indians knew about the expedition and were concentrating their forces elsewhere . Others expressed the desire to call off the expedition and return home immediately . Williamson asked for permission to take 50 men and burn the abandoned village , but Crawford refused as he did not wish to divide his forces . The council decided to continue the march for the rest of the day , but then to go no further . As the column halted for lunch , John Rose was sent north with a scouting party . Soon , two men returned to report that the scouts were skirmishing with a large force of Indians which was advancing towards the Americans . British and Indian preparations . While planning the expedition , General Irvine had advised Crawford that , " Your best chance of success will be , if possible , to effect a " surprise " " against Sandusky . The British and Indians , however , learned about the expedition even before Crawford ' s army had left Mingo Bottom . Thanks to information from a captured American soldier , on April 8 the notorious British agent Simon Girty relayed to Detroit an accurate report of Crawford ' s plans . Officials of the British Indian Department in Detroit had accordingly prepared for action . In command at Detroit was Major Arent Schuyler DePeyster , responsible to Sir Frederick Haldimand , the Governor General of British North America . DePeyster used agents such as Girty , Alexander McKee , and Matthew Elliott , who all had close relations with American Indians , to coordinate British and Indian military actions in the Ohio County . In a council at Detroit on May 15 , DePeyster and McKee told a gathering of Indian leaders about the Sandusky expedition and advised them to " be ready to meet them in a great body and repulse them . " McKee was sent to the Shawnee villages in the Great Miami River valley to recruit warriors to repel the American invasion . Captain William Caldwell was dispatched to Sandusky with a company of mounted Butler ' s Rangers , as well as a number of Indians from the Detroit area led by Matthew Elliott . Indian scouts had spied on the expedition from the beginning . As soon as Crawford ' s army moved into the Ohio Country , the warning was sent to Sandusky . As the Americans approached , women and children from the Wyandot and Delaware towns were hidden in nearby ravines , while British fur traders packed their goods and hurried out of town . On June 4 , Delawares under Captain Pipe and Wyandots under Dunquat , the " Half King " , along with some Mingos , joined forces to oppose the Americans . The size of the combined Delaware , Wyandot , and Mingo force has been estimated at anywhere from 200 to 500 . British reinforcements were nearby , but Shawnees from the south were not expected to arrive until the next day . When the American scouts appeared , Pipe ' s Delawares pursued them , while the Wyandots temporarily held back . Battle of Sandusky . June 4 : " Battle Island " . The first skirmishing of the Crawford expedition began at about 2 p . m . on June 4 , 1782 . The scout party led by John Rose encountered Captain Pipe ' s Delawares on the Sandusky Plains and conducted a fighting retreat to a grove of trees where they had stored their supplies . The scouts were in danger of being overrun , but were soon reinforced by the main body of Crawford ' s army . Crawford ordered the men to dismount and drive the Indians out of the woods . After intense fighting , the Americans gained possession of the grove , later known as " Battle Island " . The skirmish became a full - scale battle by 4 : 00 p . m . After the Americans drove Captain Pipe ' s Delawares out of the woods and onto to prairie , the Delawares were reinforced by Dunquat ' s Wyandots . Elliott also arrived on the scene and coordinated the actions of the Delawares and the Wyandots . Pipe ' s Delawares skillfully outflanked the American position and then attacked their rear . A few Indians crept close to the American lines in the tall prairie grass . The Americans responded by climbing trees to get a better shot at them . Gunsmoke filled the air , making it difficult to see . After three and a half hours of incessant firing , the Indians gradually broke off the attack with the approach of nightfall . Both sides slept with arms at the ready , and surrounded their positions with large fires to prevent surprise night attacks . In the first day of fighting , the Americans lost 5 killed men and 19 wounded . The British and Indians suffered 5 killed and 11 wounded . The American volunteers scalped several of the Indian dead , while the Indians stripped the clothing from dead Americans and scalped at least one . Fifteen Pennsylvanians deserted during the night and reached home to report Crawford ' s army had been " cut to pieces . " June 5 : Reinforcements . Firing began early on the morning of June 5 . The Indians did not close , but remained at a distance of two or three hundred yards . Such long range firing with smooth bore muskets caused little loss to either side . The Americans thought that the Indians held back because they had suffered heavy losses on the previous day . In fact , the Indians were buying time , waiting for reinforcements to arrive . Crawford decided to hold his position trees and make a surprise attack on the Indians after nightfall . At this point , he was still confident of success , although his men were low on ammunition and water . Simon Girty , the British agent and interpreter , rode up with a white flag and called for the Americans to surrender , which was refused . That afternoon , the Americans finally noticed that about 100 British rangers were fighting alongside the Indians . Unaware that the expedition had been watched from the beginning , the Americans were surprised that British troops from Detroit had been able to join in the battle on such short notice . While the Americans were discussing this , Alexander McKee arrived with about 140 Shawnees under the leadership of Blacksnake , who took up a position to Crawford ' s south , effectively surrounding the Americans . The Shawnees repeatedly fired their muskets into the air , a ceremonial show of strength known as a " feu de joie " ( " fire of joy " ) , which shook American morale . Recalled Rose , the " feu de joie " " completed the Business with us . " With so many enemies gathering around them , the Americans decided to retreat after dark rather than make a stand . The dead were buried , and fires were burned over the graves to prevent their discovery and desecration . The severely wounded were placed on biers in preparation for the withdrawal . That night the Americans began to withdraw silently from the battlefield . Indian sentries detected the movement and attacked , creating confusion . Many volunteers became lost in the dark , separating into small groups . Crawford became concerned about his family members — his son John , his son - in - law William Harrison , and his nephew , also named William Crawford . With Dr Knight , Crawford remained near the battlefield as his men passed , calling for his missing relatives and not finding them . Crawford became angry when he realized the militia , despite his orders , had left some of the wounded behind . After all the men had passed , Crawford and Knight , with two others , finally set off , but were unable to find the main body of men . June 6 : Battle of the Olentangy . When the sun rose on June 6 , about 300 Americans had reached the abandoned Wyandot town . Because Colonel Crawford was missing , Williamson assumed command . Fortunately for the Americans , the pursuit of the retreating army was disorganized because Caldwell , overall commander of the British and Indian forces , had been wounded in both legs . As the retreat continued , a force of Indians finally caught up with the main body of Americans on the eastern edge of the Sandusky Plains , near a branch of the Olentangy River . Some Americans fled as the attack began , while others milled around in confusion . However , Williamson made a stand with a small group of volunteers and drove off the Indians after an hour of fighting . Three Americans were killed and eight more wounded in the " Battle of the Olentangy " . Indian losses are unknown . The Americans buried their dead and resumed the retreat , the Indians and British rangers pursuing and firing occasionally from at long range . Williamson and Rose kept most of the men together by warning them that an orderly retreat was their only chance to get home alive . The Americans fell back more than , some on foot , before making camp . The next day , two American stragglers were captured and presumably killed before the Indians and rangers finally abandoned the chase . The main body of Americans reached Mingo Bottom on June 13 . Many stragglers arrived in small groups for several days more . In all , about 70 Americans never returned from the expedition . Fates of the captives . While Williamson and Rose were retreating with the main body of men , Crawford , Knight , and four other stragglers were traveling south along the Sandusky River in present - day Crawford County , Ohio . On June 7 , they came upon a party of Delawares about east of the battlefield . Knight raised his gun , but Crawford told him not to fire . Crawford and Knight knew some of these Delawares , who were a part of band led by a war chief named Wingenund . Crawford and Knight were taken prisoner , but the other four Americans escaped . Two of them were later tracked down , killed , and scalped . Captives taken by American Indians during the American Revolution might be ransomed by the British in Detroit , adopted into the tribe , enslaved , or simply killed . However , after the Gnadenhütten massacre , the Ohio Indians had resolved to kill all American prisoners who fell into their hands . The number of Americans executed after the Sandusky expedition is unknown , since their fate was usually recorded only if one of the prisoners survived to tell . While some were executed quickly , others were tortured before being killed . The public torture of prisoners was a traditional ritual in many tribes of the Eastern Woodlands . Captives might have to endure excruciating torture for hours and even days . The British Indian Department used its influence to discourage the killing and torturing of prisoners , with some success , but in 1782 the Indians revived the practice of ritual torture in order to exact revenge for the slaughter at Gnadenhütten . Crawford ' s execution . Crawford and Knight were taken to Wingenund ' s camp on June 7 , where they found nine other prisoners . On June 11 , Captain Pipe painted the faces of the prisoners black , the traditional sign they were to be executed . The prisoners were marched to the Delaware town on Tymochtee Creek , near the present - day village of Crawford , Ohio . Four prisoners were killed with tomahawks and scalped along the way . When the war party stopped , the seven remaining prisoners were made to sit , with Crawford and Knight a short distance away from the others . Delaware women and boys killed the other five with tomahawks , beheading one of them . The boys scalped the victims and slapped the bloody scalps in the faces of Crawford and Knight . About one hundred men , women , and children had gathered at the Delaware village to witness the execution of the American leader . Dunquat and a few Wyandots were present , as well as Simon Girty and Matthew Elliott . Captain Pipe , who knew Crawford from the 1778 Fort Pitt treaty , spoke to the crowd , pointing out that Crawford had been captured while leading many of the men who had committed the Gnadenhütten murders . Crawford had nothing to do with the massacre , but he had taken part in the " squaw campaign " in which several of Pipe ' s family members had been killed . Pipe apparently mentioned this as well . After Pipe ' s speech , Crawford was stripped naked and beaten . His hands were tied behind his back , and a rope was tied from his hands to a post in the ground . A large fire was lit about six or seven yards ( 6 m ) from the pole . Indian men shot charges of gunpowder into Crawford ' s body , then cut off his ears . Crawford was poked with burning pieces of wood from the fire , and hot coals were thrown at him , which he was compelled to walk on . Crawford begged Girty to shoot him , but Girty was unwilling or afraid to intervene . After about two hours of torture , Crawford fell down unconscious . He was scalped , and a woman poured hot coals over his head , which revived him . He began to walk about insensibly as the torture continued . After he finally died , his body was burned . The next day , Knight was marched towards the Shawnee towns , where he was to be executed . Along the way , he struck his guard with a log and managed to escape . He successfully made his way back to Pennsylvania on foot . By the time hunters found him on July 4 , he was in poor health and barely coherent . They carried him to Fort McIntosh . Wapatomica executions . On the same day that Crawford was executed , at least six American prisoners were taken in two different groups to the Shawnee town of Wapatomica on the Mad River , in present Logan County , Ohio . These prisoners included Major John B . McClelland , who had been fourth in command of the expedition , as well as William Harrison ( Crawford ' s son - in - law ) and Private William Crawford ( Colonel Crawford ' s nephew ) . Four of the six , including McClelland , Harrison , and Crawford , were painted black . The villagers , made aware of the coming of prisoners by a messenger , formed two lines . The prisoners were made to run the gauntlet towards the council house , about distance . As the prisoners ran by , the villagers beat them with clubs , concentrating on those who had been painted black . The blackened prisoners were then hacked to death with tomahawks and cut into pieces . Their heads and limbs were stuck on poles outside the town . One of the prisoners , a scout named John Slover , was taken to Mac - a - chack ( near present West Liberty , Ohio ) , but escaped before he could be burnt . Still naked , he stole a horse and rode it until it gave out , then ran on foot , reaching Fort Pitt on July 10 , one of the last survivors to return . Aftermath . Final year of the war . The failure of the Crawford expedition caused alarm along the American frontier , as many Americans feared that the Indians would be emboldened enough and launch a new series of raids . More defeats for the Americans were yet to come , and so for Americans west of the Appalachian Mountains , 1782 became known as the " Bloody Year " . On 13 July 1782 , the Mingo leader Guyasuta led about 100 Indians and several British volunteers into Pennsylvania , destroying Hannastown , killing nine and capturing twelve settlers . It was the hardest blow dealt by Indians in Western Pennsylvania during the war . In Kentucky , the Americans went on the defensive while Caldwell and his Indian allies prepared a major offensive . In July 1782 , more than 1 , 000 Indians gathered at Wapatomica , but the expedition came to a halt after scouts reported that George Rogers Clark was preparing to invade the Ohio Country from Kentucky . Most of the Indians dispersed after learning that the reports of imminent invasion were false , but Caldwell led 300 Indians into Kentucky and delivered a devastating blow at the Battle of Blue Licks in August . After his victory at Blue Licks , Caldwell was ordered to cease operations because the United States and Great Britain were about to make peace . Although General Irvine had finally gotten permission to lead his own expedition into the Ohio Country , rumors of the peace treaty killed enthusiasm for the undertaking , which never took place . In November , George Rogers Clark delivered the final blow in the Ohio Country , destroying several Shawnee towns , but inflicting little damage on the inhabitants . Details of the forthcoming peace treaty arrived late in 1782 . The Ohio Country , the land that the British and Indians had successfully defended , had been signed away by Great Britain to the United States . The British had not consulted the Indians in the peace process , and the Indians were nowhere mentioned in the treaty ' s terms . For the Indians , the struggle with American settlers would resume in the Northwest Indian War , though this time without the assistance of their British allies . Impact of Crawford ' s death . Crawford ' s death was widely publicized in the United States . A ballad about the expedition , titled " Crawford ' s Defeat by the Indians " , became popular and was long remembered . In 1783 , John Knight ' s eyewitness account of Crawford ' s torture was published . The editor of Knight ' s narrative , Hugh Henry Brackenridge , deleted all mention of Crawford ' s trial and the fact that Crawford was executed in retaliation for the Gnadenhütten massacre . By suppressing the Indians ' motivation , Brackenridge was able , according to historian Parker Brown , to create " a piece of virulent anti - Indian , anti - British propaganda calculated to arouse public attention and patriotism . " In an introduction , Brackenridge ' s publisher made clear why the narrative was being published : But as they [ the Indians ] still continue their murders on our frontier , these Narratives may be serviceable to induce our government to take some effectual steps to chastise and suppress them ; as from hence , they will see that the nature of an Indian is fierce and cruel , and that an extirpation of them would be useful to the world , and honorable to those who can effect it . As intended , Knight ' s narrative increased racial antipathy towards Native Americans , and was often republished over the next 80 years , especially whenever violent encounters between white Americans and Indians was in the news . Although American frontiersmen had often killed Indian prisoners , most Americans regarded Indian culture as barbaric because of the use of torture , and Crawford ' s death greatly reinforced this perception of Indians as " savages " . In the American national memory , the details of Crawford ' s torture overshadowed American atrocities such as the Gnadenhütten massacre . The image of the savage Indian became a stereotype ; the peacekeeping efforts of men like Cornstalk and White Eyes were all but forgotten .