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CHAPTER IX

INDIAN WAR STRATEGY

AJ. HENRY GLADWIN was commandant of the military forces at Detroit in 1763. Although still a

young man he had seen hard military service. He was a lieutenant of the 48th infantry regiment when he was wounded at the defeat of Gen. Braddock in 1755. Two years later he was made a captain in the 80th regiment. He was promoted to the rank of major June 20, 1759, and on Sept. 3, 1761, he arrived in Detroit with 300 soldiers, part of whom were retained here and the others distributed to other military posts. in the west.

On assuming command of Detroit Maj. Gladwin appointed Capt. Donald Campbell his deputy commandant. Capt. Campbell was a man of middle age who had come to Detroit with Rogers' forces and had made himself popular with both the French residents and the Indians of the outlying villages. Campbell was easy-going and careless by habit, while Gladwin was a strict disciplinarian and very brusque in his speech and general manner. The Indians took a dislike to Gladwin from the beginning of his command and the French were none too cordial toward him. He had, however, a perfect understanding with Robert Navarre and continued him in the office he had held. under successive régimes for a period of 30 years.

Pontiac's federation was gradually perfected and his trusted runners called a grand council of the various tribes to be held at the Rivier aux Ecorces in April, 1763. There assembled the head chiefs of the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Miamis, Outagamies, and Massasaugas from Michigan, the Shawnees from Indiana, the Winnebagoes from Wisconsin and the Senecas from western New York and Pennsylvania. Sir William Johnson managed to keep all the other Iroquois Indians save the Senecas out of the federation of Pontiac. At Ecorces Pontiac

made a stirring speech to arouse the passions of the different tribes and then he made his allotment of forces and gave each division its orders as it left for the post it was assigned to attack.

The Pottawatomies were to take the Fort at St. Joseph, the Chippewas were to capture Mackinac, and large delegations from several tribes were to assist the Ottawas, under direct command of Pontiac, in the capture of the strongest and most important outpost of Detroit. About May 1, it was noticed that an unusual number of Indians were staying about Detroit. Each of the Indian villages seemed to swarm with strangers. The Ottawa camp on the Detroit. shore opposite the site of Walkerville grew to the proportions of a large town, on the east side of the ravine of Parent's Creek. Pêche Island was a dense camp.

Not a sign of hostility was shown. On the contrary the Indians gathered in great bands at the eastern end of the town to play games and dance the calumet dance with the pipe of peace made as conspicuous as possible. On May 4, Mrs. Guoin, wife of a French resident, visited the Ottawa village on the Canadian shore and on her return told her husband that the Indians were plotting mischief, as she had seen a number of them filing their gun barrels in two so as to make them short enough to be concealed under their blankets. Mr. Guoin told some of the soldiers and thus the news came to Gladwin.

On May 7, the plan of the conspiracy was revealed to Gladwin; the Indians in considerable number were to gain peaceful admission to the fort with guns hidden under their blankets. At a given signal they were to shoot down Gladwin and as many as possible of his soldiers while others would open the gates to the Indians who would be waiting outside close to the walls and a general massacre would follow. This betrayal of the plan meant death to the informant in case of discovery, then or perhaps any number of years later, so Gladwin never disclosed the name of his informant.

All sorts of fanciful and plausible stories grew out of the mystery and it was only in later years that the story was inferentially told in a letter to the governor of Canada asking promotion for a particular person who had been the means of

saving Detroit through information given by a young woman whom he had soon after married.

It was the filing of the gun barrels which gave the first clue to the Pontiac conspiracy. In those days files were not common property. They were used exclusively by blacksmiths and gunsmiths and the only place where they could be obtained about Detroit was at the forge in the Huron village near the Sandwich mission. These files were obtained by the Indians without exciting suspicion at first, but the unusual demand for files and the report of their use on the gun barrels came to the ears of Fr. Potier, who managed the Huron Mission. Angelique Cuillerier de Beaubien was an occasional visitor at the mission and Fr. Potier was also a frequent visitor at her father's house which was not far from the eastern end of the town. Antoine Cuillerier de Beaubien was also very intimate with Pontiac who frequently visited his house. He was known to be hostile to the English and very hopeful of a French recovery of the region. At that time the news of the treaty of peace between England and France had not reached Detroit.

With the arrival of the first English troops came a few civilians seeking trade at the post. Among those was a sturdy young Scot named James Sterling, who was already acquainted with several Indian dialects and a shrewd trader in merchandise and furs. Sterling became very friendly with Angelique Cuillerier de Beaubien and at the time of the beginning of the Indian menace they were engaged to be married.

Ten years after the end of the Siege of Detroit and before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Maj. Bassett, who had succeeded Gladwin as commandant at Detroit, wrote a long letter to Gov.-Gen. Sir Frederick Haldimand at Montreal. The letter contained the following passage which clearly indicates who revealed the conspiracy to Gladwin and supersedes all the other stories:

"Should your excellency allow me an interpreter here, I beg leave to recommend Mr. James Sterling, who is first merchant in this place and a gentleman of good character during the late

Indian war. Through a lady whom he then courted, from whom he had the best information, he was in part the means of saving this garrison. This gentleman is now married to that lady and is connected with the best part of this settlement. He has more to say than anyone here. The Indians can't begin activities without his having information of their design. My interpreter for the Hurons is an idle, drunken fellow hardly worth his keep. If your excellency will appoint Mr. Sterling both French and Huron interpreter, he'll find a proper person for that nation. H. BASSETT,

Major of the 10th Regt."

That letter clearly sets aside Parkman's story of the “beautiful Ojibway maiden" who had become enamored of Gladwin. It makes an equally good story sustained by data of fact instead of a local tradition which was purely fanciful. It may be assumed that Gladwin in his brusque, imperious way brought the garrison up standing and at once saw that every man was armed and that the gates of the town were kept closed and guarded and a sufficient number of sentinels posted on the parapet day and night. That night the sentinels saw canoes plying steadily to and fro between the Canadian and Detroit shore bringing every available warrior to the camp on the Michigan side.

Whispered warnings were given to English settlers living outside the fort to come inside and stay there. But the warning came too late for several people who were caught outside and far away. On Hog Island, now Belle Isle, ground had been cleared at the lower end and it was tilled by soldiers of the fort under direction of a discharged soldier named Fisher who lived in a log cabin near the lower end with his wife and four children. Here vegetables and a little corn and wheat were grown for the use of the fort. A herd of 25 cattle was pastured to supply milk and beef for the fort. Word could not be sent to Fisher. At the same time Sir Robert Davers, who had spent the winter at the fort, was employed by the government to make a survey of the water channels through the St. Clair Flats. Sir Robert had gone to the Flats with Capt. Robertson and six men, one of them Fisher, in a large canoe. All these people were doomed.

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CHAPTER X

PONTIAC ABANDONS HIS DIPLOMACY

ONTIAC'S plan for the capture of Fort Detroit had been

carefully laid with every detail prepared in advance. No play could have been staged with greater precision of movement and mechanism. Pontiac, accompanied by 60 chiefs of the assembled tribes, was to obtain a conference with Gladwin. Each chief was to carry a shortened musket concealed under his blanket. Pontiac was to make an address to Gladwin and present a wampum belt after the fashion observed in all Indian councils but the manner of the presentation was to decide the action of his associates. If Pontiac offered the wampum belt in reversed position each chief was to produce his loaded gun and shoot down the British soldier who stood opposite him, for it was assumed that Gladwin would have at least one soldier present for every Indian admitted to the conference.

This, it was assumed, would paralyze for the moment all action on the part of the rest of the soldiers for lack of leadership, and before they could recover from the surprise and organize for defense the 60 Indians would be able to kill many more of them with their hatchets. Some of the Indians would then rush to throw open the gates of the fort, where a thousand or more savages who would be waiting would pour into the fort and make a general massacre of the soldiers and civilians until not one person of British blood would be left alive.

But if the case seemed unfavorable for such an attempt Pontiac was to offer the wampum belt held in its proper position. On seeing this the chiefs would stand perfectly passive to the end of Pontiac's speech and then they would file out of the fort behind him and plan some other stratagem for the taking of the fort without too much risk to themselves.

Gladwin, fully informed of the plan, showed his cool mettle as a soldier by playing a game and meeting the stratagem with a

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