1778. men, children and defenceless of all forts crowded for

protection. He fuffered himself to be enticed by his coufin to abandon the fortrefs. He agreed to march out, and hold a conference with the enemy in the open field (at fo great a distance from the fort, as to fhut out all poffibility of protection from it) upon their with drawing according to their own propofal, in order to the holding of a parley for the conclufion of a treaty. He at the fame time marched out about 400 men well armed, being nearly the whole strength of the garrison, to guard his perfon to the place of parley, fuch was his distrust of the enemy's defigns. On his arrival he found nobody to treat with, and yet advanced toward the foot of the mountain, where at a distance he faw a flag, the holders of which, feemingly afraid of treachery on his fide, retired as he advanced; whilft he, endeavouring to remove this pretended ill-impreffion, purfued the flag, till his party was thoroughly enclosed, when he was fuddenly freed from his delufion, by finding it attacked at once on every fide. He and his men, notwithstanding the furprise and danger, fought with refolution and bravery, and kept up fo continual and heavy a fire for three quarters of an hour, that they feemed to gain a marked fuperiority. In this critical moment, a foldier through a fudden impulfe of fear, or premeditated treachery, cried out aloud-" the colonel has ordered a retreat." The fate of the party was now at once determined. In the ftate of confufion that enfued, an unrefifted flaughter commenced, while the enemy broke in on all fides without obftruction. Col. Zeb. Butler, and about feventy of his men efcaped; the latter got across the river to fort Wilkesborough, the colonel made his

July

4

way to fort Kingston; which was invested the next day 1778. on the land fide. The enemy, to fadden the drooping fpirits of the weak remaining garrison, sent in for their contemplation the bloody fcalps of a hundred and ninety-fix of their late friends and comrades. They kept up a continual fire upon the fort the whole day. In the evening the colonel quitted the fort and went down the river with his family. He is thought to be the only officer that escaped.

Colonel Nathan Dennison, who fucceeded to the command, seeing the impoffibility of an effectual defence, went with a flag to col. John Butler, to know what terms he would grant on a furrender: to which application Butler answered with more than favage phlegm in two fhort words-the batchet. Dennison having defended the fort, till most of the garrison were killed or disabled, was compelled to furrender at difcretion. Some of the unhappy perfons in the fort were carried away alive; but the barbarous conquerors, to fave the trouble of murder in detail, fhut up the reft promifcuously in the houses and barracks; which having set on fire, they enjoyed the favage pleasure of beholding the whole confumed in one general blaze.

They then croffed the river to the only remaining fort, Wilkesborough, which in hopes of mercy furrendered without demanding any conditions. They found about seventy continental foldiers, who had been engaged merely for the defence of the frontiers, whom they butchered with every circumstance of horrid cruelty. The remainder of the men, with the women and children, were shut as before in the houses, which being fet on fire, they perished altogether in the flames.

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1778

A general scene of devaftation was now fpread through all the townships. Fire, fword, and the other different inftruments of deftruction alternately triumphed. The fettlements of the tories alone generally efcaped, and appeared as islands in the midst of the furrounding ruin. The merciless ravagers having deftroyed the main objects of their cruelty, directed their animofity to every part of living nature belonging to them; fhot and deftroyed fome of their cattle, and cut out the tongues of others, leaving them ftill alive to prolong their agonies.

The following are a few of the more fingular circumftances of the barbarity practised in the attack upon Wyoming. Capt. Bedlock, who had been taken prifoner, being stripped naked, had his body ftuck full of fplinters of pine knots *, and then a heap of pine knots piled around him; the whole was then fet on fire, and his two companions, capts. Ranfon and Durgee, thrown alive into the flames and held down with pitchforks. The returned tories, who had at different times abandoned the settlement in order to join in those favage expeditions, were the most distinguished for their cruelty; in this they resembled the tories that joined the British forces. One of thefe Wyoming tories, whofe mother had married a fecond husband, butchered with his own hands, both her, his father-in-law, his own fifters and

their infant children. Another, who during his abfence had sent home several threats against the life of his father, now not only realized them in perfon, but was himfelf, with his own hands, the exterminator of his whole

Pine knots are fo replete with turpentine, that they are fired and ufed at night to illuminate the room; and lighted fplinters are often carried about in the houses of the Carolina planters instead of candles.

family, mother, brothers and fifters, and mingled their 1778* blood in one common carnage, with that of the ancient husband and father. The broken parts and scattered relics of families, confifting mostly of women and children, who had escaped to the woods during the different fcenes of this devastation, fuffered little less than their friends, who had perished in the ruin of their houses. Dispersed and wandering in the forefts, as chance and fear directed, without provifion or covering, they had a long tract of country to traverse, and many without doubt perished in the woods. But whatever diftreffes and cruelties have been experienced by the Wyoming fettlers, the British cause, fo far from being ferved by them, is much injured, through the bitter and lasting resentment they fix in the minds of the Americans.

Some expeditions were undertaken on the other fide by the Americans. Col. Clarke's through the Indian country, which commenced laft fummer, is worthy of particular observation from the fuccefsful fpirit of enterprise, courage and prudence, with which it was conducted.

The colonel left Virginia with a small party of between 2 and 300 men. The object in view was the reduction of the French fettlements planted by the Canadians on the Upper Miffiffippi, in the Illinois country; and at fo vast a distance, that they were obliged to traverse no lefs than about 1200 miles of an uncultivated and uninhabited wilderness. Much of the mifchief which had fallen upon the fouthern and middle ftates, from the incurfions of the Indians, had been attributed to the go+ vernor of those fettlements, who befide acting as an agent for the British government, and paying large rewards for fcalps, had been indefatigable in attempting to

$778. excite the Ohio and Miffiffippi Indians to undertake expeditions against the frontiers. This conduct was the motive to the present enterprise. The party, after a long course down the Monongahela, and a voyage on the Ohio, arrived at the great falls of the latter, within about 60 miles of its mouth, where they hid their boats, and bent their course by land to the northward. In this ftage of the expedition, after confuming all the provifion they had been able to carry on their backs, they endured a hard march of two days without any fuftenance. They therefore, when arrived in this hungry state, about midnight, at the town of Kafkafkias, were unanimoufly determined to take it or perish in the attempt.

The town contained about 250 houses, and was fufficiently fortified to have withstood a much stronger enemy; but diftance having forbidden all idea of danger among the inhabitants, of course fuperfeded all precau tion against surprise. Both town and fort were taken without noife or oppofition, before the people were well awake, and the inhabitants were fo effectually fecured, that not a person escaped to alarm the neighbouring settlements. The governor, Philip Rocheblave, was fent to Virginia, with all the written instructions he had received from Quebec, Detroit, and Michillimackinack, for fetting on the Indians, and paying them great rewards for the scalps of the Americans. The inhabitants were required to take an oath of allegiance to the United States, and the fort became the head quarters of the victors.

A fmall detachment pushed forward from this place on horseback, and furprised and took with as little difficulty three other French towns, lying from fifteen to