Frontier Savagery
The sound of frenzied whooping mixed with shrill screams filled the ears of the three frightened boys huddled together for safety. Their hands and feet were bound, leaving them helpless to do anything but stare with eyes stinging from tears. Soon, the crackling of flames began to compete with the savage whoops of the Delaware braves, who grew more excited as the burning fires crept up the figure tied firmly to a pole. Some of the braves shouted what could only be taunts and insults, primarily because the old man remained stiff-lipped as his flesh began to sear and burn, emitting a putrid stench that made the three youths nauseous while exciting the bloodlust of their tormentors. Finally, the fire completely engulfed the old man, whose head slumped as the dark smoke swallowed him.
One of the
boys shouted when the smoke cleared and the fires subsided, revealing a pile of
charred wood and bone, "Grandpa!"
"Don't
let 'em know you're scared," hissed Simon, the oldest. "Never!"
After this, fourteen-year-old Simon Girty and his two brothers were soon parceled out to different tribes as hostages. This was a typical sequence of events for families who settled along the American frontier, which was Indian territory.
Frontier Family
Simon Girty was born in 1741 in Chambers Mill, Pennsylvania, a small hamlet near Harrisburg in the center of the colony. His Scots-Irish family later moved to Sherman's Creek, about thirty-five miles northwest. In 1751, Girty lost his father, who was killed in a liquor-fueled duel. Girty's grandfather raised the young boys. Girty and his brothers grew up illiterate but toughened as the family made a living on the edge of civilization.
Backwoods Homestead
The West Aflame
In 1754, war reached Pennsylvania as France and England engaged in one last struggle to control North America. Along the frontier, groups of Indians and their French allies raided farms and settlements, unleashing a wave of terror.
In 1756, the Girty family and many others, fearful of falling to the tomahawk, fled to the safety of Fort Granville, a small stockade about fifty miles northwest of Harrisburg. A mixed force of French troops and Native Americans, primarily Lenape warriors, attacked on August 2. The garrison quickly surrendered; the fort was destroyed, and the Girtys and other settlers were taken captive. However, before they were forced to trek off to live with new masters, they had to watch as their grandfather was burned at the stake.
Indian Life
Simon was taken by the Delaware tribe but was later passed on to a band of Seneca, who marched him to the Ohio Territory, where they "adopted" the young man into the Seneca nation. As was often the case with white captives, Girty quickly adapted to life among the native tribes, learning their language and customs. He soon began to learn Iroquois and the nuances of tribal life and warfare.
Frontier Freedom
Girty was finally released at Fort Pitt in 1759. By then, he had become fluent in the Seneca and Iroquois languages and was well-versed in all aspects of tribal life. And, most importantly, Indian warfare. — a Seneca in all but skin color.
Girty returned to live with his mother, working as a struggling farmer. He also served as an interpreter for fur traders dealing with the Delaware Indians in western Pennsylvania. The British authorities valued his skills and enlisted him to negotiate treaties with various tribes along the frontier.
During Lord
Dunmore's War against the Shawnee Nation in 1774, Girty became an expert frontier scout. There, he befriended Simon Kenton, a well-known
frontier scout.
War for Independence
When war broke out between Britain and her American colonies in 1775, Simon supported the patriot cause. General James Wood sent him back to the Ohio Territory, where he assisted with American negotiations with the Shawnee. Seneca, the Delaware, and the
Wyandot.
Troublemaker
Military discipline did not sit well with Girty, who constantly got into trouble with the officers appointed over him. This came to a head in September 1777, when he was arrested and charged with treason, as he was suspected of helping to plan the seizure of Fort Pitt.
Local Loyalists plotted to kill Fort Pitt's occupants before surrendering it to the British. Girty was acquitted, but the ordeal left him bitter, and he switched his allegiance back to the crown. In March 1778, the frontiersman Girty, along with his brothers James and George, quietly slipped out of the fort and traveled to Detroit, the main British base in the
northwest.
Indian Department
There, British Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton recognized the need for Girty's skills as a linguist and frontiersman and ordered him to join the Indian Department, where he quickly became notorious throughout the northwest frontier.
Backwoods Pirate
From that time until the end of the war in 1783, Simon Girty besieged the Americans. His cultural and linguistic skills allowed him to recruit numerous native tribes to the British cause and also dissuaded them from supporting the Americans. He led or directed raids, ambushes, robberies, and outright massacres, making him the terror of the West. Terrified settlers began calling him The White Savage or The Great Renegade.
First Blood
His real foray into mayhem began in 1779, when Girty, leading mixed bands of Loyalists and Indians, conducted several attacks that left the patriots reeling. He unleashed Indian war bands against the area around Fort Laurens, Ohio, where they massacred several patriot units. His October 4, 1779, ambush of an American column led by Colonel David Rogers was a masterstroke against the cause, resulting in fifty-seven militiamen dead and the capture of 600,000 Spanish dollars.
In 1780, Girty assisted British Captain Henry Bird in leading a significant foray against American settlements in Kentucky. The mission resulted in the capture of a pair of forts and more than 300 hostages — among them was his former friend Simon Kenton, whose
release he arranged.
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The Great Renegade
By this point, the Americans had branded Girty a turncoat — offering a reward of 800 dollars for him, dead or alive. The incendiary Girty even succeeded in angering arguably the most prominent Loyalist, Iroquois war chief Joseph Brant, confronting Brant for bragging. The equally fiery Brant slashed Girty across the face with his saber, leaving a wicked Al Capone-like scar. Ironically, the mutilation gave
Girty much prestige among the braves.
Campaign of Infamy
In June of 1782, Captain William Caldwell and Simon Girty led a party of 400 warriors from the Wyandot, Lenape, and Shawnee tribes, along with a detachment of Butler's Rangers, against a column of 500 volunteers under Colonel William Crawford. They halted the American advance aimed at destroying Indian enclaves on the Sandusky River. Then they surrounded Crawford's command, which retreated in a confused panic.
They captured many prisoners, including Crawford, who endured brutal torture over several days before being burned to death at the stake. Just like with his grandfather, Girty was said to have stood by without intervening, earning lasting infamy among Americans on the frontier. However, some accounts claim he was threatened with his own scalping if he interfered.
Kentucky Killing
Caldwell, Girty, and the mixed band brought their mayhem into Kentucky, launching brutal assaults against numerous defenseless farms and hamlets. This campaign of terror peaked after their failed siege of Bryan's Station on August 15. When he received word of an approaching relief force, Girty and his band decided on a ruse. As the
column approached, they faked a retreat.
Girty positioned several of his braves along the bluffs overlooking the Blue Licks River. He kept them in plain sight, aiming to lure the Kentuckians into a kill zone. Caldwell placed most of the rangers and warriors in ravines and behind boulders.
The trap was set.
One of the
column's leaders, famed frontiersman Daniel Boone, suspected a trap and urged
caution, but the column's commander, Major Hugh McGary, led his men headlong across
the stream. Boone commented, "They'd all be slaughtered," but led his
command to the right side of McGary's line, which moved directly into a
deadly ambush.
No Post-War Pause
The Treaty of Paris did not lessen the friction between the northwest tribes and the ever-increasing American settlements that began to creep beyond the frontier. Girty also played a role. For the next ten years, he was a tireless advocate for war against the Americans at tribal councils. How much was his raw hate for his former countrymen, revenge for past grievances, or merely him being an agent of British policy? We will never know. But it was likely all the above.
War Drums Along the Miami
By 1791, the tribes of the Ohio country had united into a federation that pledged to confront the American threat to their lands or die in the effort. The assembled warriors possessed all the traditional cunning, skill, and bravery of their ancestors but had British training and weapons that made them a far more formidable force than any of the Western tribes that rose to fame in the next century. Still, many leaders chose to settle with the new government, but American incursions and the killing of Chief Little Turtle's daughter drove the tribes to war.
An Army's Destruction
Simon Girty was with Chief Little Turtle of the Miami and his war party when they defeated an American Army led by Revolutionary War heroes General Arthur St. Clair and Richard Butler at the Battle of the Wabash. The northwest was vulnerable to the war bands. Enraged, President Washington ordered the formation of a new army, called the American Legion, and placed it under the command of a war hero from eastern Pennsylvania, General
Anthony Wayne.
Fallen Timbers
Simon Girty marched to confront this new army alongside War Chief Blue Jacket and his Shawnee, Ottawa, and various other tribes. In August 1794, Blue Jacket and Girty faced off against Wayne's American Legion and General Charles Scott's Kentucky Militia at Fallen Timbers. In the brief but decisive battle of Fallen Timbers, Anthony Wayne defeated Blue Jacket's coalition, and the tribes ultimately sued for peace — a bitter pill for a noble people.
Escape North
The British finally evacuated Detroit in 1795. The long-held Great Lakes bases for operations against the new American government were handed over to the Americans by the Jay Treaty. Still a wanted man, Girty had to move north to the safety of Canada and worked for the British Indian Department in Amherstburg, Ontario. The elderly Girty, now bordering on depression and struggling with alcoholism, had to flee the town when the Americans invaded in 1813. He returned after the Americans
withdrew and lived there until his death on 18 February 1818.
Pantheon of Savagery
What can we make of this controversial frontiersman? Well, for one thing, he had plenty of company in the pantheon of savagery, of any color and on both sides. Beyond the well-known battles on the Atlantic seaboard, the American War for Independence was both a civil war and a clash of civilizations. The hundreds of raids, ambushes, and small-scale fighting were far more bitter than the European-style engagements in the east. Simon Girty symbolizes the many men on both sides who used savagery as a tool of war. Sadly, this pantheon continues to gain new
members to this day.
This is a fascinating story that captures the interwoven intrigue and blunt brutality of the era. Too often the rearview mirror of history is over simplified to white and black hats. Send this to teachers around the country. Many (most) schools barely touch, or accurately depict, this pivotal era of frontier history.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much we don't know about frontier life in American history. Thanks to those who research and educate us about life in this time period.
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