Anatomy of a Massacre by Eric Sterner

Author:Eric Sterner [Sterner, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781594166679
Publisher: Westholme Publishing

Gelelemend had his problems, but the Continentals were in bad shape as well. As in the last two wars, armed frontiersmen saw all Indians as enemies or potential enemies not to be trusted. So, despite the assistance the Muskingum Delaware, including the Moravian communities, were providing to Colonel Brodhead, the indiscriminate hatred of Indians reared its ugly head in the Upper Ohio Valley again in the fall of 1780. Brodhead reported that a group of whites from Hannastown on the Allegheny had set out to destroy a group of friendly Delaware who had moved closer to Fort Pitt. To Brodhead’s knowledge, it was led by former Continental officers who had joined the militia after their discharges. The colonel had posted guards to protect these Indians, who lived on McKee’s Island below Pittsburgh and who caused the white raiding party to give up its plans.98 Meanwhile, Brodhead’s continued efforts to supply his forces and his need to resort to seizing provisions from local farms and merchants earned him no friends. He even heard rumors that some intended to resist by force of arms, worsening relations between his command and the local community.99

Brodhead’s frustration with his situation was palpable, and he began looking askance at the local whites, suspecting a significant number of having Loyalist sympathies. At the same time, he felt adrift when it came to relations with the Goschgosching Delaware. He was unable to supply his own troops adequately, much less provide the Delaware with trade goods and supplies promised in the Treaty of Fort Pitt or make adequate use of those Delaware committed to the Americans. Squatting also remained a problem.100 Moreover, he had concerns about growing animosity between the Delaware and the frontier settlers, about which he could do little.101

During the winter of 1780-1781, things went from bad to worse. Brodhead’s foraging parties largely failed, sometimes going hungry themselves. So, he approached the Goschgosching Delaware, including those who had joined the Moravians, with an eye toward encouraging them to hunt on his behalf. They declined, much to his frustration. He could only tell Zeisberger, “I . . . am sorry to find that the proposal I made to obtain a quantity of wild meat was not accepted. It is probably that I said the Christian Indians declined assisting in the war, but I expected as a testimony of their attachment to American liberty they would not be averse to serving their country in affording supplies for the troops by every means in their power.” Worse, he had heard that the Moravian Indians possessed a significant number of pigs that might help feed his troops, but they would only accept hard currency, which he lacked. Thus, he feared that the swine might end up feeding the British and their allies in Detroit!102 Brodhead’s fears were warranted. Zeisberger reported that Indians hired by the English were in town at the end of the summer to trade for cattle and that Indians who had joined the church even herded their cattle to the western tribes on the Sandusky River.

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