Newton, J. H. "Logan's Death/Maj. Charles Cracraft." History of the Pan-Handle. Wheeling, WV: J. A. Caldwell, 1879: 74-75.
Source: History of the Pan-Handle, WV, pg. 74-75
The following account of his death came into the possession of the eminent historian Lyman C. DRAPER, secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society, & by him was furnished to Mr Brantz MAYER, the author of an interesting little work entitled 'Logan & Cresap.' In his communication to MAYER upon the subject, DRAPER says:
" In August 1781, Maj. Charles CRACRAFT, of Washington Co. PA, & 12 men descending the Ohio, as part of Gen. G.R. CLARKE's intended expedition against Detroit, were intercepted near the mouth of the Great Miami by a large body of Indians & made prisoners. Maj. CRACRAFT;s son Wm. CRACRAFT has furnished me his recollections of his father's relation of his captivity & events connected therewith & among them the following about LOGAN, which he communicated to me under date of October 1st, 1853, by which you will perceive I did not possess it when you prepared & published your original work on LOGAN & CRESAP in 1851. I will give it in the plain narrative communicated to me, & if you have occasion to use it you must put it in shape:
" I think in my last letter to you mention was made of an acquaintance had by my father, at the time of his captivity with Alexander MACOMB, a resident near Detroit & father of the late Gen. Alexander MACOMB of the United States Army, his father was ever kindly treated & furnished with reading matter to while away the tedium of his captivity, having given his parole not to run away, nor pass more than 3 miles beyond the limits of Detroit. At that time a certain William McMILLEN, who had been taken prisoner by the celebrated Indian chief & warrior LOGAN, was in the employ of Mr. MACOMB working on his farm, & there my father became acquainted with McMILLEN & learned from him much of LOGAN's life & history. It appears that LOGAN & McMILLEN had hunted together before the war, & McMILLEN was made prisoner by LOGAN & his party near Clover Lick, on the Greenbriar fork of the Great Kanawha river, Virginia, & taken to Detroit & retained there, & with the privilege of personal freedom by remaining in or near the post of Detroit. It appears that McMILLEN was a favorite of LOGAN, for the latter called often to see him when returning to Detroit with scalps & prisoners.
" I will give you as near as possible the relation given by my father as to LOGAN's death. Many years before my father's decease, I had read JEFFERSON's account of LOGAN with much interest, which accounts for my recollection of the narrative given me by my father. And now to the narrative:
" It appears that LOGAN in one of his trips to Detroit, & I might say his last one, with scalps & prisoners, after having made disposition of them according to the then British regulations, got into an Indian drunken frolic & became so troublesome that Captain BAWBEE, the commissary of the Indian department, kicked him out of the store-house. LOGAN took it in high dudgeon, & the next day he went to Mr. MACOMB's residence to hunt up William McMILLEN; & after meeting him & passing the usual salutation, LOGAN said: 'Bill, I want to have a talk with you & wish you to meet me at the Spring Wells below Detroit, signifying the time by pointing to where the sun would be in the horizon. McMILLEN acceded to his request & at the appointed time met LOGAN at the Spring Wells.
" LOGAN commenced by giving an account of the abuse he had received from the British at the hands of BAWBEE. 'Bill', said he, addressing McMILLEN, 'Why, BAWBEE kicked me out of his house & called me a dog! Bill, I won't fight for the British any more; they have treated me very bad. Now, Bill, take this tomahawk & tell how many prisoners & how many scalps I have taken from the Big Knives (the Virginians) for the British.' LOGAN had made a notch record on the other side for each scalp. McMILLEN said he counted them, & they exceeded 70. 'Now Bill', continued LOGAN, ' I would go back to the Big Knives, if I thought they would not kill me, & would kill & take as many of the British as I have done of the Big Knives; but I dare not go. Bill, I can kill as many bucks as any Indian on the Scioto river; I will go home, & hunt deer, raccoon & beaver.' And from the narration, it seems that LOGAN soon left Detroit for his home on the heads of the Scioto; & meeting some of his nation on his Journey homeward, who had some rum, he became boozy again,& then pursued his way to his camp, & in passing the Indian wigwam of the squaw whom he claimed for his cousin, he asked her for something to eat. She said they had nothing. LOGAN called her a liar & took his whipping stick or ramrod & gave her a severe whipping , calling her a lazy bitch, then mounted his horse & made off. The husband of squaw coming home, & finding his wife still crying & learning the cause of her trouble, & the course that LOGAN had gone, & knowing that he would have to make a circuitous route to avoid a swamp, took a nearer way, & got ahead of LOGAN, & lay in ambush until he came near, & then shot. At the crack of the rifle, LOGAN sprang from his horse, with his gun in one hand, while with the other he struck himself on the breast, at the same time advancing a few steps towards the place where the concealed Indian lay, exclaiming, 'I am a man!' & fell to the ground to rise no more.Thus ended the life of LOGAN, the once & mighty Mingo chief & warrior, whose name & acts had carried dismay & terror to the frontier settlers.
Return to the History of the Pan-Handle, WV Table of Contents
Return to the Indian Captives Main Page