Moore, Charles. "Henry Gladwin and the Siege of Pontiac." Harper's New Monthly Magazine 95 (June, 1897): 77-94. HTML & Ed. Marshall Davies Lloyd (October 12, 1999).

The following article is the result of an attempt to find out something about the man who defeated Pontiac. Applying in person to Mr. Parkman, he told me that he knew nothing whatever about Gladwin, but gave me permission, to go through his manuscripts in the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical Society. This I did, but found absolutely nothing. After considerable labor, however, I obtained trace of Gladwin's descendants, and from one of them obtained about one hundred pages of manuscript written in Detroit in 1763. The MS. contained records of courts martial, reports, letters, etc. These are to appear shortly in the Michigan Historical Society publications. I also obtained photographs of portraits of Gladwin and his wife. The gentleman to whom I am indebted for this courtesy is the Rev. Gladwyn Jebb, of Firbeck Hall, Rotherham, England. The photographs are the only ones ever sent to this country. Also I secured, through Ambassador Bayard, copies of all the references to Gladwin in the British War Office. On these as a basis I have written the Pontiac story from the standpoint of Gladwin, the conqueror.

HE conquest of Canada by the English brought about several readjustments within the territory now included in the State of Michigan. The only settlements were at Detroit, at Mackinac

found in a letter from James Sterling, who, on behalf of his wife, returns hearty thanks for Sir William's civilities to her, four years previous. Before leaving Detroit, Sir William also gave a ball, and on this occasion the dancing continued for eleven hours. There was also around of dinners and calls, at which wines and cordials were served without stint; presents were showered upon the Indians by Sir William, and after the final council the principal inhabitants dined with the diplomat of the forest. In all these festivities Major Gladwin had no part. Lying in a little house within hearing of the lively fiddle and the laughter of the dancers, the fever of the country racked his bones, and made him long for his Derbyshire home. At evening Sir William would visit him to talk over the events of the day and to plan for the future; and it was not until the middle of October that Gladwin was able to leave for Fort William Augustus, on his way to England.

In July, 1762, the Indians learned with satisfaction that England was at war with Spain, and soon the report spread far and wide that the French and Spanish were to retake Quebec and all Canada. Here at last was the chance for which the savages had been waiting. With the help of the French they could drive out the English, and once more receive the solicitous attention of both nations. At this juncture Major Gladwin again appeared at Detroit, this time with orders to establish posts on Lake Superior and to exercise general supervision over the northwestern establishments. Captain Campbell, although somewhat wearied by the sameness; of garrison pleasures, remained as second in command; and the favor in which he was held by both the French and the Indians was a decided help to the abrupt and businesslike Gladwin. For company, the officers had Sir Robert Davers, an Englishman of education and adventurous disposition, who had been exploring the Lake Superior country.

As spring came and the February thaws and March rains loosened the ice bonds that for three long months had locked Detroit from the world, Gladwin at evening must often have stood on the platform within the palisades to look out on the tumultuous river, where the great ice cakes from Lake St. Clair, tumbling over each other like marine monsters at play, were hurrying down to the warmer waters of Lake Erie. By day the details of administration kept him busy. The French merchants within the fort grumbled at the increased taxes imposed for the support of a garrison much larger than their own king had maintained;* the outlying posts were continually sending for supplies; General Amherst was cautioning against gifts of ammunition and rum to the Indians; and the savages, having bartered their furs for liquor at Niagara, had no means to purchase the necessaries of life from the traders at Detroit. Some of the French and Indians complained bitterly that Gladwin called them dogs and drove them from his house; and the subsequent career of those who made the charges shows that the commander was an excellent judge of human nature.†

Confident of the power of England to hold all she had gained from France, Gladwin had no suspicion that the Indians would foolishly rush to their own destruction by an attack on the British posts. Living behind palisades, and surrounded by a cordon of discontented and intriguing French, he could have no accurate knowledge of the mischief that for months had been plotted by the Ottawa chief Pontiac, who had established himself, with his wives, on the narrow Isle a Peche (Peach Island), scarcely rising above the waters of Lake St. Clair, and concealed from the view of the fort by the thickly wooded Isle au Cochons. There is no reason to believe that Pontiac had impressed himself upon Gladwin as being in any way distinguished above the other chiefs, and doubtless many of the reports, like those given by Major Robert Rogers,‡ that have come down to us of the Ottawa chief's striking personality are too highly colored. He was of medium stature, was well built, and was possessed of great strength. Absolute and peremptory in manner, he had obtained great influence among the tribes, and was respected by the French. During the fifty years of his life he had absorbed from his contact with white men much that was valuable in the conduct of protracted warfare; and, according to his own account, he had saved the French at Detroit from massacre in 1746, when the great chief Mickinac (the Turtle) came with his northern bands "to carry off the head of

the French commander and eat his heart and drink his blood." Doubtless, too, he had led the Ottawas at Fort Duquesne (Fort Pitt) eight years before, when Gladwin for the first time heard the Indian war-whoop. At a great council (1763), held on the banks of the river Ecorse, below Detroit, Pontiac had related to the superstitious Indians a dream wherein the Great Spirit sent his message that they were to cast aside the weapons, the manufactures, and the rum of the white men, and, with help from above, drive the dogs in red from every post in their country. The credulous Indians heard with awe the voice from on high, and left the council prepared to obey the summons.

Detroit being the chief point of attack, Pontiac took it upon himself to surprise and massacre the garrison. On May 1, 1763, forty Ottawas danced the calumet dance before Gladwin's house, the visit being made for the purpose of spying out the land. Four days later M. Gouin, a substantial French settler, brought word that his wife, while visiting the Ottawa camp to buy venison, had seen the Indians filing off the ends of their gun-barrels, evidently preparing for some deed of treachery; and on the evening of the 6th, Gladwin received private information that the next day had been set for the destruction of his garrison. The exact source of this private information is still a matter of more or less doubt.

Carver, who visited Detroit five years after the events to be described, and who published three editions of his Travels through North America while Gladwin was still living, relates, without contemporary contradiction, a story that Cass accepted with little hesitation, and that Parkman clings to in spite of the gravest doubts thrown upon it by investigations made subsequent to the first edition of his Conspiracy of Pontiac. John R. Williams told Parkman that the plot was disclosed by the daughter of Labutte the interpreter; but Mr. Askin opined that a Pawnee slave gave the information.*

The evening of May 7, according to Carver, an Indian girl who had been employed by Major Gladwin to make a pair of moccasins out of curious elk-skin, brought her work home. The major was so pleased with the moccasins that, intending them as a present for a friend, he ordered her to take back the remainder of the skin and make a pair for him. Having been paid and dismissed, the woman loitered at the door, and Gladwin was quick enough to see that something was amiss. Being urged to tell her trouble, she said, after much hesitation, that as he had always been good to her, she was unwilling to take away the remainder of the skin, because he put so great a value upon it, and she should never be able to bring it back. His curiosity being now excited, be insisted that she disclose the secret that seemed to be struggling in her bosom for utterance. At last, on receiving a promise that the intelligence she was about to give should not turn to her prejudice, and that if it appeared to be beneficial she should be rewarded for it, she informed him that at the council to be held with the Indians the following day Pontiac and his chiefs intended to murder Gladwin and his officers, and having massacred the garrison and inhabitants, to plunder the town. Having gained from the woman every necessary particular relative to the plot, Gladwin dismissed her, with injunctions to secrecy and a promise of reward.

A story at once so romantic and so widely accepted deserves tender treatment; but in the Parkman manuscripts this same tale is found in the mouth of one of Rogers's rangers, who, as Cass proves, could not have known the facts. The truth probably has been related by the unknown author of the Pontiac Diary, who says that an Ottawa Indian, called Mahigan, having entered but reluctantly into the conspiracy, and feeling displeased with the steps his people were taking, came on Friday night, without the knowledge of the other Indians, to the gate of the fort, and asked to be admitted to the presence of the commander, saying that he had something of importance to tell him. The gates having been opened, he was conducted to Captain Campbell, second in command, and Gladwin was summoned. They wished to call in the interpreter Labutte, but the Indian objected, saying that he could make himself understood in French. Thereupon he unfolded the conspiracy of the Indians, telling how they would come the very next day to fall on the English. Having obtained a pledge of secrecy, and having refused presents lest the Indians should discover his treachery and kill him, he left the fort secretly. The writer adds

that Gladwin made a promise not to disclose the source of his information, and that he kept it.*

The crisis had come in the life of the young commandant of his Majesty's forces at Detroit. Although Gladwin could not then have known the extent of the widespread conspiracy which Pontiac had planned, yet he did know that his own steadfastness and his knowledge of Indian warfare were about to be put to the test. He was a soldier by choice and by training, and the seven years he had spent in England's service on the frontiers of America had not been without its hard lessons. In 1755 he had landed on the banks of the Potomac as an ensign in the ill-fated Braddock expedition. He had made one of that band of glittering officers whom the provincial soldier George Washington had envied as they congregated in the old Braddock House at Alexandria, whose now bare but stately staircase and broad halls seem to be peopled by the ghosts of fair ladies and dashing soldier gallants of a century and a quarter ago. In the ambush at Little Meadows he had learned from the brave yet cautious young Virginian that the military science of the Old World was out of place in battling with the denizens of the American forests, and in the campaigns against Ticonderoga and Niagara this new knowledge had stood him in good stead. Scarcely more than a year previous he had given a hostage to fortune by leading to the altar of the little Wingerwort church in Derbyshire a beautiful girl of nineteen, from whose side military duties in America too quickly recalled him. As the prospective head of an old and honorable county family, yet with little besides his profession of arms to give him support and reputation, Henry Gladwin, at the age of thirty-three, must have realized that the peril which now faced his king's supremacy in the wilderness was for him the door to success or to failure in life, according as he should succeed or fail in holding the post of Detroit against the savages whose hostility and crafty treachery now threatened it. And yet perhaps the warning of danger to come might be without foundation, as so many other warnings had been. Perhaps the prudent but fickle Indians were bent merely on extorting more presents and still larger portions of rum. Perhaps the broad river, mirroring the placid May stars, was a pathway of peace and not of war, and the stillness of the trackless forest was not destined to be broken by the war-whoop and the death-cry. The morrow would tell the story. If it was to be war, at least he would be found neither unprepared nor wanting in the determination that marks the soldier.

About ten o'clock the next morning, as Carver relates, Pontiac and his chiefs arrived, and were conducted to the council-chamber, where Gladwin and his principal officers awaited their coming. As the Indians passed on, they could not help observing a greater number of troops than usual drawn up on the parade. No sooner had the Indians entered the council-chamber, and seated themselves on the skins prepared for them, than Pontiac asked the commandant why his young men, meaning the soldiers, were thus drawn up and parading the streets. "To keep them perfect in their exercise," was the answer. Then Pontiac began to protest his friendship and good-will towards the English; and when he came to deliver the belt of wampum, which, according to the warning, was to be the signal for his chiefs to fire, the governor and all his attendants drew their swords half-way from their scabbards, and the soldiers at the same instant made a clattering with their arms before the doors, which had been purposely left open. Even Pontiac trembled; and instead of giving the belt in the manner proposed, he delivered it according to the usual way. His stolid chiefs, who had expected the signal, continued quiet, awaiting the result.

Gladwin in his turn made a speech. Instead of thanking Pontiac for the professions of friendship just uttered, he accused him of being a traitor. He said that the English, who knew everything, were convinced of Pontiac's treachery and villanous designs. Then reaching down to the Indian chief seated nearest him, he drew aside his blanket, discovering the shortened firelock. This entirely disconcerted the Indians. Inasmuch as he had given his word, at the time they desired an audience, that their persons

* The Pontiac Diary, was written in French, probably by a priest of St. Anne's. It was found in the roof of a Canadian house that was being torn down. Three translations exist--one in the Parkman MSS. in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society; another in Schoolcraft's second volume; and a third in the Michigan Pioneer Collections.

should be safe, Gladwin said he would hold his promise inviolable, though they so little deserved it. However, he advised them to make the best of their way out of the fort, lest his young men, on being acquainted with their treacherous purposes, should cut every one of them to pieces. Pontiac endeavored to contradict the accusation, and to make excuses for his suspicious conduct; but Gladwin refused to listen, and the Indians sullenly left the fort.

Late that afternoon six warriors returned, bringing with them an old squaw, saying that she had given false information. Gladwin declared that she had never given any kind of advice.* When they insisted that he name the author of what he had heard in regard to a plot, he simply replied it was one of themselves, whose name he promised never to reveal. Whereupon they went off, and carried the old woman with them. When they arrived in camp, Pontiac seized the prisoner and gave her three strokes with a stick on the head, which laid her flat on the ground, and the whole nation, crowding around, called, Kill her! kill her!

The next day was Sunday, and late in the afternoon Pontiac and several of his chiefs paddled across the placid river to smoke the pipe of peace with the officers at the fort. Gladwin, suspicious of so much protestation, refused to go near them; but Captain Campbell, unwilling to lose a chance to pacify the Indians, smoked the peace-pipe with them outside the fort, and took back to Gladwin the message that on Monday all the nation would come to council, where everything would be settled to the satisfaction of the English, after which the Indians would immediately disperse, so as to remove all suspicion.

At ten o’clock next morning the anxious watchers behind the palisades saw coming around the point of the low island a fleet of canoes; and as the swift-darting boats, hurried by paddle and current, covered the three miles of water, the soldiers counted fifty-six of these barks, each carrying seven or eight Indians. The bows of the canoes rested lightly on the sand of the sloping bank, and the warriors hurried to the fort, only to find the gates fast barred against them. Instead of the cordial welcome they expected, an interpreter met them with the message that not above sixty chiefs might enter. Whereupon Pontiac, enraged at seeing the futility of all his stiatagems, and yet confident of ultimate success, in his most peremptory manner bade the interpreter say to Gladwin that if all the Indians had not free access to the fort, none of them would enter it. "Tell him," said the angry chief, "that he may stay in his fort, and that I will keep the country." So saying, Pontiac strode to his canoe and paddled for the Ottawa village; and his followers, knowing that the fight was on, ran like fiends to the house of an English woman and her two sons, whom they tomahawked and scalped. Another party paddled swiftly to Isle au Cochons, where they first killed twenty-four of King George’s bullocks, and then put to death an old English sergeant. Afterwards the Canadians buried the mutilated corpse; but on returning to the spot, so tradition relates, they were surprised to see an arm protruding from the grave. Thrice the dirt was heaped above the body, and thrice the arm raised itself above the ground, until the mound was sprinkled with holy water. Then the perturbed spirit left the body in peace never since disturbed. Having put to death all the English outside the fort, the Indians sent to Gladwin a Frenchman to report the killing of the woman and her children, and also the murder of Sir Robert Davers, Captain Robertson, and a boat’s crew of six persons who had been sent to the St. Clair Flats to discover a passage for one of the schooners bound to Michilimackinac--information that removed all lingering doubts that the Indians were determined to wipe out the English at Detroit.

Pontiac, on his return to the Ottawa village, ordered the squaws to change the camp to the western bank, above the fort. Then,as the night mists gathered upon the tireless river, dropping a curtain between the great chief and his enemies, Pontiac himself, hideous in war-paint, leaped into the centre of the ring of braves, and flourishing his tomahawk, began to chant the record of his valorous deeds. One by one the listening braves, catching the contagion from their mighty chief, were drawn into the ring, until at last every savage was wildly dancing the war-dance. There was no sleep for the garrison that night. Gladwin, as he paced the wide street that encircled the buildings of the

* Rogers’s Journal. Doubtless this is the origin of the romance of the Indian girl.

THE BAFFLED CHIEFS LEAVING THE FORT--by Frederick Remington (1861-1909)

fort just within the pickets, took council with himself as to how he might withstand his crafty enemies. Burning arrows, silent messengers of destruction, might easily set fire to the one hundred or more wooden buildings within the enclosure; and the church, standing near the palisades, was particularly exposed, unless, indeed, the superstitious Indians should hearken to their only less superstitious French allies, who had threatened the savages with the vengeance of the Great Spirit if they should attempt to destroy the house of God. The two six-pounders, the one three-pounder, and the two mortars that now composed the battery of the fort were of little avail against an enemy that fought singly and from behind trees or whatever protection the opportunity might afford; but, on the other hand, an English head above the pickets or an English body at a port-hole was the sure lodgement for an Indian bullet. The garrison was made up of one hundred and twenty-two soldiers and eight officers, together with about forty fur-traders and their assistants. These traders would fight to save their lives, but were inclined to the French rather than to the English. Between this little garrison and the thousand savages was a single row of palisades, made by planting logs close together so that they would stand twenty-five feet above-ground. Block-houses at the angles and at the gates afforded additional protection; and, best of all, the brimming river,whose little waves lapped the sandy shore near the south line of palisades, gave an abundant water-supply. A schooner and a sloop, both armed, might be relied on to keep open the line of communication with Niagara, whence Major Walters would send supplies. Promotion was certain to be the reward of success; and almost as surely the torture-stake would be the penalty of failure.

The chill that comes before dawn was in the air when Gladwin joined the anxious watchers in the block-house. Gradually the black outlines of low farm-houses and the encircling woods melted into gray; and then beyond the wooded island a disk of molten gold, pushing itself higher and higher, made of the deep waters a broad pathway of shimmering light. On the low bluff far up the river Gladwin’s anxious eye discovered the lodges of Pontiac s Otta was, who, under cover of the night, had paddled around the head of the island and noiselessly established themselves above the line of French farm-houses. This meant a siege; and as the commandant was still gazing at the preparations for war, a pattering of bullets against the block-house announced the beginning of hostilities.

A LIGHT-INFANTRY SOLDIER OF THE PERIOD.

During the morning a party of Wyandottes, summoned by Pontiac to a council, stopped at the fort on their way. Fortified by English rum, they went off to the meeting-place, under promise to Gladwin that they would do all they could to appease the Ottawas and dissuade them from further hostilities. Next came a number of the French settlers, bringing with them chiefs of the Ottawas, Wyandottes, Chippewas, and Pottawatomies, who told Gladwin that almost all the French had gathered at the house of the trader Cuillerie, where the Indians were to hold their council. They assured Gladwin that if he would allow Captain Campbell* and another officier to go to the council it would not be hard to persuade the Indians to make peace. At any rate, it could do no harm to try; for both the French and the Indians promised to see that the popular old captain and his companion returned in safety that very night. Gladwin, having little hope of turning Pontiac from his purposes, was reluctant to intrust Captain Campbell to their hands; but the captain, relying on the friendship that had existed between him and the savages, no less than on the promises of the French, urged to be allowed to go to the council. The deciding influence that won Gladwin’s consent was the absolute necessity* of getting into the fort a supply of corn, flour, and bear’s grease; for the garrison had in store not more than enough for three weeks. So, while Captain Campbell and Lieutenant

*The Pennsylvania Gazette, August 18, 1763, quotes a trader just arrived from Detroit as saying that the French promised that they would answer life for life, body for body, for the two ambassadors, and that Gladwin did not like the scheme, that allowed them to go, though he would not order them to.

McDougall went off with high hopes, the prudent commandant, under cover of the darkness, set about gathering provisions from the French settlers across the river. Scarcely had the embassy of peace crossed time cleared space about the fort when they were met by M. Gouin, who first urged and then begged them not to trust their lives to the now excited Indians. The appeal was vain. Yet even while the party were making their way along the bank of the river they were set upon by a crowd of Indians, at whose hands they would have fared ill indeed had not Pomitiac himself come to their rescue. On reaching the council-place they found the largest room filled with French and Indians; and in the centre of the group sat M. Cuillerie, arrayed in a hat and coat adorned with gold lace, He kept his seat when the two officers entered, and remained covered during the conference. When bread was passed he ate one piece, to show the Indians, as he said, that it was not

* Cooley and other historians confuse Captain Campbell with Major Campbell, who came later.

Regarding Harper's new monthly magazine. / Volume 95, Issue 565: pp. 3-164

http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=ABK4014-0095-3 ==============

84 HARPER’S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

ANOTHER PARTY PADDLED SWIFTLY TO ISLE AU COCHONS.

86 HARPER’S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

poisoned.* Pontiac, addressing himself to M. Cuillerie, craftily said that he looked upon the Frenchman as his father come to life, and as the commandant at Detroit until the arrival of M. Bellestre. M. Cuillerie appeared greatly pleased. Then Pontiac, turning to the British officers, told them plainly that to secure peace the English must leave the country, under escort and without arms or baggage, as the French had done three years previous. Thereupon M. Cuihlerie warmly shook Lieutenant McDougall’s hand, saying: "My friend, this is my work; rejoice that I have obtained such good terms for you. I thought Pontiac would be much harder." Hoping against hope for the garrison, but apprehensive of no present danger to himself and his brother officer, Captain Campbell made a short kit earnest plea for peace. Then he and Lieutenant McDougall waited anxiously for the usual grunt of approval. The moments dragged, and still the Indians sat impassive. For the space of an hour there was unbroken silence. Captain Campbell, dejected by evident failure, arose to retrace his steps to the fort. "My father," said Pontiac, quietly, "will sleep to-night in the lodges of his red children."

The unusual intelligence that had raised Pontiac above every other Indian chief had led the English to rely on his sense of honor--a quality rare indeed among savages. What civilized races call treachrery is to the Indian legitimate warfare. It never occurs to a savage to expose himself to harm in order to accomplish an end that he can attain safely by deception. In spite of all promises, therefore, the two Englishmen were sent, under strong guard, to the house of M. Meloche. That they were not immediately put to death was due solely to the fact that Gladwin had several Pottawatomie prisoners; and, shrewdly enough, Pontiac feared that if the commandant should retaliate on his hostages, that tribe would vanish into the forest, leaving the leader without the support lie so much needed.

Captain Campbell and Lieutenant McDougall trusted to the promises of the French more than to those of the Indians. It has been assumed that the French at Detroit were victims of the Pontiac conspiracy only to a less degree than were the English. It is true that there were a few prudent French farmers who gave

* Gladwin MS.

Gladwin what assistance they could give without drawing down on themselves the enmity of the Indians; but it was generally believed among the French that the English would soon be driven out of New France; and that the French king would again be their monarch. For two centuries the warfare between French and English over the fur trade had been as barbarous as war was in Europe during the same time. On both sides of the Atlantic human life was not considered worth a king’s serious consideration, and the soldier of that day in every nation was a freebooter, so that it is not surprising that the French traders and wood-rangers at Detroit should have seized upon Pontiac’s war to despoil their ancient enemies and their conquerors of less than three years’ standing. The only cause for surprise is that the French did not from the start openly make common cause with Pontiac. That they secretly gave aid and encouragement to the Indians was repeatedly charged by Gladwin, who regarded the French as the source of all his troubles; and the convincing proof of his assertions is to be found in the official reports of inquiries he caused to be held at Detroit during the siege. The problem for Gladwin was to hold out at Detroit until both the French and Indians could be convinced that the French government would not assist them, and that the peace with England was definite and lasting. The terms proposed to Captain Campbell were offered next day to Gladwin, and the French urged him to escape while he might; but the young Englishman absolutely refused to make any terms with savages. His soldiers caught his spirit, so that he was able to write confidently to General Amherst that he would hold out until succor should come. The schooner Gladwin, which bore the despatch, succeeded in eluding Pontiac’s canoes; and when the chief reported his failure to M. Cuillerie, the Frenchman jeered at him because five canoes withdrew when but a single Pottawatoniie was killed. At this juncture a long series of disasters came to show the English how serious was the task before them. As one by one the results of Pontiac’s cunning planning came to light, everything seemed to give way before the exulting savages. On May 22 news came of the capture of Fort Sandusky. At the inquiry Ensign Paully

88 HARPER’S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

testified that on May 17 his sentry called him to speak with some Indians at the gate; and on finding some of his own Indians in the party he allowed the seven to enter the fort, and gave them tobacco. Soon one of the seven raised his head as a signal, whereupon the two sitting next the officer seized and bound him, and hurried him from the room. He passed his sentry dead in the gateway, and saw the corpses of his little garrison lying about; his sergeant was killed in the garden, where he had been planting; the merchants were killed and their stores were plundered. The Indians spared Paully, however, and took him to their camp at Detroit, where he was adopted as the husband of a widowed squaw, from whose toils he finally escaped to his friends in the fort.

On May 18 Ensign Holmes, who commanded the garrison at The Miamis (St. Joseph), was told by a Frenchman that Detroit had been attacked, whereupon the ensign called in his men and set them at work making cartridges. Three days later Holmes’s Indian servant besought him to bleed one of her friends who lay ill in a cabin outside the stockade. On his errand of mercy he was shot dead; and the terrified garrison of nine were only too glad to surrender at the command of two Frenchmen, Pontiac’s messengers, who were on their way to the Illinois to get a commander for Detroit. On May 25, at Fort St. Joseph, seventeen Pottawatomies came in to Lieutenant Schiosser’s room on the pretence of holding a council. A Frenchman, who had heard that treachery was planned, rushed in to give the alarm, whereupon Lieutenant Schlosser was seized, ten of the garrison were killed, and the other three, with the commandant, were taken prisoners. They were afterwards brought to Detroit and exchanged.

On the 29th the long-expected bateaux from Niagara were seen coming up the Detroit River. With joyful hearts the garrison looked forward to the end of their tedious siege. But as the boats came nearer, the English saw with dismay that Indians were masters of each craft. When the foremost bateau came opposite the schooner, two of the soldiers in her made the motion to change rowing-places. Quickly they seized the Indians and threw them overboard. One Indian carried his assailant with him, and in the struggle both found death. Another soldier struck the remaining Indian over the head with an oar and killed him. Under the fire of sixty savages on shore, the three plucky Englishmen escaped to the vessel with their prize, which contained eight barrels of most acceptable pork and flour. Of the ten bateaux that had set out from Niagara under Lieutenant Cuyler, eight had been captured, and the force had been completely routed by an Indian surprise and night attack.

Following the capture of the bateaux came the darkest days of the siege. Often during a whole day the Indians, drunken on the rum from the captured stores, did not fire a shot; but in their fiendish glee they gave notice of their presence by sending the mangled bodies of their English captives to float past the palisades in sight of the sentries. To add to these tales of disaster came Father De Jaunay, the Jesuit missionary at Michilimackinac, to tell the bloodiest story of all. On June 2 the Chippewas living near the fort assembled for their usual game of ball. They played from morning till noon, and Captain George Etherington and Lieutenant Leslie stood by to watch the sport. Suddenly the ball was struck over the palisades. A dozen Indians rushed through the gate to get it. Before the dazed sentry could recover, the captain and lieutenant were seized and hurried off. The Indians within the fort had received from the waiting squaws hatchets hidden under their blankets; in an instant Lieutenant Jamet, fifteen soldiers, and a trader named Tracy were put to death; five others were reserved for a like fate, and the remainder of the garrison were made prisoners. Had it not been for the powerful influence of Charles Langlade and his friends the Ottawas, all the English must have perished; as it was, Captain Etherington, Lieutenant Leslie, with fourteen men, were held till July 18, and were then taken to Montreal by the Ottawas.

On Sunday, the 26th of June, Pontiac, for mingled purposes of religion and business, paddled across the green river to attend mass in the little French chapel at Sandwich. When the services were over, the chief selected three of the chairs in which the thrifty French had been carried to church, and making the owners his chairmen, he and his guard set off on a search for provisions. He imitated the

HENRY GLADWIN AND THE SIEGE OF PONTIAC. 89

credit certificates issued by Gladwin by giving, in payment for cattle, billets signed by his mark--the picture of a 'coon. The provisions were transported to Pontiac’s camp near Parent’s Creek, and in due time the billets were redeemed in furs.* The next day Pontiac sent another summons to surrender, saying that nine hundred Indians were on their way from Michilimackinac, and that if Gladwin waited till those Indians came, he would not be answerable for the consequences. Gladwin replied that until Captain Campbell and Lieutenant McDougall were returned, Pontiac might save himself the trouble of sending messages to the fort. To this the wily Pontiac made answer that he had too much regard for his distinguished captives to send them back; because the kettle was on tbe fire for the entire garrison, and if the captives returned he should have to boil them with the others.

On the 30th of June the Gladwin, returning from Niagara, ploughed her way up the white-capped river, and landed a force of fifty men, together with provisions and some much-needed ammunition. For two months Gladwin had guarded Detroit against surprise, and had sustained a siege conducted by Pontiac in person, while fort after fort had fallen before the savages. As the Indians returned from their successes elsewhere, they were more and more eager for the overthrow of the one fort that hitherto had baffled all their efforts; and in his extremity Pontiac now turned on the French and threatened to force them to take up arms against the

* Rogers cites this issue of Pontiac credit currency as a remarkable instance of that chief’s intelligence; and so it would have been but for the fact that it was an imitation. The redemption of it thus becomes the striking portion of the tale.

English. During the siege, however, copies of the definitive treaty between France and England had reached Detroit, and on July 4 Gladwin assembled the French, read to them the articles of peace, and sent a copy across the river to the priest. Thereupon forty Frenchmen, choosing James Sterling as their leader, took service under Gladwin. On this same day a party from the fort made a sortie for the purpose of bringing in some powder and lead from the house of M. Baby, who had taken refuge in the fort. Lieutenant Hay, an old Indian-fighter, commanded the party, and in his exultation over driving off an attacking party he tore the scalp from the head of a wounded Indian, and shook his trophy in the face of his enemies. It happened that one of the savages killed was the son of a Chippewa chief; and the tribe, on hearing of their disaster, went to Pontiac to reproach him for being the cause of

MRS. HENRY GLADWIN.

From a painting attributed to Romnoy.

90 HARPERS NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

their ills, saying that he was very brave in taking a loaf of bread or a beef from a Frenchman who made no resistance, but it was the Chippewas who had all the men killed and wounded every day. Therefore, they said, they intended to take from him what he had been saving. Lieutenant McDougall had already made his escape to the fort,* but they went to Meloche’s house, where Captain Campbell was still confined. They stripped him, carried him to their camp, killed him, took out his heart and ate it, cut off his head, and divided his body into small pieces. Such was the end of a brave soldier, esteemed, loved, and sincerely mourned in the army, from General Amherst and Colonel Bouquet down to the privates who served under him.†

* During his captivity Lieutenant McDougall fell in love with Marie Francoise Navarre, the danghter of Robert Navarre, and after the siege they were married. In consideration of his services the king granted him Isle an Cochons, which he retained until his death in 1780.

† Amherst to Egremmont, New York, Augnot 13,

At midnight on July 10 the sentries in the fort saw floating down the black river a great mass of fire. The flames, feeding on fagots and birch bark, leaped high in the air, lighting up the forest-covered island in the background, and bringing into high relief the whitewashed cottages of the habitans. Hurried by the swift current, a great fire-raft, built by the French and Indians,* made for the two vessels anchored in the stream; but the alert crews had anticipated their danger and were prepared for it. The vessels were anchored by two cables, and as the flaming pile approached, they slipped one cable and easily swung out of the way of their enemy; nor were subsequent attempts to fire the vessels any more successful.

The hot days succeeded one another all too slowly. On the 29th of July the guards heard firing down the river, and half an hour later the surprised sentries saw the broad surface of the river dotted with bateaux, the regular dip of whose oars was borne a long way on the still morning air. A detachment of 260 men, under the command of Captain Dalyell,†

1763: "No man ever had more reason to expect safety in the hands of these barbarians than this officer had, whose constant attention and goodness to them whilst he commanded at Detroit called at least for security to his person."--Parkman MSS.

Amherst offered a reward of £100 New York currency to the slayer of Pontiac, and a like amonnt for the death of the chief who killed Captain Campbell.--Parkman MSS.

* Gladwin MS.

† Spelled also Dalzell. In Canadian archives the name is uniformly spelled Dalyel. There is little uniformity in spelling proper names in the records. The only exception seems to be the name of Gladwin, which only Parkman and those who follow him implicitly, spell Gladwyn. In the Gentleman’s Magazine Gladwin’s name appears in 1781 and repeatedly thereafter, and is always spelled with an "i." The spelling "Pontiac" represents the Ottawa pro-

GENERAL HENRY GLADWIN. From a photograph of a painting by Joha Holland.

HENRY GLADWIN AND THE SIEGE OF PONTIAC. 91

one of General Amherst’s aides-de-camp, and of Major Robert Rogers, had come to put an end to the siege. Captain Dalyell was an officer of undoubted bravery, and the tales of slaughter he had heard at Presque Isle and Sandusky on his way to Detroit doubtless made him anxious to crush Pontiac by one bold stroke. Gladwin, whom months of close acquaintance with the wary Indian chief had taught discretion, gave consent to Dalyell’s plan of a night attack only on the threat of the latter to leave Detroit unless such a blow should be struck.* As Gladwin feared would be the case, the treacherous French, learning the details of the plan, immediately put Pontiac on his guard. In the earliest hours of the 31st of July, Dalyell marched a force of 250 men along the sandy bank of the swift-flowing river, past the well-enclosed cottages of the French, and on towards a little stream that fell into the Detroit about a mile and a half above the fort. The twenty-five men in advance had just stepped on the rude bridge across the run when from the ridges that formed the further side of the gully came a volley of musketry that hurled the little band in confusion back on the main body. In the pitchy darkness the soldiers, cheered by Dalyell’s steady words of command, swept the ridges, only to find themselves chasing those deadly will-o'-the-wisps, the flashes of an enemy’s guns. To fall back was absolutely necessary; but here again the soldiers were met by the rapid firing of the Indians, who had occupied the houses and orchards between the English and the fort, and were fighting behind the strong defences formed by the picket fences. Every charge of the soldiers only enveloped the pursuers in a maze of buildings and trees, while the Indians beat a nimble retreat, firing from behind any shelter that they could find. From an open cellar the concealed savages poured

nunciation; Pondiac--as it is often spelled--is the Chippewa form.

* Gladwin and McDougall agree that the night attack was strenuously opposed by the former. There is a tradition (Fred Carlisle relates it as a fact, in his report of the Wayne County Historical Society for 1890) that Dalyell and Gladwin both sought the hand of Madeleine de Tonnancour, and that when she favored the aide-de-camp, Gladwin willingly sent him to his death. Inasmuch as Gladwin was happily married during the previous year, this story is simply another illustration of the fables that have gained currency in connection with the Pontiac conspiracy.

VOL. XCV.--No. 565--9

a deadly fire into the retreating ranks, but still Dalyell was undismayed. Where commands were of no effect he beat the men with the flat of his sword. Major Rogers, trained in Indian warfare, burst open the door of a cottage filled with Indians, and with his New Hampshire rangers put the ambushed savages to flight. Captain Gray fell mortally wounded in a charge. Dalyell, himself twice wounded, went to the succor of a helpless sergeant, when he too fell dead, and the Indians smeared their faces with his heart’s blood. Major Rogers,* who succeeded to the command, took possession of the well-built Campau house, where his soldiers, fortified without by solid logs and bales of fur, and strengthened within by copious draughts from a keg of whiskey, held the enemy at bay until two bateaux armed with swivels came from the fort to the rescue. Of the 250 who went out, 159 were killed or wounded, while the Indian loss did not exceed twenty.

This victory of Bloody Run--as the creek has ever since been called--restored the waning fortunes of Pontiac, and every day brought accessions to his forces. Yet never since the siege began was Major Gladwin more hopeful of ultimate success. So the heats of August passed with an occasional skirmish, and September began. The Indians, powerless against the palisades, again turned their attention to the vessels that kept open the food communication with the settlers across the river, and made occasional trips to Fort Niagara for supplies and ammunition. From one of these latter voyages the schooner Gladwin was returning on the night of September 4, when, the wind falling, she anchored nine miles below the fort, having on board her command-

* After the Pontiac war Robert Rogers became commandant at Michilimackinac, reaching his post in Angust, 1766. There he speculated rashly, ran heavily into debt, and plotted with the French. Sent in irons to Montreal in September, 1768, he was tried for high treason, but was acquitted, and sailed for England, where he was received at court and feted by the nobility. In 1775 he returned as a British major on half-pay. He was arrested by the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety in September, 1775, but was paroled. Later Washington refused him an audience; he was proscribed by the New Hampshire Legislature, November 19, 1778; and at Mamaroneck, New York, his British force was defeated, October 21, 1776. He died in England about 1800. His wife, a daughter of Rev. Arthur Brown, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was divorced from him in 1779 on the ground of his desertion and infidelity.

92 HARPER’S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

er Horst, her mate Jacobs, and a crew of ten men. Six Iroquois, supposed to be friendly to the English, had been landed that morning, and to their brethren was probably due the night attack made by a large force of Indians, whose light canoes dropped so silently down the dark river that a single cannon-shot and one volley of musketry was all the welcome that could be given them. Horst fell in the first onslaught; and Jacobs, seeing that hope was gone, gave the command to blow up the vessel. At that word some Wyandottes, who knew the meaning of the command, gave warning to their companions, and all made a dash overboard, swimming for dear life to be clear of the dreaded destruction. Jacobs, no less astonished than gratified at the effect of his words, had no further trouble that night, and the next morning he sailed away to the fort. Six of the sailors escaped unhurt, to wear the medals presented to them for bravery. *

From the beginning of the siege Pontiac had relied on help from the French in the Illinois country, to whom he had sent an appeal for aid. "Since Father Bellestre departed," he said, "the Indians had no news, nor did any letters come to the French, but the English alone received letters. The English say incessantly that since the French and Spaniards have been overthrown, they own all the country. When our father, M. Bellestre, was going off from hence, he told us, 'My children, the English to-day overthrow your father; as long as they have the upper hand ye will not have what ye stand in need of; but this will not last.' We pray our father at the Illinois to take pity on us and say, 'These poor children are willing to raise me up.' Why do we that which we are doing to-day? It is because we are unwilling that the English should possess these lands; this is what causeth thy children to rise up and strike everywhere."†

This message was indorsed by the Chippewas and by the French inhabitants at Detroit, the latter complaining that they were obliged to submit to Indian exactions. M. Neyons, the French commandant in the Illinois country, acting under pressure from General Amherst (who had learned from Gladwin how essential to Pontiac’s success was the expected help

* Chapman Abraham’s testimony, Gladwin’s MS. † Gladwin’s MS.

from the French, replied to the appeal that "the great day had come at last wherein it had pleased the Master of Life to command the great King of France and him of England to make peace between them, sorry to see the blood of men spilled so long." So these kings had ordered all their chiefs and warriors to bury the hatchet. M. Neyons promised that when this was done the Indians would see the road free, the lakes and rivers unstopped; ammunition and merchandise would abound in their villages; their women and children would be cloaked; they would go to dances and festivals not cumbered with heavy clothes, but with skirts, blankets, and ribbons. "Forget, then, my dear children," he commanded, "all evil talks. Leave off from spilling the blood of your brethren the English. Our hearts are now but one; you cannot at present strike the one without having the other for an enemy also."

This message had the desired effect. Dated September 27, its contents so dashed Pontiac’s hopes that on October 12 he sued most submissively for peace. Being in need of flour, Gladwin granted a truce, but made no promises, saying that General Amherst alone had power to grant pardon. To Amherst the commandant wrote that it would be good policy to leave matters open until the spring, when the Indians would be so reduced for want of powder there would be no danger that they would break out again, "provided some examples are made of our good friends the French, who set them on." Gladwin then adds: "No advantages can be gained by prosecuting the war, owing to the difficulty of catching them [the Indians]. Add to this the expense of such a war, which, if continued, the ruin of our entire peltry trade must follow, and the loss of a prodigious consumption of our merchandise. It will be the means of their retiring, which will re-enforce other nations on the Mississippi, whom they will push against us, and make them our enemies forever. Consequently it will render it extremely difficult to pass that country, and especially as the French have promised to supply them with everything they want."

Then follows the passage often quoted to show Gladwin’s cynical brutality: "They have lost between eighty and ninety of their best warriors; but if your

HENRY GLADWIN AND THE SIEGE OF PONTIAC. 93

excellency still intends to punish them for their barbarities, it may be easier done, without any expense to the crown, by permitting a free sale of rum, which will destroy them more effectually than fire and sword." Parkman closes the quotation at this point; but a very different turn is given to the matter in the next sentence, which is taken from the draught of the letter in Gladwin’s own handwriting, as follows: "But, on the contrary, if you intend to accommodate matters in spring, which I hope you will for the above reasons, it may be necessary to send up Sir William Johnson." This is the letter of a warrior who is also somewhat of a statesman.

Pontiac’s conspiracy ended in failure. For five months the little garrison at Detroit had been surrounded by a thousand or more savages, and nothing but the untiring watchfulness and the intrepid coolness of the resourceful commandant saved the post from annihilation and prevented the Indian occupation of the lake country.* General Amherst was so well pleased with Glad win’s course during the first four months of the siege that on September 17 he wrote to the Secretary at War, Ellis: "As there have been two deputy adjutant-generals serving here, I have taken the liberty to show, a mark of my entire satisfaction of Major Gladwin’s good conduct and commendable behavior in appointing him a deputy adjutant-general, but to remain with the troops at Detroit in the same manner as has been ordered. This is no more than a name, but should it be your gracious pleasure to approve it, and honor Major Gladwin with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, I am firmly of the opinion that the promotion of so deserving an officer must at any time be a benefit to his Majesty’s service, and this is the sole view I have in mentioning it to you." General Amherst’s recommendations were followed,and Gladwin held the rank of lieutenant-colonel until he was made a colonel in 1777; five years later he became a major-general.

It fell to the lot of Colonel Bradstreet,

* Amherst to Gladwin, New York, August 10, 1763: "I cannot express to you the satisfaction I feel in considering the behavior of your garrison, which I am very well convinced was in a great degree due to your steadiness and good conduct; and the measures you have since taken in baffling all their schemes fully prove what can be done by British soldiers when handled by a resolute and prudent officer."--Parkman MSS.

the hero of Fort Frontenac, to lead the great force that was to confirm the British power in the lake country. The vainglory of that officer led him to make so disgraceful a peace with the Indians that General Gates, who had succeeded Amherst, was compelled to repudiate it. Bradstreet’s expedition got no further than Sandusky, but a detachment reached Detroit late in the August of 1764, and on the last day of that month Colonel Gladwin turned over his command and sailed for Niagara, on his way to New York. He was heartily tired of fighting Indians, and preferred to resign rather than to undertake another campaign of that kind. Returning to England, we find him in 1774 living the contented life of a country gentleman. June 22, 1791, while on a visit to London, as he writes to General Gates,* he was presented to George III., who asked him how long he had been in town. "Three weeks," replied the soldier, to the consternation of George Wert, who whispered to him to say he had just arrived. "But as I went to court only on that occasion," says this most unsophisticated of courtiers, "and thought it probable that I should never go there again, I thought there was no harm in speaking the truth."

In April, 1769, Pontiac went to St. Louis. One day he arrayed himself in the uniform of a French officer, given to him years before by the Marquis of Montcalm. After visiting his old friends, he repaired to the village of Cahokia, across the Mississippi, where he joined in a feast given by the Illinois. In the early morning he left the town for the forest, singing as he went. An English trader, Wilkinson by name, thinking to rid his country of a dangerous enemy, promised an Illinois Indian a barrel of rum to murder the famous chief. This treachery on the part of one of their number cost the Illinois dear, for Pontiac’s friends did not cease in their vengeance until they had practically wiped out the Illinois nation. The body of the chief was buried with military honors near the fort at St. Louis. "Neither mound nor tablet," says Parkman, "marked the burial-place of Pontiac. For a mausoleum a city has risen above the forest hero; and the race whom he hated with such burning rancor trample with unceasing footsteps over his forgotten grave." * MS. letter; Gladwin’s original draught.