The Kittanning Punitive Expedition of September 1756 and Medal Anthony R, Margrave

THE KITTANNING PUNITIVE EXPEDITION OF SEPTEMBER 1756 AND MEDAL ANTHONY R, MARGRAVE INTRODUCTION On May 18, 1756, the United Kingdom of Great Britain declared war on the Kingdom of France, marking the formal opening of the Seven Years War. This conflict was global in its scope, being fought across the oceans of the world and across its continents, in North America, Europe, and India. The ultimate cause lay in the friction between the two countries inevitably generated by their expansionist policies. As a result of the war, Britain was to secure its position in India, acquire Florida from Spain, and acquire Canada and east Louisiana from France. The operations in North America are known to Americans as the French and Indian War, and it is against the background of these operations that the events about to be narrated took place. However, in order to understand the need for, and assess the value of, the expedition led by Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong against a settlement of Delaware Indians at Kittanning, it is first necessary to consider briefly the strategy and principal events of the French and Indian War. THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR In North America, undeclared war broke out in 1754, and in the struggle the geography of the continent had great significance. The British colonies lay along the Atlantic seaboard, and their expansion was limited by the Alleghany Mountain chain running from lower New York to upper Georgia. To the north of the colonies, the St~ Lawrence River runs for hundreds of miles from the Atlan- tic to Lakes Ontario and Erie. Below these lakes, behind the Alleghanies, runs the Ohio River. This runs south joining with the ~ississippi River. These arterial waterways thus give almost continuous water communications between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico. The land around the St. Lawrence was occupied and con- trolled by the French, and to the west of the Alleghanies the land was occupied by the Indians who, with the exception of the six- nation Iroquois Confederacy, tended to prefer the French. The French aimed to prevent significant British expansion beyond the mountains by using the waterways in their attempts to maintain influence over the Indians, who were supposed to supplement the natural boundaries in preventing this expansion. These waterways were, therefore, the strategic key to the continent, and as such dictated the course of British strategy. The Province of Pennsylvania at this time extended beyond the Alleghanies to the upper reaches of the Ohio River. Firm control by Britain over the Ohio Valley would cut France’s American Empire in two. In the 1750’s, French influence over the Indians in the area was threatened by British attempts to weaken the natural sympathies of the Indians for the French by means of generous gifts and trading terms. The French, fearing the threat that this posed, sought, successfully as it turned out, to impress the Indians by a display of force. This included attacking the Brit- ish trading base at Pickawillany (near present Piqua, Ohio), and the construction of forts in the valley. In December 1753, Colo- nel George Washington, on instructions from the Governor of Vir- ginia, visited Fort Le Beouf, and demanded that the French with- draw. He was refused, so in the following May he was instructed to lead a party of militia to expel the French, and his attack on a small party of French soldiers on May 28, 1754 at Great Meadows (near present Uniontown, Pennsylvania), marks the opening of the war in North America~ The French responded with an attack on the Ohio Company’s post on the Ohio River. This they captured, strengthened, and renamed Fort Duquesne. Later they attacked Fort Necessity, which had been built in the vicinity by Washing- ton, and which he defended until forced to surrender on July 4th of that year. These events forced the British to make serious attempts to preserve the good will of the Iroquois who occupied upper New York, forming a buffer between the two sides. The events also forced the British to request assistance of the home government, and Major General Braddock with two depleted regular infantry regiments was sent to the aid of the colonists. Arriving in February 1755, he immediately set about explaining a plan of attack devised in London by the Duke of Cumberland. This involved attacks on the waterways at Fort Duquesne and Fort Nia- gara. A third move~ defensive in its purpose, was to be launched against the French at Crown Point on the St. Lawrence-Hudson waterways, and was aimed at preventing a French move south towards Al- bany. The Fort Duquesne expedition was commanded by Braddock and was a spectacular failure. His force left Fort Cumberland on the Potomac on June 7th, and one month later crossed the Monongahela River about ten miles from Fort Duquesne. Here, on July 9th, it blundered into a group of French soldiers whose Indian auxiliaries in particular caused heavy casualties among the British. Braddock was mortally wounded and the British were forced to retreat. Braddock has often been censured because of the outcome. In fact he was a brave and capable officer, but because of his training in formal eighteenth-century warfare, he found himself unable to adapt to the special conditions of the type of war he faced in North America. This marks the only occasion when the Indians played any significant part in the war named after them. The Fort Niagara expedition was led by Governor Shirley of Massachusetts. Making his base at Albany, his force moved up the Mohawk River and on to Fort Oswego. It was intended that he should then move against Niagara, which would also be attacked by Braddock. How- ever, Oswego was in such poor condition that its defenses had first to be strengthened, and in the meantime news of the debacle on the Monongahela arrived, so by October Shirley was forced to abandon the venture. The third move was to be led by William Johnson. This too was unsuccessful save for a spirited encounter near Lake Champlain which gave London, pleased at some news of success from the Americas, an opportunity to confer a knighthood on Johnson. The formal war opened the following year. France sent the Marquis de Montcalm to command its forces in America, and Britain sent Lord Loudon. Both had a great deal to organize, so there was little military activity that year. Montcalm built a fort at Ti- conderoga, and destroyed the British fort at Oswego. Loudon did little, though the year saw the Kittanning expedition aimed at settling the Indian problem in Pennsylvania. In 1757 there was little cause for British rejoicing over operations in North America. In London William Pitt became Prime Minister, and it was to be his genius which was to bring the Seven Years War to a successful conclusion. He called for a strike against the French naval base at Louisbourg, from which the enemy could guard the St. Lawrence from naval attack, and also attack the British colonies. British forces in North America spent the greater part of the year in this operation, which was ultimately called off. The St. Lawrence-Hudson route was lightly defended by the inactive Brigadier Webb, who stationed most of his forces at Fort Edward. Nearby Fort William Henry sufferred an abortive attack in February, and was later forced to surrender in the fall of 1757, after a siege conducted by Montcalm in person. The war in North America was to be won by Britain between 1758 and 1760. In 1758 Pitt ordered three expeditions against the French~ and Major General Abercromby replaced Lord Loudon. One expedition was to capture Louisbourg. It opened in June with the Army under the command of Major General Amherst, and the Navy under Admiral Boscawen. The defenders were forced to surrender on July 26th. Abercromby commanded an amphibious expedition which was supposed to move as far north as possible towards Montreal and Quebec. The force moved out from Fort Edward on July 4th towards the channel between Lakes George and Champlain. Abercromby then chose the least advisable method of attacking Fort Carrilon, built at Ticonderoga two years earlier by Montcalm, and after a bloody repulse the expedition retreated and Abercromby spent the rest of the summer in inaction at the southern end of Lake George. Brigadier John Forbes was ordered to take a third expedition a- gainst the French at Fort Duquesne, which he took in November and renamed Fort Pitt~ It was originally intended that after Louis- bourg Amherst would combine with Abe~cromby for a move against Quebec, and that Abercromby’s force would also take Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario near the St. Lawrence. The move against Quebec had to be shelved, but Abercromby was persuaded to allow Captain John Bradstreet to lead an amphibious attack against the fort which was a brilliant success. In 1759, "the year of victories," the inept Abercromby was replaced by Amherst, who was capable, though slow. Pitt ordered expeditions against Montreal and Quebec, the two remaining bastions of the French in North America. Amherst was to lead an attack from the ..... Hudson against Montreal, while a combined naval-military expedition up the St. Lawrence was to be carried out under the command of Admiral Saunders and Brigadier James Wolfe. Amherst did little that year. He set out in June and established a base at Albany. Fort William Henry, destroyed two years before by Montcalm, was rebuilt, and the French Forts Carrilon, renamed Ticonderoga, and Crown Point were captured. In November, while the work on these two forts was still progressing, he returned to New York for the winter.

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