To George Washington from Colonel Daniel Brodhead, 13 May 1780
From Colonel Daniel Brodhead
Fort Pitt May 13th 1780.
Dear General
I have put off the assembling of the Militia untill the 4th of next Month to endeavour to procure a sufficient quantity of Provisions for them;1 But I fear it will not be in my power as Genl Gates, who presides at the Board of Inspection, has ordered the Commissaries to Stop purchasing;2 And the Mingoes in sundry parties have been discovered on their march towards the Inhabitants. several persons have lately been killed & wounded in Westmoreland County, which will probably prevent my receiving any aid from the Militia of that County. They have hired sixty Men which are now stationed upon their Frontier.3 A Delaware Indian informed me this Day that two parties of warriors had just crossed the ohio River, near Logs Town & Chartiers Creek,4 which will probably, by alarming & driving the Inhabitants, prevent my getting the Men from the other Counties as I expected. The remaining Continentals are the cullings of our Troops and I cannot promise any thing cleaver from them.
I have wrote to the Artillery officer to hurry up the Artillery & Stores but I hear he is badly furnished with Carriages & Forage, which must prevent his marching with Expedition.5
I think it is probable that the Enemy are meditating an attack upon some of our posts, which for want of sufficient Garrisons & Supplies cannot make much resistance. I am preparing to receive them here, But the Detachments to Fort McIntosh, Hollidays Cove, Fort Henry & Fort Armstrong leaves but a small Garrison to defend this post.6 wherefore I have armed the Inhabitants of the Town and assigned them an alarm post.
The Delaware Indians continue their professions of Friendship and some of their warriors are now out with my Scouts.7 But as I have little or nothing to give them but good words & fair promises I apprehend they will soon decline the Service. I have the Honor to be with the highest Sentiments of respect & esteem your Excellencies most obedt Servt
Daniel Brodhead
LS, DLC:GW; LB, NNGL. GW replied to Brodhead on 4 July.
1. In preparation for an expedition against the Shawnee Indians, Brodhead had directed militia reinforcements to rendezvous by 22 May at Fort Henry, Va. (see Brodhead to GW, 24 April, and n.2 to that document). The 4 June rendezvous never occurred (see Brodhead to GW, 30 May, and n.5 to that document).
2. The Board of War recently had empowered Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates and his board of inspection “to examine into the state of the Quarter Master’s & Commissary’s Departments in the Counties of Berkley, Hampshire, Frederic and Shenado [Shenandoah] in Virginia and washington in Maryland … in respect of the supplies drawn for the Fort Pitt, or Western Departments” (Board of War to Gates and others, 21 Jan., in DNA:PCC, item 39). Writing Richard Peters, secretary of the Board of War, from Fort Pitt on 14 May, Brodhead complained that Gates’s board prohibited the purchasing commissaries from “making further provision for the troops in this District without shewing any authority from your Hon’ble Board or enquiring of me what supplies would be necessary to enable me to perform the duty enjoined me by instructions from his Excellency the Commander in Chief” (, 1st ser., 12:234–35).
3. In a letter written on this date at Fort Pitt, Brodhead informed Pennsylvania president Joseph Reed: “The Mingoes are again prevailed on by English Goods & address to disturb our repose. They have lately killed and wounded several people in Westmoreland County & the Tracks of four parties have been discovered on that frontier within the last four Days. … For heavens sake hurry up the Companies voted by the Honble Assembly or Westmoreland county will soon be a wilderness.” He urged Reed to prevail upon GW to send “five hundred good regulars” for an expedition against the western Indians (, 1st ser., 8:246–47; see also Brodhead to “Maj’r Slaughter,” 11 May, in , 1st ser., 12:232).
4. Logstown (near present-day Ambridge, Pa.) primarily inhabited by Delaware and Shawnee Indians, was located on the north bank of the Ohio River about eighteen miles below the Forks of the Ohio. Numerous log houses constructed for Indians at this site in the late 1740s and 1750s probably led to its name (see , 93–97). Named for Peter Chartier, a trapper of mixed French and Shawnee descent, Chartiers (Shurtees) Creek rises in Washington County, Pa., and runs in a generally northeastern direction for roughly forty miles before entering the Ohio River about three miles above the site of Fort Pitt.
5. On this date, Brodhead wrote Capt. Isaac Craig: “It is some weeks since his Excellency the Commander in Chief & the Hon’ble Board of War wrote me that you was ordered to this Department with a number of Cannon & military stores. I am aware of the difficulties you must meet with in obtaining Carriages, &c., to enable you to proceed expeditiously, yet as the enemy are very troublesome to the settlements, and it is become highly expedient for me to Counteract their designs by some offensive operations, I must request you to exert yourself as much as possible to reach this post before the first of June.” Brodhead also discussed potential routes for Craig’s march and asked for his strength and quantity of stores (, 1st ser., 12:233).
6. Brodhead had ordered militia detachments to Fort Crawford, Fort Armstrong, Fort Henry, and other posts in order to conduct his expedition against the western Indians (see Brodhead to Archibald Lochry, 2 April, and to John Evans, 9 May, in , 1st ser., 12:215, 231–32).
Holliday’s Cove, a settlement in the West Augusta District of Virginia (now Hancock County, W.Va.), formed in 1776 near a blockhouse that John Holliday erected that same year. Its location twenty miles north of Fort Henry and about three miles west of the Ohio River approximated present-day Weirton, West Virginia.
7. On 18 May, Brodhead informed Timothy Pickering that “Lieut. Col. [Richard] Campbell is just returned from a scout to the mouth of Muskingum River but has made no late discoveries. The Delaware Indians that went with his party behaved remarkably well and seemed very desirous to discover the Enemy Indians” (, 1st ser., 12:237). For prior support from the Delaware Indians, see Brodhead to GW, 24 April, n.6; see also Brodhead to GW, 18 March, and n.2 to that document.