"After two days councilling whether they would proceed immediately by the Falls, or attack the forts on Licking Creek," wrote Captain Bird to Major De Peyster, "the Indians have determined for Licking Creek & tomorrow [June 12th] by day break we move up that stream. I confess to you," continued Bird the British commander, "my patience have [has] received very severe shocks, and would have long ago [been] exhausted, had I not so excellent an example before me as the one Capt. [Alexander] McKee sets, indeed he manages the Indians to a charm ... it is now sixteen days since I arrived at the Forks, [the place] appointed by the Indians to meet, and by one ridiculous delay & the other, they have prolonged or retarded [the expedition[ to this day."[14] Above the forks of the Licking River were two fairly strong stations, or pioneer stockades-Ruddell's and Martin's. The first, misnamed "Riddles" by John Filson on his 1784 map of Kentucky, was a stockaded log settlement of the type common in early Kentucky and contained "at least 18 or 20 families, with block-houses and pickets."[15] This station was located on the north bank of the south fork of Licking, three miles below the juncture of Stoner and Hinkston's forks, in present-day Harrison County.[16] It had been established during the year 1775 by John Hinkston, who remained there more than a year, during which time a little community grew up. However, this station was abandoned in the summer of 1776, when Indian raids threatened. In April, 1779, Captain Isaac Ruddell rebuilt the old station, it being variously known as Fort Licking; as Fort Liberty, but most of the time as Ruddell's Station. Martin's Station[17] was named for John Martin[18] who had erected a cabin on the site in 1775. It was located on a rising plot of ground in a horseshoe bend on the north bank of Stoner Creek, in present Bourbon County, about three and a half or four miles northwest of Paris, Kentucky. In 1779 numerous settlers came in which led to the building of a stockade there, similar in construction and size to that of near-by Ruddell's Station. By June of 1780, perhaps upwards of three hundred to three hundred and fifty persons resided in the Ruddell's-Martin's community. This increased population was prompted, no doubt, by the new Virginia land act, previously mentioned. It is interesting to note that many of the settlers were Pennsylvania Germans and that some were loyalists, whom the British contended, had moved to Kentucky to escape persecution or the possibility of taking up arms against the British crown. For the most part, the new settlers were not warlike and apparently had little military aptitude. The taking up of land, building homes and tending crops constituted their principal interest, despite the fact that the American Revolution was in full progress and the threat of death from Indian raids and forays ever present. As previously stated, Captain Bird's discordant party left their camp on the Ohio River in the early morning hours of June 12th, and began paddling up the swollen Licking, or the Nepernine, as the Indians termed it. Their slow trip up that stream in pirogues and canoes, which consumed over a week to the forks, has been vividly described by a modern writer: "There were no curious eyes to gaze upon this host on rapine, plunder and massacre bent, as it paddled and pushed its slow way up the Nepernine ... A British officer of the King's Regiment, with McKee, a despised and worthless renegade who had deserted his cause and his people, in command of a foreign soldieryCanadian woodsmen, trappers and regular soldiers and a horde of savages, intolerant of discipline, giving ear to their white leaders only to learn the way to a harvest of bloody scalps, and plundered homes, seen only by the wild deer and the slinking fox, a hundred and fifty years and more ago, they came at last to the forks of the river, and here they landed."[19] On June 20th, the invaders reached the forks of the Licking, now the present site of Falmouth, in Pendleton County. There was then no settlement in this part of Kentucky. Here the entire force, because of shallow water, was obliged to disembark, where they erected temporary huts and shelters for their boats and stores. Then the army began a slow and tedious overland march to Ruddell's Station, distant forty-five miles, laboriously cutting as they went, a wagon-road sufficiently wide over which the two pieces of cannon were dragged. Judging by the speed of the movement after the 20th, this project along the south fork of the Licking was executed with tremendous vigor. Captain Alexander McKee, second in command, with a force of about 200 Indians formed an advance unit and surrounded sleeping Ruddell's Station before daylight on the morning of June 24th. In consequence of the rainy season which had lasted for many days, "the men at Ruddle's and Martin's stations, who were accustomed [hunting] to be in the woods, had all come in,"[20] and no scouts had been sent out for several days past. This may account for the fact that, although the British-Indian force had been thirteen days enroute from the mouth of the Licking (a distance of 76 miles), the settlers were entirely unaware of the movement until an Irishman, named McCarty, in Bird's command, disobeying orders, shot into the stockade at dawn.[21] Firing commenced shortly thereafter on both sides and the little fort defended itself vigorously until noon. About that time, Captain Bird arrived with the rest of his force and the smaller of the two field-pieces, the three-pounder. Two discharges of this gun were sent against the wooden fort, which did nothing more than knock in one of the logs of a corner block-house. The settlers were not too impressed by the small cannon, even less after it had been fired with little effect. But when the large six-pounder was wheeled in sight of the startled Kentuckians and made ready for firing, they realized it was now only a matter of minutes before their stockade would be pounded to pieces and a breach opened for Bird's wild and blood-thirsty Indians. At this point Captain Bird sent Simon Girty with a flag of truce demanding the surrender of the fort. According to Girty's story, "many rifles were pointed at him as he entered the stockade." He declared he kept cool, and informed those inside the pickets that, "unless they surrendered, they would all be killed; a determination they clearly saw would be carried out in the event of longer resistance, as the other [six-pounder] field-piece was now brought up and the two would soon batter down the frail stockade."[22] Conscious of their serious predicament, the Americans asked for time to consider the matter and the request was granted. Captain Ruddell and the settlers vigorously discussed the question of defending the fort; some voted for immediate capitulation while a number of others favored making a death stand. At length, however, -it was voted to surrender and the white flag was raised. For the first time in history a Kentucky fort had capitulated. Captain Bird in his official report gives a graphic account of the engagement: "We arrived before Fort Liberty [on] the 24th of June . . . the three-pounder was not sufficient, our People raised a battery of Rails & Earth within 80 yards of the Fort-taking some advantage of a very violent storm of rain which prevented them being clearly seen -they stood two discharges of the little gun, which only cut down a spar & stuck the shot in the side of a house-when they saw the six-pounder moving across the field, they immediately surrendered, they thought the three-pounder a swivel the Indians and their department had got with them. The conditions granted [were] that their lives should be saved, and themselves taken to Detroit. I forewarned them that the savages would adopt some of their children. The Indians gave in consent the cattle for the good of our people & the prisoners, and were not to enter [the fort] till the next day-But whilst Capt. McKee & myself were in the fort settling these matters, they rush'd in, tore the pore children from their mother's breasts, killed a wounded man and every one of the cattle, leaving the whole [of the carcasses] to stink. We had brought no pork with us & were now reduced to great distress, & the poor prisoners in danger of being starved."[23] Several versions of the action at Ruddell's Station are extant. James Trabue, present in the fort and captured, stated in 1781 to his brother, Daniel, who wrote a diary, that after Bird arrived with his cannon, a flag was sent in and surrender demanded. This being refused the cannon was fired twice, doing little damage. Trabue declared that Captain Ruddell advocated capitulation while he (Trabue) and Captain John Hinkston strongly insisted on defending the station. "At length," Trabue declared, "Capt. Ruddle got a majority on his side and petitioned Col. Byrd to capitulate." He recalled that the flag was sent "back and forth several times" before "the articles [of surrender] were signed and agreed to." Trabue, who wrote the capitulation agreement, declared that Captain Bird promised that he and his white soldiers would protect the captives who would be held under British protection, march them safely to Detroit and keep the Indians away from them. He said it was even agreed that "the people's clothing and papers should be kept secured to themselves with some little exception."[24] There seems to be no disagreement about the statement, that when Bird and McKee were yet in the fort signing the papers, the savages charged through the open gates and fell upon the defenseless prisoners. "The Indians came rushing in," Trabue declared, "and plundered the people and they even stripped their clothes off them and divided the prisoners among the Indians." Continued Trabue, "In a few minutes the man did not know where his wife or child was, nor the wife know where her husband or either of her children was, nor the children where their parents or brothers or sisters were."[25] Each Indian seemed bent upon snatching a prisoner, articles of clothing and trinkets. James Trabue declared that all his clothing was pulled off and that he was given "one of their ragged lously shirts to put on" which failed to prevent the sun from burning his skin. What happened to Trabue happened to the other men also. The wild scene was almost indescribable; mothers hysterical with fright frantically screaming for their children and the pitiful crying of children for their parents. A number of the settlers were killed and mangled on the spot. Following the savage orgy at Ruddell's, mild-mannered Bird chided the red men for having broken their promise, and Ruddell himself remonstrated against the British commander for the treatment his people had received, but to no avail. In order "to prevent jealousies & dissatisfaction," the leading chiefs agreed to an equal distribution of the plunder, clothes and trinkets. "But the violence of the lake Indians," noted McKee, "in seizing the prisoners, contrary to agreement, threw everything in confusion." However, continued McKee, "the other nations next morning returned all they had taken [prisoners], back to Capt. Bird's charge."[26] Next day after Ruddell's Station was taken, Captain McKee sent out scouts in the afternoon "towards the enemies second [Martin's] fort," and captured two men "going express to alarm the other forts of our approach."[27] The information received from the prisoners prompted Bird and McKee, and their red allies, to march at once against this stockade, some five miles distant. It was not however, until Bird had exacted another promise from the chiefs that prisoners taken should be entirely under his control and the Indians entitled only to the plunder. With this assurance from Blue Jacket and the other chiefs, Bird's force set out for Martin's Station and reached it next morning (June 26th) about ten o'clock. One of the prisoners taken the day before was sent in to the fort, under a flag of truce, "to inform them of their situation" and to carry Bird's demand for capitulation. After a brief consultation, held in the absence of Captain John Martin who was away on a hunting trip, the defenders of the fort agreed that it would be useless to fight against such odds. The little garrison surrendered without firing a shot. All the settlers were led out "under a guard of the [white] troops"; the Indians divided the spoil among themselves and Captain Bird took charge of the prisoners. The carnage at Ruddell's and Martin's stations on those hot June days was no doubt more ghastly than would be depicted by Captain Bird, who could not be expected to dwell too much on the matter of slain settlers, although he thoroughly detested and distrusted his Indian allies. Simon Kenton stated that he and Charles Gatliff passed these two stations soon after the tragedy and found "a number of people lying about killed & scalped."[28] Jeremiah Morrow, whose father, James, was one of the captives, related to Lyman C. Draper, that "the Indians entered the fort [Ruddell's] & commenced a terrible slaughter ... some 20 were tomahawked in cold blood," he declared.[29] The disgusted Captain Bird wrote a further account after the fall[30] of Martin's Station: "The same promises were made & broke in the same manner, not one pound of meat & near 300 prisoners-Indians breaking into the forts after the treaties were concluded."[31] At Martin's, Bird insisted that the Indians deliver all prisoners with at least a suit of clothes left them and then quietly told the Kentuckians to put on as many clothes as they could wear, one suit over the other. In spite of this measure, prisoners were knocked down and stripped. When the prisoners were removed under the protection of the white troops, the Indians became indignant, "and the great propensity for plunder," observed McKee, "again occasioned discontent amongst them and several parties set out toward the adjacent forts to plunder horses." Two other small forts, or groups of cabins, whose settlers had fled and left everything, were burned. Before the savages could satisfy their innate thirst for blood and pillage, they "heard news of Col. Clarke's coming against them & [some of the less daring] proposed returning -which indeed," wrote Bird, "had they not proposed, I must have insisted on, as I had then fasted some time & the prisoners in danger of starving."[32] Captain McKee, agreeing with Bird, saw that the large number of prisoners "now amounting to between three & four hundred" was presenting "many other insurmountable difficulties," and this especially with the great scarcity of provisions. -- Bob Francis 1920A Butner St. Ft. Eustis, VA 23604 Visit My Home Page: http://www.shawhan.com