University of Virginia Library

GENERAL DANIEL BRODHEAD.

GENERAL DANIEL BRODHEAD.

It has with much truth been said, "that the history of
the Revolution, is not written, and cannot be, till the biographies
of the men who made the Revolution are complete."
This is eminently true of the great struggle in the west.
The conflict here was with the tomahawk and scalping knife,
united to the arm of scientific warfare. It was one in which
the remorseless savage stole upon the infant settlements in the
stillness of the night, and dealt death in all the horrid forms
of his peculiar and revolting warfare. It was a war terrible
indeed to man, but more terrible still to gentle woman, and
most terrible to helpless infancy.

To defend the country against the ravages of such war,

required men of iron nerve and determined will. To lead on
these men to victory and success, demanded others of no ordinary
character. But there were men fitted to the task;
men able, ready, and willing to lead and to strike. It
was to the energy of this defence; the skill, bravery, and
consummate judgment of these able officers, and experienced
frontier soldiers, that the west was saved from the diabolical
system of subjugation, meditated by the British ministry.

One of the men most prominent in this defence, and one
who contributed greatly towards breaking down the power
of the savage, and humbling the dominion of Britain, was
Daniel Brodhead, the subject of this memoir.

Prefacing our sketch with a brief notice of Gen. Brodhead's
immediate ancestry, we will proceed to notice such of the
more important features of his history, as will be most interesting,
and come more directly within the range of our work.

Daniel Brodhead, the great-grandfather of the subject of
this notice, was born in Yorkshire, England. He was a
Captain in the service of Charles II., and by that monarch
ordered to America with the expedition under Col. Richard
Incolls. On the surrender of New Amsterdam, by Stuyversant,
he was sent to Albany, and was one of the witnesses to
the treaty with the Indians in 1664. He died in 1670, leaving
three sons, Daniel, Charles, and Richard. The last of these
was the father of Daniel Brodhead, the subject of our notice.

Daniel, or Gen. Brodhead, as we will now call him, married
Elizabeth Depue, daughter of Samuel Depue, one of the
earliest settlers in the neighborhood of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
He had one son and a daughter by this marriage,
and their descendants are scattered throughout the State,
embracing some of the most extensive and respectable families
in the commonwealth.

Gen. Brodhead a second time married, the last wife being
the widow of Gen. Mifflin.

General Brodhead was a man of acknowledged ability and
great energy of character. He early gave indications of

much promise, and foreshadowed the career of honor and usefulness,
which he afterwards run. Scarcely had the news
of the battle of Lexington ceased agitating the people, ere
Captain Brodhead mustered a company, and marched to the
defence of the seaboard. He joined Sullivan, and at the
battle of Long Island, his brave "Pennsylvania Riflemen"
literally cut their way through the ranks of the enemy.

In the fall of 1777, information having been given that the
Indians meditated a united attack upon the settlements along
the upper Susquehanna, vigorous efforts were made to resist
them. In the spring of 1778, Fort Muncy was evacuated,
as well as Antis' and Horn's forts above, the inhabitants taking
refuge at Sunbury. The savages destroyed Fort Muncy, but
did not penetrate near Sunbury, their attention having been
directed to the memorable descent upon Wyoming. Shortly
after this Col. Brodhead[16] was ordered to Pittsburgh to relieve
General McIntosh, in command of the western division of the
army. His appointment was communicated in a very complimentary
letter, which is herewith in part given:

He again wrote to him, under date of 22d same month, that
an incursion into the country of the Six-nations was in preparation,
and that in connection therewith, it might be advisable
to have a force ascend the Alleghany to Kittaning, thence to
Venango, and having fortified both points, to strike the Mingoes
and Munceys on French creek, and thus greatly to aid
General Sullivan in the decisive blow which he was to give by
his march up the Susquehanna.[19] He further directed Col.
Brodhead to notify the western Indians, that in the event of
any troubles on their part, the whole force of the United States
should be turned against them. On the 21st of April, however,
these orders were countermanded, and Col. B. directed
to prepare a rod for the savages north and west of the Ohio,
and especially to learn the best time for attacking Detroit.
Whether this last advise came too late or was withdrawn again,
we have no means of ascertaining. Brodhead proceeded, as
at first directed; marched up the Alleghany, destroyed the
Indians' crops, burned their towns, etc.[20]

The immediate effect of this prompt and energetic movement
on the part of the western commander was to bring the
Delawares, Wyandotts, Shawanese, &c., to a treaty of peace
at Fort Pitt in the month of September, to which reference
has already been made.

It had long been apparent to Washington and the Board of
War, that the possession of Detroit and Niagara by the British,
enabled them to exert a controlling influence over most of the
Indian tribes occupying the north-west; and thus greatly to
annoy the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Col. Brodhead, soon after assuming the duties of commander
of the western division, clearly saw the absolute necessity of
striking an effective blow against these two strong-holds of
the British. In a letter to Washington, dated Fort Pitt,
January 23d, 1781, he writes thus: "The whole of my present
force very little exceeds three hundred men, and many
of them are unfit for such active service as is necessary here.
I hope your excellency will be pleased to enable me to take
Detroit the ensuing campaign; for until that and Niagara fall
into our hands, there will be no rest for the innocent inhabitants,
whatever sums may be expended on a defensive plan."

Previous to this, Washington, in a letter to Col. B., dated
April 21, 1779, in reply to his request to fit out such an expedition,
directed him to make the necessary preparations; but,
on the 4th of January following, wrote to countermand the
order, in consequence of the operations in South Carolina and
his inability to reinforce Fort Pitt, in case of disaster. Feb.
4th, 1780, he again declined a compliance with Colonel B.'s
renewed[21] and urgent solicitation, on the ground that his regular
troops would all be needed to co-operate with our French
allies. The want of provisions too, at that time, was greatly
felt, which Washington alluding to, adds, "You must therefore,
of necessity, confine yourself to partizan strokes, which
I wish to see encouraged. The State of Virginia is very
desirous of an expedition against Detroit, and would make
great exertions to carry it into execution. But while the
enemy are so formidable to the southward, and are making
such strides in that quarter, I fear it will require a greater
force of men and supplies to check them than we, since the
defeat near Cambden, shall be able shortly to draw together."

The desire of Col. B. to undertake the reduction of Detroit,
was thus regretfully declined by the commander-in-chief, and
the wishes of Virginia, and indeed the whole country, disappointed.

In the spring of 1781, Colonel Brodhead led an expedition
against the Indian towns on the Muskingum; a full account
of which having been elsewhere given in this volume, it will
be unnecessary to notice further now.

Near the mouth of Broken-straw creek, a tributary of the
Alleghany, stood the Indian town of Buckaloon. In 1781,
Colonel Brodhead attacked this strong-hold of the enemy, and
after a hard siege, finally routed the savages and burned the
town.

We regret our inability to notice in detail all his expeditions.
They were numerous and extensive enough to fill a volume.
No better officer could have been selected for the arduous post
of commander of the western-division of the army. It required
a man bold, cautious and sagacious, and Col. Brodhead
was the very embodiment of all these. He proved himself
admirably qualified for the most trying situations, and acquitted
himself with distinction, and to the entire satisfaction
of the commander-in-chief. In November, 1781, with the
consent of Washington, he relinquished the post into the hands
of Col. John Gibson, a gallant Virginian, who had done active
duties on the frontier.

Colonel Brodhead negotiated during his residence in the
west, two important treaties; the one was concluded July 22,
1779, with deputies of the Cherokee nation. In this treaty,
intimations were given out of a native representation in Congress,
and a new Indian confederacy with the Delawares as
the head.

Congress passed Colonel Brodhead a unanimous vote of
thanks for the highly satisfactory manner in which he had
discharged his duties on the western frontier.

General Brodhead received many marks of distinction from
the State of Pennsylvania. He was surveyor-general for many

years, and filled other places of honor and profit. He was a
large, robust man, kind, generous and amiable. He died at
Milford, Pa., November 15, 1809, at the age of seventy-three.
The portrait which accompanies this memoir is from a miniature
now in possession of his great-grandson, Henry Johnson,
Esq., a prominent member of the bar in northern Pennsylvania.