weakening one end to strengthen another. The upper part of the country was left exposed and the enemy, intercepting our plans, brought their intended expedition against the frontiers of Fayette. The immense expenses incurred by the state in this western country we know are enough to prevent the government from giving us further aid, but when Your Excellency and council are informed that the people have never been benefited by those expenditures, we still hope your compassion will be extended to a detached and distressed part of your country, as it is not in the power of the people to answer the misapplication of anything by a proper officer. General Irwin, commanding at Fort Pitt as a Continental officer, might probably be of more assistance to this country, could he receive proper supplies from the state of Virginia, than any other measure that could be adopted, as he has the same enemies to encounter that trouble us and stores of every kind seem to be of little use to us, ammunition excepted. Colonel Trigg being killed, there is a field officer wanting in this county. I am at a loss how to proceed on the occasion, for all our magistrates have been killed except three, and there can be no court to send a recommendation. Colonel Harrod, who formerly acted as a colonel and who, according to seniority, ought to have received a commission, is now in being, and, I think a very proper person for that purpose."

It is difficult to leave the narration of events connected with the disastrous affair at Blue Licks. Those who have been soldiers participating in great victories, or suffering the pangs of disastrous defeats, will recognize the fascination which holds a former soldier to the events of the fatal day at Blue Licks. Therefore no excuse need be offered for presenting here a copy of a letter written August 26, 1782, by Col. Levi Todd to his brother, Captain Robert Todd, giving further details of the battle: "Our men suffered much in retreat, many Indians having

mounted our abandoned horses and having an open woods to pass through to the river, several were killed in the river. Efforts were made to rally, but in vain. He that could remount a horse was well off, and he that could not, saw no cause for delay. Our brother received a ball in his left breast and was on horseback when the men broke. He took a course that I thought dangerous and I never saw him afterwards. I suppose he never got over the river. Col. Trigg, Major Harlan, Major Bulger, Captains McBride, Gordon, Kinkead and Overton fell upon the ground; also, our friend, James Brown. Our number missing is about seventy-five. I think number of the enemy was about three hundred, but many of the men think five hundred. Col. Logan, with five hundred men, went upon the ground on the 24th and found and buried. about fifty of our men. They were ali stripped naked, scalped and mangled in such manner that it was hard to know one from another. Our brother was not known.

the

"As people in different parts of the country will be anxious to know the names of the killed, I will add a list of what I can now remember: Col. John Todd, Colonel Stephen Trigg, Major Silas Harlan, and Major Edward Bulger; Captains William McBride, John Gordon, Joseph Kinkead, and Clough Overton; Lieutenants William Givens, John Kennedy, Joseph Lindsey, and - Rodgers; Ensign John McMurtry; Privates Francis McBride, John Price, James Ledgerwood, John Wilson, Isaac McCracken, Lewis Rose, Mathias Rose, Hugh Cunningham, Jesse Yocum, Wm. Eads, Esau Corn, Wm. Smith, Henry Miller, Ezekiel Field, John Folly, John Fry, Val Stern, Andrew McConnell, Surgeon James Brown, William Harris, William Stewart, William Stevens, Charles Ferguson, John Wilson, John O'Neal, John Stapleton, Daniel Greggs, Jervis Green, Dowry Polly, William Robertson, Gilbert Marshall, James Smith and Israel Boone."

But for the rash conduct of Major McGary the dread result at Blue Licks would have been avoided. The logical duty of those in command was to await the arrival of the reinforcements under Colonel Logan, who were hastening to the assistance of their fellow colonists. With these men the Indians would have been defeated and driven from the state, probably never to return in such organized form. McGary was of the type of brave man without judgment, and most grievously did his comrades pay for his rashness.

The people were disheartened by this disastrous battle, even the lion-hearted Boone, sharing the general depression. Writing to Governor Harrison of Virginia, he said: "I have encouraged the people in this country all that I could, but I can no longer justify them. or myself to risk our lives here under such extraordinary circumstances. The inhabitants are very much alarmed at the thoughts of the Indians bringing another campaign into our country this fall. If this should be the case, it would break up these settlements."

The desperation of Boone, as set forth in his letter to Gov. Harrison, was a natural sequence to the affair at Blue Lick. The brave old pioneer was almost in despair but there was a gallant, soldierly man in Kentucky who knew not the word despair and who had never abandoned the plan of carrying the war into the enemy's country.

George Rogers Clark had been charged with expending his energies in defense of the settlements about Louisville, but, in fact, his sole idea was the relief of all the settlements. He proposed to strike so serious a blow to the Indian tribes as would forever prevent another incursion by them into Kentucky. He sent forth a call for volunteers before Boone's complaint had been made known. The gallant settlers rallied in immediate response, well knowing that with Clark as their leader there would be prompt and quick reprisal upon the savage enemy.

Early in November, 1782, according to the best authorities, though some have named September as the month when they rallied, Clark found himself at the head of more than a thousand brave and determined men who had rallied to his call at the mouth of the Licking, opposite to what is now the great city of Cincinnati. With this force, early in November, 1782, he moved across the Ohio river and on the evening of the 10th surprised and

captured the principal Shawnee town, destroying everything that was of no value to his troops. Col. Benjamin Logan, the splendid soldier, who seemed to be always ready when there was active work to be done, a characteristic of the Logans to come after him, led a party of one hundred and fifty men against the British post at the head of the Miami, which he captured, destroying vast quantities of stores which the English had furnished to the Indians. The amount of these stores was a surprise to the invading forces, who had no idea that the savages had such substantial support from their English allies.

Clark remained for four days in the Indian country, but finding that he could not bring on a general engagement, as he so much desired, he withdrew his forces, owing to threatening weather and the near approach of winter. But he had taught the savages a useful lesson and afterward they made no formidable invasion of Kentucky. Small parties of Indians made subsequent incursions into the district, doing much damage, but there were no organized efforts after Clark's expedition into their country, though the English, even after the treaty of peace was signed, continued to incite the savages to deeds of violence against the white settlers along the American frontier. The English of today confront a situa

tion in India which must bring to the minds of those among them who are students of history, lively recollections of the time when their ancestors incited the savages of the western world to slay the men, women and children who were of their own flesh and blood. Using a familiar quotation one may say: "Their chickens are coming home to roost."

Clark, Boone, Logan and the other splendid spirits who had acted in unison with them, had made practically impossible further organized raids into Kentucky by the Indians and the English-who not only encouraged the savages but furnished them the equipments of warfare and accompanied them in their forays. They had done more than this; they had all unconsciously, builded a state and paved the way for the addition of another star to the splendid flag of our country. Clark, at a later period, was offered a commission in the army of France which, owing to a proclamation of President Washington, he did not accept. His heart was devoted to the freedom of Kentucky from English and savage domination and, at this day, it appears that he was not amenable to the charge that he was leaving other parts of Kentucky unprotected from savage forays by calling troops to Louisville. The events of the period show that he had larger views than were held by his contemporaries and that he sought by master strokes to destroy the Indian and English power to that effect which should protect not Louisville alone, but the entire territory of Kentucky. And the result of his last foray into the Indian stronghold in Ohio proved the correctness of his plans, since there were never afterward any invasions of Kentucky by organized bands of savages of any great force.

Virginia was lacking in appreciation of George Rogers Clark, who had won for her and the Union an empire, and he lived and died in comparative obscurity. His grave is near Louisville, and there are few, if any, who give to the foremost of military geniuses who

brought peace and happiness to the early settlers of that vicinity, even a careless thought. It is told that when Virginia, in the days of his poverty, sent him a sword in recognition of his great services, he broke it across his knee, exclaiming that "he had asked for bread and they had gave him a stone." George Rogers Clark had won a principality for his country and died poor and neglected. Such is the gratitude of Republics.

Daniel Boone, practically unlettered but not ignorant, risked his life a thousand times for the people of the new land. He made entries. of the land he had helped to win from the savages, and because these were not technically correct, he and those for whom he had acted as agent, were afterwards deprived of the fruits of his heroic efforts in behalf of the early settlers of our state. The intricate land laws, which were inherited from Virginia, were not understood by the old pioneer and he saw the fruits of his years of danger and privation swept from him and his friends by the decisions of the courts and placed in the hands of those who had flocked to the new country when it was no longer dangerous to adventure thither. The grim old Indian fighter could calmly face danger, but would not brook injustice. He broke up his home in Kentucky and removed to Virginia. There he became, subsequently, a member of the legislature and in what is now West Virginia, Boone county attests the esteem in which he was held by his new associates. From Virginia he pushed out to the then frontier of Missouri, "far from the haunts of men," where he could breathe freely and not feel the touch of mankind that might be unfriendly. He settled in what is now Calloway county, in that state, about seventy-five miles above the mouth of the Missouri river, where he led a quiet life, engaged mostly in hunting, until Sept. 20, 1820, when he died. His remains and those of his wife were subsequently removed to Kentucky and re-interred in the State Cemetery at Frankfort, Septem

ber 13, 1845, where a modest and appropriate monument in their honor was erected. This monument, in the succeeding years was defaced by relic hunters to such an extent that the good women of Kentucky in the recent past, have had it restored and it is now protected from vandal hands by an iron railing.

Chester Harding, the portrait painter, who visited Boone shortly before the latter's death, for the purpose of painting his portrait, has left, in his autobiography, the following word picture of the old pioneer. "In June of this year, 1820, I made a trip of one hundred miles for the purpose of painting the portrait of Colonel Daniel Boone. I had much trouble in finding him. He was living some miles from the main road in one of the cabins of an old block-house, which was built for the protection of the settlers against the massacres of the Indians. I found that the nearer I got to him the less was known of him. When within two miles of his house, I asked a man to tell me where Colonel Boone lived. He said he did not know such a man. 'Why, yes you do,' said his wife, 'it is that white-headed old man who lives on the bottom near the river;' a good illustration of the proverb that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country. I found the object of my search engaged in cooking his dinner. He was lying on his back near the fire and had a long strip of venison wound around his ramrod and was busy turning it before a bush fire and using salt and pepper to season his meal. I at once told him the object of my visit. I found that he hardly knew what I meant. I explained the matter to him and he agreed to sit. He was nearly ninety years old and rather infirm; his memory of passing events was much impaired, yet he would amuse me every day by anecdotes of his early life. I asked him one day, just after his description of one of his long hunts, if he ever got lost, having no compass. 'No,' said he, 'can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three

Vol. I-6.

days.' (Those of good memory will recall that this statement of Boone's is related elsewhere in the preceding chapters.) He was astonished at seeing his likeness. He had a very large progeny. A grand-daughter had eighteen children, all at home near the old man's cabin; they were even more astonished at the picture than the old man himself."

There is a common belief among those who have thought enough about it to have any opinion at all, that Boone was wholly illiterate; knew nothing even of reading, and, in proof of this, cite the fact that he employed a system of orthography wholly unknown to polite literature. They adopt as They adopt as true the apochryphal statements of newspapers that beech trees are occasionally found bearing still upon their smooth bark the inscription, "D. Boone, cilled a bar." Killing bears was so much a matter of course with pioneers in a new country that it is difficut to imagine Boone stopping to blazon forth upon a beech tree evidences of his prowess, where there were none others than himself to see the record. It is quite within the range of possibilities that he was far more interested in seeing that no Indian "cilled D. Boone" than that the world should know that he had killed a bear.

Boone was not illiterate; his letters hitherto quoted herein prove that fact; his spelling may have been and probably was not in accord with the accepted standards of today, but that it was a further departure there from than that of our latter day spelling reformers cannot be admitted. Boone was a surveyor of lands and illiterates cannot make surveys nor correctly report their results.

In a sketch entitled, "The Settlement of Kentucky," written by Col. J. Stoddard Johnston and published in 1908, that accomplished gentleman says: "It was not until 1769 that the step was taken which proved to be the forerunner of the permanent settlement of Kentucky, when Daniel Boone, with five companions, came through Cumberland Gap to