RUDDLES FORT

MARTINS FORT

1780

Talk By RICHARD M. BEAN

SEPTEMBER 1990

RUDDLES FORT AND THE BRITISH INVASION OF KENTUCKY

A talk to the Bourbon County Historical Society Sept. 19, 1996

Let's all turn back our clocks 221 years to 1775. The war with the British by the American colonists started in Lexington, Mass. April 19, 1775. It lasted seven miserable years. 95% of it took place on the eastern coast, but we in Kentucky had a share in the fighting. We withstood three British army invasions sent here by the British Northwest Command located in Fort Detroit. It's an interesting story.

Here in Kentucky we had very little to fight over. We had no roads, some walking paths, a lot of forests, undiscovered lands, a few forts for the early settlers, and lots of wandering Indians who were bent on hunting in this game-filled area. They also enjoyed harassing and robbing the early settlers. it was a rough existence for everyone. Duncan Tavern was not here, no Paris courthouse, no Cynthiana, and we all were a part of the Virginia Colony whose headquarters was at Williamsburg.

Then, we read about three strange invasions by regular British soldiers on three Kentucky locations coming 400 miles overland from Detroit to destroy three of our forts.

The first was against Ft. Boonesboro, built in 1775, and you remember the story about Colonel de Quindre leading 15 regular soldiers and about 500 Shawnee Indians in an attack September 1778. This involved the shaking hands trick, the tunneling failure, and Daniel Boone. Only a few casualties: 2 settlers and 37 Indians killed. We won.

Two years later in 1780 a Captain Bird attacked two stations near Cynthiana with 150 British and about 1,000 Indians. Twenty were killed and 40 prisoners. We lost.

Finally, in 1782 we had the attack by Capt Caldwell on Bryan's Station near Lexington using 300 Indians. This last attack ended with the disastrous counter-attack by the colonists ending up with the costly defeat at Blue Licks -60 killed and 80 captured. We really lost that one.

We are going to look at the 2nd invasion led by Captain Bird, as it was an important battle. Strangely, very little was written about it, nor has it been discussed much. Most of my material comes from the 1951 pamphlet by Winston Coleman, and from the 1957 booklet by Mrs. Maude Ward Lafferty, both Lexington historians.

Lets begin. The British in Fort Detroit decided to send a 2nd war party south to Kentucky, primarily to attack and destroy General George Rogers Clark's fort near the falls of the Ohio - Louisville. This would end Kentucky expansion.

They selected Capt Henry Bird to lead the group as he was an experienced soldier and knew about recruiting and working with Indians. He had a staff of one Captain, one Lieutenant, and four sergeants. He then assembled 150 British regular soldiers, although only 30 were actual regulars, and the rest were mostly French farmers who were "ordered out". They also had some American renegades, led by the famous Simon Girty, also known as "White Savage". He was supported by his 2 brothers-all good in stirring up Indians. And, Capt Bird also took along two wheeled canons -one a 3 pounder and one a 6 pounder. One source said they had 6 canon so I am not sure. They would be the first canon in the state of Kentucky.

Next they gathered together about 300 Lake Indians and on May 25,1780 they piled into boats, mostly giant canoes, and rowed across Lake Erie to the mouth of the Maumee river at today's Toledo.

They paddled their canoes south - up the river into central Ohio, then had to portage their men, supplies, canon, and boats across about 20 miles of rough land to reach the headwaters of the Great Miami river, flowing south to the Ohio river.

At the Ohio Capt Bird halted to await additional Indians and to make plans to attack General Clark's fort. The Indians showed up -about 700 of them from 6 different tribes and they were all ready to wipe out anything in Kentucky. They were interested in the war plunder available from these raids.

However, their Chiefs were upset about going to Louisville. They all had heard that General Clark was away in western Kentucky establishing Fort Jefferson on the Mississippi river. This was good as they were afraid of General Clark - also known as "Chief of the Long Knives". They also thought that the Louisville fort had canon and that was bad. - it was wrong too. Then, a messenger came with the news that General Clark had heard of this invasion and was coming back to drive the Bird troops back to Detroit. This was very bad news for the Indians.

Captain Bird and the chiefs had a pow-wow on the river and the chiefs won. They decided to forget Louisville and instead paddle up the nearby Licking river (Newport Ky) and attack two forts in central Kentucky.

After 8 days they reached Falmouth where the Licking river forked. Neither fork had enough water for their boats so they beached and hid them at the fork and proceeded overland for 45 more miles. hacking out a road for their canon. This took 4 more days. It had taken 12 days from Cincinnati to the fort, arriving near Ruddles fort June 22nd. It had been one month since they left Detroit.

What in the world was their important target? It was known as Ruddles Station - a large rectangular wooden stockade like Ft Boonesboro. It started life as John Hinkston's fort, but that group of pioneers grew disgusted with the Indian raids and abandoned it in July 1776. Captain Ruddle and his followers rebuilt it in 1779.

The fort was situated in what is now a 5 acre bottom-land pasture on the north bank of the Licking river. It is near the crossroad village of Lair, 3 miles south of Cynthiana, on U.S. 25. It is hard to visit today as it is about one mile off the Old Lair Pike, across private land. At the fort's site today is an 8 ft tall shaft put up by the DAR years ago. There is also a strange burial "vault" nearby on the river bank, but that is another story.

Back to the attack.

At that time, the weather was in a wet period and most of the settlers who lived outside the fort in their cabins had come inside for some peace 'and company, and most of the hunters were also inside for a rest. One report says that there were 49 soldiers and from 200 to 300 men, women, and children inside the fort. It had to have been pretty big. Most of the settlement was made up of Pennsylvania German farmers.

At daybreak on June 22nd, 1780 the British advance party arrived at the fort and took it by complete surprise. This was a bad error by the fort"s staff. For the previous 12 days about 1,000 men had been marching toward them, and no word of the movement reached the fort. Sadly, there was no local Paul Revere around.

There were a few shots fired into the fort, then the two pound gun blasted away but only chipped the gate posts. About noon, the local defenders saw Capt. Bird arrive with the main body of troops, and the 6 pound gun. This was real trouble and they knew-they could not last long fighting.

They decided to seek peace and had several conferences with Simon Girty and party, and then with Capt. Bird. They all agreed that they would surrender, the British soldiers would escort the women and, children to a nearby fort (Lexington) and the soldiers would take the men back to Detroit as prisoners. The Indians could have all the cattle, horses, and household plunder they wanted, but no prisoners.

This was a harsh settlement, but better than a slaughter. However, despite their orders to stay outside the fort, the Indians rushed the fort's gate, went inside and started on a rampage, with tomahawks and knives. I will spare you from the gory details of the massacre but it was pure confusion, much blood, scalp collecting, and the Indians each grabbed one prisoner without regard to family connections. It is hard to get a figure on how many died, but one said that 20 were killed and the rest captured. Then, the Indians took everything of value, even some of the clothing off of the men. One report: "The blackest day in pioneer history".

Captain Bird was so disgusted with the turn of events that he wanted to return to Detroit immediately. But his Indian allies were so pleased with their easy success that they wanted to continue 5 miles further south to capture John Martin's fort located 3 miles north of Paris. And then, if OK, they would continue to Bryan's Station and on to Lexington's fort.

The war party did decide to turn back north, and after stopping at Ruddles Fort to pick up those prisoners, they headed for Detroit. Capt Bird said he had to quickly leave so as not to miss the high water on the Miami river. He also did not want to fight General Clark because Bird's Indian followers were not very cooperative and wanted to go back to their base camps too. The Indians had killed all of the settlers cattle and that was the wrong thing to do. The goal was to drive the cattle along with your war party alive and available for meat. Bird was now short of food and hunger began.

As the war party passed today's Cynthiana they crossed the Licking river at what is known as Bird's crossing. Bird's men built a log bridge and in dragging the canon across, one landed in the river and remained at the bottom for years to come. One story is that the children used to dive down to touch the cannon for good luck. This is doubtful because it would have been pulled out by now and put in a museum.

They continued back to Falmouth where they found their boats and started down the river toward the Ohio river. The Indians decided to leave the river group and they walked near by on the land, taking the prisoners with them. The prisoners had to carry the stolen plunder and were also hungry and very upset.

As Bird paddled up the Miami he soon found it was already too shallow for his boats so he hid his artillery piece, then marched overland the rest of the way. The 400 mile return trip took 41 days and they arrived August 4th. At Detroit the Indians collected for their scalps and prisoners, and dispersed. (scalps and prisoners brought the same price- £ 5 each). The prisoners were divided into little groups and some became farm helpers-in the Detroit area, some worked as servants in Detroit homes, Ruddle and a few went to jail, and 33 were sent on east 800 more miles by boat to Montreal. The Indians kept about 200 of them to work in their Indian settlements.

The story of the prisoners is most interesting. After the war in October 1782, Virginia Governor Harrison wrote George Washington to get the release of the prisoners. Nothing was heard until the preliminary Treaty of Peace was signed in Paris by Great Britain and the United States Nov. 30, 1782 which provided for their release. In December the Virginia Assembly made an appropriation "for the relief of the 200 men, women and children taken prisoners from Kentucky and who were now on their way home". A few remained as prisoners for 15 years until the 1795 Treaty by General Wayne near Chillicothe, Ohio where there was an exchange program. Some of them had become "Indianized" and chose to remain with their Indian families, but most returned to their relatives back in Kentucky. Two children of Capt Ruddle were adopted by their tribe, and when grown, took Indian wives. Later one became a missionary for the Coopers Run Meeting House.

One account described this prisoner affair - "The capture, separation of families, the hardships they endured, is one of the most shocking stories in the pioneer period of Kentucky history. Scarcely two of any family were destined to be near each other in captivity by the insatiable savages".

Lets return to the war zone. Yes, General Clark was really on the way with help. He had decided that Kentuckians had to chase the Indians or they would return and molest them many times. He issued orders for all able bodied men to meet at Covington August 1st and about 1,000 of them were there when he arrived. They crossed the Ohio, marched 80 miles northward to sack Chillicothe Ohio. The Indians had retreated, so Clark continued northward to Piqua, Ohio. They burned any Indian village they found, had a little fight with the Indians at Piqua, won it, then returned to Kentucky 25 days later. Thus, ended the 2nd invasion of Ky. by the British.

And yet, it is not the end. We are left with some questions about the story.

First, considering not much is known or said about Ruddles Fort, just what did cause the British to try a massive attack on Louisville's fort. And then the picked on poor Ruddles Fort both far from Detroit? Was it a ridiculous operation?

Three or four hundred miles in canoes, pulling 2 cannon, feeding 150 British and about 1,000 Indians, traveling over a small waterway system and partially on rough land trails was all very difficult. They had done this trip 2 years before -marching to Boonesboro and back, so they knew the hardships involved.

Several years ago my wife and I traveled their route to see how difficult a trip it was. Today it is still a long way, and although its mostly level., the two rivers get down to a small flow and size in the headwaters. The rivers could have been larger 216 years ago, and they were traveling at a high water period, but I have a hard time picturing the canoe armada on those streams.

I With, say a minimum of 500 warriors traveling by water -10 to a canoe, that's 50 large canoes to be paddled upstream for half the way. Then, add the two wheeled cannon, plus supplies and equipment, and you have a real logistics problem. One account mentioned pack animals, which would have followed the Indian paths. There were no cities or villages along the route where they could buy stuff, no warehouses full of meat and grain. No friendly settlers to help. With these problems, you must admit that they were a determined, and very hearty type.

We have the question of inflated numbers. How did they recruit an additional 700 Indians along the route? Ohio was not that full of Indians. One source said that in 1770 there were about 3,000 warriors, 3,000 women, and 6,000 children - totaling 12,000 Indians in all. However, it was reported that by 1779 there were 10,000 warriors -up from 3,000- living in Ohio. This increase could be due to the early gathering of Indians to form together and really fight against the increasing numbers of white pioneers moving westward. More likely, the warriors were forced out of the east to the west.

Whatever the cause, we end up with a reported 700-800 Indians joining Capt. Bird for the pillage party. Of course, Indian statistics were boosted by the settlers, but even if you halve those figures, you end up with 400 warriors on Birds attack, and that's a lot of Indians on the warpath.

Why poor Ruddles Station? Detroit's staff evidently had a good intelligence system using Indian scouts, or "spys" as they were called. They obviously knew about the recent stations in Kentucky, and burning of any of them would benefit the British long range plans.

I am impressed with the message network of that time. Usually it was a single Indian or pioneer speeding across the wilderness full of dangers, and making it. How did General Clark know about the Bird expedition?

Lets get to the real question? Why the British carry out the operation, considering the tremendous hardships ahead?

Of course, the Revolutionary war was still on- it had been a rough time for the past 5 years. King George was mad, and there had been sad defeats in the west. They had also promised the Indians that if they would support British ownership of the American colonies, the British would keep the settlers back on the east coast away from the Indian lands. England also wanted to chase the Spanish off the Mississippi River and the unknown west, and at the same time. to keep peace with all Indians. So, they had to stop the migrations.

On our side, it was mainly Governor Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, who was determined to take the western land for our people and a new nation. Jefferson sent George Rogers Clark and his men westward to the Mississippi to establish forts to be used as jumping off points. Clark established two forts on the Mississippi and later recaptured the fort at Vincennes. In that tough February 1779 battle, he captured British Lt. Governor Hamilton and sent him as a prisoner of war to Virginia's capital in Williamsburg and put on parade to boost local morale. This really infuriated the British.

Thus, Detroit's headquarters had to send troops south to lay waste to Kentucky. The operation was important for both sides, and the British certainly won it.

But, their victory was short-lived. General Clark's counter attack shortly after Bird's win, stopped their victory dance. Not many Indians killed, but it really discouraged further pillaging of Kentucky. Settlers started coming again and fought a few more minor skirmishes, but this raid made our great state of Kentucky a peaceful home for the growing immigration to our country.

General Washington defeated General Cornwallis at Yorktown one year later in 1781.

One year after that, in 1782, we had the Bryan's Station fight. It was followed by the Blue Licks disaster for our side.

Captain Bird served 36 years in the regular British Infantry - 18 of them on this continent. He died while serving the British army in Egypt. Capt. Ruddle was released from being a prisoner in Detroit, returned to this area, and settled at Ruddles Mill. He is buried at Stonermouth Presbyterian Church cemetery nearby.

This ends my talk, but I encourage you to continue your interest in the period of the Revolution as you honor those pioneers who did so much for the future of our state and nation.