Brodhead, Daniel | An account of brutal raid on the Western frontier during the American Revolution

Property of a New York Collector

Brodhead, Daniel

Manuscript letter signed ("Daniel Brodhead Colo. 1st P[ennslyvania]. R[egiment]."), to Joseph Reed, President of Pennsylvania, reporting on his Coshocton Expedition against the Delaware people in the Ohio Country

2 pages (332 x 211 mm; watermarked T & C), Philadelphia, 22 May 1781; lightly browned, some careful reinforcement at fold separations and edges.

Daniel Brodhead was a witness to the Treaty of Fort Pitt (signed 17 September 1778), a treaty with the Delaware people that was the first formal treaty between the nascent Unite States and any American Indians. Despite a virulent hatred of Indians—supposedly stemming from a French and Indian raid of his family’s home on the Pennsylvania frontier in 1755—Brodhead negotiated a subsequent treaty with the Delaware and served closely with many Native Americans who took up the patriot cause during the Revolution. The Revolution, however, divided the Delaware, or Lenape, clans, and many chiefs sided with British, particularly after indiscriminate attacks by colonial settlers and troops.

In 1779 George Washington appointed Brodhead commander of the Western Department, with headquarters at Fort Pitt. From that position he mounted the Coshocton Expedition described in the present letter, ostensibly to punish the Delaware who had broken their treaty to take up arms with the British, but perhaps actually to avoid joining George Rodgers Clark’s march against Detroit. Brodhead makes no attempt to disguise the brutality of his raid in his letter to President Reed:

"In the last Letter I had the honor to address to your Excellency I mentioned my intention to carry an expedition against the revolted Delaware Towns. I have now the pleasure to inform you that with about three hundred men(nearly half the number Volunteers from the Country) I surprized the Towns of Cooshacking [Coshocton ]& Indaochaic [Lichtenau], killed fifteen Warriors and took upwards of twenty old Men women & children— About four miles above the Town I detached a party to cross the river Muskingum & destroy a party of about forty Warriors, who had just before (as I learnt by an Indian whom the advance Guard took prisoner) crossed over with some prisoners & scalps and were drunk, but excessive hard rains having swelled the river bank high, it was found impracticable— …" Brodhead relates that he returned to Coshocton and destroyed the town’s stores, killing fifty head of cattle, before continuing his march "up the River, about seven miles, with a view to find for some craft from the Moravian Towns, & cross the River to pursue the Indians. But when I proposed my plan to the volunteers I found they conceived they had done enough and were determined to return, wherefore I marched to Newcomers Town, where a few Indians, who remain in our Interest had withdrawn themselves, not exceeding thirty Men. The troops experienced great kindness from the Moravian Indians & those at Newcomer’s Town & obtained a sufficient supply of Meat & Corn to subsist the Men & Horses to the Ohio River—"

A measure of vengeance was extracted from the marauding Delaware by two of their own, including Gelelemend (Killbuck), a chief of the Turtle clan of the Lenape who sided with the colonists in the Revolution: "Captain Killbuck and Captain Luzerne, upon hearing of our Troops being on the Muskingum, immediately pursued the Warriors, killed one of their greatest Villains & brought his scalp to me. The plunder brought in by the Troops sold for about eighty Thousand pounds at Fort Henry [present-day Wheeling, West Virginia ]—I had upon this Expedition Captain Montour & Wilson & three other faithfull Indians who contributed greatly to the success." In closing, Brodhead summarizes the overwhelming success of the campaign: "The Troops behaved with great spirit & although there was considerable firing between them & the Indians, I had not a man killed or wounded & only one horse shot."

Not everyone was pleased with Brodhead's command, however. He was disliked by fellow officers and enlisted men alike and was plausibly accused of financial malfeasance. Washington removed him from the command of the Western Department in September 1781, and he was ordered to face a court-martial. In The Indian World of George Washington (Oxford, 2018), Colin G. Calloway implies that this was because what Brodhead portrayed as a battle at Coshocton was, rather, an unprovoked massacre. In fact, the charges stemmed from Brodhead's mishandling of supplies and monies for recruiting bonuses. He was acquited by the court-martial in February 1782 and that fall he was breveted a brigadier general.

PROVENANCE:

Frank T. Siebert (Sotheby's New York, 21 May 21, 1999, lot 294) — Christie's New York, 21 June 2007, lot 299 (undesignated consignor)