The Tortuous Death of Col. William Crawford

       In my last post, we saw that John Slover and Dr. Knight had been able to elude their Indian captors and eventually, through various hardships, they were both able to make it back to the American settlements.  Col. William Crawford, the commander of the American expedition, was about to meet his Creator.  WARNING: the following narrative contains very graphic depictions of immolation and tortures.

       In the capture of Crawford, the Delawares had secured the "Big Captain" of the invading army—a prize they were determined should not be lost, as evinced by his being guarded, from the Sandusky to the Tymochtee, by their two war-chiefs—The Pipe and Wingenund.  Common prisoners were tomahawked with little ado; but Crawford was reserved for a more terrible death.

       There was a fire burning at the spot where, on the afternoon of the 11th of June, we left Crawford in charge of the Delawares, to follow the fortunes of Knight.  Around that fire was a crowd of Indians— about thirty or forty men, and sixty or seventy squaws and boys.

       A few Wyandots were there, and Simon Girty with them, as already mentioned; also Captain [Matthew] Elliott, it is believed, as he did not arrive at the Shawanese towns, where Slover was held captive, until after this date.  "Dr. Knight thinks a British captain was present," wrote Irvine to Washington, on the 11th of July.

       "He says he saw a person there who was dressed and appeared like a British officer."  There, too, was Samuel Wells, the negro boy, who had been captured by the Indians, as previously stated, and who afterward stoutly affirmed to early white settlers in the Sandusky country that his employment, at the time, was the holding of Girty's horse.  A spectator, likewise, but an unwilling and horrified one, was Dr. Knight, who stood at a short distance from the fire, securely bound and guarded by the rough-visaged Tutelu.

       Within hearing distance at least, if not in the crowd around the fire, was Christian Fast, a boy seventeen years of age, who, the year previous, having enlisted in that part of Westmoreland which soon after became Fayette county, as a member of the expedition from Western Pennsylvania that descended the Ohio river in aid of George Rogers Clark, was captured when near the Falls (Louisville) and taken to Sandusky.  Fast, it seems, saw Crawford either at the Half King's town or at Wingenund's camp, and had a conversation with him, the particulars of which are unknown.

       Crawford was stripped naked and ordered to sit down.  It is a tradition seemingly well authenticated that his clothes, especially his hat, which was made of leather, were long after in the keeping of the Delawares.  The Indians now beat him with sticks and their fists; and, presently after, Knight was treated in the same manner.  The fatal stake—a post about fifteen feet high—had been set firmly in the ground.  Crawford hands were bound behind his back, and a rope fastened—one end to the foot of the post, and the other to the ligature between his wrists.  The rope was long enough for him to sit down, or walk around the post once or twice and return the same way.  Crawford then called to Girty and asked if they intended to burn him.  Girty answered, "Yes." He then replied he would take it all patiently.  Upon this, Captain Pipe made a speech to the Indians, who, at its conclusion, yelled a hideous and hearty assent to what had been said.

       The spot where Crawford was now to be immolated to satisfy the revengeful thirst of the Delawares for the blood of the borderers, was in what is now Crawford township, Wyandot county—a short distance northeast from the present town of Crawfordsville. ¹

       That the stake was planted in the immediate vicinity, so abundantly described, there can be no doubt.  Besides, we have the positive statement of Knight that the place was three-quarters of a mile from "Captain Pipe's house"—the Delaware village upon the Tymochtee.  Here, then, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, of Tuesday, June 11, 1782, the torture began.

       The Indian men took up their guns and shot powder into Crawford's naked body from his feet as far up as his neck.  It was the opinion of Knight that not less than seventy loads were discharged upon him!  They then crowded about him, and, to the best of Knight's observation, cut off both his ears; for when the throng had dispersed, he saw the blood running from both sides of his head!

       The fire was about six or seven yards from the post to which Crawford was tied.  It was made of small hickory poles burnt quite through in the middle, each end of the poles remaining about six feet in length.  Three or four Indians by turns would take up, individually, one of these burning pieces of wood, and apply it to his naked body, already burnt black with powder.

       These tormentors presented themselves on every side of him, so that, whichever way he ran round the post, they met him with the burning fagots.  Some of the squaws took broad boards, upon which they would carry a quantity of burning coals and hot embers and throw on him; so that, in a short time, he had nothing but coals of fire and hot ashes to walk on!

       In the midst of these extreme tortures, Crawford called to Girty and begged of him to shoot him; but the white savage making no answer, he called again.  Girty then, by way of derision, told Crawford he had no gun; at the same time turning about to an Indian who was behind him, he laughed heartily, and, by all his gestures, seemed delighted at the horrid scene!

       Girty then came up to Knight and bade him prepare for death.  He told him, however, he was not to die at that place, but was to be burnt at the Shawanese towns.  He swore, with a fearful oath, that he need not expect to escape death, but should suffer it in all its extremities!  He then observed that some prisoners had given him to understand, that if the Americans had him they would not hurt him.  For his part, he said he did not believe it; but desired to know Knight's opinion of the matter.  The latter, however, was in too great anguish and distress, on account of the torments Crawford was suffering before his eyes, as well as the expectation of undergoing the same fate in two days, to made [sic] any answer to the monster.  Girty expressed a great deal of ill-will for Colonel Gibson, saying he was one of his greatest enemies—and more to the same purpose; to all which Knight paid but little attention.

       Crawford, at this period of his suffering, besought the Almighty to have mercy on his soul, spoke very low, and bore his torments with the most manly fortitude.  He continued, in all the extremities of pain, for an hour and three-quarters or two hours longer, as near as Knight could judge; when, at last, being almost spent, he lay down upon his stomach.

       The savages then scalped him, and repeatedly threw the scalp into the face of Knight, telling him that was his "great captain."  An old squaw, whose appearance, thought Knight, every way answered the ideas people entertain of the devil, got a board, took a parcel of coals and ashes, and laid them on his back and head.  He then raised himself upon his feet and began to walk around the post.

       They next put burning sticks to him, as usual; but he seemed more insensible of pain than before.  Knight was now taken away from the dreadful scene.

       It was a tradition, long after repeated by the Delawares and Wyandots, that Crawford breathed his last just at the going down of the sun.  On the following morning, when Knight started for the Shawanese towns, he was conducted to the spot where Crawford had suffered, as it was partly in the direction he and his Delaware guard were taking.  He saw the bones of his commander, lying among the remains of the fire, almost burnt to ashes.  The Delaware told Knight that was his "Big Captain," at the same time giving the scalp halloo.

       After Crawford died—so runs the tradition—the fagots were heaped together, his body placed upon them, and around his charred remains danced the delighted savages for many hours.

       When the news of the torture reached the Shawanese villages the exultation was very great.  Not so when the awful story was repeated in the settlements upon the border.  A gloom was spread on every countenance.  Crawford's melancholy end was lamented by all who knew him.  Heart-rending was the anguish in a lonely cabin upon the banks of the Youghiogheny.  There were few men on the frontiers, at that time, whose loss could have been more sensibly felt or more keenly deplored.

       The language of Washington, upon this occasion, shows the depth of his feeling: "It is with the greatest sorrow and concern that I have learned the melancholy tidings of Colonel Crawford's death.  He was known to me as an officer of much care and prudence; brave, experienced, and active.  The manner of his death was shocking to me; and I have this day communicated to the honorable, the Congress, such papers as I have regarding it."  In a letter to Irvine, at Fort Pitt, written on the 6th of August, he says: "I lament the failure of the expedition against Sandusky, and am particularly affected with the disastrous death of Colonel Crawford."  ²

       Thus ends one of the most disastrous American military campaigns in history.  The death of Col. William Crawford is not only one of the most iconic episodes in the history of the colonial frontier, it is also one of those incidents in history that reveals the awful depravity of the human heart.  It is a story that haunts the reader.  As Crawford was said to have commended his soul to God before his demise, it is hoped that we may see him in the next life.

Christ, not man, is King!

Dale

1)      C.W. Butterfield, An Historical Account of the Expedition Against Sandusky (Cincinnati, OH: Robert Clarke & Co., 1873), p. 379-84. 
2)      Ibid., p. 387-92.