Simon Girty
Simon Girty was an interpreter and intermediary with the British Indian Department during the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War. He and his brothers James and George were captured as children and adopted by Native Americans. Freed after living with the Seneca for several years, Girty worked as an interpreter and hunter. During the Revolutionary War he became disillusioned with the Patriot cause, and in 1778, fled to Fort Detroit where he was hired as an interpreter for the British Indian Department. In 1780, Girty accompanied Britain's Indigenous allies during Bird's invasion of Kentucky, and was present at Lochry's Defeat in 1781.
Girty was present when the Lenape tortured American Colonel William Crawford to death following the Battle of Sandusky. He continued to serve with the British Indian Department for many years after the 1783 Peace of Paris. Girty witnessed the defeat of the Northwestern Confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. He retired from the Indian Department in 1795, and until his death in 1818, lived on land granted to him by the British at the mouth of the Detroit River in Upper Canada.
Early life
Simon Girty was born in 1741 to Simon Girtee and Mary Newton at Chamber's Mills in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Girty's father emigrated to Pennsylvania sometime in the early 1730s from Ireland, and was employed as a packhorse driver and trader. Girtee and Mary had four sons: Thomas, Simon, James, and George.In 1749, Girty's father moved his family across the Susquehanna River and squatted on land that had yet to be ceded to the Pennsylvanian government. An Indigenous delegation met with Pennsylvania governor James Hamilton who ordered the squatters evicted. In 1750, Girtee was fined and forced to return to Lancaster County.
Late in 1750, Girty's father was killed during an argument with Samuel Saunders. Saunders was arrested, tried, convicted of manslaughter, and imprisoned. While court records show that Saunders was the culprit, early biographers such as Consul Willshire Butterfield recorded that Girty's father was killed during "a drunken frolic" by an Indigenous man named The Fish.
In 1753, Mary Girty married John Turner. Their son John was born the following year. Following a land purchase by the Penn family in 1754, Turner brought his family across the Susquehanna and settled on Shermans Creek close to where the Girtys had lived previously.
During the French and Indian War, Turner brought his wife and children to Fort Granville for protection. In July 1756, the fort was besieged by a combined French and Indigenous force led by Louis Coulon de Villiers. Following the fort's surrender, Turner and his family were taken captive by the Shawnee and brought to Kittanning. The family was forced to watch as John Turner was tortured to death. Mary and her youngest son were then separated from the older boys, taken to Fort Duquesne and afterwards held captive by the Delaware.
Kittanning was destroyed in September 1756 during an expedition led by Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong. Thomas was rescued but Simon, James and George remained captives. The three boys were soon separated. Simon was given to the Seneca, James to the Shawnee, and George to the Delaware.
Girty was adopted by a Seneca family following rituals that included running the gauntlet. He lived with the Seneca in western Pennsylvania for several years, and was mentored by the influential leader Guyasuta. Girty became fluent in Seneca and also learned to speak several other Iroquoian languages. Some sources state that Girty was turned over to the English at Fort Pitt following the 1758 Treaty of Easton. Other sources maintain that he continued to live with the Seneca until the end of Pontiac's War in 1764.
Lord Dunmore's War
Girty was reunited with his family at the home of his brother Thomas who had settled at Squirrel Hill a few miles east of Pittsburgh. George and their mother had been freed a few years earlier and were living with Thomas. James was returned from captivity at the same time as Simon, and their half-brother, John Turner, was repatriated in May 1765. For the next several years Girty was employed as an interpreter by British Indian Department agent Alexander McKee, and as a hunter by George Morgan of the Philadelphia trading firm Baynton, Wharton, and Morgan. In the summer of 1768, Girty was hired to lead a buffalo hunting expedition on the Cumberland River. Girty was one of the few who escaped when the expedition was ambushed by a Shawnee war party. Later that year Girty and McKee served as interpreters at a conference between Sir William Johnson, his deputy George Croghan, and representatives of the Iroquois that led to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix. In 1772 and 1773, McKee hired Girty to escort Guyasuta to meetings with Johnson at Johnson Hall in Tryon County, New York.The Treaty of Fort Stanwix extended the western boundary of Virginia into present-day Kentucky and West Virginia, and opened the region south of the Ohio River to European settlement. The Shawnee, however, refused to recognize the authority of the Iroquois to cede the area. Although the Iroquois claimed sovereignty by right of conquest, the Shawnee had long used the land as their traditional hunting grounds. Shawnee raids on isolated farms began shortly after settlers began to arrive and soon intensified.
At Fort Pitt, McKee relied on Guyasuta and the Delaware sachem Koquethagechton, commonly known as White Eyes, to dissuade the Delaware, Mingo and Wyandot from joining the Shawnee, with Girty serving as a messenger and interpreter. On 30 April 1774, however, Daniel Greathouse and his followers massacred thirteen peaceable Mingo at Baker's Bottom on the Ohio River. In retaliation, Talgayeeta, the Mingo leader known as Logan, whose family were among the victims, began attacking farms in the Monongahela River valley.
In May 1774, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore used his executive power as Virginia's royal governor to mobilize the county militias and take action "to pacify the hostile Indian war bands." By the beginning of October, 1,200 men had assembled at Fort Gower at the confluence of the Ohio and Hockhocking rivers. Dunmore planned to rendezvous with a body of 800 men commanded by Colonel Andrew Lewis before moving against the Shawnee villages on the Scioto River. Girty was employed by Dunmore as a scout and messenger.
On October 8, Girty arrived at Lewis's encampment at the confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio rivers with a dispatch from Dunmore, then returned to Fort Gower that evening. Two days later the encampment was attacked by Shawnee warriors led by Hokoleskwa, commonly known as Cornstalk. The Battle of Point Pleasant lasted for hours until Lewis was able to force the Shawnee to withdraw back across the Ohio River. The Virginians suffered 75 killed and 140 wounded in "a hard-fought battle" that raged from sunrise to sunset.
On October 11, Dunmore departed Fort Gower and advanced towards the Scioto River. He established Camp Charlotte on the Pickaway Plains close to several Shawnee villages. Hokleskwa sent a message to the Virginians requesting a meeting to discuss peace. John Gibson and Girty were dispatched with Dunmore's reply. On October 19, Hokleskwa and other Shawnee leaders meet with Dunmore at Camp Charlotte. The Shawnee agreed to end their raids, repatriate their captives, and relinquish any claim to the territory south of the Ohio River.
Talgayeeta, who had not been at the Battle of Point Pleasant, did not attend the Camp Charlotte meeting. Girty was sent to find the Mingo leader and convince him to meet with Dunmore. Talgayeeta refused but had Girty memorize a carefully worded message in which the Mingo leader declared that "I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace." Upon his return to Camp Charlotte, Girty dictated the message to Gibson who presented it to Dunmore.
American Revolutionary War
Two months prior to the start of the Revolutionary War, Girty took an oath of allegiance to George III and was appointed a lieutenant in the Virginia militia. He lost his commission when the militia was disbanded a few months later. The following year Girty was hired as an interpreter by Morgan who had been appointed Commissioner for Indian Affairs. Girty was discharged after three months. In 1777, he worked as a recruiter for the 13th Virginia Regiment. He was promised a captaincy but was made a lieutenant instead. When the regiment was sent to Charleston, Girty remained behind on detached duty. He resigned his commission in August 1777. A month later, rumors of a Loyalist conspiracy led to the arrest of Girty, McKee and a few others. Girty was acquitted but remained under suspicion. Girty was then hired by the commander of the Western Department of the Continental Army, Brigadier General Edward Hand, to meet with the western Seneca and confirm if they were maintaining their neutrality. He met with Guyasuta who reluctantly decided to turn Girty over to the British. Girty escaped from the Seneca and return safely to Pittsburgh.File:1778HutchinsMapDetail.jpg|thumb|Detail from Thomas Hutchins's 1778 map showing Fort Pitt at the far right and Fort Detroit at the upper left In February 1778, Girty served as an interpreter during the expedition known as the Squaw Campaign. Hand intended to capture a British supply depot at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River but failed to control his men when they encountered a cluster of cabins that housed a small number of neutral Delaware. An old man and woman were killed and another woman wounded. Girty, who had not been present, later guided a few of Hand's men to a place on the Mahoning River known as the Salt Licks. They discovered a group of women and children, and took one of the women prisoner. The following morning, two of the men were scouting the area when they encountered a youth shooting birds and killed him. Girty rejoined Hand and was asked to guide the expedition back to Fort Pitt. Due to an early thaw, swollen streams and constant rain, Hand had decided to abandon the campaign.
On March 28, 1778, Girty, McKee and a few others left Pittsburgh with the intention of joining the British at Detroit. Girty's motivation for his defection is uncertain, but was likely the combination of his embitterment towards Patriot officials, the attitude of many Americans towards Indigenous people, and the influence of his friend and staunch Loyalist Alexander McKee. Girty and McKee first went to Coshocton and spoke to an assembly of the Delaware to convince them to abandon their neutrality and support the British. Hopocan, known as Captain Pipe, advocated war, however, Koquethaqechton counselled peace. The Delaware elected to remain neutral, however, Hopocan's war faction later split from the peace faction.
Girty arrived at Detroit on April 20, 1778, and was hired by Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton as an interpreter in the British Indian Department. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Girty was indicted for treason and convicted in absentia. A bounty of $800 was placed on his head. Girty was sent to work first with the Mingo but was later assigned to the Wyandot who lived on the Sandusky River. In September, he accompanied a large war party that staged raids in western Pennsylvania. Simon's instructions were to "protect defenceless persons and prevent any insult or barbarity being exercised on the Prisoners."
Girty travelled to the town of Wakatomika on the Mad River in October 1778 and learned that the Shawnee were intending to burn one of their captives. Girty recognized the prisoner as Simon Kenton who he had befriended during Dunmore's War. Girty convinced the Shawnee to spare Kenton's life. When the Shawnee later recanted their decision, Girty convinced them that Kenton should be brought to the Wyandot village of Upper Sandusky for the execution. With the help of Logan, he arranged for trader Pierre Drouillard to impersonate a British officer who told the Shawnee that Lieutenant Governor Hamilton wanted to question Kenton and would pay for him in rum and tobacco. Not wanting to offend Hamilton the Shawnee agreed. Kenton was taken to Detroit, questioned, and held as a prisoner of war until his escape a few months later.