Return to Milestones Vol. 5, No. 1
There are many methods of digging into the historic past, all of them fascinating. There are archeological "digs", in which every grain of sand is sifted in hopes of retrieving from the earth a bit of artifact that may have slipped from the unheeding hands of humans inhabiting a particular spot centuries ago. The great American historian Francis Parkman, writing of historical investigation, phrased it this way: "The subject has been studied as much in the open air as at the library table." The same is true of the exhaustive work carried on at the site of old Fort McIntosh at Beaver, Pennsylvania.
The second part of Parkman's postulate is exemplified by "Digs" less causative of dirty hands and muscular fatigue than the exercise of the former science. This system of basic research entails delving into old and dusty records (usually manuscripts) undisturbed, except by the prying literary sleuths intent upon ferreting out original evidence from the archival depths of the great libraries' collections. Such goldmines of manuscript treasures as the Library of Congress, the William L. Clements Library of Ann Arbor, Michigan, The Newberry Library of Chicago, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, even the famed Henry E. Huntington Library of San Marino, California, amid its beautiful botanical gardens, have contributed unimaginable additions to our local historical knowledge. Of course, the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh, possesses a library and archives filled with historical lore of the entire tri-state area. The sweetish aroma of ancient rag paper is ever alluring to the individual with nose atuned to following the scent of research, --- and the finds are exciting.
Still another form of basic investigation has been aptly termed "beating" the bushes. Precious gems of historical knowledge turn up in unexpected places, and a thrill of accomplishment is the reward of the finder. It was while this writer was pursuing clues to identification of traces of the old Forbes Road cut through the forests over the mountains by Colonel Henry Bouquet for the passage of the army of General John Forbes, in 1758, to capture Fort Duquesne from the French at the Forks of the Ohio, that the momentous discovery occurred. This find proved to be the surveyor's notes recorded during the march of Bouquet's expedition, in 1764, to the Muskingum Valley, in Ohio, to quell the Indian uprising known as Pontiac's Rebellion and to free all of the white captives held in the Indian towns. General Lachlan McIntosh availed himself of this road, in 1778, during the Revolution, when he marched his army into Ohio to build Fort Laurens on the Tuscarawas. The key, then, to positive identification upon the ground of McIntosh's marching road is fixing, as nearly as possible, the route of Bouquet's original track. The Great Trail leading to Tuscarawas, Sandusky, and Detroit, ran down the northeast side of the Ohio to cross the Beaver River at Bridgewater, passed through Beaver, then mounted the ridge now traversed by Tuscarawas Road. Since Fort McIntosh was built fourteen years later, McIntosh's itinerary joined Bouquet's (or Tuscarawas), road in the vicinity of the Twomile Run. It is obvious that the main part of McIntosh's army marched by the Great Trail enroute to Fort McIntosh, while Colonel Daniel Brodhead, with a detachment of troops from his regiment and some militia, opened the road ever since called by his name. Brodhead's road was on the southwest side of the Ohio River, following long ridges from General Hand's hospital (present Crafton) to meet the Ohio opposite the site of Fort McIntosh. (This episode has been traced in detail in this author's Fort Pitt and the Revolution on the Frontier, 111-119.) Having explained the interrelationship between the expeditions of Bouquet and McIntosh, separated as they were by fourteen years and changing from British Imperialism to American Republicanism, explanation is due concerning the vicissitudes of the army engineer's survey records. The story and the import of the find become quite interesting.
By an unusual set of circumstances, one of the most notable parts of Bouquet's marching route to Ohio was bracketed within Beaver County. In retrospection, let it be noted that Bouquet's orders dated at Fort Pitt, September 27, 1764, designated Captain Samuel Finley and Ensign Thomas Hutchins as assistants to the chief engineer Captain-Lieutenant John Williams with the rank of engineer-in-ordinary in the British army. Williams had "had an eye shot out" at the battle before Fort Niagara, the previous year, and, after a protracted recuperation period, was performing his first active service after the tragedy, though still suffering from his wound. He was further and totally incapacitated by a severe attack of gout which necessitated his return to New York by slow, painful stages. Since Hutchins bore a commission in the British regular army, (Royal American Regiment), he outranked Finley who had a provincial commission in the Pennsylvania Regiment. Hutchins was already a skilled draftsman and accomplished cartographer; above all, he was a thorough engineer. He had worked under Nicholas Scull, the surveyor general of Pennsylvania, and had been a valued assistant to Captain Harry Gordon, British engineer during the construction of Fort Pitt. Two years prior to Bouquet's expedition, Hutchins had surveyed this same path, the Great Trail to Detroit. He then produced the first accurate map of the Michigan peninsula and wrote a complete and detailed road description "with distances computed from Fort Pitt to the several Indian towns," which served as a basis for the journal of Bouquet's expedition, with insertion of dates, campsites, and exact distances of each day's march. It follows, then, that this description and the journal are an aid to retracement of the road; but his field notes of his survey have disappeared. From his notes, however, he plotted and drafted a map, composed of eight sheets to the scale of 1:62,500 (slightly more than 1 inch to 1 mile, the same as modern U. S. Geological Survey 15minute quadrangle maps) upon which the course of every transit sight is plotted. Only one sheet of the eight covering the whole route has survived the ravages of two centuries, incredibly ignored by historians but found among the Hutchins Papers and first published by this author in 1960, in The Orderly Book of Colonel Henry Bouquet's Expedition Against the Ohio Indians, 1764, and will be herewith reproduced. When overlaid upon the topographical map, its line indicates where the modern road coincides or deviates from the old path and locates quite accurately such landmarks as campsites and stream crossings. It is noteworthy that the one surviving plat map represents the stretch of road starting just above the present East RochesterMonaca bridge and extending to 3.25 miles west of the Pennsylvania-Ohio line, in Section 28 of Township 7 Range I (Middleton Township, Columbiana County, Ohio). It is the most helpful piece of documentary evidence relating to this interesting piece of the Great Trail.
As mentioned, there would have been eight of these sheets of plat maps covering the whole route from Fort Pitt to Coshocton. From these, Hutchins drafted his simplified map published with Dr. William Smith's An Historicai Account of the Expedition Against the Ohio Indians Under the Command of Henry Bouquet ... The simplified lines, drawn in pencil, are still visible upon the surviving map. Hutchins' field notes, showing the bearings and distances of each transit sight, have been lost, apparently irretrievably. That he had them in England, in 1778, while supervising the printing and plate engraving for his large map and book entitled A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina, (after which he was imprisoned in the Tower of London), is evidenced by the full scale map drawn by the British army engineer, Bernard Ratzer. This was a perfect reproduction of Hutchins' own work only possible by the use of the original notes. This manuscript map was found among General Gage's papers, and has been carefully examined by me. Hutchins was finally released from prison, made his way to France, where he memorialized Benjamin Franklin who recommended him to the American Continental Congress. He was appointed geographer to the southern army. Congress employed Hutchins as geographer of the United States after the close of the war of the Revolution. A plethora of projects involving state lines and public lands overwhelmed the great engineer, and he was called upon to survey the Geographer's Line, the base line for the survey of the Original Seven Ranges of Townships west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania line. This was the prototype and the institution of the greatest survey system of land subdivision in the world, still continuing.
Samuel Finley was a land surveyor in central Pennsylvania. His name appears upon many early surveys of land scattered through the counties of Lancaster, Cumberland, Franklin, Fulton and Bedford. His competence to survey a line or traverse is unquestioned; his experience with mapping and topographical representation over a wide area involving terrestrial surveying methods is dubious. It is doubtful that he was able to employ astronomical observations of Polaris for determining declination of the magnetic needle from the true meridian, or true north. Of all of these techniques Hutchins was master, and it is not difficult to understand his ready substitution for the chief engineer of the Ohio expedition.
As before stated, it was while searching for evidence relating to another subject that the little cache of Finley papers came to light in a private collection. The owner, for his own reasons, insists upon remaining anonymous, although he permitted me to make photo copies and to print the notes in due time. Were it not for the fact that internal evidence establishes beyond a doubt the authenticity of the notes, I should not present them as historical evidence. The handwriting is the same as that in letters and other papers written by this man. All of the mathematical data agree with Hutchins' map and journal. Finley's "Remarks" are prosaic, repetitious, and dull, but occasionally offer information of historical interest. Their chief value is the record of distances between landmarks and streams, enabling us to locate the road, landmarks and camp sites of Bouquet's army. We present only the notes that authenticate Hutchins' map.
We have transcribed the notes of the beginning of the march, as the army crossed the Allegheny River from Fort Pitt, then omitted the notations until the crossing of Big Beaver Creek (River). It is worthy of remark that the recorded distance from Bouquet's fourth camp to the river crossing totaled 1435 perches (rods), just 6 perches short of 41/2 miles, thus indicating its location where today is found the Northern Lights Shopping Center and spilling over into the adjacent drive-in theater lot. Bouquet's camp sites ideally covered 55-60 acres, according to his own scaled plan. (See this author's The Orderly Book of Colonel Henry Bouquet's Expedition Against the Ohio Indians 1764, p. 171- also Bouquet's March to the Ohio: The Forbes Road, pp. 70-71.) It appears, from these notes that the path through Beaver seemed to run nearer to the ridge (Dutch Ridge) than formerly thought, possibly more nearly Fifth Street than Fourth Street, for Finley called it "at a Small Distance" and "Distance of 30 p, ." Consideration must also be given to the fact that Bouquet marched in a wide center path in which the cattle and sheep were driven and packhorses, loaded with supplies and ammunition, traveled two-abreast. Side paths for columns of troops, marching in single file, were cleared parallel to the main road to guard the herds and flocks. One hundred yards beyond these marched flankers and scouts, with muskets and rifles at the ready, to guard the main body. The distance was a good musket range protection against surprise attack. Of course these flankers would be drawn in when a narrow ridgetop was traversed; but the army advanced with a wide front. Also to be considered was the arduous task of driving and swimming the cattle, sheep and horses across large streams without loss (meat had to be transported on the hoof), also bags of flour and kegs of powder had to be kept dry. Under ideal conditions, the army stretched out at least a mile through the woods. Bouquet's train of packhorses numbered more than 1300, McIntosh's nearly 1000. (see Williams, Bouquet's March to the Ohio, p. 114; Bouquet's Orderly Book, 1764, pp. 20, 59).
Bouquet's route to Ohio was the "Great Trail" to Sandusky and Detroit, which he followed as far as the Tuscarawas River crossing, where he left it, as did McIntosh. The trail was only "Great" in the sense of being the main path in that direction. Its crossing of the Big Beaver was (if we credit this surveyor's measurements) where the old bridge crossed from Rochester, the old piers still visible contiguous to the present bridge, in 1920. The river was only 20 perches wide, as compared to 32 perches (168 yards) at normal stage today. This is due to backing of slack water by the Montgomery Dam in the Ohio, which raised the surface level in the Beaver about 12 feet. The current was greater then, due to the drop into the Ohio, indicated by Bouquet's west side landing at a point several rods lower than the east side approach.
Finley's mention of the famous White Eyes Town at the Beaver River crossing (then in ruins) is a bit of rare historical information not found elsewhere. Hutchins said there were "about seven ruined houses, which were deserted by the Indians, after their defeat at Bushy-run," without designating it as White Eyes' town. In 1762, Hutchins recorded having met White Eyes' sister at this place. The White Eyes Town known to historians was in the Muskingum Valley of Ohio, subsequent to his abandoning this Beaver location. General McIntosh commissioned White Eyes a colonel, and he died (or was murdered) while on the march to build Fort Laurens.
The surveyor's notes mention "an old Sleeping Place," at the crossing of Twomile Run (not by the path but at its mouth two miles below the Beaver on the Ohio). Sleeping places were very important landmarks, stop-over stations, on the traders' paths, the early thoroughfares of travel. The trader found rest for himself and refreshing water and luxuriant grass for his jaded packhorses, available only at lengthy intervals in the forests. The more prominent Indian traders assured themselves of all important forage by warranting and patenting tracts of land at watering places along their routes. The land survey records are filled with traders' locations. This is the only record we have found, in the contemporary literature, of a sleeping place at this location.
The notation, "N 45 W. Up a Steep Hill," verifies Hutchins' survey plat of Bouquet's road climbing via the short, steep hollow where the sewer line excavation was recently completed from First Street, ir~ Pleasant View, obliterating all vestiges of the old road so lately visible. The present Tuscarawas Road, shelved into the hillside and circling its point for a more gradual grade, came later when commercial traffic justified the improvement.
The steep but short climb of Bouquet's army from Twomile Run to the ridgetop henceforth to be known as Tuscarawas Road, presented no problems for the troops who had so lately surmounted the Allegheny Mountains, then known to many as "the backbone of America." The Great Trail followed, for nearly five and one half miles, the long dividing watershed that separated the streams flowing north-eastward into Twomile Run and Brady's Run from the others that drain southward into the Ohio River. Various topographical features noted by Finley are discernible today where a hillock or broader area offer residential building advantages or a fine view of deep valleys on either hand. The plateau, where now are located the Tusca Drive-in Theater and the Dawson Ridge residential area, he noted as "Level good Land." A straight tangent of six-tenths of a mile carried the path to the brink of the steep 200-foot descent into the low, nearly level (until recently) meadow and prasture land drained by the small spring run which Finley recorded as "a Durty run."
Just before the descent from the high ridge, the path ran over the higher knob where today is the drive in front of the fine old dwelling that long was the original and only house upon the knob. The forks with the Ohioville road did not exist, the location of the present Lisbon Road being then a precipitous ravine. The later New Lisbon Road, named after the stage coaches ran from Beaver to New Lisbon and Canton, Ohio, became the route of the Tuscarawas Path.
In little more than half a mile , Bouquet's engineers found the ideally perfect campsite for the night of Saturday - Sunday, October 6-7, 1764. According to Bouquet's orders and scaled plans, a camp for 1500 and pack train and other animals should cover 53.7 acres, within the lines of the outguards' posts (13.77 acres actually occupied by the camp within the protection of the reserves, camp guards and off-duty personnel). This was Bouquet's Camp No. 5 on his march from Carlisle to Fort Pitt to the Fortks of the Muskingum, in Ohio. It-was also utilized by General McIntosh as his first camp on the night of November 4, 1778, when marching to the Tuscarawas to build Fort Laurens. It is doubtful that McIntosh needed as great an area for his encampment, since he had only 1200 men as compared to Bouquet's force of 1500. Also, Bouquet had a computed 1330 packhorses, plus two troops of light horse, officers' riding horses and bathorses, which made two hundred more, while McIntosh projected 1200 packhorses but certainly was unable to procure that number. Nevertheless, that number of horses, besides the beef cattle, would soon have consumed all of the grass and green herbs to be found in a relatively small clearing. Such were the knotty and weighty problems of conducting an army in the American wilderness.
The ideal camping ground lay within the triangle formed by the fork of two small branches of Brady's Run, slightly raised above the surrounding meadowland. Within easy memory, this small plateau of perhaps fifty acres was shaded by a grove of fine, stately and sturdy oaks. The book, greatly diminished in volume since the draining of the marshland immediately westward and the clearing away of the forests, then watered the thirsty troops and their animal herds. The fine clubhouse and facilities of the Seven Oaks Gold Club now occupies much of the campsite. The rolling fairways and greens of the beautiful golf course, so appropriately named, preserve the significance and beauty of this historic place as no other modern land use could accomplish.
See Map and Notes, following--Click Here for Maps
[The commentary upon the surveyor's notes of Bouquet's expedition will be carried forward into Ohio, below.
Ed Williams is a busy researcher with a special interest in the early roads and trails in Western Pennsylvania. His studies of military records, journals and early maps have led to frequent contributions to the Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine and Carnegie Magazine.
The author of several books on frontier
military history, Mr. Williams's latest effort is Fort Pitt and
the Revolution on the Western Frontier (Historical Society of
Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, 1978). We are deeply indebted
to Ed for sharing the findings of his latest research with Milestones
readers.
The following Courses & Distances are the Roads that the Honourable Henry Bouquet Marches the Army under His Honours, Command. Towards the Lower Shannees Towns Down the Ohio River.
The Courses & Distances of the Rivers, Creeks, Mountains, Swampts & the Bearings of the river the Ohio. Taking our Departure from Fort Pitt or Opposite to Said fort from the North West side of the Allegania River above the fork where the Monnangehely Empties into Allegany. Octr. 2d 1764 Tusday at a Button Wood Tree
[Notes are omitted until the crossing of Beaver River, beginning on Page 7 of the field notes.]
Courses Pers. Remarks [perches or rods] N 68 W 20 to the Bank of Big Beaver Creek from thence Down to the Creek Side the Bank very steep N 72 W 20 to the Bank on the other side very Banks very steep on Both Sides To White Eyes house N 58 W 18 Thro. White Eyes Town S 81 W 58 at the end of 52 ps. Where we raised the Assent from White Eyes Town N 86 W 42 Through dry Level upLand a ridge to the right [Page 8 of notes] S 57 W 78 Thro. Level good Land a ridge to the right Hand S 69 W 84 Thro. Level good Land a ridge to the right at a Small Dist Large Body of Level Land to the Left S 70 W 132 all thro. Level good Land. a Ridge to the right Distance of 30 ps. S 74 W 64 at the end of 22 ps. Crossed a run at an old Sleeping Place at the end of 40 ps. Came to the foot of a Steep Hill thence up a Steep Hill to the right all good Land to the Left N 45 W 32 up a Steep Hill S 71 W 100 a Long the Top of a Hill all very good Level Land N Void 90 along the Top of a Hill all good Level Land N 67 W 90 along D° great Level to right Broad (?) Bottom To the Right Large Level Country to the Left small ridge N 53 W 78 along the Top of a Hill to the right Level Country N 85 W 38 along D° a Little to the right a Great Level Country S 68 W 80 all along a Barren Ridg(e) to the right about 30 ps a large Level Country of Good Land to the Left Barren Ridges S 49 W 60 by Ditto N 87W 88 all good upLand to the right & Left good Level Land S 73 W 32 all by a Lidge (Ridge?) & good 1-6nd 1046 pers. [Page 9 of notes] S 45 W 40 along Ridges and good Land to the right & ridge to the Left S 77 W 88 all good Land to the right & ridges to the Left S 65 W 110 all good High Land to the Right about 50 ps all Level good Country to the Left Ridges (ba --- (?) good Land N 70 W 74 all good upLand Tillable on Both hands West 74 all High Et very good Land N 75 W 88 all Thro good Level upLand N 60 W 80 all Extra good upLand on Each hand N 60 W 146 all Level good Land on Each side N 64 W 44 all by Ditto a Little rising Hill to the right of this Course N 67 W 24 all by Good High Land thence N 40 W 40 all very good rich Land and Little Hills on Each Hand West 30 at the end of 24 p Crossd at the Head of a spring in a Hollow yn (then) up a Hill N 69 W 26 to the Top of the Hill where there is Level good Land S 85 W 148 all rising good Ground from thence Down into Level good Land N 75 W 32 Thro. Level Low Land N 76 W 22 at the end of 12 ps Crossed a Durty run---- N 58 W 70 at the end of 56 p I Crossed a Durty run running to y' right Low Swampy ground to ye Left & Barren ridge to the Right N 36 W 46 near the senter of the Camp Thro white Barrons on the Right and on the Left a Hill at a small Distance. 1182 p [Camp No. 5]
It has been the good fortune of this author to find and to bring together, after a separation of two hundred and fifteen years, the journal, the orderly book, a manuscript plat survey map, and a map plotted and drafted from engineer Hutchins notes of survey, a# originating within the tight little task force army of Colonel Henry Bouquet upon his historic expedition into the heart of the Indian country in Ohio, in 1764. Now we have the alternate surveying field notes of the other assistant engineer upon the expedition that fill in some of the gaps with pertinent historical facts. The orderly book of Bouquet arrived in America from England in 1956, and I stumbled upon the track of it at the Boston rare book and manuscripts dealer's and followed the trail of it to the William L. Clements Library. I was allowed to publish it, in 1960, with annotations and historical dissertation and therein first published the Hutchins survey plat map from the Hutchins Papers. Among the voluminous Papers of General Thomas Gage, also in the Clements Library, was found the manuscrIpt map drafted by Lieutenant Ratzer, British army engineer, from Hutchins' field notes, for which Ratzer gives credit to the original source. A photo copy, actual size, of Ratzer's map is in my possession. As mentioned previously, much evidence has established the fact that McIntosh retraced Bouquet's road.
Indebtedness for reproduction of the maps is acknowledged to Wallace E. Covert, artist and author of articles in Pennsylvania Archeologist.
A note on reconciling the 200-year-old plat map with the modern map is appropriate. It has been necessary to account for annual differences in magnetic declination (which can now only be estimated), in order to convert the surveyor's bearings to true (geographical) north. Also, due to the curvature of the earth's surface, "at the point of beginning (of a surveyed line) the tangent bears east or west, but as the projection of the tangent is continued the deviation to the south in-creases..." Standard Field Tables are supplied to U. S. Government surveyors "showing offsets from the tangent north to the parallel, tabulated for any degree of latitude from 25 to 75 N." (Manual of Surveying Instructions for the Survey of Public Lands of the United States, Washington, 1930, p. 126-7; 1947, p. 152-3). This procedure has been needful for comparison of the old track with the present roads which have been mapped by modern geographical methods.
THERE CAN BE LITTLE DOUBT that most of Bouquet's troops slept well on the night of October 6, 1764, after a day's twelve-mile march that included a river fording, a steep climb to the top of the ridge and a scramble down from the height of Tuscarawas Ridge to the welcome, thirst slaking, spring-fed branch of Brady's Run. A supper of beef taken from haversacks and "firecakes" made from flour from the same source, eaten by the light of the campfires, refreshed the weary troopers, while the droves of animals engorged all of the luxuriant sward and swamp grass of the bottom land. At retreat beating and roll call, orders were read for the succeeding day that included the following: "The first three days of the week every person receives four pounds of beef and three pounds three quarters of flour... The Army to draw immediately three days provisions." Thereupon the drums beat roast beef, and the issuing of rations took place upon the spot. (The Orderly Book of Colonel Bouquet's Expedition Against the Ohio Indians, ed. this author (Pittsburgh, 1960), p. 21.) Each wrapped in his blanket and protected from the dews and rains by a light tent, the tired soldiers were soon lost in sleep.
The wakeful sentry on duty at the advanced guard post (in later armies called a picket post) was on the qui vive at every unaccustomed sound: the shrill call of the "whip-poor-will," the wavery howl of the stray wolf, the low pitched hoot of the great owl, the muted bark of the prowling fox. Twin firey orbs in the stygian shadows beamed from the eyes of a down-wind buck inflamed with curiosity by scenting the unfamiliar human odors from the camp, the sudden whir of a startled grouse disturbed by the stealthy tread of the deer, the slithering rustle among the leafy shrubs betraying the movement of some woodland rodent-all of these nocturnal noises sent a vibrant tingle along the spine of the vigilant sentry, causing his fingers to tighten their grip upon the lock and trigger of his primed flintlock rifle.
Young Ensign John Peebles of the 42nd Royal
Highland (Black Watch) Regiment, his sleep disturbed by discomfort
from his unhealed wound suffered at Bouquet's victorious Bushy
Run battle more than a year before, stirred restlessly in his
blanket. He awoke as from a dream to awareness of the cadenced
beat of booted feet upon the path that connected the outguard
posts. It would be Lieutenant Colonel Asher Clayton, the officer
of the day, with his escort of a sergeant and two men "going
the grand rounds." Voices drifted through the wispy fog that
clung to the low bottom lands. "Who goes there?" the
sentry challenged. The answer: "Grand rounds." "Stand
grand rounds! Advance, sergeant, with the countersign." In
an interval of ominous silence, the sergeant of the rounds stepped
the separating ten paces and whispered, "Oswegatchie."
The sergeant of the guard reported to the subaltern officer, who
had come up with a squad of his guard, that "the countersign
is right." The officer then ordered, "Advance, grand
rounds!" Again silence interposed as Clayton whispered the
parole for that day (night), "Sandusky." A longer period
of silence passed while the officer of the rounds inspected the
guard and their arms, then taking a new escort and sending back
his former escort, progressed to the next guard post. The tread
of marching feet continued as the sounds of challenges and responses
now faded into the misty vapors.
The foregoing little drama was enacted on the night of Saturday,
October 6, 1764, possibly several times during the long hours
of darkness, especially preceding the approach of dawn when enemy
attacks were most feared and expected. The episode is, by no means,
imaginary. The parole and countersign were those prescribed for
that night in the orders that evening, but the officer of the
day was designated in orders of the 5th, to serve for the ensuing
twenty-four hours beginning just prior to guard mounting in the
morning when all guards were changed. He was the administrative
officer who had charge and oversight of the camp or of the marching
column, after receiving from the brigade major each platoon detailed
for guard duty at outposts, camps and barracks, messes and provost
guards. These functions and procedures were carried from the British
into the American army's manuals and regulations at the time of
the Revolution. The events of the night of October 6, and repeated
every other night, can be assumed to have occurred just as described,
for military orders were inexorably carried out uniformly in every
camp of the British army around the world. I have before me while
writing The Manual Exercise as Ordered by His Majesty in the Year
1764, which was reprinted for use by the Continental Army, in
1776, also a copy of the Baron von Seuben's Regulations for the
Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, 1779,
based upon the former manual.
Ensign John Peebles had been with the 77th Regiment (Montgomery's First Highland Battalion) in South Carolina, in the Forbes campaign against Fort Duquesne, in the Cherokee Indian war in present Tennessee, in the West Indian campaign (where disease killed more than bullets) under the Duke of Albemarle. He suffered a severe wound in Bouquet's two-day Bushy Run battle and victory over the same savage tribes against which this army was marching. Peebles was scheduled for retirement with the decimated, disbanded regiment. He, however requested and received appointment to a vacancy in the 42nd (Black Watch) Regiment, effective August 23, 1763, in spite of his unhealed wound. The most that can be deemed supposititious in this narrative is the averment that Ensign Peebles awoke before reveille reverberated through the camp to arouse the reluctant sleepers. Anyone awake in the camp would have heard the same sounds as related. The orders issued at Fort Pitt on October 2 (Orderly Book, p. 18) directed that "As soon as the Centries are placed each out Guard is to open a communication to the next to it on the Right which path will serve for the Rounds. The field officer of the Day will make the Grand Bounds... All the Guards to be under Arms every Morning before Day break till after Sunrise during which The Field Officer of the Day will again visit them." Thus official orders confirm the narration and the British Army Lists for 1758-1765 verify Peebles' service record.
At daybreak on Sunday morning, October 7, reveille sounded, and immediately after that the general, which was the signal to strike the tents, make up backpacks, blanket rolls, etc., and to devour a hurried breakfast. The light horse troopers and packhorse drivers were busy rounding up and tending their horses; and, when the assembly was beaten, packsaddles were loaded upon the horses and foot soldiers formed their ranks. When the last cinch strap had been tied on packsaddles, the march was beaten-, and the columns moved, each in its proper path. The army moved in a wide semi-circle to the southward, avoiding the swampy ground on both sides of Lisbon Road that existed between the camp site and Black hawk village before the recent drainage took place. Recrossing Lisbon Road before the village is reached, the path circled westward to gain and follow the high crest of the ridge which joins Lisbon Road again as it emerges from the hollow. The path then progressed to Salem cross-roads. Three quarters of a mile farther, the road threads a narrow crest and, in the succeeding mile and a half, more constricted ridges where it is certain that the old road did not deviate from the present thoroughfare.
After descending a moderately steep grade, the army found itself in a small valley half a mile in length, which both surveyors described as quite rich. A halt was made upon ground just across the present Pennsylvania-Ohio state line. Hutchins thus described the locale: "The Camp No. 6 lies... on a strong ground, three sides thereof surrounded by a hollow, and on the fourth side a small hill, which was occupied by a detached guard." The encampment proper was evidently upon the Ohio side with the outlying guard posts, connected by the paths for "going the rounds," situated upon the hill rising upon the Pennsylvania side of the line. The composite map, therefore, shows the outline of the camp's position astride the boundary so as to include the outposts. A guardpost must have protected the water reservoir so essential to a camp, which was created by a dam constructed across the small stream yet seen near the west side of the present road. The run arises from springs at the base of Beatty Hill (famous as a summit point-of-view for the vista and state line monument marker), the run draining into Sheepskin Hollow, thence to Little Beaver Creek. (See Report of the Joint Commission ... to Remark the Boundary Line, 1883., p. 55.) 'Vestiges of this pool may still be seen there in wet weather. The small ravine that surrounded the three sides of the camp is traced by the deepening hollow of Sheepskin Run, the embankment that isolates the plain of the camp site from coal stripping debris and a precipitous declivity that separates the place from the adjoining farm on the north, The tract of about fifty-five acres is more than half covered by a growth of pine woods. The northern part is a farmed field, where pewter buttons of a military type have been found. A part of a broken sword blade was found, in the writer's presence, in a quarter-mile section of the old road clearly discernible passing through the pine woods. The Lisbon Road runs for two tenths of a mile upon the state line, then turns abruptly west. The original road left Lisbon Road at its meeting with the state line, composing the hypotenuse of the right triangle thus formed, and meeting Lisbon Road again in three quarters of a mile. These traces reveal that the road traversed the camp site and entered Ohio at Section 25 of Township 7 N., Range 1, in present Middleton Township, Columbiana County, Ohio. The camp lay in the northeast corner of the southeast quarter section of section 25. It should be noted that the line labeled "Tuscarawas Trail" upon the most recent Columbiana County map is transcribed from survey plats drafted by Government Deputy Surveyor, John Bever, in 1801, when subdividing the County into sections. Bever traced the road he called "Tuscarawas Path" across Columbiana County to the historic crossing of the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum River, in extension of Tuscarawas Road in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. He, however marked only points where it intersected his section lines and connected these points by free-hand lines, nearly straight and ignoring many of the significant curves of the path. Bever's simplified line has been transferred to the most recent county map of Columbiana County. The original drafts by Bever are found in the National Archives, in Washington, D.C. (originally in the U. S. Treasury Dept., to the Interior, to the National Archives), and another original in Columbus, Ohio. They serve a significant purpose in locating the course of the road, at least, through the authentic sections and quarter sections, as far as the strategic Tuscarawas Crossing, there meeting the Greenville Treaty Line.
The column of troops got under way early on the morning of Monday, October 8, as each marching unit, packhorse brigade, flock of sheep and drove of cattle fell into its designated place in the line. Although coal stripping has devastated much of the land, it is clear that the path kept on the top of the ridge to avoid a sidehill road, so that it finally ran down the steep point of the ridge to reach the floor of the creek valley. References to lengths of tangents and distances to stream crossings give clews to the track of the road across the narrow valley. It crossed the North Fork of Little Beaver Creek about 100 to 120 yards below (south of) the present iron bridge, in 16 perches (88 yards) crossed the little brook from the ravine, and climbed the hill to the north, which Finley said ran generally northeast and southwest. In the valley, it passed the site of the later Mackall tavern, the foundation still in view, that stood near the crossroads of the Tuscarawas Road and Jackman Road, which for a century was the main road from Negley and Achor to Fredericktown. The bridge, south of Achor, is ruined, but the road from the Mackall tavern down the creek is a fine forest hiking trail through the Beaver Creek Wild and Scenic River nature preserve. (The fine old tavern building was demolished 1970-1972.)
On top of the ridge, old Tuscarawas Road ran for nearly a mile, until the high transverse (north-south) ridge was reached. Here, half a century later was built the thirteen-room landmark, Rising Sun Tavern, by the Pancake family, first settlers upon 640 acres (a square mile) of land, most of which they still occupy. The old building was torn down in the 1960s, well remembered by this writer. Bouquets road became the stage and mail road from Beaver, branching at the Tuscarawas crossing toward Sandusky and Detroit, or south toward Coshocton and Zanesville, then connecting with the National Highway and other roads to Kentucky. It was the main thoroughfare of settlement and commerce north of the Ohio River for many years.
From Pancake Hill the highest elevation in this part of Ohio, Bouquet's road traversed a descending spur of the ridge well back of (south of) the old Zion Church and cemetery into the valley of Rough Run, presently the outlet of man made Tomahawk Lake. Here Hutchins' plat map ends, but not before solving one interesting problem and creating another. Just 20 perches (110 yards) short of the run, Hutchins noted an "Encampment." Many years ago this author, after study of the map, so cut as to leave only the bottoms of the letters of the qualifying word, determined that it read "Indian," thus the complete legend, "Indian Encampment." Finley, in his field notes, has explicitly vindicated that judgement: "...a Long a ridge at the end of this Course at a Spring an Indian Camp." Uncritical examination of the map has led one writer of Ohio mapping to conclude that this was the location of Bouquet's Camp No. 6, which would have placed it three and a half miles farther west than justified by Hutchins' measurements, to the detriment of all of his distances thereafter - not to mention Finley, Ratzer and others who have contributed to the history of the Great Trail.
We must also note here that Finley checked 20 perches short of Hutchins' measurements at the 38-mile encampment, No. 6. In order that it may not appear that Finley was lacking in due care, the difficulties under which surveyors of that era labored must be considered.
With the invention of the transit some twenty years in the future, the circumferentor was the only available instrument for sighting and measuring angles. It consisted of a large compass; two vertical arms (with narrow slits for sighting) were mounted opposing one another on the compass ring.
The compass box was mounted upon a "Jacob's staff" driven into the ground and leveled by wedging to conform to a plumbline. Compass rings were graduated to degrees only- there were no verniers and no telescopes with cross hairs.
The instrument for measuring lines was the surveyor's chain of 66 feet, composed of 100 links, 80 chains per mile. In that day, high quality steel was not available, so that wear between the links began with the first use. There being about 600 wearing surfaces within the chain, any wear lengthened the chain with interesting results. Refer to any textbook on plane surveying, such as that by two M.I.T. professors, C. B. Breed and G. F. Hosmer, The Principles and Practice of Surveying, New York, 1921 and 1937, 1, (p. 8.) It can easily be calculated that, if the wear were only .0025 inch, (two and one half thousandths of an inch) upon all of the links, an increased length of the chain of 1.5 inches would be effected.
This would produce 80 x 1.5 inches or 120 inches, 10 feet per mile-, in the 38 miles in question 380 feet, or 23.0303 perches or rods. This explains the 20 perches Finley's computation seemed to be short. If his chain were elongated, fewer chains would have been counted in a given distance. The results demonstrate the wear to have been even less than the infinitesimally small .0025 inch hypothesized. On the other hand, we have information that Hutchins used a wheel of known circumference for measuring distances on other occasions, although not proven here. Finley, at least has added to our historical knowledge of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and hither Ohio, by his laconic notes jotted down under adverse conditions and hurried forward movement to keep pace with the marching army into hostile country.
Page 10 of notes
Sunday the 7th of Oct' 1764 Left Camp Seven miles 1/4 Quarter
(sic) Below Bigg Beaver Creek
S 34 W 56 to the Left Barron Ridg: on the right a bout 20 ps. a
run in Low Bottom runs to the right
S 71 W 46 a run to the right & Low ridges to the Left
S 54 W 34 by Do.
S 23 W 36 by Ditto.
West 46 at the end of 8 ps. Cross'd a run running to the right y' (then) assencled a Ridge to the Left small ridge well Timber'd to the right Low good Ground
N 73 W 30 by Ditto
West 40 Thro Little Hill(s) on both hands
N 60 W 102 all Thro. Little Hills on each hand at Y end of 20 ps. Cross'd a run at y e end of 96 ps Crossed a run running to the right
N 28 W 122 all Thro: good Land bottom Left Little ridge to the
right Level good Bottom
N 58 W 132 all by Low Bottom to the right Et to the Left ridges
N 43 W 82 all by Ditto
N 80 W 28 all Thro. a narrow Bottom ridge on Each hand at end 18 ps. Crossed a run running to the right
S 76 W 52 Thro. a narrow Bottom a Ridge on Each hand
N 47 W 130 at the end of 20 ps. Cross'd a run running to the Left at the end of 30 ps. Assencled a Ridge of up-Land Et very Broad to Each Hand
Total 936
[Page 11 of notes]
N 65 W 180 all aLong a Ridge of Good Land & on Each hand a Bottom Land N 77 W 126 all Long Do Et on Each hand Ditto N 40 W 88 all aLong Et on Each hand as formerly a bout 15 ps. Do. N 66 W 80 all Long Do. Et as above West 98 all aLong the Top of a ridge of good Land on the right a large Body of Level Land & the same on the Left N 71 W 38 on Do. N 81 W 32 all on Do. N 62 W 134 all a Long Do: on the Left there is Spurs runs to the south west mostly: to the right a Desent very near all aLong a Great Level Country N 33 W 122 all by Ditto N 30 W 50 to the end of the Hill from thence Down a steep Desent S 51 W 84 all aLong a rich valley: a small ridge on each hand at a small Distance N 42 W 26 Thro Ditto N 28 W 43 to the Camp: Thro. Ditto Number 6 Camp Total 1049
[Page 12 of notes]
Monday the 8th of Octr. 1764 Left the Camp at bout 2 miles East of Little Beaver Creek - 38 3/4 miles & 67 ps. from Fort Pitt being the Six Camp N 48 W 82 Thro. the Camp to the rise of a Hill all Level good Land N 58 W 26 a Long a Little ridge N 88 W 152 all aLong Little ridges to the right & Left Level good Land S 62 W 42 Down a steep Desent then Down Do. N 72 W 16 Down a steep Hill to the right N 10 W 34 a Long the side of a Steep Hill on the right a Hill N 39 W 30 Down Do: a Hill at the end of 22 ps. Cross'd a run to the Left N 4 W 12 on the Level at the foot of a Steep Hill N 72 W 22 at the end of 14 ps. to the Bank of Little Beaver Creek and the Creek from Bank to Bank 8 ps. Broad N 81 W 20 all in a Bottom from the Creek Bank S 78 W 50 to the end of 16 ps. Crossd a Spring running to the right at the foot of a steep Hill thence up a Do. N 75 W 86 To the Top of a Hill: which Hill runs N: E & S: W: Do. N 88 W 102 a Long Do. good Level Land N 69 W 60 aLong Do: thence assending a Hill S 76 W 70 a Long the Top of a Ridge Low Bottom Land to Each Hand N 59 W 74 al aLong a Ridge Low Land to Each hand Total 878
[Page 13 of notes]
S 77 W 36 all aLong a ridge to the end then Thro. Low Bottom Land a few ps. further S 87 W 46 a Long a Level good Land S 52 W 76 a Long a ridge at the end of this Course at a Spring Et Indian Camp [The last course brings us to the edge of Thomas Hutchins single remaining plat map. Samuel Finley's field notes continue to the end of the march.]
Two references should be added to the foregoing retracement of the Bouquet Road, citing authoritative historical writers who witnessed the evidence upon the ground. William M. Danington, eighteenth century historian and collector of the very rare library bearing his name, which he donated to the University of Pittsburgh, stated, in his Christopher Gist's Journals [p. 1021] that the trail passed near [West] Salem. Paul A. W. Wallace, in his Indian Paths of Pennsylvania [p. 621], confirms the Blackhawk locale. Charles A. Hanna, that most thorough of all early trail investigators, in his The Wilderness Trail [volume II, p. 1881], affirmed that the road entered Columbiana County, Ohio, "about two miles south from Achor it crossed the North Branch of Little Beaver Creek 1 and 1/2 miles south of Achor. He also quoted Horace Mack's History of Columbiana County [p. 521] to the same effect, adding that early settlers remembered the trail "two to three feet wide, and in many places higher than the ground on either side." This was due, of course, to packing of the ground by travel and erosion of adjacent softer soil. It is, nonetheless, a remarkable fact not recorded elsewhere.