History of Northumberland Co., PA - Chapter 3



CHAPTER 3 - Pages 99-142
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
CLOSE OF THE PROVINCIAL REGIME - THE COUNTY'S REPRESENTATION IN THE
CONTINENTAL ARMY - COMPANIES OF CAPTAINS LOWDON, PARR, AND WELTZEL -
TWELFTH PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT - COMMITTEE OF SAFETY - MILITIA
ORGANIZATION - INDIAN OUTRAGES - DEFENSIVE MEASURES INSTITUTED BY COLONEL
HUNTER - "THE GREAT RUNAWAY" - COLONEL BRODHEAD TEMPORARILY STATIONED ON
THE FRONTIER - COLONEL HARTLEY'S MILITARY ADMINISTRATION - FALL OF FORT
FREELAND - THE GERMAN REGIMENT -GENERAL POTTER'S EXPEDITION - EVENTS OF
COLONEL HUNTER'S ACCOUNTS

   Although the early settlement of Northumberland county occurred
during the period of tranquility following the close of the French and
Indian war, the possibility of future hostilities was a constant
incentive to military organization, while the circumstances of frontier
life were eminently calculated to foster a spirit of independence; and
thus her people, although deficient in the elements of wealth and
comparatively few in numbers, were well prepared for the Revolutionary
struggle. In all the movements preliminary to the organization of the
State government they were represented. The first of these was the
"Meeting of the Provincial Deputies," July 10th, 1774; it was called by
a committee of correspondence at Philadelphia, the chairman of which,
Thomas Willing, addressed a letter to William Maclay, William Plunket,
and Samuel Hunter on the 25th of June, 1774, in compliance with which
the different townships elected committee-men who met at Richard
Malone's on the 11th of July and selected William Scull and Samuel
Hunter to represent the county. The delegates to the Provincial
Convention of January 23, 1775, were William Plunket and Casper Weitzel;
to the Provincial Conference of June 15, 1776, William Cooke, Alexander
Hunter, John Weitzel, Robert Martin, and Matthew Brown, and to the
Constitutional Convention of July 1, 1776, William Cooke, James Potter,
Robert Martin, Matthew Brown, Walter Clark, John Kelly, James Crawford,
and John Weitzel. The latter were elected on the 5th of July at the
house of George McCandlish near the mouth of Limestone run; Thomas
Hewitt, William Shaw, and Joseph Green served as judges. The former
justices of the county were superseded on the 3d of September by
ordinance of the Constitutional Convention: the result of the first
general election under its provisions were certified by John Brady,
James McClenachan, John Gray, and Thomas Robinson, judges of the
different districts, November 7, 1776, and thus the provincial regime in
Northumberland county terminated.
   During the progress of these developments the county was well
represented at the front. A resolution was adopted by Congress, June 14,
1775, directing the formation of ten companies of expert riflemen, six
in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia - to be employed
as light infantry and be paid the following sums per month: a captain,
twenty dollars; a lieutenant, thirteen and one third dollars; a
sergeant, eight dollars; a corporal, seven and one third dollars; a
drummer, seven and one third dollars, and a private, six and two thirds
dollars - all "to find their own arms and clothes." One of these
companies, Captain John Lowdon's, was recruited in Northumberland
county. The roster was as follows:-

   Captain, John Lowdon, June 25, 1775.
   First Lieutenant, James Parr, June 25, 1775.
   Second Lieutenants: James Wilson, June 25, 1775; William Wilson,
from third lieutenant, January 4, 1776.
   Third Lieutenants: William Wilson, June 25,1775; John Dougherty,
from sergeant, January 4, 1776.
   Sergeants: John Dougherty, David Hammond, Alexander McCormick,
William McMurray, Cornelius Dougherty.
   Corporals: Thomas Henry, William Edwards, John White, James Carson,
Charles Cochran.
   Drummer, Richard Grosvenor.
   Privates: William Adkins, Joseph All, John Benickler, Samuel Brady,
William Briggs, George Butler, William Calhoun, Robert Carothers, James
Carson, John Cassaday, Samuel Cealy, David Clements, Charles Cochran,
Peter Condon, David Davis, John Dean, John Eicholtz, John Evans, Jacob
Finkboner, Charles Ford, Philip Gintner, Thomas Giltson, John Hamilton
[Hamberton], David Harris, Michael Hare, Thomas Hempington, Christopher
Henning, William Humber, William Jamison, Samuel Johns, James Johnson,
Lewis Jones, Thomas Kilday, Nicholas Kline, John Ladley, Samuel Landon,
William Leek, Robert Lines, Jacob Lindy, Thomas Lobdon, Reuben Massaker,
Moses Madock, John Malone, Charles Maloy, James McCleary, Cornelius
McConnell, Martin McCoy [McAvery], Patrick McGonigal, Edward McMasters
[Masterson], Alexander McMullan, William Morgan, William Murray, John
Murphy, Timothy Murphy, John Neely, Daniel Oakes, John Oliver, Michael
Parker, Thomas Peltson, Peter Pence, John Ray, Robert Ritchie, Bartholomew
Roach, John Robinson, George Sands, George Saltzman, Henry Silverthorn,
John Shawnee (an Indian), John Smith, James Speddy, Arad Sutton, James
Sweney, John Ted, Robert Tuft, Philip Valentine, Peter Ward, John Ward,
Charles West, Joseph Whiteneck, Aaron Wright, John Youse, Robert Young.(1)

   This company formed part of the battalion of riflemen commanded by
Colonel William Thompson, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The men rendezvoused
at Northumberland, where, according to Fithian's journal, thirty of them
arrived from Great Island on Wednesday, June 28, 1775. The journal of
Aaron Wright, a private, states that they formally enlisted on the
following day; on the morning of July 8th, in pursuance of marching orders
received the previous day, they boarded boats on the Susquehanna river
(this means of conveyance was probably used as far as Harris's Ferry);
they reached Reading on the 13th of July, and there received knapsacks,
blankets, etc. remaining until the 20th. On the 1st of August they were at
Bethlehem, and thence pursued their march across northern New Jersey and
southeastern New York, arriving at the North river, opposite New Windsor,
Connecticut, August 20th. They marched through Litchfield on the 24th,
crossed the Connecticut river near Hartford on the 26th, and arrived at
Dudley, Massachusetts, August 30th. On the 31st they reached Weston, and
thence passed through Framingham, Watertown, and Cambridge to Prospect
Hill, Boston. The battalion became the Second regiment "of the Army of the
United Colonies, commanded by his Excellency, General George Washington,"
and, on the 1st of January, 1776 the First regiment of the Continental
Army.
   Two companies (those of Captains William Hendricks and Matthew
Smith, the latter subsequently prothonotary of Northumberland county)
were detailed for service in Arnold's expedition to Quebec in September,
1775; the remainder continued in camp at Prospect Hill, and performed
guard and fatigue duty with the brigade to which they belonged. On the
24th of October Lieutenant Parr marched for Portsmouth with thirty men.
Six of the regiment were stationed at Lechmere Point on the 9th of
November, when, the tide having risen and separated it from the main
land, a number of British regulars, under cover of their batteries on
Bunker's, Copp's, and Breed's Hills, landed for the purpose of driving
off cattle; the regiment was hastily ordered under arms, marched through
the water to the Point, and divided into two parties, of which Captain
Lowdon's company formed part of that on the right; a severe skirmish was
anticipated, but before the enemy's position was reached the latter had
withdrawn to their boats. For their courage and promptness on this
occasion the regiment was publicly thanked by General Washington. On the
8th of March, 1776, Colonel Hand wrote: "I am stationed on Cobble's Hill
with four companies of our regiment: two companies, Cluggage's and
Chambers's, were ordered to Dorchester on Monday; Ross and Lowdon
relieved them yesterday." On the 14th of March the regiment left
Cambridge with five others under the command of General Sullivan;
Hartford was reached on the 21st and New York on the 28th; it was
shortly afterward detailed for duty on Long Island, and was so engaged
at the expiration of the original term of enlistment, July 1, 1776.

   The First regiment (which thus became the First Pennsylvania
regiment of the Continental Line) re-enlisted with practical unanimity,
at first for the term of two years, but in October, 1776, the limit was
extended to the close of the war. Lowdon, who became a member of
Council, was succeeded as captain by James Parr; thirty-two of his
company were enlisted out of the old battalion and fourteen from the
flying camp. In August, 1776, it was composed of one captain, two
lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, one drum and fife, and
fifty-two privates. The roster was as follows:-

   Captain, James Parr, promoted major, August 9, 1778.
   First Lieutenant, James Wilson, promoted captain, January 6, 1777.
   Second Lieutenant, William Wilson, promoted first lieutenant, September
25, 1776; captain, March 2, 1777.
   Ensign, John Dougherty, promoted third lieutenant, September 25, 1776.
   Sergeants: David Hammond, afterward promoted second lieutenant;
Alexander McCormick, William McMurray, Cornelius Dougherty.
   Privates: David Allen, Michael Bacher, John Bradley, Daniel Callahan,
Daniel Campbell, James Chapman, Peter Condon, James Connor, Mansfield
Coons, James Curry, David Davis, Richard Deatevoise [Dubois], Cornelius
Delling, Patrick Donahue, William Edwards, John Griffin, Patrick Griffin,
William Haggerty, John Hammond, Philip Henry, Aquila Hinson, John
Hutchinson, Lewis Jones, William Leech, Michael Loughrey, James Loughrey,
James McCleary, Cornelius McConnell, Patrick McGonigal, Henry McCormick,
Hugh McGaughey, John Malone, Charles Meloy, James Moore, William Moore,
William Morgan, John Murphy, Timothy Murphy, Patrick Murray, John Noishen,
George Norton, John Oliver, Thomas Paine, Thomas Peltson, Philip Peters,
John Rankin, John Ray, William Ryan, George Saltman, Samuel Scott, William
Scott, James Spigg, James Speddy, Thomas Stewart, Maurice Sullivan,
Alexander Thompson, John Toner, George Warren, Jonathan Washburn, Matthew
Wilson, Samuel Wilson, Joseph Whiteneck, John Youse.(2)

   The company began its new term of enlistment in camp on the shores
of Long Island. Some time in August the regiment, of which Edward Hand
was colonel, took position at Delancey's Mills, and was in action in the
battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776. On the night of the 29th it was
posted "in a redoubt on the left and in the line on the right of the
great road, below Brooklyn church" as part of Major General Mifflin's
command, by which the retreat of the army was covered. Through some
mistake on the part of an aid-de-camp Mifflin's command was prematurely
withdrawn, a movement highly prejudicial to the safety of the retreating
army; General Washington learned of it through Colonel Hand, and the
rear guard returned to its former position in time to avert serious
consequences. On the 16th of November, 1776, four men of Colonel Parr's
company were taken prisoners at Fort Washington.

   Colonel James Chambers (who succeeded General Hand in command of
the First regiment) wrote as follows from "Mount Prospect camp," June
18, 1777: "We have a partisan regiment - Colonel Morgan commands -
chosen marksmen from the whole army compose it. Captain Parr, Lieutenants
Lyon and Brady, and fifty men from my regiment are among the number."
Captain David Harris (subsequently prothonotary of Northumberland county)
relates the following incident in a letter from "Cross Roads, about twenty
miles from Philadelphia," August 13, 1777: "Captain Parr, with two
subalterns and about fifty privates, are detached in Morgan's partisan
corps. Captain Parr has killed three or four men himself this summer. His
expressions at the death of one I shall ever remember. Major Miller had
the command of a detachment, and had a skirmish at very close shot with a
party of Highlanders. One of them being quite open, he motioned to Captain
Parr to kill him, which he did in a trice, and, as he was falling, Parr
said: 'I say, by God, sonny, I am in you.' I assure you Parr's bravery on
every occasion does him great honor." Morgan's riflemen included many men
from Northumberland county, drawn from the companies of Captain Parr, of
the First Pennsylvania, and Captain Boone, of the Twelfth. They joined the
northern army in August, 1777, and participated in the battles of
Saratoga, September 19th and October 7th; it is worthy of record that
General Fraser was shot by Timothy Murphy, of Parr's company, at the
express direction of Colonel Morgan. In July, 1778, Captain Parr was
placed in command of a detachment from Morgan's rifles and sent with the
Fourth Pennsylvania to defend the frontiers of New York; they spent
nearly a year in the Schoharie valley. His command united with the army
of General Sullivan at Tioga on the 22d of August, 1779, and served in
the expedition to the Genesee country. It is frequently mentioned in
Colonel Hubley's journal. The march began on Thursday, August 26th;
"Major Parr, with the riflemen, dispersed considerably in front of the
whole, with orders to reconnoiter all mountains, defiles, and other
suspicious places." The following reference is made to Murphy: "This
Murphy is a noted marksman and a great soldier, he having killed and
scalped that morning [September 13th], in the town they were at, an
Indian, which makes the three and thirtieth man of the enemy he has
killed, as is well known to his officers, this war." He was from
Northumberland county.

   William Wilson succeeded James Parr as captain when the latter was
transferred to Morgan's command. Regarding the movements of the regiment
in July and August, 1777, Colonel Chambers wrote: "We marched from Mount
Prospect to Morristown, where we halted a few days..........We were then
ordered to march to Pompton; here we halted one day....Next day, 13th
July, we were ordered to move to a place called Sufferance, at the mouth
of the Clove; here we halted to the 19th, when we proceeded through the
Clove towards New Windsor. We moved upwards of twenty miles this day; here
we halted till the 22d, then marched across the ridge to a place called
Chester ........ We arrived the 29th at Howell's Ferry; here we halted
till the 1st of August, then crossed the river, and continued our march
through Germantown to Schuylkill Falls, where we halted to the 9th, then
marched back to this place on our way to Coryell's." At the battle of
Brandywine, September 11th, the regiment lost six or seven killed and as
many wounded; it was principally engaged in withdrawing the artillery. The
division of which it formed part at the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778,
was drawn in front of the artillery in a small hollow; the enemy's
artillery occupied an eminence directly in front. "Of course we were in a
right line of their fire," says Colonel Chambers, "both parties playing
their cannon over our heads, and yet only killed two of our men and
wounded four of my regiment with splinters of rails." This position was at
the center of the American line, against which a determined charge was
made by the flower of the British army under Colonel Monckton. He was
killed, and the colors, which were near him, also went down. "Captain
Wilson and his company, who were on the right of the First Pennsylvania,
made a rush for the colors and the body of the Colonel. The Grenadiers
fought desperately,"(3) but without avail. Captain Wilson secured his
sword and the colors; he gave the former to General Wayne, who presented
it to
Lafayette, by whom it was returned to the Wilson family on the occasion
of his visit to America in 1824. Captain Wilson was not mustered out until
November 3, 1783, from which it is fair to presume that his company
participated with the Pennsylvania Line in its subsequent campaigns until
the close of the war.
   Captain Casper Weitzel's company of the Pennsylvania Rifle regiment,
commanded by Colonel Samuel Miles, was the second formed in Northumberland
county. The roster was as follows:-

   Captain, Casper Weitzel, appointed, March 9, 1776.
   First Lieutenant, William Gray, appointed, March 15, 1776.
   Second Lieutenant, John Robb, appointed, March 17, 1776.
   Third Lieutenant, George Grant, appointed, March 19, 1776.
   Sergeant Major, John Gordon.
   Sergeants: Jacob Snider, Thomas Price, William Orr, Thomas Shanks.
   Drummer, John Everard.
   Privates: William Allison, John Arthur, John Aumiller, William Barr,
Peter Brady, Stout Brinson, John Burke, Samuel Carson, William Carson,
William Carson, Jr., Andrew Carter, Charles Carter, Robert Carothers,
James Chisnall, William Clark, James Clayton, Jeffrey Connell, John Cribs,
David Curry, Peter Davis, Edward Doran, David Durell, Stephen Durell,
James Elder, Christian Ewig, Henry Gass, Henry Gearhart, James Glover,
John Hardy, William Harper, Thomas Hissom, Dennis Huggins, Elijah Hunt,
James Irvine, Martin Kerstetter, Thomas Little, Joseph Madden, Charles
McClean, William McCormick, John McDonald, Patrick McInnis, Patrick
McManus, William McMath, Patrick McVey, Henry Miller, Robert Morehead,
Richard Newman, Michael Nolan, Andrew Ralston, James Randolph, John
Rice, John Sands, John Adam Shafer, Jacob Spiess, Samuel Staples, David
Turner, James Watt, Robert Wilson, Christian Winters, Silas Wolcot.(4)

   The Pennsylvania Rifle regiment was enlisted for the defense of the
Province at the suggestion of the Committee of Safety. It rendezvoused
at Marcus Hook, and was ordered to Philadelphia on the 2d of July, 1776;
thence the First battalion (Lieutenant Colonel Broadhead's) proceeded by
way of Bordentown to Amboy, New Jersey, where the entire regiment
shortly afterward arrived. Colonel Miles was ordered to New York. On the
10th of August, he crossed to Long Island when the British began landing
troops, and took position near Flatbush. On the morning of August 27th,
finding his command in danger of being surrounded, he made a retrograde
movement with the expectation of reaching the Jamaica road in advance of
General Howe. In this he was disappointed; an effort was then made to
break through the enemy's flank guards, but, finding it impossible to do
this in a body, he directed the men to make their way as best they could
and was taken prisoner with two thirds of his company. In a return of
Captain Weitzel's company on the 1st of September the following are
marked "missing since the battle: " William Gray, John Gordon, Thomas
Price, William Allison, Peter Brady, Andrew Carter, Robert Carothers,
Henry Gass, John Hardy, Dennis Huggins, Martin Kerstetter, Joseph
Madden, William McCormick, Patrick McVey, Robert Moorehead, Andrew
Ralston, John Rice, Jacob Spiess, and James Watt. Captain Weitzel gives
the following particulars in a letter to his brother John, dated "Camp
near Kingsbridge, sixteen miles above New York, September 6, 1776:" "My
Lieutenant Gray, Sergeant Gordon, Sergeant Price, and sixteen privates
are missing. I know of only one killed in my company. The poor fellow
was wounded in the thigh and unable to walk; his name is Spiess; the
damned savage Hessians and English light infantry ran their bayonets
through him and two of Captain Albrights men, who were also badly
wounded and murdered by them. I have this from one of my men, who was a
prisoner and escaped to me, and imagine the rest are prisoners. James
Watt is among them. I came off with whole bones, contrary to my
expectations. I was in so much danger, that, by escaping that I think it
was impossible for them to kill me." In consequence of the great losses
sustained on this occasion the company was consolidated with others in
the following October and thus lost its individuality. Captain Weitzel
and Lieutenant Gray returned to Sunbury, where both died; Lieutenant Robb
was promoted captain in the Thirteenth Pennsylvania, April 18, 1777;
Lieutenant Grant was promoted captain in the Ninth Pennsylvania, May 3,
1777, and died on the North river, Connecticut, three miles above New
Windsor, October 10, 1779.
   The Twelfth Pennsylvania regiment of the Continental Line(5) was
raised in the counties of Northumberland and Northampton in pursuance of
a resolution of Congress; the following field officers were appointed by
the Constitutional Convention, September 28, 1776: William Cooke,
delegate from Northumberland county, colonel; Neigal Gray, delegate
from, Northampton county, lieutenant colonel, and James Crawford,
delegate from Northumberland county, major. The following roster
embraces only a small part of the regiment:-

   Colonel, William Cooke, September 28, 1776; rank, October 2, 1776;
resigned, January 16, 1778.
   Lieutenant Colonel, Neigal Gray, September 28, 1776; rank, October
5, 1776; cashiered, June 2, 1778.
   Major, James Crawford, September 28, 1776; rank, October 8, 1776;
resigned October 12, 1777.
   Captains: Peter Withington, October 1, 1776; Nicholas Miller, October
4, 1776; Hawkins Boone, October 4, 1776; John Brady, October 14, 1776;
John Harris, October 14, 1776; Henry Makinley, October 16, 1776; Alexander
Patterson, October 16, 1776; William Work, October 16, 1776; Stephen
Chambers, from first lieutenant, 1777; John Reilly, from first lieutenant,
May 20, 1777.
   First Lieutenants: Thomas Brandon, October 4, 1776; Hananiah Lincoln,
October 4, 1776; Christopher Gettig, October 14, 1776; John Reilly,
October 16, 1776; Stephen Chambers, October 16,1776; William McElhatton,
October 16, 1776; John Henderson, October 16, 1776; William Sayres,
October 16, 1776; John Boyd, from second lieutenant; Benjamin Lodge, from
second lieutenant, October 11, 1777; Stewart Herbert, from second
lieutenant, January 9, 1778.
   Second Lieutenants: Robert King, October 4, 1776; James Williamson,
October 4, 1776; Edward McCabe, October 16, 1776; John Hays, October 16,
1776; Samuel Qum; October 16, 1776; John Boyd, October 16, 1776; William
Bard, October 16, 1776; John Carothers, October 16, 1776; Benjamin
Lodge, from ensign, October 16, 1776; Blackall William Ball, from
ensign; William Boyd, from ensigns; Stewart Herbert, from ensign, May,
1777; Andrew Engle, from ensign; Robert Faulkher, from ensign; John
Armstrong, from ensign, December 11, 1777.
   Ensigns: Benjamin Lodge, October 16, 1776; Thomas Hamilton, October
16, 1776; Blackall William Ball, October 16,1776; William Boyd, October
16, 1776; John Stone, October 16, 1776; Stewart Herbert, October
16,1776; Andrew Engle, October 16,1776; Robert Faulkner, January, 5, 1777:
John Seley, February 3, 1777; John Armstrong, from sergeant; John Cook,
from private.
   Adjutant, Thomas Hanson, October 16, 1776.
   Paymasters: Robert Levers, November 13,1776; Thomas Dungan, April
29, 1777.
   Quartermasters: Wilton Atkinson, January 11, 1777; George Vaughan.
   Surgeons: Francis Allison, October 14, 1776; Andrew Led}ie, January
18, 1777.
   Surgeon's Mate, Aaron Woodruff.
   Sergeants: John Armstrong, Charles Fleming, Robert Kearns, Andrew
Lorentz, Robert Lyon, Joseph Lorentz.
   Privates: George Aldridge, Samuel Auchmuty, William Bedworth, Henry
Bentley, James Brown, John Campbell, John Cochran, William Connor, John
Cook, William Coram, John Cusick, James Dougherty, David Doyle, James
English, Patrick Flanagan, James Gallant, Hugh Gowans, William Haines,
Barney Hasson, Nathaniel Hiland, Richard Hughes, Henry Lebo, John
Lemmons, Matthew Little, Henry Lushbaugh, Samuel McClughan, Archibald
McCowan, Joseph McHarg, Thomas McIlvaine, John McIlvaine, Angus
McKeever, Daniel McMath, George Martin, James Newberry, Neal Peacock,
Robert Polston, Richard Reynolds, Nicholas Rheam, John Rice, John
Robinson, John Shreck, Joseph Silverthorn, John Teel, Robert Wilson,
William Woodrow.

   The active service of this regiment is thus summarized in the
Pennsylvania Archives:-

   The greater portion of the regiment was recruited upon the West
Branch of the Susquehanna, and on the 18th of December it left Sunbury
in boats for the battle fields of New Jersey. Being composed of good
riflemen and scouts, it was detailed on picket and skirmish duty. It
(with the Third, Ninth, and Sixth Pennsylvania) was in Brigadier General
Thomas Conway's brigade. Its headquarters were at the five crossroads at
Metuchen, between Quibbletown and Amboy. Its companies were engaged in
the various skirmishes in that neighborhood: at Bound Brook, April 12,
1777; Piscataway, May 10th, where Joseph Lorentz and twenty-one others
were made prisoners by the British, Wendell Lorentz making his escape by
running in among a flock of sheep; at Short Hills, June 26th, and
Bonamtown. In June Colonel Daniel Morgan's rifle command was formed, and
a detachment from the Twelfth Pennsylvania, under the command of Captain
Hawkins Boone, was placed in it..... In the battle of Brandywine, the
Twelfth was engaged under Sullivan at Birmingham church, losing heavily.
Major Crawford, Captain Brady, and other officers were wounded, Lieutenant
William Boyd, of Brady's company, killed. At Germantown Conway's brigade
led the attack on the left wing of the British, being in front of the
troops that composed the right wing of the American army, and the Twelfth
was in the hottest of the fight, losing heavily in men, Second Lieutenant
John Carothers of the officers, killed. The Twelfth wintered with the rest
of the army at Valley Forge, and at Monmouth the remnant of it was nearly
destroyed, as testified to in many of the statements made by the privates,
on file in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Meanwhile,
April 2,1778, the General Assembly had appointed a committee to confer
upon the best means of reducing three of the regiments, and it was
ordered that the Twelfth be incorporated with the Third, which arrangement
went into effect on the 1st of July, and Captains John Brady and Boone,
Lieutenants Dougherty and Robert King were ordered home by General
Washington to assist Colonel Hartley in protecting the West Branch valley.
   Among those who were taken prisoners at Piscataway was Joseph McHarg,
of Chambers's company; how he was treated is shown by the following entry
in the minutes of the court of Northumberland county, March 25, 1779:-

   Came into court Joseph McHarg, who, being duly sworn upon the Holy
Evangelists, deposeth and sayeth: that on the 10th day of May, A. D.
1777, he, with others belonging to the Twelfth regiment of Pennsylvania
troops, was taken prisoner in a skirmish at Piscataway and carried to
New York, where, through the excessive rigor with which he was treated
during his confinement, and the decay of his health, he was induced to
take an oath of allegiance to the king of Great Britain and also an oath
that he (the deponent) would not bear arms against the said king during
the present contest, in consequence of which oath deponent got liberty
to work for a subsistence and was sent as a hand on board a vessel that
carried General Howe's baggage to Philadelphia, from whence, by the
assistance of a friend, he made his escape in disguise. It also appears
to this court that deponent, by the failure of his sight and bodily
infirmities, is rendered incapable of serving his country as a soldier.
   Among the officers in this regiment from Northumberland county were
Colonel William Cooke, subsequently associate judge; Major James
Crawford, who resigned, October 12, 1777, and died in 1817, having been
justice of the peace in Wayne township, Clinton county, many years;
Captain Nicholas Miller, who became supernumerary, July 1, 1778, and
died in Northampton county; Captain Hawkins Boone, who fell near Fort
Freeland, July 29, 1779; Captain John Brady, who was wounded at
Brandywine, September 11, 1777, and killed at Muncy, April 11, 1779;
Captain John Harris; Captain Stephen Chambers, one of the first resident
attorneys of the county; Lieutenant Christopher Gettig, subsequently a
justice at Sunbury; Lieutenant Thomas Brandon; Lieutenant John Boyd, who
was transferred to the Third Pennsylvania, rose to the rank of captain,
retired from the regiment, January 1, 1781, and was for many years
justice of the peace at Northumberland; Lieutenant William Boyd, who was
killed at the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777; Lieutenant John
Carothers, who was killed at the battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777;
Lieutenant Robert King, who was transferred to the Third Pennsylvania,
was with Colonel Hartley on the frontier in 1778, and resided in Lycoming
county in 1840; Quartermasters Wilton Atkinson and George Vaughan; Dr.
Francis Allison, surgeon, who was transferred to the general hospital, of
which he was senior surgeon in 1781; Sergeant Joseph Lorentz, who was
transferred to the Third Pennsylvania, and died in Northumberland county,
January 80, 1824; Sergeant Andrew Lorentz, who was transferred to the
Third Pennsylvania, discharged at Smith's Cove, New Jersey, and kept hotel
at Sunbury in 1813; Sergeant Robert Lyon, who was transferred to the Sixth
Pennsylvania, rose to the rank of second lieutenant, and died in
Northumberland county, August 19, 1823, aged seventy-seven, and Corporal
Wendell Lorentz, who was transferred to the Third Pennsylvania,
discharged, January 17, 1781, and died at Milton in 1821.
   Miller's, Boone's, Brady's, and Harris's companies were from
Northumberland county. No rosters have been preserved, and that of the
regiment contains the names of but a small number of its members. "The
hundreds who fell in all the battles of the Revolution.......the
wounded, who dragged their torn limbs home to die in their native
valleys, are not here. The heaths of New Jersey, from Paramus to
Freehold, by a line encircling Morristown and Bound Brook, were, in the
summer of 1777, dotted with the graves of the Eighth and Twelfth
Pennsylvania." Among the privates who returned to Northumberland county
were Samuel Auchmuty, of Captain Chambers's company, who was transferred
to the Third Pennsylvania, discharged, January 25, 1781, and resided in
Lower Augusta township in 1835 at the age of eighty-two; John Campbell,
who was wounded at Piscataway, discharged, and settled in Shamokin
township; James English, of Captain Brady's company, who was transferred
to the Third and then to the First Pennsylvania, discharged, August 13,
1783, and resided in Lycoming county in 1835 at the age of ninety-nine;
Henry Lebo, subsequently hotel keeper at Sunbury and sheriff of
Northumberland county; Hugh Gowen, who was transferred to the Third
Pennsylvania and resided in Northumberland county in 1820 at the age of
sixty-six; Matthew Little, who was transferred to the Third Pennsylvania
and resided in Shamokin township in 1813; Henry Lushbaugh, of Harris's
company, who resided in Lycoming county in 1835, aged eighty-four;
Joseph McHarg, previously mentioned; Samuel McClughan, who was drafted
into Morgan's rifles, wounded at Saratoga, and resided in Buffalo valley
in 1786; George Martin, who was drafted into Morgan's rifles, wounded at
Saratoga, resided in Buffalo valley in 1786, and died, March 10,1816;
James Newberry, who died in Northumberland county, February 1, 1830,
aged eighty-four, and Nicholas Rheam, who was transferred to the Third
Pennsylvania, discharged in 1781, and died in Union county in 1829.
   While the county thus contributed an ample quota to the regular
army at the outbreak of the Revolution, a local Committee of Safety(6)
attended to the administration of internal affairs and the organization
of the militia. The minutes of this Committee begin as follows: February
8, 1776.
   The following gentlemen, being previously nominated by the
respective townships to serve in this Committee for the county of
Northumberland for the space of six months, met at the house of Richard
Malone, viz.:-
   Augusta Township. - John Weitzel, Alexander Hunter, Thomond Ball.
   Turbut Township. - Captain John Hambright, William McKnight, William
Shaw.
   Bald Eagle Township.- William Dunn, Thomas Hewes, Alexander Hamilton.
   Wyoming Township. - James McClure, Thomas Clayton, Peter Melick.
   Mahanoy Township. - No return.
   Mahoning Township. - William Cooke, Benjamin Allison, Thomas Hewitt.
   Muncy Township. - Robert Robb, William Watson, John Buckalew.
   Buffalo Township. - Walter Clark (removed to White Deer), William
Irwin, Joseph Green.
   Penn's Township. - No return.
   Potter's Township. - John Livingston, Maurice Davis, John Hall.
   White Deer Township. - Walter Clark, Matthew Brown, Marcus Hulings.

   The Committee proceeded to elect a chairman and clerk, when Captain
John Hambright was unanimously appointed chairman during the continuance
of this Committee and Thomond Ball, clerk.

   A return of field officers elected at Northumberland on the 7th
instant by the battalion for the lower division of the county was
presented, and the officers were forthwith recommended for commissions.
Action was also taken for the organization of the battalion for the
upper division of the county. Messrs. Weitzel, Hunter, and Ball were
appointed to prepare a memorial to the Assembly regarding the murder of
two of the sheriff's posse at Wyoming. The Committee then adjourned to
meet at Laughlin McCartney's in Northumberland on Monday, the 26th
instant.
   Captain Hambright presided at all the meetings of this Committee of
which the minutes have been preserved. On the 26th of February Messrs.
Weitzel, Hunter, and Ball presented the draft of a petition to the
Assembly, which was forthwith approved. Six captains in Colonel Hunter's
battalion appeared and produced lists of their companies, whereupon a
letter was transmitted to the provincial Committee of Safety (to which
the county committees were subsidiary), recommending the respective
officers for commissions; the Committee then adjourned until the 13th
proximo, after authorizing the president and four members to receive and
transmit any returns that might be received in the interim. The next
meeting was held at the house of Frederick Stone in Northumberland,
March 13th. Returns were received from seven companies of Colonel
Plunket's battalion, the officers of which were recommended for
commissions. A letter was transmitted to Colonel Hunter, who represented
the county in the provincial Committee at that time, detailing at some
length the objectionable proceedings of recruiting officers. At the next
meeting, Monday, March 25th, it was resolved that no officer be allowed
"to recruit men in this county except the officers who are or may be
appointed therein." The grounds upon which this decisive action was
based were thus set forth in a letter to the provincial Committee:-

   Our zeal for the cause of American liberty has hitherto prevented
our taking any steps to hinder the raising of men for its service; but,
finding the evil increasing so fast upon us as almost to threaten the
depopulation of the county, we can not help appealing to the wisdom and
justice of your Committee to know, whether
the quota of men that may be demanded from this county under their own
officers is not as much as can reasonably be expected from it; whether,
at a time when we are uncertain of peace with the Indians, well knowing
that our enemies are tampering with them, and a claim is set up to the
greatest part of this Province by a neighboring Colony who have their
hostile abettors at our very breasts as well as their emissaries among
us, is it prudent to drain an infant frontier county of its strength of
men? and whether the safety of the interior parts of the Province would
not be better secured by adding strength to the frontiers; whether our
Honorable Assembly, by disposing of commissions to gentlemen in
different counties to raise companies ....... did not intend that the
respective captains should raise their companies where they [were]
appointed, and not distress our county by taking from it all the men
necessary for the business of agriculture as well as the defense of the
same.

   The minutes of the next meeting, so far as concerns the organization of
the Committee, are as follows:-

            August 13, 1776.
   The following gentlemen, being unanimously chosen by their respective
townships to serve in the Committee for the county of Northumberland for
the space of six months, met at the school house in the town of
Northumberland, viz:-
   Augusta Township. - William Maclay, David McKinney, John Maclay.
   Turbut Township. - George McCandlish, William Shaw, Paul Geddis.
   Bald Eagle Township. - Robert Fleming, Thomas Kemplen, John Section.
   Wyoming Township. - Samuel McClure, Peter Melick, John Cliugman.
   Mahanoy Township. - Sebastian Brosius, George Reitz, Peter Almang.
   Mahoning Township. - Laughlin McCartney, Thomas Robinson, John Boyd.
   Muncy Township. - Mordecai McKinney, James Giles, Andrew Culbertson.
   Buffalo Township. - Martin Traester, William Speddy, Philip Cole.
   Penn's Township. - Simeon Woodrow, Adam B. Mander, Paul Gemberling.
   Potter's Township. - [No return.]
   White Deer Township. - James McClenachan, Robert Fruit, William Gray.

   The Committee proceeded to elect a chairman and clerk, when Mr.
Robert Fruit was unanimously appointed chairman during the time of six
months(7) and John Boyd, clerk.
   At this meeting Andrew Culbertson, Mordecai McKinney, and James
Giles were appointed to request Colonel Plunket to divide the ammunition
apportioned to the six companies of his battalion that were formed above
Muncy. It was stored at the house of Laughlin McCartney; an additional
supply had been forwarded to Harris's Ferry, and arrangements were made
for its further transportation. The next meeting was held at
Northumberland, September 10th: complaint having been made that Aaron
Levy and John Bullion had a quantity of salt which they refused to sell,
the Committee directed William Sayres to take possession of it and sell
it at fifteen shillings per bushel; William Parker and John Chattam were
summoned upon a charge of unfriendliness to the cause of liberty, and,
having confessed that they were British soldiers who had been taken as
prisoners, they were ordered to Lancaster under escort. At a meeting on
the 12th the ammunition in the hands of the Committee was examined; half a
pound of powder and one pound of lead were apportioned to each associator,
with an additional quantity for the battalions on the frontiers. William
Maclay and Mordecai McKinney were appointed to go to Philadelphia for the
salt allotted to the county; it appears, however, that Robert Fruit
performed this service, as he wrote from Philadelphia on the 23d of
November that he had received seventy-seven bushels from the Council of
Safety and delivered it to Marcus Rulings for transportation. On the 12th
of September the Committee addressed a memorial to the State Convention,
expressing deep solicitude at the probability of Indian hostilities (the
prospect of which had been learned from intercepted letters), and
deploring their inability "to keep the single and disengaged men in the
county" as they chose "rather, under pay, to have to do with a humane
enemy, than, at their own expense, to encounter merciless savages." The
Convention was asked to authorize the enlistment of men for the
protection of the frontier or the expenditure of money in the erection
of forts in which the inhabitants might take refuge.
   On the 14th of December the Committee met "by express from Captain
John Brady upon sundry charges produced by said Brady against a certain
Robert Robb." It was alleged that he had advised the acceptance of the
terms of peace offered by Lord Howe, spoken disparagingly of the
Continental Congress and the State Convention, dissuaded others from
entering the militia, etc. Numerous depositions were taken, and on the
17th of December the Committee decided "That said Robert Robb shall
either take his gun and march immediately with the militia of this
county into actual service for the defense of the United States in order
to wipe off the present evil suspicions" or else be committed to the
care of Colonel James Murray to be sent to some proper place of
confinement. From this decision he appealed to the Council of Safety,
but was continued in the custody of Colonel Murray, who, "out of lenity
to said Robb's family, saw fit to appoint the mansion house of the said
Robb as a prison for him on a promise of his good behavior for the
future." Three days later (December 20th) he "abused the lenity shown
him..... by barbarously beating and much abusing a certain Peter Smith,"
and further contemned the constituted authorities by asserting that "he
never thought to be tried by such men as some of the Committee; some of
them had been tried for murder and some for horse-stealing," which was
submitted in evidence at a meeting at the house of George McCandlish,
January 14,1777. On the following day Captain William Murray was
desired to bring the offender before the Committee, which he positively
declined to do, although notified three times, and finally surrendered
his commission; Simon Hemrod and Buchanan Smith were then appointed to
conduct Robb to the Council of Safety.(8)

   The last Committee of which the proceedings are extant organized on
the 13th of February, 1777, as shown by the following transcript from
the minutes:-

         Northumberland, February 13, 1777.
   The following gentlemen, being unanimously chosen by their respective
townships to serve in the Committee of this county for the ensuing six
months, met at the house of Laughlin McCartney in Northumberland and gave
in the following returns of their election,
viz.:-
   Augusta Township. - No return.
   Potter's Township. - John Livingston, John McMillan.
   Turbut Township. - Thomas Jordan, John Nelson, Josiah Espy.
   Buffalo Township. - John Overhand, Thomas Sutherland, George Overmeier.
   Bald Eagle Township. - John Fleming, James Hughes, John Walker.
   Mahanoy Township. - George Yeakle, Henry Zartman, Henry Krebs.
   Penn's Township. - Andrew Moore, David Miller, Jacob Hosterman.
   White Deer Township. - William Blyth, James McCormick, William Reed.
   Muncy Township. - John Coats, James Hampton, William Hammond.
   Mahoning Township. - No return.
   Wyoming Township. - James McClure, Peter Melick, John Clingman.

   The Committee, according to order, proceeded to elect their
chairman and clerk, when Thomas Jordan was unanimously chosen chairman
and John Coats, clerk.

   The second regular meeting of this Committee was held on the 11th
of March at the house of George McCandlish. Allis Read, of Wyoming
township entered complaint that a horse, strayed or stolen from him and
replevined from John Drake, had been taken from his stable by Drake's
widow; the case was referred to the local Committee for adjudication.
The appeal of Jacob Links from the Committee of Buffalo township was
then considered, and reserved for a future meeting. Captain Benjamin
Weiser having complained of desertions from his company, it was ordered
that a day of muster be assigned for the deserters to return, in default
of which they should be placed under arrest. The Committee of Bald Eagle
was authorized to prevent the purchase of grain by distillers and to
compel its sale at the market price; report having been made "of a
certain Henry Sterratt profaning the Sabbath in an unchristian and
scandalous manner, causing his servants to maul rails, etc. on that
day," the Bald Eagle Committee was "recommended to suppress such like
practices to the utmost of their power."
   On the 15th of April, pursuant to adjournment, the Committee met at
McCandlish's and issued a special summons for Jacob Driesbach as a
witness in the case of Jacob Links, charged with misappropriation of
funds intrusted to him for the purchase of salt in Philadelphia; he
appeared on the 17th, and his testimony was such as to vindicate the
accused. The case of William Read, who had declined to enter the
militia, was then considered: he had been implicated in a riot in
Ireland, he said, but was acquitted upon taking a solemn obligation
never to bear arms against the British government, and based his refusal
upon a conscientious regard for that declaration; after taking an oath
of allegiance to the United States he was discharged. A letter from
Nicholas Pickard, of Wyoming, to John Pickard, of Penn's township,
informing him of an approaching Indian invasion, next received attention:
John Pickard took the oath of allegiance; Nicholas acknowledged himself a
British emissary, and was sent to Philadelphia under guard. The Committee
then adjourned to meet at Laughlin McCartney's in Northumberland on the
10th of June, but no record of its subsequent proceedings has been
preserved.
   The local militia was organized in four battalions and officered as
follows:-

   First Battalion.- Colonel, Samuel Hunter; lieutenant colonel, William
Cooke; majors: Casper Weitzel, John Lee.
   First Company.- Captain, Nicholas Miller; first lieutenant, Christopher
Gettig; second lieutenant, Nehemith Breese; ensigns: Gustavus Ross,
William Sims.
   Second Company.- Captain, Hugh White; first lieutenant, John Forster;
second lieutenant, Andrew Gibson; ensign, Samuel Young.
   Third Company.- Captain, John McMahan; first lieutenant, John Murray;
second lieutenant, William Fisher; ensign, William Bailey.
   Fourth Company.- Captain, Charles Gillespie; first lieutenant, Robert
King; second lieutenant, Samuel Fulton; ensigns: William Boyd, John
Woodside.
   Fifth Company.- Captain, William Scull; first lieutenant, Jonathan
Lodge; second lieutenant, George Calhoon; ensigns: William Sawyer, George
Grant.  
   Sixth Company.- Captain, William Clark; first lieutenant, John Teitson;
second lieutenant, William McDonald; ensign, John Moll.
   Seventh Company.- Captain, John Simpson; first lieutenant, Robert
Curry; second lieutenant, John Ewart; ensigns: Thomas Gaskins, David Mead.
   Eighth Company.- Captain, Robert Crawford; first lieutenant, James
McClure; second lieutenant, George Espy; ensign, Joseph Salmon.
   The field officers and all the company officers except those of the
Seventh and Eighth were returned on the 8th of February, 1776; the
officers of the Seventh company were returned on the 25th of March and
those of the Eighth on the 12th of June.
   Second Battalion.- Colonel, James Potter; lieutenant colonel, Robert
Moodie; majors: John Kelly, John Brady.
   First Company.- Captain, Arthur Taggart; first lieutenant, Cornelius
Atkinson; second lieutenant, James McClung; ensign, James Wilson.
   Second Company.- Captain, William Gray; first lieutenant, William
Clark; second lieutenant, James Murdock; ensign, William Thompson.
   Third Company.- Transferred to the Third battalion, in which it became
the Seventh.
   Fourth Company.- Captain, Samuel Dale; first lieutenant, William
Bennet; second lieutenant, Hawkins Boone; ensign, Jesse Weeks.
   Fifth Company.- Captain Cookson Long; first lieutenant, William
McElhatton; second lieutenant, Robert Fleming; ensign, Robert
Fleming, Jr.
   Sixth Company. -Transferred to the Third battalion, in which it became
the Second.
   Seventh Company. -Captain, James Murray; first lieutenant, William
Murray; second lieutenant, Thomas Plunket; ensign, Andrew Robinson.
Probably transferred to the Third battalion.
   Eighth Company. -Transferred to the Third battalion, in which it became
the First.
   Ninth Company. -Captain, John McMillen; first lieutenant, John
McConnell; second lieutenant, John McCormick; ensign, Charles Wilson.
   Tenth Company.- Captain, David Hays; first lieutenant, Charles
Clark; ensign, Thomas Gray.
   Eleventh Company. -Captain, Philip Davis; first lieutenant, James
Espy; second lieutenant, John Nelson; ensign, Jacob Follmer.
   All the officers of this battalion were returned on the 24th of
January, 1776.
   Third Battalion. -Colonel, William Plunket; lieutenant colonel,
James Murray; majors: John Brady, Cookson Long.
   First Company. -Captain, Henry Antes; first lieutenant, Thomas
Brandon; second lieutenant, Alexander Hamilton; ensigns: John Morrison,
James Alexander.
   Second Company. -Captain, Samuel Wallis; first lieutenant, John
Scudder; second lieutenant, Peter Jones; ensign, James Hampton.
   Third Company. -Captain, John Robb; first lieutenant, William
Watson; second lieutenant, Robert Nelson; ensign, James White.
   Fourth Company. -Captain, William McElhatton; first lieutenant,
Andrew Boggs; second lieutenant, Thomas Nelson; ensign, John McCormick.
   Fifth Company. -Captain, William Murray; first lieutenant, Richard
Irwin; second lieutenant, Thomas Plunket; ensigns: Andrew Robinson,
Benjamin Jordan.
   Sixth Company. -Captain, Simon Cole; first lieutenant, Thomas Kemplen;
second lieutenant, James Brandon; ensigns:
William King, James Hughes.
   Seventh Company. -Captain, David Berry; first lieutenant, William
Hammond; second lieutenant, Joseph Bouser; ensign,
Israel Pershel.
   All the officers of this battalion were returned on the 13th of
March, 1776.
   Fourth Battalion. -Colonel, Philip Cole; lieutenant colonel, Thomas
Sutherland; first major, Thomas Foster; second major, Casper Yost;
adjutant, James McCoy; standard bearer, Dewalt Miller.
   First Company. -Captain, John Clark; first lieutenant, Henry Pontius;
second lieutenant, James Moore; ensign, Patrick Watson.
   Second Company.-Captain, Michael Weaver.
   Third Company.-Captain, Jacob Links.
   Fourth Company.-Captain, William Weirick; first lieutenant, Jacob
Sherred; second lieutenant, William Gill; ensign, Nathaniel Moon.
   Fifth Company.-Captain, George Wolf; first lieutenant, George
Conrad; second lieutenant, Michael Wildgoose; ensign, John Hessler.
   Sixth Company. -Captain, George Overmeier; first lieutenant, James
McKelvy; second lieutenant, Peter Weirick; ensign, Michael Snyder.
   The local militia was first engaged in active service in the winter
of 1776-77. On the 5th of December the Supreme Executive Council
appointed Robert Martin "paymaster to the Northumberland county militia,
now going into service;" on the 8th of January he was superseded by
Alexander Hunter, "paymaster to the militia of Northumberland county,
enrolled to serve to the 10th of March next." One detachment marched to
Reading under Colonel Cole, of the Fourth battalion, and another to
Philadelphia under Lieutenant Colonel Murray, of the Third. Among the
companies in Colonel Murray's command were Captains Benjamin Weiser's
and John Lee's; the latter was composed of volunteers from the First
battalion (Colonel Hunter's), who organized by electing the following
officers: Captain, John Lee; first lieutenant, Hugh White; second
lieutenant, Thomas Gaskins, and ensign, Gustavus Ross. They marched on
the 24th of December, 1776, and arrived at Philadelphia prior to the
11th of January. Captain Weiser's company was at Philadelphia on the
30th of January. Colonel Murray joined the army in New Jersey.
   On the 21st of March, 1777, Samuel Hunter(9) was appointed county
lieutenant; in this capacity he assumed the general direction of the
militia, which was divided into classes for convenience of management.
The first requisition of troops that he received was as follows:-
     
         Philadelphia, June 14, 1777.
   Sir: By intelligence this moment received from Generals Sullivan
and Arnold we are informed that the enemy are rapidly advancing through
the Jerseys and had arrived at Rocky run, within four miles of
Princeton. We do therefore entreat you, by all the ties of virtue,
honor, and love for your country, to call together immediately all
the militia of your county you can possibly spare and hasten their
march to this city with the utmost expedition. We are, in the greatest
haste, Sir, 
         Your most humble servants,
          Thomas Mifflin,
          John Armstrong,
          James Potter.

   Colonel Hunter received this on the 17th instant, and preparations
were at once made to march the first and second classes on the 23d or
24th. On the 16th Council directed that the first class only should be
called out, which was accordingly done. An order countermanding the
latter was issued on the 19th; it did not reach Colonel Hunter until the
29th, and before the militia could be stopped one company had proceeded
more than sixty miles and two others about thirty.
   The next requisition was received by Colonel Hunter on the 10th of
September, 1777, and in compliance therewith he at once ordered the
first class of the militia to march. A requisition for the second class
was issued on the 12th instant and for the third and fourth classes on
the 23d of October. The latter reached Colonel Hunter on the 31st
instant, but, owing to the difficulty of procuring arms and blankets,
the classes designated did not march until November 11th. They were
commanded by Colonel James Murray, whose regiment was attached to
General James Potter's brigade and suffered some loss at the Guelph
mills, near Philadelphia, December 11th.
   The following "Return of the Second battalion of Northumberland
county militia, commanded by Colonel James Murray, May 1, 1778," on file
in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, shows its numerical
strength at that date:-
                                 Capt. Lieut. Ens. Sgt.   Total
Captain Thomas Gaskins's Company   1     2     1    4    53   61
Captain John Wilson's Company      1     2     1    4    52   60
Captain David Hays's Company       1     1     1    4    56   63
Captain Arthur Taggart's Company   1     2     1    4    58   66
Captain James McMahan's Company    1     2     1    4    49   57
Captain Robert Reynolds's Company  1     2     1    4    35   43
Captain John Chattam's Company     1     2     1    4    41   49
Captain John Clingman's Company    1     2     1    4    65   73
Total  472

   I do certify the above return to be just and true as delivered me
by the above captains.        SAMUEL HUNTER,
                Lieutenant.

   The fifth class was ordered out on the 5th of January, 1778; the
requisition reached Colonel Hunter on the 13th, and on the following day
he wrote the president of Council expressing his extreme reluctance to
comply with its terms, as organized frontier defense had become
imperatively necessary. The order was accordingly rescinded.
   The hostile attitude of the Indians became a source of grave
apprehension about this time. In a letter dated July 29, 1776, John
Harris stated, upon the authority of two men from Sunbury, that two
Senecas had come to the Great Island in the West Branch three weeks
previously; on the day after their arrival the Indians in that
neighborhood cut down their corn and removed their families, evidently
with the intention of joining the Canada tribes in alliance with the
English. Although the danger of invasion was represented to the State
authorities by the county Committee no defensive measures were taken until
the autumn of 1777, when, a report having been circulated that two hundred
Indians were on the West Branch forty miles above the Great Island,
Colonel Cookson Long set out on the 6th of September with a party of men
to ascertain whether their intentions were hostile or friendly. Colonel
Hunter wrote on the 27th of October that more than five hundred people had
collected at Lycoming, Antes's mill, and the mouth of Bald Eagle creek, in
anticipation of an attack. Fifty men were stationed on the frontier at
that time, under the command of Colonel John Kelly; after serving two
months they were relieved by a detachment from Colonel Cookson Long's
battalion, three classes of which were ordered out. On the 28th of
March, 1778, Colonel Hunter wrote that the fifth class was on the
frontier under Lieutenant Colonel Henry Antes; at that time two rifles
and sixty musket constituted the public arms. In May he ordered the
seventh class of Colonel John Kelly's battalion to relieve the sixth in
Penn's valley, and the sixth and seventh classes of Colonel Cookson
Long's battalion to scout along the frontiers. Great difficulty was
experienced in procuring provisions; the price of bacon was four
shillings six pence per pound and of flour three pounds ten shillings
per hundred-weight. Not more than half the militia was armed; the powder
was very inferior in quality, and no flints could be bought. A
consignment of seventy guns, thirty-one rifles, sixty-nine muskets, and
a quantity of powder, lead, and flints was ordered sent to Colonel
Hunter by the Supreme Executive Council on the 18th of May.
   Notwithstanding these defensive measures, Indian outrages became
alarmingly frequent. On the 14th of January, 1778, Colonel Hunter
reported two men killed at Pine creek on the 23d ultimo; May 14th, one
man killed at Bald Eagle on the 8th instant and another in Penn's
valley; May 26th, three men killed at Bald Eagle on the 16th, three
persons taken prisoners at Pine creek on the 18th and nine at Lycoming
on the 20th, and sixteen Persons killed or taken prisoners at Loyalsock
on the 24th. On the 17th of May Colonel Potter reported twenty persons
killed on the North Branch. "The back inhabitants have all evacuated
their habitations and assembled in different places," wrote Colonel
Hunter on the 31st of May; "all above Muncy to Lycoming are come to
Samuel Wallis's and the people of Muncy have gathered to Captain
Brady's; all above Lycoming are at Antes's mill and the month of Bald
Eagle creek; all the inhabitants of Penn's valley are gathered to one
place in Potter's township; the inhabitants of White Deer township are
assembled at three different places, and the back settlers of Buffalo
are come down to the river; all from Muncy hill to Chillisquaque have
assembled at three different places; Fishing creek and Mahoning
settlements have all come to the river side." Eight persons were killed
between Loyalsock and Lycoming on the 10th of June, and Indians were
encountered below Muncy hill a week or two later. On the 3d of July
occurred the massacre of Wyoming, the intelligence of which produced a
general panic among the inhabitants of Northumberland county and
precipitated the "Great Runaway." The flight of the settlers. on the
West Branch was thus described by Robert Crownover, the well known
scout:-
   I took my own family safely to Sunbury and came back in a keel-boat
to secure my furniture. Just as I rounded a point above Derrstown, now
Lewisburg, I met the whole convoy from all the forts above. Such a
sight I never saw in my life. Boats, canoes, hog-troughs, rafts hastily
made of dry sticks, every sort of floating article, had been put in
requisition, and were crowded with women, children, and plunder. There
were several hundred people in all. Whenever any obstruction occurred
at any shoal or ripple, the women would leap out into the water and put
their shoulders to the boat or raft and launch it again into deep water.
The men of the settlement came down in single file on each side of the
river to guard the women and children. The whole convoy arrived safely
at Sunbury, leaving the entire range of farms along the West Branch to
the ravages of the Indians.
   The state of affairs was graphically described by William Maclay(10)
in a letter to Council, dated Paxtang, July 12,1778, of which the
following is an extract:-

   I left Sunbury and almost my whole property on Wednesday last [July
5th} I will not trouble you with a recital of the inconveniences I
suffered while I brought my family by water to this place. I never in my
life saw such scenes of distress. The river and the roads leading down
it were covered with men, women, and children, flying for their lives,
many without any property at all, and none who had not left the greatest
part behind; in short, Northumberland county is broken up. Colonel
Hunter only remained, using his utmost endeavors to rally some of the
inhabitants and make a stand, however short, against the enemy. I left
him with very few - I can not speak with certainty as to numbers - but
am confident when I left him he had not one hundred men on whom he could
depend. Wyoming is totally abandoned; scarce a single family remained
between that place and Sunbury when I came away. The panic and spirit of
flight have reached even to this place; many have moved even out of this
township, and almost every one is thinking of some place of greater
security. You will scarce be able to give me credit when I inform you
that if the same body which defeated Colonel Butler at Wyoming should
follow up the blow, they may without difficulty penetrate to Carlisle....
For God's sake, for the sake of the country, let Colonel Hunter be re-
enforced at Sunbury; send him but a single company if you can not do more.
Mrs. Hunter came down with me; as he is now disincumbered of his family, I
am convinced he will do everything that can be expected from a brave and
determined man. I must mention to you with freedom an opinion that has
prevailed and done great hurt on the frontiers, viz., that no men or
relief would be offered them. The miserable example of the Wyoming people,
who have come down absolutely naked among us, has operated strongly, and
the cry has been, "Let us move while we may, and let us carry some of our
effects along With us." It was to no purpose that Colonel Hunter issued
orders for assembling the militia, and the whole county broke loose.
   At ten o'clock on the 12th of July Colonel Matthew Smith* wrote as
follows from Paxtang: "I am this moment arrived at Mr. Harris's ferry,
and just now behold the greatest scenes of distress I ever saw. The
numerous poor ran away from their habitations and left their all....
Northumberland county is evacuated." "This day," wrote Peter De Haven
from Hummelstown July 12th, "there were twenty or thirty families passed
through this town, some from Buffalo valley and some from Sunbury and
some families from this side of Peter's mountain. Wyoming is taken, and
most of our people have left Sunbury and are coming down; these people
inform us that there are two hundred wagons on the road." On the 14th of
July Colonel Bertram Galbraith, lieutenant of Lancaster county, informed
the vice-president of Council that "On Sunday morning last the banks of
the Susquehanna from Middletown up to the Blue mountain were entirely
clad with the inhabitants of Northumberland county who had moved off, as
well as many in the river in boats, canoes, rafts, etc." Captain Abraham
Scott, who had been up at Garver's mill for his sister, the wife of
Colonel Hunter, also informed him that the inhabitants of Wiconisco
valley were preparing for flight.(11)
   On the 9th of July Colonel Hunter addressed a letter to the
officers of the Berks county militia; there was then every reason to
anticipate that Sunbury and Northumberland would be the frontier in less
than twenty-four hours, but a few of the inhabitants had determined to
make a stand and re-enforcements were urgently solicited. On the 12th
he sent a communication to Council, in which the following passages
occur:-
   The calamities so long dreaded, and which you have been more than
once informed must fall upon this county if not assisted by Continental
troops or the militia of the neighboring counties, now appear with all
the horrors attendant on an Indian War; at this date the towns of
Sunbury and Northumberland are the frontiers, where a few virtuous
inhabitants and fugitives seem determined to stand, though doubtful
whether tomorrow's sun will rise on them freemen, captives, or in
eternity. Yet, relying on that Being who never forsakes the virtuous,
and the timely assistance of the government which they have with zeal
and vigor endeavored to support, they say they will remain as long as
they can without incurring the censure of suicide. The carnage at
Wyoming, the devastations and murders upon the West Branch of
Susquehanna, on Bald Eagle creek, and, in short, throughout the whole
county to within a few miles of these towns (the recital of which must
be shocking), I suppose must before now have reached your ears. If not,
you may figure yourselves men, women, and children, butchered and scalped,
many of them after being promised quarter, and some scalped alive, of
which we have miserable instances amongst us; people in crowds driven from
their farms and habitations, many of whom have not money enough to
purchase one day's provisions for their families, which must and already
has obliged many of them to plunder and lay waste the farms as they pass
along. These calamities must, if not speedily remedied by a reinforcement
of men from below, inevitably ruin the frontier and incumber the interior
counties with such numbers of indigent fugitives unable to support
themselves as will like locusts devour all before them. If we are assisted
to stand and save our crops, we will have enough for ourselves and to
spare; you need be under no apprehension of any troops you send here
suffering for want of provisions if they come in time, before the few who
yet remain are obliged to give way; with men it will be necessary to send
arms and ammunition, as we are ill provided with them. Gentlemen, you must
all know that this county cannot be strong in men after the numbers it has
furnished to serve the United States. Their applications to its for men
were always complied with to the utmost of our abilities and with the
greatest alacrity; should our supplications now be rejected I think the
survivors of us, if any, may safely say that virtue is not rewarded.
   The defense of the frontier having been considered by Congress and
the State authorities, it was decided that the detachment of Colonel
Hartley's regiment then at Philadelphia should march to Sunbury; three
hundred militia from Northumberland county, four hundred from Lancaster,
and one hundred fifty from Berks were also ordered to that point, July
14, 1778. Colonel Daniel Brodhead's regiment, then on the march to
Pittsburgh, had been directed to take position at Standing Stone
(Huntingdon), but when General Lachlan McIntosh, who commanded in that
department, heard of the state of affairs on the northern frontier, he
ordered it to proceed up the Susquehanna, a movement that received the
hearty approval of the Board of War and Supreme Executive Council. On
the 24th of July Colonel Brodhead wrote(12) that, having arrived at
Sunbury too late to be of service to the inhabitants there, he had
determined to fix upon two principal posts and maintain a line of scouts
between them; accordingly, a major, two captains, one subaltern, and
eighty men were stationed at Brier creek on the North Branch and one
hundred twenty men under his personal command at Muncy, while a captain
and twenty-five men were detached to General James Potter's in Penn's
valley. General Potter reported that the arrival of this force had done
much to restore confidence; the "Runaway" had entailed a loss of forty
thousand pounds, but the people were returning to reap their harvests and
further waste would thus be prevented. He expressed his intention of
directing the movements of the militia; this had been agreed upon by
Generals Armstrong and McIntosh with the acquiescence of Colonel Brodhead,
as General John Lacey, whom Council had designated for that service, was
not regarded as eligible. It appears, however, that the militia which
first arrived at Sunbury was commanded by General John P. De Haas, who
had offered on the 13th of July to lend a body of volunteers against the
Indians; Council accepted his services, and in the organization of
defensive measures he rendered valuable assistance.

   Colonel Hartley(13)* arrived at Sunbury with a detachment of his
regiment in the last week of July, 1778, and in the early part of August
Colonel Brodhead's command withdrew to Carlisle en route to Pittsburgh.
Two hundred militia had collected at Sunbury, and parties had been sent
to various points by General De Haas. Four fifths of the inhabitants had
fled; many were returning, and for their protection Colonel Hartley
deemed it necessary to establish a line of posts between Fishing creek
and the Great Island. He sent a detachment to garrison Fort Jenkins, at
Brier creek on the North Branch, the erection of which had been begun by
Brodhead's troops; another was stationed at Rossley's mills, in the
forks of Chillisquaque, and a third at Muncy, on the West Branch. At
the latter point, which he visited in person, accompanied by General De
Haas, the erection of a fort was undertaken. William Maclay's residence
at Sunbury was converted into a magazine and fortified by a stockade in
the rear. The forces in Northumberland county, as summarized by Colonel
Hunter on the 20th of August, numbered six hundred fifty men, of whom
one hundred were Continental troops in Colonel Hartley's regiment; four
hundred ninety were militia, two hundred twenty from Lancaster county,
one hundred seventy from Berks, and one hundred from Northumberland; and
sixty were volunteers in Captain Murray's company. Pursuant to a
resolution of Congress of June 8, 1778, and Council's instructions of
the 10th, this company was recruited for six months under the direction
of Colonel Hunter, by whom the following officers were appointed:
Captain, James Murray; captain lieutenant, Robert Arthur; second
lieutenant, Samuel Fulton; third lieutenant, William Reed; ensign,
Andrew Donaldson.
   Colonel Hartley's expedition against the Indian towns on the North
Branch was the first offensive movement of importance on the northern
frontier. On the 21st of September he left Muncy with two hundred men;
the route selected was the Sheshequin path, and the march was rendered
extremely arduous by streams, swamps, and mountains. On the 26th the
advance guard of nineteen men encountered an equal number of Indians,
who fled with the loss of their chief. Tioga, the town of Queen Esther,
was burned. Crossing the North Branch on the 28th, the expedition
proceeded to Wyalusing, where the retreat was resumed on the following
day. Seventy of the men descended the river in canoes; the main body
marched in three divisions, of which Captain Murray's was the third,
while five runners under Captain Kemplen formed part of the rear guard.
The Indians made an attack on the afternoon of the 29th; Captains Boone
and Brady and Lieutenant King landed from the canoes with a few brave
fellows at a critical moment, and the enemy, after a brief resistance,
fled with a loss of ten killed. The expedition arrived at Sunbury on the
5th of October, after making a circuit of three hundred miles, having
defeated the enemy when ever encountered, destroyed all their towns
between Wyoming and Tioga, and recovered about fifty cattle, twenty-eight
canoes, and much other property of value.
   On the 9th of November Colonel Hartley wrote that the enemy had
destroyed the settlements on the North Branch above Nescopeck, and was
only deterred from advancing farther by the garrison at Fort Jenkins;
seventy Indians were also advancing toward the forks of Chillisquaque,
and he was collecting a force to attack them. Orders were issued for the
inhabitants to assemble, to which they responded with alacrity. On the
14th he was at Fort Jenkins, whence, on the following day, his force
advanced toward Wyoming; the enemy was compelled to abandon a number of
cattle taken above Nescopec, and fled with the utmost precipitation. He
was again at Sunbury on the 20th, but shortly afterward took his
departure, leaving a detachment from his regiment in garrison at Fort
Muncy and others at different points. The Berks and Lancaster militia
had returned at the expiration of the period for which they were called
out, and thus the protection of the frontier devolved entirely upon the
exertions of its inhabitants and a few companies of Continental troops.
It does not appear, however, that any incursions of importance occurred
during the winter of 1778-79.
   In March, 1779, General Edward Hand914) was ordered to the frontier of
Northampton and Northumberland counties with a detachment of Continental
troops. "As the principal object of my command lies above Wyoming," he
wrote President Reed on the 16th of April, "I am apprehensive that I
can't pay much attention to Sunbury or the contiguous settlements," and
in pursuance of this declaration he devoted his first efforts to the
strengthening of the post at Wyoming. Three companies of forty men each
were raised in Northumberland county and employed in scouting duty, but
with such inadequate protection its territory again became an inviting
field for Indian incursions. On the 25th of April an attack was made
upon the settlement near Fort Jenkins and several families were taken
prisoners; the garrison effected their rescue, but was driven to the
fort with some loss. On the 26th thirteen men were fired upon five miles
from Fort Muncy, and all but one were killed or captured. On the same
day thirty or forty Indians attacked a small party of militia near Fort
Freeland; among those killed on this occasion was Michael Lepley, whose
widow applied for a pension in 1786. The following certificate appears
in the minutes of the orphans' court of Northumberland county as part of
the evidence in her case:-

   I, the subscriber, do hereby certify that on the 26th of April,
1779, I was stationed at Freeland's fort with a party of militia whom I
had the honor to have the command of, and, at the request of Mr. McKnight,
(15) I ordered a guard of six men to go with McKnight to his plantation,
as they were but a small distance from Freeland's fort. The party was
attacked by a number of Indians, and Michael Lepley, one of my soldiers,
was killed and scalped. Witness my hand this 27th day of June, 1786.      
JACOB SPEES,
              Lieutenant.

   The depredations continued. "Almost every hour for three days past."
wrote William Maclay on the 27th of April, "we have fresh alarms of the
enemy. Massacres and depredations have been committed at Wyoming, Fort
Jenkins, Fishing creek, Freeland's mill, Fort Muncy, and Loyalsock, almost
at one and the same time. We expect every moment to hear of their nearer
approach. The whole force of the Six Nations seems to be poured down upon
us." He thought that a single troop of light horse, attended by blood-
hounds, would destroy more Indians than five thousand troops stationed in
forts along the frontier. While it does not appear that Council adopted
this suggestion, General Hand was at length brought to realize that
Northumberland county had some claim upon his protection, and on the 15th
of May he reported a garrison of one hundred men at Fort Jenkins, one
hundred at Fort Muncy, and seventy at Sunbury, all Continental troops from
the Eleventh Pennsylvania regiment (formerly Colonel Hartley's), while a
local company of nine-months men under Captain John Kemplen was stationed
at Bossley's mills and detachments of militia at Fort Freeland and other
minor posts. During the months of May and June the county enjoyed almost
entire immunity from Indian ravages, the prelude, unfortunately, to the
most serious reverses experienced within her present limits during the
Revolutionary period.
   In the latter part of June the Eleventh regiment was ordered to
Wyoming for service in Sullivan's expedition, for which the supplies
were transported principally up the Susquehanna by boat, and in this
work nearly all the able-bodied men in the county engaged. On the 26th
of June Colonel Hunter wrote that, exclusive of the militia at Fort
Freeland and at General Potter's (in Penn's township), he had been able
to collect only thirty men, who were stationed at Sunbury to guard the
stores. The term for which the two-months companies enlisted had
expired, thus leaving him with the entire frontier to defend and
practically no forces at his command. The enemy was not slow to take
advantage of the situation. Their movements were thus summarized by
Colonel Hunter on the 23d of July: "Immediately after the evacuation of
Fort Muncy the Indians began their cruel murder again; the 3d instant
they killed three men and took two prisoners at Lycoming; the 8th
instant they burned the Widow Smith's mill and killed one man; 17th
instant they killed two men and took three prisoners from Fort Brady;
the same day they burned Starret's mill and all the principal houses in
Muncy township; the 20th instant they killed three men at Freeland's
fort and took two prisoners." "Stripped of the whole of the standing
army," wrote William Maclay July 26th, "and without a single man save
the militia of the county and fourteen men under the command of a
Captain Kemplen, and almost every young man on the frontier engaged in
the boat service, they suffer more than ever from the savage depredations
of a horrid enemy. Everything above Muncy Hill is abandoned; a large body
of above forty savages had penetrated as far as Freeland's mills.... I
have spoken to Colonel Hunter for a guard for the magazine, but in vain;
he is not able to protect the flying inhabitants. The stores at Sunbury
are deposited in my late dwelling house, which is large and conveniently
situated, both for defense and the reception and delivery of stores. The
back part of it was stockaded last year by Colonel Hartley; a small
expense would complete the stockade and mount a few swivels, several of
which he there dismounted.... I have had the charge of the magazine at
Sunbury for some time past."
   The party that devastated Muncy and appeared at Fort Freeland July
20th was somewhat in advance of the main body of the enemy, which was
composed of one hundred British rangers under Captain John McDonald and
two hundred Indians under Hiokoto, a Seneca chief. Their approach was
reconnoitered by Robert Crownover, and upon receiving his intelligence
the people at Fort Muncy at once evacuated that post In their journey
down the West Branch they were joined by the families at Fort Meminger,
near the mouth of Warrior run, but, although warned of the impending
danger, the people at Fort Boone and Fort Freeland preferred to remain.
The former was a small stockade at the mouth of Muddy run, constructed
under the supervision of Captain Hawkins Boone; Mrs. Mary V. Derickson
gives the following account of Fort Freeland in a letter dated Delaware
Run, December 17, 1855:-

   The fort was situated on the Warrior run about four and one half
miles above where it empties into the Susquehanna river.
   In the year 1772 Jacob Freeland, Samuel Gould, Peter Vincent, John
Vincent and his son Cornelius Vincent, and Timothy Williams, with their
respective families, cut their way through and settled within some two
miles of where the fort was afterward built. They were from Essex
county, New Jersey. Jacob Freeland brought the irons for a grist mill,
and in the years 1773 and 1774 he built one on the Warrior run.
   There were several more families moved up from the same place, and
they lived on friendly terms with the Indians until 1777, when they
began to be troublesome and to remove their own families. In the summer
of 1778 they had to leave the country, and when they returned in the
fall they picketed around a large two-story log house which had been
built by Jacob Freeland for his family, inclosing half an acre of
ground. The timbers were set close and were about twelve feet high; the
gate was fastened with bars inside. Into this fort or house the families
of Jacob Freeland, Sr., Jacob Freeland, Jr., John Lytle, Michael
Freeland, John Vincent, Peter Vincent, George Pack, Cornelius Vincent,
Moses Kirk, James Durham, Samuel Gould, Isaac Vincent, and Daniel Vincent
all gathered and lived that winter. In November, George Pack, Son of
George Pack, was born, and on the 10th of February, 1779, I was born. My
father was Cornelius Vincent; and on the 20th of May, George, son of Isaac
Vincent, was born.
   In the fall of 1778, as a company of the settlers was leaving the
country on account of the Indians, they were fired at, and Mrs. Durham's
infant was killed in her arms; she fell with it, and they came and
tomahawked and scalped her, and when the men went to count the dead, she
raised up and asked for a drink of water. Elias Williams, one of the
men, ran to the river and brought his hat full of water and gave her a
drink; they then put her in a canoe and took her to Northumberland,
where Doctor Plunket dressed her head; she recovered and lived about
fifty years. Her body was afterward laid in Warrior Run burying ground,
about a half-mile off where the fort stood.
   In the spring of 1779 the men planted corn but were occasionally
surprised by the Indians, but nothing serious occurred until the 21st
day of July; as some of them were at work in a cornfield back of the
fort they were attacked by a party of Indians about nine o'clock A. M.,
and Isaac Vincent, Elias Freeland, and Jacob Freeland, Jr., were killed,
and Benjamin Vincent and Michael Freeland were taken prisoners. Daniel
Vincent was chased by them, but he out-ran them, and escaped by leaping
a very high log fence. When the Indians surprised them, Benjamin Vincent
(then ten years of age) hid himself in a furrow, but he thought he would
be more secure by climbing a tree, as there was a woods near, but they
saw him and took him prisoner; he was ignorant of the fate of the others
until about two o'clock P. M., when an Indian thrust a bloody scalp in
his face, and he knew it was his (and my) brother Isaac's hair.

   At this point it is proper to mention the death of James Watt, to
which Mrs. Derickson does not refer. The deposition of his widow, Mrs.
Ann Watt, entered in the minutes of the orphans' court of Northumberland
county at October term, 1790, states, that he "was stationed at
Freeland's fort in the county aforesaid and did actual duty as a
sergeant in Captain Taggart's company in the battalion of Colonel James
Murray, having served under the commands of Captain Taggart, Lieutenant
Atkinson, Ensign Freeland, and Adjutant Lytle (the latter being
commander at the time of the death of the said James), each in
succession of the said Fort Freeland; that on the morning of the 28th
day of July, A. D. 1779, the said James Watt was set upon by the Indians
at enmity with this Commonwealth, about one hundred yards from the said
fort, and was then and there tomahawked and put to death." It is worthy
of remark that the name of Lieutenant Spees is not given among the
successive commanders of the fort; possibly he preceded those mentioned.
   The remainder of Mrs. Derickson's narrative is as follows:-

   Nothing again occurred until the morning of the 29th; about daybreak,
as Jacob Freeland, Sr., was going out of the gate, he was shot, and fell
inside of the gate. The fort was surrounded by about three hundred British
and Indians, commanded by Captain McDonald; there were but twenty-one men
in the fort, and but little ammunition; Mary Kirk and Phebe Vincent
commenced immediately and ran all their spoons and plates into bullets;
about nine o'clock there was a flag of truce raised, and John Lytle and
John Vincent went out to capitulate, but could not agree. They had half an
hour given them to consult with those inside; at length they agreed that
all who were able to bear arms should go as prisoners, and the old men and
women and children set free, and the fort given up to plunder; they all
left the fort by twelve o'clock m., not one of them having eaten a bite
that day, and not a child was heard to cry or ask for bread that day. They
reached Northumberland, eighteen miles distant, that night, and there drew
their rations, the first they had to eat that day.
   When Mrs. Kirk heard the terms on which they were set free she put
female clothes on her son William, a lad of sixteen, and he escaped with
the women.
   Mrs. Elizabeth Vincent was a cripple; she could not walk. Her
husband, John Vincent, went to Captain McDonald and told him of her
situation, and said if he had the horse that the Indians had taken from
his son Peter the week before that she could ride, and about daylight
the next morning the horse came to them; he had carried his wife to the
lower end of the meadow where they lay and saw the fort burned, and it
rained so hard that night that she lay mid-side in water; when the horse
came he stripped the bark off a hickory tree and plaited a halter, set
his wife on, and led it to Northumberland, where there were wagons
pressed to take them on down the country.(16)

   The following copy of the articles of capitulation was transmitted
to President Reed by Colonel Matthew Smith:-

   Articles of Capitulation entered into between Captain John McDonald
on his Majesty's part and John Lytle on that of the Congress.
   Article 1st. - The men in garrison to march out and ground their
arms on the green in front of the fort, which is to he taken possession
of immediately by his Majesty's troops. - Agreed to.
   2d. - All men bearing arms are to surrender themselves prisoners of
war and to be sent to Niagara. - Agreed to.
   3d. - The women and children not to be stripped of their clothing
nor molested by the Indians, and to be at liberty to move down the
country where they please. - Agreed to.
             John McDONALD,
          Captain of Rangers.
             John Lytle

   The first intelligence of the attack was received at Sunbury at
twelve o'clock on the 28th day of July, when an express arrived from
Boone's mill with the information that the fort was surrounded by a
party of Indians. A party at once marched from Sunbury and
Northumberland to the relief of the garrison at Boone's. At Colonel
Hunter's request Dr. Francis Allison wrote Colonel Elder "that
Freeland's fort, the most advanced fort on the frontiers of the West
Branch, had on Wednesday last [July 21st] three of the garrison killed
and scalped (one only shot) within sixty yards of the fort, and two made
prisoners; their number of Indians appeared to be up wards of thirty in
the open view of the garrison. Relief was sent immediately from Boone's
fort and the two towns, and additional force was left behind to their
assistance," notwithstanding which an attack was made on the morning of
July 28th, of which intelligence was received by express from Major
Smith and Captain Nelson. The following extracts from letters written
at Sunbury on the 29th of July convey a graphic idea of the situation:-

   Yesterday morning early there was a party of Indians and regular
troops attacked Fort Freeland; the firing was heard at Boone's place,
when a party of thirty men turned out from that under the command of
Captain Boone, but before he arrived at Fort Freeland the garrison had
surrendered and the British troops and savages were paraded around the
prisoners, and the fort and houses adjacent set on fire. Captain Boone
and his party fired briskly on the enemy, but were soon surrounded by a
large party of Indians; there were thirteen killed of our people and
Captain Boone himself among the slain. - (Colonel Hunter to William
Maclay.
   Yesterday morning Freeland's fort was attacked by not less than
three hundred British troops and Indians; they acted on the defensive as
long as they could well, but found it impracticable to hold out any
longer after the enemy had sent in three flags desiring them to
surrender, the last mentioning if they did not they would put them to
the sword, every one......
   The whole killed in the fort was four men. Captain Boone, who went
out for their relief, fell in with the enemy; Captain Kemplen, who
observed the first Indian on guard, shot him dead on the spot; then a
party rallied out of the mill and defeated Boone's company - killed
Boone, Captain Dougherty, Captain Hamilton;...... Only thirteen
escaped. Northumberland is now the frontier. John Buyers to William
Maclay.
   We have received particular instructions from Fort Freeland by
women who have been in the fort. They say the garrison surrendered after
making a noble but short resistance, and after being thrice
summoned....... Of the garrison four were killed, and thirteen scalps
were brought into the fort in a pocket handkerchief, among whom were
Captain Boone's and Captain Dougherty's, supposed to belong to the party
from Boone's fort which attacked the British, Indians, etc., and even
got in among the people who were prisoners with them, but were obliged
to fly on account of superiority of numbers. Thirteen or fourteen of the
party have come in; they and the women of Fort Freeland estimate the
number of the enemy at between three and four hundred, one third of whom
are regular troops. Boone's fort is evacuated, and Northumberland-Town
is already the frontier. - Dr. Francis Allison to Colonel Joshua Elder.
   On the 2d of August a party from Buffalo valley under Colonel John
Kelly buried the dead and prepared a list of their names; they gave it
to Colonel Matthew Smith, by whom it was transmitted to Council. Of the
garrison, James Watt, John McClintock, William McClung, James Miles, and
Henry Gilfillan were killed; of Captain Boone's party, Hawkins Boone,
Samuel Dougherty, Jeremiah McLaughlin, Natt'e Smith, John Jones, Edward
Costigan, Ezra Green, Samuel Neill, Matthew McClintock, Hugh McGill, and
Andrew Woods. Of the garrison, the following were taken prisoners:(17)
Captain's company - John Neely, sergeant, George Bailey, George Armitage,
Aaron Martin, Thomas Smith, Isaac Wilson, and John Forney; "of the militia
that enrolled themselves for the defense of the garrison " - John Lytle,
adjutant, Cornelius Vincent, quartermaster, Samuel Gould, sergeant, Henry
Townley, Peter Williams, Isaac Williams, Elias Williams, Henry Gilfillan,
James Durham, Daniel Vincent, John Watt, William Miles, John Dough, Thomas
Taggart, Francis Watt, and Peter Vincent; the two last named made their
escape on the same day. All the women and children in the fort, fifty-two
in number, according to Colonel Matthew Smith, arrived safely at Sunbury.
Four old men were also permitted to return, as the enemy did not think
them strong enough to march to Niagara.

On the 28th of July Colonel Hunter dispatched letters to General Sullivan,
whose army was yet at Wyoming, and Colonel Joshua Elder, of Paxtang,
sub-lieutenant of Lancaster county, urgently soliciting assistance. The
former declined to comply with the request, as his entire force was
deemed necessary for the success of the expedition, but the appeal to
the latter was not made in vain. On the 31st of July the inhabitants of
Paxtang township held a meeting at which Colonel Elder, Colonel Matthew
Smith, and William Maclay presented the situation in Northumberland
county; an appeal was made for volunteers and eight o'clock Sunday
morning fixed upon as the time to march. Colonel Smith arrived at
Sunbury on 'Monday evening, August 2d, with sixty Paxtang boys;
"Provisions are scarce, but we intend to follow the savages," he wrote
on the 3d; "we hope to come at them, as the number of cattle is great
they have taken from the country, and must make a slow progress on their
return home .... The distress of the people here is great; you may have
some conception, but scarcely can be told. The town now composes
Northumberland county. The enemy have burnt everywhere they have been;
houses, barns, rice and wheat in the field, stacks of hay, etc. are all
consumed. Such devastation I have not yet seen." The Paxtang boys were
the first to arrive; every hour brought fresh accessions from Lancaster
and Cumberland counties, and on the morning of Thursday, August 5th,
five hundred militia marched from Sunbury under Colonel Smith Their
immediate destination was Muncy. It was thought that the enemy might be
overtaken, but a week had elapsed since their departure and it is not
probable that the pursuit was long continued. After about two weeks of
active service, the volunteers disbanded.
   General Sullivan was advancing into the Indian country, and for a
time the frontier was comparatively undisturbed. On the 28th of August
Colonel Hunter wrote that no damage had been sustained since the fall of
Freeland; below Muncy Hill many of the inhabitants had returned to their
farms; thirty-four militia from Lancaster county had arrived at Sunbury,
and he was about to station them in the Warrior run neighborhood.
   The disastrous consequences attending the withdrawal of the
Eleventh regiment prompted Council to make an urgent application for
Continental troops to protect Northumberland county, in compliance with
which the German regiment, which had been stationed at Wyoming since its
return from Sullivan's expedition, was ordered to Sunbury. This regiment
numbered one hundred twenty effective men, exclusive of officers, and
was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Weltner, who made his
headquarters at Sunbury and retained a detachment at that place to guard
the stores. Twenty men were stationed at Fort Jenkins, and Captain
Kemplen's rangers, a local company of fourteen men, at Fort Meminger,
seventeen miles from Sunbury on the West Branch. As there was not
sufficient force to rebuild and garrison Fort Muncy, it became necessary
to select some other point equally well adapted for the protection of the
frontier in that direction. "McClung's place" (presumably the improvements
of a settler of that name near the West Branch above Milton) was
accordingly chosen, and a detachment of the German regiment took position
there on the 5th of November. It was represented that fortifications had
been begun at that point, but this proved without foundation, and, as
there was insufficient shelter and no timber convenient, the troops
removed to "a place called Montgomery's," where barracks and other
necessary defenses were erected. This post, variously referred to as Fort
Montgomery, Fort Rice, and Fort Bunner, was situated in the extreme
southeastern part of Lewis township at a large spring on a tract of land
originally warranted under the name of Paradise, which ultimately gained
popular currency and is now applied to a large part of Turbut and Lewis
townships. The first resident owner of this land was John Montgomery,
who built his cabin at the spring; it was fortified when the Indian
troubles began, and thus acquired the name of Fort Montgomery. On the
morning that Fort Freeland was invested, retreat having become wiser
than resistance in view of a probable attack by greatly superior
numbers, Montgomery and his party withdrew in safety to Sunbury. There
is reason to suppose that Weltner's troops found his improvements
available for occupation, and that the additional works erected rendered
this a place of comparative strength. It was given the names of Fort
Rice and Fort Bunner in honor of Captains Frederick William Rice and
Jacob Bunner, of the German regiment, who had command of the garrison at
various time.
   During the ensuing winter the regiment appears to have been engaged
principally in garrison duty. On the 13th of December, 1779, Colonel
Weltner wrote that the detachments at Montgomery's and Jenkins's had
left him only enough at Sunbury "to mount a couple of sentries." In a
letter dated April 9,1780, he stated that he had "manned three material
outposts," Fort Jenkins, Fort Montgomery, and Bossley's mill, in
addition to which a post on the West Branch near Boone's mill was
reported on the 8th of May.(18)
   On the 7th of April President Reed wrote Colonel Hunter authorizing
the payment of fifteen hundred dollars for a prisoner and one thousand
dollars for an Indian scalp; this furnished incentive for the organization
of volunteer companies, and as spring opened the Continental troops also
engaged in reconnoitering expeditions. On the 20th of June Colonel Weltner
wrote that the entire frontier from the North to the West Branch had been
traversed to a distance of forty miles from Northumberland, and an
officer with five men had ascended the West Branch more than a hundred
miles. Regarding his own excursions he said: "I often reconnoiter my
outposts; five or six gentlemen in this town and two of my officers are
commonly my escorts. It is highly discouraging for a man who has always
been generous in his own house, and now when he serves his country with
every nerve in his body, must, after a fatigue of two or three days, and
those gentlemen who suffered the same, must then go home without any
refreshment from me, as this place has not afforded a drop of good
liquor since the beginning of March last." It does not appear that his
command was engaged in any important movements during the summer, and in
August, 1780, it was withdrawn.
   The enemy made frequent incursions during this period. On the 27th
of November, 1779, Colonel Hunter wrote that a deep snow had fallen,
which he hoped would prevent their inroads during the winter, and while
this seems to have been the case, William Maclay stated in a letter
written on the 2d of April, 1780, "They are with us before that snow is
quite gone." The county was, he said, a "divided quarter," in which
"Whig, Tory, Yankee, Pennamite, Dutch, Irish, and English influence"
were strangely blended. On the 31st of March seven or eight prisoners
were taken near Fort Jenkins. Three Indians attacked the house of a
widow on the 8th of April, killed two of her children, and took her
prisoner, but she escaped. On the 13th, although three parties of the
inhabitants were out scouting at the time and a detachment of militia
was stationed two miles away, twenty Indians killed one man and wounded
three at Peter Swartz's plantation on the West Branch twelve miles from
Sunbury. Four men were killed at Grozong's mill in Buffalo Valley May
16th; On the 12th of June Emanuel Lewis, second lieutenant in Captain
Mull's company of the Third battalion, was killed at his house on the
Reading road seven miles from Sunbury, and on the same day an Indian was
taken prisoner at Thomas Bowyer's on the North Branch ten miles from
Northumberland. In the same vicinity and about the same time Robert
Curry was killed while riding horseback and his wife taken prisoner, but
she escaped. Two inroads were made on the 15th of August, in one of
which the Middle creek settlement, eight miles from Sunbury, was
attacked.
   After the withdrawal of the German regiment Colonel Hunter ordered
the frontier companies of militia to embody and kept one fourth of the
men constantly reconnoitering. Fort Jenkins, Fort Rice, and Fort Swartz
were each garrisoned with twenty men; Captain McCay took position in
Buffalo valley with thirty volunteers from Cumberland county, which also
contributed two companies of militia numbering seventy or eighty men who
arrived on the 10th of September. The re-enforcement was timely. A large
body of the enemy appeared before Fort Rice about sundown on the 6th of
September, killed one man, and wounded another, but the garrison returned
the fire with such spirit that they withdrew and set fire to a number of
houses and grain stacks during the night. The militia was immediately
ordered out, and one hundred men under Colonel John Kelly reached the fort
on the following day, but, having been informed that the enemy numbered
two hundred fifty, it was not deemed prudent to pursue. Colonel Hunter at
once ordered the evacuation of Fort Jenkins (which was subsequently
burned) and sent an express to Colonel Purdy on the Juniata, who brought
one hundred ten militia and eighty volunteers. General James Potter
arrived at Sunbury on the 11th of September and took command; as the local
militia had collected and the number of the enemy was found to be less
than had been reported, he dismissed the volunteers; on the 12th he
marched with one hundred seventy men to Fort Swartz on the West Branch.
Leaving his command at that point he crossed the river to the mouth of
White Deer creek, where Colonel Kelly was encamped with eighty men,
waiting for the return of three spies. It was decided to join forces and
advance eastward along Muncy Hill, but, as the spies had not yet returned
on the following morning and their continued absence strongly indicated
that they had been killed or captured, it was deemed advisable to proceed
up the West Branch; General Potter marched on the east side and Colonel
Kelly on the west side. At Muncy Hill they met the spies, who gave
positive assurance that the enemy had not retreated in that direction;
Colonel Kelly thereupon crossed the river with his command and the
combined forces set out for Huntington creek, the east branch of Fishing
creek. On the night of the 13th, an express having arrived with
intelligence of the enemy's appearance at Middle creek, Colonels Kelly and
Purdy returned with one hundred fifty men; General Potter proceeded with
the remainder, numbering one hundred ten, but, finding it impossible to
overtake the attacking party, he returned to Sunbury on the 17th. On the
following day he transmitted an account of the expedition to President
Reed, with the request that militia might be sent to the frontier; the
letter was considered by Council on the 29th instant: one class of the
Lancaster county militia was ordered to Northumberland, where it remained
until December.
   Early in the spring of 1781 hostilities were again reported. On the
12th of April General Potter wrote that five distinct attacks had been
made since the 22d of March (one not more than five miles from Sunbury),
and distress was widely prevalent among the people; Captain Thomas
Robinson(19) had enlisted forty men, but there was not a blanket among
them. On the 15th of June Captain Robinson reported fifty-two men
enlisted for the war and fourteen for seven months; Lieutenants Peter
Grove and Samuel McGrady were also recruiting. The former had seventeen
men and the latter twenty, all for seven months. Council experienced great
difficulty in furnishing supplies, owing to the straitened condition of
State finances, and it was not until the 1st of July that clothing and
ammunition were forwarded from Philadelphia. The wagon reached Lancaster
on the 23d instant and Captain John Hambright sent it to Middletown the
same day in care of Captain Abraham Scott; the receipt of its contents
was acknowledged by Captain Robinson on the 8th of September. Referring
to the Indians in a letter of that date he said: "The savages have been
a long time quiet this summer. They have done no harm in this county
since I have been able with men to go to the woods to scout. They made
their appearance in harvest twice, but did no hurt."
   Robinson's company, which was withdrawn early in the winter of
1781, was again stationed on the frontier in 1782 and rebuilt Fort
Muncy, which proved of material advantage as a rendezvous for scouting
parties. Notwithstanding this the Indians succeeded in penetrating to
the interior of the county, and several tragedies were reported during
the year. Major John Lee and family were killed at Winfield, three miles
above Sunbury, in August; on the 14th of October John Martin and wife
were killed at their house on Chillisquaque near Colonel James Murray's
and three persons were taken prisoners; and on the 24th of the same
month Sergeant Edward Lee of Captain Robinson's company was killed two
miles from Fort Rice and Robert Carothers was taken prisoner. Happily
for the distressed frontier, the independence of the United States was
acknowledged by Great Britain, November 30, 1782, and on the 20th of
January, 1783, a preliminary treaty of peace was signed. Thus assured of
immunity from the harassing experiences of the preceding years the
former inhabitants of Northumberland county began to return, and the
arts of peaceful industry were again resumed after the long interruption
of the Revolutionary period.
   Colonel Hunter was appointed as county lieutenant, March 21, 1777,
and re-appointed on the 6th of April, 1780, with William Murray, Walter
Clark, and John Wolf as sub-lieutenants. Thomas Jordan was appointed
paymaster of the militia, March 15, 1777, and William Gray, June 23,
1781; John Kelly and Thomas Hewitt, commissioners to seize the personal
effects of traitors, October 21, 1777; James McMahan, wagonmaster,
January 9, 1778; William Gray and John Lytle, purchasers of provisions,
February 20, 1778; John Kelly and Thomas Hewitt, agents for forfeited
estates, May 6, 1778; William Cooke, assistant forage master, April 5,
1780; John Weitzel, issuing commissary, July 7, 1780.
   The following statement, showing Colonel Hunter's receipts and
disbursements for the support of the militia of Northumberland county
during the Revolution, has been transcribed from the original, now in
the possession of Captain John Buyers, of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. An
asterisk (*) indicates State currency; a dagger(†) specie; sums to which
no distinguishing mark is affixed were paid in Continental money.
State of the Accounts of Samuel Hunter, Lieutenant of Northumberland
County, from March, 1777, to March, 1784.
      Samuel Hunter, Dr.      to Sundries.
John W. Nesbit, Treasurer Council of Safety:-

 Received per Colonel William Cooke for paying the militia of   £ s. d.
    Northumberland County, January 3, 1777 ................... 187 10 0
 Paid Colonel Philip Cole the balance of his account,      
      January 9,1777. ...................................... 45 5 0
 Paid Colonel Murray for a like sum he paid to Colonel Hunter,
      January 13,1777 ....................................... 25 2 6
Council of Safety:-
 Received per George Calhoon, December 29, 1776 ................ 783 15 6
David Rittenhouse, Treasurer:-
 Received upon an order of Council per Francis Allison,    
 July 12, 1777 ..................................................300 0 0
 Per Joseph Green, January 1, 1778 ............................ 1600 0 0
 Per Thomas Hewitt, September 23, 1777 ......................... 750 0 0
 Per Matthias Slough, to be delivered to John Hambright and
 forwarded to said Hunter for purchasing provisions,
 January 21,1778 ............................................... 937 10 0
 Per Jacob Reighard, to be forwarded as above, July 4, 1778 .... 562 10 0
 By order of Council, April 14, 1779 .......................... 1809 0 0
 Per Joseph Hart, May 3, 1779 ................................ 3750 0 0
 Per John Hambright, on account, for raising a company of
 rangers, June 9, 1780 ....................................... 10000 0 0
 For raising a company of rangers for defense of the frontiers,
 February, 1781 ............................................... *100 0 0
 For recruiting Captain Robinson's ranging company,
 December 8, 1781 ............................................. †120 0 0
John Hambright:-
 Received of him, which had been sent from the treasury,
 April 19, 1779 .............................................. 3750 0 0
Matthew Smith:-
 Received of Daniel Reese, supposed to be a part of the moneys
 paid to said Smith for the defense of the frontiers,
 June 8, 1779 ................................................ 1875 0 0
George Wolf, sub-Lieutenant:-
 Received of him, being fines collected, March 6,1778,
 £ 150 15s.; January 29,1779, £397 10s ......................... 548 5 0
William Murray, sub-Lieutenant:-
 Received of him, being fines collected, April 15, 1778 ........ 302 0 0
Militia Fines:-
 Received of Robert Martin, fines collected, April 30, 1778 .... 226 15 0
 Received of Jonathan Lodge, sheriff ........................... 80 0 0
 Received the fine of Charles Gough ............................. 22 10 0
 Received the fine of John Parker ............................... 20 0 0
 Received of Sheriff Lodge Livingston's fine, April, 1779 ...... 50 0 0
 Received of Thomas Hewitt the fines of James McNeill and
 Thomas Barry ................................................... 57 2 6
Balance due to Colonel Hunter ................................. 3830 0 9
               .  †246 18 8
            ____________
 Total-Continental money ..................................... 31512 5 9
    State currency ......................................... *100 0 0
    Specie .................................................. †366 18 8
  

   Sundries, Dr.       to Samuel Hunter
United States:-
 For the following sums paid by Colonel Hunter out of a  part of the
 $35,000 borrowed of Congress, December 26, 1776,  advanced for the
 militia of Northumberland county and  afterwards credited by them at
 settlement with the United  States, viz.: Colonel Philip Cole, December
 14, 1776, £108;
 December 19th, £76 10s., per John M. Nesbit, January 9,
 1777, £45 5s.; to Captain John Lee, December 13, 1776, £108,
 December 19th, £25, December 20th, £40 15s., December 24th,
 £34 10s.; to Colonel Benjamin Weiser, December 22, 1776,    £  s. d.
 £ 5. d. £52 10s.; Colonel James Potter, £261 .................. 706 5 0
Joseph Green, quartermaster, for provisions furnished the
 militia on their march, July 21, 1777 ......................... 61 19 3
Joseph Green, for nine days' pay as quartermaster to Colonel
 Kelly's battalion, July 21, 1777 ..............................  3 0 0
Captain John Forster, for his own and the pay of his company
 of militia, July 28, 1777 ..................................... 37 6 0
Doctor Bennett, for forage, July 28, 1777 ......................  0 14 6
Captain Thomas Gaskins, for his own and the pay of his
company of militia, July 8,1777 ................................ 22 19 0
Colonel Cookson Long, pay of Captain Wilson and his company,
July 29,1777 ..................................................... 45 7 0
George Keiser, wagon hire carrying baggage, July 30, 1777 ........ 6 0 0
Dr. Benjamin Allison, his pay as surgeon six days, August 1, 1777.. 4 10 0
Lieutenant Colonel Hugh White, of militia, six days' pay,
September 27, 1777 ............................................... 4 10 0
Colonel John Kelly, six days' pay, October 10, 1777 .............. 5 12 6
John Buyers, quartermaster, for provisions furnished the militia,
 October 3,1777 ................................................. 10 6 0
William Bonham, for 291 lbs. of beef furnished the militia,
 November 4,1777 ............................................... 14 11 0
William Bailey, quartermaster, in part of his account of
 provisions furnished, November 10, 1777, £66;
 November 11th, £45 ........................................... 111 0 0
Dr. Benjamin Allison, surgeon first class Colonel Kelly's
 battalion, two months' pay, November 18, 1777 ................. 41 5 0
John Beam, for 64 lbs. of beef for the militia,
 December 11, 1777 .............................................. 3 4 0
Captain Thomas Gaskins, for his own and the pay of his
 company of Northumberland county militia from September 14
 to November 8, 1777; [paid,] January 12, 1778 ................ 315 15 8
Colonel John Kelly, for his pay, September 14 to November 5,
 1777; [paid,] January 10, 1778 ................................ 50 12 0
Captain Casper Reed, for himself and company, September 14
 to November 8, 1777; [paid,] January 21, 1778 ................. 242 9 0
Joseph Green, for his pay as quartermaster, September 14 to
 November 8, 1777; [paid,] January 23, 1778 ..................... 17 5 0
Major Jonas Yocum, his pay for two months, February 17, 1778 ..... 37 10 0
Captain John Mull, for military services, March 15, 1778 ......... 3 0 0
John McMullin, surgeon's mate, his pay from September 14 to
 November 8, 1777 .............................................. 27 0 0
Captain Thomas Wilson, for his own and the pay of his
 company for said time, April 13, 1778 ........................ 293 17 0

Captain John Chattam, pay of a party after disaffected       £ s. d.
  persons, July 16,1778 ........................................  3 7 6
Robert Martin, for ferriage of the militia, January 25, 1779 .... 11 8 9
John Weitzel, for services as commissary of stores at
 Sunbury, May 30, 1778 .......................................... 47 10 0
William Simms, for riding express, July 10,1778, £11 5s.;
 April 25, 1779, £7105 .......................................... 18 15 0
John Eason, for pay of three persons employed as spies
 between Northumberland-Town and Wyoming, August 16, 1779 ....... 33 15 0
John McMahan, for pay as spy between Muncy Hill and Lycoming,
 August 28, 1779 ................................................ 45 0 0
John Eason, for reconnoitering between Muncy Hill and Lycoming,
 August 28, 1779, £45; September 6th, £26 5s .................... 71 5 0
William King, for reconnoitering between Muncy Hill and
 Lycoming, September 6, 1779 .................................... 80 0 0
Thomas Ferguson, for reconnoitering between Muncy Hill and
 Lycoming, September 6, 1779 .................................... 71 5 0
John Weitzel, in part pay as superintendent of the magazine
 at Sunbury, October 14, 1779 .................................. 285 0 0
James Murray, for services reconnoitering, October 19, 1779 ..... 185 0 0
Dr. Benjamin Allison, for six months pay as surgeon from
 April 1, 1779; [paid,] October 23, 1779 ...................... 202 10 0
Walter Clark, for services of three men as spies,
 November 25, 1779 ............................................. 185 0 0
Peter Gabriel, for baking three hundred-weight of biscuit
 for a secret expedition against the Indians, July 21, 1780 ..... 88 15 0
John Weitzel, in part pay as superintendent, September 11,1780 .. 187 10 0
William Campbell, for his services as pilot on the Indian
 expedition, October 2,1780 ..................................... 78 15 0
James Hepburn, for purchasing provisions, being in part of
 his accounts settled, and the balance paid, December 7,1779 .... 112 10 0
Lieutenant Jacob Creamer, of the Rangers:-
 Paid him for the recruiting service and pay, March 8, 1781. ... *18 15 0
Colonel James Murray:-
 Paid him out of the moneys sent by the Council of Safety,
 December 10,1776 .............................................. 261 0 0
 Paid him as captain for recruiting his company, July 14' 1778 .. 90 0 0
 Paid him for arms furnished his company of six months' men,
 May 6,1779 .................................................. 1809 0 0
Andrew Culbertson:-
 Paid him for the use of purchasing provisions, October 9, 1777.. 81 15 0
Major Robert Arthur:-
 Paid him towards the pay of the militia on their march,
 November 11,1777 ............................................... 22 10 0
Joseph Green, Quartermaster:-
 Paid him towards providing provisions for the first class
 on the frontiers, January 10, 1778 ............................ 967 5 6
Colonel William Cooke:-
 Paid him to purchase provisions for the militia, June 2, 1778.. 937 10 0
Captain Thomas Kemplen:-
 Paid him for recruiting a camp of rangers, May 7, 1779, £75;
 May 12th, £450; June 15th, £339 7s. 6d ........................ 864 7 6
 Paid him for the pay of his company, August 13, 1779 ........... 82 10 0
  
 Paid him for John Carmady, sergeant, to pay for making shins   £ s. d.
 for Captain Kemplen's company, September 22, 1779 .............. 13 10 0
 Paid himself, October 8,1779 ................................... 82 10 0
 Paid him for Thomas Moore for his company, November 19, 1779,
 £225; May 3, 1780, £112 10s ................................... 837 10 0
Captain George Grant, of the Ninth regiment:- Paid him for
 the recruiting service, March 27, 1778, £157 2s. 6d.;
 April 21st, £52 10s ........................................... 209 12 6
Captain William Wilson, of the First regiment:-
 Paid him for the recruiting service, April 16, 1778, £150;
 April 30th, £204 7s. 6d ....................................... 354 7 6

Captain John Boyd, of the Twelfth regiment:-
 Paid him for the recruiting service, April 16, 1778, £150;
 May 7th, £75 .................................................. 225 0 0
Captain Thomas Robinson, of the Rangers:-
 Paid him for raising his company, July 11, 1780 .............. 2878 17 6
 Paid him for the recruiting service, January 7, 1781,
  £815 12s. 6d; January 16th, £811 10s ........................ 627 2 6
 Paid him for raising his company, October 3, 1781, £37 10s.;
 October 15th, £18 15s ......................................... *56 5 0
Paid him for raising his company, December 21, 1781, £18;
 February 23, 1782, £6; May 20th, £23 10s ...................... †47 10 0
Paid him per Lieutenant Samuel McGrady for six-months men,
 May 20,1782 ................................................... †13 2 6
Military stores:-
 Paid sundry persons at sundry times for four rifles, one musket
 and bayonet, 236 1/2 lbs. of powder, 404 1/4 lbs. of lead, 574 flints,
 2 powder kegs, and for repairing arms and for transporting same
 and ammunition ................................................ 914 10 10
 [On the same account] .......................................... †5 11 2
Militia expenses:-
 Paid sundry expenses on public business for the defense of
  the county, the families of poor militia men in the service,
  captains for making returns of male whites, ferriages,
  drummers, and fifers, stationery, £15 for a substitute,
  expenses of conveying distressed families from Fort Freeland,
  and other contingent expenses, 1777-84 ..................... 1551 8 9
 William Murray, for his services as sub-lieutenant ............  4 10 0
 William Watson, for his services as sub-lieutenant ............ 83 4 0
 For his own pay as sub-lieutenant from March 22, 1777, to
  April 5, 1779 - 667 days, at 22s. 6d.; from April 5, 1779,
  to October 10th - 160 days, at 37s. 6d.; from October 10,
  1779, to March 20, 17 80 - 118 days, at £6 - in all ........ 1758 7 6
 For his own pay as sub-lieutenant from March 20, 1780, to
  June 21, 1781 - employed 375 days at £30 per day .......... 11250 0 0
 For his own pay as sub-lieutenant from June 21, 1781,
  to March, 1784 - 403 days, of which 387 at 15s. and 16 at
  12s. 6d. specie ............................................ †360 5 0
John Hambright:-
 For a deficiency of $4233 2/3 in the £10000 he received at the
  treasury, June 9, 1780, to be sent to Colonel Hunter, and of
  which the sum of only $22433 only was delivered per voucher 1587 12 6
Balance due the State ......................................... *25 0 0

    Total - Continental money ...................... 31512 5 9
    State Currency ............................... *100 0 0
    Specie ....................................... †366 18 8
             ___________

Colonel Samuel Hunter,   Dr.
  To balance of the foregoing account due to the State .......... *25 0 0
  To funded debt, for sundry certificates issued agreeably
  to act passed, April 1, 1784 ................................ †278 14 3
Contra      Cr.
By balance of the foregoing account in favor of Colonel Hunter,
  £3830 9d. Continental money, equal to ...................... *25 0 0
             †278 14 3
         Examined and settled,
 Comptroller General's Office,     JOHN NICHOLSON.
          April 6, 1784.

(1) Pennsylvania Archives (Second Series) Vol. X. pp. 27-31.

(2) Pennsylvania Archives (Second Series), Vol. X. pp. 342-344.
  
(3) Linn's Annals of Buffalo Valley, p.161.
  
(4) Pennsylvania Archives (Second Series), Vol. X. pp. 214-217.
  
(5) Pennsylvania Archives (Second Series), vol. X. pp. 755-764.
  
(6) The muster rolls and papers relating to the associators and militia of
the county of Northumberland, including the minutes of the committee of
Safety, are published in the Pennsylvania Archives (Second Series), Vol.
XIV. pp. 313-367.
  
(7) Paul Geddis succeeded Robert Fruit as chairman in the following
December.
  
(8) Robert Robb was subsequently indicted by the grand jury of
Northumberland county for misprision of treason, tried at November
sessions, 1780, acquitted, and discharged upon payment of fees.

(9) Colonel Hunter's official correspondence is published In the
Pennsylvania Archives, as follows: 1776 - Vol. V. p.133; 1777 - Vol. V.
pp. 370-37l, 377-378, 414, 610-611, 615, 717-718,737-738,762; Vol. VI.
p.57; 1778-Vol. VI. pp. 175-176, 191-192,392, 478, 499-500, 536-537,
552-553, 563-565, 570-572, 573, 599,615,624, 631-632, 636-637, 771, 773;
Vol. VII. pp. 116-118; 1779 - Vol. VII. pp. 267-268, 316-318, 346-347,
3755, 438, 455, 510~512, 546-547, 574, 589, 594, 615, 619-620, 680; Vol.
VIII. pp. 29-30; 1780 Vol. VIII. pp. 88-90, 157, 166-168, 173, 189-190,
205-206, 369-370,393-394, 567-568, 601; 1781-Vol. VIII. p.717; 1782 Vol.
IX. pp. 503-504, 528-529, 657-658. Original copies of many of Colonel
Hunter's letters are now In the possession of captain John Buyers, of
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.
  
(10) William Maclay's Correspondence relating to affairs in Northumberland
county is published in the Pennsylvania Archives, as follows: 1778 - Vol.
VI. pp. 634-635; 1779 - Vol. VII. pp. 357, 586-587, 593,597-598, 623-624;
1780 - Vol. VIII. PP. 156, 172-173.
  
(11) Colonel Smith's correspondence relating to affairs in Northumberland
county is published in the Pennsylvania Archives, as follows: 1778 Vol.
VI. pp. 632-633; 1779 Vol. VII. pp. 608, 609-611, 614; Vol. VIII p. 23;
1780 Vol. VIII pp. 249, 417-419,513, 691-692.
   The letters quoted are published in Vol. VI. of the Pennsylvania
Archives Colonel Smith's, p. 632; De Haven's, p. 633; Galbralth's, p.642.

(12) Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. VI. pp. 660-661.

(13) Colonel Hartley's correspondence relating to affairs in
Northumberland county is published in the Pennsylvania Archives, as
follows 1778 - Vol. VI. Pp. 674, 688-690, 690-694, 705,729; Vol. VII pp.
3-9, 10, 81-82, 86-87, 87-88, 776.
  
(14) General Hand's correspondence relating to affairs in Northumberland
county is Published in the Pennsylvania Archives, as follows: 1779 - vol.
VII pp. 321, 344, 408.
  
(15) James McKnight, member of Assembly from this county at that time.
Colonel Hunter states that he was taken prisoner; in Gift's narrative
Linn's Annals of Buffalo Valley, p.170), he is represented as having
been killed.
  
(16) Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. XII, pp. 364-366. - It is to be
observed that Mrs. Derickson says the first attack occurred July 21st -
Colonel Hunter, July 20th; she also says the capitulation occurred July
29th, while contemporary writers without exception give July 28th as the
date, and the latter is undoubtedly correct.
  
(17) Linn's Annals of Buffalo Valley, p.179.
  
(18) It does not appear that the matter was sustained any length of time;
the following statements occur in a "Memorial of Inhabitants on the west
Branch" dated June 20, 17th: "The German regiment, So far as we know,
consists of about one hundred men, and are posted nearly as follows:
thirty-three at Fort Jenkins, thirty at Bossley's mill, twenty-four at
Fort Bunner, and the residue at headquarters In Northumberland-Town. -
Pennsylvania Archives (Second Series), Vol. III p. 416.
  
(19) Captain Robinson's correspondence relating to affairs in
Northumberland county during the Revolutionary period is published in
the Pennsylvania Archives, as follows: - l781 - Vol. IX. pp. 208-209,
237-238, 392; 1782 - vol. IX. p.659.