![]() ![]() Despite the violence, many Ohio Natives still hoped to stay out of the war, which proved difficult because they were located directly between the British in Detroit and the Americans along the Ohio River. The intensity of the conflict increased in November 1777, after American militiamen murdered Cornstalk, the leading advocate of Shawnee neutrality. An unknown number of American settlers in present Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania were killed in these raids. The border war escalated in 1777 after British officials in Detroit began recruiting and arming Native war parties to raid the frontier American settlements. Some Native leaders urged neutrality, while others entered the war because they saw it as an opportunity to halt the expansion of the American colonies and to regain lands previously lost to the colonists. Ohio Natives- Shawnees, Mingos, Lenapes (Delawares), and Wyandots-were divided over how to respond to the war. When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, the Ohio River marked a tenuous border between the American colonies and the Natives of the Ohio Country. His execution was widely publicized in the United States, worsening the already-strained relationship between Natives and Americans. Crawford's execution was particularly brutal: he was tortured for at least two hours before being burned at the stake. The Natives executed many of these captives in retaliation for the Gnadenhütten massacre that occurred earlier in the year, in which about 100 peaceful Natives were murdered by Pennsylvanian militiamen. Around 70 Americans were killed in the fighting and subsequent executions Native and British losses were minimal.ĭuring the retreat, Crawford and an unknown number of his men were captured. Most of the Americans managed to find their way back to Pennsylvania. As the retreat became a rout, another skirmish was fought on June 6. The retreat became disorganized, with Crawford becoming separated from most of his men. The Americans, finding themselves surrounded, retreated that night. A day of indecisive fighting took place near the Sandusky towns on June 4, with the Americans taking refuge in a grove that came to be known as "Battle Island." Native and British reinforcements arrived the following day. The Natives and their British allies from Detroit had learned of the expedition and gathered a force to oppose the Americans. In late May 1782, Crawford led about 500 volunteer militiamen, mostly from Pennsylvania, deep into Native American territory, with the intention of surprising the Natives. The expedition was one in a series of raids against enemy settlements that both sides had conducted throughout the war. Crawford's goal was to destroy enemy Native American towns along the Sandusky River in the Ohio Country, with the hope of ending Native attacks on American settlers. The campaign was led by Colonel William Crawford, a former officer in the U.S. ![]() ![]() The Crawford expedition, also known as the Sandusky expedition and Crawford's Defeat, was a 1782 campaign on the western front of the American Revolutionary War, and one of the final operations of the conflict. ![]()
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