Brodhead's Coshocton expedition | |||||||
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Part of the American Revolutionary War | |||||||
An illustration of Daniel Brodhead | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States | Lenape | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Daniel Brodhead | Captain Pipe | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
150 regulars 134 militiamen | 80 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | 20 killed 20 captured | ||||||
16 Lenape prisoners killed |
Brodhead's Coshocton expedition was a military expedition carried out by American forces against the Lenape in the Ohio Country in April 1781 during the American Revolutionary War. Led by Daniel Brodhead, the Americans raided and burnt the neutral Christian Munsee village of Indaochaic before attacking the Lenape village of Goschachgunk, massacring 16 prisoners before burning it as well. [1]
On April 7, 1781, Daniel Brodhead led an American force of 150 Continental Army troops and 134 Pennsylvania militiamen out along the Ohio River. Fearing the neutral Turtle Clan of the Lenape in Goschachgunk would soon be joining the British as the more aggressive Wolf Clan had, they embarked with the initial purpose of securing the Turtle Clan's alliance. However, the ever-increasing attacks against American settlers made by the Wolf Clan caused many within Brodhead's ranks to seek retribution, and the mission became an active military campaign.
Brodhead first reached the main Turtle Clan village of Gekelmukpechunk. He requested a discussion between the principal chiefs of the village, and three were sent to meet him. His initial hope was to secure the allegiance of the villagers and enlist Lenape warriors into his campaign. Unfortunately, one of Brodhead's militiamen, Lewis Wetzel, killed one of the peaceful chiefs just as they had crossed the river to meet. Fearing massive losses and an unplanned battle, Brodhead retreated and refocused his troops on their initial goal of reaching Coshocton.
On April 20, Brodhead and his men, including some American-allied Lenape, raided and destroyed the neutral Christian Munsee village of Indaochaic. Then, aided by Lenape chief Gelelemend, they traveled to the nearby village of Goschachgunk. He divided his men into three regiments and laid their village to waste. On the first night, 16 Lenape warriors were captured, taken south of the village, and massacred by the Americans; another 20 were killed in battle, and 20 non-combatants were taken prisoner.
Five of those captured were Christian Munsees, who were released. [1] Brodhead and Colonel Davis Shepherd did not further attack the Moravian Christian settlements, such as Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhutten and Salem, which housed Christian Indians and American missionaries such as John Heckewelder, as Brodhead declared that "these Indians had conducted themselves from the commencement of the war in a manner that did them honour." [1] Brodhead and his soldiers received food from these villages. [1] Feeling his expedition at the end and his troops' anger satiated, Brodhead returned to Pennsylvania.
In 1782, American troops from Pennsylvania came back to the area. This was a force made up of primarily Pennsylvanian settlers attempting to avenge attacks on American settlers in Western Pennsylvania. After falsely promising protection to the Moravian Christian Lenape and Moravian Christian Mahicans, the Pennsylvania militia massacred residents of the pacifist Moravian Christian settlement of Gnadenhutten in what would become known as the Gnadenhutten massacre, with those who were murdered being recognized as Christian martyrs. [2] This is also the settlement which housed many of the surviving people from the previously raided and destroyed the settlement of Lichtenau.
There is now a historical marker in the city of Coshocton at 40° 16.554' N, 81° 50.659' W.
Tuscarawas County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 93,263. Its county seat is New Philadelphia. Its name is a Delaware Indian word variously translated as "old town" or "open mouth". Tuscarawas County comprises the New Philadelphia–Dover, OH Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Cleveland–Akron–Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area.
Gnadenhutten is a village located on the Tuscarawas River in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,240 at the 2020 census. It is Ohio's oldest existing settlement, being founded by Moravian Christians in 1772 and was the site of the Gnadenhutten massacre during the American Revolutionary War. It is part of the New Philadelphia–Dover micropolitan area.
The Lenape, also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada.
Moravian 47 is an Indian reserve located in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, with an area of 13 square kilometres (5.0 sq mi). It is occupied by the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown First Nation, a part of the Christian Munsee branch of the Lenape, and is commonly known as Moravian of the Thames reserve. The resident registered population is 457, with another 587 band members living off the reserve.
The Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre, was the killing of 96 pacifist Moravian Christian Indians by U.S. militiamen from Pennsylvania, under the command of David Williamson, on March 8, 1782, at the Moravian missionary village of Gnadenhutten, Ohio Country, during the American Revolutionary War.
Gelelemend (Lenape), also known as Killbuck or John Killbuck Jr., was an important Delaware (Lenape) principle Chief during the American Revolutionary War. He supported the rebel Americans, known as Patriots. His name signifies "a leader." He became principal chief of the Lenape in November 1778, following the death of White Eyes, a war chief and Speaker of the Delaware Head Council. Gelelemend succeeded his maternal grandfather Netawatwees.
The western theater of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) was the area of conflict west of the Appalachian Mountains, the region which became the Northwest Territory of the United States as well as what would become the states of Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, and Tennessee. The western war was fought between American Indians with their British allies in Detroit, and American settlers south and east of the Ohio River, and also the Spanish as allies of the latter.
White Eyes, named Koquethagechton, was Chief Sachem of the Lenape (Delaware) people in the Ohio Country during the era of the American Revolution. Sometimes known as George White Eyes, or Captain Grey Eyes al. Sir William, his given name in Lenape was rendered in many spelling variations in colonial records.
Buckongahelas together with Little Turtle & Blue Jacket, achieved the greatest victory won by Native Americans, killing 600. He was a regionally and nationally renowned Lenape chief, councilor and warrior. He was active from the days of the French and Indian War through the Northwest Indian Wars, after the United States achieved independence and settlers encroached on territory beyond the Appalachian Mountains and Ohio River. The chief led his Lenape band from present-day Delaware westward, eventually to the White River area, founding Muncie, Indiana.
The Kittanning Expedition, also known as the Armstrong Expedition or the Battle of Kittanning, was a raid during the French and Indian War that led to the destruction of the American Indian village of Kittanning, which had served as a staging point for attacks by Lenape warriors against colonists in the British Province of Pennsylvania. Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong Sr., this raid deep into hostile territory was the only major expedition carried out by Pennsylvanian provincial troops during a brutal backcountry war. Early on September 8, 1756, they launched a surprise attack on the Indian village.
David Zeisberger was a Moravian clergyman and missionary among the Native American tribes who resided in the Thirteen Colonies. He established communities of Munsee (Lenape) converts to Christianity in the valley of the Muskingum River in Ohio; and for a time, near modern-day Amherstburg, Ontario.
The Christian Munsee are a group of Lenape, an Indigenous people in the United States, that primarily speak Munsee and have converted to Christianity, following the teachings of Moravian missionaries. The Christian Munsee are also known as the Moravian Munsee or the Moravian Indians, the Moravian Christian Indians or, in context, simply the Christian Indians. As the Moravian Church transferred some of their missions to other Christian denominations, such as the Methodists, Christian Munsee today belong to the Moravian Church, Methodist Church, United Church of Canada, among other Christian denominations.
The Crawford expedition, also known as the Battle of Sandusky, 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. The campaign was led by Colonel William Crawford, a former officer in the U.S. Continental Army. 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 expedition was one in a series of raids against enemy settlements that both sides had conducted throughout the war.
Custaloga was a chief of the Wolf Clan of the Delaware (Lenape) tribe in the mid-18th century. He initially supported the French at the beginning of the French and Indian War, but after Pontiac's War he participated in peace negotiations. He opposed the presence of Catholic missionaries, but later in life he became favorable to the Moravians. Captain Pipe was his nephew and succeeded him as chief.
Captain Pipe (Lenape), called Konieschquanoheel and also known as Hopocan in Lenape, was an 18th-century Head Peace chief of the Algonquian-speaking Lenape (Delaware) and War Chief 1778+. He succeeded his maternal uncle Custaloga as chief by 1773. Likely born in present-day Pennsylvania, he later migrated with his people into eastern Ohio.
David Williamson (1752–1814) was a mass murderer and colonel in the Pennsylvania Militia during the American Revolutionary War. He was born near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and led American militiamen in the Gnadenhutten massacre of the Moravian Christian Indian Martyrs, though he failed in his plan to massacre the Christian Indians in Schoenbrunn. He led Pennsylvanian soldiers in the massacre of peaceful Delaware Indians in Killbuck Island and was second in command in the Crawford expedition. David Williamson allowed his men to rape women and children in the snow while simultaneously killing them.
Daniel Brodhead was an American military officer and politician who served during the American Revolutionary War.
Lenape settlements are villages and other sites founded by Lenape people, a Native American tribe from the Northeastern Woodlands. Many of these sites are located in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The Penn's Creek massacre was an October 16, 1755 raid by Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans on a settlement along Penn's Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania. It was the first of a series of deadly raids on Pennsylvania settlements by Native Americans allied with the French in the French and Indian War.
The Gnadenhütten massacre was an attack during the French and Indian War in which Native allies of the French killed 11 Moravian missionaries at Gnadenhütten, Pennsylvania on 24 November 1755. They destroyed the mission village and took one woman prisoner, and only four of the sixteen residents escaped. Following the attack, Benjamin Franklin was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Provincial Council to construct forts in the area, and in other parts of the Province of Pennsylvania, to defend against Native American attacks, which were becoming increasingly frequent due to the French and Indian War.