The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the Battle of Blue Licks (8/19/1782) - Apr. 13th, 2005

Military History Magazine | August 2002 | James Graves

[SAMWolf]

Bryan's Station was proving tougher than Girty had reckoned. Could still more reinforcements be approaching? A change of plans seemed in order. Girty directed the warriors to destroy the crops around the stockade, burn outlying buildings and slaughter the livestock. That done, he led the warriors slowly off to the northeast.



The next day, substantial reinforcements reached Bryan's. Their commanding officers were Colonel Stephen Trigg and Major Hugh McGary, both of Harrodsburg, at the head of the Lincoln County militia, together with Colonel John Todd of Lexington and Lt. Col. Daniel Boone, leading Long Knives from Fayette County.

The 50 men immediately under Boone came from around Boonesborough and from Boone's Station, near the frontier legend's homestead on Marble Creek. Suggesting the clanlike makeup of units common in frontier armies, Boone's command included three nephews, three cousins and Israel, his 23-year-old son. Israel happened to be sick when the men mustered to ride to Bryan's, and a family tradition has it that young Boone dragged himself from bed and accompanied the army only after his father had sternly reminded him of his duty.

Word had come that Colonel Benjamin Logan was en route from Logan's Station (present-day Standford, Ky.) with 400 more Long Knives. Even in Logan's absence, upon finding the enemy gone, Todd and the other officers began laying a plan of pursuit. During their conference, Major McGary suggested that they remain at Bryan's until Logan came up. McGary was known to be unstable and hotheaded, but he was an intrepid Indian fighter. Cautious advice from him may have struck Colonel Todd as being out of character. In any case, Todd called McGary's suggestion "timid" and proposed that the force set out at once, lest the Indian raiders escape. It was not the militia's habit to permit raiders to escape unharried, Todd reminded the officers. The reinforcements on hand, together with men from Bryan's, rode in pursuit. In all, they numbered fewer than 200. No one seems to have noticed that Todd's mild rebuke had stuck in McGary's craw, and as the pursuit advanced, the major's mercurial temper continued to rise.

Colonel Benjamin Logan

When retreating, the Indians usually broke up into small parties and took measures to hide their trails. Yet this group was traveling together and leaving a clear trail. They were, however, trying to conceal their numbers by walking in each other's footprints—indications that should have alarmed seasoned Indian fighters. As it happened, only Boone caught on. He warned the rest of the group that they were being lured into a trap. Boone, who was then 48, had earned a reputation as a keen woodsman and an uncannily accurate forecaster of Indian intentions. Unfortunately, this was one of those unaccountable times when experience and good sense—even the instinct for self-preservation—counted for naught in the heat of the moment. In any case, Boone's warning was disregarded by his comrades.

As the march progressed, the trail grew fresher. Early on August 19, two days after they had set out, the militiamen approached the salt deposits in northeastern Kentucky known as the Upper Blue Licks, in present-day Robertson County, some 48 miles northeast of Lexington (via U.S. 68). On a hilltop a half-mile beyond a ford over the Licking River, the pioneers spotted two warriors lounging in the open. The officers dismounted and conferred. Some concluded that the braves were stragglers lagging in the wake of the fleeing warriors, but Boone thought they were decoys. He was closely acquainted with the tangled landscape and knew danger lay ahead. The crest of the hill was, he warned, cut by gullies large enough to conceal the host of braves that was no doubt lurking there. The pursuers would do well to wait for Logan, he advised. Failing that, he added, they should at least send half their force upriver and take the Indians in a pincers movement.

Colonel Todd agreed with Boone. So did some of the junior officers, but not Major McGary, who truculently called Boone's courage into question. While Boone was angrily protesting, "I guess I can go as far in an Indian fight as any man," McGary remounted, brandished his rifle and spurred his horse into the water. "Them that ain't cowards follow me," he yelled, "and I'll show where the yellow dogs are!"

During the siege of Bryan's Station by British and Indians in the summer of 1782, Daniel Boone hoped to avenge the slaughter of hundreds of farm animals. Instead, they were ambushed at Blue Licks and routed. In this painting we see Daniel, already beginning to retreat as his son, Israel,fights on. Israel Boone was killed that day, in what many historians regard as the last battle of the American Revolution.

In a regular army McGary would immediately have been placed under arrest. But the Long Knives were irregulars, militiamen typically short on discipline and long on impulse and dash. This, together with the high worth the militia set on their reputation for valor, may explain why McGary's challenge overpowered the irregulars' good sense. First the men at large, then the officers—including Boone—fell in behind the insubordinate major.

On the far bank the officers succeeded in forming the men into columns under Trigg, Todd and Boone. Then, except for a few officers who remained mounted, they left their horses at the river and pressed quickly up the hill on foot. The moment McGary and a score of Harrodsburg men in the van reached the crest, the "yellow dogs" sprang the trap. Braves concealed behind rocks and trees on both flanks and in their front raised the war cry and opened fire. Of the entire van, only three men escaped the sudden fusillade.

By then, the three columns following had separated and lost sight of each other. The left-hand column was Boone's. As he pushed forward, a brave leapt from cover to get a clear shot a him. Boone snapped off a round, and the warrior fell. At this point, Boone later recounted, he experienced a surge of confidence. The feeling was only momentary. Just then Hugh McGary galloped up, having been left miraculously untouched by the volleys that had cut down the van. He brought a stunning report: The columns under Todd and Trigg had been routed. They were racing back toward the ford and their horses.

Boone looked back and saw that warriors had moved into the militiamen's rear to seize the mounts and cut off escape. They already lined the riverbank. In a frantic effort to break through to safety, the thinned units of Trigg and Todd crashed into them. As he watched the melee—a desperate contest between tomahawk-wielding Indians and militiamen swinging clubbed rifles—Boone realized that the battle was hopelessly lost. Forty men were already down, and more were falling.

Without the initiative of militiaman Benjamin Netherland, still more Long Knives would have died. Even in defeat, Netherland stood his ground. After fighting through the braves and crossing the Licking River, he could have continued his flight. Instead, he organized a dozen or so riflemen who had likewise reached the south bank. Their determined defense felled enough warriors to break up the huggermugger on the opposite shore and enable some of their companions to cross to safety.

Netherland's timely show of fortitude mitigated the disaster, but at that juncture nothing could have reversed it. By now, warriors were heavily pressing Boone's own column, and men all around him were beginning to fall. The prudent thing was to get them out of harm's way. He sent them into dense woods to the left, with orders to recross the Licking downstream, beyond range of the warriors' muskets. To cover their escape, Boone stayed behind, with Israel beside him. Daniel ordered his son to run for it, but out of love, Israel disobeyed. "Father, I won't leave you," he insisted. A moment later, a musket ball caught him in the neck. He groaned and fell, then started convulsing, blood gushing from his mouth. Daniel stooped over him and watched the light fade from his eyes. He must have recalled that his son was at the Blue Licks only at his insistence. Later, Boone would call Israel's death the hardest blow he ever felt.

Too busy for remorse, Daniel Boone followed his unit leftward into the woods and cautiously made his way back to the river. Once safely across, he rejoined his men—what was left of them. As it happened, the Indians, after scalping the dead (together with the wounded and prisoners, whom they then finished off by slow degrees), grew sated with blood and triumph, and made no effort to run down the survivors. All the same, the surviving officers led a helter-skelter retreat back south. On the march they met Logan's force advancing toward them and reported their bad news. Logan pushed on as far as the Licking River. By now the Indians had cleared out, and his pursuit fizzled there. He feared a second ambush at the Blue Licks.

[SAMWolf]

Among the Long Knives who reached home was young Squire Boone, son of Daniel's brother Samuel. Squire, who had been shot in the hip and would be permanently lame, was luckier than his brother Thomas, who lay dead at the Blue Licks. Among the other dead were Colonels Todd and Trigg, together with 14 fellow officers. Death might have redeemed, or partly redeemed, Major McGary. But he came out of the Blue Licks unscathed and unchastened and would live to perpetrate still more mischief. Although a mighty Indian fighter, he was the bane of the Long Knives. Chiefly through his rash attempt to counter earlier charges of timidity, 77 men had died at the Blue Licks. In all, August 19, 1782, was the bloodiest day the militiamen ever endured. Indian casualties, on the other hand, were light.



Through a long war punctuated with grim sieges and lightning punitive expeditions, the Long Knives were sustained by their courage, audacity and individual initiative. They also had plenty of faults, including vainglory, rashness and impatience with prudent restraint. As an early historian put it, they were "fool-brave." At the Blue Licks the fool in them clearly got the upper hand and led them into folly.

For the tiny communities represented in the expedition, the loss of 77 men was a calamity. At the stations and in remote, scattered cabins there was bitter grief. Five days after the disaster Boone returned with a burial party. The group chased off glutting buzzards and interred the torn, scalped, bloated, blackened, stinking bodies in a mass grave. A monument was later erected to commemorate those who died.

Of all the places that figured in Boone's lifelong wanderings, the Blue Licks was surely filled with the most poignant memories. In peaceful times, he had often hunted there. In 1774, during an interlude on his perilous mission to warn the Kentucky surveyors of the onset of Lord Dunmore's war with the Shawnees, it was at the Licks that Boone had laughed at the antics of his fellow ranger Michael Stoner as Stoner tried to evade an enraged buffalo. Two years later, Boone had returned to the Blue Licks as a rescuer and had taken his daughter Jemima and the Callaway sisters from their Indian captors.


Boone later recounted that as a brave leapt from cover, he snapped off a round, killing the Indian and giving himself a momentary surge of confidence. But upon learning that the columns under Colonels John Todd and Stephen Trigg had been routed, he knew the battle was lost.
SUTRO LIBRARY

After that, it must surely have seemed to Boone that the Blue Licks had turned against him. In early 1778, the Licks witnessed his capture by the Shawnees, together with the capture of 26 fellow Long Knives. After his escape, while Boone and his brother Edward were returning from a hunt there in October 1780, Indians killed Edward. Now the site would forever hold Israel and Thomas Boone.

For Boone and the new Kentuckians fighting to hold onto their settlements, the Blue Licks had became a place of abiding painful and dark memories. During the 38 years that remained to him, mention of the fight at Blue Licks brought tears to Daniel Boone's eyes.

As for Simon Girty, he alone of the Girty brothers eventually returned to civilized life, though he remained infamous. Like Boone, he has lent his name to numerous locations around the region, mostly for some form of treachery or violence. Near the Ohio River at Short Creek, there is a ridge known as Girty's Point, from which he often launched scalping raids. The path there, first traveled by Indians centuries ago, is still used by the locals, most of whom are unaware they tread in the footsteps of villains and patriots, players in the saga of dark and bloody ground that was once Kentucky.

Additional Sources:

www.lucidcafe.com
earlyamerica.com
www.dnr.state.oh.us
www2.truman.edu
www.ficklin.org
www.military.state.ky.us
www.logansfort.org
domfree.de
www.ket.org
www.lawbuzz.com

[SAMWolf]

'I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.'

Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone
American Pioneer and Trailblazer

1734 - 1820

Daniel Boone was born November 2, 1734 in a log cabin in Berks County, near present-day Reading, Pennsylvania. Boone is one of the most famous pioneers in United States history. He spent most of his life exploring and settling the American frontier.

Boone had little formal education, but he did learn the skills of a woodsmen early in life. By age 12 his sharp hunter's eye and skill with a rifle helped keep his family well provided with wild game. In 1756 Boone married Rebecca Bryan, a pioneer woman with great courage and patience. He spent most of the next ten years hunting and farming to feed his family. In 1769 a trader and old friend, John Findley, visited Boone's cabin. Findley was looking for an overland route to Kentucky and needed a skilled woodsman to guide him. In 1769 Boone, Findley and five men traveled along wilderness trails and through the Cumberland gap in the Appalachian mountains into Kentucky. They found a "hunter's paradise" filled with buffalo, deer, wild turkey and meadows ideal for farming. Boone vowed to return with his family one day.



In 1775 Boone and 30 other woodsmen were hired to improve the trails between the Carolinas and the west. The resulting route reached into the heart of Kentucky and became known as the "Wilderness Road." That same year Boone built a fort and village called Boonesborough in Kentucky, and moved his family over the Wilderness Trail to their new home.

Boone had numerous encounters with the native people of Kentucky during the Revolutionary War. In 1776, Shawnee warriors kidnapped his daughter and two other girls. Two days later Boone caught up with the Indians and through surprise attack rescued the girls. In 1778, he was captured by another band of Shawnee. Boone learned that the tribe was planning an attack on Boonesborough. He negotiated a settlement with Chief Blackfish of the Shawnee, preventing the attack. The Indians admired their captive for his skill as a hunter and woodsman and adopted him into their tribe as a son of Blackfish. He escaped when he learned the Shawnee, at the instigation of the British, were planning another attach on Boonesborough. The settlement was reinforced and provisioned in preparation for the assault. When British soldiers and the Indians attacked, Boonesborough withstood a ten-day siege and Chief Blackfish and the British finally withdrew.



After the Revolutionary War, Boone worked as a surveyor along the Ohio River and settled for a time in Kanawha County, Virginia (now West Virginia). In 1792, Kentucky was admitted into the Union as the 15th state. Litigation arose that questioned many settlers' title to their lands. Boone lost all his property due to lack of clear title. In 1799, he followed his son, Daniel Morgan Boone, to Missouri which was then under the dominion of Spain. Traveling by canoe, he and his family paddled down the Ohio River to St. Louis.

In 1800, Boone was appointed magistrate of the Femme Osage District in St. Charles County, Missouri. He received a large tract of land for his services. When Missouri was transferred to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase, Boone once again lost all his land, most of which was sold to satisfy creditors in Kentucky. Boone's wife Rebecca died on March 18, 1813. He spent his remaining years living in his son Nathan's home in the St. Charles area. He went on his final hunting trip at the age of 83.



Daniel Boone died on September 26, 1820 at the age of 85. In 1845 the remains of Boone and his wife were moved to Kentucky to rest in the great pioneer's "hunter's paradise." There is some controversy surrounding the final disposition of Boone's remains. Some say that Daniel and Rebecca are still in Missouri, and that the wrong remains were removed and re-buried. Others have demanded the return of the bodies to Missouri.

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

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We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

I realized that our Veterans have no "official" seal, so we created one as part of that recognition. To see what it looks like and the Star that we have dedicated to you, the Veteran, please check out our site.

Veterans Wall of Honor

Blue Stars for a Safe Return

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

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[snippy_about_it]

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Good Wednesday Morning Everyone.

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[AZamericonnie]

Thank you for this evenings thread. It is evident the work that goes into it!

[alfa6]

Wednesday AM Bump for the Freeper Foxhole

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Neil E. Wright]

Hiya Snippy and Sam .... once again you've put together another OUTSTANDING history thread ..... Thanks for your hard work, kids!!!! Keep it up!!!!

And now, while others are enjoying your thread, I'll help myself to a cold brew from your cooler and put my feet up on your desk ... :)

±

"The Era of Osama lasted about an hour, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty."
Toward FREEDOM

I'm starting a Military/Veteran's Affairs ping list. FReep mail me if you want ON/OFF the list.

[cyborg]

thanks for pinging me... last time I studied American history was in high school.

[Iris7]

Nice piece, SAM. I was totally ignorant of this material.

I had relatives in that area at that time. Names are long lost. Three brothers with my last name, probably all ancestors (what an idea!) came over here in a big hurry because of their involvement in the troubles of 1799. Settled in the hills and stayed. Married the local girls. The area did not even have dirt roads in 1920, only foot paths.

[Coldwater Creek]

I would like to be on your ping list!!!!

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy((HUGS))and everyone at the Foxhole.

[Samwise]

Good Kentucky read today. Blue Licks is one of the few places in Kentucky that I haven't been to.

[The Mayor]

April 13, 2005

The Darkest Day

Read:
Matthew 26:17-30

The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. -Psalm 118:22

Bible In One Year: Psalm 7-9

To celebrate Passover, Jewish worshipers sing Psalms 113-118, a section called the "Egyptian Hallel." The ceremony builds to a crescendo of appreciation for freedom and the beauty of life given by God. It ends with participants singing and praising God both to please Him and to express their own pleasure. One rabbi explains it as experiencing the "emotional joy of freedom."

Near the end of the Passover meal, the second half of these Hallel psalms are sung. According to the gospel of Matthew, Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn and "went out to the Mount of Olives" after celebrating their last Passover together (26:30). They may well have sung this psalm:

The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing;
It is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:22-24).

Regardless of which hymn they sang, the confidence Jesus had in the goodness of His heavenly Father is astounding. He was able to praise His Father even though He knew He was about to experience His darkest day. -Julie Link

Even on the darkest days
My heart sings in joyful praise,
Not because God says I should
But because I know He's good. -Link

Praise has the power to lighten our heaviest burden.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
Why Did Christ Have To Die?

[GailA]

Good morning ALL.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[alfa6]

Update pics on the latest "Weekend Home Improvement Project"

Well after working a couple of unexpected nights of O/T the last week, I only have two more nights to go. Last weekend while I was sleeping Mrs alfa6 and our oldest daughter painted up the rooms. First pic will be of War Zone 1 aka the sewing room. This pic was taken from inside similar to the one I took a couple weeks ago that showed the framing for the pocket door.

Second pic is of War Zone 2, aka the naster bedroom. The pic was taken from across the hall in the bathroom doorway. It has a deep blue paint, Mrs alfa6 thinks it will help me sleep day when I have to work nights. One can hope :-)

Sorry for the poor quality on this pic but it is cloudy this AM and my little strip light can only do so much with the paint job.

I am off to pick up the new oak flooring in a little while. Mrs alfa6 over the next two nights will start getting the floors prepped so that we can start installing the flooring this weekend. Should have the floors down, stained and at least one coat of finish on them by Monday night.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-Gram.

[Mudboy Slim]

"SlickWillie FOOLS!!"
(To be sung to Eric Clapton's "BellBottom Blues")

SlickWillie FOOLS, you make US fight...
Right ain't gonna lose this feeling!!
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It shall be 'gainst YOU, Bubba!!!!

Do you wanna help Right Dethrone Left's Whore?!! Do You?!!
Are ya gonna FReep Slick ev'ry time ya can?!
I dare ya!! DO IT!! 'Cuz...
We can't let Slick git away!!
Right SHALL Indict Left's Sleaze!!
We can't let Clinton Sanction RAPE!!
In their hearts, Libs don't like RAPE!!

Left's all Wrong, but we're alRight!!
OUR Nation's still healthy, Patriots!! Ahh-hmmmm...
RightWing is Strong, and We'll Win the Fight!!
Lib'rals best git usedta LOSIN'!!

Do you wanna help Right Dethrone Left's Whore?!! Do You?!!
Are ya gonna FReep Slick ev'ry time ya can?!
I dare ya!! DO IT!! 'Cuz...
We can't let Slick git away!!
Truth SHALL Indict Left's Sleaze!!
We can't let Clinton Sanction RAPE!!
In Slick's Cell, RATbi+c# shall be RAPED!!

(Purty jammin' by TheBigMan)

Are ya gonna Help US Win the Culture War?!! Will YOU?!!
Are ya gonna TEACH Libs ev'ry time ya can?!
I dare ya!! DO IT!! 'Cuz...
We can't let Slick git away!!
Right SHALL Indict Left's Sleaze!!
We can't let Clinton Sanction RAPE!!
RATS're DOLTS...but Left's Minds We'll Save!!

SlickWillieFOOLS, tell Slick "Good-Bye!!"
We're surely gonna FReep as "FRiends"...
And when we do, don't act surprised...
When you hear Slick loves his CellMateBuggerin'!! OOOOOOOH!!

FReepers Gonna Help US Win the Culture War!! Are YOU?!!
Are ya gonna FReep Slick ev'ry time ya can?!
I dare ya!! DO IT!! 'Cuz...
We can't let Slick git away!!
Right SHALL Indict Left's Sleaze!!
We can't let Clinton Sanction RAPE!!
Slick's a BUM...Young girls Bill RAPES!!
We Shan't Let RacistWillie Skate!!
RATS, yer dumb...but Slick's a Snake!!

Mudboy Slim

Bill Clinton Shall Be Dethroned When Leftist RATS Reject His Faux Populism!!

RE-IMPEACH. CONVICT. DETHRONE.
DISBAR. DE-PENSION. DE-LEGITIMIZE.
INDICT. CONVICT. IMPRISON. DISCARD KEY.

Quite Sincerely...MUD

1 posted on 11/20/2002 5:45 AM EST by Mudboy Slim

[Diva Betsy Ross]

'I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.' Daniel Boone

This is my new favorite quote! Thanks for the Pings kids. Another interesting thread! I learned a good deal reading it.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the Veterans of the United States- and I hope everyone remembers that Patriot's day is just around the corner. Anyone who is near Concord MA should think about attending the Patriot's Day parade on Monday-in Concord, near the Minute Man Park.