Chapter 1
Historical Sketch of Armstrong County
Part 6
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
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COL. JOHN ARMSTRONG.
Col., afterward Gen., John Armstrong was born in the north of Ireland in
the year 1720. About 1746 he came to Pennsylvania, and settled in what was
then called the Kittatinny, now Cumberland valley, on the southeast side of
the Kittatinny or Blue mountains. The passing remark may here be made, that on
Reading Howell’s map of Pennsylvania, published in 1792, the valley south of
Bedford and between Will’s and Evit’s mountains, through which flows Evit’s
creek, is named Cumberland. On the historical map of this state the word and
query, “Armstrong (?),” are along the Kittatinny or Blue mountains
in the northwest part of the present county of Franklin. It may be that is the
place where Armstrong first settled, which was then a part of the western
frontier of Pennsylvania. He was a good surveyor. After the organization of
Cumberland county, in 1750, he and a Mr. Lyon were employed by the then
proprietaries to lay out Carlisle. In 1762 the former resurveyed and laid it
out according to its present plan. He was sent, in 1754, by Gov. Morris to the
then colony of Connecticut, respecting the, as it turned out to be, illegal
purchase of land in Pennsylvania by the Susquehanna company, or Wyoming
settlers, from the Indians. He accordingly visited New Haven and conferred
with Gov. Fitch and others concerning that purchase, and on December 11, 1754,
reported to Gov. Morris the discoveries which he had made while in
Connecticut. He ascertained that Gov. Fitch, some of the prominent men, and
the generality of the people of that colony believed that purchase to be
entirely of a private nature, and contrary to the laws of both colonies, while
some instanced the antiquity and extent of their charter on which the claims
of that company were based. He was selected, the next year, to be the surveyor
and one of the commissioners for laying out roads from Carlisle to
“Turkey Foot,” in the forks of the Youghiogheny, in the present
county of Somerset, and to Will’s Creek, the present site of Cumberland, Md.
He was appointed a captain of a company in the second battalion of provincial
troops in January, 1756, and lieutenant colonel May 11 following. In 1757 he
rendered valuable services in arranging the defense along the frontier. He was
appointed colonel May 27, 1758, and participated as commandant of the advance
division of the Pennsylvania troops in Gen. Forbes’ march to and capture of
Fort Du Quesne. Five years later, while Pontiac’s war was raging, he recruited
300 volunteers, and in the latter part of September moved against the Indian
town on the west branch of the Susquehanna, Great Island and Mauniqua � the
latter at the junction of Kettle creek with that river. The Indians had left,
leaving behind them large quantities of provisions, which, with those towns,
were destroyed. He was appointed the first on a committee of correspondence by
a large meeting of the citizens of Cumberland county, held at Carlisle, July
12, 1774, for the purpose of expressing their sympathy with the people of
Boston. He was also the first one on a committee appointed to tender to
Benjamin Franklin, who was then president of the committee of safety, their
services in raising a full battalion in that county. He was the first of the
six brigadier generals who were chosen by Congress, February 29, 1776. In the
following April he was ordered to South Carolina, whither he proceeded and
took command of the troops collected at Charleston, which place was in danger
of being attacked by the British fleet under the command of Sir Peter Parker.
Gen. Charles Lee, who was commandant of the southern department, having
arrived there in the fore part of April, assumed command, keeping Gen.
Armstrong with nearly 2000 men at Haddrell’s Point, which was a mile or so
from Fort Moultrie, as the fort on Sullivan’s Island was afterward called in
honor of Col. Moultrie, who, under the immediate orders of Gen. Armstrong, so
heroically commanded it during the bombardment of the British fleet for ten
hours, June 28, when it was defeated.Gen. Armstrong, having resigned his position in the Continental army, April
4, 1777, was the next day appointed first brigadier general, and June 5, major
general of the troops in Pennsylvania, to whom Gen. Washington wrote, July 4,
and expressed his “pleasure at this honorable mark of distinction
conferred upon him by the state.” He afterward, during the last named
year, rendered efficient and valuable services in erecting works of defense
along the Delaware river, and at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and
when an invasion was apprehended at Philadelphia he was ordered thither to
command the militia. His public life ended with his services in Congress, to
which he was elected for the years 1779-80 and 1787-88.Judging from a likeness of him which the writer has seen, his personal
appearance must have been somewhat like that of Washington, his presence
commanding and dignified and well calculated to win the esteem and confidence
of those who came in contact with him. He was a citizen of Cumberland county,
Pa., where he lived and died19 highly esteemed and gratefully
remembered, and says Bancroft, in his cursory notice of the battle at
Kittanning, “famed as inheriting the courage and piety of the Scotch
covenanters.” Gen. James Wilkinson, in his memoirs, pays tribute to him:
“The hero of Kittanning in the war of 1756, and one of the most virtuous
men who has lived in any age or country.”And William B. Reed, in his oration, delivered on the occasion of the
reinterment of the remains of Gen. Mercer, paid him this just tribute:
“To fearless intrepidity of the highest cast there was united in his
character a strong sense of religious responsibility that rarely blends with
military sentiment. He belonged to that singular race of men, the Scottish
Covenanters, in whom austerity was a virtue of high price, and who, in the
conflicts to which persecution trained them, never drew the sword or struck a
mortal blow without the confidence, which enthusiasm seemed to give them, that
agencies higher and stronger than human means were battling in their behalf,
and that their sword, whether bloodless or bloody, was always ‘the sword of
the Lord.’ Educated in these sentiments, John Armstrong never swerved from
them. He was foremost in this country’s ranks, whether her cause was defense
against a foreign foe or revolt against oppression � in the colonial
conflicts as well as war of the revolution. He was always known to kneel in
humble devotion and earnest prayer before he went into battle, and never
seemed to doubt the battle’s fury that the work of blood was sanctified to
some high purpose. Under this leader did young Mercer � for a common
sympathy, at least on this soil, united the Jacobite and the Cameronian �
fight his first American battle; and it was in the arms of the son of this his
ancient general that he was carried mortally wounded from the bloody field of
Princeton.”Gen. Armstrong became a Presbyterian, and was an active and influential
member of the first church at Carlisle, whose first church edifice was erected
in 1757.CAPT. MERCER.
Capt. Hugh Mercer, in the action of Kittanning, was induced by some of his
men, as Col. Armstrong believed, to detach himself with his ensign and ten or
twelve others from the main body by being told that the main force was in
great danger and that they could take him into the road by a nearer route. He
had not, however, been heard from when Col. Armstrong closed his report to
Gov. Denny. He and those with him were then supposed to have been lost. From
another source than Col. Armstrong’s report, I learn that he was wounded in
the wrist and discovered there was danger of his being surrounded by the
hostile Indians, whose war-whoop and yell indicated their near approach.
Having become faint from loss of blood, he concealed himself in the hollow
trunk of a large tree. The Indians came there, seated themselves for rest, and
then disappeared. Capt. Mercer then left his hiding place and pursued his
course through a trackless wild, a hundred miles, to Fort Cumberland,
subsisting, in part at least, on the body of a rattlesnake which he had
killed. Some writers state that it was the battle of the Monongahela that he
was separated from the main force, and that he started on that lonely tour to
Fort Cumberland from Fort Du Quesne. In confirmation of the opinion that Capt.
Mercer’s lonely and perilous journey and escape to Fort Cumberland was when he
was separated from the main force at Kittanning, instead of near Fort Du
Quesne, Bancroft, in his brief account of the affair at the former place,
says: “Mercer, who was wounded severely and separated from his
companions, tracked his way by the stars and rivulets to Fort
Cumberland,” His authority for saying that Kittanning was the starting
point of that journey is the above mentioned oration by William B. Reed.Patterson’s “History of the Backwoods” contains the following
account of Capt. Mercer’s escape, compiled from Robinson’s narrative, which,
though varying as to some parts of his journey from the foregoing account,
which the writer has adopted as correct, is confirmatory of the fact that it
was from Kittanning, and not from near Fort Du Quesne, that Capt. Mercer
started on that lonely and perilous journey. It is there stated, “Capt.
Mercer, who had had his arm broken in the engagement, was unhappily persuaded
by some of his men to leave the main party; and, as they were old traders,
they proposed to conduct him a nearer way home. They accordingly detached
themselves from the company, but, unhappily, soon fell in with the Indians
with whom Lieut. Hogg had had the engagement in the morning, by whom several
of the party were killed, and the remainder dispersed. Mercer made his escape
in company with two others. But the bandage on his arm having become loosed,
they stopped to rebind it, whereby he grew faint. At that moment an Indian was
seen approaching them. The Captain’s two companions, having abandoned him,
sprang upon his horse, from which he had alighted, and hurried away. Having
thrown himself behind the log on which he sat, which happened to be overgrown
with weeds, he concealed himself from the Indian, who approached to within a
few feet of him, when, on discovering the two others fleeing on horseback, he
gave the war-whoop and pursued them.“Shortly afterward, Capt. Mercer crawled from his place of concealment
and descended into a plum-tree bottom, where, hidden by the thick undergrowth,
he remained till night. Having refreshed himself with the plums, which he
found abundant, and which afterward were his only food for a whole month while
he struggled on his homeward way, except a rattlesnake which the cravings of
hunger had induced him to kill and eat raw.“One day when he had reached the north side of the Allegheny mountain,
he discovered a person whom he supposed to be an Indian. The other saw him.
They both took trees and remained a long time. At length Mercer concluded to
advance and meet his enemy; but when he came near he found him to be one of
his own men. Both rejoiced to meet, while both were so faint and weary that
they were scarcely able to walk. They pushed on over the mountain, and were
not far from Frankstown, when the soldier lay down, not expecting evermore to
rise. Mercer struggled on about seven miles further, when he also lay down on
the leaves, abandoning all hope of ever reaching home. There was at that time
a company of Cherokees in British pay; and being at Fort Lyttleton, some of
them had been sent out to search along the foot of the mountain to see if
there were any signs of Indians on that route. Those Indians by chance came
upon Mercer while he was unable to rise. They gave him food, and he told them
of the other. They took Mercer’s track and found the soldier, and brought him
to Fort Lyttleton, having carried him on a bier of their own making.”Captain, afterward General, Hugh Mercer was a native of Scotland, born near
Aberdeen about 1723, liberally educated, a physician who had acted as
surgeon’s assistant at the battle of Culloden. He emigrated to Pennsylvania
and settled near the present town of Mercersburg, Franklin county, and thence
to Virginia, where he settled. Before he engaged in Armstrong’s expedition, he
had been engaged with Washington in the Indian wars of 1755. Having been
promoted to the rank of colonel, he participated in the campaign under Gen.
Forbes, was present at the capture of Fort Du Quesne, and after its evacuation
by the French and occupation by the English, was left in command of it, or
rather Fort Pitt, during a part of 1759, and there judiciously participated in
the conference held with the nine chiefs of the Six Nations, Shawanese and
Delawares, from a town up the Ohio (Allegheny) about a hundred miles above
Venango (Franklin), near the Boughelloor, on January 4, 6 and 7 of that year.
They “came from Weayough, the king, or Great Chief of Konnawagogh,”
who had heard “that their friends, the English and Delawares, had talked
together, and we (they) are come to talk with you likewise.” Whether they
came down the Allegheny or took the land route from Venango to Fort Pitt, is
not stated. At that season of the year, when there was probably too much ice
in the upper Allegheny for navigation, they likely took the other route. On
the evening of the 6th five of the head-counsellors went to the
tent of Col. Mercer, where he and Capt. Ward were present, who informed the
chiefs that they were “to unbosom themselves and freely open their
minds” to those officers, which they did, telling them, among other
things, that “the Delawares and Shawanese are not to be depended
upon.” They made quite a long speech, giving assurances of their fealty
to the English, strings of wampum, and finally a large belt. On the afternoon
of the 7th, the officers of the garrison and a large number of
Indians being present, the chiefs made another speech, to which Col. Mercer
replied, concluding thus: “Brothers! When the French came here, they made
us quarrel with our good old friends, and by so doing they have hurt both you
and us; your brothers, the English, are a great people. Their eyes are now
opened, and while the sun shines and the rivers run, they will never suffer a
Frenchman to sit here. Brothers! I return you this belt; what you have now
said must be told to Gen. Forbes; if you have a mind to send this belt to him,
I will send one along with you.” The Six Nations said: “Brothers!
Listen and be attentive to what I say; I am sorry that you have returned the
belt which I gave you; but if you will give me one keg of rum, I shall feel
perfectly well again.”Another conference commenced on July 4, and continued at intervals until
the 16th, between George Croghan, deputy agent to Sir William
Johnson, Col. Mercer, commandant, and a number of other officers of the
garrison, and chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations, Delawares, Shawanese and
Wyandots. About five hundred Indians were there during the conference. The
object of this conference seemed to be the settlement and confirmation of
peace, and the regulation of trade between the English and the Indians, the
finale of which was, that at the request of the Indians and with the
approbation of Col. Mercer, Capt. Croghan sent a speech by two Wyandot to
Venango, in which it was asserted, among other things, that “the English
are not come here to war with the Indians, but to carry on trade and commerce
with all nations of them, as far as the sun-setting,” and sent along with
the speech twelve fathoms of white wampum. Indians of the several nations
there represented sent their speeches to enforce Croghan’s.At the beginning of the Revolutionary War Col. Mercer left a large medical
practice and sided with the colonists. On June 5, 1776, he was appointed a
brigadier-general. “It is not improbable,” says Reed, “that his
services were solicited by Washington himself,” whose confidence he
enjoyed beyond most of his fellow-officers, “as it appears from his
correspondence that the Commander-in-chief repaired to Philadelphia to concert
with Congress plans for the organization of the army, and that he remained
there until the day after the date of his commission, and those of two others
of his most valued friends.20 General Mercer soon left, and
forever, his peaceful home, his young wife and children, and joined the army
at New York.”General Mercer afterward won distinction, especially in the battles of
Trenton and Princeton. While at Bristol, Pa., his quarters were at Mr.
Keith’s, a little out of town. It is related that when the American army
marched to McConkey’s Ferry, he told Mrs. Keith that he had dreamed the
previous night that he had been attacked and overpowered by a huge black bear.In the battle of Princeton he commanded the van of the American army. While
exerting the utmost valor and activity his horse was killed under him. Being
thus dismounted he was surrounded by some British soldiers, with whom, when
they refused to give quarter, he fought desperately until he was completely
overpowered. After stabbing him with their bayonets and inflicting several
blows on his head with the butt ends of their muskets they left him, under the
impression that he was dead, on the field, whence he was taken to the house of
Thomas Clark, some of whose kindred now reside at Princeton.Says Barber in his Historical Collections of New Jersey: “Mr. Joseph
Clark states that General Mercer was knocked down about fifty yards from his
barn, and after the battle, was assisted by his two aids into the house of
Thomas Clark, a new house about one and a quarter miles from the
college.” He was nursed by Miss Sarah Clark and a colored servant.
“Nor was his dying bed,” says Reed, “a bed of utter desolation.
The house whither the wounded soldier was carried was tenanted during that day
by two delicate females, who, wearing the garb and professing the principles
of peace, were too brave to fly from the field of battle or the bed of death.
While the conflict raged around their humble dwelling those tender, helpless
women lost no confidence in the protection which the God of innocence rarely
withholds � and when the dying warrior was brought to their threshold and
left beneath their roof, their ministering charities were ready to soothe his
solitary anguish and smooth the passage to the grave. One of these American
women of better times has died near Princeton within the last few months
(1840), aged upward of ninety years. It was part of her household story
that she had watched the deathbed of a soldier of the Revolution.”General Mercer died January 12, in the arms of Major George Lewis, a nephew
of General Washington, who was commissioned by his uncle to watch over him.
His mangled corpse was removed under military escort to Philadelphia, and
there exposed in the Coffee House, with the design of exciting the indignation
of the people. Though a lion in battle he was uncommonly placid, and almost
diffident in private life. That he should thus perish at the age of fifty-six
sent a thrill of anguish and indignation through every patriotic American
heart. Gen. Wilkinson in his Memories remarks: “In Gen. Mercer, we lost
at Princeton a chief who, for education, disposition and patriotism, was
second to no man but the Commander-in-chief, and was qualified to fill the
highest trusts of the country.”It had been erroneously stated that Gen. Mercer was bayoneted after having
surrendered. That statement is corrected in Custis’ “Recollections of
Washington.” When Major Lewis expressed the extreme indignation which
prevailed in the American army at the treatment, the magnanimous Mercer
observed: The tale which you have heard, George is untrue. My death is owing
to myself. I was on foot endeavoring to rally my men, who had given way before
the superior discipline of the enemy, when I was brought to the ground by a
blow from a musket. At the same moment the enemy discovered my rank, exulted
in their having taken a rebel general, as they termed me, and bid me ask for
quarters. I felt that I deserved not so opprobrious an epithet, and determined
to die as I had lived, an honored soldier in a just and righteous cause; and
without begging my life or making a reply, I lunged my sword at the nearest
man. They then bayoneted and left me.While the surgeons were dressing his wounds, of which he had received
thirteen, the General remarked: “Never mind those; they are mere
scratches. Look under my arm, and there you will find a fellow that will soon
do my business.”Gen. Mercer was buried in Christ Church cemetery, Philadelphia, January 16,
1777, where for years a plain slab with the initials H.M. denoted his last
resting place. His bones, being remarkably well preserved, were raised
November 26, 1840, and reinterred in Laurel Hill cemetery, over which an
appropriate monument was erected, on the north side of which is this
inscription: “He received a medal from the corporation of Philadelphia
for his courage and conduct against the Indian settlement of Kittanning.”A fort on the Delaware, towns and counties in various states bear his
honored and illustrious name.Captain Potter.
Captain, afterward General, James Potter,21 whose voucher or
pay-list is alone given, was born “on the bank of the river Foyle,
Tyrone, Ireland, in” 1729, and was about twelve years of age when his
father, John Potter, landed at New Castle, Delaware. In 1742 he was a
lieutenant in a border militia company, and captain in 1756, in Armstrong’s
expedition to Kittanning, in which they became attached friends. He was in
active service as major and lieutenant colonel in 1763 and 1764, during all
the period he was a successful farmer. He was eminent and influential in the
agitation which preceded the beginning of the revolutionary war. There was
not, it is said, a meeting of the patriotic inhabitants of the then large
county of Northumberland held without his presence and influenced by his
advice. He was appointed a colonel in 1775, and a brigadier general along with
John Armstrong, John Cadwalader and Samuel Meredith � all of whose names, it
will be perceived, in some of the more local sketches have been impressed upon
the face of this county. � April 5, 1877. Potter’s services in the campaign
of that year were very distinguished. With the troops under his command in the
counties of Philadelphia, Chester and Delaware he gained for Washington
important information respecting the movements of the enemy, and with great
vigilance gave all possible annoyance to the foraging parties sent out from
Philadelphia. While the army under Washington were marching to Valley Forge,
after a portion of it had crossed the Schuykill at Matson’s Ford December 11,
it was found that the enemy under Cornwallis were in force on the other side.
Washington wrote: “They were met by Gen. Potter with great bravery and
gave them every possible opposition till he was obliged to retreat from their
superior numbers,” and the next spring he wrote from Valley Forge:
“If the state of Gen. Potter’s affairs will admit of returning to the
army, I shall be exceedingly glad to see him, as his activity and vigilance
have been much wanted during the winter.” He was Vice President of this
state; was commissioned a major general in 1782; and was one of the council of
censors in 1784, when he was within a few votes of defeating for President of
the council the very distinguished John Dickinson. He rendered military
service during the entire revolution, and won the confidence of Washington,
Greene, Pickering, Mifflin and his fellow brigadiers. He resided in Penn’s
Valley in the present county of Center from 1772 until his death in November,
1789, being then one of the associate judges of the courts of Northumberland
county, and leaving a very large and valuable estate. He was stout,
broad-shouldered, courageous, five feet and nine inches in height, with a dark
complexion, a strong type of the Scotch-Irish race. His father was the first
sheriff of Cumberland county, Pa. His family relations have furnished two
other Generals Potter, one United States Senator, a Governor of this state,
several law judges and members of the State Legislature. He served with marked
fidelity and acceptance in the various civil and military positions which he
filled, and was in private life one of the most enterprising and successful of
all our revolutionary officers.[The writer regrets that he has been unable to ascertain the parentage,
native place and antecedents of Lieut. James Hogg, who so dauntlessly braved
an overwhelming force of the enemy, immortalized his name and rendered Blanket
Hill memorable by his sanguinary struggle and heroic death.]Such are but glimpses of the illustrious careers of gallant soldiers who in
September, 1756, moistened the soil of what is now Armstrong county with their
blood in defense of the families, the homes, the security and the happiness of
the settlers along the then frontier of the Province of Pennsylvania.
Source: Page(s) 13-59, History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania by Robert
Walker Smith, Esq. Chicago: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883.
Transcribed January 1999 by Jeffrey Bish for the Armstrong County Smith
Project.
Contributed by Jeffrey Bish for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project
(http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)Armstrong County Genealogy Project Notice:
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