Pluggy (

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...

: Tecanyaterighto, Plukkemehnotee) (died 29 December 1776) was an 18th-century

Mingo The Mingo people are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans, primarily Seneca and Cayuga, who migrated west from New York to the Ohio Country in the mid-18th century, and their descendants. Some Susquehannock survivors also joined them, and ...

chieftain and ally of

Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gover ...

during

Lord Dunmore's War Lord Dunmore's War—or Dunmore's War—was a 1774 conflict between the Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo American Indian nations. The Governor of Virginia during the conflict was John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore—Lord Dunmore. H ...

. During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, he allied with the British and commanded a series of raids against American settlements throughout the Ohio Country and the western frontier of Virginia until his death at McClelland's Station in 1776.

Life

Originally from a

band, Pluggy gathered a number of

and

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

followers and moved westward eventually setting on the site of

Delaware, Ohio Delaware is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County, Ohio, United States. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816. It is located near the center of Ohio, is about north of Columbus, and is part of the Columbus, Ohio m ...

in 1772. During

, he was one of the most active chieftains allied to the

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

conducting extensive raids against settlements as far as

western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

and

western Virginia Western Virginia is a geographic region in Virginia comprising the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia. Generally, areas in Virginia located west of, or (in many cases) within, the piedmont region are considered part of western Virginia. T ...

from his base at Pluggy's Town, 18 miles north of present-day

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. Despite the peace following the

Treaty of Camp Charlotte Lord Dunmore's War—or Dunmore's War—was a 1774 conflict between the Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo American Indian nations. The Governor of Virginia during the conflict was John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore—Lord Dunmore. He a ...

, Pluggy remained a fierce and particularly hostile enemy after finding ''"his blood relations lying dead"'' by Virginian colonists. Throughout the late-1770s, Pluggy's Town was used by Pluggy and other

Chippewas The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

Wyandots The Wyandot people, or Wyandotte and Waⁿdát, are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. The Wyandot are Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of North America who emerged as a confeder ...

, and

Ottawas The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ), said to mean "traders", are an Indigenous American ethnic group who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, commonly known as the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. They ha ...

to stage raids against American settlements. In late 1775, he joined the British at the start of western operations in the American Revolution. In December 1776, Pluggy led a band of thirty warriors up the

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and Licking Rivers attacking

Harrod's Town Harrodsburg is a home rule-class city in Mercer County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 9,064 at the 2020 census. Although Harrodsburg was formally established by the House of Burgesses after Boonesbor ...

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

morning and, later that day, ambushed a 10-man party under

John Todd John Todd or Tod may refer to: Clergy *John Todd (abolitionist) (1818–1894), preacher and 'conductor' on the Underground Railroad * John Todd (author) (1800–1873), American minister and author * John Todd (bishop), Anglican bishop in the early ...

and

John Gabriel Jones John Gabriel Jones (June 6, 1752 – December 25, 1776) was a colonial American pioneer and politician. An early settler of Kentucky, he and George Rogers Clark sought to petition Virginia to allow Kentucky to become a part of the Colony of Vir ...

. The men had been marching down the valley towards the Ohio River, where Jones and

George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American surveyor, soldier, and militia officer from Virginia who became the highest-ranking American patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the Ame ...

had stored 500 pounds of

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...

, when they were attacked killing Jones and another man in the

fusillade A fusillade is the simultaneous and continuous firing of a group of firearms on command. It stems from the French word ''fusil'', meaning firearm, and ''fusiller'' meaning to shoot. In the context of military tactics, the term is generally used t ...

and capturing another four men in the final charge. The remaining four were able to escape, the story later being told by one of the survivors, pioneer and hunter David Cooper, in the 1987 book ''The Kentuckians'' by Janice Holt Giles. Several days later, he arrived at McClelland's Station, a settlement of thirty families located in present-day downtown Georgetown and defended by twenty settlers including frontiersman Robert Todd, Robert Ford,

Robert Patterson Robert Patterson (January 12, 1792 – August 7, 1881) was an Irish-born United States major general during the American Civil War, chiefly remembered for inflicting an early defeat on Stonewall Jackson, but crucially failing to stop Confede ...

Edward Worthington Edward Worthington (–1804) was an Irish-born American frontiersman, hunter, surveyor and soldier who explored and later helped settle the Kentucky frontier. A veteran of the American Revolutionary War and the American Indian Wars, he also served ...

, Charles White and founder John B. McClelland. On 29 December, Pluggy led between forty and fifty warriors against the fort and retreated after several hours of fighting leaving a number of men dead including Charles White and John McClelland. During the retreat, Pluggy himself was shot and killed by four of the fort's defenders in retribution for the death of McClelland. He was later buried by members of his tribe on a bluff overhanging the nearby spring and, for a number of years afterwards, a popular legend claimed that the echo heard in the area was the death cry of Pluggy.Federal Writers' Project. ''Kentucky: A Guide to the Bluegrass State''. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1939. (pg. 264)

Life

Notes and references

Further reading