The siege of Dunlap's Station was a battle that took place on January 10–11, 1791, during the

Northwest Indian War The Northwest Indian War (1785–1795), also known by other names, was an armed conflict for control of the Northwest Territory fought between the United States and a united group of Native Americans in the United States, Native American na ...

between the

Northwestern Confederacy The Northwestern Confederacy, or Northwestern Indian Confederacy, was a loose confederacy of Native Americans in the Great Lakes region of the United States created after the American Revolutionary War. Formally, the confederacy referred to it ...

of American Indians and

European American European Americans are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes both people who descend from the first European settlers in the area of the present-day United States and people who descend from more recent European arrivals. Since th ...

settlers in what became the southwestern region of the U.S. state of

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. This was one of the Indians' few unsuccessful attacks during this period. It was shortly after the Harmar campaign attacks and unprecedented defeat of U.S. Army forces. A few months after the siege, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Indians. This small episode, a week after the so-called Big Bottom massacre in what became southeast Ohio, turned into an iconic event: Ohioans believed that Native Americans had tortured innocent American settlers.

Background

During their long and complex history on the North American continent,

Indigenous peoples of the northeastern woodlands Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands include Native American tribes and First Nation bands residing in or originating from a cultural area encompassing the northeastern and Midwest United States and southeastern Canada. It is part ...

vigorously adopted every imaginable effort to survive and thrive. However, "By 1690, many of the Native American peoples in the eastern part of the region had been driven out by the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

and their allies." The

settler A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

s who were encroaching upon Indian territory had either purchased or been awarded titles to plots of land in the Ohio Country, and this brought them into conflict with the Indian tribes in the area. The

began after the Revolutionary War, and those living near frontier outposts north of the Ohio were particularly subject to attack by Indians.

Siege

Dunlap's Station, later known as Fort Colerain, was on the east bank of the

Great Miami River The Great Miami River (also called the Miami River) (Shawnee language, Shawnee: ''Msimiyamithiipi'') is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe Nat ...

, and established in early 1790 in the midst of what was also called Little Turtle's War. It served three main functions: as a base for American expansion into Indian territory,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

–based land speculation, and a settlement for American farmers with their fields and pastures. The

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from part of the unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution. Established ...

had been established in 1787, within which Judge Symmes had organized the Miami Company and then advertised the availability of this land. They hired the Irish surveyor John Dunlap, who led the party of men, women and children. It was located next to the 2,000-year-old Colerain Earthwork, aka the Colerain Township Group (a lost geometric and hilltop enclosure), and one or more sacred Adena mounds, This prime floodplain site would have attracted the farmers. The natives may have lost the meaning of these older sacred sites, though. The settlers cleared the land, constructed the station, and grew crops outside during the first summer. The blockhouses were built as a refuge from

Native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

attacks, since this was still primarily

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

land. While neighbouring Indians and settlers had managed to share an earlier Christmas feast, naturally an application was made at Fort Washington for a garrison. "...A small detachment of United States troops, under the command of Lieutenant Jacob Kingsbury, occupied the fort. It consisted of a corporal and eleven men, besides the commandant. Their names were Taylor, Neef, O'Neal, O'Leary, Lincoln, Grant, Strong, Sowers, Murphy, Abel, McVicar and Wiseman. The plan shows the cabins of the settlers. There were on the north side of the fort, Horn, McDonald, Barrott and Barket, with their families, and on the south side, White, with his family and McDonald, whose family was not at the station..." Three

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

s had been constructed for the military garrison, as had a shelter for the hand mill. The ten settler's cabins faced together, A cleared line of fire was begun by removing brush and felled trees, but this was not completed in time. Another vulnerability had been that the lower edges of the roofs were on the outside and had, for example, become a way into the Fort for their dogs. This was reversed, but there were still open spaces between some of the logs. As per Shaumburgh's Plan, all this was linked with 8' high fencing of log pickets, and then extended to the shore, The total enclosed about one acre.

Initial attack

Convinced that the untrained American (aka Shemanese, Long or Big Knives)

militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

s were vulnerable to forays by united warriors, in November and December 1790 the chiefs of the

met with the

British Indian Department The Indian Department was established in 1755 to oversee relations between the British Empire and the First Nations in Canada, First Nations of North America. The imperial government ceded control of the Indian Department to the Province of Cana ...

to request support for simultaneous raids on Baker's and Dunlap's Stations. The "white Indian" Simon Girty was honoured with the leadership of these attacks. Everything started, however, on January 8, 1791, two days before the actual siege, when a cross-border surveying incursion, mostly by civilians and military not from Dunlap's Station, was attacked. John S. Wallace, Capt. John Sloan, surveyor Abner Hunt and a Mr. Cunningham from the station were inspecting a nearby clearing when they were surprised and assaulted by the native scouts. The scouts were

(Algonquian-speaking), Myaami (Miami-Illinois), Lenape (Delawares), Wyandots (Hurons), and Niswi-mishkodewin (also known as the United Nations of Potawatomi Indians), Odawa (Ottawas), and Ojibwe (Chippewas). Cunningham was killed and scalped, and Abner Hunt was captured. Sloan was wounded and Wallace helped him back to the Station. The settlers and soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Jacob Kingsbury, gathered in the blockhouses to prepare for the assault. This included the women melting spoons for bullets. Unsurprisingly, on Sunday the natives allowed Wallace to take them to Cunningham's body. "They buried it on the spot, and returned without molestation..." Cone later wrote: "This night it rained, froze, and snow fell from four to five inches deep..." This fact would prove fatal to the planned attack with blazing arrows and torches. On January 10, the Natives approached the station, bragging that they were led by the multi-lingual "villain"

Simon Girty Simon Girty (14 November 1741 – 18 February 1818) was an interpreter with the British Indian Department during the American Revolutionary War and Northwest Indian War. As a child he and his brothers James and George were captured and adopted b ...

, and demanded surrender using their captive as an interpreter. This parlay lasted about an hour on the east side of the Fort. Gunfire broke out on the opposite side by the deep portion of the river while the demands were being made. Then the shooting continued for another two hours, but these battle demands were ignored. The attackers withdrew until the evening, but likely used the time to butcher their cattle. The captive Hunt was killed under disputed circumstances. While the Girty brothers were alleged to have been present to instigate the execution of Abner Hunt, according to an 1843 report it seems more likely that Blue Jacket led this attack while Girty was at Baker's Station on the Virginia side of the Ohio. The January 12th detailed written report from Kingsbury to Harmar simply called this a "murder," but the torture allegations could well be accurate. Wallace had escaped to summon reinforcements, who rapidly made their way to assist. Fighting resumed at the break of dawn the next day, January 11, however the Natives lacked siege weapons. They withdrew around 8:00 A.M. before a relief force from Fort Washington arrived around 10:00 A.M. Kingsbury later boasted about scalps his men had taken.

Aftermath

On January 14, Kingsbury was praised by Harmar. No mention was made of the honour and compassion shown to Wallace and Cunningham's body. However, the apparent torture of a surveyor during the effort to capture the small fort, especially as "white traitors" were said to be the leaders, was widely sensationalized as proof of "the savages'" inhumanity. Only two weeks later the press seemed to have begun the embellishment: In late 1791 and early 1792, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington became involved after receiving such reports, as did as the luminaries of the

Masonic Lodge A Masonic lodge (also called Freemasons' lodge, or private lodge or constituent lodge) is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also a commonly used term for a building where Freemasons meet and hold their meetings. Every new l ...

. Plans were made for a more substantial fort the following year, possibly on the west bank of the Big Miami, but it seems this was never built. George Washington did not officially approve any of the

Symmes Purchase The Symmes Purchase, also known as the Miami Purchase, was an area of land totaling roughly in what is now Hamilton, Butler, and Warren counties of southwestern Ohio, purchased by Judge John Cleves Symmes of New Jersey in 1788 from the Contine ...

until 1794, and many other legal issues plagued these transactions. In 1881, Ford called this "the fiercest and longest sustained Indian attack recorded in the annals of Hamilton county." The station was later twice abandoned as being too vulnerable: George Rogers Clark had traversed this area in 1780, then parts of three other armies - "...Harmar' left wing, 1790; St. Clair' main body in 1791, and Wayne' center and left wing in 1793." The settlers' ownership was ultimately annulled by Washington and only after the defeat of Tecumseh's Confederation was the area successfully occupied. The station had been the key to settler survivalScamyhorn & Steinle, pg. 73. in what became the entirety of Hamilton, Butler, and Warren Counties.

Notes

External links

Coleraine Historical Society model

Full citations

* Blount, Jim
"Dunlap Station besieged by Indians"
''Journal-News'' Journal-News and the Golden Triangle Association, February 14, 2001 * Butterfield, Consul Willshire. History of the Girtys. 1890. * Butts, pg. 297

* Captives in American Indian Wars

Captives in American Indian Wars Captives in American Indian Wars could expect to be treated differently depending on the identity of their captors and the conflict they were involved in. During the American Indian Wars, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples and ...

* Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites (CERHAS) at the University of Cincinnati, and the Newark Earthworks Center at the Ohio State University at Newark. Ancient Ohio Trail, The Great Miami Valley

* Cist, Charles,. Sketches and statistics of Cincinnati in 1859. Cincinnati, Ohio : s.n., 1859. . * Cone, Stephen Decatu
Indian Attack on Fort Dunlap.
''Ohio History.'' Ohio Historical Society. January 1908, Vol. 17, Number 1 (pp. 64–72). * Diemer-Eaton, Jessica. Woodland Indian Torture: A Perspective for Educators. Jun 13, 2011. http://voices.yahoo.com/woodland-indian-torture-perspective-educators-8571469.html * Ford, Henry A. & Kate B.
1881 History of Hamilton County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. illustrated, BiblioBazaar, 2011 (reprint). . 598 pages. * Greve, Charles Theodore.
Centennial History of Cincinnati and Representative Citizens
'' Chicago: Biographical Pub. Co, 1904. Pages 284-286. * Harmer to Hamtramack. http://gbl.indiana.edu/ethnohistory/archives/dockett_317/317_19n.html#272 * Howe, Henry., LL.D. Historical Collections of Ohio, Vol. I. C.J. Krihbiel & Co., Printers and Binders, 1888-1890. Pg. 750-751. * Milligan, Fred, Ohio's Founding Fathers. iUniverse, 2003. , 9781469722665. 336 pages. * Rowland, Carolyn D., R. V. Van Trees, Marc S. Taylor, Michael L. Raymer and Dan E. Krane. Was the Shawnee War Chief Blue Jacket a Caucasian?, Forensic Bioinformatics, Inc., Dayton, OH 45324; Fairborn, OH 45324; Technical Associates Inc., Ventura, CA 93003; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45435; and Department of Biological Sciences, Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45435. Ohio J. Sci 106 (4):126-129, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20110323100831/http://www.bioforensics.com/articles/BlueJacket.pdf * Scamyhorn, Richard, and John Steinle. "Stockades In The Wilderness-The Frontier Defenses and Settlements of Southwestern Ohio 1788-1795" (1986). * Shaumburgh, Lieutenant Bartholomew. 179
Plan of Settlement Call'd Dunlap's Station
* Spooner, Walter Whipple, principal author, with an introduction by Florus B. Plimpton. The Back-woodsmen, Or, Tales of the Borders : a Collection of Historical and Authentic Accounts of Early Adventure Among the Indians. Cincinnati : Jones Bros., c1883. 608 p. : ill. * The American museum or universal magazine: containing essays on agriculture, commerce, manufactures, politics, morals and manners .. Volume 9 of The American museum or universal magazine: containing essays on agriculture, commerce, manufactures, politics, morals and manners. 1791. * Turner, G., "Plan and Elevation of a Stockade Work, with Block-House Bastions; designed for the defence of the Settlement of Coleraine, on the Great Miami River, 1791." Watercolor, pen and ink. Josiah Harmar Papers. Map Division, Small Maps 1791. ww.clements.umich.edu/exhibits/online/geometry_of_war/geometry5.php* Wheeler-Voegelin, Drs. Erminie, Emily J. Blasingham, Dorothy R. Libby: An Anthropological Report on the History of the Miamis, Weas, and Eel River Indians, Vol. 1. Chapter 2. http://gbl.indiana.edu/ethnohistory/archives/dockett_317a/317a_3e.html * Winkler, John F. Wabash 1791: St Clair's Defeat. Volume 240 of Campaign (Osprey Publishing). Illustrated by Peter Dennis. 2011. , 9781849086769. 96 pages.

General references

*
Butts, Edward. ''Simon Girty: Wilderness Warrior''. Volume 29 of Quest Biography. Dundurn, 2011
. 192 pp.
Downes, Randolph Chandler. ''Frontier Ohio, 1788–1803'', Volume 1. Volume 3 of Ohio historical collections. 280 pp.
* Eckert, Allen W. ''A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh''. Reprint. Random House LLC, 1993. . 1068 pp. Subjects Biography & Autobiography › General Biography & Autobiography / General History / Native American. p. 407 and note 381.
Family Tree of Christopher W. Lane

* Hoffman, Phillip W., ''Simon Girty Turncoat Hero: The Most Hated Man on the Early American Frontier''. American History Imprints, 2009. . 490 pp.
Hover, John Calvin, 1866– ed. Barnes, Joseph Daniel, 1869– ed.'' Memoirs of the Miami valley''. Vol. 3. [electronic resource] Chicago, Robert O. Law company, 1919. 3 v. ; 28 cm. p 292.

Huston, Paul Griswold, ''Around an Old Homestead: A Book of Memories''
p. 15. 1906. Eaton and Mains. Open Library . .
Ironstrack, George. The Mihši-maalhsa Wars – Part II. Myaamia Community Blog

Keller, Christine, et al. ''Archeology of the Battles of Fort Recovery'', Mercer County, Ohio: Education and Protection

Kingsbury Family Papers, 1791–1924

Kingsbury, ''Lt. Jacob – Commanders at Fort Belle Fontaine''
* Kramb, Edwin A., ''Buckeye Battlefields''. 1999 (June 2006) p. 105–09
Miami Valley 1700–1865 Reenactors Company. Dunlap's Station Revisited 1791
* Scholle, Frank & Don Linz. ''Colerain Township''. . 128 pp. Arcadia Publishing. 2010

* Sugden, John, ''Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees''. 2000. p. 110–11.
Thompson, Bob. ''The Clash of Cultures: Understanding the Conflict between Settlers and Native Americans on the Allegheny Plateau''

Wells, Ruth J. Colerain Township, Revisited. 1994. (PDF link)

. Buckeye Book Press, 2003. 166 pages.

Fiction

Wiete, Robin Leanne. ''When Morning Comes''
Penguin Group (Canada), 1993. . 384 pages. * ''Indian-Artifact Magazine'', vol. 14-3, p. 5. Part of a story of Tecumseh and others. * Mentioned in Eckert, Allan W. ''The Life of Tecumseh''. 1992. p. 407 & note 381. {{coord, 39, 17, 35, N, 84, 39, 19, W, region:US_type:city_source:kolossus-eswiki, display=title Dunlap's Station Dunlap's Station 1791 in the Northwest Territory Dunlap's Station