The Mahicans were an  Algonquin tribe that settled in the Hudson River Valley.  They later moved to  western Massachusetts in the town of Stockbridge, where many converted to Christianity and became known as the “Stockbridge Indians.”

Following the Revolutionary War,  white settlers flocked westward across the Ohio River.  Enraged Miami and Shawnee tried to unite various other native tribes to resist white expansion.  Concerned about the costs of a general Indian war in the West while the Creeks threatened to the South, President Washington took a conciliatory approach by trying to curtail white encroachments and land frauds, and by “civilizing” the Indians through government supported trading posts, providing farm equipment, and by building schools and mills.

By 1791, the government needed someone who could articulate government policies to the Western Tribes.   Indian Commissioner Timothy Pickering considered a number of candidates, including Mohawk Joseph Brant, and Senecas Red Jacket and Cornplanter.  But when he received an offer from Captain Henrick Aupaumut to help broker an agreement, Pickering chose the Mahican.  In this War Department letter,  Secretary of War Henry Knox provides instructions and guidance for Aupaumut’s   diplomatic mission.

Aupaumut was well equipped as a frontier diplomat. Educated by missionaries, he was articulate and  wrote well. He had Revolutionary War credentials and was sachem of a tribe with a strong tradition of good relations with the Western Indians.  For Aupaumut, and the relatively small number of Mahicans, this was also an opportunity to play what historian Alan Taylor has called the “front door” power broker and thus potentially reap a higher degree of influence, and autonomy for his people.

Ultimately, the Western Indians demanded that the several thousand settlers leave the Ohio Country-a virtual impossibility-and so talks with Treaty Commissioners Timothy Pickering, Beverly Randolph, and Benjamin Lincoln  never got off the ground. Meanwhile, as General Anthony Wayne trained his formidable military force along the Ohio River, ultimately redeeming General St. Clair’s loss with decisive victory at Fallen Timbers,  Aupaumut found himself no longer needed as a broker.  Ultimately, the Mahicans themselves would be displaced, first back to central New York (New Stockbridge), then Indiana and Wisconsin.

For more information, see Alan Taylor, “Captain Hendrick Aupaumut: The Dilemmas of an Intercultural Broker”,  Ethno History, Vol, 43, No. 3 (Summer, 1996): 461-457.

As Simmons explains in his letter to the committee, the Office of Accountant was established by an act of Congress on May 8, 1792. The original duties of the Accountant was “to settle all accounts relative to the Pay, Forage, and Subsistence of the Army.” For these duties, the Accountant was allowed a salary of $1,200 (just over $15,000 in today’s money, adjusted for inflation).

Simmons noted in his letter that in the last four years, the duties of the Accountant have been expanded. The Accountant now also had to settle all accounts relative to “the Pay and Subsistence of the Navy, expences in the Military Store Department and all the expences and annuities in the Indian Department other than for the purchase of stores.” Despite the added workload, the Accountant’s salary “has never been augmented,” unlike “the Salaries of most of the other Officers of the Department.”

For further evidence that his salary ought to increase, Simmons also enclosed to the committee a list of the salaries allowed the Officers of the Treasury and War Department, “wherein they will observe that, that of the Accountant bears no proportion.” Simmons ultimately received his raise.

Knox encloses in the letter a schedule of pay for Wayne, and asks that Wayne please accept or decline the appointment with a return letter; curiously, Knox asks that an acceptance of the appointment be accompanied by a written oath of office.

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Hodgdon recommended that Wheelen use nitre or brimstone (sulfur) for the fumigation. In 1795 the British had carried out a successful experiment on the hospital ship Union using a combination of concentrated vitriolic acid and nitrate of potash (sulfuric acid and potassium nitrate), conducting twice daily fumigation to prevent the spread of a fever. Brimstone, or sulfur, had been used to clear diseased air from ships since the 1750s, and vinegar was also supposed to help clear the air of infection. The prevailing medical theory of the time held that diseases spread through the air in a cloud, or miasma; therefore clearing or treating the air would reduce the risk of disease transmission.

As a side benefit, the combination of gas from the nitrate or sulfur and the liberal application of vinegar afterwards might well have kept bugs away from the stores. That may have been what Hodgdon meant when he referred to the “preservation of the woolen goods.” Even if the practice of fumigation did nothing to prevent the spread of diseases, it at least had some benefit when it came to insects and other pests.

For more on fumigation and the Union experiment, see the entry on Contagion in Encycopaedia or Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature (Philadelphia: Printed by Budd and Bartran for Thomas Dobson, 1803).

Later Blount became a Senator. Long engaged in land speculation activities, he eventually found himself in financial difficulty.  He was implicated in a British plot to incite the Creeks and Cherokees to aid the British in conquering Spanish territory in West Florida.  When President Adams got wind of the plan, he informed the Senate.  The House of Representatives voted unanimously in favor of expulsion from the Senate for treason.   In this letter from George Washington t0 James McHenry, Washington discusses the “nefarious” conduct of the late governor and senator.

In the autumn of 1792 we catch a glimpse of just how difficult transportation in 1790s America could be. In August, for instance, Secretary Knox had to scold Major Isaac Craig for demonstrating impatience over the slow arrival of waggoners to Pittsburgh, writing, “a sufficient time has hardly elapsed… it requires from twenty one to twenty five days for this journey.”

Sometimes the waggoners contracted by the War Department failed in their duty, causing great delay in delivering key supplies. In the following letter the Quartermaster General was said to have expressed great displeasure with the clerk William Knox for employing “improper waggoners – in several Instances men who are not to be depended on.” In September a waggoner who was found tardy was “refused any further employ by way of punishment.”

When a wagon had to be sent across a river, nature itself could get in the way, as we see in this August letter regarding the Ohio River – “the River is now so low that it is impossible for any Craft of Burthen to descend.” Overall, transportation in the 1790s was a difficult issue that the War Department frequently struggled with – a difficulty that, over time, would gradually disappear.

In this document, Samuel Hodgedon gave a brief summary of the artillery situation at Fort Ransalaer–there seemed to be eight six-pound cannons and one four-pound cannon that were being underutilized. He asked for those cannons, along with carriages, to be taken to Governor’s Island. In addition, he asked that 1,000 nine-pound cannonballs be taken as well, but only if it could be done easily and cheaply.

These kinds of decisions were routine, but required adequate communication. A supply officer had to know what equipment was available, and where it was available. Thus, correspondence like this took up a great deal of an officer’s time.

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Wayne was reluctant to establish a routine of constant inoculation, risking the health of those soldiers affected. Inoculation, after all, involved infecting the person; while most people survived, there was always a risk of serious illness and death. Wayne proposed separating those who were still susceptible to small pox, sending them to the block house at Big Beaver, at least until Knox could offer an opinion on whether to proceed with inoculation.

Knox approved of the plan to separate the vulnerable from the infected and immune. He considered July a very bad time to attempt inoculation, and suggested that it could be done one the troops were in winter quarters. The decision to wait until later in the year may have been inspired by prevailing medical wisdom of the time. In a 1791 essay Observations on the small-pox and inoculation published in Edinburgh, Scotland, surgeon Alexander Aberdour asserted that winter was the best season for inoculation, “though it may be done at any time when the air is cool” (74). On the other hand, Knox may also have simply wanted to wait until it would be easier for the War Department to lose time and possibly men to the process of inoculation.

Source: Aberdour, Alexander. Observations on the small-pox and inoculation: to which is prefixed a criticism upon Dr. Robert Walker’s late publication on the subject, by Alexander Aberdour surgeon in Alloa. Edinburgh: Printed for J. Elder, 1791.

At Long Canes, Pickens would marry and start a family. He farmed and became prosperous trading with his Indian neighbors. An ardent patriot as the American Revolution approached, Pickens became a military leader during the war. He led expeditions against the Loyalist-allied Cherokee and in 1779, when Sir Henry Clinton sent British troops into South Carolina to bolster support for the Loyalists, Pickens and his three-hundred man militia defeated a larger British force under Colonel Boyd at Kettle Creek in North Georgia. Pickens was later captured by the British and took an oath to sit out the remainder of the war. But when Tories destroyed much of his property and frightened his family, he gathered his militia and fought with them as a guerilla unit against the British. Under Daniel Morgan, Pickens’ militia played a key role in the defeat of the Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens as they feigned retreat and then counterattacked the British Regulars.

After the Revolution, Pickens acquired land in western South Carolina on the banks of the Keowee River and built a house called Hopewell. Highly respected by the Cherokees who called him “Wizard Owl,” he served as a commissioner for negotiating a treaty with the Southern Indians. Later he became a Congressman. In this document, Henry Knox presents  Pickens with a sword from Congress, citing his “spirited conduct” at Cowpens.

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