Wilkinson's Expedition

In Kentucky District, the U.S. called for volunteers to rescue women and children taken captive by angry Indian warriors. Eight hundred men, many of them Revolutionary War veterans, responded at once, each bringing his own horse and gun, and five hundred twenty-five were chosen. Led effectively, this task force overcame distance, swamps, and unbridged rivers, surprised and destroyed a great den of raiders, and brought this band to make peace. The cost in human lives was only twelve. President Washington regretted that any Indians had to be killed, but he told Congress that the Kentuckians who served so well, and were so merciful and well-behaved, showed enterprise, intrepidity, and good conduct entitled to peculiar commendation.

Indiana · United States