William Crawford was an American soldier and surveyor. He served during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War.
Background
William Crawford was born in 1732 in Orange County, Virginia, United States. He was the son of William Crawford and his wife Honora Grime. His parents were Scots-Irish farmers who migrated from Pennsylvania down the mountain valleys to Frederick County in the northwestern part of Virginia.
Career
Crawford fought in Braddock’s campaign, 1755, and became captain and leader of scouts. He was with Forbes in the successful expedition to Fort Duquesne, 1758, and served in the Pontiac War. In 1766 or the following year he removed with his family to that part of western Pennsylvania which became Fayette County, and settled in New Haven (now included in Connellsville). He was soon a justice of the court of quarter sessions, and a land agent for his friend Washington, who visited him in 1770.
Three years later he received a visit from the governor, Lord Dunmore. In Dunmore’s War, 1774, Crawford destroyed two Iroquois villages in Ohio. Soon after this he was removed from his office of judge by the Pennsylvania authorities, as the region where he had settled was in dispute between that colony and Virginia. When the Revolution began, Crawford was a member of the committee of defense at Pittsburgh, and he also aided in raising the West Augusta (Virginia) regiment. He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Virginia, February 13, 1776, and colonel of the 7th Virginia, August 14, 1776. He took part in the battle of Long Island, in the retreat from New York, and in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown. Not long after the last of these he went to the West, and thenceforth was engaged in the defense of the frontier. In 1778, he was placed in charge of the militia, under General Lachlan McIntosh and the next year he accompanied Colonel Daniel Brodhcad on his punitive expedition against the Indians. Among his fortifications were Fort Crawford on the Allegheny River and Fort Fincastle, at the site of the present Wheeling, on the Ohio.
He resigned in 1781, intending to pass in quiet the remainder of his life. From his retirement, however, Crawford was summoned in May 1782 at the urgent request of General Irvine, to take part in an expedition against the Indians of Ohio. The little army of Pennsylvania and Virginia mounted men, about 400 in number, gathered at Mingo Bottom, near the modern Steubenville. The men were “not specially fit”; some of the troops had shared in an outrageous attack upon the Christian Indians shortly before. Crawford was elected commander, and the army marched northward, planning a surprise, and by June 4 reached “Battle Island” near a Wyandot deserted village, three miles from the modern Upper Sandusky in Wyandot County. The Indians, however, were well informed, and about 400 Wyandots and about 200 Delawares had collected. The fighting of the first day was to the advantage of the frontiersmen, but on June 5 reinforcements appeared for the Indians, among others, 200 Shawnees and a force of British, Butler’s Rangers.
Crawford’s army was surrounded, supplies were running low, and the guides advised return to the Ohio. The retreat began that night, and the main force under Williamson reached the river, with a loss of about seventy. One report says, “They had been deceived, out-generated and caught in a trap”. Crawford himself became separated from the main body, and, with a companion, Dr. Knight, fell into the hands of the Delawares. The captives were taken to a point near Crawfordsville, where the unfortunate commander was tortured and burned at the stake. Dr. Knight, who had been a witness of his sufferings, escaped, and eventually reached the settlements and gave a report of the event.
Achievements
Connections
In 1742 Crawford married Ann Stewart and she bore him one child, a daughter also named Ann, born in 1743. Apparently, she died in childbirth or soon after, and on 5 January 1744 he married Hannah Vance, said to have been born in Pennsylvania in 1723. She bore him a son named John and at least two daughters.