In the Current of the Revolution 149 



suasive arguments to draw the inhabitants of the 

 country into the field." 58 The Kentuckians were 

 anxious to do all in their power, but of course only 

 a comparatively small number could be spared for 

 so long a campaign from their scattered stockades. 

 Around Pittsburg, where he hoped to raise the bulk 

 of his forces, the frontiersmen were split into little 

 factions by their petty local rivalries, the envy their 

 leaders felt of Clark himself, and the never-ending 

 jealousies and bickerings between the Virginians 

 and Pennsylvanians. 59 



The fort at the Falls, where Clark already had 

 some troops, was appointed as a gathering-place for 

 the different detachments that were to join him ; but 

 from one cause or another, all save one or two failed 

 to appear. Most of them did not even start, and 

 one body of Pennsylvanians that did go met with 

 an untoward fate. This was a party of a hundred 

 Westmoreland men under their county-lieutenant, 

 Col. Archibald Loughry. They started down the 

 Ohio in flat-boats, but having landed on a sand-bar 

 to butcher and cook a buffalo that they had killed, 

 they were surprised by an equal number of Indians 

 under Joseph Brant, and being huddled together, 



58 State Department MSS. Letters to Washington, Vol. 

 49, p. 235, May 21, 1781. The entire history of the Western 

 operations shows the harm done by the weak and divided 

 system of government that obtained at the time of the Revo- 

 lution, and emphasizes our good fortune in replacing it by a 

 strong and permanent Union. 



59 Calendar of Virginia State Papers, I, pp. 502, 597, etc. ; 

 II, pp. 108, 116, 264, 345. The Kentuckians were far more 

 eager for action than the Pennsylvanians. 



