CHAPTER III 



KENTUCKY UNTIL THE END OF THE REVOLUTION, 

 1782-1783 



SEVENTEEN hundred and eighty-two proved 

 to be Kentucky's year of blood. The British 

 at Detroit had strained every nerve to drag into the 

 war the entire Indian population of the Northwest. 

 They had finally succeeded in arousing even the 

 most distant tribes not to speak of the twelve 

 thousand savages immediately tributary to Detroit. 1 

 So lavish had been the expenditure of money and 

 presents to secure the good-will of the savages and 

 enlist their active services against the Americans, 

 that it had caused serious complaint at headquar- 

 ters. 2 



Early in the spring the Indians renewed their 

 forays; horses were stolen, cabins burned, and 

 women and children carried off captive. The peo- 

 ple were confined closely to their stockaded forts, 

 from which small bands of riflemen sallied to patrol 

 the country. From time to time these encountered 

 marauding parties, and in the fights that followed 

 sometimes the whites, sometimes the reds, were 

 victorious. 



1 Haldimand MSS. Census for 1782, 11,402. 



2 Do. Haldimand to De Peyster, April 10, October 6, 1781. 



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