The Short and Happy Life of George McSwane
On 14 June 1758, Colonel George Washington sits at his headquarters looking out the window above the front gate of Fort Loudoun in Winchester VA overlooking the town. He writes many a letter rom this perch. With quill and some kind of paper he writes a long letter to Sir John St Clair about needs and news. But we will focus on just one matter in that letter for now.
That 's George McSwane.
He's a frontiersman. Capable. Only because he can "hang" with the Indians. He knows the wilderness, how to survive. He knows the Indians.
Colonel George Washington writes on 14 June 1758,
"Mr Cunningham in a PS to me, adds—“McSwaine this moment tells me the two Waggone⟨rs⟩ have escaped from Colo. Lewis; so that the Blankets [60 Blankets] will not be up so soon as I wrote Sir John.”
Founders Online states, "McSwaine was possibly George McSwane."
In 5 days George McSwane will be dead.
Thomas Cresap wrote a letter
on 19 June [1758]
to Sir John St. Clair :
that near Conococheague he
“found Georg McSwane Kild & Scalpt in the Road”
Thomas Cresap is quite a story himself.
Get a start on him here, and a monument to him here.
There's even a war named after him and the location of that war.
Check out Cresap's place in Old Town Maryland, and an attack outside that fort by Killbuck, and another possible location for that Old Town MD fort here, and see another Cresap fort too here.
And Conococheague, generally referred to both sides of the Potomac River near today's Williamsport MD. There was a depot of supplies and munitions on both sides of this river. On the Virginia side, there was a fort garrisoned by Virginia Regiment soldiers. That forted home is known as Fort Maidstone. It had a "tippling house" nearby. It's even a civil war site too. Also nearby was Watkin's Ferry. On the Maryland side where the Conococheague dumps into the Potomac was a Fort Davis, and now holds an The Conococheague institute for history lovers of this time period.
It was only last year in 1757,
George McSwane was with a group of Cherokee spying on Fort Duquesne.
In March and April 1755
The following account is from a paper in Col James Burd's handwriting. Endorsed on the back is "Acc't of Disbursements in Viewing & Laying out the Road to ye Ohio 1755."
Amounts of money are listed paying different men for preparing and building the road from "Youghiogains & the camps at Wills Creek" in March and April 1755.
April 1st [1755] -- To George McSwain one of the Blaisers [blazing the trail] for 6 days work: 0lbs 18s 0d [0 lbs 18 shillings 0 pennies].
That same year on 6 Nov 1755,
McSwane was captured
Here's Adam Stephen's Version:
Adam Stephen datelines his letter from Winchester VA: 6 9ber [November] 1755 and writes of more of McSwane's adventures:
I cannot Learn that any person to be depended on, has Seen this Body of French & Indians—Sure we are that 52 Delawares went last week agt the Frontirs of Pennsylvania. Two of this party was killd by One of their Prisoners McSwine, who brought in both their Scalps to Fort Cumberland last Friday.
. . .
This MacSwine had been 11 days prisoner,
was taken by a party of Shanoes,
and carried over the Allegany mountains
but being Met by this party of 52 Delawars going to War
The Shanoes made a present of him and a Dutchman,
to the Delawares,
who brought them in over to Raes town
[three years later in 1758 this was a future camp for the Forbes Expedition]
to help to drive Some Cattle and horses to the French fort—
They proceeded about twelve miles with the Drove—
when McSwine
[ a hilarious misspelling by the colorful Adam Stephen ]
took his Opportunity
and Made Pork of them
took off the Bells,
[ prisoners wore bells so the captors could hear their hostages moving ]
and turned the horses and Cattle loose in the Woods [Footnote 2]—
This McSwine would Certainly have Obtaind Some knowledge of the matter, or Seen Some Signs, of them had Such a Large Body come on this side the mountains.
Founders Online notes:
Footnote 2. George McSwane (McSwaine), of Cumberland County, Pa., arrived in Williamsburg later in the month to receive the £20 bounty for the two scalps he had taken in this encounter with the Indians.
For an account of his escape, see Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg), 21 Nov. 1755.
More on McSwanes's capture and escape:
Charles Stuart's version:
An account of the Captivity of Charles Stuart, who lived at the Great Cove, Cuinberland County, Penn. He was taken Prisoner October 29, 1755, by the Indians and marched Towards Detroit. [Endorsed:] Account of the French on the Ohio
"Wednesday Novr 2 [1755]
we marched off for Allegheney Mountain
haveing now King Shingas,j Capt Jacobs Capt Will and Capt John Peter with their respective Parties along with Us.
But it must here be observ4 that at the Shawnee Cabbins
one Jo8 Jack, an Englishman
(who had gone over to the Indians,
and lived among the Delawares)
had been Left along with a Delaware Indian
to Guard Geo McSwaine & Jacob Shover a Dutch Man,
But in the night McSwain
killd the Indian and his English associate
and he and Shover went off to Fort Cumberland 7
Carrying what Horses they had
in Company along wth them
and also the Scalps of the Indian and White man they had killd -
The Indian Parties wth whom we were Prisoners
took no Notice of their Two Freinds being killd
when we was at the Shawnee cabbins -
But Privately Brot the Ax
wth Wch they had Been Killd
along with them
To the Top of the Allegheny Mountain
where They Stopd:
Under the pretence of Smoaking their Pipes,
and after F'orming themselves
into a Circle round a Fire
an old Delaware Indian
Blind in one Eye Came &
Struck the Sd Ax into a Log
Before me
Telling me that Was the Ax
that had Done the Murder
But Did not Say what Murder it was
nor did we Know till abt 3 [hrs.] afterwards
that the above Indian & English Man had been Killd
Any otherwise than by a flying report,
the Indians Held a Council where we afterwards unders[tood] they had determined To put John Condon & Myself To Death."
ttps://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1892562.pdf
A summary:
Setting All the Captives Free: Capture, Adjustment, and Recollection in . . . By Ian K. Steele
See link:
McSwain,Hugh/George. Captured by Shawnee in Cumberland County PA, 19 October 1755. Given to Delaware and killed two in his escape to Fort Cumberland MD, 3 November 1755. Commissioned in Virginia Regiment and killed near Fort Ligonier PA 1758.
Here we got to stick in an "Oh By The Way."
Adam Stephen datelines his letter shown above:
Winchester 6 9ber [November] 1755
See that 9ber ?
That's an old reference to the legendary 10 Month Calendar of Rome before it was a Republic and then Empire. There used to be only 10 months in the calendar.
"Nov" of November is really from Latin for 9 as in the 9th month.
Dec" was the 10 in Latin for the tenth month. "Oct" is latin for 8 and was the 8th month. "Sept" is for 7th month.
With 10 months following mostly the Moon of 30 some days, there was a shortfall for the solar year, of the Sun completing it orbit. That made this 10 month calendar some 50 days short, leaving Winter unaccounted. And that's interesting. Maybe in the dark cold Winter not much was happening.
All sorts of crazy adjustments were made to make up the short fall.
And then it got crazier, because even with the changes to the Julian Calendar, the celebration of holidays kept floating away from their usual seasonal times.
Pope Gregory fixed that in 1583.
The English Empire was a Johnny Come Lately to the Gregorian Calendar, That didn't happen to change over completely until 1752.
Just think, when you look at the 1752 arch on Loudoun Street outdoor walking mall in Winchester VA, the citizens of this town lost 11 days in September 1752 to complete the change to the Gregorian Calendar, as did all the rest of the British Empire.
That's it.
That's our lead story.
Compiled and authored by Jim Moyer 6/14/2022, updated 6/15/2022
There's always more.
Skip Around.
Read bits and pieces.
Sources for story above:
We owe the title of this story to Ernest Hemingway's short story, "The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber."
Founders Online notes:
William Cunningham was a merchant of Falmouth who had supplied goods to the Virginia Regiment before, and Colonel Lewis was Fielding Lewis of Fredericksburg. McSwaine was possibly George McSwane the frontiersman referred to in Adam Stephen to GW, 6 Nov. 1755, and who led a party of Cherokee to spy on Fort Duquesne in 1757. Thomas Cresap wrote St. Clair on 19 June [1758] that near Conococheague he “found Georg McSwane Kild & Scalpt in the Road” (Stevens, Bouquet Papers, 2:111). The letter to which Cunningham added a postscript has not been identified.
Source:
Notes and Queries: Chiefly Relating to Interior Pennsylvania, Volume 1 edited by William Henry Egle
About James Burd's payment to McSwane building part of Braddock's Road:
.
To George Washington from Adam Stephen, 6 November 1755
From Adam Stephen Winchester 6 9ber [November] 1755:
2. George McSwane (McSwaine), of Cumberland County, Pa., arrived in Williamsburg later in the month to receive the £20 bounty for the two scalps he had taken in this encounter with the Indians. For an account of his escape, see Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg), 21 Nov. 1755.
Source:
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More on those blankets
June 11, 1758
June 14, 1758
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