During the American Revolution, pioneers from western Pennsylvania southward fought two wars simultaneously. Besides supplying troops to the Continental forces, they fought off Indian attacks as fierce as any by Redcoats in the East. Their grim defense prevented Indian incursions into the interior of the former colonies even as war-weary backcountry riflemen finally witnessed the surrender of the army of Lord Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 17, 1781. But the American victory at Yorktown was no deterrent to the Shawnees, Miamis, Mingos, Wyandots, Ottawas and other hostile tribes in the West. With arms and incitement from the British in Canada, the Indians fought on without letup.

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Meanwhile, Americans in the East halted even the scant assistance they had been sending west. With no resources but their own, the new Westerners were left to confront a highly mobile, skilled and dedicated enemy. For 13 years after Yorktown their obscure war dragged on. In thinly settled Kentucky alone, estimates of settlers killed or captured between 1782 and 1790 range up to 1,500. Meanwhile, perhaps an equal number of migrants were slain while boating down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Kentucky. So bloody, in fact, was the first year after Yorktown that the frontier people called 1782 ‘the Year of Sorrow.’

Especially sorrowful for them was the battle fought at the Blue Licks in northeastern Kentucky. The drama enacted there on August 19, 1782, unfolded like a Greek tragedy. In the predawn hours of August 16, 1782, 300 warriors–Shawnees and a few Wyandots–arrived at Bryan’s Station, a stockaded settlement on the Elkhorn River, six miles north of the recently established settlement of Lexington, Ky. They were nominally under the command of British officers William Caldwell, Matthew Elliott and Alexander McKee. The three were tough American woodsmen who had been secret Tories before officially entering the king’s service. All three, moreover, were well respected by Britain’s Indian allies.

Another American Tory and woodsman, the magnetic Simon Girty, was the de facto leader of this Indian force. Girty was accompanied on this expedition by his youngest brother, George. Simon, George and the middle Girty brother, James, were great friends of the Indians. In fact, they were very nearly Indians themselves, having been captured on the Pennsylvania frontier while teenagers and raised by the Senecas, Delawares and Shawnees, respectively. Freed after several years of captivity, the Girtys intimately knew the ways of both races, but finally chose the Indian ways. Early in the Revolutionary War, they defected from American service, resumed their former life among the tribes and became leaders of war parties attacking the Western pioneer settlements. Simon in particular had won a name for himself among the Indians for his skill as a tactician. On more than one occasion he is said to have aided white captives, but his role in leading bloody scalping expeditions assured that, like his brothers, he was universally hated by the settlers.

At Bryan’s Station, Simon Girty intended to surprise the garrison. When the men left the stockade to perform their daily chores, the warriors would catch them unawares. Fortunately for the men at Bryan’s Station, they had no intention of leaving the stockade that morning. A day earlier they had learned that Hoy’s Station, south of them, was under attack, and they were busy inside the stockade with preparations to ride to the aid of Hoy’s. Unknown to the settlers, Girty had arranged the attack on Hoy’s as a diversion to draw off strength from Bryan’s, his main target. Had he arrived at Bryan’s a few hours later, his plan might have worked, for the bulk of its defenders might already have departed, and he could easily have overwhelmed the weakened garrison. August 16 was not Girty’s day, but a better one was fast approaching.

In a second turn of luck, the settlers spotted the Indians beforehand without their knowledge. As a result, couriers from Bryan’s Station galloped at once to fetch reinforcements from nearby stockades. Seeing them ride off, Girty suspected their purpose. Uncertain where they were riding, he acted on the hope that the Indians still would have the advantage of surprise. Accordingly, he kept his warriors under cover and let the horsemen pass. Meanwhile, the garrison stationed concealed riflemen on the walls. If the Indians mounted an assault, the surprise would be on them.

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