Martin and Ruddles Stations

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Martin's and Ruddles Stations were near Cynthiana, Ky. They were the scene of a British and Indian attack on Kentucky pioneers in June of 1780. Many of the settlers came to the area from Southwest Virginia, and so a discussion of these two stations is provided under the User:Quolla6/Southwest Virginia Project.

From Souce:Perrin, et al, 1881

in 1780

While Clarke was building Fort Jefferson, a force of British and Indian?, under command of Capt. Bryd, came down from Canada and attacked the Kentucky settlements, getting into the country before any one was aware. The winter before had been one of unusual severity, and game was exceedingly scarce, hence the army was not prepared to conduct a campaign. After the capture of Ruddle's Station, at the south fork of the Licking, Bryd abandoned any further attempts to reduce the settlements, except capturing Martin's Station, and returned to Detroit. This expedition gave an additional motive for the chastisement of the Indians, and Clarke, on his return from Fort Jefferson, went on an expedition against the Miami Indians. He destroyed their towns at Loramie's store, near the present city of Sydney, Ohio, and at Piqua, humbling the natives. While on the way, a part of the army remained on the north bank of the Ohio, and erected two block-houses on t^e present site of Cincinnati. The exploitsof Clarkeand his men so effectually chastised the Indians, that, for a time, the West was safe.

from: Source:Howe, 1858

In the spring of 1780, the British commandant at Detroit prepared for the reduction of Ruddle's and Martin's stations on the Licking River. On the 22d of June, Col. Byrd, of the British service, appeared before Ruddle's station with six hundred Indians and Canadians, and several pieces of artillery. Resistance was hopeless ; the fort gates were thrown open, and the garrison surrendered at discretion. The same scene was acted at Martin's station. Then the whole force commenced a precipitate retreat; and many of the women and children loaded with plunder by the Indians, being unable to keep up, were tomahawked and scalped. At this time there were not over three hundred fighting men north of Kentucky River, and these were scattered in stations many miles apart ; the enemy, therefore, could easily have depopulated the country in a week or two, but for some unknown reason failed to prosecute the campaign any further. The success of Col. Clarke in conquering the Illinois country, together with the capture of the British governor, Hamilton, the great instigator of Indian invasion in the spring of 177Ü, revived the spirit of emigration to the West. This rapid increase of population so exhausted the supplies of food in the country, as in the succeeding winter (1779-'80) to produce great distress and alarm. In the summer, eight hundred men, under Col. Brodhead, assembled at Wheeling, and marched against the Indian villages in the forks of the Muskingmn, on the site of Coshocton, Ohio. They destroyed one or two villages, and took a number of prisoners; among whom were sixteen warriors, who, by decision of a council of war, were led out and, in cool blood, tomahawked and scalped. A noble looking chief came into camp on a mission of peace the next morning, under a promise of safety. While conversing with the commander, Whetzel, an Indian fighter came up behind, and with a blow of his tomahawk, cleft open his skull. On the retreat, the remaining prisoners, except a few women and children were massacred. Just previous to the invasion by Byrd, Col. George Rogers Clarke built Fort Jefferson on the Mississippi, in the country of the Chickasaws, a few miles below the mouth of the Ohio. In May, 1780, about fourteen hundred Indians, with one hundred and forty British troops from Mackinaw, made an unsuccessful attack upon St. Louis, then a town of less than one thousand inhabitants, and within the dominions of Spain, that power being then at war with England. After killing and scalping about twenty persons, who happened to be in the fields adjacent, the Indians, from some unknown reason, refused to co-operate any longer with the British troops. On Clarke's return from Fort Jefferson, he organized a force of one thousand men, and in July, rapidly and secretly marched into the Miami country, and destroyed the Piqua towns on Mad River, and Chilicothe on the Little Miami. In the year following, 1781, the Chickasaws, indignant at the erection of Fort Jefferson upon their soil, led on by Colbert, a half-breed, besieged it with much vigor. Gen. Clarke marched from Kaskaskia with a reinforcement, and relieved ihe fort from its perilous situation. Shortly after, Clarke dismantled the fort, and the Chickasaws ceased their hostility.