America 250 - Detroit During the Revolutionary War

I've written on my birth city of Detroit multiple times.  What makes today's post different is I am focusing on Detroit during the Revolutionary War years.  Another Semiquincentennial commemoration~~~ 

~Hello Detroit!~
The  "Hollywood-style"  Detroit sign was installed along eastbound I-94 back in April 2024.
Though I know there are those who don't really care for it,  I still love the Detroit letter sign  ("Detroit Gateway Sign")  and I give a great big smile everytime I see it.

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And before we get into the  "guts"  of this post,  a little background here on how Detroit celebrated the Revolutionary War and our Nation's 200th birthday back in 1976:

The Sunday Detroit News. 

It's the full paper,  so as I glanced through it, 

I took only a few snaps of the many articles packed inside:

The date - - so cool!

A look at how our President at the time celebrated.

An interesting article on the veterans of  '76!

If you recall,  I wrote a posting about this HERE

And here is a bit of a different take:

this shows how many radio stations were celebrating that day.

Now these were not the local top 40 or rock stations,  but,  rather,

the local news and information stations.

But,  in case you are interested, 

these are the US Top 10 singles for the week ending July 3rd/4th,  1976:

1  SILLY LOVE SONGS –•– Wings  (5 weeks at #1)

2  AFTERNOON DELIGHT –•– The Starland Vocal Band 

3  MISTY BLUE –•– Dorothy Moore 

4  SARA SMILE –•– Daryl Hall and John Oates 

5  SHOP AROUND –•– The Captain and Tennille 

6  MORE,  MORE,  MORE  (Part 1) –•– The Andrea True Connection 

7  GET UP AND BOOGIE  (That’s Right) –•– Silver Convention 

8  I’LL BE GOOD TO YOU –•– The Brothers Johnson 

9  KISS AND SAY GOODBYE –•– The Manhattans 

10  LOVE IS ALIVE –•– Gary Wright

And what albums were in the top ten? 

Here they are,  based on Billboard's weekly data for early July 1976:

1. Wings at the Speed of Sound – Wings

2. Frampton Comes Alive! – Peter Frampton

3. Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) – Eagles

4. Dreamboat Annie – Heart

5. A Night at the Opera – Queen

6. Misty Blue – Dorothy Moore (based on top songs of the week)

7. Run with the Pack – Bad Company

8. Presence – Led Zeppelin

9. Desire – Bob Dylan

10. Saddle Tramp – Charlie Daniels Band 

"Crowley's Department Store was one of Detroit's Big Three of downtown retailers and Hudson’s fiercest rival in the department store business.  Generations of Detroiters glided down its famous wooden escalator and suited themselves in the latest fashions."

And then---------

I found this to be very interesting.

Yes,  Detroit was settled already in 1776  (founded in 1701)  but had not played a major role in the Revolution.   However,  as you shall soon read,  some very interesting occurences took place.

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Fort Detroit,  originally Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit,  was a square structure with a palisade   (wooden stakes fixed in the ground,  forming an enclosure.  Kind of a heavy-duty type of fence or defensive wall)  with corner bastions  ("a projecting part of a fortification built at an angle to the line of a wall,  so as to allow defensive fire in several directions").  It housed a garrison,  fur traders,  and warehouses for provisions within its 25-foot tall log palisade walls.  The fort was located along the Detroit River at the gateway between Lake Erie and the three largest Great Lakes. 

This illustration by John Gelsavage depicts the fort in the 1700s.

Courtesy of Detroit Historical Society

Detroit was not directly involved in the American Revolution;  a fort,  it was a strategic stronghold for the British in North America,  housing American prisoners of war.  It also served,  as it had the French a generation earlier,  as an important staging area for Indian raiding parties.  Although the Indians had risen in revolt against the British in 1763,  a decade later they understood that an independent thirteen colonies disposed to aggressively settle western lands was far more of a threat to them.  Indeed,  the British government since 1763 had made significant efforts to limit white settlement and mollify tribal sentiment.

Henry Hamilton
"the hair buyer"~

During the war colonists felt particular animosity toward the British command at Detroit because of the activities of Henry Hamilton,  the city's lieutenant governor and military commander. Hamilton not only supplied arms and ammunition for Indian raiding parties but also agreed to pay a bounty for scalps.  Kentuckians,  who were the particular victims of this policy,  labeled him  "the hair buyer"  and loathed him.  It seems to have mattered little that Hamilton did not actively encourage scalping,  and was in fact following orders from his commanders.  Other British officers in the region also implemented the same policy,  but Kentuckians characterized Hamilton as a war criminal.  George Rogers Clark,  a Kentucky militia officer,  eventually persuaded the Americans to undertake a daring plan to put an end to Hamilton's raiding parties by capturing various British outposts in the West.  After Clark won several initial victories,  Hamilton personally led an expedition from Detroit to stop the upstart Kentuckian.  The British expedition failed,  and in 1779 Clark captured Hamilton at Vincennes.  Hamilton spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Williamsburg,  Virginia  (now known as Colonial Williamsburg),  while Clark's victory created a new military situation in the West.  According to Hamilton's own account,  a-waiting him in Williamsburg was  "a considerable Mob  (that had)  gather'd about us."  The governor of Williamsburg,  Patrick Henry  (yes,  the  'give me liberty or give me death'  Patrick Henry!)  ordered that Hamilton be shackled in the gaol  (jail).

As a result of Hamilton's defeat,  several of the Indian tribes'  loyalty to the British wavered.  The Odawa and Ojibwe announced their neutrality in the war.  The Wyandot,  camped near Detroit,  announced that they planned to seek a peace treaty with the Americans.  The British garrison in Detroit,  worried over losing their Indian allies and fearing attack by Clark,  decided to abandon the old French fort.  They built a new fortress on a hill located behind the town which they believed gave them superior military advantage.  The new bastion was named Fort Lernoult,  after Captain Richard Lernoult,  who had succeeded Hamilton as commander in Detroit.  It was designed to withstand an attack by an enemy equipped with cannon,  a concern that Cadillac,  who saw the fort's primary responsibility as resisting Indian warriors,  had not taken into consideration when he placed the original fort along the river.

In October of 1779,  Colonel Arent Schuyler de Peyster assumed command of Fort Detroit,  after Lernoult was sent to Niagra.  de Peyster continued the practice of sending raiding parties into Kentucky.  He and his wife took an active part in the social life of Detroit during their stay.  In dealing with the Indians,  he expressed his displeasure at their tactics and urged them to bring in more prisoners and less scalps.  During the coarse of the war,  over 500 prisoners,  including Daniel Boone,  were held at Detroit.
With the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown,  Virginia,  on October 19,  1781,  fighting on the east coast came to a halt.  The war in the west continued,  with skirmishes occurring throughout the Ohio Valley,  while peace talks were held in Paris. 
(The above italicized print came from David Lee Poremba's book called  "Detroit: A Motor City History,"  a fascinating and easy read that doesn't become over-wrought with minute political details to drag it down.  I highly recommend it for the reader who would rather choose something a bit lighter rather than a more deeper serious tome.)

Daniel Boone

Painted from life in 1820 

by Chester Harding

But we can speak a bit about Daniel Boone and his coming to Detroit during the Revolutionary War.  

At the time the war broke out,  Boone was living in Boonesborough,  a town he’d founded in Kentucky west of the Appalachian Mountains.  Relations between the white settlers and the Shawnee who lived in the area were tense,  with frequent skirmishes breaking out between the two.

When the American Revolution began, the Shawnee weren’t sympathetic to the settlers’ cause.  In 1778,  Boonesborough,  Kentucky,  lay under constant attack from Indian allies of the British.  Boone,  a captain in the local militia,  led the defense.  

On Feb. 7,  1778,  Shawnee warriors came across Boone and about 30 of his men,  who were away from their settlement to gather salt and food.  Boone quickly determined that he and his men would lose a fight against the Shawnee,  and he ordered his men to surrender as prisoners of war.

Daniel Boone was a prisoner in Detroit for a short period,  specifically from March 30th to April 10th.  The men were put into the hands of Governor Hamilton,  who,  to his credit,  treated them with kindness.  Boone himself declared that he was,  “treated by Governor Hamilton,  the British commander at that post,  with great humanity.”  Boone did not forget this kindness and afterwards,  when Hamilton was an execrated prisoner in the hands of the Americans,  Boone befriended him to the best of his ability.

The men who had been brought to Detroit in company with their captain were readily ransomed by the British,  but the Indians declined to dispose of Boone in the same manner.  The Governor offered one hundred pounds sterling—an extraordinary sum—for his release,  intending to liberate him on parole.  The offer must have been an extremely tempting one,  but the Shawnees resolutely refused it.  Boone had created a deep impression on their chiefs,  and it had been determined,  although the fact was not then announced,  to adopt him into the tribe.
Some of the officers at Detroit pressed gifts of money and various useful articles upon Boone,  but he declined them all,  saying that so far as he could foresee,  the opportunity to repay their proffered kindness would never occur and he could not allow himself to lie under a perpetual obligation to them.  Their good wishes he thankfully acknowledged,  and left them with feelings of respect and admiration for him.  In fact,  some of Boone’s men said that they heard Boone talking with Hamilton and believed he’d taken a loyalty oath to the British.
After this brief stay,  his captors took him to Ohio,  where he later escaped.  It was early in April that the Shawnees turned homeward with the prisoner upon whom they set so high a value.  Their satisfaction in the possession of him prompted them to guard him with the utmost care,  but he soon discovered that he had risen in their estimation and regard since the visit to Detroit.

Two make a long story short,  after a total of four months in captivity,  in June 1778,  when Boone learned the British and Shawnee were about to attack Boonesborough again,  he fled - escaped - and raced home.  However,  another man who had been captured along with Boone got there before him,  and told the settlers that he believed Boone had turned traitor against the American cause.  Boone was later brought up on charges of treason because some settlers believed Boone didn’t put up enough resistance against the Shawnee and the British.  Though he was found not guilty,  Daniel Boone was humiliated by the experience and rarely spoke of it.

Trading with the Adawa~

At the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783,  Detroit was part of the territory ceded to the United States by Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris.  However,  the British maintained a military presence and control of Fort Detroit for another 13 years,  until 1796,  for it was the Jay Treaty of 1795,  negotiated between the US and Britain,  that finally resolved the issue of British occupation of Fort Detroit. 

With the war ended,  more settlers and farmers began entering the frontier.  

It's also in David LeePoremba's book that I have found some contemporary descriptions of the citizens of Detroit as well as the surrounding land in an official report written by Captain Henry Hamilton on September 2,  1776,  that is most likely apt to be the same after the war.  Here are a few snippets from that letter: 
"The new settlers manage their farms to the last advantage."
"The river is plentifully stocked with fish."
"Hunting and fowling afford food to numbers who are nearly as lazy as the savage."
"The soil is so good that the most ignorant farmers raise good crops."
"There is no limit to the number of traders here."

And the group of citizens who made up this growing village were,  as Joseph Moore,  a Quaker visitor from Philadelphia,  quite diverse,  as seen in his remarks from 1793,  "The inhabitants of the town are as great a mixture,  I think,  as ever I knew in any one place.  English,  Scotts,  Irish,  Dutch  (German),  French,  Americans from different states,  with black and yellow,  and seldom clear of Indians of different tribes in the daytime."

As Poremba writes:  The town continued to be a center for commercial activity as the fur trade was still prospering.  Detroit was well supplied with taverns and stores where travelers could lodge,  quench their thirst,  and trade their goods.

There were coopers,  blacksmiths,  and,  as mentioned,  storekeepers and tavern keepers. 

Taverns were the pulse of 18th century urban life,  and their importance to the local community cannot be overstated.  The main difference from today to an 18th century tavern is that the colonial taverns were also usually a stage coach stop for travelers;  a patron could spend the night and eat breakfast,  dinner,  and supper,  should the need arise.  Taverns were also the main source of information for the locals.

Alice Morse Earle wrote in her 1901 book,  Stage Coach and Tavern Days:  "Though today somewhat shadowed by a formless reputation of being frequently applied to hostelries of vulgar resort and coarse fare & ways,  the word  "tavern"  is neverless a good one..."

These  "publick houses"  (or  'ordinaries,'  as they were also known)  have played an important part in social,  political,  and even military life,  though we see them taking more of a back seat in their role in our Nation's history.

Detroit's first known taverns appeared right around 1760. 

Typically,  a large house known by sign and reputation was opened to the public by its owner,  who,  as mentioned,  offered food,  drink,  and lodging for a fee.  The owner's family usually lived on the premises and worked the business.  The fact that taverns do not appear in the records until,  nearer the end of the 18th century,  should not lead to the assumption that Detroit did not have these  'publick houses.'  Detroit founder Antoine Cadillac summoned a brewer from Montreal soon after his arrival in 1701,  and wines were an important part of every cargo arriving on the frontier. 

But it was William Forsyth's tavern,  which opened in 1771,  that was the first on record.  It was located approximately at the southwest corner of today's Jefferson Avenue and Washington Boulevard.

No,  this is not William Forsth's tavern.  Nor is it a replication,  for there are no images of any kind of that very first known  'publick house'  in Detroit.  However,  we are inside a building - the only original-to-Michigan 18th century structure that still stands in the lower Peninsula.  And to give it som realism,  you'll note the men being served are of the military persuasion.

Detroit and Michigan played a large role in the forming of the United States.  We were a part of the French & Indian War,  the Revolutionary War,  and the War of 1812 - see links toward the bottom of this post.

It's here - America's 250th is finally here - and I've been looking forward to the commemorations and celebrations for quite a long time. 

Until next time,  see you in time.

Here is the Detroit sign all lit up on I-94 as we headed home late one evening from Greenfield Village - I absolutely LOVE this sign!
 Yes,  it's that same Detroit sign at the top of this post at night...all lit up.
Good night...

Much of the Daniel Boone information came directly - word for word - from THIS site.

For links to other posts that you may enjoy in connection with this one:
Colonial Michigan:  Mackinac,  Detroit,  and Monroe - There Are Stories to Tell  (click HERE)

The local War of 1812 - HERE

Colonial Detroit and the French & Indian War - HERE

  

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