Lochry's Defeat - Aftermath

Aftermath

After the battle, the native warriors and rangers hesistated to close on Clark's main force. Brant marched the prisoners up the Miami River. On August 27, he rendezvoused with about 300 Indians led by McKee and about 100 Butler's Rangers led by Captain Andrew Thompson. Leaving a detachment to guard the prisoners, the combined Indian and British force of about 500 set off towards Fort Nelson in pursuit of Clark's main army. On September 9, two captured Americans revealed that Clark's expedition had been called off because of a shortage of men. Satisfied that the campaign had been successfully concluded, most of the British-Indian army dispersed, although McKee convinced 200 men to accompany him on a raid into Kentucky, which culminated in what Kentuckians called the "Long Run Massacre".

The 64 American prisoners were divided between the tribes. A few of these prisoners were subsequently killed. As was their custom, the Indians took some of the prisoners home and ritually adopted them in order to replace fallen warriors. Most, however, were sold to the British in Detroit and then transferred to a prison in Montreal. A few managed to escape from captivity; the remainder were released after the war ended in 1783. Of the 100 or more men who had taken part in Lochry's expedition, the number who eventually made it back home has been estimated from "less than half" to "more than half."

Lochry's Defeat, as the battle generally came to be called in American history, was a devastating blow to the people of Westmoreland County. Nearly every home was affected. Residents of the county were alarmed at having lost so many of their most experienced soldiers at a time when they were needed to defend the frontier. On December 3, 1781, General William Irvine, the new commander at Fort Pitt, wrote to Joseph Reed:

I am sorry to inform your Excellency that this Country has got a severe stroke by the loss of Colonel Lochry and about one hundred (tis said) of the best men of Westmoreland County, including Captain Stockely & his Company of Rangers. They were going down the Ohio on General Clarke's Expedition, many accounts agree that they were all killed or taken at the mouth of the Miame River. I believe chiefly killed. This misfortune, added to the failure of General Clarke's Expedition, has filled the people with great dismay. Many talk of retiring to the East side of the Mountain early in the Spring. Indeed there is great reason to apprehend that the Savages, & perhaps the British from Detroit will push us hard in the Spring, and I believe there never were Posts—nor a Country—in a worse state of defence.

The loss of Lochry's detachment proved to be the fatal setback to Clark's 1781 campaign. In early September, Clark held a series of councils with Kentucky militia officers at Fort Nelson. Clark still advocated carrying out an expedition into the Ohio Country, saying that "I am ready to lead you on to any Action that has the most distant prospect of Advantage, however daring it may appear to be." Given the lateness of the season and the shortage of available men, the council overruled Clark and decided instead to remain on the defensive, although they proposed that another campaign against Detroit should be carried out the next year. On October 1, 1781, a disappointed Clark wrote, "My chain appears to have run out. I find myself enclosed with a few troops, in a trifling fort, and shortly expect to bear the insults of those who have for several years been in continual dread of me." Clark led an expedition against the Shawnee towns on the Great Miami River in 1782, one of the last actions of the war, but he was never able to mount an expedition against Detroit.

Sometime after Lochry's Defeat, Brant and Simon Girty got into an altercation along the Ohio River. According to contemporary gossip, Girty took exception to Brant's boasting about the success of the expedition, perhaps because Girty believed his brother George deserved more credit. The two men, who were reportedly drunk, came to blows, which ended when Brant slashed Girty in the head with his sword. The wound, which took several months to heal, left a scar on Girty's forehead. When Brant returned to Detroit in October, he had a sword cut on his leg, which had become infected and initially looked as if it would result in amputation. The wound was officially reported as accidentally self-inflicted, although gossipers said that it was the result of the fight with Girty. Brant's Iroquois companions returned home, but Brant was compelled to stay in Detroit over the winter in order to recover.