Gnadenhutten Massacre - Aftermath

Aftermath

Although many European-American settlers were outraged by the Gnadenhutten massacre, frontier people, embittered by the ferocious warfare, generally supported the militia's actions. Despite talk of bringing the murderers to justice, no criminal charges were filed and the war rolled on.

The Lenape allies of the British sought revenge for the Gnadenhütten massacre. When General George Washington heard about the massacre, he ordered American soldiers to avoid being captured alive. He feared what the hostile Lenape would do to captured Americans.

Washington's close friend William Crawford was captured while leading an expedition against Lenape at Sandusky. Crawford had not been at Gnadenhutten but was killed for revenge. After being ritually tortured by the Lenape and Wyandot, he was burned at the stake.

Captain Charles Bilderback did participate in the Gnadenutten massacre. In June 1782, he survived the Crawford expedition's defeat, but seven years later he was captured by hostile Lenape in Ohio. In June 1789, they tortured and killed him. David Williamson, the officer who led the Gnadenhutten massacre, survived the 1782 Crawford expedition. In 1814, decades after the war, he died in poverty.

In 1810, Tecumseh reminded William Henry Harrison, "You recall the time when the Jesus Indians of the Delawares lived near the Americans, and had confidence in their promises of friendship, and thought they were secure, yet the Americans murdered all the men, women, and children, even as they prayed to Jesus?"