Securing the valley was not an easy chore. The years, 1754-1763 was a bloody period for the settlers west of the Susquehanna, for this was the time of the "French and Indian War."

Prior to this, both England and France laid claim to the land west of the Alleghenies. England claimed possession by right of the Cabot expedition, and claimed all the land from Labrador to Cape Hatteras, north, south, and west, all the way to the Pacific ocean. France; with a more justifiable position, was based on the explorations of Father Marquette, Joliet, and La Salle.

The first attempt by the French to colonize the region was the colony of New Orleans, founded in 1722. In a plan to unite the French settlements along the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash Rivers, with those in Canada, the French began to build a chain of forts, from the vicinity of Niagara to the headwaters of the Ohio, and then along the Mississippi to its southern settlements. This immense territory was given the name of New France.

In 1750 when the Caldwells arrived upon the scene, the only English that had ventured beyond the Alleghenies, were trappers and traders, mostly from Pennsylvania. As these men began to roam the woods and ford the streams of the Ohio Valley they came, more and more, into an uneasy contact with the French from Canada. The population of the English in the colonies in 1750 was estimated at 1,270,000, including Negro slaves, while the French possessed only about 52,000 citizens and this included the French population in Canada. This disparity of numbers was of little concern to the French for they realized they possessed an advantage in leadership, and common cause. The French were united under one government, while the English colonists, intent on sovereignty within each colony, were unaccustomed to working and fighting, in concert. The French possessed yet another advantage, and that was the friendly relations they maintained with the Indians. Nearly all the local Indian tribes, except for the Six Nations, were friendlier to the French, than the English.

George Washington and the other members of the Virginia aristocracy were interested in this land of the Ohio, for they saw here the opportunity for profit in land speculation. With this vested interest in the land they were quite outspoken concerning Virginia's claim. Adding to all the confusion, Pennsylvania saw this land west of the Alleghenies as part of William Penn's original grant. The French approached the conquest of the land as just that. They pushed forward into the wilderness, while the English were content to remain established on their farms on the Eastern seaboard. French frontiersmen and missionaries roamed the woods, and traveled the streams, of the Ohio Valley, learning the Indian language, and the Indian ways, while the English devoted their energies to the land they already controlled. Unlike the English, the French did not drive the Indian before them on their advance, but instead learned to live among them. They intermarried, and seemed to harbor no prejudice toward them.

Frenchmen such as, Etienne Veniard de Bourgmond, Louis Juchereau de St. De Jean-Baptiste Bernard de la Harpe, Pierre and Paul Mallet, and Claude Charles du Tisne, had explored all the way to the southern, and central plains. The Canadian River in Oklahoma, was named by French Canadians. So that by 1750 the French had a number of officers and traders who were acquainted with the Indian, and their customs, and were very friendly with most tribes. However, the English possessed only five or six men sufficiently wise in the ways of the Indian to be of any value.
In South Carolina there was a French renegade named Captain Montour, and an agent named Glenn. In New York was an agent named Johnson, in Virginia the agent Christopher Gist, and in Pennsylvania Conrad Weiser, and George Croghan. These six men represented England's entire staff, with regard to Indian intelligence.

When Robert, and Charles Caldwell arrived on the Juniata, Indian attacks had rendered settlement hazardous, and it was avoided by all but the very hardy. Pennsylvania had for years enjoyed peaceful relations with the Indians, due primarily to the treatment afforded the Indians by William Penn, who had been guided by his Quaker doctrine of equality, and more importantly, his personnel benevolence. William Penn had looked upon the Indians as equals, with the same sovereign rights, as a citizen, which he possessed. He entertained them in his home, at Pennsbury Manor, and he in turn, visited them in their wilderness home. Pleased with this white man's attitude, they responded with pledges of enduring friendship, and for two generations this peace endured. With the death of William Penn, in 1718, the relations slowly began to erode. His grandsons continued the policies of their grandfather, although they did not posses the same degree of sincerity, and even that slowly changed, as they sought more income from the land.

The "Six Nations of the Iroquois" had achieved, and been recognized, by the provisional government, as overlords of all the Indians of Pennsylvania. The Delaware and the Shawnees resented this, and were angered by the Penns treating of them as underlings, and they became the primary enemy of the English until well after the revolution. Complaints increased as the grasping attitude of the proprietors, and their agents grew. Negotiations for land purchases were under the control of the assembly, and whenever a problem with the Indians arose the assembly would vote money for presents, or hold conferences in the hope of preserving the peace.

Ill feelings among the Indians had begun with the "Walking Purchase of 1737." William Penn had secured from the Indians, in 1686, along with other purchases, a deed that would encompass the land from a line starting at Wrightstown, running parallel to the Delaware River, and including all the land a man could walk in a day and a half. William Penn, not requiring the land at the time, postponed the walk. However in 1737, William's grandson Thomas proposed the walk, to define the land covered in the deed. Extraordinary preparations were made to secure as much land as possible. The methods used by the proprietors were grossly unfair to the Indians. The route was surveyed in advance, the fastest walkers in the province were secured, and every effort was made to take every advantage of the Indians. On the day of the walk, to the surprise and consternation of the Indians, the walker covered a distance of sixty miles, more than twice what the Indians expected. When the line from the end of the walk was drawn, it was to run directly east, instead it was slanted northeast to include even more land. The territory covered included the hereditary lands of the Minisink Tribe of the Delawares. They lived on the headwaters of the Delaware River in the southwest part of what would become Ulster, and Orange Counties of New York and adjacent parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The Delawares were furious, and refused to move. The Penns appealed to the Iroquois, overlords of the Delawares, to remove the indignant Delaware, which after counsel, and many hot exchanges with their cousins, they did. The entire transaction was an obvious fraud and it burned deep into the memory of the Delawares, and the Shawnees, adding the ill feeling already felt by their earlier forced subjugation. This was the beginning of the real Indian trouble in Pennsylvania.

The Scotch-Irish on the frontier would pay dearly for the Quaker's mistakes in Indian policy. The anger, and resentment among the Indians were increased by the next affront; the "Albany Land Purchase of 1754." It was this purchase that allowed Robert and Charles Caldwell to secure their land on the Juniata River. The Burnt Cabins incident, and ever encroaching settlers moving in on un-purchased Indian lands, forced the Penns to look to the west for new lands along the Allegheny Ridge. In 1754 representatives were sent to the Albany Congress to meet with the Iroquois chiefs in attendance there. Through the usual slight of hand, the proprietors secured the land they sought. The treaty included all the land west and south of a line drawn from Shamokin to Lake Erie, and extending to the extreme southern limits of the province. The Indians ignorant of the use of the compass, and chain, did not understand the extent of the land covered. When they discovered their error, they were further angered and realized again they had been deceived, and defrauded. Perceiving their lands taken from them through dishonesty, and faced with having to move their homes beyond the Alleghenies to the Ohio Valley, the Indians now realized the English would not be content until they were driven from his home forever. They joined forces with the French who promised, the return of their lands. The first steps toward the "French and Indian War" were begun, and would not end until much blood was shed, and many scalps were taken. Never again would the Indian and the whiteman, of Pennsylvania, live in the harmony that existed during the brief seventy-four years of the influence of William Penn. Warriors, with their squaws and papooses at Indian towns in Frankstown, and along the Juniata, packed their effects and moved west into the Ohio Valley. Here near their brothers the French, they said they no longer trusted Onus, "Father Penn." Gathered around their counsel fires the Indians vocalized the wrongs committed against them, and swore revenge. The most angered, and the most fierce in their revenge were, the Shawnees, and the Delawares, who avenged themselves in a way that was no one imagined. It was estimated that the Indians killed ten whites for every Indian.

It must not be supposed the Indian was an ignorant savage bent on mayhem and destruction. The Indian was America's first farmer and many had been on the land for more than 10,000 years. In some ways they were more advanced than their European counterpart, their culture was simply different. When the first white explorers landed on the American shore, one of the first things he noticed were the fields of corn, bark houses, and store houses of corn, and beans for winter use. The first whites who ventured into the Ohio Valley saw huge fields of corn extending for miles along the Ohio River. General Antony Wayne wrote before defeating the Indians at "The Battle of Fallen Timbers"; "Never before have I beheld such immense fields of corn in any part of America from Canada to Florida."

The Indian farmer was diligent. No matter where the hunting trips or warpath leads him, he would always return for the planting or harvest. The extent to which farming was practiced however varied from tribe to tribe. In the southwest, the Apaches were only part time farmers, while their neighbors the Pueblo's constructed reservoirs, irrigation canals, and even cities around their fields. The Atlantic Coast Indians, the first encountered by the whiteman, were proficient farmers, as well as hunters. They girdled trees to clear the fields to plant their crops of, beans, corn, potatoes, and tobacco. The first settlers at Jamestown brought only their desire for gold and riches and knew little of farming, or hunting. Had it not been for the Indians and their crops of corn, which they gladly traded to the English, all would have starved that first terrible winter. The Indians also planted crops of pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and squash, and practiced methods of food dehydration, and cold storage in bark lined caves. So proficient were they in corn production, the basic planting methods used then have changed little today. The greatest handicap the Indians suffered in his farming methods was his inability to domesticate animals. With their crude hand tools, a shoulder blade, or antler from a deer, a flat stone, or stick to scratch the dirt, one can't help but wonder how far they could have progressed had they been exposed to even the simplest of man's technological advances, even of that day.

Indian trouble was inevitable. The Indian and the whiteman could not have been more philosophically different: The Indian harbored no desire to possess land, while the main driving force of the whiteman's world was the possession of land. Of all the Indian wars none were simply, the superior, more intelligent, Christian, God fearing whiteman, against the heartless, bloodthirsty, Godless savage. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was two civilizations come face to face on the same land, each with its own viable society, religion, and moral fiber, each saw the world from opposing perspectives, and like oil and water, would never mix. The Indian Wars were simply wars of attrition. The Indians were facing, in the whiteman, a race of potentially greater number, and what is more important, the white man's industrial capabilities rendered the outcome inevitable. Standing in the way of the white man's advance, the Indian would simply be overwhelmed.

The French and Indian War grew out of the rivalry between the French and the English, and their occupation of the Ohio Valley, and was an extension of "Seven Years War" in Europe. France's interest in the New World began in the 17th century with the establishment of New France. After the ill-fated French colony in Florida in 1565, the center of French influence moved to the fishing interests at New Foundland, and the fur trading center of the St. Lawrence area. In 1603 Samuel de Champlain, an experienced soldier and sailor, led an expedition up the St. Lawrence River to the rapids at present day Montreal. In 1608, one year after the founding of Jamestown Virginia, Champlain founded the first permanent French settlement at Quebec. Vying for supremacy, the English launched an attack, in 1613, on the French settlement at Acadia, and captured Quebec in 1626. While on a raid with the St. Lawrence Indians, Champlain committed an error of far reaching implications, he killed several Iroquois chiefs. From then on the French became mortal enemies of the Iroquois. The Iroquois then became a constant threat to the French movements in that area. To further their fur trading interests, and protect themselves from the danger presented by the Iroquois, the French built a series of forts at;

Three Rivers, Canada (1634)
Montreal, Canada (1642)
Richelieu, Canada (1642)
Rouille, Canada (1649)
Sault Ste. Marie Mich. (1668)
St. Francis Xavier, Wis (1669)
Frontenac, Canada (1673)
Niagara, New York (1679)
des- Miamis, Ind. (1679)
St. Louis Ill. (1682)
St. Antonie, Wis. (1685)
St. Nicholas Wis. (1685)
St. Joseph, Mich. (1697)
Pontchartian, Detroit (1701)
Michilimackinac, Mich. (1712)
St. Francis, Wis. (1717)
Chequamegon, Wis. (1718)
Chartes, Missouri (1720)
Orleans, Missouri (1722)
Beauharnais, Minn. (1727)
Vincennes, Indiana (1731)
And, later the forts at Presq' Isle (1753)
Le Boeuf (1753)
Venango (1754)
Duquesne (1754) in Pennsylvania
Fort Miami (1764)
In Indiana they established a portage from the Maumee to the Wabash River. From 1672-1689 French control was extended over the entire Mississippi Valley.

Moving out from Wisconsin, Louis Joliet and father Jacques Marquette discovered a portage route from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. They then followed the Mississippi to the Arkansas River. Between the years of 1673 and 1682, they explored the area of the Mississippi, from the Falls of St. Anthony to the Gulf of Mexico. They formally claimed the land drained by the Mississippi, from the summit of the Alleghenies to the top of the Rocky Mountains, and named this land Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV.

In 1699, two brothers, Iberville, and Bienville founded Biloxi Mississippi, and in 1718 Jean Baptiste le Moyne, and Sieur de Bienville founded New Orleans. So the French possessing a solid foot hold west of the Alleghenies, in 1749, sent an expedition to the Ohio region for the purpose of strengthening their territorial claims there. It consisted of a force of 300 men, commanded by de Bienville. They went about the work of confirming their friendship with the Indians, while renewing their claim to the Ohio Valley. Alarmed by the ever encroaching Pennsylvania trappers and traders, de Bienville wrote the Governor of Pennsylvania, saying the French would not tolerate further intrusion by the English into their territory. It was the hope of the French to restrict the English settlements to a narrow band along the Atlantic coast, thus leaving the rich peltry lands of the Ohio and beyond, to them.

While the French were busy solidifying their possession, the English colonists quarreled among themselves, ignoring the common enemy. Pennsylvania quarreled with Maryland over Pennsylvania's southern border. Maryland quarreled with Virginia, and Virginia quarreled with Pennsylvania over the land of the Ohio. Between 1750 and 1755 tempers often flared as, Pennsylvania and Virginia argued over land rights. The wealthy on the seaboard argued that the Indians, with whom trade had been very profitable, must not be alienated. The settler and their representatives believed the only answer was in the elimination of the Indian, and the threat they posed on the security of the frontier. For the Virginia aristocratic farmer, the Fairfaxes, the Carters, the Corbins, the Fitzhughs, the Lees, the Bryds, and the Washingtons, the acquisition of the frontier lands was imperative for their continued prosperity, and they knew the French must be driven out.

As mentioned earlier Pennsylvania and Virginia laid claim to the area around the Forks of the Ohio. Realizing the strategic and commercial advantage of its possession, Virginia in 1754 took measures to secure their claiming the area, by commencing a fort. The French had by 1753, built forts in Western Pennsylvania at Presque Isle on Lake Erie, Le Boeuf near Waterford, and Venango near Franklin. The Virginians, considering this area theirs, answered the threat by sending young George Washington to Fort Le Boeuf just south of Lake Erie on French Creek, a tributary to the Allegheny River. There he demanded the withdrawal of the French from what the English considered their soil. When Washington returned to Williamsburg with a French refusal, Virginia's Governor Dinwiddie chose George Washington to command an arm to forcibly expel the French. On April 2, 1754, George Washington, now with his new rank of colonel proudly displayed on his new uniform, chose Christopher Gist as his guide, and gathered a command of 120 men consisting of two companies, commanded by Captain Peter Hog, and Lieutenant Jacob Van Braan. With five noncommissioned officers two sergeants, six corporals, one drummer, and one surgeon, and a Swedish volunteer, they left Virginia for the frontier. Cutting trees, leveling roads, and building bridges for the wagons as they went, the little army quickly grew exhausted. After many confrontations with his men, and a near mutiny, the army finally arrived at Great Meadows near the French outpost at Fort Duquesne. On May 28, 1754, at night, and in a pouring rain Washington with forty men and ten Indians leading the way, advanced on the French camp, containing 32 Frenchmen under the command of Captain de Jumonville. The sleeping French camp was awakened in the early morning hours by the discharge of muskets. After the first volley some of the French reached for their muskets, while de Jumonville desperately searched for the diplomatic papers he had brought with him. "The French would claim, Captain de Jumonville had been sent by the King of France, as his agent in the dispute over the territory." Washington's men fired two volleys, as was the custom, and then paused. During the lull Captain de Jumonville stood to read aloud his instructions from his King. He was immediately fired on by Washington's men, and the Captain fell to the ground dead. The French answered the fire, and after a few volleys, in which one of Washington's officers was killed, and several men wounded, the French realized resistance as useless and surrendered. Ten Frenchmen were dead and others wounded. An Ensign named Monceau escaped to Fort Duquesne, while twenty-one other Frenchmen were taken prisoner. The prisoners protested that they were on a diplomatic mission, and that the firing on them was a violation of international law. Washington had tasted his first military victory and he would not be denied his glory by some vague French claim of Diplomatic immunity. He wrote to his brother;

"If the whole Detachment of the French behave with no more Resolution than this chosen party did I flatter myself that we shall have no trouble in driving them back to Montreal. I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound."

While Washington's victory was met with jubilation in the colonies, in France and Canada, the incident was viewed with disgust. No one in the civilized world would kill a diplomatic emissary, they said and called Washington's victory, "The Jumonville Murder."

While the Virginians were taking active measures to expel the French from the Ohio, the pacifist Quaker leaders in Pennsylvania chose to ignore the situation as they sat safely in their homes in the east. The Caldwells and their neighbors were to endure three bloody years of Indian ravages before the expedition of John Armstrong defeated the Indian stronghold at Kittanning, ending for a while, the attacks on the Juniata Valley.

In an attempt to end the French encroachment, and check their aggression in western Pennsylvania, the Duke of Newcastle, the First Secretary of State of England, sent fifty-nine year old Major General Edward Braddock with a force of one thousand Redcoats to the Pennsylvania frontier. This was the first important British military force ever landed on the American shore. In the present emergency the colonies were expected to support the military actions with money and manpower. The Quaker assembly voted £5,000 for provisions for the British troops, but, holding to their pacifist views refused to raise a militia. After landing his army at Alexandria Virginia in the Fall of 1754, Braddock encountered great difficulty in obtaining a means of transporting supplies. These Americans are full of "lies and villainy" complained Braddock as his pleas for assistance fell on deaf ears. Benjamin Franklin undertook to meet the general's request, by procuring, from the farmers of Pennsylvania, 150 wagons and 1,500 pack horses. This was accomplished with Franklin's usual efficiency. This act was not completely selfless. Franklin expected, soon to be sailing for England, and any favor now, would only further strengthen his standing in court.

By now the war was virtually at the door of the Quaker assembly, and they met the emergency by voting an additional £1,500 for the King's use. But still no militia, and again it would be left to the men on the frontier to defend themselves. It was during this campaign that General Braddock built the road, cut through a hundred miles of forest, and would bear the name "Braddocks Road." As a supply line for his army, it began at Will's Creek just off the Potomac River near Fort Cumberland in Maryland. It crossed the present border just south east of Fort Necessity, then ran northwest over the Chestnut Range in Pennsylvania, then across the Monongahela River.

General Braddock now reinforced with one thousand colonial militia, marched on Fort Duquesne. On the advice of twenty-three year old George Washington, General Braddock left 800 men, and most of his artillery at a rear position, while he and his remaining 1,200 men continued their march to Fort Duquesne. On July 9, 1755, they arrived at a point on the Monongahela, some seven miles from the fort. The enemy, whose Indian scouts had watched every movement of Braddock's army, attacked with a force of 300 French, and 600 Indians, mostly Shawnees and Delawares. General Braddock against the advice of certain subordinates, marched his men in ranks according the rules of war of armies in Europe. The Indians fought from behind trees and rocks, fanning out through the woods. The Indians and the French laid down a withering fire. Young George Washington's clothes were full of bullet holes, while two horses were shot from beneath him. For over three, hours the arrows and bullets filled the air, and cries of the wounded and dying mingled with the Indian "war whoops." After having five mounts shot from beneath him, General Braddock fell, mortally wounded. Finally after losing 900 men, dead and wounded, Braddock's command turned and fled back toward Bedford. George Washington reported they; "broke and ran as sheep pursued by dogs." As the Hospital Wagon carried General Braddock from the battlefield, he raised himself and said; "We shall better know how to deal with them another time." A short time later the general laid back, closed his eyes, and died. His command had been almost annihilated in one of the most disastrous defeats in American history. Colonel Dunbar, or as he was known to the locals, "Dunbar the Tardy," took command, and joined the main force. With his superior numbers, he could have gathered reinforcements, and renewed the battle. But rather, he chose to retreat, back to Philadelphia, leaving the Scotch-Irish, and others on the frontier to the bloody onslaught, of the revenge seeking Indians.

Even though the blood letting which followed the Quaker assembly remained isolated in their pacifism. Left alone on the frontier, the settlers in Juniata Valley suffered greatly from the Indian attacks that followed Colonel Dunbar's retreat. Robert Caldwell, and his brother Charles, and their families lived in constant fear from Indian raids throughout the valley. Many settlers packed up and moved back east, to the relative safety of the more populated settlements. Robert and Charles did not take this option, and remained on their land defending their homes and families.

The main source of the Indian manpower was from the Delaware and the Shawnee stronghold in two Indian towns of, Kittanning on the Allegheny River, which consisted of two settlements: Upper Kittanning, on the east side of the river and Lower Kittanning on the west bank, and the other, Logstown on the north side of the Ohio River, about 14 miles west of Fort Duquesne. With both towns near Fort Duquesne, and the protection of the French, these places served as supply and store houses where the Indians kept plunder, prisoners, and ammunition. Colonel James Smith, whose story of his "Black Boys" is told in Chapter Six, was one of the first white prisoners taken to Kittanning. On their raiding parties the Indians followed the Kittanning Path which ran west, all the way to the Ohio. But from it's starting point at the Kittanning stronghold on the Allegheny River, the Indians were able to follow the path east across the Allegheny Mountains. They passed through a gorge that ended about six miles from Hollidaysburg then on to Frankstown, and along the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River. From there they passed Canoe Valley, through Water Street then Hartslog where the path passed directly over the Caldwell lands (the distance from Kittanning to the Caldwell's farms was approximately 80 miles). They then passed Standing Stone, Jack's Mountain, and across the Tuscarora Mountains, through Path Valley and Blue Mountains to attack settlers there, and all the way south to the Virginia Settlements. After finishing their bloody work they would retreat, along the same path, to the safety of their town in Kittanning. The Indian town at Kittanning was commanded by a Delaware named Captain Jacobs.

At first Captain Jacobs was friendly to the English settlers, although he was outspokenly sided with the French. However, in 1754 he suddenly turned hostile. The trouble grew out of a transaction between a man named Arthur Buchanan, and Captain Jacobs. Arthur Buchanan and a group of Scotch Irish migrated north from the Conococheague Settlement a year or so after Robert and Charles Caldwell. They settled on a piece of land near a village of five or six tribes of Delaware, near where Kishacoquillas Creek empties into the Juniata River, about twenty miles east of the Caldwells. The Indian Council House and village stood on the east side of the creek, and Mr. Buchanan and his party settled on the west side, and immediately the settlers proposed to purchase the land from the Indians. Mr. Buchanan as the leader, went to the burly, well-proportioned chief whose Indian name is not recorded, but Mr. Buchanan decided to call him "Captain Jacobs," because of the strong resemblance to a German man he had befriended in Cumberland County. The newly named Captain Jacobs at first refused to sell the land, but after plying the Indian with liquor and trinkets, the transaction was completed. Shortly after the Indians sobered up, they became angry. Sensing trouble brewing with the Indians, the settlers decided to build a fort for their protection.

Fort Granville was built in 1755, and was garrisoned by seventy-five men, commanded by Captain Edward Ward. They were regulars paid by the province, and were part of a string of forts built at twenty mile intervals throughout the valley. Almost constantly under attack by warring parties along the Kittanning Path, throughout the spring and summer of 1756, their defenses were slowly eroded. Commissary General of Musters, Elisha Salte, from his base in Carlisle wrote to Governor Morris, on April 4, 1756; "

. . . from Fort Granville, 31 March, there was a party of Indians, four in number, within one mile of the fort, which fort is badly stored and ammunition not having three rounds per man, they thought it not prudent to venture after them." And, two weeks later on April 19, James Burd in a letter to the Governor also from Carlisle; "I intended to have marched this morning for Fort Granville, but the creek was so high that the carriers can't attempt to get their horses and loads over . . . Hope to get to go tomorrow. I am informed they are entirely out of all manner of provisions at Fort Granville, which is a very bad situation, as the enemy are constantly visiting them. They have wounded two men in sight of the fort and one of the men's life is despaired of. They would have carried them off had not Captain Ward rushed out of the fort and rescued him. Captain Ward sent a detachment under the command of an Ensign Clark in pursuit of the enemy but could not come up with them . . . In want of surgeons and medicines shall lose half our men with perhaps slight wounds purely for want of assistance. Unless the garrisons are reinforced to 150 men each, and sufficient stores of ammunition, and provisions, this part of our province will be forced!"

Fort Granville was about to be forced. On July 30, Captain Ward left the fort with twenty-four of his men, to protect settlers busy at harvest time in Sherman's Valley. Since the Buchanan barter, Captain Jacobs had grown increasingly hostile to his former friends, the English settlers. Through 1755, and into 1756 Captain Jacobs more and more saw the French as his true friends and allies. The following day Captain Jacobs and a combined force of 150 Indians, and French attacked the fort. All day and night the French and the Indians invested the fort but gained no foothold. Around midnight, a small band of Indians took to the river, passed through a ravine near the fort and set fire to an unprotected wall. The fort was soon engulfed in flames. Before returning to their lines, one of the Indians fired a shot through a hole in the wall and wounded Lieutenant Armstrong. The men had fought bravely for two days, with little, with which to fight. The fort fell August 1, and all but twenty-two soldiers and three women and children were killed, and the fort was burned to the ground. The prisoners were taken along the Kittanning Path to the Indian stronghold at Kittanning. In their camp, the Indians choose a prisoner named Turner, and tied him to a stake in front of the Council House. They heated their rifle barrels red hot, and for hours tormented the poor man by shearing his body. Finally they scalped Mr. Turner alive, and an Indian boy was lifted up over the prisoner with his tomahawk in his hand. The Indian boy crushed Mr. Turner's skull. From Fort Augusta Colonel Clapham wrote to Governor Morris;

"Last night I rec'd by express, the disagreeable news that Fort Granville was taken and burned to the ground by a body of 500 ( others reported 150) French and Indians: The whole garrison was killed except one person who was much wounded and made his escape; and am well assured that this loss was entire occasioned by a want of ammunition . "

And Governor Morris to the Quaker assembly;

"A body of French and Indians have taken and burnt Fort Granville on the Juniata, one of our most comfortable forts on the western frontier, while others of them are murdering the inhabitants, and laying waste to the country . . . "

Captain Jacobs and his Indians retreated to the safety of Kittanning to celebrate their victories. Now on the warpath, Captain Jacobs, and his warriors, joined the French and attacked settler after settler with impunity. Captain Jacobs boasted; "I can take any fort that would take fire!" Around their counsel fires Captain Jacobs and his cohort, King Shingas celebrated and planned their next attack on Fort Shirley, and then the settlers at Hartslog.

King Shingas, or Shingask, Indian tongue meaning, Bog-Meadow, was reported be the greatest Delaware warrior of his time. His small size, belied his savage prowess. With vicious fury, his war exploits were felt in Sherman Valley, in Big Cove, in the Conococheague, and most settlements along the frontier. Frustrated and angry, the settlers of the valley gathered some of the dead mangled bodies of the friends and neighbors, and packed them off to the streets of Philadelphia. Weary of the Quakers inability to relieve their plight, these frontiersmen, dragged the bodies through the streets hoping to inflame the populous against the pacifist leaders. After surrounding the House of Assembly the mob placed the dead bodies on the steps of the building. They failed in moving the assembly to anything more than placing a $700.00 reward on the head of Jacobs and Shingas.

The forts of the valley were built at 20 mile intervals. Fort Shirley was built near the mouth of Aughwick Creek, where it flows into the Juniata. South of Shirley is the Tuscarora Mountain and near the fort was Jacks Narrows. Before the erection of Fort Standing Stone in 1762, it was Fort Shirley Caldwells and their neighbors at Hartslog fled to for safety. To end the constant danger to the Juniata Valley, and to the settlers on the frontier, from the attacks of the Indians from Kittanning, Colonel John Armstrong conceived and planned a raid into the very heart of the Indian stronghold. Armstrong was the first elder, and one of the builders of the 1st Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, to which Robert and Margaret Caldwell were members. Colonel Armstrong turned to Robert, and Charles Caldwell, and the others in the congregation for man power. From this source and from settlers all over the valley he gathered a force of 280 men , some reported 307, who were mustered at Fort Shirley, in August of 1756. Colonel Armstrong left Fort Shirley on August 30, 1756, and marched west four days and arrived at Beaver Dams, near Frankstown on the Juniata River. Here the small army picked up the famed Kittanning Path which would lead them inexorably to the town of the Delaware fugitives. As they entered the mountains, they came on the tracks, and smoldering fire of what they believed were two Delawares heading west to Kittanning. Avoiding the two warriors, and detection, they arrived two days later within fifty miles of the town at Kittanning.

Unknown to Colonel Armstrong, only one of the killers he sought was in the town. A short time before their arrival, King Shingas had gone to Fort Duquesne. Three men were sent to reconnoiter the town. The next day the scouts returned and reported the roads were free of enemy warriors. But, they had been unable to gain a view of the town that would divulge the situation there. Armstrong decided to move his men closer to the Indian stronghold. They arrived on the outskirts of the town, near a cornfield, about six miles from Kittanning on September 7th. Guided by the sounds of Indians in celebration, Colonel Armstrong found the village, and from a distance observed his enemy while he formulated his plan. Exhausted from their celebration, and eager to resume their attacks on the settlers of frontier, the Indians fell asleep around their fires. Meanwhile, Armstrong and his men caught a little sleep while they waited for the right moment. Soon the moon had gone down, the Indian fire subsided, and all was quiet. Colonel Armstrong awakened his men, still weary from the long march, and divided them into two forces, one to attack the Indians asleep in a nearby cornfield, the other to attack the town. As the sun was rising over the eastern mountain, Colonel Armstrong and his men began their work. Quietly the men crept through the cornfield to the edge of the Indian town. As the morning sun flooded their objective, the two forces, firing and shouting, came charging out of the cornfield and fell upon the unsuspecting town. Though the Indians were taken by surprise, Captain Jacobs and his warriors put up a valiant resistance. The musket balls, and Indian arrows filled the air, as some of the women and children of the town fled to the nearby woods. Captain Jacobs sprang from his sleep, grabbed his musket, let out a war whoop and began his fight. "The whiteman has at last come," he cried, "We will now have scalps enough!" Then the warriors fell back. Captain Jacobs and some of his warriors sought refuge in his house, there losing several of his warriors in the siege which followed. After Colonel Armstrong and his men burned the surrounding houses Captain Jacobs was called on to surrender and, he replied; "I am a man not prisoner." He was warned that he would be burnt in his house if he refused to surrender, and he replied that he would take four or five whitemen with him before he died. The smoke and flames from the burning houses filled the sky, and the lungs of defenders.

To show his bravery, as the fires grew more intense, one warrior within a house began to sing. In the same house, a squaw screamed in terror. The singing Indian ceased his song for a moment, severely rebuked the squaw, then continued his singing. Throughout the attack the Indians continued to fire with enough rapidity and accuracy to fell several invaders. Colonel Armstrong was wounded in the shoulder, and Hugh Mercer in the arm. As the fire grew hotter and hotter, one by one then two by two, the Indians began to flee their infernal prisons. And as they did, each was shot down with no regard to gender, or age. The whiteman's vengeance seemed no less than their Indian opponents. The dividing line between the two adversaries suddenly became quite vague. Through one of the windows, a warrior cried a war whoop, and flung himself out the window and onto the ground. Before he could move, several muskets fired, and he rolled over dead, it was Captain Jacobs. His identity was confirmed later by Colonel Armstrong; "Our prisoners offering to be qualified to the powder horn and pouch there taken off him, which they say he had lately got from a French officer in exchange for Lieutenant Armstrong's boots, which he carried from Fort Granville, where the Lieutenant was killed. The same prisoners say they were perfectly assured of his scalp, as no other Indians there wore their hair in the same manner. They also say they know his squaws scalp by a particular bob and also know the scalp of a young Indian called the King's Son." (Probably the son of King Shingas.) The remainder of the thirty houses in the town were burned and Colonel Armstrong wrote of the spectacle;

"We were agreeably entertained with a quick succession of charged guns, gradually firing off, as each was reached by the fire, but much more so, with the vast explosion of sundry bags and large kegs of powder, wherewith almost every house abounded. The prisoners afterward informing us that the Indians had frequently said they had a sufficient stock of ammunition for ten years of war with the English. With the roof of Captain Jacobs house, when the powder blew up, was thrown the leg and thigh of an Indian, with a child of three or four years old, to such a height that they appeared as nothing, and fell in the adjoining cornfield."

Colonel Armstrong picked the right day to attack, for he later learned that it was the very day that two bateaux of French and a large party of Delawares were to join Captain Jacobs and the King for a raid on Fort Shirley. Armstrong had now been to long in the town, and deep in enemy territory. He was warned to retreat to the trail and begin the journey home, before they were cut off by reinforcements from Fort Duquesne. Before assembling his men he gave orders to search out any Indians in the cornfield, or along the river and kill them. Colonel Armstrong wrote of the success of the mission;

"It is impossible to determine the exact number of the enemy killed in the action, as some were destroyed by fire, and others in different parts of the cornfield; But, upon a moderate computation, it is generally believed there cannot be less than thirty or forty killed and mortally wounded, as much blood was found in sundry parts of the cornfield; and Indians seen in several places crawl into the woods on hands and feet, whom the soldiers in pursuit of others then overlooked, expecting to find and scalp them afterwards, and also several killed and wounded in crossing the river. On beginning our march back, we had about a dozen scalps and eleven English prisoners; but now we find that four or five of the scalps are missing, parts of which were lost on the road, and part in possession of those who were with Captain Mercer, separated from the main body."

The destruction of Kittanning was a severe blow to the Indians, and to their morale, and for a time ended the attacks on the settlements. In a tribute to Colonel Armstrong, Reverend George Duffield Jr. wrote.; "But thanks be to God, a man raised up for the times who was equal to them, and who had men of the right stamp to back him." Kittanning was destroyed, but still sitting on the western frontier, manned by French regulars, and creating a constant threat from French and Indian incursions to English settlements, was Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg). To end this danger frontier, the British command decided to attempt to capture the fort. General John Forbes, an efficient officer was chosen as commander.

General Forbes was appointed to the command by William Pitt, who had risen to power as premier of England, and had decided to focus the attention of the raging "Seven Years War," from Europe, to the American Colonies. Pitt sent James Abercromby to Fort Ticonderoga on the Hudson River in New York, and Jeffrey Amherst to Louisbourg off of Nova Scotia, in the St. Lawrence area. To the hands of Major General John Forbes was entrusted the attack on the French in their outpost at Fort Duquesne. General Forbes commanded a force of 7,850 men composed of 1,600 British regulars and colonial militia from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. The Pennsylvanians consisted of 2,700 men, raised under local authority, and commanded by Colonel John Armstrong, fresh from his victory at Kittanning. Robert and Charles Caldwell were very likely members of the militia, though there is no documentation of this. As in the Armstrong attack on Kittanning, it was common practice for members of the congregation to join the militia in times of danger. A man would have had to have a very good reason to refuse duty, with their neighbors watching, and their lives, and the lives of their families on the line. Unlike the Quakers far to the east, if these frontiersmen did not protect themselves, no one else would.

In order to facilitate their movements, in August 1758, construction was begun to extend the Raystown Path as a military road to Fort Duquesne. And, on this road was built two forts: Fort Ligioner, and Fort Bedford. Fort Bedford was built at Raystown, where the Raystown Branch begins its twisting and turning journey north to join the Juniata River near Standing Stone. Completed by combined forces of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, the road and the fort were finished late in 1758. The town of Raystown would later drop that name and simply become, Bedford. The building of Forbes Road extended the Raystown Path which led from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, through Carlisle, and followed a route almost exactly the same as the present day US Route 30, "The Lincoln Highway." This highway would later grow to 3,385 miles in length and connect New York City with San Francisco California. From Carlisle, the path led to Fort Bedford, and here, Forbes Road began. It followed the path across the Allegheny Mountains, the Laurel Ridge, and over the Chestnut Ridge, past Bushy Run and into Fort Pitt. It was a much more mountainous route than its predecessor, Braddock's Road. Even so it would later become the route of choice of the Pennsylvania pioneers on their trek to settlements in the west.

Fearing it would strengthen Pennsylvanians' claim to the land, and allow the Pennsylvania settlers easy access to the land west of the Alleghenies, young George Washington, violently opposed the building of Forbes Road. Overruled, the road was continued and, slowly edged its way through the rugged Pennsylvania Mountains. Because of an illness, General Forbes, failed to start until September 1758, when some of the militia regulars gathered at Raystown, about 30 miles from the Caldwell farms, while the main body under General Forbes advanced from the east. At the outpost at Loyalhanna, about 50 miles from Fort Duquesne, Colonel Bouquet ordered a subordinate, Major Grant with 800 men to reconnoiter the situation at Fort Duquesne, and report the French position, before the proposed attack. After a brief reconnaissance, Grant believed he could successfully launch an attack which was in direct violation of his orders. The next few minutes became a disaster for the men under his command, as they were nearly wiped out. The French, overconfident with their victory against Grant attacked Colonel Bouquet at his emplacements at Loyalhanna, but were repulsed.

By early November General Forbes still sick assembled his command at Loyalhanna. Leaving his heavy artillery behind, he and a select body of 2,700 men marched on the French at Fort Duquesne. Meanwhile, at Fort Duquesne 500 French and Indians under the command of Captain de Ligneris, awaited the English advance. As the English drew near, de Lignerris' confidence left him, and he abandoned the fort, and his positions. With the fort now in General Forbes hands, he left several hundred men under the command of Hugh Mercer with orders to rebuild the fort. The fort was renamed, Fort Pitt, later to become the city of Pittsburgh. General Forbes retired with his troops to Philadelphia where, and having never fully recovered from his illness, he died the following spring.

For a while Robert Caldwell, and his neighbors enjoyed a breather from Indian attacks. Margaret was pregnant again, and in 1760 gave the family a new baby sister named, Jane. But this peace was to be short lived, for a new Indian threat was to make its presence known in their valley. The English held a precarious position along Forbes Road, at the lonely outposts of two small forts, Fort Ligioner, and Fort Bedford, the only ones between Carlisle and Fort Pitt. They were the only places of safety for the people of Hartslog and the other neighboring settlements. The treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War in 1763, but this new threat took the form of a fiery, and able Ottawa chief named, "Pontiac." Once again the blood curdling war whoop echoed through the valley. From lake Erie south along the Allegheny River, the weak forts of Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, and Venango fell before the onslaught of the Pontiacs alliance of bits and pieces of many tribes, with the promise, from the French, of a great, imaginary, Army. That army would never arrive, nevertheless Pontiac and his band of Indians again held the frontier in a grip terror as they worked their way east with his dream of driving the whiteman forever back into the Atlantic. All along the western frontier, from Pennsylvania to Virginia, Pontiac and his alliance turned the summer of 1763 into a panorama of bloody horrors. Indian scalping parties were everywhere, murdering and butchering men, women, and children with a ruthless fury, unsurpassed by any preceding attacks. The settlements were a waste land, with homes, and harvests destroyed. Between 1762 and 1763, 2,000 settlers were killed or carried off, and as many were driven from their homes to the safety of Carlisle, or the other border towns of eastern Cumberland County. Carlisle was turned into a refugee camp.

Unable to shelter the multitudes arriving from the frontier, the people camped in the woods, and adjacent fields, building huts of branches and bark. Many were forced to live on the little charity the townspeople were able to supply from their already meager means. The following is an extract from a letter dated Carlisle July 5, 1763 (Pennsylvania Register vol. iv page 390);

"Nothing could exceed the terror which prevailed from house to house, from to town. The road was near covered with women and children flying to Lancaster and Philadelphia. The pastor went at the head of his congregation, to protect and encourage them on the way."

And this from the Pennsylvania Gazette dated Carlisle July 12, 1763:

"I embrace this first leisure since yesterday morning to transmit you a brief account of our present state of affairs here, which indeed is very distressing; every day almost, affording some fresh object to awaken the compassion, alarm the fears, or kindle into resentment and vengeance every sensible breast, while flying families, obliged to abandon house and possessions, to save their lives by hasty escape; morning widows, bewailing their husbands surprised and massacred by savage rage; tender parents, lamenting the fruits of their own bodies, cropt in the very bloom of youth by a barbarous hand; with relations and acquaintances pouring out sorrow for murdered neighbors and friends, present a varied scene of mingled distress. Today a vengeance begins to arise in the breasts of our men. One of them that fell, as he was expiring, said to one of his fellows; Here, take my gun, and kill the first Indian you see, and all shall be well."

In December of 1763, Scotch-Irishmen from Harrisburg, later known as the "Paxton Boys," in spirit picked up that dead man's gun. With it they attacked a band of peaceful Conestoga Indians, who were under the protection of the proprietors, killing all including the women and children. This incident occurred when word was brought to the settlers living in Paxton later (Harrisburg), that an Indian known to have been responsible for depredations committed against them, was under the safety of the proprietary government at the Conestoga settlement. The Paxton Rangers gathered and marched to the settlement. One of the Rangers saw an Indian he thought to be the one who had murdered his mother. As the Indian was leaving a house the Ranger fired his rifle, killing him. The remaining Rangers attacked the rest of the Indian settlement. Fourteen of the Conestoga Indians escaped and fled to the safety of the Quakers protection in Lancaster. On December 27, they were pursued by fifty of the Paxton Boys. The Indians had been quartered by the Quakers in a local jail. The Paxton Boys broke into the jail, removed the Indians, and killed them all. In the figurative jester of taking up of their dead comrade's rifle the Paxton Boys in their bitter resentment, lost sight of the fact that it is better for twenty guilty men to go free, than for one innocent man to suffer. But it must also be remembered that these men and women had suffered grievously for nine years from Indian outrages. Outrages brought on mainly by the inaction of the Quaker pacifist government, and knew the only help they could expect, would come at their own hands. And they, as a people, had always sought revenge it was their way.

The eastern inhabitants were greatly outraged by this incident, but the frontiersmen, having suffered so at the hands of the Indian during the preceding years seemly found no fault with the actions of the "Paxton Boys." Governor Penn issued arrest warrants for the perpetrators, but they were never served. For three years, Pontiac waged a bloody war on the Pennsylvania frontier until he came to a weakly protected line from Fort Pitt to Fort Bedford. With Pitt under siege, and in danger of falling, General Amherst commanded Colonel Bouquet to take 500 regulars and relieve the garrison. Colonel Bouquet set out from Carlisle on July 23, 1763, for the long march over the mountains. Several small companies made a dash for Fort Ligioner and Bedford to relieve the siege there. Cautiously Colonel Bouquet advanced through the Indian infested forest, till he arrived at Fort Bedford on the 25th, and Fort Ligioner on the 28th. The Delaware were investing Fort Pitt in force and it was in immediate danger of falling, so Bouquet left his wagons, and with pack horses raced to relieve the fort. The Indians hearing of Bouquet advance, dropped their siege at Fort Bedford, and went to meet Bouquet in hopes of waylaying him on the trail. At "Bushy Run," on August 5, the two enemies met in one of the most ferociously, and stubbornly fought battle in the annuals of Indian warfare.

General Bouquet learned the hard lessons taught by "Braddock's Defeat," of how the Indians fought, and borrowed these methods. The battle raged until nightfall and resumed the next morning. It seemed the British would soon suffer another Braddocks defeat, when Bouquet decided on a strategy that saved his command. He divided his army and, pretended to retreat. Drawing the Indians into the open, two flanks attacked the Indians, subjecting them to a murderous crossfire. Thoroughly demoralized and defeated the Indians fled the nearby woods in disorder, Pontiacs bloody war was at an end.

The depredations committed against the Caldwells and their neighbors on the frontier during "Pontiacs War" were such that most fled their homes to the safety of the territory's farther east. But during the long terrors of the "French and Indian War" and "Pontiacs War," Robert and Charles Caldwell stubbornly would not leave their homes, and defended them many times taking to the safety of the fort only once. The following is an excerpt from J. Simpson Africa's "'History of Huntington County Pennsylvania":

"Many and severe were the trials and privations endured by the two Caldwell families, owing to their isolated position. But, however, being courageous and ever alert, were equal to the emergencies of the times. In defense of their homes and families they braved all dangers, and had the proud satisfaction knowing they helped open the wilderness and make it safe for all, and to them and their families the right to live in peace and quiet in the homes they gallantly defended. These men by their courage and kindness won the esteem of the natives who dwelt in their vicinity and who were for years their only neighbors. They were always warned by these natives when danger from warring tribes was eminent, were better able to defend themselves and their families. They only took to the safety of a fort or (forted) once during their life here and then only for a short time, and only at the earnest requests of a Mingo Indian named "Logan." Who at dusk in the evening came to the home of Charles Caldwell, south of the Juniata River, and told Mrs. Elizabeth (Bettie) Caldwell, (her husband being absent at the time), that they must leave at once for the fort, as the Kittanning Indians were on the war-path, and on a certain day would overrun the valley, plunder and murder all the white settlers they found. With tears in his eyes he begged her to go at once, and not to tell who gave her warning, for if they knew who had warned them he would be killed by the hostiles. Mrs. Caldwell sent word to Robert's Family, and commenced preparing for immediate departure. On the arrival of her husband, they at once left with their family and stock for the fort, and were safely there when the attacks began, on the very day named by Logan. The Kittanning Indians war whoop echoed through the valley and when it ended they had plundered and murdered many of the settlers who had not taken to the safety of the fort, and had burned their homes. When the raids ended they left the fort and returned to their homes, where they stayed defending the homes for the remaining years of the Indian troubles."

Logan or James Logan the Mingo Indian, the Caldwell benefactor, the man who saved the Caldwell family from the bloody fury of Pontiacs warriors, was born in Shamokin Pennsylvania in 1725. Though his Indian name was "Tahgahjute; Eyelashes Stick Out," he took his English name from James Logan, the Secretary of the Province. His father was a Frenchman reared by Canadian Indians, and was later made chief of the Mingo and Orchyuga Indians. Up until 1774 he was a loyal friend to the white man and was well acquainted and friendly with the Caldwell families. While in the Kishacoquillas Valley Logan was a good and gentle man. He undoubtedly saved the Caldwells from being massacred by warning them of Pontiac's approach.

He lived near Kishacoquillas Creek in Kishacoquillas Valley. He was not a chief during the time he lived near the Caldwells, but instead lived by himself, away from his tribe. Most of his contact was then with the whiteman and he grew close to them. He bartered venison, and deerskins for the articles of the white man that he required. He was a proficient hunter, and loved the thrill of the hunt.

He was described as a muscular man about 200 pounds, a full chest, and prominent features, not as dark as the other Indians of the area, due probably to his mixed blood. It was said he possessed a love for the jug. When he was sober he was dignified and reserved, frank and honest. When intoxicated he was vain, boastful, and extremely foolish, about the same results the white man achieved when he drank too much.

The white man's advance into the wilderness began to crowd Logans' love for seclusion and in 1773 he immigrated to the Ohio Valley, about 30 miles north of the present town of Wheeling West Virginia, on Yellow Creek. There he gathered his relatives, and some Cayugas from Fort Augusta, and built a village of log-huts. In May of 1774, a band of marauding Indians attacked a neighboring white settlement. About thirty armed and angry white men from the settlement, under the command of a Daniel Greathouse, bent on revenge, but not knowing the peaceful character of Logan, and his family, descended on the village and destroyed it, murdering twelve and wounding eight of the Indians. Among those killed was Logan's family.

Logan was on a hunting trip during the attack. When he returned, he was appalled at the carnage committed against him by the white man he had always called friend. He buried the dead, cared for the wounded, and with a band formed by the survivors, took up the hatchet vowing revenge on the white man, that now had done him such a wrong. He and his band went further west into the Ohio and joined the Shawnees, then at war with the English. There he bent a bitter, relentless fury, fired by a desire for revenge that was never quelled.

In the Autumn of 1774 the Shawnees met in counsel, under a tree near Circleville Ohio seeking peace with the white man. Lord Dunmore sent a belt of wampum to all the chiefs, including Logan, inviting a treaty. Logan refused to attend the council, but sent his historic speech in a belt of wampum, and in the Indian tongue an interpreter read it, to the meeting;

"I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat, if he came naked and cold, and I clothed him not. During the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate of peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen, as they passed said; 'Logan is the friend of the whites.' I had thought of living among you but for the injuries of one white man. Captain Cressap, last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not sparing even the women and children. There runs not one drop of my blood in any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it . . . I have killed many . . . I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country. I rejoice in the beams of peace. But do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is to mourn for Logan? ................Not One!"

Logan was wrong in the name of the man who lead the attack it was not Cressup, but Daniel Greathouse, but in everything else he was so very correct. Logan never recovered from his pain, and retreated to the bottle for comfort. On his return from a trip to Detroit in 1780, he was killed by his nephew in a drunken brawl. Logan was wrong in another aspect; there were many who mourned for him including this writer. For had it not been for Logan and his warning to the Caldwells that bloody afternoon, I would probably not be here today writing about this noble man.

The French and Indian War was one of the most significant occurrences of Colonial history. It expelled the French from Colonial America, severed the strongest bonds to the mother country, united the colonists in a common bond for the first time, gave important military training to the colonist, and lit the fires of freedom in their hearts, and created a colonial empire more than twice the size of the original. The frontier that, at the beginning of the war, was only a few miles west of the Caldwell's cabins, suddenly jumped 500 miles to the west. This new territory, like a siren's call, tugged at the heart and soul of the adventuresome Scotch-Irish.

The Caldwells, and the other Scotch-Irish on the frontier suffered greatly from the Indian wars. They and the few there with them were the advance guard. They blazed a trail through the wilderness far out into the frontier. Bearing the brunt of the Indian wars, and the Indians growing hatred for all whites, they were the first line of defense for their antagonists, the Quakers to the east. They endured these things courageously, and step by step advanced on a perilous path across the Alleghenies.