The following information was taken from the Warren Times Observer’s Allegheny Magazine Legend’s & Folklore of Warren County.
Flash back to 1779.
Warren County as it is now known did not exist but along with the rest of Western Pennsylvania was the edge of the American frontier.
This was Seneca land with warriors as leaders such as Cornplanter and Guyasuta.
Given permission to conduct a raid up the Allegheny River by General George Washington, Col. Daniel Brodhead would lead 605 men on what would ultimately result in the only fighting of the Revolutionary War that occurred in Western Pennsylvania – on Thompson’s Island in the Allegheny River, just south of Warren.
The expedition left Fort Pitt, the epicenter of modern day Pittsburgh, on August 11.
When Brodhead reached the area that is now Tionesta, he moved to the right bank of the river and continued to push north toward the mouth of the Brokenstraw, hoping to get to the mouth of the Conewago, now known as the Conewango, to strike the Senecas.
Thompson, a station on the Western New York & Pennsylvania railroad, was where an advance party of the expedition spotted 30 Seneca warriors coming down the river.
According to a report on the expedition assembled by the Westmoreland County Genealogy Project, “each party observed the other at almost the same moment. The Senecas at once ran their canoes to shore, threw off their shirts and prepared for battle.”
“Both sides took to trees and rocks and began a sharp fusillade. For only a few minutes this conflict lasted, when another part of scouts, moving over the hills, took the Senecas in flank… At the sound of the firing in front, Brodhead formed his column to ask to protect the pack train and then hurried the pack train and then hurried forward with reinforcements. He was just in time to witness the retreat of the Senecas. They quickly discovered that they were overpowered and took to rapid flight.”
Five Seneca warriors were killed in the fight with several other wounded. Three of Brodhead’s men suffered wounds in the fighting “and they so slightly that they continued on the march the following morning,” according to the report.
On the next day’s march, the expedition made it to the mouth of the Brokenstraw before heading on to Conewago. When he arrived there, the town had largely been deserted. Continuing north approximately 20 miles, the expedition discovered a series of native villages that had also been deserted when news of the expedition was received.
Brodhead, in his report to General Washington, wrote that “the troops maintained on the ground three whole days, destroying the towns and corn fields. I never saw finer corn, although it was planted much thicker than is common with farmers. The quality of corn and vegetables destroyed at several towns, from the best accounts I can college from the officers employed to destroy it, must certainly exceed 500 acres, which is the lowest estimate, and the plunder taken is estimated at $3,000. From the great quality of corn in the ground and the number of new houses built and building, it appears that the whole Seneca and Muncy nations intended to collect in this settlement.”
Of the fighting, Brodhead wrote that the fighting took place “ten miles this side the town,” presumably speaking of the settlement at the mouth of the Conewago.
The expedition safely returned to Pittsburgh on September 14.
In a general order issued by Washington, he said of Brodhead’s expedition that “The activity, perseverance and firmness white marked the conduct of Colonel Brodhead, and that of all the officers and men of every description in this expedition, do them great honor, and their services entitle them to the thanks and to this testimonial of the General’s acknowledgment.”