"George Rogers Clark became a major in the new militia of Virginia's Kentucky County, with Daniel Boone appointed as a captain. Kentucky's militia's primary enemies were the British military based in Detroit and their Indian allies."
"In February of 1778 Daniel Boone and companions were captured by Shawnee warriors (and two of the three Girty brothers) at Blue Licks while making salt...".
"Though taken to Detroit, they were kept by the Indians in their village where Daniel Boone was to run a 'warriors only' gauntlet. Normally, "most captives were dragged to the villages and compelled to sing at the tops of their voices as they approached. Thus warned, the entire population--squaws, children, old men, and any warriors who happened to have stayed behind--seized clubs, sticks, stones, hatchets, deer's antlers, or anything else that seemed likely to hurt the prisoner, and raced out to help belabor him."
Although Daniel Boone's captivity predated my ancestor's; their initial experience with their Indian captors was similar. In 1781 my ancestor, William Roark, under Colonel Lochrey, was enroute to join General George Rogers Clark when Lochrey's group was attacked by a group of British regulars and Indians (including a Girty brother).
History of Detroit and Wayne County...
(The force that attacked Colonel Lochrey consisted of about six hundred regulars and Indians from Detroit, commanded by Joseph Brant and George Girty )
Roark was taken prisoner and marched to Detroit. A first person account of William Roark's ordeal was found in William Worthington's Revolutionary War pension application; Roark provided an affidavit. Another survivor of Lochrey's Defeat was said to have run the gauntlet.
A 1784 map of Kentucky shows were "Col. Boon's" fort was located and also the Great Miami (Lochrey's Defeat occurred about ten miles below the mouth of the Big Miami).
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