Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/228

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��HISTOKY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

��Speaking of the route of the army after it left the Muskingum, Mr. Butterfield saj'S :

" The marcli was continued on the morning of the29th, "[May,1782]." The guides, taking a northwest course through the wilderness from the Muskingum, brought the army to the Kill- buck, some distance above the present town of Millersburg, the county seat of Holmes County. ' Thence, says Dunlevy, in his application for a pension, 'we marched up the Killbuck.' At not a great distance, the army reached a large spring, known at the present time as Butler's or Jones' spring, near the line of Wayne County, ten miles south of Wooster, where, on the evening of May 30, (Thursday), the army halted.

"At this spring one of the men died and was buried. His name was cut on the bark of a tree close by his grave.

" From this point the army moved westward, along the north side of Odell's lake — ' passing between two small lakes, where they found the heads of two large fish, freshly caught, lying on the ground, which awakened a suspicion that Indians were near.'* Thence they passed near the spot where was afterward the Indian village of Grreentown."'

This brought the army to Eichland County. It will be observed they entered near the north- east corner of Green Township, near where old Helltown existed and thence proceeded north- westerly through it. Mr. Butterfield's account continues :

"From this point — Helltown — they struck across to the Rocky Fork of the Mohican, up which stream they traveled until a fine spring was reached, near where the city of Mansfield now stands."

This spring, almost undoubtedl}", was what is now known as the "Big Springs," on Fourth street, in the city. Here, then, an army camped nearly one hundred years ago, and white men gazed on these then densely wooded vales and hills. Perchance they thought of the numbers


 * Recollections of William Smith.

��of their race that were then making their way westward, driving the lone Indian slowly toward the setting sun.

Leaving Big Spring, the army went north- ward " to a fine spring, five miles farther on, in what is now Springfield Township, a place now known as Spring Mills, where, on the evening of June 1, the army halted and encamped for the night.

"The army had now reached, as was sup- posed, the head of streams fiowing north into Lake Erie. This, howcA^er, was an error; these, in reality, flow into the Mohican. A short distance traveled on the 2d of June brought the cavalcade to other small streams, having a northern trend, which were, in fact, aflfluents of the Sandusk}'. The army crossed into what is now Crawford County at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and about an hour after reached the Sandusky* River, at a point immediately east of what is now the village of Leesville, at the mouth of a small creek called Allen's Run, when a halt was called and the volunteers took a half-hour's rest on the banks of the stream for which they had been for some time very anxiously looking."

The army was now about three miles west of the present city of Crestline. The next day it came to the Plains, now embraced in Crawford, Marion and Wyandot Counties. Of its subse- quent marches but little need be said here. As has been stated in the State historj^, the cam- paign ended in defeat and disaster, the army being attacked two days afterward and defeated, at what is known as "Battle Island," a grove of timber in Crane Township, Wyandot County, and, after two days' fighting, the Americans were driven away in a sadly demoralized condition.

Crawford was lost when the retreat began, and was seen by the main body no more, as it

field Township. Several small streams, commonly known as its heads, flow into it before it reaches Crawford Coiinty. The word "Sandusky" is of Indian origin. It was pronounced by them " Snn-rfoo<-«fe," or "Sa-undus<e#," meaning "clear, cold water," or " at the cold water."
 * The Sandusky River rises in "Palmer's Spring,' in Spring-

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