The SAR MAGAZINE is the official quarterly publication of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution published quarterly.
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18 SAR MAGAZINE By James English Vaughn Jr. W hat happened at Bryan's Station during the middle of August 1782 was not a surprise to old James "Parson" Suggett's family. History suggests he dreamed that an enemy force was surrounding the fort, and the dream repeated until the old pioneer raised the alarm that Bryan's Station was under siege. The rough-hewn fort that protected James Suggett and about 90 others was typical of many that were built on the frontier of Virginia as groups of settlers moved west into hostile territory. It was rectangular, constructed of about 40 log cabins and a palisade of 12-foot sharpened logs filling the spaces between the cabins. Bryan's Station was located a few miles northeast of Lexington, Ky., and four brothers—William, Morgan, James and Joseph Bryan—built it in 1779. The brothers' ancestor, Sir Francis Bryan (1490-1550), was a prominent English diplomat during the reign of Henry VIII. The Bryan brothers were the uncles of Rebecca Bryan, who married Daniel Boone on Aug. 14, 1756, and they were lifelong friends of Boone. Despite the fact that Lord Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown in October of 1781, the American Revolutionary War continued on the western frontier, mainly because news didn't travel fast and the British didn't concede that the conflict was over. With the aid of the British in Detroit, Canadian Rangers and American Indians crossed the Ohio River from the north to drive the American settlers out of western Virginia, or what is now Kentucky. Small battles and sieges continued for nearly a year after Yorktown, and the siege of Bryan's Station was one of these conflicts. Suggett's dreams aside, there are several versions of how the settlers were warned of the surrounding enemy force. Probably the most likely is that experienced woodsmen knew something was not right because the forest around the fort was much too quiet, without the usual sounds of wildlife. For whatever reason, the warning came just in time to keep the men from leaving the fort in the early dawn of Aug. 16, 1782, on a mission to help other stations. If they had left, the station would have been practically defenseless against a hostile force consisting of about 50 Canadian Rangers and 300 Wyandot warriors who were commanded by Capt. William Caldwell and Simon Girty. Caldwell was a Canadian officer of Butler's Rangers, and Girty was an American born in Pennsylvania. Girty and his brothers were taken prisoner by the Seneca when they were children and were adopted by their captors. Girty returned to his family after about seven years with the Seneca, but preferred the life of the Native Americans. At first, he sided with the Patriots, but later changed sides to fight for the Loyalists. The American frontiersmen loathed him as a traitor and renegade. The warning that Caldwell and Girty's troops surrounded the fort came before the day's water supply had been brought into the station from the freshwater spring about 60 yards outside the fortress walls. Since water was essential to withstand a siege and the Indians knew that the carrying of water was women's work, Capt. John Craig, the station's commander, decided to send about 35 women and their daughters to the spring for water. Craig believed that the enemy was not yet ready to attack, and that they would not harm the women and girls because their action would have alerted the garrison of their presence. He also thought the act of the women and their daughters going to the spring would persuade the invaders that the settlers remained unaware of any danger. Every woman and girl able to carry water walked out of the fort carrying their wooden buckets, eager to do their share in the defense of the station. Craig's plan worked, and the brave women and girls returned safely to the fort with water. Not only was this ploy necessary to obtain water to withstand the siege, but also it allowed time for two messengers from the fort, Thomas Bell and Nicholas Tomlinson, to slip away from the station and ride to nearby Lexington for help. When they arrived, the two messengers learned that the fighting men of Lexington were on their way to aid Hoy's Station near Richmond. Bell and Tomlinson hurried to head off the Lexington troops, and to divert them to Bryan's Station. They caught up with the Lexingtonians near Boone's Station, and some of the men from this station joined the Lexington militia. All the reinforcements rushed to the besieged settlers at Bryan's Station. The troop of militia from Lexington and Boone's Station arrived at Bryan's Station, where they avoided ambushes and fought their way into the fort, causing Caldwell and Girty to abandon the siege early the next morning. The Kentucky militia that came to the relief of Bryan's Station consisted of about 47 men from Fayette County and about 135 from Lincoln County. Bryan's Station: the Next-to-last battle of the Revolutionary war in kentucky Far left, a lithograph of the women of Bryan's Station fetching water for the fort; left, the monument dedicated in 1896 by the Lexington, Kentucky Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to commemorate the women of Bryan's Station.