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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20 SAR MAGAZINE By Neal O. Hammon B lue Licks was a famous salt lick on the Licking River in northern Kentucky. It also was the site of a battle on the morning of Aug. 19, 1782. Fifteen minutes after the battle started, the surviving militia from the Kentucky district of Virginia were in full retreat. About 180 militia had formed a battle line along the side of a hill and charged into a force of about 200 American Indians and some Canadian Rangers. Sixty-seven of the Kentuckians could not retreat; about a dozen were captured and the remainder killed. Casualties among their officers was high, with 15 left dead on the battlefield. The highest-ranking Virginia militia officer to escape was Lt. Col. Daniel Boone. Some of the retreating men managed to retrieve their horses, but many fled on foot to the closest settlement, Bryan's Station, near Lexington. British Gen. Charles Cornwallis had surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown on Oct. 19, 1781, exactly a year and two months earlier, but the final provisional treaty of peace between the Americans and the British was not signed until 1783. Some have claimed that the Battle of Blue Licks was the final battle of the Revolutionary War in Kentucky, but others have pointed out there was an attack by the Indians on Kincheloe Station, led by the British on Sept. 2, 1782, in which at least 37 Kentuckians were killed or captured. To retaliate, Gen. George Rogers Clark gathered an army of more than 1,000 men, including the Kentucky Militia and his regulars, and attacked the Indian town of New Chillicothe in November 1782. What few people today realize is that the bloody combat at Blue Licks was just part of a larger campaign that began during the last week of July 1782, when Capts. William Caldwell and Alexander McKee began gathering Indians from various nations at the "Priowee Village" in Ohio for an offensive against Clark at Louisville. Caldwell started out with about 1,100 Indians, but by the time he reached the Ohio River, all but 300 had turned back; his Indians were reluctant to do battle with Clark, as his men had defeated them in an invasion two years before. Instead, they decided to strike the "Long Knives," as they called the Virginians, at Bryan's Station, 125 miles east of Louisville. Having no other choice, Caldwell approved the change of plans. His little army crossed the Ohio opposite the Licking River, continued down that river as far as the abandoned Ruddles Station, and headed overland to Bryan's Station. Bryan's Station was a large fort on the bank of the North Fork of Elkhorn Creek, about 9 miles east of Lexington. It was said to have been 600 feet long and 150 feet wide, and contained about 44 fighting men, as well as large numbers of women, children and slaves. There were no Bryans living in the fort at that time, and the ranking militia officer who lived there was Robert Johnson, who was then serving in the Virginia legislature at Richmond, leaving John Craig in command. One of the defenders was Pvt. John Hammon, a 22-year-old bachelor and my ancestor. Caldwell and his Indians reached the station before dawn on the morning of Friday, Aug. 16, and decided to stay concealed until the men left the fort to tend their crops and cattle. The enemy was discovered by the some of the militiamen, and they let the women go outside of the walls to fetch water from the well before sunup. Shortly after that, a slave left the fort and was fired upon by an over-eager Indian. The battle had begun. In this early attack, the Indians were driven back from the fort walls, but managed to set some of the barns and other outbuildings on fire. Just prior to the attack, the defenders had sent two riders on fast horses to Lexington for help. The two riders reached Lexington, where Maj. Levi Todd was in charge. He mustered 30 of the Lexington Militia and marched off to Bryan's Station to investigate. On the road, they met William Hays with some mounted men from Boone Station, and they joined the group. Around noon, these reinforcements reached the pasture west of the station, and Todd decided to force his way into the fort. Seventeen of the foremost horsemen rushed in, but the infantry was attacked at the mouth of a lane, was forced to retreat, and returned to Lexington. When the 17 horsemen rode through the open gates into the fort, the inhabitants were overjoyed. These new reinforcements increased the fighting men in the fort by about 38 percent. Before, each man had 34 feet of wall to defend; with the new arrivals, a man was only responsible for 24 feet of wall. The defenders of Bryan's Station managed to withstand the sustained gunfire of the British and Indians all day and through part of the evening, but the following day, the Indians retreated north, to Ruddles Station on the Licking River, and camped for the night. That same day, the Kentucky Militia from Lincoln and Fayette counties began to organize and headed for Bryan's Station. There, on the morning of Sunday, Aug. 18, they formed into three or four companies The Battle of Blue licks President General Lindsey C. Brock (front row, third from left) joined the Kentucky Society on Aug. 16 to commemorate the 232nd anniversary of the Battle of Blue Licks. Continued on page 23