"They despite to meet in peace those they fear in war": The Battle of Devil's Hole, September 14, 1763

As the Seven Years War drew to a close in 1763, the Natives of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes Regions had a laundry list of grievance with the British who had taken over where the French left off.  Not only were a lack of trade goods and crackdowns on sales of weapons, munition and alcohol a problem, so was overall encroachment on Native land by Settlers.  While some tribes chose to act in concert with Pontiac's Rebellion, others operated independently, though they are considered part of the Rebellion as a whole.

For centuries the Seneca had controlled a portage near the Niagara Gorge.  A portion of this Gorge, including a cave formation, had received the name (by Whites) of Devil's Hole because of its steep sides and fast-flowing water.  For this reason, anyone who needed to use the portage in the Gorge had been content to let Seneca warriors act as guides and bearers.  Over time this had changed, and various schemes had been developed to widen the portage so that teams of horses could drag wagons over the portage.  Not only did this displace Seneca men who had made a living as guides and bearers, but encouraged more traffic over the Gorge, disrupting Seneca access to it.  Fearing more settlement in the area, Seneca leaders had complained to the French, who were not in a position to do much about the matter, since they were losing their entire North American colonial empire at the time.  The Seneca also approached Sir William Johnson, the Superintendent of the British Indian Department, whom we've already met.  He was willing to broker an agreement between New York authorities and the Seneca but the New Yorkers weren't talking and Johnson became exasperated.  He found that his own White people were ill-disposed to leave in peace with the Natives, commenting that "they despise those in peace whom they fear to meet in war". 

As more developers poured into the Gorge, widening the road and disrupting Seneca ways of life in the process, Cornplanter and other leaders decided the time had come to act.  Cornplanter dispatched a band of 300-500 warriors who ambushed a wagon train with an armed escort from Fort Schlosser to Fort Niagara on a portion of the trail flanked with ravines on both sides.  The animals stampeded and several teamsters were killed.  Their leader, John Stedman, managed to escape to Fort Schlosser to seek help.  A detachment of the 80th Regiment of Foot was camped at Lewiston nearby.  Its commanders, George Campbell and William Fraser gathered their men and rushed to help the besieged wagon train.  Seneca warriors cut them off about a mile from the wagon train.  The soldiers suffered a loss of over 80 dead.  A Seneca later informed Johnson that Native losses were one man wounded.  A larger unit of soldiers set out from Fort Schlosser, but found only dead and wounded at the site of the two encounters.

Johnson also received news that it was not Cornplanter who had led the attacks, but another leader known among the Seneca as Farmer's Brother.  The Seneca hoped to underscore their point about this being their portage, but the British reinforced their presence at Fort Niagara and Johnson pressured the Seneca into ceding an area of land of one mile on either side of the Niagara River from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, as well as the islands upriver from Niagara Falls.  Thus the Gorge became a British military road and the Seneca lost access to the River, which was a valuable store of water and fish for them.  Fearing the Seneca anyway, Settlers stayed away from the area until after the Revolution, when most of the Seneca had fled to Canada.