Colonel William Crawford was a trapper, land surveyor, farmer, and judge. He survived Braddock’s Defeat during the French and Indian War, then led men during the American Revolution, first as Lieutenant Colonel of the 5th Virginia, then as Colonel in command of the 7th Virginia. Crawford led his men across the Deleware River on Christmas Eve with Washington’s Army, fought at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown, and was eventually transferred to the Western Department of the Continental Army to oversee actions on the frontier.
Colonel Crawford had retired from military service in 1781, but George Washington, an old friend from his days as a land surveyor, called on him to lead an expedition against Native Americans in the Upper Sandusky River region, in the heart of present-day Ohio. The expedition came to a bloody end when the American expedition was ambushed and whittled down in numbers until, during a forced retreat in the middle of the night, Crawford was separated from the main body of his men. His capture was followed by hours of brutal torture at the hands of the Deleware, until, finally, he was burned at the stake.
Today, the death of Colonel William Crawford is a reminder of the atrocities exchanged by American settlers and Native Americans in the hard-fought frontier state of Ohio.