Ruddle's Massacre 1780

Location of Fort: Ruddle's Station, on E. bank of South Fork of Licking river, 3 miles below the junction of Hinkston's and Stoner's branches, about 7 miles from Paris, in Bourbon Co.

In June 1780... British Captain Henry Bird, leading a force of 250 whites and 850 Indians attacked 300 American settlers who had taken refuge at Ruddle's Station, Kentucky. When Bird's force used cannon against the stockade, the settlers realized they were outmatched and surrendered. Upon their opening the gate, the Indians in Bird's command rushed into the stockade and killed more than 200 settlers before Bird could regain control of his force.

Nearby Martin's Station would also surrender, but only after assurances there would be no further killings. All the survivors were marched to Detroit, Michigan as prisoners. "The Ruddle's Station Massacre" as it became known, remains the worst atrocity of many committed by the British during the American War for Independence.

**** From: [https://kynghistory.ky.gov/Our-History/History-of-the-Guard/Documen... Destruction of Ruddle’s and Martin’s Forts in the Revolutionary War. By Maude Ward Lafferty.  From the Register of the Kentucky HisTorical Society, Vol. 54, Oct 1956, No. 180]

• Coming in the summer of 1780 with an army of more than a thousand British regulars, Canadian volunteers, Indians and Tories, and bringing the first cannon ever used against the log forts of the wilderness, he [Captain Henry Bird] captured 470 men, women and children, loaded them down with the plunder from their own cabin homes and drove them on foot from Central Kentucky to Detroit, a distance of 600 miles. There they were divided among their captors and some of them were taken 800 miles farther to Mackinac and to Montreal. The story of their capture, of the separation of families, of the hardships endured during the six-weeks journey and of the conditions under which they lived during the fourteen years of their captivity is one of the most shocking in the pioneer period of Kentucky's history.

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From: Find a Grave memorial: 53246040

• 20+ Victims of Ruddle’s Massacre
  • Death: 22 June 1780
  • Burial: Lair Family Vault, Cynthiana, Harrison County, Kentucky, USA
  • Also buried in the Lair Family Vault are the bones of at least 20 victims of Ruddle's Massacre who were killed when the fort of Capt. Isaac Ruddle (Ruddell) was destroyed by a force of British Regulars, Canadian Volunteers, Tories, & Native American (Shawnee) allies under the command of Capt. Henry Byrd of His Majesty's 8th Regt.

**** From: [http://www.fortwiki.com/Isaac_Ruddell%27s_Station Fortwiki.com - Isaac Ruddell’s Station] 

• A large number of settlers were taken prisoner and marched to Fort Detroit in Canada. Twenty were killed on the spot and later buried in a mass grave by piling stones over their bodies. Matthias Lair and his brother, John Lair, settled on the property after the Revolutionary War and in 1845 a Lair descendant gathered the bones of the massacre victims and placed them in the Lair family crypt where they remain today.
• Site includes a list of settlers who were among the residents at the time of the attack

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From: - Ruddles’s Station Kentucky, Captured by British and Indian Forces June, 1780

• There are several conflicting dates for the attacks on Ruddle's and Martin's Stations. Ardery says June 24, 1780 for Martin's. Coleman says Byrd arrived in Cinc'y on June 9 and June 26 for Martin's. In another of Coleman's books, he says June 24th for Ruddle's. Drake/Wilson/Ardery, say June 22, 1780 for both.
• For Ruddle's (4 or 5 miles from Martin's), Mann says June 1780 on a Sunday morning for the first attack, then "2 or 3 days later" finally captured and then Martin's that same day. "History of Bourbon County" says June 1780 as does Ardery. Diane Perrine Coon suggests 19 June 1780. My family account says Tuesday, July 1, 1780; and the initial attack, capture and then Martin's taken on the same day. The KY Encyclopedia just says 1780.
• Note: June 19 was on a Monday. June 22 was a Thursday, June 24, Saturday and the 26th Monday. July 1 was on a Saturday.
• Here is William Perrin's account from "History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison, and Nicholas Counties."
  • Ruddel's Station, which some authorities locate in Bourbon County, and others just over the line in what is now Harrison County, [fort location in present-day Harrison, was Bourbon] in 1780 by a large force of Canadians and Indians, under the notorious Col. Byrd, a British officer. His force amounted to some six hundred men-white and red-with six pieces of artillery, said to be the first cannons that ever awoke the echoes of the Kentucky hills. On the 22d of June (1780), this formidable force appeared before Ruddel's, and Col. Byrd demanded its surrender to His Britanic Majesty's forces, at discretion. Capt. Ruddel complied on the condition that the prisoners be placed under charge of the English instead of the savages. But when the gates were thrown open, the Indians rushed in, seized the first white person they met, claiming them as individual prisoners. When Col. Byrd was remonstrated with by Capt. Ruddel for this disregard of the conditions of surrender, he acknowledged his inability to control his savage allies. The scenes which ensued after the capture are almost indescribable and are unsurpassed except, in savage warfare. Wives were separated from their husbands. and mothers from their young children without hope of ever being re-united. After the prisoners were secured and the booty divided, the savages proposed to move against Martin's Station in Bourbon County, but Col. Byrd refused, unless the prisoners should be given into his charge--the Indians to take for their share the property, which was agreed to. Martin's Station was then captured without opposition. The savages were so elated with these successes, that they were anxious to proceed at once against Bryant's Station and Lexington, but for some inexplicable reason Col. Byrd refused, and the expedition returned north of the Ohio River.

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From: Handbook of the American Frontier: The southeastern woodlands. By Joseph Norman Heard. pg 42 (Bird, Henry; Kentucky Raid); pg 316-317 (Ruddle’s Station, Kentucky; Massacre)

• From pg 42 - (Direct quote):
  • Bird, Henry; Kentucky Raid. In May 1780, Major A.S. De Peyster, British commandant at Detroit, dispatched a military expedition with artillery against the Americans at Fort Nelson, Louisville, Kentucky. He chose Captain Henry Bird, an experienced frontier officer of the 8th (or King’s) Regiment to lead the raid. Bird, who had commanded the Indians during the siege of Fort Laurens in 1779, recruited Simon, James, and George Girty to help manage the Indians. The departed from Detroit at the head of 150 troops (regulars and Rangers from Niagara), and 100 Indians. Upon reaching the Miami River they joined British Indian agent Alexander McKee, with a large force of Shawnees, Mingos, and Wyandots. This army of almost 1,000 men constituted the most formidable force ever directed against an American frontier post.
  • At the Miami Rendezvous the Indians persuaded Bird to accept a change of objective. A war party rarely succeeded in capturing a Kentucky stockade, but with Bird’s cannon they could compel every Kentucky station to surrender. They insisted on advancing up the Licking River to attack Ruddle’s and Martin’s stations. Under threat of a cannonade both settlements surrendered after Bird promised to protect the 350 prisoners. But at Ruddle’s, he lost control of his Indians and they massacred many men, women, and children. (See Ruddle’s Station; Martin’s station. [p. 316-17])
  • The invaders failed to attack Lexington and Bryan’s Station because all semblance of discipline disintegrated. Bird condemned the Indians for killing the prisoners, and they railed against him for trying to prevent the massacre. Short of provisions because the Indians has slaughtered all of the catle at the captured stations, and fearful that George Rogers Clark had assembled an army to cut off his retreat, Bird departed hurriedly for the Miami River, buried his cannon, dismissed his Indian allies, and marche 100 surviving prisoners to Detroit. (Reginald Horsman, Matthew Elliott, British Indian Agent; Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West, II ; Dale Van Every, A Company of Heroes; Alexander Scott Withers, Chronicles of Border Warfare.)
• From: pgs 316-317- (Direct quote):
  • Ruddle’s Station, Kentucky; Massacre. Major A.S De Peyster, British Commandant at Detroit, sent an expedition to attack the Kentucky settlements in the spring of 1780. Led by Henry Bird, a British officer, the force consisted of 150 white men and 850 Indians from the Great Lakes. Bird had a cannon to batter down stockade walls if a station refused to surrender.
  • The Invaders arrived at Ruddle’s (Ruddell’s) Station on June 20. The settlement, containing some 300 men, women, and children, was commanded by Captain Isaac Ruddle, founder of the station. When Bird fired the cannon, Ruddle realized that defense was impossible. He surrendered upon Bird’s promist that the prisoners would be protected. As soon as the gates swung open, however, the Indians swarmed among the settlers, tomahawking and shooting, sparing neither women nor children. Bird, aghast at the violation of his pledge, did his best to stop the massacre, but, before he could regain control of his Indian allies, some 200 people had been slain, scalped, and sometimes dismembered. The survivors were taken as prisoners to De Peyster. (Consul W Butterfield, History of the Girtys; Dale Van Every, A Company of Heroes; Alexander Scott Withers, Chronicles of Border Warfare.)”

Additional Resources:

• The First Way of War: American War Makingon the Frontier, 1607-1814. By John Grenier. Cambridge University Press 31 Jan 2005. pgs 158-159.
• Southeast Missourian -Pioneer cemetery needs attention, 7 Jan 2005 Letter to the Editor
• http://frontierfolk.net/screenplay/Ruddles-Station-reenactment.rtf
• https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20911307/ruddles_station_massacre/
• Wikipedia - Bird’s invasion of Kentucky
• Destruction of Ruddle’s and Martin’s Forts in the Revolutionary War. By Maude Ward Lafferty. From the Register of the Kentucky HisTorical Society, Vol. 54, Oct 1956, No. 180
• [https://www.frontierfolk.net/ramsha_research/captivesite.html]

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