William Crawford: Living the Spirit of America By Jack Dakas William Crawford was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1732. At that time, his home was on the far western fringe of the British Colonies and the settlements there were frequently exposed to Indian raiding parties from the wilderness to the west. Conflicts between the settlers and the Native Americans were to be expected as the colonists constantly searched out new lands and encroached on territory the Indians had lived on for time immemorial. As the French and British vied for control of the North American continent, the Indians became pawns of the two great powers and the stage was set for ever more brutal conflicts between the people living on the frontier and the Indians. Savagery reigned and both the Colonists and Indians were guilty of horrific attacks on each other. This was the environment that William Crawford grew up in and he spent his entire life defending the frontier through two great wars. He was a young man in the 1750's when his friend George Washington enlisted his help to push the French from the Ohio Valley. Both men were weaned on warfare as they marched with Generals Braddock and Forbes on expeditions into the wilderness. Though they didn't know it at the time, their experiences under British command was actually basic training for the next Great War, the American Revolution. The period between the two wars was the only time in both men's lives where they were able to live in relative peace. They remained close friends and became business partners with William acting as a land agent for George. William also revisited land he first saw and fell in love with on Braddock's expedition. A little river, the Youghiogheny would become his home and he would raise a family there and pursue the elusive dream of peace and happiness that so often escaped him. For a few years, he was able to lay aside his arms and live the peaceful life of a farmer. His life there revealed his human side and his love for the simple pleasures: home, hearth and family. But when the Revolution started, he could not resist his old nemesis, the call of duty. He crossed the Delaware with Washington and fought the British and Hessians in New England. William served with honor and courage, surviving many deadly encounters and only after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, retired his commission and went home to his river. He thought peace would be his then, for the rest of his life. Though the war was all but ended in the east, William returned home to find the Indians were still making war on the western frontier. After repeated excursions by war parties into the settlements, General Washington called on his old friend once more. William reluctantly came out of retirement to lead a force of militia across the Ohio into no man's land to crush the power of the tribes. Though he lived among the giants who forged the American Nation, not one of them served more honorably or sacrificed more than William Crawford. When he crossed over into the Ohio country in 1782, he crossed over into the land where only hero's and legends dwell. It is only fitting that people should know more of the courageous life of high adventure lived by William Crawford.
About the Author: I grew up just miles from Crawford's home along the Youghiogheny River in Pennsylvania. In my youth, I tramped all along Braddock's Road, not knowing how much history was written there. As I grew up, relatives would tell stories about the early settlers, about William Crawford. I would sit and listen around summer campfires and wonder why others didn't know much about all that happened in years gone by. After a long teaching career, I thought about Crawford's story more and more. I came to realize that it wasn't so much that I decided to write his story, the fact was, I never thought of not writing it. Jack Dakas