This was the first week of October. The year was 1786. Fall, in all its brilliance, had arrived in the Mad River Valley. Cautiously, a shadowy figure dressed in buckskins silently emerged from the heavy forest woodland into the early morning light. He had been following the old Indian war trail north toward the Mac-o-chee towns. Almost simultaneously another figure emerged only a few hundred feet away. The two individuals were on horseback. They were scouts for General Benjamin Logan’s Legion, which was following no more than a mile behind the scouts. The two were the eyes and ears for Logan’s 790 mounted troops.

On this fall morning, two of the country’s most experienced Indian fighters and army scouts had passed this way. Their names: Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton. Colonel Boone was just 16 days from his fifty-third birthday. Major Kenton had turned thirty-two in April. Both men were now legends.

This story is about Boone; however, it is difficult to write about Boone without mentioning Kenton. Their lives paralleled each other for years. They had known each other since they had served together in Dunmore’s army in 1774. It was fitting that they should be together on this campaign, for this would be their last. The Virginia Militia would be disbanded in favor of our new United States Army.

General Logan’s Legion was the eastern arm of a two-pronged attack against the Indians living north of the Ohio River. The western arm was commanded by General George Rogers Clark. Logan’s troops had crossed the Ohio River just 6 days before and were now advancing on Chief Moluntha’s village on Mac-o-chee Creek just east of present West Liberty, Ohio. During the next 3 days, Logan’s troops would destroy several Indian villages in what is now Logan County in Ohio.

Boone was the epitome of the American frontiersman. When Daniel Boone’s name is mentioned, most people think of his exploits in Kentucky and rightfully so; however, he left his footprint all over southern and central Ohio as well. People don’t think of Boone as being a part of Ohio’s early history, but in fact, he was very much a part of the Ohio scene.

According to my calculations, Boone first set foot in Ohio in 1774 while serving as a scout for Lord Dunmore’s campaign against the Shawnee Indians. As was customary, he and Kenton served as spies and scouts. Neither was involved in the actual fighting, which occurred at Point Pleasant (present Point Pleasant, WV). However, they were there. Boone would have been an observer at the negotiations on the Pickaway Plains between Dunmore and Chief Cornstalk. This occurred after Colonel Andrew Lewis, with 1,200 men, held off an attack by Cornstalk with a similar number of Indian troops. The battle was a draw.

In the month of February 1778, Boone, along with 27 others, was captured while making salty at present Blue Licks National Park in Kentucky. They were surprised and captured by warriors from the Shawnee town of Old Chillicothe, Ohio, the home of Principal Chief Black Fish. Here, Boone was adopted into the family of Black Fish, an event that lasted for many weeks. Hearing that Black Fish was now planning to attack Boonesboro, Daniel managed to escape and reach the fort in time to hold off the attack in early September.

A battle and siege on Boonesboro by Shawnees the previous year nearly cost Boone his life. While negotiating outside the fort with British/Indian agents, Boone was the victim of an ambush and was shot through the leg. Had it not been for Simon Kenton he would have lost his life. Boone was rather short, but muscular, standing 5’6" and weighing 140-160 pounds. Kenton ran to his aid, swept him up in one arm while holding his rifle in the other and carried Boone into the fort.

In 1780, Boone again joined an expedition commanded by the young General George Rogers Clark. Clark was a redheaded Virginian who had just driven the British from their forts along the Mississippi and Wabash Rivers. Clark was only 26 years old and was perhaps the most respected general in Washington’s army. Boone and Kenton again were together and served as pilots (scouts) for Clark. On this expedition, Clark destroyed Old Chillicothe and Piqua in Ohio. Two years later Kenton and Boone once again served General Clark in another expedition against the Shawnees. This time they destroyed Upper and Lower Piqua and Loramie’s store at the portage of the Wabash and Auglaize rivers in Ohio.

Illustration: Daniel Boone