GIRTY, Simon, leader of Indians, born in Pennsylvania 1741; died 1818. His father, an Irish immigrant and an Indian Trader, was killed in a duel in 1750.  His mother remarried in 1753, and in 1756 (during the French and Indian War), Simon,  his three brothers, his half-brother, his mother and his step-father were taken by French-led Shawnee and Delaware forces who captured Fort Granville.  Soon afterward, Girty’s step-father was put to death at the Delaware village of Kittanning.  A month later, English militia under the command of William Armstrong attacked Kittanning, and Thomas Girty, the eldest of the Girty brothers was liberated.  The rest of the family remained in Indian hands and was separated and given to different tribes.  Simon was taken by western Senecas to a village near Lake Erie’s east shore, where he was adopted and trained as an interpreter.  He returned from life among the Senecas in 1764, at which time he was fluent in eleven native languages.  He was immediately hired into the British Indian Department headquartered at Fort Pitt, to serve as an interpreter and intermediary to the Six Nations.   He was an avid supporter of the Virginia faction in Pittsburgh and served as a spy, scout, and intermediary for Lord Dunmore during Dunmore’s War with the Shawnees.  By this time, Simon had befriended Simon Kenton and they remained friends for the duration of their lives.  At the conclusion of Dunmore’s War, 1775, Girty was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Virginia militia.  A year later, the Virginia militia at Pittsburgh was disbanded and Simon was hired by George Morgan, Patriot Commissioner of Indian Affairs Middle District.  Girty was to serve as an interpreter and intermediary to the Six Nations, and was sent by Morgan to the Grand Council of the Iroquois League which met once a year at Onondaga, New York.  There, Girty represented the fledgling United American States and addressed the council, requesting a treaty of neutrality for the duration of the revolution.  Girty, an adopted Seneca, was in essence addressing his own people.  Unbeknown to Girty, Mohawks were already on the warpath, fighting as allies of the King.  Nevertheless, Simon won a commitment from the Iroquois and returned to Pittsburgh with a diplomatic triumph.  A month later, he came into conflict with Commissioner Morgan and was fired.  Girty next became a recruiter for the Continental Army and was promised a captaincy if he could raise 150 men.  He succeeded in reaching his quota but because of prejudice, he received only a lieutenant’s commission.  Shortly thereafter, the 8^th Virginia regiment shipped out to fight at Charleston and Girty was left behind at Fort Pitt.  Disgusted, Girty resigned his commission and was immediately hired by General Edward Hand, commander of the western war.   Following a dangerous spy mission to a Seneca bastion in upper New York, Girty brought General Hand news of a British supply base on the Cuyahoga River which was scheduled to arm British-allied Indian forces in the coming spring.  Following up on this information, Hand led a disastrous expedition against this target which was soon dubbed “The Squaw Campaign,” because a few Delaware women and old men, all of whom were at peace with the rebels were killed, and Hand’s militia failed to reach their objective at Cuyahoga.  Girty’s promised commission was again denied him, and after determining that it was the intention of the rebel leaders to cross the Ohio River to settle the hunting grounds of the Indians who then resided there, Girty defected in March of 1778.  He made his way to Detroit and rejoined the British Indian Department.  Soon, Girty was assigned to serve as military liaison and advisor to Wyandots, Mingos and Shawnees of the Ohio Valley who were now fighting for the British Cause. 

            Girty’s old friend Simon Kenton was captured by hostile Shawnees in the summer of 1778, and after being dragged from one Indian town to another, where he was beaten and made to run gauntlets, the Kentuckian was taken to the Shawnee town of Wapatomica where he was condemned to be burned to death.  Girty was returning from raids into western Pennsylvania by Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots and Mingos and stopping briefly to rest at Wapatomica, he discovered his old friend was the doomed captive.   Simon argued for Kenton’s life and saved him from a terrible death.  Later in the war, Colonel William Crawford, leading an American expedition aimed at destroying Indians in the Sandusky area (whether they were hostiles or not) was captured during the battle of Sandusky, condemned by Delaware and Wyandot Indians, and burned to death.  Girty argued for Crawford’s life, but was finally warned to say no more or he could take Crawford’s place at the stake.  A report by an escaped Rebel captive condemned Girty, saying he did nothing to help Crawford and suggested that he enjoyed the spectacle of Crawford’s misery.   Other witnesses who were there agreed that Girty did all he could to save Crawford and that he left before Crawford’s death. 

            Later in the revolution, in addition to going on many raids against American outposts on the frontier, Girty helped British and their allied Indian forces to overwhelm Kentucky militia at the Battle of  Blue Licks.  

            When the war ended, Girty remained as an agent of the British Indian Department, serving the Indians of the Ohio Valley and aiding them in their struggle to retain their homelands in the face of ever increasing white invasion.  These struggles are known as the “Indian Wars” of the 1790s.  Finally, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 the confederation of western tribes was defeated by General Wayne’s forces.   Simon Girty retired to his farm at Malden, just across the river from Detroit.   He continued to serve the Indian Department as an interpreter, and he and his wife raised two boys and two girls.  Early in the 1800s, Girty and his wife separated.  Simon remained at the farm and his health began to deteriorate.  He was crippled by a broken ankle that never healed correctly, and he began to lose his sight.  In one of the early battles of the War of 1812, Girty’s eldest son Thomas contracted a fever while carrying a wounded British officer from the battleground and soon died.   Simon buried his son beside his home at Malden.

            In 1813, Simon was evacuated from Malden as American troops invaded the area.   With a price on his head, and by now the most notorious villain of the frontier, the 72-year-old man was taken to a Mohawk village at Burlington on the Grand River, where he remained until 1815.  When he returned to his home at Malden, Girty was totally blind.  His wife came home to take care of him and he passed away from natural causes in February, 1818.  There is no evidence that he had ever willingly participated in an atrocity committed against American captives of the Indians, in fact,  there is very strong evidence that he saved and helped repatriate more than two dozen hostages, including men, women and children.  Simon Girty’s notorious legend was based on racism, and there are many now who regard him as a frontier hero.           

            Phillip Hoffman

            See the author’s essay, Simon Girty:  His War on the Frontier, in:  The Human Tradition in the American Revolution, Ian Steele and Nancy Rhoden, editors, Scholarly Resources, Maryland, 1999. 

GIRTY, Simon, leader of Indians, born in Pennsylvania about 1750; died about 1815. His father had (lied, and his mother had married again, when in 1755 the whole family were taken captive by Indians, and the step-father was burned at the stake. Simon remained a prisoner till 1758, when he was released. In 1774 he was a soldier and spy under Lord Dunmore at Fort Pitt, and a friend and companion of Simon Kenton. Being an ac-tire loyalist, he left Pennsylvania at the beginning of the Revolution, became a leader of the savages, and was concerned in many atrocities. It is not known whether he was given a British commission. He had been held a prisoner by the Whigs at Pittsburg, but escaped, collected about 400 Indian warriors in the summer of 1777, and in September attacked Fort Henry (now Wheeling, West Virginia), which was garrisoned by about forty men. After defeating with great slaughter a reconnoitering party, and reducing the garrison to twelve men, he made a demand for its surrender, but was refused. The Indians now laid siege to the fort, but, as they had no artillery, the garrison held its own until it was relieved next day by forty mounted men. In 1778, with two other Tories, Girty went through the Indian country to Detroit, urging the savages to take up arms against the Americans. He was present at the torture and death of Colonel William Crawford (q. v.) in 1782, and is charged with showing delight at his sufferings; but Girty averred that he did what he could to save Crawford's life. Subsequently, when his old associate, Simon Kenton, was captured by the Indians, Girty exerted himself to the utmost to save him from the torture, and succeeded in effecting his release. In August, 1782, Girty invaded Kentucky and with 600 savages made an attack on Bryant's station, near Lexington, which was garrisoned by about fifty men. After an unsuccessful ambuscade Girty laid siege to the fort till the approach of re-enforcements under Daniel Boone caused him to retreat. He was rapidly pursued, and the battle of the Blue Licks followed, in which many of the Kentucky leaders lost their lives. This was the last great Indian battle on Kentucky soil. In the same year Girty was active in the expulsion of the Noravian missionaries who had been laboring quietly among the Wyandottes. He lived for some time on Sandusky River, where he had established a trading-station, and planned and led many marauding excursions. He was present at General Arthur St. Clair's defeat in 1791, and directed a savage to kill and scalp General Richard Butler, who lay wounded on the field. Girty acted as interpreter to the commissioners that were appointed by the United States government to meet the Indians in 1793, and treated them with insolence, finally securing the failure of the negotiations, He also aided the British in the war of 1812, and is said by some authorities to have been killed in the battle of the Thames in 1813, while others say that he died a natural death two years afterward.