Caldwell commanded about 50 Butler's Rangers and Detroit Indian Department men alongside a few hundred warriors, mainly Wyandot and Great Lakes warriors, with a few Shawnee, Delaware and Mingo men, according to Capt. Alexander McKee's report to Detroit of August 28, 1782 (Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, vol. 20, pp. 49–50 (opens in a new tab)). Col. John Todd, Lt. Col. Stephen Trigg and Daniel Boone's son Israel were among the dead.

The battle took place ten months after Yorktown. It was the largest Revolutionary War battle fought in Kentucky, and many Kentuckians still call it the war's last battle (American Battlefield Trust (opens in a new tab)).

Goals of each side

The Native nations

Most of the warriors were Wyandot, along with men from the Great Lakes ("Lake") nations. Their commander wrote that the Wyandots supplied his food (Caldwell, 1782 (opens in a new tab)). McKee wrote that only a "few of the Delawares Shawanese or Mingoes followed us" (McKee to DePeyster, Aug. 28, 1782, MPHC, vol. 20, pp. 49–50 (opens in a new tab)); ExploreKYHistory (opens in a new tab) names Shawnee and Wyandot warriors.

For the Shawnee and their neighbors, Kentucky was a hunting ground their own leaders had never agreed to give up. It had been signed away by others in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768), and Shawnee leaders had yielded it under pressure at Camp Charlotte (1774). Settler stations and Kentucky expeditions north of the Ohio threatened their towns and food supply.

The spring of 1782 had hardened feelings. In March, Pennsylvania militia killed some 90 Christian Lenape who had surrendered their arms at the Moravian mission of Gnadenhutten (opens in a new tab), among them the Delaware elder Glikhikan (opens in a new tab) (DCB, Girty (opens in a new tab)). American Battlefield Trust writes that the massacre fed a desire for revenge in the Sandusky towns. No source ties it directly to Blue Licks.

The British at Detroit

Britain ran its western war from Detroit through the Indian Department, which supplied and advised allied nations. Its aim was to keep the Americans busy on the frontier and away from Detroit, which had been threatened since George Rogers Clark took Vincennes in 1778–79 (DCB, Caldwell (opens in a new tab)). By August 1782, though, Quebec had ordered a defensive posture (DePeyster, Aug. 27, 1782, MPHC, vol. 10, pp. 633–634 (opens in a new tab); see below).

Capt. William Caldwell was an Irish-born Loyalist officer in Butler's Rangers, called "a very active Partisan" by his commandant. In June 1782 his force had defeated Col. William Crawford's expedition on the upper Sandusky (DCB, Caldwell (opens in a new tab)).

Alexander McKee, a captain and interpreter with "extensive influence among the Indians," joined the attack on Bryan's Station (DCB, McKee (opens in a new tab)). He was also at Blue Licks itself and wrote the second British report of the battle (McKee to DePeyster, Aug. 28, 1782, MPHC, vol. 20, pp. 49–50 (opens in a new tab)).

Simon Girty had been captured as a boy and raised among the Senecas. In 1778 he left the Americans to interpret for the British. The DCB warns that a "white savage" legend grew out of "distortions of fact" (DCB, Girty (opens in a new tab); see our Girty story).

His brother George also interpreted for the force (see below). James Girty was likely with Bradt's separate party heading for Wheeling, not at Blue Licks (Butterfield, 1890 (opens in a new tab)).

The Kentucky militia

The stations had just been attacked, and their cattle, hogs and crops had been destroyed (Caldwell, 1782 (opens in a new tab)). The militia's expected answer was to pursue the raiders before they crossed the Ohio.

Col. John Todd of Fayette County was the senior officer. Lt. Col. Stephen Trigg led the Lincoln County men, with Maj. Hugh McGary. Lt. Col. Daniel Boone commanded the Fayette left (Boone to Harrison, 1782 (opens in a new tab)). Col. Benjamin Logan was raising more Lincoln men and had not yet arrived.

Lead-up

In early August, Caldwell had gathered what he called "Eleven hundred Indians." A false report that Clark was marching on the Shawnee towns broke the gathering up. Caldwell then crossed the Ohio "with three Hundred Indians and Rangers" (Caldwell, 1782 (opens in a new tab)).

They surrounded Bryan's Station near Lexington. They burned outbuildings and killed livestock, but they could not take the fort.

They withdrew on the morning of August 17. Caldwell chose the Blue Licks road because the ground there was "more advantageous in case the Enemy should pursue." At Bryan's Station they tried to draw the garrison out: Caldwell wrote that he "tried to draw 'em out by sending up a small Party" (Caldwell's report, August 26, 1782 (opens in a new tab)), and McKee that they hoped to "gain some certain Intelligence" (MPHC, vol. 20, pp. 49–50 (opens in a new tab)). No British report describes the attack as a planned diversion to set up Blue Licks.

The raid ran ahead of new orders from Quebec. On August 27, 1782, Maj. Arent DePeyster at Detroit wrote that he had sent word to Caldwell and the other officers "to act on the defensive only," adding, "I fear Capt Caldwell has already passed the Ohio" (MPHC, vol. 10, pp. 633–634 (opens in a new tab)). Interpreters Simon Girty and his brother George were with the force but held no command, according to C. W. Butterfield's History of the Girtys (opens in a new tab) (1890).

Battle timeline

Aug. 15–16, 1782: Caldwell's force surrounds Bryan's Station. ⚑ Caldwell gives the 15th; Boone and Levi Todd give the 16th.¹
Aug. 17: The attackers withdraw.
Aug. 18: They camp above the Licking near the Lower Blue Licks.
Aug. 18: About 176–182 militia ride out from Bryan's Station on the trail, roughly 40 miles (Filson, 1784 (opens in a new tab)).
Aug. 19, morning: At the ford the officers confer. Boone urges caution because of the ravines ahead (ExploreKYHistory (opens in a new tab)).
Aug. 19: The militia cross and form three divisions: Trigg on the right, Todd and McGary in the center, Boone on the left, and Maj. Silas Harlan leading the advance.
Aug. 19: They close "within about forty yards" before the firing starts. Boone's wing pushes forward, but the right breaks "at the first fire" and warriors get into the rear (Boone to Harrison (opens in a new tab)).
Aug. 19: Todd, Trigg, Harlan and Boone's son Israel are killed. The militia break back across the river, fighting hand to hand.
Aug. 19–20: The survivors meet Logan's relief column.
About Aug. 24: Logan's force of about 460 returns and buries the dead. Boone wrote: "We found forty-three on the ground."

⚑ The McGary tradition. A widely told story says McGary spurred into the ford shouting, "Them that ain't cowards follow me." It comes from recollections gathered decades later and retold in histories such as HistoryNet's account (opens in a new tab). Neither Boone's 1782 letter nor his 1784 narrative mentions it. ExploreKYHistory says only that the Kentuckians "ignored Boone's advice."

People involved

John Todd, militia: commanding officer; killed.
Stephen Trigg, militia: right wing; killed.
Daniel Boone, militia: left wing; survived.
Israel Boone, militia: Boone's son; killed.
Hugh McGary, militia: center; survived.
Silas Harlan, militia: advance party; killed.
Robert Patterson, militia: captain; survived (monument roll (opens in a new tab)).
Levi Todd, militia: major; helped bury the dead.
Benjamin Logan, militia: relief column.
William Caldwell, British: commander.
Alexander McKee, Indian Department.
Simon Girty, Indian Department interpreter.
Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape and Lake nations leaders: their names are not recorded in the sources we have.

Location

The ridge and ford lie inside Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park on US 68, where KHS marker #18 (opens in a new tab) stands. Visitors can walk to the monument and the mass grave on the ridge Caldwell held (American Battlefield Trust (opens in a new tab)). See it on the map.

Outcome and why it mattered

Caldwell reported La Bute, a Frenchman, and six warriors killed and ten wounded; McKee counted ten Indians and La Bute of the Indian Department killed, and 14 wounded (Caldwell, 1782 (opens in a new tab); MPHC, vol. 20, pp. 49–50 (opens in a new tab)). Caldwell claimed his force had "killed and took One hundred and Forty six," a figure that wrongly counted Boone and McGary among the dead (Caldwell, 1782 (opens in a new tab)). ⚑ Kentucky dead range from 60 in Filson's book to 77 in Boone's letter.

For Kentucky it was a crippling loss of leaders. On August 30 Boone asked Virginia's governor for 500 men: "are we to be wholly forgotten?" For the Native nations it was a clear victory, but in November Clark led Kentucky militia against the Shawnee towns on the Great Miami. The inhabitants left, and five towns and their corn were burned (Filson, 1784 (opens in a new tab)).

Caldwell's Rangers came home "hardly capable of taking the field again," and the war moved to the peace table (DCB (opens in a new tab)). The Treaty of Paris (opens in a new tab) gave the land to the United States, and war continued north of the Ohio for a dozen more years.

Kentucky today

Blue Licks Battlefield, a stop on the Licking Valley drive, became a state park in 1927–28, beginning with a 32-acre tract (Carlisle Mercury, 1928 (opens in a new tab)). A 40-foot granite obelisk was unveiled on August 19, 1928. It lists the Kentucky men by name and quotes both Boone's "enough of honour cannot be paid" and Caldwell's own words (Carlisle Mercury, 1928 (opens in a new tab)). It names the opposing nations (Shawnee, Delaware, Wyandot and Mingo) but none of their dead (HMdb (opens in a new tab)).

Each August the Sons of the American Revolution and the park hold a memorial ceremony at the monument with a color guard (Lafayette SAR, 2026 (opens in a new tab)). ⚑ We found no source for a full battle reenactment held every year.

Two Kentucky counties carry the dead commanders' names. Trigg County (opens in a new tab) (1820) honors Trigg "who gallantly fell…at the battle of the Lower Blue Licks" (KY Land Office (opens in a new tab)). Todd County (opens in a new tab) (1819) honors John Todd, great-uncle of Mary Todd Lincoln (opens in a new tab).

The losses of 1782 also fed the push to leave Virginia. In 1784 Benjamin Logan called officers to Danville over frontier defense, because the district "lacked the necessary means and authority" to field its own militia. That meeting began the ten Danville conventions (opens in a new tab) that ended in statehood on June 1, 1792 (Register of KHS (opens in a new tab); see Danville and Constitution Square).

Background

Research notes and sources for the Battle of Blue Licks

Sources

Primary

Capt. William Caldwell, report dated "Wakitamiki," Aug. 26, 1782 (British Library Add. MSS 21,783), Loyalist Institute transcription (opens in a new tab)
Daniel Boone to Gov. Benjamin Harrison, Aug. 30, 1782, KY National Guard History (opens in a new tab)
John Filson, "The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon," in Kentucke (1784), Project Gutenberg (opens in a new tab)
Act creating Trigg County (1820), KY Land Office (opens in a new tab)

Secondary

ExploreKYHistory, Blue Licks Battlefield (opens in a new tab)
American Battlefield Trust, Blue Licks (opens in a new tab)
Dictionary of Canadian Biography: Caldwell (opens in a new tab), McKee (opens in a new tab), Simon Girty (opens in a new tab)
HistoryNet, "Battle of Blue Licks" (opens in a new tab) (narrative drawing on 19th-century recollections; used only for the McGary tradition)

Notes

Note 1. Caldwell's report puts his arrival at Bryan's Station on the 15th and the battle on the 18th, one day earlier than the Kentucky accounts (16th and 19th). This article uses the Kentucky dates, which KHS and American Battlefield Trust follow.
Note 2. Forces: Filson gives 176, Boone's letter 181 and American Battlefield Trust 182. Caldwell says 300 crossed the Ohio, then "nigh 100" left before the battle; American Battlefield Trust puts about 200 in line; Boone guessed more than 400 from the trail. Losses: Filson gives 67 lost, 7 of them captured; KY National Guard about 64 killed; ExploreKYHistory about 70; Boone 77 killed and 12 wounded. British and Native losses: Caldwell 7 killed and 10 wounded; McKee's report of Aug. 28, 1782: ten Indians and La Bute killed, 14 wounded.