Pennsylvania's Black Boys

THE FIRST REBEL--Neil H. Swanson--Farrar & Rinehart ($3).

According to standard histories the first occasion on which American colonists made monkeys out of His Majesty's troops was at the Battle of Lexington. According to Neil H. Swanson, assistant managing editor of the Baltimore Sun who offers

The First Rebel to support his claim, that distinction really belongs to a band of Pennsylvania frontiersmen known as the Black Boys who, ten years before Lexington, captured two British forts, destroyed licensed pack trains carrying guns to the Indians, thumbed their noses while British generals and Royal Governor John Penn fumed and threatened or merely whimpered helplessly that "they use the Troops upon every occasion with such indignity & abuse that Flesh and Blood cannot bear it." Leader of these slippery, hard-hitting rebels (who insisted, however, they were as loyal subjects as any), was a man named James Smith. Central figure of Mr. Swanson's book, this remarkable Indian fighter and Revolutionist stands out as one of the most dramatic minor figures ever neglected by U. S. historians.

Captured at 18 by the Caughnawaga Indians, young Smith ran the gauntlet at Fort Duquesne. There he witnessed raiding parties returning with the scalps of General Braddock's massacred army, the slow burning alive of nine prisoners. Instead of killing Smith the Indians adopted him into their tribe, took him 300 miles into the Ohio wilderness. In the five years that elapsed before he made his escape he acquired an unbeatable knowledge of Indian ways, a lasting hatred for the arms and liquor traffic that lay at the root of the bloody feud between Indians and whites.

In the quiet three years following his return to the Conococheague Valley,

James Smith settled down to farming, raising a family. He was not surprised when the Indians went on the warpath again. They were receiving more guns from British traders than they had from the French, whose military defeats amounted to no more than the defeat of a business competitor. Philadelphia arms merchants now solved the difficulty of selling their wares by stirring the patriotic fervor of church congregations to the point where they put up the cash for guns to arm the settlers. Smith raised a white war party of his own, outfitted them with breechclouts, knives, tomahawks; prescribed blackened faces, red-topped skulls, plenty of red war paint. Drill consisted in teaching his 50 men straight Indian tactics. Then nothing more was seen or heard of them for the rest of the summer. But no Indians were seen Or heard in the Conococheague Valley either. The Black Boys were beating the Indians at their own game. In the Spring Smith's men joined the British regulars under Colonel Bouquet for a finish fight in the Ohio country. Three companies of regulars were left behind to protect frontier homes. When Smith's men came back 18 months later it was to discover that many a home had been raided while the rear guard was wintering snugly in Philadelphia to ease the nerves of unendangered Philadelphians. Among frontier settlers, confidence in British government reached a new low.

With the Indians quiet again, British traders hastened to restore the arms traffic to what it had been. This time the Black Boys did not merely complain. When a long pack train passed through, they shot the horses, burned the merchandise, horsewhipped the drivers, who streaked for Fort Loudon yelling for help. Commandant Grant obliged by making prisoners of eight Black Boys. The remainder called at the fort to demand their comrades be turned loose. Refused, Smith ordered an attack. The Black Boys blazed away all night, then slipped away and waited to intercept any messengers sent out. After more than 16 had been collected the commandant accepted an exchange of prisoners. The authorities called for court-martials but quieted down when it was learned that the whole frontier was in cahoots with the Black Boys.

The Black Boys' third and last attack on Fort Loudon was for the purpose of getting back eight guns confiscated from the first prisoners. After a two-day attack the Fort ran up a white flag, surrendered the guns. In addition Commandant Grant agreed to evacuate the Fort altogether, acting on orders from General Gage, who considered it was the simplest way out.

Four years later Indians again raided the valley. This time the Black Boys went after the pack trains hotter than ever. Fort Bedford, 30 miles away, answered by wholesale arrests. At dawn a few days later James Smith and 19 Black Boys leaped from behind an embankment before the Fort entrance, streaked through the gates before a dazed sentry could collect his wits, covered the dumbfounded garrison of crack regulars gathered about their morning rum ration. The whole operation required less than two minutes. Eight days later Smith was arrested and put on trial for murder. Following his prompt acquittal, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly.

When the Revolution broke out Smith and 36 of his veteran fighters volunteered for guerilla fighting in New Jersey. Delighted by their success, Smith proposed to General Washington that a battalion of frontiersmen be recruited to fight Indian style. On the grounds that it would look undignified to have white men fighting camouflaged as Indians, Washington refused. Smith, who by this time "entertained no high opinion of the colonel," went back to the frontier. Still hale at 74, the old Indian fighter stormed because he was not allowed to enlist in the War of 1812. Finally he set off alone to join the army at Detroit, turned back only when news of the Americans' easy surrender there convinced him that the army did not amount to much any more.

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