Copyright
© 2017 John F. Oyler
August 3, 2017
The Whiskey Rebellion Reenactment
The middle of July marked the
two hundred and twenty third anniversary of the climax of the Whiskey
Rebellion, the burning of John Neville’s mansion, Bower Hill. As is their
custom a group of dedicated history buffs reenacted that event, on the grounds
of Woodville Plantation.
Key to this event were the
members of Wayne’s 4th Sub-Legion, a group of volunteers dedicated
to recreating the campaign and camp life of the twelve members of the Army of
the United States who were sent from Fort Fayette to defend Bower Hill against
insurgents on July 17, 1794.
For this reenactment they
were supplemented by volunteers representing the Neville family and their
servants, and a representative group of Western Pennsylvania farmers and
militiamen protesting the Federal government’s enforcement of a tax on the
production of whiskey.
Two days earlier the farmers’
opposition to the law reached the boiling point when U. S. Marshal David Lenox
attempted to serve a writ summoning William Miller to federal court in
Philadelphia to answer charges that he had not paid the excise tax. Lenox and
Federal Tax Inspector Neville were denied access to Miller’s home and decided
to leave when several warning shots were fired.
The next day thirty angry
“rebels” went to Bower Hill, demanding Lenox be surrendered to them. Neville’s
response was a gunshot that killed Oliver Miller. The exchange of gunfire
resulted in a stalemate with the rebels withdrawing but threatening to return
the next day.
Overnight the rebel force,
mustering at Fort Couch, grew to over five hundred. In the interim Neville had
been reinforced by a dozen soldiers led by his brother-in-law Major Abraham
Kirkpatrick. The leader of the insurgents was Major James McFarlane, an
experienced Revolutionary War veteran.
Before the rebel horde
reached Bower Hill, Neville escaped and hid in a nearby ravine. The women and
children were allowed to leave the house and flee to Woodville. After an hour
of exchanging gunfire it became obvious the soldiers were hopelessly outmatched.
When a flag of truce was
displayed in the house, Major McFarlane stepped into the open and was
immediately killed by a gunshot. The rebels responded by burning first the
outbuildings and finally the mansion; the soldiers were forced to surrender.
Despite being staged at a
different site than the actual battles and relying on a much smaller number of
combatants, the reenactment was quite credible and the discussion of what the
audience was seeing, before and after the fact, was extremely instructive. It
made me wish I were young enough to participate.
It would be unusual for me to
visit Woodville Plantation and not come away with several interesting new bits
of information. This time the source was the archaeologist-in-residence for the
summer. She was displaying a large quantity of artifacts that had been
discovered during various construction projects on the property.
During her discussion she
showed a shard from a piece of pottery that has been attributed to the
Monongahela people, the native Americans who inhabited this area from about
1000 AD to 1600 AD. Like the mound builders in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys
these people were much farther on the path to civilization than the Eastern
Woodlands and Plains Indians who succeeded them.
The Monongahela people had
perfected agriculture and lived in huts in villages surrounded by a circular
stockade. Apparently there were numerous such villages in this region. They
were able to make and use tools and were especially competent in pottery. The
causes of their demise five centuries ago are unknown, as is true of the Mound
Builders and of the Anasazi in the Southwest.
In each case the
possibilities of drought, or the Little Ice Age, or infectious diseases from
Europe, or of domination by other aggressive indigenous peoples have been
suggested. It is easy to wonder if they would have had a better chance to be
assimilated into the culture of the European invaders than the warlike Eastern
Woodlands tribes who supplanted them.
When I asked the archaeologist
if there was any documentation of the existence of a Monongahela village in the
Woodville vicinity, she referred me to Dr. Ron Carlisle’s excellent book “The
Story of Woodville”, which does indeed confirm this information. I am
embarrassed that I was unaware of this.
We are grateful to the
dedicated group of individuals who are committed to preserving the heritage of
the Chartiers Valley, and especially those involved with Woodville Plantation.
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