Summary Information
Draper Manuscripts: Daniel Brodhead Papers
1775-1846
- Brodhead, Daniel, 1736-1809
Draper Mss H
0.4 c.f. (3 volumes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Daniel Brodhead, an officer in the Continental Army, who served as an Indian negotiator and as commander of the Western Department, headquartered at Fort Pitt from 1779-1781. Included are correspondence, speeches, and treaty papers, 1775-1781, concerning Indian leaders Big Cat, Captain John Killbuck, Jr., Captain Johnny (also known as Israel), Captain Pipe (Hopocan) and John Montour of the Delaware; Half King (Tanacharison) of the Seneca and Samuel Houston (known as Raven) of the Cherokee; as well as copies of letters from George Washington to Brodhead, and Draper's copy of Brodhead's outgoing correspondence letterbook for 1780-1781.
Descriptions of the volumes are copied from the Guide to the Draper Manuscripts by Josephine Harper. Out of date and offensive language may be present. This collection is also available as a microfilm publication. Forms part of the Lyman Copeland Draper Manuscripts. The fifty series included in the Draper Manuscripts have been cataloged individually. See the Draper Manuscripts Overview, and the Guide to the Draper Manuscripts by Josephine Harper (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1983) for further information. There is a restriction on use to this material; see the Administrative/Restriction
Information portion of this finding aid for details.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-draper00h ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Daniel Brodhead (1736-1809) was a Revolutionary War officer of the Continental Army. Chosen a delegate to the Pennsylvania Convention in 1775, he was commissioned an officer in the same year and became colonel of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment in 1777. In the following year his regiment was assigned to Port Pitt to serve under General Lachlan McIntosh, whom Brodhead succeeded as commandant in April 1779, by appointment from George Washington. Brodhead was an able Indian negotiator who also planned and conducted successful raids against the Mingo, Seneca, and Delaware tribes; but his ambitions and jealousies hampered his relations with militia officers and contributed to the failure of Clark's plan to assault Detroit. Although acquitted of formal charges of misuse of funds and supplies, Brodhead was removed from his post by Washington in September 1781. After the Revolution he served as surveyor-general of Pennsylvania from 1789 to 1800.
With the cooperation of Brodhead's grandson, Congressman Richard Brodhead, and other relatives, in 1845-1846 Draper acquired the papers of Daniel Brodhead documenting his command at Fort Pitt. Many were later published in Louise P. Kellogg, ed., Frontier Advance on the Upper Ohio, 1778-1779, and Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio, 1779-1781, (both published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1916, 1917).
Administrative/Restriction Information
PHOTOCOPY RESTRICTION: Photocopying originals is not permitted; researchers may copy from the microfilm available in the Library.
Contents List
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Draper Mss H
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Series: 1 H (Volume 1)
: Mainly original manuscripts, 1775, 1779-1781, pertaining to Indian and military affairs on the western borders of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky. Correspondence, speeches, and treaty negotiations feature several prominent Indian leaders: Big Cat, Captain John Killbuck, Jr., Captain Johnny (also known as Israel), Captain Pipe, and John Montour of the Delaware; Half-King of the Wyandot tribe; and Raven of the Cherokee. There are copies of seven letters written to Brodhead by George Washington and of one speech delivered by Washington to the Delaware; the originals were retained in 1846 by the Brodhead heirs. Preceding the manuscripts is a detailed index by Draper.
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Series: 2 H (Volume 2)
: A small notebook kept by Brodhead, which contains additional correspondence and speeches, 1779-1781, of tribal leaders, mainly Captain John Killbuck, Jr., Captain Pipe, and Raven. One letter by Brodhead was addressed to Daniel Maurice Godefroy de Linctot.
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Series: 3 H (Volume 3)
: Manuscript copy of a letterbook containing Brodhead's outgoing correspondence, October 1780-December 1781, during his command at Fort Pitt. The transcript was made by Draper in 1846 from the original volume in possession of one of Brodhead's descendants. Among Brodhead's addressees were Benjamin Biggs, Ephraim Blaine, Samuel Brady, George Rogers Clark, John Clark, John Gibson, John Hackenwelder, Edward Hand, Samuel Huntington, William Irvine, Samuel Irwin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas McKean, James Marshal, Richard Peters, Joseph Reed, David Shepherd, William Shippen, Friedrich W. von Steuben, William Taylor, George Washington, Anthony Wayne, and David Zeisberger.
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