Lochry's Defeat

Lochry's Defeat
	Part of the American Revolutionary War
	; Lochry's Defeat, Will Vawter, c. 1895
Date	August 24, 1781
Location	Near present-day Aurora, Indiana39°3′31″N 84°54′23″W / 39.05861°N 84.90639°W
Result	British-Indian victory
Belligerents
Great Britain ; Iroquois ; Shawnee ; Wyandot	United States
Commanders and leaders
George Girty ; Joseph Brant	Archibald Lochry †
Strength
90–100 irregulars and Indians	100+ militia
Casualties and losses
None	37–41 killed ; 60–64 captured

Lochry's Defeat, also known as the Lochry massacre, was a battle fought on August 24, 1781, near present-day Aurora, Indiana, in the United States. The battle was part of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), which began as a conflict between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies before spreading to the western frontier, where American Indians entered the war as British allies. The battle was short and decisive: about one hundred Indians of local tribes led by Joseph Brant, a Mohawk military leader who was temporarily in the west, ambushed a similar number of Pennsylvania militiamen led by Archibald Lochry. Brant and his men killed or captured all of the Pennsylvanians without suffering any casualties.

Lochry's force was part of an army being raised by George Rogers Clark for a campaign against Detroit, the British regional headquarters. Clark, the preeminent American military leader on the northwestern frontier, worked with Governor Thomas Jefferson of Virginia in planning an expedition to capture Detroit, by which they hoped to bring an end to British support of the Indian war effort. In early August 1781, Clark and about 400 men left Fort Pitt in Pennsylvania by boat, floating down the Ohio River a few days ahead of Lochry and his men, who were trying to catch up.

Joseph Brant's force was part of a combined British and Indian army being raised to counter Clark's offensive. Brant had too few men to challenge Clark, but when he intercepted messengers traveling between Clark and Lochry, he learned about Lochry's smaller group bringing up the rear. When Lochry landed to feed his men and horses, Brant launched his overwhelmingly successful ambush. Because Clark had been able to recruit only a fraction of the men he needed for his campaign, the loss of Lochry's men resulted in the cancellation of Clark's expedition.

^ Most sources give the number of Lochry's men as 107. Two casualty reports made by participants—one prepared by Joseph Brant or the British, the other by an American captive—both list 101 men by name. Two books give higher figures: Mann (George Washington's War, 234) lists Lochry's strength in the battle as 142, while Nester (Frontier War, 300) gives it as 140.
^ Several days after the battle, a British report listed 37 Americans killed and 64 captured; Pershing, "Lost Battalion"; Maurer, "British Version", 219. A subsequent list made by Isaac Anderson, one of Lochry's men who was captured and later escaped, listed 41 killed and 60 captured; Hunter, "Pathfinders", 392.

[1] Most sources give the number of Lochry's men as 107. Two casualty reports made by participants—one prepared by Joseph Brant or the British, the other by an American captive—both list 101 men by name. Two books give higher figures: Mann (George Washington's War, 234) lists Lochry's strength in the battle as 142, while Nester (Frontier War, 300) gives it as 140.

[2] Several days after the battle, a British report listed 37 Americans killed and 64 captured; Pershing, "Lost Battalion"; Maurer, "British Version", 219. A subsequent list made by Isaac Anderson, one of Lochry's men who was captured and later escaped, listed 41 killed and 60 captured; Hunter, "Pathfinders", 392.

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