Hamilton organized a troop of white rangers from among the French, British, and Tories at Detroit.  They acted as allies of the Indians, and furnished leaders to them.  Three of these leaders were the tories McKee, Elliot, and Girty, who had fled together from Pittsburg [Footnote:  Haldimand MSS.  Hamilton’s letter, April 25. 1778.  “April the 20th-Edward Hayle (who had undertaken to carry a letter from me to the Moravian Minister at Kushayhking) returned, having executed his commission—­he brought me a letter & newspapers from Mr. McKee who was Indian Agent for the Crown and has been a long time in the hands of the Rebels at Fort Pitt, at length has found means to make his escape with three other men, two of the name of Girty (mentioned in Lord Dunmore’s list) interpreters & Matthew Elliott the young man who was last summer sent down from this place a prisoner.—­This last person I am informed has been at New York since he left Quebec, and probably finding the change in affairs unfavourable to the Rebels, has slipp’d away to make his peace here.

“23d—­Hayle went off again to conduct them all safe through the Villages having a letter & Wampum for that purpose.  Alexander McKee is a man of good character, and has great influence with the Shawanese is well acquainted with the country & can probably give some useful intelligence, he will probably reach this place in a few days.”] they all three warred against their countrymen with determined ferocity.  Girty won the widest fame on the border by his cunning and cruelty; but he was really a less able foe than the two others.  McKee in particular showed himself a fairly good commander of Indians and irregular troops; as did likewise an Englishman named Caldwell, and two French partisans, De Quindre and Lamothe, who were hearty supporters of the British.

    The British Begin a War of Extermination.

Hamilton and his subordinates, both red and white, were engaged in what was essentially an effort to exterminate the borderers.  They were not endeavoring merely to defeat the armed bodies of the enemy.  They were explicitly bidden by those in supreme command to push back the frontier, to expel the settlers from the country.  Hamilton himself had been ordered by his immediate official superior to assail the borders of Pennsylvania and Virginia with his savages, to destroy the crops and buildings of the settlers who had advanced beyond the mountains, and to give to his Indian allies,—­the Hurons, Shawnees, and other tribes,—­all the land of which they thus took possession. [Footnote:  Haldimand MSS.  Haldimand to Hamilton, August 6, 1778.] With such allies as Hamilton had this order was tantamount to proclaiming a war of extermination, waged with appalling and horrible cruelty against the settlers, of all ages and sexes.  It brings out in bold relief the fact that in the west the war of the Revolution was an effort on the part of Great Britain to stop the westward growth of the English race in America, and to keep the region beyond the Alleghanies as a region where only savages should dwell.