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He was known across the Ohio frontier as the ‘hair buyer.’ His real name was Henry Hamilton and he was, in 1779, the British Lieutenant Governor of Detroit. In this position he was the brains and the money behind terrible Indian raids on American settlements all along the frontier. It was widely believed that he had paid bounties for American scalps collected on such raids.
In February 1779, Hamilton’s base at Vincennes was under siege by a hardy band of frontiersmen under the command of George Rogers Clark. The hardened American Riflemen were too much for Hamilton’s soldiers. Soon many of them were wounded. After several hours of shooting, Clark called a halt and sent a man with a white flag up to the fort with a letter for Hamilton. It urged him to surrender in order to save his men. In reply Hamilton wrote the following:
“Governor Hamilton begs leave to acquaint Col. Clark that he and his garrison are not disposed to be awed into action unworthy of British subjects.”
However after a few more desperate hours Hamilton did, indeed raise a white flag. He proposed a ceasefire with three days of talks. Clark refused, suspecting that Hamilton was stalling for reinforcements. During these negotiations, Clark’s men intercepted a war party on it’s way to Hamilton to present American scalps for payment. The Indians were tied to a fence and tomahawked in full view of the British defenders of the fort. Hamilton subsequently surrendered. The Hair Buyer was now an American prisoner. Clark immediately had Hamilton clapped in irons. The outraged British Lieutenant Governor responded to this treatment with the following to Clark, “You must renounce all pretensions to the character of an officer or a gentleman.”
The hatred for Hamilton was so great that his captors found it impossible to afford him the usual courtesies of Prisoners of War. Governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, ordered him shackled in irons and thrown into a cramped, foul dungeon. The British, on hearing of this treatment officially protested. Jefferson relied, “ It is justified on the general principle of national retaliation.”
Hamilton himself always denied that he paid for American scalps. There is no question, however, that he encouraged the Indian allies in their raids, supplying what they needed and rewarding them for their victories. In contrast, when American’s had found themselves his prisoners they were treated with unusual courtesy. One such was the greatest of all frontiersmen, Daniel Boone himself. Boone, who was held by Hamilton in Detroit in 1778, stated that Hamilton was a man of ‘great humanity.’ When Hamilton was imprisoned by Jefferson, Boone actually made a special visit to pay his respects.
In 1781 Hamilton was released in a prisoner exchange. He was soon resuming his former course as the Governor of Quebec and later as Governor of the Island Colonies of Bermuda and Dominica. He was described by the Colonial Office as a ‘gentleman of great honor and integrity.’ Hamilton was, in fact, a man who had a distinguished record of public service before coming to the Americas. He was born to a noble Scottish family. When he came to Ohio, he immediately set about establishing good relations with the Indian allies. He ensured they were treated fairly and even made an effort to learn their language. He studied their customs and, being an accomplished artist, sketched many of their chiefs. He regarded the Indians as individuals and always treated them with respect. Despite all of this the Gentleman Scottish military commander will forever be remembered by American history as the barbarian hair buyer of the frontier.
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