Reenactors
from Anthony Wayne's Legion, that helped defend Bower Hill, gave
visitors to the Kane Woods, the Presley Neville House and Old
Saint Luke's Church, a glimpse into the life of a soldier in
colonial times this past July.
First
walk to follow footsteps of Gen. John Neville
DonMcGuirk,
who has researched the role Bower Hill and the Kane Woods played
in early American history, said the Kane trail network was
developed with an emphasis on highlighting and preserving land
where a series of critical events took place in 1794 that helped
shape the future direction of our country. |
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Fighting
erupted on Bower Hill in the summer of 1794 between federal
troops, Neville's supporters, and local farmers who were
vehemently opposed to a federal tax imposed on whiskey by the
Congress during President George Washington's administration to
help pay for debts incurred during the Revolutionary War.
Neville's Bower Hill mansion and most of the structures that
supported life on his Bower Hill Plantation were burned to the
ground by those who became known as the whiskey rebels during
the strife.
General
Neville served at General Washington's side during the
Revolutionary War and they were close personal friends both
having grown up in Fairfax County, Virginia. He served at Valley
Forge and was captured by the British at the Battle of Yorktown.
After the war, Washington appointed Neville, the Inspector for
the Revenue in Western Pennsylvania, and entrusted him with
collecting the tax on whiskey. As a result, General Neville
became the focus of the ire of Western Pennsylvania farmers who
depended on distilling whiskey for their main source of income.
The farmers, who had little cash, said they could not pay the
tax and believed it would ruin them. They viewed the tax as a
federal intrusion on their rights, no different from the onerous
taxes imposed by the British that they fought against in the
Revolutionary War.
President
Washington's response to the fighting on Bower Hill was swift
and decisive. He called for the militias in all the thirteen
original states to send forces to put down the rebellion. Over
thirteen thousand troops, a force greater than any Washington
commanded during the Revolutionary War, was assembled by
Washington to put down the rebellion. As the federal forces
marched on Western Pennsylvania, the rebellion collapsed, yet
the legacy of the rebellion left its mark on American history.
President
Harry S. Truman called it one of the ten most significant events
in American History, and it has been studied extensively by
historians. The rebellion was the first major challenge to
federal authority in the states, and was the first time federal
troops were used to put down a rebellion to federal authority in
a sovereign state. The action, cited by President Abraham
Lincoln, served as a precedent for the use of federal forces to
fight the secession of the Southern states in 1860.
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DATE:
Thursday, Nov. 12th 7:30 PM
SPEAKER:
CONTACT: 
