4. The British began inciting the Indians to attack the settlements in 1777
British Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, from the Detroit outpost, recruited war parties from the Ohio tribes with promises of payment for scalps and hostages in 1777. He became known to American patriots as “The Hair Buyer”. In April, one such war party attacked Boonesborough, Shawnee led by Chief Blackfish. Boone was caught outside the fort in the surprise attack, wounded in the ankle. He was carried to safety by a recently arrived Virginian, a hulking frontiersman named Simon Kenton. Sporadic raids against the settlement’s outlying buildings continued throughout the summer, with the Indians destroying the settlers’ crops and killing their livestock.
Salt was a critical commodity on the frontier, necessary for the preservation of food. Fortunately for the settlers, Kentucky was liberally supplied with salt springs and licks. Gathering salt was a lengthy and dangerous process, since the salt party had to remain stationary as the water was boiled away and the salt scraped and packed. A salt party had to be large enough to defend itself against war parties, and it needed skilled hunters to ensure enough meat was had to feed the men. In January, 1778, Daniel Boone led a party of men from Boonesborough to a salt link on the Licking River, north of Boonesborough.