In Defense of Civilization
We give thanks and praise for the safety and peace vouchsafed us by our
Heavenly Father in these times of war. Many of our neighbors, driven
hither and yon like deer before wild beasts, came to us for shelter, yet
the accustomed order of our congregation life was not disturbed, no, not
even by the more than 150 Indians who at sundry times passed by,
stopping for a day at a time and being fed by us.
--Wachovia Community Diary, 1757
With commendable energy and expedition Dinwiddie and Dobbs, acting in
concert, initiated steps for keeping the engagements conjointly made by
the two colonies with the Cherokees and the Catawbas in the spring and
summer of 1756. Enlisting sixty men, "most of them Artificers, with
Tools and Provisions," Major Andrew Lewis proceeded in the late spring
to Echota in the Cherokee country. Here during the hot summer months
they erected the Virginia Fort on the path from Virginia, upon the
northern bank of the Little Tennessee, nearly opposite the Indian town
of Echota and about twenty-five miles southwest of Knoxville. [46] While
the fort was in process of construction, the Cherokees were incessantly
tampered with by emissaries from the Nuntewees and the Savannahs in the
French interest, and from the French themselves at the Alibamu Fort. So
effective were these machinations, supported by extravagant promises and
doubtless rich bribes, that the Cherokees soon were outspokenly
expressing their desire for a French fort at Great Tellico.
Dinwiddie welcomed the departure from America of Governor Glen of South
Carolina, who in his opinion had always acted contrary to the king's
interest. From the new governor, William Henry Lyttelton, who arrived in
Charleston on June 1, 1756, he hoped to secure effective coöperation in
dealing with the Cherokees and the Catawbas. This hope was based upon
Lyttelton's recognition, as stated in Dinwiddie's words, of the
"Necessity of strict Union between the whole Colonies, with't any of
them considering their particular Interest separate from the general
Good of the whole." After constructing the fort "with't the least
assistance from South Carolina," Major Lewis happened by accident upon a
grand council being held in Echota in September. At that time he
discovered to his great alarm that the machinations of the French had
already produced the greatest imaginable change in the sentiment of the
Cherokees. Captain Raymond Demere of the Provincials, with two hundred
English troops, had arrived to garrison the fort; but the head men of
all the Upper Towns were secretly influenced to agree to write a letter
to Captain Demere, ordering him to return immediately to Charleston with
all the troops under his command. At the grand council,
Atta-kulla-kulla, the great Cherokee chieftain, passionately declared to
the head men, who listened approvingly, that "as to the few soldiers of
Captain Demere that was there, he would take their Guns, and give them
to his young men to hunt with and as to their clothes they would soon be
worn out and their skins would be tanned, and be of the same colour as
theirs, and that they should live among them as slaves." With impressive
dignity Major Lewis rose and earnestly pleaded for the observance of the
terms of the treaty solemnly negotiated the preceding March. In
response, the crafty and treacherous chieftains desired Lewis to tell
the Governor of Virginia that "they had taken up the Hatchet against all
Nations that were Enemies to the English"; but Lewis, an astute student
of Indian Psychology, rightly surmised that all their glib professions
of friendship and assistance were "only to put a gloss on their
knavery." [47] So it proved; for instead of the four hundred warriors
promised under the treaty for service in Virginia, the Cherokees sent
only seven warriors, accompanied by three women. Although the Cherokees
petitioned Virginia for a number of men to garrison the Virginia fort,
Dinwiddie postponed sending the fifty men provided for by the Virginia
Assembly until he could reassure himself in regard to the "Behaviour and
Intention" of the treacherous Indian allies. This proved to be a prudent
decision; for not long after its erection the Virginia fort was
destroyed by the Indians.
Whether on account of the dissatisfaction expressed by the Cherokees
over the erection of the Virginia fort or because of a recognition of
the mistaken policy of garrisoning a work erected by Virginia with
troops sent from Charleston, South Carolina immediately proceeded to
build another stronghold on the southern bank of the Tennessee at the
mouth of Tellico River, some seven miles from the site of the Virginia
fort; and here were posted twelve great guns, brought thither at immense
labor through the wilderness. [48] To this fort, named Fort Loudoun in
honor of Lord Loudoun, then commander-in-chief of all the English forces
in America, the Indians allured artisans by donations of land; and
during the next three or four years a little settlement sprang up there.
The frontiers of Virginia suffered most from the incursions of hostile
Indians during the fourteen months following May 1, 1755. In July, the
Rev. Hugh McAden records that he preached in Virginia on a day set apart
for fasting and prayer "on account of the wars and many murders,
committed by the savage Indians on the back inhabitants." On July 30th a
large party of Shawano Indians fell upon the New River settlement and
wiped it out of existence. William Ingles was absent at the time of the
raid; and Mrs. Ingles, who was captured, afterward effected her escape.
[49] The following summer (June 25, 1756), Fort Vaux on the headwaters
of the Roanoke, under the command of Captain John Smith, was captured by
about one hundred French and Indians, who burnt the fort, killed John
Smith junior, John Robinson, John Tracey and John Ingles, wounded four
men, and captured twenty-two men, women, and children. Among the
captured was the famous Mrs. Mary Ingles, whose husband, John Ingles,
was killed; but after being "carried away into Captivity, amongst whom
she was barbarously treated," according to her own statement, she
finally escaped and returned to Virginia. [50] The frontier continued to
be infested by marauding bands of French and Indians; and Dinwiddie
gloomily confessed to Dobbs (July 22d): "I apprehend that we shall
always be harrass'd with fly'g Parties of these Banditti unless we form
an Expedit'n ag'st them, to attack 'em in y'r Towns." [51] Such an
expedition, known as the Sandy River Expedition, had been sent out in
February to avenge the massacre of the New River settlers; but the
enterprise engaged in by about four hundred Virginians and Cherokees
under Major Andrew Lewis and Captain Richard Pearis, proved a disastrous
failure. Not a single Indian was seen; and the party suffered
extraordinary hardships and narrowly escaped starvation. [52]
In conformity with his treaty obligations with the Catawbas, Governor
Dobbs commissioned Captain Hugh Waddell to erect the fort promised the
Catawbas at the spot chosen by the commissioners near the mouth of the
South Fork of the Catawba River. This fort, for which four thousand
pounds had been appropriated, was for the most part completed by
midsummer, 1757. But owing, it appears, both to the machinations of the
French and to the intermeddling of the South Carolina traders, who
desired to retain the trade of the Catawbas for that province, Oroloswa,
the Catawba King Heygler, sent a "talk" to Governor Lyttelton,
requesting that North Carolina desist from the work of construction and
that no fort be built except by South Carolina. Accordingly, Governor
Dobbs ordered Captain Waddell to discharge the workmen (August 11,
1757); [53] and every effort was made for many months thereafter to
conciliate the Catawbas, erstwhile friends of North Carolina. The
Catawba fort erected by North Carolina was never fully completed; and
several years later South Carolina, having succeeded in alienating the
Catawbas from North Carolina, which colony had given them the best
possible treatment, built for them a fort [54] at the mouth of Line
Creek on the east bank of the Catawba River.
In the spring and summer of 1757 the long-expected Indian allies arrived
in Virginia, as many as four hundred by May--Cherokees, Catawbas,
Tuscaroras, and Nottaways. But Dinwiddie was wholly unable to use them
effectively; and in order to provide amusement for them, he directed
that they should go "a scalping" with the whites--"a barbarous method of
war," frankly acknowledged the governor, "introduced by the French,
which we are oblidged to follow in our own defense." Most of the Indian
allies discontentedly returned home before the end of the year, but the
remainder waited until the next year, to take part in the campaign
against Fort Duquesne. Three North Carolina companies, composed of
trained soldiers and hardy frontiersmen, went through this campaign
under the command of Major Hugh Waddell, the "Washington of North
Carolina." Long of limb and broad of chest, powerful, lithe, and active,
Waddell was an ideal leader for this arduous service, being fertile in
expedient and skilful in the employment of Indian tactics. With true
provincial pride Governor Dobbs records that Waddell "had great honor
done him, being employed in all reconnoitring parties, and dressed and
acted as an Indian; and his sergeant, Rogers, took the only Indian
prisoner, who gave Mr. Forbes certain intelligence of the forces in Fort
Duquesne, upon which they resolved to proceed." This apparently trivial
incident is remarkable, in that it proved to be the decisive factor in a
campaign that was about to be abandoned. The information in regard to
the state of the garrison at Fort Duquesne, secured from the Indian, for
the capture of whom two leading officers had offered a reward of two
hundred and fifty pounds, emboldened Forbes to advance rather than to
retire. Upon reaching the fort (November 25th), he found it abandoned by
the enemy. Sergeant Rogers never received the reward promised by General
Forbes and the other English officer; but some time afterward he was
compensated by a modest sum from the colony of North Carolina. [55]
A series of unfortunate occurrences, chiefly the fault of the whites,
soon resulted in the precipitation of a terrible Indian outbreak. A
party of Cherokees, returning home in May, 1758, seized some stray
horses on the frontier of Virginia--never dreaming of any wrong, says an
old historian, as they saw it frequently done by the whites. The owners
of the horses, hastily forming a party, went in pursuit of the Indians
and killed twelve or fourteen of the number. The relatives of the slain
Indians, greatly incensed, vowed vengeance upon the whites. [56] Nor was
the tactless conduct of Forbes calculated to quiet this resentment; for
when Atta-kulla-kulla and nine other chieftains deserted in disgust at
the treatment accorded them, they were pursued by Forbes's orders,
apprehended and disarmed. [57] This rude treatment, coupled with the
brutal and wanton murder of some Cherokee hunters a little earlier, by
an irresponsible band of Virginians under Captain Robert Wade, still
further aggravated the Indians. [58]
Incited by the French, who had fled to the southward after the fall of
Fort Duquesne, parties of bloodthirsty young Indians rushed down upon
the settlements and left in their path death and desolation along the
frontiers of the Carolinas. [59] On the upper branch of the Yadkin and
below the South Yadkin near Fort Dobbs twenty-two whites fell in swift
succession before the secret onslaughts of the savages from the lower
Cherokee towns. [60] Many of the settlers along the Yadkin fled to the
Carolina Fort at Bethabara and the stockade at the mill; and the sheriff
of Rowan County suffered siege by the Cherokees, in his home, until
rescued by a detachment under Brother Loesch from Bethabara. While many
families took refuge in Fort Dobbs, frontiersmen under Captain Morgan
Bryan ranged through the mountains to the west of Salisbury and guarded
the settlements from the hostile incursions of the savages. So gravely
alarmed were the Rowan settlers, compelled by the Indians to desert
their planting and crops, that Colonel Harris was despatched post-haste
for aid to Cape Fear, arriving there on July 1st. With strenuous energy
Captain Waddell, then stationed in the east, rushed two companies of
thirty men each to the rescue, sending by water-carriage six swivel guns
and ammunition on before him; and these reinforcements brought relief at
last to the harassed Rowan frontiers. [61] During the remainder of the
year, the borders were kept clear by bold and tireless rangers--under
the leadership of expert Indian fighters of the stamp of Griffith
Rutherford and Morgan Bryan.
When the Cherokee warriors who had wrought havoc along the North
Carolina border in April arrived at their town of Settiquo, they proudly
displayed the twenty-two scalps of the slain Rowan settlers. Upon the
demand for these scalps by Captain Demere at Fort Loudon and under
direction of Atta-kulla-kulla, the Settiquo warriors surrendered eleven
of the scalps to Captain Demere who, according to custom in time of
peace, buried them. New murders on Pacolet and along the Virginia Path,
which occurred shortly afterward, caused gloomy forebodings; and it was
plain, says a contemporary gazette, that "the lower Cherokees were not
satisfied with the murder of the Rowan settlers, but intended further
mischief." [62] On October 1st and again on October 31st, Governor Dobbs
received urgent requests from Governor Lyttelton, asking that the North
Carolina provincials and militia coöperate to bring him assistance.
Although there was no law requiring the troops to march out of the
province and the exposed frontiers of North Carolina sorely needed
protection, Waddell, now commissioned colonel, assembled a force of five
small companies and marched to the aid of Governor Lyttelton. But early
in January, 1760, while on the march, Waddell received a letter from
Lyttelton, informing him that the assistance was not needed and that a
treaty of peace had been negotiated with the Cherokees. [63]