`````Mansfield.
```Would you worry the man that has found you in shoes?
```Come, courage, my lord, I can tell you good news--
```Virginia is conquer'd, the rebels are bang'd,
```You are now to go over and see them safe hang'd:
```I hope it is not to your nature abhorrent
```To sign for these wretches a legal death-warrant.
```Were I but in your place, I'm sure it would suit
```To sign their death-warrants, and hang them to boot.=
`````Dunmore.
```My lord! I'm amazed--have we routed the foe?
```I shall govern again, then, if matters be so;
```And as to the hanging, in short, to be plain,
```I'll hang them so well they'll ne'er want it again.
```With regard to the wretches who thump at my gates, *
```I'll discharge all their dues with the rebel estates;
```In less than three months I shall send a polacca
```As deep as she'll swim, sir, with corn and tobacco."=
``"Dialogue between Lords Mansfield and Dunmore," by Philip Freneau.=
[Illustration: 9492]
URING the progress of more than a century and a quarter, the Virginians
had fully appreciated the principles of civil freedom, and particularly
that great truth that government possesses no inherent right to tax the
people without their consent. At various times, the Virginia Assembly
had resisted the attempts of Parliament to levy taxes upon them; and
when, in 1764, the Stamp Act was proposed by ministers, they resolved
never to submit to it. The following year [[1765]] that act became a
law. The Virginia House of Burgesses were in session, in the old capital
at Williamsburg, when intelligence of the fact reached them. They talked
boldly in private, but none were willing to act bravely in public, until
near the close of the session, when Patrick Henry, the youngest member
of the Assembly, and seated there for the first time only a few days
before, took the lead. He had already led the Democratic members
successfully against a paper-money scheme, the prime object of which was
to cover up defalcations of Robinson, the treasurer of the colony. Now
he exerted his powers in a broader field. Upon a scrap of paper torn
from a fly-leaf of an old copy of "Coke upon Lyttleton," he wrote five
resolutions, and submitted them to the House. The _first_ declared that
the original settlers of the colonies brought with them and transmitted
to their posterity all the privileges, franchises, and Immunities,
enjoyed by the people of Great Britain. The _second_ affirmed that these
privileges, &c., had been secured to the aforesaid colonists by two
royal charters granted by King James. The _third_ asserted that taxation
of the people by themselves, or by persons chosen by themselves, was the
distinguishing characteristic of British freedom, and without which the
ancient Constitution could not exist. The _fourth_ maintained that the
people of Virginia had always enjoyed the right of being governed by
their own Assembly in the article of taxes, and that this right had
been constantly recognized by the king and people of Great Britain. The
_fifth_
* This refers to the fact that Dunmore was a great spendthrift, and
always in debt. Such, in truth, was the case of a large proportion of
the English nobility, at that time, who were engaged in public affairs,
notwithstanding their large incomes. Mansfield here named, was the
celebrated chief justice, who, because he gave the weight of his legal
opinions, and the services of his pen against the colonists while
struggling for independence, became very obnoxious to the Americans.
[[[Effect of Henry's Resolutions.--Eloquence and Skill of the
Orator.--Dissolution of the Assembly.--General Congress proposed.]]]
{483}resolution, in which was summed up the essentials of the preceding
four, declared "That the General Assembly of this colony have the sole
right and power to levy taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of
this colony; and that every attempt to vest such power in any other
person or persons whatsoever, other than the General Assembly aforesaid,
has a manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American freedom."
Had lightning from the clouds fallen in the midst of that Assembly,
they could not have been more startled. The boldest were astonished;
the timid were alarmed; the loyal few were amazed and indignant. Many
threats were uttered, and those who were willing to submit abused Mr.
Henry without stint. A violent debate ensued, and Henry's energies were
aroused in all their majesty and might. His eloquence, sometimes deeply
pathetic, at other times full of denunciatory invective, shook that
Assembly like thunder peals. In the midst of his harangue he exclaimed,
in clear bell-tones, "Cæsar had his Brutus--Charles the First his
Cromwell; and George the Third--"
"_Treason!_" cried the excited speaker; and "Treason! Treason!" was
shouted from every part of the House. Henry did not falter for a moment.
Rising to a loftier altitude, and fixing his eyes, beaming with the fire
of exalted genius, upon Robinson, the speaker, he concluded the sentence
with, "_may profit by their example_. If this be treason, make the most
of it." *
The moment Henry sat down, Randolph, Pendleton, Bland, Wythe, and
others, who afterward became the boldest and most ardent opposers of
British power, arose to their feet, and denounced the resolutions as
disloyal, and dangerous to the public welfare. Their hearts were with
Patrick Henry, but their heads adjudged his course to be premature and
injudicious. Again Henry took the floor, and his eloquence, like an
avalanche, crushed the most sturdy opposition. The resolutions were
carried; the fifth by a majority of only one. They formed the first
gauntlet of positive defiance cast at the feet of the British monarch,
and gave the first impulse to the storm of revolution which soon swept
over the land. In Henry's absence, the next day, the resolutions
were reconsidered and modified, and the fifth one stricken out. But
manuscript copies were already on their way to other colonies, and the
timidity of the Virginia Burgesses did not soften their force. **
Francis Fauquier was at that time lieutenant governor, and the acting
chief magistrate of Virginia. He was a man of great private worth, and,
for his many virtues and righteous administration of affairs, he was
exceedingly popular. As a man, he sympathized with the Legislature; but
as the king's representative, he was obliged to use his prerogative in
suppressing disloyalty. Therefore, as soon as he was informed of the
action of the Burgesses in adopting Henry's resolutions, he dissolved
the Assembly and ordered a new election. The eloquence of Henry seemed
to have touched every heart in the Old Dominion; and every where the
people re-elected the friends of the resolutions, and filled the seats
of their opposers with tried patriots.
Within a fortnight after those resolutions went abroad, Massachusetts
invited the other colonies to meet her in a general representative
Congress at New York. Fauquier refused to call the Virginia Assembly
together for the purpose of appointing delegates thereto. Confiding in
the patriotism and integrity of the other colonies, the members elect
signed a letter to the Congress, in which they promised to acquiesce
in any action that might be had. That Congress was held in October,
[[1765]] and the rights of the American col-
* Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry. Robinson had reasons for disliking
Henry, and would gladly have crushed his influence, in the bud. Already
he had thwarted the speaker in his attempts to insure his power and put
money into his own purse at the public cost, by defeating a bill which
provided for new issues of paper money, on the loan-office plan. By
virtue of his office as speaker, Robinson was treasurer of all sums
voted by the Assembly, and he had the means of loaning money to his
friends and to himself. He had already done so, and was now anxious
to have a colonial loan-office established by which he might shift the
responsibility of loaning to men unable to repay, from himself to the
colony. Henry foresaw the evils of this scheme, and his wisdom was
made manifest, when, in the following year, Robinson died, and his
defalcations were made known.
** See a notice of copies of these resolutions in Philadelphia, New
York, and Boston, on page 466, volume i.
[[[Repeal of the Stamp Act.--Lord Botetourt.--Thomas
Jefferson.--Dissolution of the Assembly.--The Apollo Room.]]]
{484}onies were so lucidly set forth in their declaration, that the
people lacked no sure guide in their future course. *
The Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, and Virginia, rejoicing with hope
like her sister colonies, sent an address of thanks to the king
and Parliament, and voted a statue to his majesty as a token of her
gratitude and love. ** Like her sister colonies, she was doomed to
disappointment, and her sincere loyalty was speedily transformed into
open rebellion.
[Illustration: 9494]
From the repeal of the Stamp Act until the close of the Revolution,
Virginia wrought hand in hand with the other colonies in efforts to
obtain justice and maintain popular liberty.
Governor Fauquier died early in 1768, and was succeeded by Lord
Botetourt. That gentleman bore to his people assurances that the king
and Parliament were sincerely desirous of doing justice to the colonies,
and that all the obnoxious acts would be speedily repealed. These
assurances, and the excellent character and conduct of the governor,
allayed the excitement in Virginia for a while, and her people looked
forward to seasons of prosperity and repose. Their dream was of short
duration. Soon the intelligence came that the engine of oppression was
again at work, and new schemes for harassing the colonies were maturing.
Virginia was much excited when its Legislature for 1769 convened. Among
its members was Thomas Jefferson, of Albemarle county, a young lawyer of
eminent abilities, liberality of views, and boldness of character.
His first act in the Assembly evinced his appreciation of freedom; he
proposed a law which should give the masters of slaves unrestricted
right to emancipate them. This motion did not succeed, but it drew
the attention of the Assembly to his talents, and he was employed
in preparing the counter-resolutions and addresses of the House of
Burgesses, [[May, 1769]] in opposition to those of the Lords
Commons, then just received. In these resolutions Virginia displayed
a manifest disposition to consider the cause of Massachusetts a common
one. The governor, on being informed of their proceedings, as in duty
bound, and conformable to his oath, dissolved them. The next day they
met in the Apollo room of the Raleigh tavern; formed themselves into a
voluntary convention; drew up articles of association against the use
of any merchandise imported from Great Brit-ian; signed and recommended
them to the people, and then repaired to their several counties. All
were re-elected except those who had declined assent to the proceedings
of the majority. **** Botetourt, unlike some of the royal governors, did
not make the matter a personal consideration, lose his temper, and act
unjustly and unwisely; but, following the prescribed line of duty, he
courteously endeavored to prevent rebellious proceedings and to allay
excitement. He was esteemed by all parties; and, as we
* See page 464, volume i.
** See page 472, volume i.
*** The room used for publie meetings is in the rear building of the
old Raleigh tavern at Williamsburg, and up to the day of my visit it had
remained unaltered. Carpenters were then at work remodeling its style,
for the purpose of making it a ball-room; and now, I suppose, that
apartment, hallowed by so many associations connected with our war for
independence, has scarcely an original feature left. Had my visit been
deferred a day longer, the style of the room could never have been
portrayed. Neat wainscoting of Virginia pine ornamented the sides below
and partly between the windows, and over the fire-place, which was
spacious. This view is from the entrance door from the front portion of
the building. On the left were two large windows; on the right were
two windows and a door; and on each side of the fire-place was a door
opening into small passage ways, from the exterior. Through the door on
the left is seen a flight of stairs leading to the dormitory. The walls
were whitewashed, and the wood-work painted a lead color. In this room
the leading patriots of Virginia, including Washington, held many secret
caucuses, and planned many schemes for the overthrow of royal rule in
the colonies. The sound of the hammer and saw engaged in the work of
change seemed to me like actual desecration; for the Raleigh tavern,
and the Apollo room are to Virginia, relatively, what Faneuil Hall is to
Massachusetts.
**** Jefferson's Memoirs, i., 4.
[[[Death of Botetourt.--Lora Dunmore.--His Character.--Committees of
Vigilance and Correspondence.]]]
{485}have seen, his death, which occurred in 1771, was considered a
public calamity, and mourned as a public bereavement.
[Illustration: 0495]
Condolences were set forth; and they expressed their concurrence and
sympathy with their brethren in New England. Jefferson, Henry, Richard
Henry Lee, and Peyton Randolph, the speaker, urged immediate and bold
action, and through their efforts a committee of vigilance was appointed
[[March 10, 1772]]to obtain the most clear and authentic intelligence
of all such acts of Parliament or ministry as might affect the rights
of the colonies. This committee was also authorized to open a
correspondence and communication with the other colonies. **
They were about to adopt other resolutions equally unsubmissive to royal
rule, when their proceedings were cut short by Dunmore, who dissolved
the Assembly. The committee of correspondence met, however, the next
day, and dispatched a circular letter containing the resolutions to the
speakers of the several Colonial Assemblies. The General Court
* These are copied from the third volume of the Documentary History of
New York, edited by Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan.
** The committee consisted of Peyton Randolph, Robert Carter Nicholas,
Richard Bland, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton,
Patrick Henry, Dudley Diages, Dabney Carr, Archibald Carey, and Thomas
Jefferson. This committee was formed at a caucus held in a private room
in the Raleigh tavern, the evening before it was proposed in the House.
The caucus consisted of Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Franeis
Lightfoot Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Dabney Carr (his brother-in-law),
and two or three others. Strong resolutions were drawn up, and it was
proposed that Mr. Jefferson should submit them to the House. Desirous
of bringing into notice the brilliant talents of Mr. Carr, Mr. Jefferson
proposed that he should submit them. It was agreed to, and the next day
Mr. Carr moved the adoption of the resolutions. They were carried,
and the above committee of correspondence was appointed. Virginia and
Massachusetts have disputed for the honor of originating committees of
correspondence. It will be seen by referring to page 494, volume
i., that the address of the people of Massachusetts, in which their
grievances and their rights were stated, and which called out the action
of the Virginia Burgesses when their committee of correspondence was
formed, contained a recommendation to appoint such committees in the
several towns in that province. In Massachusetts, this recommendation
was made some six weeks before the action on the subject took place
in the Virginia Legislature. Massachusetts was the first to suggest
committees of correspondence within its own domain; Virginia was the
first to appoint a committee for national correspondence. And yet eaeh
colony seems actually to have originated the idea; for, according
to Peyton Randolph, the messengers from the respective Legislatures,
bearing the resolutions of each, passed each other on the way.--See
Jefferson's letter to Samuel A. Wells, 1819, in the appendix to his
Memoirs, page 100.
[[[Fast day in Virginia.--Assembly Dissolved by Dunmore.--Meeting at the
Raleigh.--The Proceedings.]]]
{486}of Massachusetts responded by the appointment of a committee of
fifteen, instructing them to urge the other colonies to take similar
action.
[Illustration: 9496]
The New England colonies, and Pennsylvania and Maryland, did so, and
thus was formed the first sound link of our confederacy.
The Boston Port Bill, * which was to go into effect on the first of
June, 1774, had excited the greatest sympathy for the people of Boston
throughout the colonies, and on the twenty-fourth of May the Virginia
Assembly adopted strong resolutions of condolence, and appointed the
first of June to be observed as a fast. Dunmore was highly offended,
_officially_, and the next day dissolved them by a verbal proclamation.
** The delegates, eighty-nine in number (of whom Washington was
one), immediately assembled in the Apollo room of the Raleigh tavern,
organized themselves into a voluntary convention, and prepared an
address to their constituents, in which they declared that an attack
upon one colony was an attack upon all. They recommended several
important measures. Among other propositions was one for a _General
Congress_, a proposition which was made by Massachusetts six days
afterward, **** and being immediately sent forth, was heartily concurred
in by all the other colonies except Georgia. Twenty-five of the
delegates remained at Williamsburg to engage in the religious services
of the appointed fast-day. While awaiting its arrival, [[May 29]]they
received an account of a town meeting in Boston, at which the
inhabitants of the colonies were invited to enter into a general
non-importation agreement. The twenty-five delegates did not feel
authorized to act in a matter of so much gravity, and therefore only
recommended, by a circular, that the Burgesses should meet again in
convention at Williamsburg on the first of August Pursuant to this
recommendation, all the Burgesses who met at the Raleigh were present on
that day. They adopted resolutions to import no more slaves, nor British
goods, nor tea; and, if colonial grievances were not speedily redressed,
to export no more tobacco to England, and not to deal with any
merchants who should refuse to sign the agreement. They recommended the
cultivation of such articles of husbandry, instead of tobacco, as might
form a proper basis for manufactures of all sorts; and also particularly
recommended the improvement of the breed of sheep, the multiplying of
them, and the killing of as few as possible. On the 5th of August they
chose seven delegates to represent Virginia in the Continental Congress,
appointed to meet on the fifth of September follow-
* See page 503, volume i.
** Dunmore's speech on that occasion was very brief. The following is a
copy: "Mr. Speaker, and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses,--I have
in my hand a paper published by order of your House, conceived in such
terms as reflects highly upon his Majesty and the Parliament of Great
Britain, which makes it necessary to dissolve you, and you are dissolved
accordingly."
Notwithstanding this act on the part of the governor, the delegates did
not omit to carry out arrangements which they had made for honoring Lady
Dunmore with a ball on the 27th. Every mark of respect and attention
was paid to Lord Dunmore and his lady on that occasion, as if nothing
unpleasant had occurred. In fact, according to entries in Washington's
Diary, the matter was not made personal at all, for on the day after
the dissolution of the Assembly, although he was one of the foremost in
expressions of sympathy for the people of Boston, he remarks, "Rode out
with the governor to his farm, and breakfasted with him there."
*** When I visited Williamsburg in December, 1848, the front part of the
old Raleigh tavern had been torn down, and a building in modern style
was erected in its place. The old tavern was in the form of an L, one
portion fronting the street, the other extending at right angles, in the
rear. Both parts were precisely alike in external appearance, and as
the rear building was yet standing and unaltered, I am able to give a
restored view of the Raleigh, as it appeared during the Revolution. The
wooden bust of Sir Walter Raleigh, which graced the front of the old
inn, now ornaments the new building.
**** The latter colony could not have heard of the action of the
former, and therefore the recommendation was as original with it as with
Virginia.
[[[Delegates to the Continental Congress.--Expedition against the
Indians.--Dunmore's Schemes.--Camp at the Great Kenawha.]]]
{487}ing, in Philadelphia, * and then adjourned, each pledged to do all
in his power to effect the results contemplated in their proceedings.
While these clouds of difficulty were gathering in the horizon of
Virginia politics, and the colony was menaced with civil-war, the
Indians on the frontiers had commenced fierce hostilities, and were
driving civilization back from its adventurous settlements west of the
Blue Ridge. Although several times chastised, they were still bold.
In 1764, Colonel Bouquet, ** having dispersed the Indians besieging
Detroit, passed into the Wyandot country, by the way of Sandusky Bay,
and compelled the head men of the tribes to agree to a treaty of peace.
The Shawnees and Delawares in the Ohio county still continued hostile.
Bouquet, the same year, marched from Fort Pitt to the Muskingum, awed
the Indians, procured the restoration of prisoners in their hands,
and made a treaty of peace with them, and for several years they kept
comparatively quiet, though exhibiting unmistakable signs of deadly
hostility.
Early in 1777, the hatchet again fell with terrible fury upon the
frontier settlements of Virginia, and its keenness was heightened by the
encouragement which the savages received from a few white scoundrels,
who hoped to gain personal advantage in the contest. The scheme which
Governor Dunmore afterward entered into for banding these forest tribes
against the colonists, has left upon his memory the suspicion that even
thus early, in view of impending hostilities, he had tampered with
them, through his agents, and made them bold. History gives no positive
warrant for suspicions so damning, and we may charitably hope that his
expedition against the Indians, in the summer of that year,[[1774]] was
undertaken with a sincere desire to save the colony from their cruel
incursions. It is true, Dunmore was very tardy in his preparations, and
his expedition did not march until the voice of his indignant people
compelled him to go, and alert suspicion made him fearful of its
consequences.
The chief rendezvous of the hostile Indians was on the Sciota, within
the limits of the present Pickaway county, Ohio. There were three
principal towns, and against these Dunmore marched with a force of
three thousand men, early in August.[[1774]] The army proceeded in two
divisions; one composing the left wing, under Colonel Andrew Lewis, the
other led by Dunmore in person. The left wing struck the Great Kenawha,
and followed that stream to the Ohio; the right wing passed the
mountains of the Potomac gap, and reached the Ohio a little above
Wheeling. The plan of the campaign was to form a junction before
reaching the Indian villages. Lewis encamped on the site of Point
Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kenawha, on the sixth of October. In
expectation of the approach of Dunmore, he cast up no intrenchments. In
this exposed situation, he was attacked on the morning of the tenth,
by one thousand chosen warriors of the western confederacy under the
celebrated _Cornstalk_, who came from the Pickaway Plains to confront
Colonel Lewis before the other division should join him. *** So
stealthily had the
* The following were the delegates appointed: Peyton Randolph, Richard
Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin
Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton. These were all present at the opening of
the Congress in Carpenter's Hall, and, as wc have seen, Peyton Randolph
was chosen the first president of that body.
** Henry Bouquet was of French descent. He was appointed lieutenant
colonel in the British army in 1756. He was active in his co-operations
with General Forbes, and was highly esteemed by Amherst. That officer
sent him to the relief of Fort Pitt, with stores, in 1763. He was
attacked on his way by a powerful body of Indians, whom he defeated. In
1764, as noticed in the text, he was successful in the Ohio county.
The following year he was appointed a brigadier. He died at Pensacola,
Florida, in February, 1766.
*** Stuart, in his Memoir of Indian Wars, and Withers, in his Chronicles
of Border Warfare, express the opinion, and adduce strong corroborating
evidence of its truth, that Dunmore arranged the expedition in such a
way, that the whole Indian force should fall upon and annihilate Lewis's
detachment, and thereby weaken the physical strength, and break down the
spirit of the Virginians. It must be admitted that the fact of the great
body of Indians leaving their towns and marching directly to attack
Lewis, when Dunmore, with a foree equally strong, was approaching in
another direction, gives the color of probability to these suspicions.
His subsequent conduct in inciting servile war in Virginia, shows that
he was capable of so nefarious a scheme.
[[[Battle at Mount Pleasant.--March to the Shawnee Towns.--Old
Chillicothe.--Fort Gower.]]]
{488}Indians approached, that within one hour after Lewis's scouts
discovered those of the enemy a general battle was in progress.
Colonel Charles Lewis, a brother of the general, with three hundred men,
received the first assault. He and his aid, Hugh Allen, were mortally
wounded, and so overwhelming in numbers and fierce in aspect were the
assailants, that his line broke and gave way. * At this moment, a party
under Colonel Fleming attacked the enemy's right, and, being sustained
by a reserve under Colonel Field, the Indians were driven back. The
battle continued with unabated fury until one o'clock in the afternoon,
the Indians slowly retreating from tree to tree, while the gigantic
_Cornstalk_ encouraged them with the words, "Be strong! Be strong!" **
The peculiarity of the ground, it being upon a point at the junction
of two rivers, made every retreat of the enemy advantageous to the
Virginians, because as their line extended from river to river, forming
the base of an equilateral triangle, it was lengthened, and consequently
weakened. The belligerents rested within rifle shot of each other, and
kept up a desultory fire until sunset. The battle was a desperate one,
and neither party could fairly claim the victory. The Virginians lost
one half of their commissioned officers, and fifty-two privates were
killed. The Indians lost, in killed and wounded, two hundred and
thirty-three. During the night they retreated, but Lewis did not
think it prudent to pursue them. Lieutenant Shelby (the hero at King's
Mountain, and afterward governor of Kentucky) was left in command of a
garrison at Point Pleasant, until July, 1775.
On the day after the battle, Colonel Lewis received orders from Dnnmore
to hasten on toward the Shawnee towns, on the Sciota, and join him at a
point eighty miles distant.
[Illustration: 0498]
Dunmore was ignorant of the battle, and the weakened condition of
Lewis's division. But the latter did not hesitate. Leaving a small
garrison at Point Pleasant, he pressed onward, through an unbroken
wilderness to the banks of Congo Creek, in Pickaway township, within
striking distance of the Shawnee or Shawanese towns. The principal
village of the Indians stood upon the site of the present borough
of Westfall, on the west bank of the Seiota, and was called _Old
Chillicothe,_ there being other towns of the same name. When Colonel
Lewis arrived, he found Dunmore and his party in the neighborhood. The
governor had descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Hockhocking,
where he built a redoubt or block-house, and called it Fort Gower. ****
From this point he marched up that
* From a "Song of Lament," written at the time, I quote the following
stanzas, which are more remarkable for pathos than poetry:
"Colonel Lewis and some noble captains,
Did down to death like Uriah go,
Alas! their heads wound up in napkins,
Upon the banks of the Ohio.
Kings lamented their mighty fallen
Upon the mountains of Gilboa,
And now we mourn for brave Hugh Allen,
Far from the banks of the Ohio.
Oh bless the mighty King of Heaven
For all his wondrous works below,
Who hath to us the victory given
Upon the banks of the Ohio."
** Howison's History of Virginia, ii., 15.
*** This little map shows a portion of the Pickaway Plains upon which
the towns of the Shawnees were built. These plains are on the cast side
of the Sciota, and contain the richest body of land in Ohio. When first
cultivated by the whites, the soil was a black vegetable mold, the
result of long ages of decomposition, and for many years one hundred
bushels of corn, or fifty bushels of wheat to the acre, was an average
yield. This region was for many generations the principal rendezvous of
Indian chiefs in council, in the Ohio country, and here many victims,
brought from the frontier settlements, endured the torments of savage
cruelty.__See Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, page 403.
* Explanation of the Map.--a a, the ancient works at Circleville;
b, Logan's cabin near; c, Old Chillicothe; d, Black Mountain; e,
Cornstalk's town; f Squaw's town; g, Council-house; h, the point where
Dunmore and Colonel Lewis met; i the camp of Colonel Lewis; Camp Lewis;
m, High Lands.
**** This was in Athens township. Dunmore was a great admirer of Earl
Gower, and in honor of that nobleman he named this, the first fort he
ever erected.
[[[Junction of the Armies of Dunmore and Lewis.--Camp Charlotte.--Logan
and Cresap.]]]
{489}stream into the Indian country, and when Lewis arrived, he was
encamped on the left bank of Sippo Creek, about seven miles southwest
of the present village of Circleville. Dunmore called his station _Camp
Charlotte_, * and hither the Indians, dispirited by their engagement
with Colonel Lewis, and perceiving the destruction of their towns to be
inevitable, came to treat for peace. Dunmore had been met by a flag of
truce from the Indians, borne by a white man named Elliot, ** and
his readiness to treat with the enemy, instead of striking a blow of
annihilation, is adduced as evidence of his ulterior designs for making
these warriors subservient to his use in enslaving Virginia. Colonel
Lewis was greatly irritated because Dunmore would not allow him to crush
the enemy within his grasp, and the
Virginians, eager for revenge, almost mutinied. *** The treaty was held
in the presence of all the troops, amounting to twenty-five hundred
in number. The Shawnee chiefs were quite numerous. _Cornstalk_ was
the principal speaker, and, in the course of his remarks, he adroitly
charged upon the white people the causes of the war, in consequence,
principally, of the murder of the family of Logan, a Mingo chief, a few
months previously. **** Logan,
* Camp Charlotte, according to Charles Whittlesy, Esq. (from whose
discourse before the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, at
Cincinnati, in 1840, the principal facts of this narrative have been
gleaned), was upon the farm then (1840) owned by Thomas J. Winship, Esq.
Camp Lewis was situated about four and a half miles southwest of Camp
Charlotte.
** The Tory companion of Girty and M'Kee.
*** From concurrent testimony, it appears that suspicions of Dunmore's
treachery was rife in the camp, and for that reason Lewis was more
disposed to disobey his orders. It is said that Dunmore, in the violence
of his anger, because his subaltern insisted upon fighting, drew his
sword upon Lewis, and threatened him with instant death if he persisted
in his disobedience.
**** This circumstance is alluded to on page 313, where a copy of
Logan's speech to Dunmore, as preserved by Jefferson, is given. Mr.
Brantz Mayer, in an able discourse delivered before the Maryland
Historical Society in May, 1851, has adduced sufficient evidence to
fully acquit Colonel Cresap of the charge made in the reported speech
of Logan, and removed the foul stain of cold-blooded murder which has so
long rested upon the fair fame of a brave and honorable man. It appears
that, in the spring of 1774, Michael Cresap was upon the Ohio, below
Wheeling, engaged in planting a settlement. Some pioneers on their way
to make a settlement in Kentucky, under the auspices of Colonel George
Rogers Clarke, resolved to attack an Indian town near the mouth of the
Seiota, and solicited Cresap to command the expedition. He advised them
to forbear, and, with him, they all repaired to Wheeling. Dr. Connelly,
whom Lord Dunmore had appointed magistrate of West Augusta, sent Cresap
word, on the 21st of April, that an Indian war was inevitable. Cresap,
always vigilant, called a council of the pioneers, and on the 26th made
solemn declaration of war against the Indians. They established a new
post of defense, and the very next day two canoes, filled with painted
savages, appeared. They were chased fifteen miles down the river, when
a skirmish ensued. One man was killed, and several Indians were made
prisoners. On the return of the pursuing party, an expedition against
the settlement of Logan, * near the mouth of the Yellow Creek, thirty
miles above Wheeling, was proposed. Cresap raised his voice against the
proposed expedition, for the people of Logan's settlement seemed
rather friendly than otherwise. His couneil prevailed, and the pioneers
proceeded that evening to Red Stone Old Fort, at the mouth of Dunlap's
Creek, on the Monongahela, now the site of Brownsville. Other white
people upon the Ohio were less cautious and humane. On the bank of the
Ohio, nearly opposite Logan's settlement, was the cabin of a man named
Baker, where rum was sold to the Indians, which consequently augmented
the savageism of their nature. On account of the shooting of two Indians
near Yellow Creek, by a settler named Myers, the savages resolved to
cross over and murder Baker's family. A squaw revealed "the plot to
Baker's wife, and twenty white men, armed, were concealed in and around
his cabin. The next morning early, three squaws, with an infant and
four Indian men, unarmed, came to Baker's. The whole party of red people
became intoxicated, an affray occurred, and the whole of the Indians
were massacred, except the infant. Logan's mother, brother, and sister,
were among the slain. The vengeance of the chief was aroused, and during
nearly all of that summer Logan was out upon the war-path. Michael
Cresap was known to be a leader among the pioneers upon the Ohio, and
Logan supposed he was concerned in the affair. The researches of Mr.
Mayer show that, at the time of the massacre, Cresap was with his young
family in Maryland, and had nothing to do with the matter. * It is also
demonstrated that at about the hour when the massacre took place, two
canoes, with Indians painted and prepared for war, approached. The
appearance fully corroborated the disclosures of the squaw, and
justified the vigilance (but not the murder of women and unarmed men) by
the neighbors of Baker.
* The Indian name of Logan, according to competent authority quoted by
Mr. Mayer, was Ta-ga-jute, which means "short dress."
** This squaw was the wife for the time of John Gibson, the Indian
trader, to whom the reputed speech of Logan was communicated. Her
infant, who was saved, was cared for by Gibson.
*** Logan evidently held Cresap responsible, as appears hy the following
note, quoted by Mr. Mayer, page 56. It was written with ink made of
gunpowder and water, at the command of Logan, by William Robinson,
who had been made a prisoner by that chief nine days before: "Captain
Cresap,--What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for? The white
people killed my kin at Conestoga, a great while ago, and I thought
nothing of that. But you killed my kin again on Yellow Creek, and took
my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I must kill too; and I have been
three times to war since. But the Indians are not angry--only myself.
"July 21 st, 1774. Captain John Logan." This note was attached to a
war club, and left in the house of a man whose whole family had been
murdered by the savages.
[[[John Gibson.--Logan's Speech.--His Death.--Sketch of Colonel
Cresap.]]]
{490}who was then at Old Chillicothe, disdained to meet the white men in
council, and sat sullenly in his cabin while the treaty was in progress,
Dunmore sent a messenger (John Gibson * ) to Logan, to invite him to
attend the council. The chief took Gibson into the woods, and sitting
down upon a mossy root, he told him the story of his wrongs, and, as
that officer related, shedding many bitter tears. He refused to go to
the council, but, unwilling to disturb the deliberations by seeming
opposition, he sent a speech, in the mouth of Gibson, to Governor
Dun-more. That speech, as preserved in print, ** has been greatly
admired for its pathetic eloquence. ***
* John Gibson, who afterward became a major general, was an Indian
trader, and an active man among the settlers on the Ohio. Washington
esteemed him as a brave and honest man, and in 1781 intrusted him with
the command of the western military department. He was succeeded by
General Irvine in 1782. He was a member of the Pennsylvania convention
in 1788; was major general of militia, and was secretary of Indian
territory during the administrations of Jefferson and Madison. He was
at one time associate judge of the Common Pleas of Alleghany county,
in Pennsylvania. Colonel George Gibson, who was mortally wounded at St.
Clair's defeat in Ohio, was his nephew.
** Gibson repeated the substance to Dunmore and other officers. They
wrote it down, and, on returning to Williamsburg, caused it to be
published in the Virginia Gazette, February 4, 1775. This was the name
of the first newspaper published in Virginia. It was first issued at
Williamsburg in 1736, a sheet about twelve inches by six in size. It
was printed weekly bv William Parks, at fifteen shillings per annum. No
other paper was published in Virginia until the Stamp Act excitement, in
1765-6. The Gazette was so much under government control, that Jefferson
and others got Mr. Rind to come from Maryland and publish a paper, which
was also called "The Virginia Gazette." It was professedly open to all
parties, but influenced by none. This was the paper in which Logan's
speeeh was published. Another "Virginia Gazette" was printed at
Williamsburg in 1775, and published weekly lor several years.--See
Thomas's History of Printing.
*** Logan, whose majestic person and mental accomplishments were the
theme of favorable remark, became a victim to the vice of intemperance.
Earlier than the time when Dunmore called him to council, he was
addicted to the habit. The last years of his life were very melancholy.
Notwithstanding the miseries he had suffered at the hands of the white
man, his benevolence made him the prisoner's friend, until intemperance
blunted his sensibilities, and in 1780 we find him among the marauders
at Ruddell's Station (see page 500). The manner of his death is
differently related. The patient researches ol Mr. Mayer lead me to
adopt his as the correct one, as it was from the lips of an aged man who
knew Logan well, and corresponds in all essential particulars with an
account I received from an aged Mohawk whom I saw at Caglmawaga, twelve
miles from Montreal, in the summer of 1848. His mother was a Shawnee
woman, and when he was a boy, he often saw Logan. In a drunken phrensy
near Detroit, in 1780, Logan struck his wife to the ground. Believing
her dead, he fled to the wilderness. Between Detroit and Sandusky, he
was overtaken by a troop of Indian men, women, and children. Not
yet sober, he imagined that the penalty of his crime was about to be
inflicted by a relative. Being well armed, he declared that the whole
party should be destroyed. In defense, his nephew, Tod-kah-dohs, killed
him on the spot, by a shot from his gun. His wife recovered from his
blow.
* Michael Cresap was the son of a hardy pioneer, who was one of the Ohio
Company in 1752. He was horn in Maryland (Alleghany county), on the
29th of June, 1742. While yet a minor, he married a Miss Whitehead,
of Philadelphia. He became a merchant and trader, and at length a bold
pioneer upon the Ohio, lie raised a company ot volunteers in the summer
of 1774, and proceeded to aid his countrymen on the Ohio, when he was
stopped by Connolly. Dunmore, however, valuing his services, sent him a
commission of captain in the militia of Hampshire county, in Virginia He
then proceeded to the Ohio, and was engaged in Dunmore's expedition
of that year. When Gibson reported Logan's speech, the charge against
Cresap was laughed at as ridiculous; and George Rogers Clarke, who was
standing by, said, *' He must be a very great man, as the Indians palmed
every thing that happened upon his shoulders."
* Cresap returned to Maryland after the conclusion of Dunmore's
expedition, and early in the spring he again went to the Ohio, and
penetrated the wilderness of Kentucky. On his return, he was informed
that he had been appointed to the command of a company of Maryland
riflemen, raised by a resolution of Congress. Although suffering from
ill health, he immediately went to Boston with his company, and joined
the continental army under Washington. His sickness continuing, he
left the army for his home among the mountains. At New York he sunk,
exhausted, where he died on the 18th of October, 1775, at the age of
thirty-three years. His remains were buried in Trinity church yard with
military honors, in the presence of a vast concourse of people, where
they yet rest.--See Mayer's Discourse; also Jacob's Life of Cresap. In
the appendix to his Discourse, Mr. Mayer presents the results of patient
investigation, concerning the authenticity of Logan's speech. It appears
probable that the sentiment was Logan's, delivered, not as a speech or
message, but as the natural expressions of the feelings of a man who
felt that he had been greatly injured; the composition was evidently the
work of some hand in Dunmore's camp.
[[[Treaty with the Indians.--Sentiments of Dunmore's Officers.--Indian
Wars in the West.--Daniel Boone.]]]
{491}At the conclusion of the treaty, Dunmore and his troops returned to
Virginia, by the way of Fort Gower. At that place, the officers held a
meeting on the fifth of November[[1774]] for the purpose of considering
the "grievances of British America." The proceedings
were not at all palatable to Lord Dunmore, notwithstanding one of the
resolutions highly complimented him personally. The speech of one of
the officers, and the resolution which followed, notwithstanding
the attestations of loyalty freely expressed, evidently implied a
determination no longer to submit to royal rule. Dunmore was offended,
and both parties returned home dissatisfied.
[Illustration: 9501]
Before resuming our record of events in the progress of the Virginia
colony toward independence, let us take a brief survey of succeeding
Indian hostilities on the Virginia frontier, until the close of the war.
It is a wide and romantic field, but we must not be tempted into minute
details. We will note the most prominent features of those events,
and refer the reader to fuller details drawn by other pens. I briefly
referred to the Indian war in this region on page 264, volume i., and
promised a more extended notice. Here I will fulfill that promise.
For a while after the treaty on the Seiota, the western Indians made no
concerted attacks upon the white settlements on the frontiers; but
small parties continually harassed those civil heroes who went over the
Alleghany ranges and explored the broad forests which stretched between
the Cherokees, Creeks, and Catawbas of the south, and the Shawnees
Delawares, and Wyandols, of the north, now the state of Kentucky. The
first of these bold pioneers was Daniel Boone, * a hero in the truest
sense of the term. He explored a portion of the wilderness west of the
Blue Ridge as early as 1769, and for two years dwelt among the solitudes
of the forests. Accustomed to the woods from earliest childhood, he
found his highest' happiness in the excitements of forest life, and in
1773 his own and a few other families accompanied him to the paradise
lying among the rich valleys south of the Ohio From that time, until
the power of the western tribes was broken by the expedition under Major
George Rogers Clark, Boone's life was an almost continual conflict with
the Indians. Engaged in Dunmore's expedition in 1774, he was marked
for vengeance by the savages; and when he built his little fort at
Boonsborough,[[1775]] a few miles from Lexington, they viewed his labors
with jealousy, and resolved to drive him from his foothold. Already the
Indians had killed his eldest son, and now his wife
* Daniel Boone was born about the year 1730. His parents, who came from
Bridgenorth, in England, went from Pennsylvania to the banks of the
Yadkin River, in North Carolina, and his childhood was spent in the
forest. In 1769, he was induced to accompany John Finley in the wilds
west of the mountains, within the limits of the present state of
Kentucky. From that period his own history is identified with that of
the state. During his first visit there, he was captured by the Indians,
but escaped within a week or ten days afterward. He look his family to
Kentucky in 1775, and settled on the Clericle River. In 1774, at the
request of Lord Dunmore, he accompanied a party of surveyors to the
Falls of the Ohio (Louisville), and was active in expeditions against
the Indians during that year. He removed to the locality of the present
Boonsborough, and built a fort there in 1775. In the course of three or
four years, many other settlers came to his vicinity. While at the Blue
Lick, on the Licking River, making salt for his garrison, in February,
1778, he and his companions were captured by a party of Indians, and
taken to Chillicothe. The Indians became much attached to him. A family
adopted him as a son, according to the Indian custom, and an offer of
§500 for his ransom, made by Governor Hamilton of Canada, was refused.
Four months after his capture, he learned that five hundred warriors
were preparing to march against Boonsborough. He effected his escape
on the 16th of June, and arrived home on the 20th, having traveled one
hundred and sixty miles, and eaten only one meal, during four days. He
arrived in time to assist in preparing the fort for the expected attack
mentioned in the text. Boone's wife, with his children, in the mean
while, had returned to the house of her father, on the Yadkin, where
Boone visited them in 1779. He remained there until the next year,
when he returned to Kentucky. He subsequently accompanied George Rogers
Clarke in his expeditions against the Indians on the Ohio, and was an
active partisan until the close of the war. From that time, until 1798.
he resided alternately in Kentucky and Virginia. In consequence of a
defect, in his title to lands in Kentucky, he was dispossessed of what
was an ample estate, and made poor. The region he had explored,
and helped to defend, now contained a population of half a million.
Indignant because of being dispossessed, he shouldered his rifle,
left Kentucky forever, and, with some followers, plunged into the
interminable forests of Missouri, west of the Mississippi.
"Of all men, saving Sylla, the man-slayer,
Was happiest among mortals any where;
Who passes for in life and death most lucky,
For, killing nothing but a bear or buck, he
Of the great names, which in our faces stare,
Enjoyed the lonely, vigorous, harmless days,
The General Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky,
Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze.
--Byron's Don Juan, VIII., lxi.
* They settled upon the Little Osage in 1799, and the following year
explored the head waters of the Arkansas. At the age of eighty years,
accompanied by only two men (one white and the other black), he made a
hunting excursion to the great Osage, where they trapped many beavers
and other game. At about that time (1812), Boone addressed a memorial to
the Legislature of Kentucky, setting forth that he owned not an acre
of ground on the face of the earth, and, at the age of fourscore, had
nowhere to lay his bones. He asked for a confirmation of his title to
land in Louisiana, given him by the Spanish government in 1794,
before that territory was ceded to the United States. The Legislature
instructed their delegates in Congress to solicit a confirmation of
this grant, and two thousand acres were secured to him. He died on the
twenty-sixth of September, 1820, at the age of almost ninety years. On
that occasion, the Legislature of Missouri, then in session, agreed to
wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days, as a token of respect.
The grave of Boone is by the side of that of his wife, in the Cemetery
at Frankfort, Kentucky, but no stone identifies it to the eye of a
stranger.
[[[Boone's Family on the Kain-tuck-ee. Boone's Fort assailed by Indians.
Capture of Boone's Daughter and Companions.]]]
{492}and daughters, the first white women who ever stood upon the banks
of the Kain-tuck-ee, were with him and engaged his solicitude. Kenton,
Henderson, Logan, the M'Afees, Hardin, Harrod, Hart, Kay, the Irvines,
Bryants, Rogers, and others, soon followed; and in the course of seven
or eight years the "western precincts of Finley county," as Kentucky was
called, contained scores of adventurers planting small settlements along
the water-courses.
A record of the adventures of the settlers with the Indians would fill
volumes. I have space to notice only a few of the prominent events of
that period which have a direct relation with the history of our war for
Independence. *
In the spring of 1775, Daniel Boone erected a fort on the western bank
of the Kentucky River, the site of the present village of Boonsborough.
It was the first fortification built in that region; and the British,
who had forts of the Indians respecting it. In December of that
year,[[Dec 23, 1775]] a party of Indians assailed it, but were repulsed;
the little garrison lost but one man. On the seventh of July following,
one of Boone's daughters, and two other girls who were amusing
themselves near the fort, were caught and carried away by the Indians,
but were speedily rescued. ***
In 1774, Harrodsburg, in Mercer county, Kentucky, was founded, and
several log-cabins were
* The reader, desirous of possessing minute information respecting
this exciting portion of our early history, will be amply rewarded by
a perusal of "Kentucky, its History, Antiquities, and Biography,'" an
excellent work of nearly six hundred large octavo pages, with forty
engravings, by Lewis Collins of Louisville, Kentucky.
** This sketch is from a drawing by Colonel Henderson, and published in
Collin's Historical Collections of Kentucky, page 417. It was composed
of a number of log-houses disposed in the form of an oblong square.
Those at each corner, intended particularly for block-houses, were
larger and stronger than the others. The length of the fort was about
two hundred and fifty feet, and the width about one hundred and fifty
feet.
*** Betsey and Frances Calloway, the youngest about thirteen years of
age, were the companions of Miss Boone on that occasion. Their screams
alarmed the people in the fort. It was just at sunset when the Indians
carried off their victims. Boone and seven others started in pursuit.
The next day they came up with the savages, forty-five miles distant
from Boonsborough, furiously attacked them, and rescued the girls,
who had received no farther injury than that produced by the effect of
excessive fright.
[[[Construction of other Forts.--Indian Assaults.--Expedition against
the Kentucky Settlements--George Rogers Clarke.]]]
{493}built. Early in 1776, Colonel Benjamin Logan, and a small party of
settlers, encamped about a mile west of the present town of Stanford,
in Lincoln county, and erected a log fortification, which they called
Logan's Fort. These two settlements and Boone's Fort were simultaneously
attacked by a large party of Indians on the fifteenth of April, 1777.
The assailants, having neither artillery nor scaling-ladders, made but
little impression upon Boonsborough. A few men of the garrison were
killed, and a quantity of corn and cattle belonging to the settlers was
destroyed. Many of the assailants were killed.
[Illustration: 8503]
On the fourth of July following, about two hundred warriors attacked
Boonsborough with great vigor. The assailants were repulsed with the
loss of seven of their number, while the garrison had but one man
killed, and two wounded. The siege lasted two days and nights. On the
ninth of September, 1778, a third attack was made upon Boonsborough. The
Indians, five hundred in number, were led by Captain Duquesne, and other
skillful Canadian officers. When the enemy appeared in front of the
fort, the British flag was displayed, and a formal demand for the
surrender of the fortress was made. Boone requested an allowance of
two days for consideration. It was granted, and in the mean while the
garrison, consisting of only fifty men, prepared for a vigorous defense.
Boone assembled the defenders, and set before them the actual state of
things. To surrender might insure them their lives, but they would lose
all their property; to resist and be overcome, would result in the
death of every man, woman, and child. Every one resolutely determined
to defend the fort to the last, and this decision Boone communicated to
Captain Duquesne. The Canadian was chagrined, and sought to obtain by
stratagem what he feared he might not accomplish by force. * The siege
was commenced, and lasted nine days, when the assailants, having lost
many of their number, and unable to make any impression on the fort,
retreated suddenly and in great confusion. This was the last, time that
Boonsborough was assailed, for the garrisons of other forts between it
and the Ohio were rapidly augmenting in numbers and strength, and made
it dangerous for the enemy to penetrate far into Kentucky.
With the single exception of Dunmore's expedition in 1774, hostilities
west of the
Alleghanies were nothing but a series of border conflicts, each little
party acting upon its own responsibility, until 1778, when Major George
Rogers Clarke led a regular expedition against the frontier posts of the
enemy in the wilderness. Clarke first went to Kentucky in 1775, when he
paddled down the Ohio with the Reverend David Jones,
* Duquesne, professing great humanity, proposed to Boone to send out
nine of the principal men of his garrison to treat for an accommodation,
the entire safety of the people within the fort being the basis.
Unsuspicious of treachery, Boone and eight others went out to the camp
of the enemy. While engaged in council, at a concerted signal, two
strong warriors for each man attempted to seize and carry off the
delegation. The whole nine succeeded in releasing themselves, and
escaping to the fort amid a shower of bullets from the enemy. Only one
man was wounded. The siege immediately commenced.
** George Rogers Clarke was born in Albermarle county, Virginia, on the
nineteenth of November, 1752, little is known of his early youth, he was
engaged in land surveying, and this led him to love a forest life. He
commanded a company in Dunmore's army in 1774, and then first became
acquainted with the country west of the Alleghanies. In 1775 he first
went to Kentucky, and, while there, he was placed in temporary command
of armed settlers. His subsequent military career, until the close of
the Revolution, is given in the text. Three years after the conclusion
of the war (1786), Clarke commanded an expedition of one thousand men
against the Indians on the Wabash. It was disastrous. Several years
afterward, Genet, the French minister, undertook to raise and organize a
force in Kentucky, for a secret expedition against the Spaniards on the
Mississippi, and General Clarke accepted a commission as major general
in the armies of France, to conduct the enterprise. Before it could be
matured, Genet was recalled, and Clarke's commission annulled. General
Clarke never appeared in public life afterward. After suffering for many
years from a rheumatic affection, he was prostrated by paralysis, and
died near Louisville, in February, 1818, at the age of sixty-six.
[[[Clarke's Explorations in the Wilderness.--Expeditions against British
Forts.--Simon Kenton.]]]
{494}then on his way to preach the Gospel to the Western Indians. He was
at once impressed with the importance of that fertile region, and the
necessity of making it a secure place for settlements. His mind was
clear and comprehensive; his personal courage of the truest stamp; his
energies, physical and mental, always vigorous, and he soon became
an oracle among the backwoodsmen. During the years 1775 and 1776, he
traversed vast regions of the wilderness south of the Ohio, studied the
character of the Indians chiefly from the observations of others, and
sought to discover a plan by which a tide of emigration might flow
unchecked and secure into that paradise of the continent.
[Illustration: 9504]
He soon became convinced that the British garrisons at Detroit,
Kaskaskia, and Vincennes, were the nests of those vultures who preyed
upon the feeble settlements of the west, and deluged the virgin soil
with the blood of the pioneers. Virginia, to which province this rich
wilderness belonged, was at that time bending all her energies in
advancing the cause of independence within her borders east of the
Alleghanies, and the settlers west of the mountains were left to their
own defense. Major Clarke, convinced of the necessity of reducing the
hostile forts in the Ohio country, submitted a plan for the purpose to
the Virginia Legislature, in December, 1777.