so warmly interested, that all the preliminary arrangements were soon
made. Major Clarke received two sets of instructions, one public,
ordering him to "proceed to the defense of Kentucky," the other private,
directing an attack upon the British fort at Kaskaskia. Twelve hundred
pounds were appropriated to defray the expenses of the expedition;
and the commandant of Fort Pitt was ordered to furnish Clarke with
ammunition, boats, and other necessary equipments. His force consisted
of only four companies, but they were all prime men. Early in the
spring[[1778]] they rendezvoused upon Corn Island, at the Falls of the
Ohio, six hundred and seven miles by water, below Fort Pitt. Here Clarke
was joined by Simon Kenton, one of the boldest pioneers of the west,
then a young man of twenty-two years. He had been acting as a spy for
two years previously; henceforth he was engaged in a more honorable, but
not more useful service.
* Simon Kenton was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, May 15th, 1755.
His father was a native of Ireland; his mother came from Scotland. He
fled to the wilderness at the age of sixteen, on account of an affray
with a young man who had married his affianced. Believing he had killed
his rival in a fist fight, he went over the Alleghanies, and became
a noble pioneer in the march of western civilization. At Fort Pitt he
formed an intimacy with Simon Girty, the desperate renegade in after
years, and his daily companions were trappers and hunters. He was an
active spy for Governor Dunmore in 1774, and after that he had many
encounters with the sons of the forest in their native wilds. He
became a companion of Boone, and with him and his co-laborers arrested
Kain-tuck-ee from the red men. He joined Major Clarke at the Falls of
the Ohio in 1778, and after the surprise of Kaskaskia he returned to
Boonsborough. Toward the close of that year he was captured by the
Indians, and finally became a prison laborer in the hands of the British
at Detroit. Aided by a trader's wife, he escaped in company with two
fellow-prisoners, the renowned Captain Bullitt and Lieutenant Coffee,
and arrived at the Falls in July, 1779. Kenton subsequently joined
Clarke in his expeditions. It was in 1782 when he heard that he had not
killed his rival in love, and that his old father still lived. He went
to Virginia» and, after spending some time among the friends of his
early youth, he returned to Kentucky, taking his father and family with
him. On the way the old man died; the remainder of the family reached
Kenton's settlement in safety. From that period, until Wayne's
expedition in 1793, Kenton was much engaged in Indian warfare.
* Poor Simon Kenton experienced the bitter effects of wrong,
ingratitude, and neglect. On account of some legal matters concerning
his lands in Kentucky, he was imprisoned for twelve months upon the very
spot where he built lis cabin in 177-3. In 1802, beggared by lawsuits
and losses, he became landless. Yet he never murmured at the ingratitude
which pressed him down, and in 1813 the veteran joined the Kentucky
troops under Shelby, and was in the battle of the Thames. In 1824, then
seventy years old, he journeyed to Frankfort, in tattered garments and
upon a miserable horse, to ask the Legislature of Kentucky to release
the claims of the state upon some of his mountain lands. He was stared
at by the boys, and shunned by the citizens, for none knew him. At
length General Thomas Fletcher recognized him, gave him a new suit of
clothes, and entertained him kindly. When it was known that Simon Kenton
was in town, scores flocked to see the old hero. He was taken to the
Capitol and seated in the speaker's ehair. His lands were released, and
afterward Congress gave him a pension of two hundred and forty dollars a
year. He died, at the age of eighty-one years, in 1836, at his residence
at the head of Mad River, Logan county, Ohio, in sight of the place
where, fifty-eight years before, the Indians were about to put him to
death.
[[[Kenton's Life and Sufferings.--Surprise of Kaskaskia.--Capture of the
Garrison.--Location of Kaskaskia.]]]
{495}From Corn Island they proceeded in boats to the mouth of the
Tennessee River, and landed upon the site of Paducah. There they met a
party of hunters from Kaskaskia and obtained valuable information. They
reported that M. Rocheblave, commander of the garrison at Kaskaskia, was
an exceedingly vigilant officer, and kept spies continually on the alert
to discover the approach of Kentuckians. The hunters believed that a
surprise might be effected, and they offered to accompany the expedition
as guides. Their services were accepted, and the expedition having
dropped down the Ohio to a proper point on the Illinois shore, and
concealed their boats, commenced their march through the wilderness
to Kaskaskia. ** They arrived in the vicinity of the town toward the
evening of the fourth of July,[[1778]] where they remained until dark,
unperceived by any of the people. Before midnight the town and garrison
were in possession of the Kentuckians. Philip Rocheblave, the British
commander, was surprised in bed, like Delaplace at Ticonderoga.
His wife, whom the polite Kentuckians would not disturb, secured or
destroyed most of his papers. The rest of his papers, which revealed the
fact that the British were stimulating the Indians to hostilities, were
sent, with the commandant himself, to Williamsburg, in Virginia. It was
a bloodless conquest, and in the course of a few days the prudent policy
of Clarke secured the respect of the French people, and they accepted
the government of Virginia with satisfaction.
About sixty miles further up the Mississippi was Cahokia, a village
coeval in settlement with Kaskaskia. It was a place of considerable
trade, and a depository of British arms for distribution among the
Indians. Clarke dispatched Captain Joseph Bowman with a little
* The city of Louisville is at the Falls or Rapids of the Ohio. The
rapids, formed by a dike of limestone stretching across the river,
extend about two miles. Captain Bullitt, of Virginia, a brave officer,
who accompanied Washington in his expedition against Fort Duquesne,
visited this spot in 1773. and, it is said, laid out the city there, on
the south side of the river. But no settlement was made until 1778, when
a small number of families accompanied Mr. Clarke down the Ohio, and
were left by him upon Corn Island. In the autumn they moved to the main
land, built a block-house of logs, and thus founded Louisville, now
(1851) a city and port of entry, with a population of 50,000. In 1780,
the Virginia Legislature passed an aet for establishing the town of
Louisville, the name being given in honor of Louis XVI. of Franee, then
lending his aid to the Americans. A stronger fort was built there in
1782, and was called Fort Nelson, in honor of Governor Thomas Nelson, of
Virginia. For several years the settlement was harassed by the Indians,
but it soon became too strong to fear them. The commerce of Louisville
began in 1783, when Daniel Broadhead took goods from Philadelphia and
exposed them for sale there.--Collins, page 360.
** Kaskaskia, the present capital of Randolph county, Illinois, is
situated on the west side of Kaskaskia River, seven miles from its
junction with the Mississippi. It was settled by some French Jesuits
about 1683, and was one of the towns which went into the possession of
the British by the treaty of 1763, at the conclusion of the Seven Years'
War. It then contained about one hundred families, and that was about
the amount of its population at the time of Clarke's expedition.
[[[Surprise of Cahokia.--Capture of Vincennes.--Its Loss and
Recapture.--Terrible March over the "Drowned Lands."]]]
{496}less than two companies,[[July 8]] to reduce that post, and also to
capture two other small towns. Several inhabitants of Kaskaskia gladly
accompanied them. The expedition was successful at the small towns, and
reached Cahokia unobserved. The surprise was complete. The inhabitants
were greatly alarmed; but when the Kaskaskia people explained the whole
matter, the fears of the people were changed to emotions of joy, and the
American flag was saluted with three hearty huzzas. They took the oath
of allegiance, and the conquest was thorough. The region thus brought
under the sway of Virginia was erected into a county, and named
Illinois.
The stronger and more important post of Vincennes * was yet unsubdued,
and Clarke felt that the object of his mission would be but half
accomplished if he did not gain possession of that place. It was
necessary to garrison Kaskaskia and Cahokia, in order to retain them,
and to do this would so weaken his little army that he could scarcely
hope for victory in an attack upon Vincennes, unless he should be as
successful in effecting a surprise as he had in capturing the posts
already in his possession. While thus perplexed, and doubting what
course to pursue, he communicated his desires to Father Gibault, a
French priest, who agreed to endeavor to bring those inhabitants of
Vincennes, over whom he had pastoral charge, to the support of the
American cause. The influence of the priest was successful; the
inhabitants arose in the night and cast off' their allegiance to the
British, expelled the garrison from the fort, and pulled down the
English standard
The American flag floated in triumph over the ramparts in the
morning.[[Aug. 1778]] Major Clarke, just promoted to colonel by the
Virginia authorities, now applied himself to the pacification of the
Indian tribes. His reputation as a warrior was great among them, and, as
the qualities of a hero inspires the Indian with respect, his influence
was also great. He was a successful negotiator, and the prejudices of
many of the tribes against the provincials were subdued. While thus
engaged, he received no news from Vincennes, and he began to have
fears for its safety. On the twenty-ninth of January, 1779, he received
intelligence that Governor Hamilton had marched an expedition against
that place, from Detroit, nearly a month previously, and that the town
was again in possession of the enemy. He was also informed that another
and more formidable expedition was to be sent out in the spring to
recapture Kaskaskia, and to assail the various posts on the Kentucky
frontier. With his usual promptness and energy, Colonel Clarke prepared
to anticipate the enemy, and strike the first blow. He planned an
expedition against Vincennes, and on the seventh of February[[1779]]
commenced his march through the wilderness, with one hundred and
seventy-five men. He had previously dispatched Captain Rogers and forty
men, two four-pounders, and a boat, with orders to force their way up
the Wabash to a point near the mouth of White River, and there wait for
further orders. For a whole week Colonel Clarke's party traversed the
drowned lands of Illinois, suffering every privation from wet, cold,
and hunger. When they arrived at the Little Wabash, at a point where the
forks of the stream are three miles apart, they found the intervening
space covered with water to the depth of three feet. The points of dry
land were five miles apart, and all that distance those hardy soldiers
waded the cold snow-flood, sometimes armpit deep!
On the evening of the eighteenth,[[Feb.17779]] they halted a little
distance from the mouth of Embarrass Creek, and so near Vincennes that
they could hear the booming of the evening gun. Here they encamped for
the night, and the next morning at dawn, with their faces blackened with
gunpowder to make themselves appear hideous, they crossed the river in a
boat they had secured, and pushed on through the floods toward the town.
Just as they reached dry land, in sight of Vincennes, they captured
a resident, and sent him into the town with a letter demanding the
immediate surrender of the place and fort. The people, taken by
surprise, were greatly alarmed, and believed the expedition to be
from Kentucky, composed of the fierce and strong of that advancing
commonwealth. Had armed men dropped in their midst from the clouds, they
could not have been more astonished, for it
* Vincennes is the capital of Knox county, Indiana. It is situated on
the east bank of the Wabash River, one hundred miles above its entrance
into the Ohio. A French trading post was established there in 1730.
[[[Colonel Hamilton made Prisoner.--Detroit.--Tory Emissaries.--Dr.
Connolly.--Official Tampering with the Indians.]]]
{497}seemed impossible for this little band to have traversed the
deluged country. The people were disposed to comply with the demand, but
Governor Hamilton, who commanded the garrison in person, would not
allow it. A siege commenced, and for fourteen hours a furious conflict
continued. The next day the town and fort were surrendered, and the
garrison were made prisoners of war. * The stars and stripes took
the place of the red cross of St. George; a round of thirteen guns
proclaimed the victory, and that night the exhausted troops of Colonel
Clarke reposed in comfort.
While Boone and his companions were beating back the Indians from the
Kentucky frontier, and Colonel Clarke was prosecuting his conquests and
establishing the American power over the more westerly posts, Detroit
was a position toward which the Continental Congress, and the Assemblies
of Pennsylvania and Virginia, looked with anxiety, for it was the focal
point of British influence over the Western Indians, and the rendezvous
for expeditions against the frontier settlements. Colonel Hamilton, the
commandant at that post, was actively engaged, from the commencement
of the war, in winning the Indians over to the British interest, and
in organizing parties to go out upon the war-path for blood and spoil.
Among his most active emissaries were three Tories--Girty, M'Kee, and
Elliot, whom I have alluded to on page 264, of the first volume of this
work. Governor Dunmore, too, was implicated, as early as the summer of
1775, in the nefarious business of exciting the Indian tribes to fall
upon the white settlements on the frontiers of his province, hoping
thereby to weaken the powers and resources of the people, then engaged
in their struggle for independence. The capture of Connolly, his chief
agent in the business, exposed the whole plot, and made the Continental
Congress more vigilant, as well as more determined. ** General Gage also
appears to have been concerned in the measure, and there can not be
a doubt that the representatives of royalty in British America were
secretly engaged, after the battle of Bunker Hill, in a grand scheme for
uniting the various Indian tribes, and bringing them down upon the white
people with the desolating fury of a tornado The fidelity of some of the
Indian chiefs impeded the consummation of the plan until countervailing
measures were taken by Congress, and the darling project of Dunmore and
his associates was frustrated.
Simon Girty, who with Elliot and M'Kee had been confined by the patriots
at Pittsburgh, burned with a spirit of revenge. He collected about four
hundred Indian warriors at Sandusky, in the summer of 1777, and marched
toward Limestone (now Maysville), on the Kentucky frontier. Fort
Henry, *** a small establishment near the mouth of Wheeling Creek (now
Wheeling), was garrisoned by about forty men, under the command of
Colonel Sheppard. The movements of Girty were known at that post, and
scouts were kept on the
* Governor Hamilton and several of his chief officers were sent to
Williamsburg, in Virginia, where, on account of their having incited the
Indians to their cruel deeds, they were confined in jail, and heavily
ironed. Governor Jefferson used his influence in favor of relieving
them of this rigorous treatment. He was successful, and Hamilton and his
associates were allowed to go to New York on parole.
** John Connolly was a physician, and resided at Pittsburgh, where he
and Washington became acquainted. At the commencement of the war he took
sides with Dunmore, and doubtless suggested to the governor the plan
of arousing and combining the Indian tribes against the colonists.
He visited General Gage in the autumn of 1775, and ten days after his
return to Williamsburg, in Virginia, he left Dunmore and departed
for the Ohio country with two companions, Allen Cameron, and Dr. John
Smythe. Near Hagerstown, in Maryland, they were stopped as suspicious
characters, and taken back to Frederickton. Connolly's papers were
concealed in the tree of his saddle. They revealed the whole nefarious
plot. It appeared that Connolly had received from Dunmore the
appointment of colonel, and was to raise a regiment in the western
country and Canada. Detroit was to be his place of rendezvous, from
whence, as soon as his forces could be collected, he was to enter
Virginia, march to Alexandria in the spring, and there meet. Lord
Dunmore with a naval armament and another body of troops. Connolly
and his papers were sent to Philadelphia; the first was placed in the
custody of the jailer, the latter in that of Congress. Connolly was
afterward a prisoner in Baltimore, and he was left in durance until
about the close of the war.
*** This fort was erected in 1774, during Dunmore's campaign, as a place
of refuge. It was first, called Fort Fincastle; afterward its name was
changed to Henry, in compliment to the great Virginia orator The fort
stood on the south branch of the Ohio, about a quarter of a mile below
the mouth of Wheeling Creek.
[[[Girty before Fort Henry.--Massacre of a Reconnoitering Party.--Attack
upon the Fort.--Elizabeth Zane and Mrs. Merrill.]]]
{498}alert. Girty's design seemed to be to cross the Ohio and attack the
Kentucky frontier; but, with dextrous caution, he pushed up the river,
and, undiscovered by Sheppard's scouts, he appeared before Fort Henry
with his fierce followers, early on the morning of the twenty-sixth of
September. Fortunately for the settlers of Wheeling, then a scattered
village of about twenty-five log-huts, they had intimations of savages
being near on the evening previous, and all had taken refuge in the
fort.
The first attack was made upon a reconnoitering party under Captain
Mason. The Indians were ambushed, and fell upon the little band without
a moment's warning. More than one half of them perished. Captain Ogle,
with twelve men, sallied out to the assistance of Mason, and only four
of his company escaped. Bullet and tomahawk cut them down, and the
garrison was thus reduced to only twelve men and youths, among whom
Colonel Sheppard, and Ebenezer and Silas Zane, were the most prominent.
* The women and children of the little settlement were within the
pickets, overwhelmed with grief and fear, and all hope for the salvation
of the fort and its inmates faded away. At that critical moment,
Simon Girty appeared with a white flag, and demanded the unconditional
surrender of the fort. Although the assailants outnumbered the garrison
forty-fold, the beleaguered resolved to resist, and Colonel Sheppard
promptly told the scoundrel that it should never be surrendered to
_him_, nor to any other man, while there was an American left to defend
it. Girty was enraged, and immediately ordered a siege The Indians
entered the log-houses near the fort for protection, and for six hours
they kept up an ineffectual fire against the pickets (for they had no
artillery), while the sharp-shooters within seldom sent a bullet upon a
fruitless errand of death. At meridian the Indians fell back to the
base of Wheeling Hill, and the firing ceased. This season of quiet was
employed by the garrison in a bold attempt to bring some powder into
the fort, for their ammunition was almost exhausted. This feat was
accomplished by an intrepid young woman, a sister of the Zanes. **
* Ebenezer Zane became the founder of Zanesville, in Ohio, twenty years
afterward.
** Elizabeth Zane was the sister of Ebenezer and Silas Zane. She had
just returned from Philadelphia, where she had completed her education,
and was but little accustomed to the horrors ot border warfare. With
other females in the fort, she assisted in casting bullets, making
cartridges, and loading rifles. When the powder in the fort, was
exhausted, Ebenezer Zane remembered that there was a keg of the article
in his house, sixty yards distant from the fort. The man who should
attempt to go for it would be exposed to the close and numerous shots of
the Indians. Only one man for the service could be spared from the fort.
Colonel Sheppard was unwilling to order any one to the duty; he asked
for a volunteer. Every man present eagerly offered to undertake the
hazardous duty. They contended so long for the honor, that it was feared
that the Indians would return to the siege before an attempt to get the
powder should be made. At this moment Elizabeth Zane came forward and
asked permission to go for the powder, giving as a reason that her life
was of less value to the garrison than that of a man. At first she
was peremptorily refused, but so earnest were her solicitations, that
consent was reluctantly given. She went out the gate, and fearlessly
passed the open space to her brother's house. The Indians saw her, and
watched her movements. When she eame out of the house, and, with the
keg of powder in her arms, sped with the fleetness of a fawn toward
the fort, they sent a full volley of bullets after her, but not a hall
touched her person. The shield of God's providence was about her, and
the noble girl entered the fort in safety with her valuable prize.
A loud shout welcomed her, and every man, inspired by her heroism,
resolved to repulse the foe or die in the trench. Elizabeth Zane was
twice married. The name of her first husband was M'Laughlin; of
the second, Clarke. She resided on the Ohio side of the river, near
Wheeling, until within the last ten years. The story of Elizabeth Zane
ought to be perpetuated in marble, and preserved in the Valhalla of our
Revolutionary heroes.
* The history of our Western States is full of the chronicles of
heroic women, who boldly battled with the privations incident to new
settlements, or engaged in actual conflicts with the Indian tribes upon
lands which the white men wrongfully invaded. Elizabeth Zane was a type
of the moral, and Mrs. Merrill of the physical heroines of that day.
During the summer of 1787, the house of John Merrill, in Nelson county,
Kentucky, was attacked by a party of Indians. It was midnight when
the approach of the savages was announced by the barking of a dog. Mr.
Merrill opened the door to ascertain the cause of the disturbance, when
he received the fire of five or six rifles, and his thigh and arm were
broken. He fell, and called to his wife to close the door. She was an
Amazon in strength and courage, and seizing an ax for defense, closed
the door just as several Indians approached with tomahawks. They soon
made a breach and attempted to enter. Mrs. Merrill killed or badly
wounded four of them with the ax, and maintained her post. The Indians
ascended the roof, and essayed to enter the house by the broad chimney.
Mrs. Merrill seized her only feather-bed, ripped it open, and east the
contents upon the fire. The suffocating smoke brought two of the savages
down almost insensible. These she dispatched with the ax. The only
remaining savage now tried to force his way in through the door. Across
his cheek Mrs. Merrill drew the keen blade of the ax. With a horrid
yell, he fled to the woods, and, arriving at Chillicothe, gave a
terrible account of the strength and fury of the "long knife squaw." I
might fill pages with similar recitals. For such records, see M'Clung's
Sketches of Western Adventure.
[[[Effect of a Log Field piece.--Arrival of Succor.--Abandonment of the
Siege.--Escape of M'Culloch]]]
{499}The assailants renewed the attack at half past two o'clock. Again
they took possession of the cabins near the fort, and were thus covered
from the fire of the Republicans. They also attempted to force the gate
of the fort, but were obliged to abandon it after six of then-number
were shot down. Still they eagerly sought to secure their prey within.
Approaching darkness did not end the conflict. The Indians converted a
hollow maple log into a field piece, and after dark conveyed it within
sixty yards of the fort. It was bound with chains, filled to the muzzle
with stones, pieces of iron, and other missiles, and discharged against
the gates of the fort. The log burst into a thousand fragments, and
its projectiles were scattered in all directions. Several Indians were
killed, but not a picket of the fort was Injured. This failure of their
artillery discouraged the assailants, and the conflict ceased for
the night. At four o'clock in the morning, [[Sept. 28, 1777]] Colonel
Swearingen and fourteen men arrived, and fought their way into the fort
without losing a man; and at daybreak Major McCulloch arrived with forty
mounted men. His followers entered the fort in safety, but he, being
separated from his companions, was obliged to flee to the open country.
He narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the Indians, who thirsted
for his blood, for he was their most skillful enemy. They hated him
intensely, and yearned to subject him to their keenest tortures. *
Girty and his fellow-savages abandoned all hope of capturing the fort,
after this augmentation of the garrison, and, setting fire to the houses
and fences outside of the palisades, and killing about three hundred
head of cattle belonging to the settlers, they raised the siege and
departed for the wilderness. ** Mot a man of the garrison was lost
during the siege; twenty-three of the forty-two in the fort were slain
at the first attack, before the siege commenced. The loss of the enemy
was between sixty and one hundred. *** The defense of Fort Henry was
one of the most remarkable for courage, on record, and deserves far
more prominence in the catalogue of battles for independence than has
generally been awarded to it by historians.
Early in 1778, Congress sent three commissioners to Pittsburgh to make
observations, and determine the importance of Detroit as a place of
rendezvous for the hostile tribes. They reported the activity of the
commander, and his influence among the Indians, and represented the
necessity of sending an expedition against that post immediately.
Congress resolved to do so, but the financial embarrassments of the
government, then fearfully increasing, rendered an expedition so
expensive quite incompatible. The design was reluctantly abandoned,
**** and in lieu thereof, General Lachlin M'Intosh, then commanding
the western department, was ordered to march from Fort Pitt (his
head-quarters), with a sufficient force, against the principal Indian
towns in the Ohio country, and so to chastise them
* The Indians might have killed Major M'Culloch, but they determined
to take him alive and torture him. His horse was fleet, but the savages
managed io hem him in on three sides, while on the fourth was an almost
perpendicular precipiee of one hundred and fifty feet descent, with
Wheeling Creek at its base. He had the single alternative, surrender
to the Indians, or leap the precipiee. His horse was a powerful animal.
Gathering his reins tightly in his right hand, and grasping his rifle in
his left, M'Culloch spurred his charger to the brow of the declivity and
made the momentous leap. They reached the foot of the bluff in safety,
and the noble animal dashed through the creek, and bore his rider far
away from his pursuers.
** Simon Girty was the offspring of crime. His father, a native of
Ireland, and settler in Pennsylvania, was a sot; his mother was a bawd.
They had four sons; Simon was the seeond. With two brothers, he was made
a prisoner by the Indians at Braddock's defeat. His brother James was
adopted by the Delawares, and became the fiercest savage of the tribe:
Simon was adopted by the Senecas, became a great hunter, and exercised
his innate wickedness to its fullest extent. For twenty years the
name of Simon Girty was a terror to the women and children of the
Ohio country. He possessed the redeeming quality of honesty in all his
transactions. It was his earnest wish that he might die in battle. That
wish was gratified; he was killed at Proctor's defeat in the battle of
the Thames, on the fifth of October, 1813.
*** American Pioneer.
**** See Journals of Congress, iv., 245 and 305.
[[[Fort M'Intosh.--Expedition against Sandusky Towns.--Successful
Expedition from Detroit against Kentucky Forts.]]]
{500}as to insure their future quiet. As soon as spring opened, M'Intosh
descended the Ohio River about thirty miles, and erected a fort at
Beavertown, at the mouth of Beaver Creek, to intercept the war
parties on their marches toward the settlements, and to make effective
demonstrations against the savages when opportunities should occur.
* After considerable delay, he marched toward the Sandusky towns, on
Sandusky Bay, with one thousand men. The season was so far advanced when
they reached the Tuscarawas, that General M'Intosh thought it imprudent
to advance farther. He built a fort about half a mile below the present
village of Bolivia, and named it Fort Laurens, in honor of the then
president of Congress
[[1778]] Leaving a garrison of one hundred and fifty men under the
command of Colonel John Gibson (the embassador to poor Logan), he
returned to Fort Pitt barren of the honors of an Indian fight.
On the first of June, 1780, an expedition was sent out from Detroit,
composed of six hundred Canadians and Indians under Colonel Byrd. They
took with them six pieces of artillery; their destination was some of
the stations upon the Licking River, in Kentucky. Colonel Byrd went
up the Licking as far as the forks, where he landed his artillery, and
erected some huts upon the site of Falmouth. Gathering strength on his
way, he marched from the forks, with nearly one thousand men and his
artillery, for Ruddell's Station, on the south fork of the Licking,
three miles below the junction of Hinkston and Stoner's branches of
that stream. The Kentucky stockades, all wanting cannons, were quite
powerless before the artillery of Colonel Byrd, and Captain Ruddell at
once surrendered, after being assured that the people within should
not be made the prisoners of the Indians. When the gates were opened,
however, Byrd could not restrain his savage allies. They rushed in, and
seizing men, women, and children promiscuously, claimed them as their
own, and thus families were separated during a long captivity. All
the property was destroyed or carried away, and the place was made a
desolation. Elated with their success, the Indians proposed an attack
upon Martin's, Bryant's, and Lexington Stations, all lying between the
Licking and Kentucky Rivers. Colonel Byrd endeavored to dissuade them,
for his humanity was shocked by the scenes at Ruddell's. The chiefs
finally consented to allow all future prisoners to be under the control
of their commander. The army then proceeded to Martin's Station,
captured it without opposition, and, bearing away all the property found
there, took up its line of march toward the fork of the Licking, leaving
Bryant's and Lexington unmolested, except by marauding parties
of Indians, who drove away many horses from each place. The whole
expedition returned to Detroit by the way of the Great Miami, on the
banks of which, at the point where they commenced their land journey
toward Detroit, they concealed their artillery.
This incursion from Detroit aroused all the energies of Colonel Clarke.
He visited Richmond in December,[[1780]] and urged the Provincial
Assembly to furnish him with means to chastise the enemy for his
insolence. While there, Arnold invaded the state by
* Fort M'Intosh (as the redoubt was called) was erected under the
general superintendence of the Chevalier De Cambray, a French engineer,
who commanded the artillery in the western department. It was built of
strong stockades furnished with bastions, and mounted one six-pounder.
Cambray's chief officer was Captain William Sommerville, conductor of
the artillery, who, from letters front De Cambray to him (copies of
which are before me), appears to have been an officer of mueh merit.* He
was in the continental service four years and a half (more than two
of which as conductor of artillery, with the rank of captain), when
he resigned, and, at the close of the war, settled in the Valley of
Virginia, in Berkeley county, where he died about 1825. Like many of
the subordinate officers of merit connected with the artillery service
of the Revolution, Captain Sommerville has not received the attention
of the historian How many patriots of that struggle lie in forgotten
graves!
* The following extract from a letter of instruction, sent by Colonel
De Cambray to Captain Sommerville, and dated "Fort Pitt, 6th January,
1779," is a fair specimen of that officer's diction in English: "For
the supplies necessary to your department, you are to apply to the
quarter-master (Colonel Archibald Steele), and, in case of refusal, to
form your complaint against them. You must insist repeatedly for your
store-house to be put in order, to secure the military stores, who, if
continue to be neglected in three months more ought to be unfit for
service, if you insist, you shall not be accountable of it, but the
commanding officer. If I did omit something, I leave to your discretion
to supply it. I recommend to you once more the greatest care, and to be
very scrupulous on the orders of issuing, for to avoid, if possible, the
bad effects of the wasting genius who reign all over this department."
[[[Colonel Clarke in Virginia.--Made a Brigadier.--Battle at the Blue
Licks. The Indians subdued.]]]
{501}way of the James River, and Clarke took a temporary command under
Baron Steuben. He afterward succeeded in raising a considerable foree
for an expedition against Detroit, and the corps destined for the
service was ordered to rendezvous at the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville),
on the fifteenth of March. [[1781]]Clarke was promoted to the rank of
a brigadier, and joined his troops at the appointed, time. Unexpected
difficulties arose.
Cornwallis was menacing all Virginia with desolation; the financial
resources of Congress were at their lowest point, and operations on the
western frontier were confined to defensive acts. Like a lion chained,
Clarke beheld the British and their forest allies lording it over the
chosen country of the pioneers, who were without strength sufficient
to drive them away, or hardly able to beat them back when they came
as assailants. Finally, the disastrous battle at the Blue Licks, which
spread a pall of gloom over Kentucky, aroused his desponding spirit, and
he raised a war-cry which awoke responsive echoes every where in that
deep forest land. * That battle was fought in August,[[Aug. 19, 1872]]
and in September, General Clarke, at the head of more than one thousand
mounted riflemen, assembled at the mouth of the Licking (opposite the
present city of Cincinnati), crossed the Ohio, and pressed forward to
the Indian towns on the Sciota. He was accompanied by Simon Kenton as
pilot, and who had command of a company on that occasion. The natives
fled before the invaders and eseaped; but five of their villages, and
numerous corn-fields and orchards, were laid waste. The Kentuckians
returned to the mouth of the Licking on the fourth of November.2 This
expedition had a salutary effect; it awed the savages, and no formidable
Indian war party ever afterward invaded Kentucky. For more than ten
years subsequently, the Indians on our northwestern frontier were
troublesome, and it was not until Wayne and a powerful force
desolated their country,[[1794]] and wrung from them a general treaty of
peace,[[1795]] that they ceased their depredations.
Let us return from the "dark and bloody ground" west of the Alleghanies,
and view the progress of events at Williamsburg and vicinity.
* The battle at the Blue Licks! in Nicholas county, Kentucky, occurred
on the nineteenth of August, 1782. For some time a strong body of
Indians, partially under the control of Simon Girty, had committed
depredations in the neighborhood, and it was finally resolved to pursue
and chastise them. Daniel Boone with a party from Boonsborough, Trigg
from Harrodsburgh, and Todd from Lexington, joined their forces at
Bryant's Station, about five miles northeast of Lexington. The little
army consisted of one hundred and eighty-two men. They marched on the
eighteenth, notwithstanding the number of the enemy was nearly twice
their own, but expecting to be joined by General Logan, then at Lincoln,
within twenty-four hours. Early on the following morning they came
within sight of the enemy at the lower Blue Licks, who were ascending
the opposite bank of the stream. The Kentuckians held a council of war,
and Boone proposed waiting for the arrival of Logan. They were generally
inclined to adopt the prudent council of the veteran, when Major M'Gary,
impetuous and imprudent like Meeker before the fatal battle of Minisink,
raised a war-whoop, dashed with his horse into the stream, and, waving
his hat, shouted, "Let all who are not cowards follow me!" Instantly
the mounted men and footmen were dashing through the strong current of
a deep ford in wild confusion. They ascended the bank and rushed forward
in pursuit of the enemy, and, as Boone had suggested, fell into an
ambuscade. The Indians, concealed in bushy ravines, almost surrounded
the Kentuckians, who stood upon a bald elevation between. The Kentucky
sharp-shooters fought like tigers, but the Indians, greatly superior
in numbers, came up from the ravines, closed in upon their victims, and
produced terrible slaughter. Most of the Kentucky leaders, including a
son of Daniel Boone, were killed, and utter destruction seemed to await
the pioneers. It was soon perceived that the Indians were extending
their line to cut off the retreat of the Kentuckians. A retrograde
movement was immediately ordered. A tumultuous retreat ensued, and great
was the slaughter by the pursuing Indians. The mounted men eseaped, but
nearly every man on foot was slain. A large number were killed at the
ford, and the waters of the river were reddened with the blood of the
victims. Those who succeeded in crossing the river plunged into
the buffalo thickets, and by various routes escaped to Bryant's
Station.--See M'Citing's Sketches of Western Adventure.
** It was while the expedition was slowly winding its way down this hill
above Cincinnati (then an unknown name, now a city with almost 120,000
inhabitants), that Captain M'Cracken, then dying from the effects of a
wound in his arm, proposed that they should all enter into an agreement
that, fifty years thereafter, the survivors should "meet there and talk
over the affairs of the campaign." On the fourth of November, 1832, many
of those veterans met in Cincinnati, and more would doubtless have been
there, had not the ravages of the cholera prevented. Kenton was still
living, but debility prevented his joining his old companions in
arms.--See Collins's Kentucky.
[[[Affairs at Williamsburg.--Patrick Henry's bold Resolutions in favor
of Military Preparations.--His eloquent Defense of them.]]]
{502}We left Governor Dunmore and the Virginia House of Burgesses in
open rupture. The governor had dissolved them, and they had assembled at
the Raleigh tavern in convention, and appointed delegates to represent
Virginia in the approaching General Congress. That Congress met; its
acts have elsewhere been noticed in detail. * The breach between the
governor and the people continued to widen; the affairs of Great Britain
and her American colonies rapidly approached a crisis. Every day the
power of royal governors became weaker; every day the representatives
of the people became bolder. To sagacious minds war appeared inevitable,
and preparations for it were regarded as acts of common prudence.
In the Virginia Legislature, convened at Richmond in March, 1775,
Patrick Henry, in a series of resolutions, recommended a levy of
volunteer troops in each county, for the better defense of the country;
in other words, a standing army of minute-men, pledged to the republican
cause. He had seen with impatience the temporizing spirit of his
colleagues, and he determined to test their courage and patriotism by a
bold proposition in' the form of resolutions. Like his famous Stamp Act
resolutions ten years before, these filled the House with consternation.
His proposition was considered as premeditated rebellion, and it was
opposed as rash and premature by several who afterward became his most
zealous co-workers. Opposition aroused all the fire of Henry's genius,
and he poured forth a flood of brilliant eloquence such as the Virginia
Assembly had never heard. [[March 23, 1775]] He closed his speech with
a loud cry of "Give me Liberty or give me Death!" and when he sat down,
not a murmur of applause or of disapprobation was heard. ** "After the
trance
* See pages 265-270 inclusive.
** Mr. Wirt, in his life of Patrick Henry, gives the following report of
his speech on that occasion. Referring to the apparently gracious manner
in which the king had received their petitions, he exclaimed: "Sutler
not yourselves to be betrayed by a kiss. Ask yourselves how this
gracious reception comports with those warlike preparations which cover
our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a
work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to
be reconciled, that force must be called in to win us back to our love?
Let us not deceive ourselves, sir! These are the implements of war and
subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen,
what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to
submission? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world,
to call for all this accumulation of armies and navies? No, sir, she has
none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are
sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British
ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose them?
Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying argument for the
last ten years.... We have petitioned; we have supplicated; we
have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its
interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and
Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted: our remonstrances have
produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been
disregarded; and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of
the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of
reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be
free; if we wish to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for
which we have been so long contending: if we mean not basely to abandon
the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we
have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of
our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must
fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us.
"They tell us, sir, that we are weak--unable to cope with so formidable
an enemy. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be next week, or next
year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British
guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by
irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual
resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive
phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the
God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed
in the holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country as that which we
possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against
us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just
God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up
friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the
strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. And again,
we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too
late to retire from the contest. * There is no retreat but in submission
and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the
plains of Boston! The war is inevitable! and let it come!! I repeat it,
sir, let it come!!! It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen
may cry peace, peace; but there is no peaee! The war is actually begun!
The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the
clash of resounding arms!* Our brethren are already in the field! What
is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or
peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as
for me," he cried, with both arms extended aloft, his brow knit, every
feature marked with the resolute purpose of his soul, and with his voice
swelled to its loudest note, 'Give me Liberty or give me Death!!!'"
* This prediction was speedily fulfilled; for almost "the next gale from
the north" conveyed the boom of the signal-gun of freedom at Lexington.
* The boldness of Mr. Henry, and the great influence whieh he exerted,
caused him to be presented to the British government in a bill of
attainder. His name, with that of Thomas Jefferson, Peyton Randolph,
John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and several others, were on that
black list.
[[[Effect of Henry's Speech.--Seizure of Powder by Dunmore.--Patrick
Henry with a Military Force.--A Compromise.]]]
{503}of a moment," says Wirt, "several members started from their seats.
The cry _to arms!_ seemed to quiver on every lip, and gleam from every
eye. Richard Henry Lee arose, and supported Mr. Henry with his usual
spirit and eloquence, but his melody was lost amid the agitations of
that ocean which the master spirit of the storm had lifted on high. That
supernatural voice still sounded in their ears, and shivered along their
arteries. They heard, in every pause, the cry of Liberty or Death! They
became impatient of speech--their souls were on fire for action." The
resolutions were adopted by a large majority.
During the spring of 1775, secret orders came from the British ministry
to the royal governors to remove the military stores out of the reach of
the colonists, if there should appear symptoms of rebellion. The attempt
by Governor Gage, of Boston, to execute their orders, produced the
conflicts at Lexington and Concord;[[April 19, 1775]] and a similar
attempt made by Governor Dunmore, on the very next day[[April 20]]
brought the Virginians out in open rebellion. The British man-of-war
_Magdalen_, Captain Collins, was lying at anchor in the York River, a
little below Williamsburg, and at midnight Dunmore had the powder in
the old magazine secretly removed to that vessel. The movement was
discovered, and at dawn the minute-men of Williamsburg assembled,
with their arms, and were with difficulty restrained from seizing the
governor. The people also assembled, and sent a respectful remonstrance
to Dunmore, complaining of the act as specially wrong at that time, when
a servile insurrection was apprehended. Dunmore made an evasive reply.
He pretended that he feared a slave insurrection in a neighboring
county, and said that in case a rising of the negroes in James City
county should occur, the powder should be restored. His reply was quite
unsatisfactory, and the people demanded the immediate surrender of the
ammunition. Patrick Henry was then at his home in Hanover county.
When intelligence of the movement reached him, he assembled a corps of
volunteers at New Castle, * and marched immediately for the Capitol to
secure the treasury from a like outrage, and to procure a restoration
of the powder. His corps augmented on its march, and numbered about
one hundred and fifty well-armed men when he arrived at Doncaster's
ordinary, within sixteen miles of the capital. There he was met by some
of the Virginia delegation to Congress, on their way to Philadelphia,
and was informed that his approach had frightened the governor. There he
also met Corbin, the receiver-general, who came with authority from the
governor to compromise the matter. Henry demanded and received the value
for the powder (three hundred and thirty pounds), and immediately
sent it to the treasury at Williamsburg. ** The volunteers were
disbanded,[[May 4, 1775]] and they returned to their homes. Henry
departed for Philadelphia a week afterward, he being a delegate to
Congress.
Dunmore was greatly irritated by the result, and menaced the people. He
swore by
* See page 431.
** All the arms and ammunition in the magazine were not sufficient to
cause a disturbance, for they were too small in amount to have been of
much service to either party. The amount of powder removed by Dunmore
was fifteen half barrels, containing fifty pounds each. In fact, it was
not the value of the powder, nor the harm that might result from its
removal, which probably induced Patrick Henry to summon to his standard
the volunteers of Hanover. He deemed it of higher importance that the
blow, which must be struck sooner or later, should be struck at
once, before an overwhelming royal force should enter the colony. The
Honorable Charles Augustus Murray, a Scotch gentleman, who visited this
country in 1836 (and in 1851 was married to a lady of New York,
since dead), is a lineal descendant of Lord Dunmore. In his published
narrative of his travels, he mentions, as a rather singular coincidence,
that when he went down the Chesapeake from Baltimore for the purpose
of visiting Williamsburg, the steam-boat that conveyed him was named
Patrick Henry.
[[[Dunmore's Oath.--General Excitement.--Proceedings of the
Assembly.--Attempt to Destroy the Magazine.--Dunmore's Flight.]]]
{504}the living God, that if any of his officers were injured, he would
raise the royal standard, enfranchise all the negroes, and, arming them
against their masters, lay the city of Williamsburg in ashes. He also
issued a proclamation[[May 6]] against "a certain Patrick Henry, of the
county of Hanover, and a number of deluded followers," and forbade all
persons countenancing them in the least. He converted his palace into a
garrison, filled it with his adherents, and surrounded it with cannon.
The injudicious course of Dunmore, especially his savage threats and the
fortifying of his palace, greatly exasperated the people throughout
the colony. Six hundred inhabitants of the upper country, full armed,
assembled at Fredericksburg, and offered their services to defend the
Capitol against the governor. They were restrained from marching to
Williamsburg by the prudent advice of Randolph and Pendleton, who begged
them to remain quiet until the Continental Congress should adopt some
relative measure. * In every county committees of vigilance and safety
were formed, and at public meetings the conduct of Patrick Henry was
loudly applauded. Some of Dunmore's letters to ministers were brought
to light, and, like Governor Hutchinson on a similar account, he was
despised for the meanness which they exhibited. ** Dunmore unwittingly
raised a whirlwind which swept away every vestige of his power.
In the midst of the excitement, the governor unexpectedly convened the
Assembly.[[June 1]] His object was to obtain the approbation of the
Burgesses for a conciliatory plan proposed by Lord North. That plan was
as specious and deceptive as the king's gracious speech against which
Patrick Henry had warned them, and the Burgesses rejected it. *** While
the Assembly was in session, some inconsiderate young men attempted to
procure arms from the magazine,[[ June 5]] and one of them was wounded
by a spring gun, placed there by order of the governor. This event
exasperated the people, and a large concourse assembled, broke open
the magazine, and took away most of the arms. Leading members of the
Burgesses induced them to return them, and the next day the keys of the
magazine, by order of the governor, were delivered to the speaker of the
House. On examination, several barrels of powder were found under the
floor, evidently designed by Dunmore to blow up the magazine. This
discovery augmented the excitement, and when, on the seventh,[[June
1775]] a rumor prevailed that Captain Collins, of the Magdalen, had
slipped her cables, and was coming up the river with one hundred marines
in boats, the citizens flew to arms. The report was untrue, but the
readiness of the people to seize arms on every occasion of alarm, was a
lesson of deep import to Dunmore; and fearing personal violence, he left
Williamsburg, with his family, early on the morning of the eighth, and
proceeded to Yorktown, where he went on board the Fowey man-of-war. He
was the first royal representative who "abdicated government here."
From the Fowey, Lord Dunmore sent letters, messages, and addresses,
to the House of Burgesses, and received the same in return. They were
mutually spirited. Finally, when the necessary bills were passed, and
the House asked him to return to Williamsburg to sign them, at the same
time pledging their honor for the safety of his person, he refused, and
demanded that they should present themselves at his present residence
(the ship-of-war) for signature. Of course they would not comply, for
the demand was unwarrantable.
They then adjourned[[July 18]] until October, after having appointed a
committee of the del-
* They held a council on the receipt of this advice, and it was by a
majority of only one that they concluded to disperse. They sent forth
an address, which was tantamount to a declaration of independence. They
pledged themselves to resist by force of arms all tyranny, and by the
same to defend the laws, liberties, and rights of Virginia, or any
sister colony. The address was sent to the neighboring counties, and
read with approval at the head of each company of volunteers. In large
letters, at the bottom of the address were the words, God save the
Liberties of America!
** In a letter to Lord Dartmouth, Dunmore charged the colonists with a
desire to subvert the government, in order to avoid the payment of heavy
sums of money due to merchants in Great Britain. That some unprincipled
men were flaming patriots for such a purpose, there is no doubt, but it
was the rankest injustice to charge the whole people with such a motive.
*** "We examined it minutely," said the Burgesses in an address to the
governor; "we viewed it in every point of light in which we were able to
place it, and, with pain and disappointment, we must ultimately declare
it only changes the form of oppression, without lightening the burden."
[[[Military Preparations.--Dunmore at Norfolk.--New Government
planned.--Militia Organized.--Great Sea.]]]
{505}egates, as a permanent convention, to whom was intrusted the
unlimited powers of government. * That committee immediately took
measures to raise a sufficient armed force to defend the colony. **
Dunmore's flight, and this act of the people, terminated royal power in
Virginia.
Early in the autumn, the British fleet, with Dunmore, proceeded to
Norfolk, where his lordship established his head-quarters and put his
threat of hostility into execution. He unfurled the royal ensign from
the Fowey, and proclaimed freedom to all the slaves who should repair
to it and bear arms for the king.[[Nov 7, 1775]] He also issued a
proclamation declaring martial law throughout Virginia, and in various
ways assumed an attitude of deadly hostility to the colony. The result
we shall consider presently.
The Virginia committee of safety exercised its delegated powers with
industry and energy. Having provided for the military defense of the
colony, its attention was directed to a new organization of government.
[Illustration: 9515]
Elections were held throughout the state, and on the sixth of May
following,[[1776]] a general convention of delegates assembled at
Williamsburg. *** The old House of Burgesses also met on the same day,
but as they had not been summoned by a governor, they conceived that
they could not act legally, and accordingly dissolved themselves.
With that dissolution passed away forever the forms of royal rule in
Virginia, and the convention exercised all the functions of government.
By resolution, the delegates of Virginia in the Continental Congress,
were instructed to propose a total separation from Great Britain.[[May
15, 1776]] The convention also appointed a committee to prepare a
_Declaration of Rights,_ and a _plan of government_ for the colony.
The former was adopted on the twelfth of June, and the latter on the
twenty-ninth. ****
[Illustration: 8515]
On the fifth of July, it was decreed that the name of the king should
henceforth be suppressed in all the public prayers, and the Church
Liturgy was altered accordingly. It was also ordained that the great
seal of the commonwealth should be changed, upon which Virtue should be
represented as the tutelar genius of the province, robed in the drapery
of an Amazon, resting one hand upon her lance, and holding a naked sword
in the other; trampling upon tyranny, under the figure of a prostrate
man, having near him a crown fallen from his head, and bearing in one
hand a broken chain, and in the other
* The following-named gentlemen composed the committee of safety, Edmund
Pendleton, George Mason, John Page, Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee,
Paul Carrington, Dudley Digges, James Mercer, Carter Braxton, William
Cabell, and John Tabb.
** The convention appointed Patrick Henry colonel of the first regiment,
and "commander of all the forces raised and to be raised for the defense
of the colony." He immediately summoned corps of volunteers from various
parts of the colony. Three hundred minute-men instantly assembled at
Culpepper Court House, and marched for Williamsburg. One third of them
were Culpepper men, who adopted a flag with the significant device of a
coiled rattle-snake, * seen in the engraving. They were dressed in green
hunting shirts, with Henry's words, Liberty or Death, in large white
letters, on their bosoms. They had bucks' tails in their hats, and
in their belts tomahawks and scalping-knives. Their fierce appearance
alarmed the people as they marched through the country. They did good
service in the battle at the Great Bridge in December following. William
Woodford was appointed to the command of the second regiment. Alexander
Spottswood was appointed major, and the heroic Captain Bullit, who had
distinguished himself at Fort Duquesne, was made adjutant general.
*** Edmund Pendleton was chosen president, and John Tazewell, clerk.
Patrick Henry, who, to the great regret of the Virginians, had resigned
his military commission, was elected a member of the convention for
Hanover county, and took his seat on the first day of the meeting.
**** These documents were drawn by George Mason, the friend and
associate of Washington. Mr. Jefferson then a member of the Continental
Congress, also prepared a constitution and sent it to the Convention. It
arrived a day or two after the adoption of Mason's form. The convention
prefixed Jefferson's preamble to it, which, in a great degree, resembles
the Declaration of Independence.--See Tucker's Life of Jefferson.
* This device was upon many flags in the army and navy of the
Revolution. The expression "Don't tread on me," had a double
signification It might be said in a supplicating tone, "Don't tread on
me or menacingly, "Don't tread on me."
[[[Declaration of Independence proclaimed at Williamsburg.--Officers
under the new Government.--Freneau's Prophecy]]]
{506}a scourge. Over the device was placed the word Virginia; and
beneath, Sic semper tyrannis. "Thus we serve tyrants." * The convention
adjourned on the fifth of July, and the government under the new
Constitution was established. **
The Declaration of Independence was proclaimed at Williamsburg on the
twenty-fifth of July, amid great rejoicings, and from that time until
1779, when the government offices were removed to Richmond, the
old Capitol of the commonwealth for eighty years, was the center of
Revolutionary energy in Virginia.
Here let us close the chronicle and depart for Yorktown, the scene of
the last great triumph of the patriot armies of the Revolution.
* The device on the reverse of the great seal is a group of three
figures. In the center is Liberty, with her wand and cap; on the right
side, Ceres, with a cornucopia in one hand, and an ear of wheat in the
other; and on her left side, Eternity, holding in one hand the globe on
which rests the Phoenix.
** The following-named gentlemen were appointed to fill the respective
offices provided for by the Constitution: Patrick Henry, governor;
John Page, Dudley Digges, John Taylor, John Blair, Benjamin Harrison of
Berkeley, Bartholomew Dandridge, Charles Carter, and Benjamin Harrison
of Brandon, counselors of state; Thomas Whiting, John Hutchings,
Champion Travis, Thomas Newton, Jr., and George Webb, commissioners of
admiralty; Thomas Everard, and James Cooke, commissioners for settling
accounts; and Edmund Randolph, attorney general. The General Assembly
of Virginia met at Williamsburg for the first time on the seventeenth of
October, 1776. Then commenced her glorious career as a sovereign state
of a "great and free confederacy. It was a joyful day for her patriot
sons; and her sages, scanning the future with the eye of faith and hope,
were prone to exclaim, in the words of Freneau, written a year before:
"I see, I see
Freedom's established reign; cities and men,
Numerous as sands upon the ocean shore,
And empires rising where the sun descends!
The Ohio soon shall glide by many a town
Of note; and where the Mississippi's stream,
By forests shaded, now runs sweeping on,
Nations shall grow, and states not less in fame
Than Greece and Rome of old!
We, too, shall boast
Our Scipio's, Solon's, Cato's, sages, chiefs
That in the lapse of time yet dormant lie,
Waiting the joyous hour of life and light.
Oh snatch me hence, ye muses, to those days
When, through the veil of dark antiquity,
A race shall hear of us as things remote,
That blossom'd in the morn of days!"
[[[Ride to Yorktown.--William Nelson, Esq.--Location and Appearance of
Yorktown.--Its early Settlement]]]
{507}