Daniel Boone sets out for Kentucky with his family and his brother
Squire Boone--Is joined by five families and forty men at Powell's
Valley--The party is attacked by Indians and Daniel Boone's oldest
son is killed--The party return to the settlements on Clinch
River--Boone, at the request of Governor Dunmore, goes to the West
and conducts a party of surveyors to Virginia--Boone receives the
command of three garrisons and the commission of Captain--He takes
a part in the Dunmore war--Battle of Point Pleasant and termination
of the war.
Having completed all his arrangements for the journey, on the 25th of
September, 1774, Daniel Boone, with his wife and children, set out on
his journey to the West. He was accompanied by his brother, Squire
Boone; and the party took with them cattle and swine, with a view to
the stocking of their farms, when they should arrive in Kentucky.
Their bedding and other baggage was carried by pack-horses.
At a place called Powel's Valley, the party was reinforced by another
body of emigrants to the West consisting of five families and no less
than forty able-bodied men; well armed and provided with provisions and
ammunition.
They now went on in high spirits, "camping out" every night in woods,
under the shelter of rude tents constructed with poles covered with
bed-clothes. They thus advanced on their journey without accident or
alarm, until the 6th of October, when they were approaching a pass in
the mountains, called Cumberland Gap. The young men who were engaged
in driving the cattle had fallen in rear of the main body a distance
of five or six miles, when they were suddenly assailed by a party of
Indians, who killed six of their number and dispersed the cattle in the
woods. A seventh man escaped with a wound. The reports of the musketry
brought the remainder of the party to the rescue, who drove off the
Indians and buried the dead. Among the slain was the oldest son of
Daniel Boone.
A council was now held to determine on their future proceedings.
Notwithstanding the dreadful domestic misfortune which he had
experienced in the loss of his son, Daniel Boone was for proceeding to
Kentucky; in this opinion he was sustained by his brother and some of
the other emigrants; but most of them were so much disheartened by the
misfortune they had met with, that they insisted on returning; and Boone
and his brother yielding to their wishes, returned to the settlement on
the Clinch River, in the south-western part of Virginia, a distance of
forty miles from the place where they had been surprised by the Indians.
Here Boone was obliged to remain with his family for the present; but he
had by no means relinquished his design of settling in Kentucky. This
delay, however, was undoubtedly a providential one; for in consequence
of the murder of the family of the Indian chief Logan, a terrible Indian
war, called in history the Dunmore War, was impending, which broke out
in the succeeding year, and extended to that part of the West to which
Boone and his party were proceeding, when they were turned back by the
attack of the Indians.
In this war Daniel Boone was destined to take an active part. In his
autobiography, already quoted, he says:
"I remained with my family on Clinch until the 6th of June, 1774, when I
and one Michael Stoner were solicited by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia,
to go to the Falls of the Ohio, to conduct into the settlement a number
of surveyors that had been sent thither by him some months before; this
country having about this time drawn the attention of many adventurers.
We immediately complied with the governor's request, and conducted in
the surveyors, completing a tour of eight hundred miles, through many
difficulties, in sixty-two day.
"Soon after I returned home, I was ordered to take command of three
garrisons, during the campaign which Governor Dunmore carried on against
the Shawanese Indians."
These three garrisons were on the frontier contiguous to each other;
and with the command of them Boone received a commission as captain.
We quote from a contemporary an account of the leading events of this
campaign, and of the battle of Point Pleasant, which may be said to
have terminated the war. Whether Boone was present at this battle is
uncertain; but his well-known character for ability and courage, renders
it probable that he took a part in the action.
The settlers, now aware that a general warfare would be commenced by
the Indians, immediately sent an express to Williamsburg, the seat of
government in Virginia, communicating their apprehensions, and
soliciting protection.
The Legislature was in session at the time, and it was immediately
resolved upon to raise an army of about three thousand men, and march
into the heart of the Indian country.
One half of the requisite number of troops was ordered to be raised in
Virginia, and marched under General Andrew Lewis across the country to
the mouth of the Kenhawa; and the remainder to be rendezvoused at Fort
Pitt, and be commanded by Dunmore in person, who proposed to descend the
Ohio and join Lewis at the place mentioned, from where the combined
army was to march as circumstances might dictate at the time.
By the 11th of September the troops under General Lewis, numbering about
eleven hundred men, were in readiness to leave. The distance across to
the mouth of the Kenhawa, was near one hundred and sixty miles through
an unbroken wilderness. A competent guide was secured, the baggage
mounted on pack horses, and in nineteen days they arrived at the place
of destination.
The next morning after the arrival of the army at Point Pleasant, as the
point of land at the junction of the Kenhawa and the Ohio was called,
two men were out some distance from the camp, in pursuit of a deer, and
were suddenly fired upon by a large body of Indians; one was killed,
and the other with difficulty retreated back to the army; who hastily
reported "that he had seen a body of the enemy covering four acres of
ground, as closely as they could stand by the side of each other."
General Lewis was a remarkably cool and considerate man; and upon being
informed of this, "after deliberately lighting his pipe," gave orders
that the regiment under his brother, Colonel Charles Lewis, and another
under Colonel Fleming, should march and reconnoiter the enemy, while he
would place the remainder of the troops in order for battle. The two
regiments marched without delay, and had not proceeded more than four
hundred yards when they were met by the Indians, approaching for the
same purpose. A skirmish immediately ensued, and before the contest had
continued long, the colonels of the two regiments fell mortally wounded,
when a disorder in the ranks followed, and the troops began a
precipitate retreat; but almost at this moment another regiment under
Colonel Field arriving to their aid and coming up with great firmness to
the attack effectually checked the savages in the pursuit, and obliged
them in turn to give way till they had retired behind a breastwork of
logs and brush which they had partially constructed.
Lewis, on his arrival at the place, had encamped quite on the point of
land between the Ohio and Kenhawa, and having moved but a short distance
out to the attack, the distance across from river to river was still but
short. The Indians soon extending their ranks entirely across, had the
Virginians completely hemmed in, and in the event of getting the better
of them, had them at their disposal, as there could have been no chance
for escape.
Never was ground maintained with more obstinacy; for it was slowly, and
with no precipitancy, that the Indians retired to their breastwork. The
division under Lewis was first broken, although that under Fleming was
nearly at the same moment attacked. This heroic officer first received
two balls through his left wrist, but continued to exercise his command
with the greatest coolness and presence of mind. His voice was
continually heard, "Don't lose an inch of ground. Advance, outflank the
enemy, and get between them and the river." But his men were about to
be outflanked by the body that had just defeated Lewis; meanwhile the
arrival of Colonel Field turned the fortune of the day, but not without
a severe loss; Colonel Fleming was again wounded, by a shot through the
lungs; yet he would not retire, and Colonel Field was killed as he was
leading on his men. The whole line of the breastwork now became as a
blaze of fire, which lasted nearly till the close of the day. Here the
Indians under Logan, Cornstock, Elenipsico, Red-Eagle, and other mighty
chiefs of the tribes of the Shawneese, Delawares, Mingos, Wyandots,
and Cayugas, amounting, as was supposed, to fifteen hundred warriors,
fought, as men will ever do for their country's wrongs, with a bravery
which could only be equaled. The voice of the great Cornstock was often
heard during the day, above the din of strife, calling on his men in
these words: "Be strong! Be strong!" And when by the repeated charges
of the whites, some of his warriors began to waver, he is said to have
sunk his tomahawk into the head of one who was basely endeavoring to
desert. General Lewis, finding at length that every charge upon the
lines of the Indians lessened the number of his forces to an alarming
degree, and rightly judging that if the Indians were not routed before
it was dark, a day of more doubt might follow, he resolved to throw
a body, if possible, into their rear. As the good fortune of the
Virginians turned, the bank of the river favored this project, and
forthwith three companies were detached upon the enterprise, under the
three captains, Isaac Shelby (after renowned in the revolution, and
since in the war with Canada,) George Matthews, and John Stewart. These
companies got unobserved to their place of destination upon Crooked
Creek, which runs into the Kenhawa. From the high weeds upon the bank of
this little stream, they rushed upon the backs of the Indians with such
fury, as to drive them from their works with precipitation. The day was
now decided. The Indians, thus beset from a quarter they did not expect,
were ready to conclude that a reinforcement had arrived. It was about,
sunset when they fled across the Ohio, and immediately took up their
march for their towns on the Scioto.
Of the loss of both Indians and whites in this engagement, various
statements have been given. A number amounting to seventy-five killed,
and one hundred and forty wounded of the whites, has been rendered; with
a loss on part of the Indians not so great, but not correctly known.[21]
This was the severest battle ever fought with the Indians in Virginia.
Shortly after this battle the Indians sent messengers to Governor
Dunmore, suing for peace, and a treaty was accordingly concluded.
In this treaty the Indians surrendered all claim to Kentucky. The Six
Nations had already done the same thing at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix
in 1768. The Cherokees had sold their claims to Henderson's company; so
that when Boone settled in Kentucky it was effectually cleared of all
Indian titles.
[Footnote 21: "History of the Backwoods."]