Beginning with the abduction of the children, the whole Virginia
frontier was subjected to Indian raids. While the majority of the
settlers attributed the uprising to Governor Dunmore's agency, the
better informed knew that it was traceable to the murder of the Logan
family.
As Jackson River was a frontier settlement, the farmers met at the
school house and made preparations for defense.
All able bodied freemen between the ages of fifteen and fifty were
enrolled in the local militia. All realized that serious days were ahead
for the colony, which must not only suppress the Indians, but be
prepared to join with the other colonies in resisting, even by force of
arms, the oppressive measures adopted by the mother country.
In the reorganization, they insisted upon choosing new and competent
officers to command them; men who had seen military service and whose
loyalty to the colony was not tainted by Toryism.
Mr. Campbell's efforts at organization coupled with the knowledge that
he had been an officer in and seen actual service in the British army
and that a warrant had been issued for his arrest resulted after careful
consideration in his selection as their captain. This selection after
some delay was confirmed upon the recommendation of Mr. Peyton Randolph
and Mr. Fairfax.
After receiving his commission he worked zealously in organizing,
drilling and equipping his company of 170 men; all of whom were
experienced woodsmen and excellent marksmen.
With this command he counted not only upon protecting the frontier; but
if all peaceful means failed, at an opportune time of rescuing his son
and little Dorothy.
His plantation, well up the mountain side, was the first settlement on
the trail coming over the mountain from the Kanawha country, and at
night half a dozen men used his barn as barracks, while he and his two
servants slept in the house, their rifles within easy reach of their
beds. A guard of three men was also placed in the mountain pass to watch
the trail and give warning.
Signal flags were set upon John Calvin Rock to give warning by day and a
great pile of wood and timber, ready for flint and steel, was placed
upon its summit to give a blaze of warning by night.
On the night of the thirtieth of July, the party in the barn were
awakened by Indians stealing the two horses. They gave the alarm by
firing at them just as they were leaving the lot, and then followed up
the mountain trail in close pursuit, occasionally taking a shot when a
rolling stone or the noise made by the horses indicated the location of
the marauders.
The shooting warned the guards at the pass, and they, at close range,
making out the figures of the Indians even in the darkness, killed one
and recovered one of the horses.
When daylight came, Mr. Campbell and his two servants scoured the
western mountain side in search of the other horse and found him. He had
been shot through the fleshy part of the neck and the halter rope was
entangled in a laurel bush.
While they were examining his wounds, Jerry, who had followed them, kept
up an incessant barking and growling in a thick cluster of laurels.
Investigating the cause they found an Indian, shot through the chest and
murmuring in unconscious monotone.
Richard said: "Let's kill him, he is going to die any way and a dead
Indian is always a good Indian." But Mr. Campbell forbade it, not only
from kindness of heart but with the hope that from him he might learn
news of the children.
He was placed upon the horse; and supported on either side by his
captors was carried to the Campbell home. There, exhausted and
delirious, he was put to bed in a small shed used as a store room.
After two weeks' careful nursing he began to recover and shortly after
Mr. Campbell was told by the Valley doctor: "In a few days you will have
a dangerous Indian on your hands, but he is yet too weak to leave his
bed."
The morning after the doctor's visit Mr. Campbell found the bed empty
and the patient gone. Scratched on the wall in charcoal, he read: "One
white man good to Indian; before cahonks fly bring back papoose.
Tah-gah-jute."
Tah-gah-jute, son of Skikellemy, a Cayuga Indian chief, was born in
1725, at Shamokin, on the Susquehanna. He was given the name of Logan,
after John Logan, then Secretary of the Pennsylvania Colony, a man who
many times had shown himself a friend of the Cayugas.
Logan grew to be a man of intelligence and fine personal appearance; and
until he moved westward on the Ohio River in 1770, was of good personal
habits. There, because of his friendliness with the whites, he, with his
family, usually camped in the neighborhood of the stations of the white
traders and by the association not only he but his family acquired
habits of intemperance.
On the twentieth of April, 1774, they moved to the mouth of Yellow
Creek, on the north bank of the Ohio, just across the river from Joshua
Baker's joint and trading station.
Shortly afterwards some land jobbers near the month of Sandy Creek were
robbed by a band of Indians. In retaliation Captain Cresap gathered a
gang of men and began killing Indians in the neighborhood of Wheeling.
On Grave Creek, below Wheeling, they killed two of Logan's kinsmen.
Hearing a rumor of this and wishing to ascertain the truth, Logan on the
twenty-seventh of April accompanied by two braves traveled down to Grave
Creek. In the meantime, Captain Cresap and Daniel Greathouse with their
gang came to Baker's.
Logan's mother, sister and cousin, a little girl, with four Indian men,
crossed in a canoe to Baker's; where after being made drunk, they were
all murdered, except the little girl who was carried off a prisoner.
In retaliation, Logan with several Indians, not being able to find
Cresap, came up the river to the mouth of the Kanawha, where they
murdered several white men; then ascending the Kanawha to its head,
crossed the mountain to Campbell's plantation and stole the two
children. They carried them to Shauane-Town, on the Scioto, near the
present site of Circleville.
The first of July, Logan, accompanied by seven Mingoes, into which
confederacy he had been adopted and made a chief, ascended the west fork
of the Monongahela into what was then West Augusta county where they
came upon William Robinson and two farm hands working in a field. They
killed one of his men and made Robinson and the other prisoners,
carrying them to Shauane-Town; Logan declaring it to be his purpose to
kill or make captive as many whites as they had murdered of his kindred.
Though Logan spoke English he could write very little. He therefore made
Robinson write a note to Captain Cresap, in the nature of a declaration
of war, which was tied to a war club and thrown into the first white
settlement he passed. It read:
"Captain Cresap:
"What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for? The white
people killed my kin at Conestoga and I let it pass. But you
killed my kin, even my mother and sister 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, 1774.
John Logan."
Cresap, Greathouse and certain other traders continued murdering
Indians, until they stirred up the whole Indian country; then the tribes
in retaliation began killing the settlers west of the Alleghanies,
making no discrimination between the settlers and traders. The settlers
deserting their homes fled eastward across the mountains.
A man by the name of Connelley, the confidential agent of Governor
Dunmore, came to Shauane-Town and there met in council with the chiefs
of the Shauanese, Delawares, Wyandottes and Mingoes; his mission being
to induce them to war with the "Long Knives," or Virginians. He was
successful and war was declared.
Four hundred of the Virginia militia assembled at Wheeling, marched down
the Ohio and up the Muskingum, killing Indians and destroying their
towns.
Jefferson in his "Notes on Virginia," comments upon these incidents as
follows:
"In the spring of the year 1774 a robbery was committed by some Indians
on certain land adventurers on the Ohio River. The whites in that
quarter, according to their custom undertook to punish this outrage in a
summary way. Captain Michael Cresap and a certain Daniel Greathouse
leading on these parties, surprised at different times traveling and
hunting parties of Indians, having their women and children with them
and murdered many. Among these were unfortunately the family of Logan, a
chief celebrated in peace and in war and long distinguished as a friend
of the whites. This unworthy return provoked his vengeance. He
accordingly signalized himself in the war which ensued."
----
On the fifth of September Captain Campbell received orders from General
Andrew Lewis, directing that he with his company report for service at
Fort Union on the tenth of September, prepared for a sixty day campaign
into the Ohio River country. He and his wife were delighted at the
receipt of the order, believing the opportunity was now presented to
rescue the children.
His company of ninety-seven left the settlement on the morning of the
eighth, and about noon on the ninth reached Fort Union on the western
slope of the Alleghanies.
On September eleventh, General Lewis led his detachment of eleven
hundred men down the mountain side into the Kanawha valley, beginning a
one hundred and sixty mile tramp through the pathless, rough and heavily
timbered wilderness of the valley to Point Pleasant, where they arrived
on the first of October. Here Governor Dunmore was supposed to meet him
with two thousand men, who were to march over the mountains to the
Monongahela River and descend that stream and the Ohio to the rendezvous
in canoes and batteaux.
After waiting nine days he received word that the Governor had changed
his plans, and instead of meeting them as agreed, had come down the Ohio
to the mouth of the Hocking River and ascended that stream to the falls;
declaring it his intention to march across country and attack the Indian
towns on the Scioto.
On the afternoon of the day this information was received, Captain
Campbell and one of his men, thinking to supplement his company's
rations by killing a deer or two, left the camp and traveled more than a
mile back into the timbered river valley.
There a large party of Indians hiding in a cane brake attacked them,
killing the soldier. Two Indians close at hand rushed the captain,
intending to take him a prisoner. He killed one, the other, a powerful
man, throwing him to the ground rolled upon him. Each looked into the
other's face and recognition was mutual. It was Logan. He muttered:
"Throw Indian off and run to camp." This he did, and was so closely
pursued by the chief, who kept even with but apparently could not
overtake him, that the other Indians dared not fire.
General Lewis expecting every day to be joined by Governor Dunmore had
neglected to fortify his camp near the junction of the Ohio and Kanawha
rivers. There the Indians, superior numerically, cornered his detachment
and cut off retreat.
The morning following Captain Campbell's escape, while the camp was
being broken up to join Dunmore's forces, the Indians in great numbers,
began the attack with a well directed fire, howling and screeching as
only wild men can; and for several hours had the best of the conflict.
They were commanded by Chief Cornstalk, who moving back and forth along
their line when it began to waver, could be heard above the din of
conflict, calling out in Indian tongue: "Be strong! Be strong!" The
battle continued throughout the day and by evening it was evident the
whites were victorious. At dark the Indians withdrew, and during the
night crossed the Ohio.
Of the colonists, ten officers, including two colonels and five captains
and more than a hundred private soldiers were killed. Of the Jackson
River Company, seven were killed and eleven were wounded. Among the
wounded was Captain Campbell, who with the other wounded were left
behind at the camp, now strongly entrenched and well guarded, while the
General with most of his men marched up the river to join Lord Dunmore.
Opposite the mouth of the Hocking River they ferried the Ohio in the
Governor's boats and marched rapidly northward expecting to join Dunmore
who had entrenched about five miles east of Shauane-Town, giving the
camp the name of Fort Charlotte.
Learning of General Lewis' approach, he rode out and met him several
miles from his fort, having as his escort several officers and Indian
chiefs, two of whom had been in the Point Pleasant battle. When they met
he peremptorily ordered Lewis to return to Virginia. This order the
General reluctantly obeyed; his men grumbling and threatening, even
charging that the Governor had been cognizant of the contemplated attack
upon them, perhaps had instigated it; and was now showing his
disappointment because they had defeated the Indians.
After the battle of Point Pleasant the Indians had repaired to
Shauane-Town, where Cornstalk convened a general council.
His advice was that they slay their women and children and then fight
until all were slain. Some of the chiefs seemed not to dread surrender
to Lord Dunmore and his proposition was met with silent disapprobation.
Finding the Indians either disheartened or apathetic or anxious for
peace, he drove his tomahawk into a log, the sign of submission, and
said: "I will sue for peace."
The peace council was held at Fort Charlotte. Lord Dunmore and the
Indians had no difficulty in coming to terms. All the chiefs of
prominence were represented except Logan. He had opposed making peace
and disdained to be seen among the suppliants at Fort Charlotte; but
lest the sincerity of the treaty should be distrusted, he sent by
messenger (John Gibson) the following speech to be delivered to Lord
Dunmore:
"I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin
hungry and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked and he
clothed him not. During the last long and bloody war, Logan remained
idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the
whites that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said: 'Logan is the
friend of the white man.' I had even thought to have lived with you but
for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold
blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relatives of Logan, not sparing
my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of
any living creature. This called on me for revenge. For my country I
rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor the thought that mine
is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel
to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one."
At the peace conference, in the absence of Logan, the usual Speaker,
Cornplanter presented the cause of the Indians. He began by complaining
of the white men who had disregarded their treaties; settling upon
Indian lands without even an offer of purchase; even upon soil which by
treaty had been reserved as sacred from settlement or incursion, then
continued: "* * * and have robbed again and again and murdered Indians
and their families while peacefully hunting. For years we have patiently
endured these wrongs, till at length we were driven into this bloody
war. We do not wish for war; we wish for peace. We know the power of the
white man and that he can overpower the Indian. But this is a white
man's war. Yet had we not resented the wrongs done us even the white man
would have despised us for cowardice."