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Transcriber's Note
This is a 1971 reprint edition of the 1895 edition of "Chronicles of
Border Warfare." The modern title page and verso have been relocated
to the end of the text.
The 1895 edition includes and expands on the original 1831 edition.
Throughout this text, the pagination of the original edition is
indicated by brackets, such as [54].
Capitalization standards for the time (i.e. "fort Morgan," "mrs.
Pindall," "Ohio river") have been preserved.
Variable hyphenation has been preserved.
Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
Author's punctuation style has been preserved.
Typographical problems have been corrected as listed in the
Transcriber's Note at the end of the text.
Passages in italics are indicated by _underscores_.
CHRONICLES OF BORDER WARFARE
[Illustration]
CHRONICLES OF BORDER WARFARE
OR, A
History of the Settlement by the Whites, of North-Western
Virginia, and of the Indian Wars and Massacres
in that section of the State
WITH
REFLECTIONS, ANECDOTES, &c.
BY
ALEXANDER SCOTT WITHERS
A New Edition
EDITED AND ANNOTATED BY
REUBEN GOLD THWAITES
Secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society, editor of "Wisconsin
Historical Collections," and author of "The Colonies, 1492-1750,"
"Historic Waterways," "Story of Wisconsin," etc.
_With the addition of a Memoir of the Author, and several Illustrative
Notes._
BY THE LATE
LYMAN COPELAND DRAPER
Author of "King's Mountain and Its Heroes," "Autograph Collections
of the Signers," etc.
CINCINNATI
THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY
1895
Copyright, 1895
By REUBEN GOLD THWAITES
All rights reserved
CONTENTS.
Portrait of the Author Frontispiece.
PAGE
Editor's Preface v
Memoir of the Author, by Lyman C. Draper viii
Original Title-page (photographic fac-simile) xiii
Original Copyright Notice xiv
Original Advertisement xv
Original Table of Contents (with pagination revised) xvii
Author's Text (with editorial notes) 1
Index, by the Editor 431
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
It is sixty-four years since the original edition of Withers's
_Chronicles of Border Warfare_ was given to the public. The author was
a faithful recorder of local tradition. Among his neighbors were sons
and grandsons of the earlier border heroes, and not a few actual
participants in the later wars. He had access, however, to few
contemporary documents. He does not appear to have searched for them,
for there existed among the pioneer historians of the West a respect
for tradition as the prime source of information, which does not now
obtain; to-day, we desire first to see the documents of a period, and
care little for reminiscence, save when it fills a gap in or illumines
the formal record. The weakness of the traditional method is well
exemplified in Withers's work. His treatment of many of the larger
events on the border may now be regarded as little else than a thread
on which to hang annotations; but in most of the local happenings
which are here recorded he will always, doubtless, remain a leading
authority--for his informants possessed full knowledge of what
occurred within their own horizon, although having distorted notions
regarding affairs beyond it.
The _Chronicles_ had been about seven years upon the market, when a
New York youth, inspired by the pages of Doddridge, Flint, and
Withers, with a fervid love for border history, entered upon the
task of collecting documents and traditions with which to correct
and amplify the lurid story which these authors had outlined. In the
prosecution of this undertaking, Lyman C. Draper became so absorbed
with the passion of collecting that he found little opportunity for
literary effort, and in time his early facility in this direction
became dulled. He was the most successful of collectors of materials
for Western history, and as such did a work which must earn for
him the lasting gratitude of American historical students; but
unfortunately he did little more than collect and investigate, and
the idea which to the last strongly possessed him, of writing a
series of biographies of trans-Alleghany pioneers, was never
realized. He died August 26, 1891, having accomplished wondrous deeds
for the Wisconsin Historical Society, of which he was practically the
founder, and for thirty-three years the main stay; in the broader
domain of historical scholarship, however, he had failed to reach
his goal. His great collection of manuscripts and notes, he willed
to his Society, which has had them carefully classified and
conveniently bound--a lasting treasure for historians of the West
and Southwest, for the important frontier period between about 1740
and 1816.
Dr. Draper had exhibited much ability as an editor, in the first ten
volumes of the _Wisconsin Historical Collections_. In 1890, the Robert
Clarke Company engaged him, as the best living authority on the
details of Western border history, to prepare and edit a new edition
of Withers. He set about the task with interest, and was engaged in
the active preparation of "copy" during his last months on earth;
indeed, his note upon page 123 of this edition is thought to have been
his final literary work. He had at that time prepared notes for about
one-fourth of the book, and had written his "Memoir of the Author."
The matter here rested until the autumn of 1894, when the publishers
requested the present writer to take up the work where his revered
friend had left it, and see the edition through the press. He has done
this with some reluctance, conscious that he approached the task with
a less intimate knowledge of the subject than his predecessor;
nevertheless he was unwilling that Dr. Draper's notes on the early
pages should be lost, and has deemed it a labor of love to complete
the undertaking upon which the last thoughts of the latter fondly
dwelt.
In the preparation of his own notes, the editor has had the great
advantage of free access to the Draper Manuscripts; without their
help, it would have been impossible to throw further light on many of
the episodes treated by the author. The text of Withers has been
preserved intact, save that where errors have obviously been
typographical, and not intended by the author, the editor has
corrected them--perhaps in a dozen instances only, for the original
proof-reading appears to have been rather carefully done. The
pagination of the original edition has in this been indicated by
brackets, as [54]. In the original, the publisher's "Advertisement"
and the "Table of Contents" were bound in at the end of the work,--see
collation in Field's _Indian Bibliography_,--but evidently this was a
make-shift of rustic binders in a hurry to get out the long-delayed
edition, and the editor has taken the liberty to transfer them to
their proper place; also, while preserving typographical peculiarities
therein, to change the pagination in the "Contents" to accord with the
present edition. In order clearly to indicate the authorship of notes,
those by Withers himself are unsigned; those by Dr. Draper are signed
"L. C. D."; and those by the present writer, "R. G. T."
REUBEN GOLD THWAITES.
Madison, Wis.,
February, 1895.
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
BY LYMAN COPELAND DRAPER.
In 1831, an interesting volume appeared from the press of Joseph
Israel, of Clarksburg, in North Western Virginia, prepared by
Alexander Scott Withers, on the border wars of the West. It was well
received at the time of its publication, when works on that subject
were few, and read with avidity by the surviving remnant of the
participators in the times and events so graphically described, and by
their worthy descendants.
Historians and antiquarians also received it cordially, universally
according it high praise. Mann Butler, the faithful historian of
Kentucky, declared that it was "a work to which the public was deeply
indebted," composed, as it was, with "so much care and interest." The
late Samuel G. Drake, the especial historian of the Red Man,
pronounced it "a work written with candor and judgment." The late
Thomas W. Field, the discriminating writer on _Indian Bibliography_,
says: "Of this scarce book, very few copies are complete or in good
condition. Having been issued in a remote corner of North-Western
Virginia, and designed principally for a local circulation, almost
every copy was read by a country fireside until scarcely legible. Most
of the copies lack the table of contents. The author took much pains
to be authentic, and his chronicles are considered by Western
antiquarians, to form the best collection of frontier life and Indian
warfare, that has been printed."
Of such a work, now difficult to procure at any price, a new edition
is presented to the public. In 1845, the writer of this notice visited
the Virginia Valley, collecting materials on the same general subject,
going over much the same field of investigation, and quite naturally,
at that early period, identifying very large the sources of Mr.
Withers's information, thus making it possible to reproduce his work
with new lights and explanations, such as generally give pleasure and
interest to the intelligent reader of border history.[1]
In 1829, a local antiquary, of Covington, a beautiful little village
nestling in a high mountain valley near the head of James River, in
Alleghany County, Virginia, gathered from the aged pioneers still
lingering on the shores of time, the story of the primitive
settlement and border wars of the Virginia Valley. Hugh Paul
Taylor, for such was his name, was the precursor, in all that
region, of the school of historic gleaners, and published in the
nearest village paper, _The Fincastle Mirror_, some twenty miles away,
a series of articles, over the signature of "Son of Cornstalk,"
extending over a period of some forty stirring years, from about 1740
to the close of the Revolutionary War. These articles formed at least
the chief authority for several of the earlier chapters of Mr.
Withers's work. Mr. Taylor had scarcely molded his materials into
shape, and put them into print, when he was called hence at an early
age, without having an opportunity to revise and publish the
results of his labors under more favorable auspices.
Soon after Mr. Taylor's publication, Judge Edwin S. Duncan, of Peel
Tree, in then Harrison, now Barbour County, West Virginia, a gentleman
of education, and well fitted for such a work, residing in the heart
of a region rife with the story of Indian wars and hair-breadth
escapes, made a collection of materials, probably including Mr.
Taylor's sketches, with a view to a similar work; but his professional
pursuits and judicial services interposed to preclude the faithful
prosecution of the work, so he turned over to Mr. Withers his historic
gatherings, with such suggestions, especially upon the Indian race,
as by his studies and reflections he was enabled to offer.
Other local gleaners in the field of Western history, particularly
Noah Zane, of Wheeling, John Hacker, of the Hacker's Creek settlement,
and others, freely furnished their notes and statements for the work.
Mr. Withers, under these favorable circumstances, became quite well
equipped with materials regarding especially the first settlement and
Indian wars of the region now comprising West Virginia; and, to a
considerable extent, the region of Staunton and farther southwest,
of the French and Indian War period, together with Dunmore's War,
and the several campaigns from the western borders of Virginia and
Pennsylvania into the Ohio region, during the Revolutionary War.
Alexander Scott Withers, for his good services in the field of Western
history, well deserves to have his name and memory perpetuated as a
public benefactor. Descending, on his father's side, from English
ancestry, he was the fourth child of nine, in the family of Enoch K.
and Jennet Chinn Withers, who resided at a fine Virginia homestead,
called Green Meadows, half a dozen miles from Warrenton, Fauquier
county, Virginia, where the subject of this sketch was born on the
12th of October, 1792--on the third centennial anniversary of the
discovery of America by Columbus. His mother was the daughter of
Thomas Chinn and Jennet Scott--the latter a native of Scotland, and a
first cousin of Sir Walter Scott.
Passing his early years in home and private schools, he became from
childhood a lover of books and knowledge. He read Virgil at the early
age of ten; and, in due time, entered Washington College, and thence
entered the law department of the venerable institution of William and
Mary, where Jefferson, Monroe, Wythe, and other Virginia notables,
received their education.
Procuring a license to practice, he was admitted to the bar in
Warrenton, where for two or three years he practiced his profession.
His father dying in 1813, he abandoned his law practice, which he did
not like, because he could not overcome his diffidence in public
speaking; and, for quite a period, he had the management of his
mother's plantation.
In August, 1815, he was united in marriage with Miss Melinda Fisher, a
most estimable lady, a few months his junior; and about 1827, having a
growing family, he looked to the Great West for his future home and
field of labor, and moved to West Virginia, first locating temporarily
in Bridgeport, in Harrison County, and subsequently settling near
Clarksburg in the same county, where he devoted much time in
collecting materials for and writing his _Chronicles of Border
Warfare_.
The publisher, Joseph Israel, who took a deep interest in the work, as
his "Advertisement" of it suggests, must have realized ample
recompense for the work, as he had subscribers for the full edition
issued; yet, from some cause, he failed pecuniarily, and Mr. Withers
got nothing whatever for his diligence and labor in producing it, save
two or three copies of the work itself. He used to say, that had he
published the volume himself, he would have made it much more
complete, and better in every way; for he was hampered, limited, and
hurried--often correcting proof of the early, while writing the later
chapters. Mr. Israel, the publisher, died several years ago.
After this worthy but unremunerative labor, Mr. Withers turned his
attention to Missouri for a suitable home for his old age. He was
disappointed in his visit to that new state, as the richer portions
of the country, where he would have located, were more or less
unhealthy. So he returned to West Virginia, and settled near
Weston, a fine, healthful region of hills and valleys, where he
engaged in agricultural pursuits, in which he always took a deep
interest. He also served several years as a magistrate, the only
public position he ever filled.
The death of his wife in September, 1853, broke sadly into his
domestic enjoyments; his family were now scattered, and his home was
henceforward made with his eldest daughter, Mrs. Jennet S. Tavenner,
and her husband, Thomas Tavenner, who in 1861 removed to a home
adjoining Parkersburg, in West Virginia. Here our author lived a
retired, studious life, until his death, which occurred, after a few
days' illness, January 23, 1865, in the seventy-third year of his
age.
Mr. Withers had no talent for the acquisition of wealth; but he met
with marked success in acquiring knowledge. He was an admirer of
ancient literature, and to his last days read the Greek classics in
the original. A rare scholar, a lover of books, his tastes were
eminently domestic; he was, from his nature, much secluded from the
busy world around him. Nearly six feet high, rather portly and
dignified, as is shown by his portrait, taken when he was about sixty
years of age--he was kind and obliging to all, and emphatically a true
Virginia gentleman of the old school. His sympathies during the War of
Secession, were strongly in favor of the Union cause, the happy
termination of which he did not live to witness. His son, Henry W.
Withers, served with credit during the war in the Union service in the
Twelfth Virginia Regiment.
Mr. Withers was blessed with two sons and three daughters--one of the
sons has passed away; the other, Major Henry W. Withers, resides in
Troy, Gilmer county, West Virginia; Mrs. Tavenner still lives at
Parkersburg; Mrs. Mary T. Owen, at Galveston, Texas, and Mrs.
Elizabeth Ann Thornhill, in New Orleans.
-----
[1] The venerable Mark L. Spotts, an intelligent and
long-time resident of Lewisburg, West Virginia, writes, in
December, 1890: "I had an old and particular friend, Mr. Thomas
Matthews, of this place, who, many years ago, conceived the
idea of preparing and publishing a revised edition of Withers's
_Border Warfare_, and no doubt had collected many facts looking
to such a publication; but the old man's health gave way, he
died, and his widow moved away, and what became of his notes, I
can not say--perhaps destroyed."--L. C. D.
CHRONICLES
OF
BORDER WARFARE,
OR
A HISTORY
OF THE
SETTLEMENT BY THE WHITES,
OF NORTH-WESTERN VIRGINIA:
AND
OF THE INDIAN WARS AND MASSACRES,
IN THAT SECTION OF THE STATE,
WITH
REFLECTIONS, ANECDOTES, &c.
BY ALEXANDER S. WITHERS.
CLARKSBURG, V.A.
PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH ISRAEL,
1831
WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA, _to wit_:
Be it remembered, That on the twenty-sixth day of January, in the
Fifty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America,
JOSEPH ISRAEL, of the said District, hath deposited in this Office,
the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Proprietor, in the
words following, To wit:
"Chronicles of Border Warfare, or a history of the settlement, by the
whites, of North-Western Virginia: and of the Indian wars and
massacres, in that section of the State; with reflections, anecdotes,
&c.--By ALEXANDER S. WITHERS, 1831," in conformity to the act of
Congress of the United States, entitled "An act for the encouragement
of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the
Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein
mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled "An act for the encouragement
of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the
Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein
mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of
Designing, Engraving and Etching historical and other prints."
JASPER YEATES DODDRIDGE,
_Clerk of the Western District of Virginia_.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The "Chronicles of Border Warfare" are now completed and presented to
the public. Circumstances, over which the publisher had no control,
have operated to delay their appearance beyond the anticipated period;
and an apprehension that such might be the case, induced him, when
issuing proposals for their publication, not positively to name a time
at which the work would be completed and ready for delivery.
This delay, although unavoidable, has been the source of regret to the
publisher, and has added considerably to the expenditure otherwise
necessarily made, in attempting to rescue from oblivion the many
interesting incidents, now, for the first time recorded. To preserve
them from falling into the gulph of forgetfulness, was the chief
motive which the publisher had in view; and should the profits of the
work be sufficient to defray the expenses, actually incurred in its
preparation and completion, he will be abundantly satisfied. That he
will be thus far remunerated, is not for an instant doubted,--the
subscription papers having attached to them, as many names as there
are copies published.
In regard to the manner of its execution, it does not perhaps become
him to speak. He was attentive to his duties, and watched narrowly the
press; and if typographical errors are to be found, it must be
attributed to the great difficulty of preventing them, even when the
author is at hand to correct each proof sheet. They are however,
certainly few, and such as would be likely to escape observation.
JOSEPH ISRAEL, _Publisher_.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.--General view of the discovery of North America, by
England, France and Spain. 1 to 11. Aborigines of America--Their
origin. 12-27. Their persons and character--Indian antiquities.
28-43.
CHAPTER 1. Of the country west of Blue ridge, difficulties attending
its first settlement; Indians in neighborhood--their tribes and
numbers. Various parties explore the Valley; their adventures.
Benjamin Burden receives a grant of land; settles 100 families, their
general character, West of Blue ridge divided into two counties; its
present population, &c. Discovery of Greenbrier, explored by Martin
and Seal; by the Lewis's, Greenbrier Company, settlement of Muddy
Creek and Big Levels, of New river and Holstein; of Gallipolis by
French. 44-62.
CHAP. 2nd. North Western Virginia, divisions and population,
Importance of Ohio river to the French, and the English; Ohio Company;
English traders made prisoners by French, attempt to establish fort
frustrated, French erect Fort du Quesne; War; Braddock's defeat;
Andrew Lewis, character and services; Grant's defeat, capture of Fort
du Quesne and erection of Fort Pitt: Tygart and Files settle on East
Fork of Monongahela, File's family killed by Indians, Dunkards visit
the country, settle on Cheat, their fate; settlement under Decker on
the Monongahela, destroyed by Indians, pursuit by Gibson, origin of
Long knives. 63-80.
CHAP. 3rd. Expedition to the mouth of Big Sandy, ordered back by
governor, their extreme sufferings: Dreadful catastrophe at Levit's
Fort, Shawnees visit James river settlements, their depredations and
defeat, fortunate escape of Hannah Dennis, destruction at Muddy creek
and Big Levels, Mrs. Clendennin, Indians visit Jackson and Catawba
rivers, discovered, pursued, overtaken and dispersed, Mrs. Gunn.
81-99.
CHAP. 4th. Indians commit depredations in Pennsylvania, burn three
prisoners, excesses of Paxton Boys, Black Boys of great service to
frontier, engagement at Turtle creek, Traders attempt to supply
Indians, affair at Sidelong hill, Fort Bedford taken by Blackboys,
Capt. James Smith, his character and services. 100-116.
CHAP. 5th. Deserters from Fort Pitt visit head of Monongahela, The
Pringles, Settlements of Buckhannon, of Hacker's creek, Monongahela
and other places, Of Wheeling by Zane's, Their Character, Character of
Wm. Lowther, Objects and character of the first settlers generally.
117-133.
CHAP. 6th. War of 1774, Inquiry into its cause, Boone and others visit
Kentucky, Emigrants attacked by Indians, Surveyors begin operations
there, Affair at Captina, and opposite Yellow creek, Excesses of
Indians, Preparations for [ii] war, Expedition against Wappatomica,
Incursion of Logan and others, Of Indians on West Fork. 134-158.
CHAP. 7th. Indians come on Big Kenhawa, Lewis and Jacob Whitsel taken
prisoners, Their adventurous conduct, Plan of Dunmore's campaign,
Battle at Point Pleasant, Dunmore enters Indian country and makes
peace, Reflections on the motives of Dunmore's conduct. 159-186.
CHAP. 8th. General view of the relative situation of Great Britain and
the colonies, British emissaries and American Tories stimulate the
Savages to war, Progress of settlements in Kentucky, Character of
Harrod, Boone and Logan, Attack on Harrod's fort, on Boone's and on
Logan's, Bowman arrives to its relief, Cornstock visits Point
Pleasant, Projected campaign against the Indians abortive, Cornstock's
son visits him, Gilmore killed, Murder of Cornstock, Of Ellinipsico
and others, Character of Cornstock. 187-214.
CHAP. 9. General alarm on the frontier, Savages commit depredations,
Intelligence of contemplated invasion, Condition of Wheeling, Indians
seen near it, Two parties under captain Mason and captain Ogal decoyed
within the Indian lines and cut to pieces, Girty demands the surrender
of Wheeling, Col. Zane's reply, Indians attacks the fort and retire,
Arrival of col. Swearingen with a reinforcement, of captain Foreman,
Ambuscade at Grave creek narrows, conspiracy of Tories discovered and
defeated, Petro and White taken prisoners, Irruption into Tygarts
Valley, Murder at Conoly's and at Stewarts. 215-235.
CHAP. 10. Measures of defence, Fort M'Intosh erected, exposed
situation, commencement of hostilities, Attack on Harbert's
blockhouse, Murder at Morgan's on Cheat, Of Lowther and Hughes,
Indians appear before Fort at the point, Decoy Lieut. Moore into an
ambuscade, a larger army visits Fort, stratagem to draw out the
garrison, Prudence and precaution of capt. M'Kee. Fort closely
besieged, Siege raised, Heroic adventure of Prior and Hammond to save
Greenbrier, Attack on Donnelly's Fort, Dick Pointer, Affair at West's
Fort, Successful artifice of Hustead, Affair at Cobern's fort, at
Strader's, Murder of Stephen Washburn, captivity, &c. of James,
Projected invasion of Indian country, Col. Clarke takes Kaskaskias and
other towns, Fort Lawrens erected by Gen. M'Intosh and garrisoned.
236-256.
CHAP. 11. Gov. Hamilton marches to St. Vincent--critical situation of
col. Clarke, his daring expedition against Hamilton, condition of Fort
Lawren's, Successful stratagem of Indians there, Gen. M'Intosh arrives
with an army, Fort evacuated, Transactions in Kentucky, captivity of
Boone, his escape and expedition against Paint creek town, Indian
[iii] army under Du Quesne appear before Boone's fort, politic conduct
of Boone, Fort assaulted, Assailants repulsed, Expedition against
Chilicothe towns under Bowman, Its failure, Kentucky increases rapidly
in population. 257-274.
CHAP. 12. Hacker's creek settlement breaks up, Alarm of Indians near
Pricket's fort, Stephen and Sarah Morgan sent to farm, Dream and
anxiety of their father, His fearful encounter with two Indians, Kills
both, Heroism of Mrs. Bozarth, Murders on Snow creek, captivity of
Leonard Schoolcraft, Indians surprize Martin's fort, destruction
there, Irruptions into Tygart's valley, Indians attack the house of
Samuel Cottrail, Murder of John Schoolcraft's family, Projected
campaign of British and Indians, Indians again in Tygart's Valley,
mischief there, West's fort invested, Hazardous adventure of Jesse
Hughs to obtain assistance, Skirmish between whites and savages,
coolness and intrepidity of Jerry Curl, Austin Schoolcraft killed and
his niece taken prisoner, Murder of Owens and Judkins, of Sims, Small
Pox terrifies Indians, Transactions in Greenbrier, Murder of Baker and
others, last outrage in that country. 275-293
CHAP. 13. Operations of combined army of British and Indians,
Surrender of Ruddle's Station, Outrages of savages there, Col. Byrd
enabled to restrain them, Martin's station surrenders, Byrd returns to
the Indian towns, Escape of Hinkstone, Invasion of North Western
Virginia, Plan of campaign, Indians discovered near Wheeling, Take
prisoners, Alarmed for their own safety, kill their prisoners and
retire, Expedition under Col. Broadhead, against the Munsies, against
Coshocton, excesses of the whites there, Expedition under Gen. Clarke
against Chilicothe and Piqua, Battle at Piqua, Indian depredations in
Virginia, murder of capt. Thomas and family, of Schoolcraft, Manear,
and others, Destruction of Leading creek settlement, aggressors
overtaken by a party under Col. Lowther, Affair of Indian creek,
murder of Mrs. Furrenash, Williamson's first expedition against
Moravian Indians, Prisoners taken sent to Fort Pitt, Set at liberty,
Their settlements broken up by Wyandotts. 294-317.
CHAP. 14. The murder of Monteur and his family, others taken
prisoners, Second expedition of Williamson against Moravians, its
success and the savage conduct of the whites, Expedition under
Crawford, his defeat--Is taken prisoner and burned; captivity and
escape of Doctor Knight, of Slover; Death of Mills--Signal achievement
of Lewis Whitsel. 318-339.
CHAP. 15. Murder of White, Dorman and wife taken prisoners;
Inhabitants on Buckhannon evacuate the fort, attacked by Indians on
their way to the Valley; Whites visiting [iv] Buckhannon settlement
discovered and watched by Indians--conduct of George Jackson to obtain
aid, Stalnaker killed, Indians cross Alleghany--miss Gregg killed by
Dorman, murder of mrs. Pindall, of Charles Washburn, of Arnold and
Richards--Daring conduct of Elias Hughes--murder of Corbly's
family--Grand council of Indians at Chillicothe, Its determinations;
Indian army enters Kentucky; Affair at Bryants station; Battle of Blue
Licks--Expedition under Gen. Clarke, Attack on Wheeling, Attempt to
demolish the fort with a wooden cannon, Signal exploit of Elizabeth
Zane, Noble conduct of Francis Duke, Indians withdraw, Attack on Rives
[Rice's] Fort, Encounter of Poe with two Indians. 340-364.
CHAP. 16. Peace with G. Britain, War continued by Indians--Operations
in N. W. Virginia--murder of Daniel Radcliff, Attack on Cunninghams upon
Bingamon, murders there; murders in Tazewell, of Davison, of Moore,
mrs. Moore and seven children taken prisoners, their fate--murder of
Ice, &c. Levi Morgan encounters two Indians, Indians steal horses on
West Fork, pursued and punished by col. Lowther--murder of the Wests
on Hacker's creek, Remarkable recovery of J. Hacker's daughter--murder
of the Johnsons on Ten-mile creek, At Macks, Artifice of John Sims.
365-383.
CHAP. 17. Rapid increase of population of Kentucky, operations
there--Preparations of the general Government to carry on the war in
the Indian country, Settlement of Marietta, Of Cincinatti, Fort
Washington erected, Settlement of Duck creek, Big Bottom and Wolf
creeks--Harmar's campaign, murder of whites on Big Bottom, murder
of John Bush--Affair at Hansucker's on Dunkard--murder of Carpenter
and others and escape of Jesse Hughes--campaign under Gen. St.
Clair--Attack at Merrill's, Heroic conduct of mrs. Merrill, Signal
success of expedition under Gen. Scott. 384-407.
CHAP. 18. Indians visit Hacker's creek--murder of the Waggoners and
captivity of others--murder of Neal and Triplet, major Truman and col.
Hardin killed, Greater preparations made by General Government, John
and Henry Johnson, Attack on the hunting camp of Isaac Zane, Noble
conduct of Zane--Treatment of Indian prisoners, Fort Recovery erected,
Escape of Joseph Cox--murder of miss Runyan and attack on Carder's,
Indians kill and make prisoners the Cozads, Affair at Joseph Kanaan's,
Progress of army under Gen. Wayne, Indians attack and defeat
detachment under M'Mahon, battle of Au Glaize and victory of General
Wayne, Affair at Bozarth's on Buckhannon--Treaty of Greenville.
408-430.
[3] INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I.
It is highly probable that the continent of America was known to the
Ancient Carthaginians, and that it was the great island Atalantis, of
which mention is made by Plato, who represents it as larger than Asia
and Africa. The Carthaginians were a maritime people, and it is known
that they extended their discoveries beyond the narrow sphere which
had hitherto limited the enterprise of the mariner. And although Plato
represents Atalantis as having been swallowed by an earthquake, and
all knowledge of the new continent, if any such ever existed, was
entirely lost, still it is by no means improbable, that it had been
visited by some of the inhabitants of the old world, prior to its
discovery by Columbus in 1492. The manner of this discovery is well
known, as is also the fact that Americo Vespucci, a Florentine, under
the authority of Emmanuel king of Portugal, in sailing as far as
Brazil discovered the main land and gave name to America.
These discoveries gave additional excitement to the adventurous spirit
which distinguished those times, and the flattering reports made of
the country which they had visited, inspired the different nations of
Europe, with the desire of reaping the rich harvest, which the
enlightened and enterprising mind of Columbus, had unfolded to their
view. Accordingly, as early as March 1496, (less than two years after
the discovery by Columbus) a commission was granted by Henry VII king
of England, to John Cabot and his three sons, empowering them to sail
under the English banner in quest of new discoveries, and in the event
of their success to take possession, in the name of the king of
England, of the countries thus discovered and not inhabited by
_Christian people_.
The expedition contemplated in this commission was never carried into
effect. But in May 1498 Cabot with his son Sebastian, embarked on a
voyage to attain the desired object, and succeeded in his design so
far as to effect a discovery of [4] North America, and although he
sailed along the coast from Labrador to Virginia, yet it does not now
appear that he made any attempt either at settlement or conquest.
This is said to have been the first discovery ever made of that
portion of our continent which extends from the Gulph of Mexico to the
North pole; and to this discovery the English trace their title to
that part of it, subsequently reduced into possession by them.[1]
As many of the evils endured by the inhabitants of the western part of
Virginia, resulted from a contest between England and France, as to
the validity of their respective claims to portions of the newly
discovered country, it may not be amiss to take a general view of the
discoveries and settlements effected by each of those powers.
After the expedition of Cabot, no attempt on the part of England, to
acquire territory in America, seems to have been made until the year
1558. In this year letters patent were issued by Queen Elizabeth,
empowering Sir Humphrey Gilbert to "discover and take possession of
such remote, heathen, and barbarous lands, as were not actually
possessed by any _christian prince or people_." Two expeditions,
conducted by this gentleman terminated unfavorably. Nothing was done
by him towards the accomplishment of the objects in view, more than
the taking possession of the island of New Foundland in the name of
the English Queen.
In 1584 a similar patent was granted to Sir Walter Raleigh, under
whose auspices was discovered the country south of Virginia. In April
of that year he dispatched two vessels under the command of Amidas and
Barlow, for the purpose of visiting, and obtaining such a knowledge of
the country which he proposed to colonize, as would facilitate the
attainment of his object. In their voyage they approached the North
American continent towards the Gulph of Florida, and sailing
northwardly touched at an island situate on the inlet into Pamlico
sound, in the state of North Carolina. To this island they gave the
name of Wocoken, and proceeding from thence reached Roanoke near the
mouth of Albemarle sound. After having remained here some weeks, and
obtained from the natives the best information which they could impart
concerning the country, Amidas and Barlow returned to England.
In the succeeding year Sir Walter had fitted out a squadron of seven
ships, the command of which he gave to Sir Richard [5] Grenville. On
board of this squadron were passengers, arms, ammunition and
provisions for a settlement. He touched at the islands of Wocoken and
Roanoke, which had been visited by Amidas and Barlow, and leaving a
colony of one hundred and eight persons in the island of Roanoke, he
returned to England. These colonists, after having remained about
twelve months and explored the adjacent country, became so discouraged
and exhausted by fatigue and famine, that they abandoned the country.
Sir Richard Grenville returning shortly afterwards to America, and not
being able to find them, and at a loss to conjecture their fate, left
in the island another small party of settlers and again set sail for
England.
The flattering description which was given of the country, by those
who had visited it, so pleased Queen Elizabeth, that she gave to it
the name of Virginia, as a memorial that it had been discovered in the
reign of a Virgin Queen.
Other inefficient attempts were afterwards made to colonize North
America during the reign of Elizabeth, but it was not 'till the year
1607, that a colony was permanently planted there. In December of the
preceding year a small vessel and two barks, under the command of
captain Newport, and having on board one hundred and five men,
destined to remain, left England. In April they were driven by a storm
into Chesapeak bay, and after a fruitless attempt to land at Cape
Henry, sailed up the Powhatan (since called James) River, and on the
13th of May 1607, debarked on the north side of the river at a place
to which they gave the name of Jamestown. From this period the country
continued in the occupancy of the whites, and remained subject to the
crown of Great Britain until the war of the revolution.
A new charter which was issued in 1609 grants to "the treasurer and
company of the adventurers, of the city of London for the first colony
of Virginia, in absolute property the lands extending from Point
Comfort along the sea coast two hundred miles to the northward, and
from the same point, along the sea coast two hundred miles to the
southward, and up into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and
north-west; and also all islands lying within one hundred miles of the
coast of both seas of the precinct aforesaid." Conflicting charters,
granted to other corporations, afterwards narrowed her limits; that
she has been since reduced to her present comparatively small extent
of territory, is attributable exclusively [6] to the almost suicidal
liberality of Virginia herself.
On the part of France, voyages for the discovery and colonization of
North America were nearly contemporaneous with those made by England
for like objects. As early as the year 1540, a commission was issued
by Francis 1st for the establishment of Canada.[2] In 1608, a French
fleet, under the command of Admiral Champlaine, arrived in the St.
Lawrence and founded the city of Quebec. So successful were her
attempts to colonize that province, that, notwithstanding its
proximity to the English colonies, and the fact that a Spanish sailor
had previously entered the St. Lawrence and established a port at the
mouth of Grand river--neither of those powers seriously contested the
right of France to its possession.--Yet it was frequently the theatre
of war; and as early as 1629 was subdued by England. By the treaty of
St. Germains in 1632 it was restored to France, as was also the then
province of Acadie, now known as Nova Scotia. There is no doubt but
that this latter province was, by priority of settlement, the property
of France, but its principal town having been repeatedly reduced to
possession by the English, it was ceded to them by the treaty of
Utrecht in 1713.
To the country bordering the Mississippi river, and its tributary
streams, a claim was made by England, France and Spain. The claim of
England (based on the discovery by the Cabots of the eastern shore of
the United States,) included all the country between the parallels of
latitude within which the Atlantic shore was explored, extending
westwardly to the Pacific ocean--a zone athwart the continent between
the thirtieth and forty-eighth degrees of North latitude.
From the facility with which the French gained the good will and
friendly alliance of the Natives in Canada, by intermarrying with, and
assimilating themselves to the habits and inclinations of, these
children of the forest, an intimacy arose which induced the Indians to
impart freely to the French their knowledge of the interior country.
Among other things information was communicated to them, of the fact
that farther on there was a river of great size and immense length,
which pursued a course opposite to that of the St. Lawrence, and
emptied itself into an unknown sea. It was conjectured that it must
necessarily flow either into the Gulph of Mexico, or the South Sea;
and in 1673 Marquette and Joliet, French missionaries, together with
five other men, commenced a journey [7] from Quebec to ascertain the
fact and examine the country bordering its shores.
From lake Michigan they proceeded up the Fox river nearly to its
source; thence to Ouisconsin; down it to the Mississippi, in which
river they sailed as far as to about the thirty-third degree of north
latitude. From this point they returned through the Illinois country
to Canada.
At the period of this discovery M. de La Salle, a Frenchman of
enterprise, courage and talents but without fortune, was commandant of
fort Frontignac. Pleased with the description given by Marquette and
Joliet, of the country which they had visited, he formed the
determination of examining it himself, and for this purpose left
Canada in the close of the summer of 1679, in company with father
Louis Hennepin and some others.[3] On the Illinois he erected fort
Crevecoeur, where he remained during the winter, and instructing
father Hennepin, in his absence to ascend the Mississippi to its
sources, returned to Canada. M. de La Salle subsequently visited this
country, and establishing the villages of Cahokia and Kaskaskia, left
them under the command of M. de Tonti, and going back to Canada,
proceeded from thence to France to procure the co-operation of the
Ministry in effecting a settlement of the valley of the Mississippi.
He succeeded in impressing on the minds of the French Ministry, the
great benefits which would result from its colonization, and was the
first to suggest the propriety of connecting the settlements on the
Mississippi with those in Canada by a cordon of forts; a measure which
was subsequently attempted to be carried into effect.
With the aid afforded him by the government of France, he was enabled
to prepare an expedition to accomplish his object, and sailing in 1684
for the mouth of the Mississippi, steered too far westward and landed
in the province of Texas, and on the banks of the river Guadaloupe.
Every exertion which a brave and prudent man could make to effect the
security of his little colony, and conduct them to the settlement in
Illinois, was fruitlessly made by him. In reward for all his toil and
care he was basely assassinated; the remnant of the party whom he was
conducting through the wilderness, finally reached the Arkansas, where
was a settlement of French emigrants from Canada. The colonists left
by him at the bay of St. Bernard were mostly murdered by the natives,
the remainder were carried away by the Spaniards in 1689.
[8] Other attempts made by the French to colonize the Mississippi near
the Gulph of Mexico, were for some time unavailing. In an expedition
for that purpose, conducted by M. Ibberville, a suit of armor on which
was inscribed Ferdinand de Soto, was found in the possession of some
Indians. In the year 1717 the spot, on which New Orleans now stands,
was selected as the centre of the settlements, then first made in
Louisiana, and the country continued in the possession of France until
1763. By the treaty of Paris in that year, she ceded to Great Britain,
together with Canada her possessions east of the Mississippi,
excepting only the island of New Orleans--this and her territory on
the west bank of that river were transferred to Spain.
The title of Spain to the valley of the Mississippi, if made to depend
on priority of discovery, would perhaps, to say the least, be as good
as that of either of the other powers. Ferdinand de Soto, governor of
Cuba, was most probably the first white man who saw that majestic
stream.
The Spaniards had early visited and given name to Florida. In 1528
Pamphilo de Narvaez obtained a grant of it, and fitting out an
armament, proceeded with four or five hundred men to explore and
settle the country. He marched to the Indian village of Appalachas,
when he was attacked and defeated by the natives. The most of
those who escaped death from the hands of the savages, perished in a
storm, by which they were overtaken on their voyage home. Narvaez
himself perished in the wreck, and was succeeded in his attempt at
colonization by de Soto.
Ferdinand de Soto, then governor of Cuba, was a man of chivalrous and
enterprising spirit, and of cool, deliberate courage. In his
expedition to Florida, although attacked by the Indians, immediately
on his landing, yet, rather seeking than shunning danger, he
penetrated the interior, and crossing the Mississippi, sickened and
died on Red river. So frequent and signal had been the victories which
he had obtained over the Indians, that his name alone had become an
object of terror to them; and his followers, at once to preserve his
remains from violation, and prevent the natives from acquiring a
knowledge of his death, enclosed his body in a hollow tree, sunk it in
the Red river and returned to Florida.
Thus, it is said, were different parts of this continent discovered;
and by virtue of the settlements thus effected, by [9] those three
great powers of Europe, the greater portion of it was claimed as
belonging to them respectively, in utter disregard of the rights of
the Aborigines. And while the historian records the colonization of
America as an event tending to meliorate the condition of Europe, and
as having extended the blessings of civil and religious liberty,
humanity must drop the tear of regret, that it has likewise forced the
natives of the new, and the inhabitants of a portion of the old world,
to drink so deeply from the cup of bitterness.
The cruelties which have been exercised on the Aborigines of
America, the wrong and outrage heaped on them from the days of
Montezuma and Guatimozin, to the present period, while they excite
sympathy for their sufferings, should extenuate, if not justify the
bloody deeds, which revenge prompted the untutored savages to
commit. Driven as they were from the lands of which they were the
rightful proprietors--Yielding to encroachment after encroachment
'till forced to apprehend their utter annihilation--Witnessing the
destruction of their villages, the prostration of their towns and the
sacking of cities adorned with splendid magnificence, who can feel
surprised at any attempt which they might make to rid the country
of its invaders. Who, but must applaud the spirit which prompted
them, when they beheld their prince a captive, the blood of their
nobles staining the earth with its crimson dye, and the Gods of
their adoration scoffed and derided, to aim at the destruction of
their oppressors.--When Mexico, "with her tiara of proud towers,"
became the theatre in which foreigners were to revel in rapine and in
murder, who can be astonished that the valley of Otumba resounded
with the cry of "Victory or Death?" And yet, resistance on their part,
served but as a pretext for a war of extermination; waged too, with a
ferocity, from the recollection of which the human mind involuntarily
revolts, and with a success which has forever blotted from the book
of national existence, once powerful and happy tribes.
But they did not suffer alone. As if to fill the cup of oppression to
the brim, another portion of the human family were reduced to abject
bondage, and made the unwilling cultivators of those lands, of which
the Indians had been dispossessed. Soon after the settlement of North
America was commenced, the negroes of Africa became an article of
commerce, and from subsequent importations and natural [10] increase
have become so numerous as to excite the liveliest apprehensions in
the bosom of every friend to this country. Heretofore they have had
considerable influence on the affairs of our government; and recently
the diversity of interest, occasioned in Virginia, by the possession
of large numbers of them in the country east of the blue ridge of
mountains, seemed for a while to threaten the integrity of the
state.--Happily this is now passing away, but how far they may effect
the future destines of America, the most prophetic ken cannot foresee.
Yet, although the philanthropist must weep over their unfortunate
situation, and the patriot shudder in anticipation of a calamity which
it may defy human wisdom to avert; still it would be unfair to charge
the existence of slavery among us to the policy of the United States,
or to brand their present owners as the instruments of an evil which
they cannot remove. And while others boast that they are free from
this dark spot, let them remember, that but for them our national
escutcheon might have been as pure and unsullied as their own.[4]
We are indebted to the Dutch for their introduction into Virginia, and
to the ships of other than slave holding communities, for their
subsequent unhallowed transportation to our shores. Yet those who were
mainly instrumental in forging the chains of bondage, have since
rendered the condition of the negro slave more intolerable by
fomenting discontent among them, and by "scattering fire brands and
torches," which are often not to be extinguished but in blood.
Notwithstanding those two great evils which have resulted from the
discovery and colonization of America, yet to these the world is
indebted for the enjoyment of many and great blessings. They enlarged
the theatre of agricultural enterprise, and thus added to the
facilities of procuring the necessaries of life. They encouraged the
industry of Europeans, by a dependence on them for almost every
species of manufacture, and thus added considerably to their
population, wealth and happiness; while the extensive tracts of
fertile land, covering the face of this country and inviting to its
bosom the enterprising [11] foreigner, has removed a far off any
apprehension of the ill effects arising from a too dense population.
In a moral and political point of view much good has likewise resulted
from the settlement of America. Religion, freed from the fetters which
enthralled her in Europe, has shed her benign influence on every
portion of our country. Divorced from an adulterous alliance with
state, she has here stalked forth in the simplicity of her founder;
and with "healing on her wings, spread the glad tidings of salvation
to all men." It is true that religious intolerance and blind bigotry,
for some time clouded our horizon, but they were soon dissipated; and
when the sun arose which ushered in the dawn of our national existence
scarce a speck could be seen to dim its lustre. Here too was reared
the standard of civil liberty, and an example set, which may teach to
the nations of the old world, that as people are really the source of
power, government should be confided to them. Already have the
beneficial effects of this example been manifested, and the present
condition of Europe clearly shows, that the lamp of liberty, which was
lighted here, has burned with a brilliancy so steady as to have
reflected its light across the Atlantic. Whether it will be there
permitted to shine, is somewhat problematical. But should a "holy
alliance of legitimates" extinguish it, it will be but for a season.
Kings, Emperors and Priests cannot succeed much longer in staying the
march of freedom. The people are sensibly alive to the oppression of
their rulers--they have groaned beneath the burden 'till it has become
too intolerable to be borne; and they are now speaking in a voice
which will make tyrants tremble on their throne.
-----
[1] The author errs somewhat in his review of the voyages of
the Cabots. In 1497, John set out to reach Asia by way of the
north-west, and sighted Cape Breton, for which the generous
king gave him L10 and blessed him with "great honours." In
1498, Sebastian's voyage was intended to supplement his
father's; his exploration of the coast extended down to the
vicinity of Chesapeake Bay.--R. G. T.
[2] This refers to the explorations of Jacques Cartier. But
as early as 1534 Cartier sailed up the estuary of the St.
Lawrence "until land could be seen on either side;" the
following year he ascended the river as far as the La Chine
rapids, and wintered upon the island mountain there which he
named Mont Real. It was in 1541 that he made his third voyage,
and built a fort at Quebec. The author's reference, a few lines
below, to a "Spanish sailor" in the St. Lawrence, is the result
of confusion over Cartier's first voyages; Cortereal was at
Newfoundland for the Portuguese in 1500; and Gomez for Spain in
1525.--R. G. T.
[3] The author wrote at too early a date to have the benefit
of Parkman's researches. La Salle had probably discovered the
Ohio River four years before the voyage of Joliet and
Marquette.--R. G. T.
[4] It is said, that Georgia, at an early period of her
colonial existence, endeavored by legislative enactment to
prevent the importation of slaves into her territory, but that
the King of England invariably negatived those laws, and
ultimately Oglethorpe was dismissed from office, for
persevering in the endeavor to accomplish so desirable an
object. It is an historical fact that slaves were not permitted
to be taken into Georgia, for some time after a colony was
established there.
[3] INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER II.
When America was first visited by Europeans, it was found that its
inhabitants were altogether ignorant of the country from which their
ancestors had migrated, and of the period at which they had been
transplanted to the new world. And although there were among them
traditions seeming to cast a light upon these subjects, yet when
thoroughly investigated, they tended rather to bewilder than lead to
any certain conclusion. The origin of the natives has ever since been
a matter of curious speculation with the learned; conjecture has
succeeded conjecture, hypothesis has yielded to hypothesis, as wave
recedes before wave, still it remains involved in a labyrinth of
inexplicable difficulties, from which the most ingenious mind will
perhaps never be able to free it.
In this respect the situation of the aborigines of America does not
differ from that of the inhabitants of other portions of the globe. An
impenetrable cloud hangs over the early history of other nations, and
defies the researches of the learned in any attempt to trace them to
their origin. The attempt has nevertheless been repeatedly made; and
philosophers, arguing from a real or supposed conformity of one people
to another, have vainly imagined that they had attained to certainty
on these subjects. And while one has in this manner, undertaken to
prove China to have been an Egyptian colony, another, pursuing the
same course of reasoning, has, by way of ridicule, shewn how easily a
learned man of Tobolski or Pekin might as satisfactorily prove France
to have been a Trojan, a Greek or even an Arabian colony; thus making
manifest the utter futility of endeavoring to arrive at certainty in
this way.[1]
[13] Nor is this to be at all wondered at, when we reflect on the
barbarous state of those nations in their infancy, the imperfection
of traditionary accounts of what had transpired centuries before, and
in many instances the entire absence of a written language, by
which, either to perpetuate events, or enable the philosopher by
analogy of language to ascertain their affinity with other nations.
Conjectural then as must be every disquisition as to the manner in
which this continent was first peopled, still however, as many men
eminent for learning and piety have devoted much labor and time to the
investigation of the subject, it may afford satisfaction to the
curious to see some of those speculations recorded. Discordant as
they are in many respects, there is nevertheless one fact as to
the truth of which they are nearly all agreed; Mr. Jefferson is
perhaps the only one, of those who have written on the subject, who
seems to discredit the assertion that America was peopled by
emigrants from the old world. How well the conjecture, that the
eastern inhabitants of Asia were descendants of the Indians of
America can be supported by any knowledge which is possessed of
the different languages spoken by the Aborigines, will be for
others to determine. "Neque confirmare argumentis, neque refellere,
in animo est; ex ingenio suo, quisque demat vel addat fidem."
Among those who have given to the world their opinions on the origin
of the natives of America, is Father Jos. Acosta, a Jesuit who was for
some time engaged as a missionary among them. From the fact that no
ancient author has made mention of the [14] compass, he discredits the
supposition that the first inhabitants of this country found their way
here by sea. His conclusion is that they must have found a passage by
the North of Asia and Europe which he supposes to join each other; or
by those regions which lie southward of the straits of Magellan.
Gregorio Garcia, who was likewise a missionary among the Mexicans and
Peruvians, from the traditions of those nations, and from the variety
of characters, customs, languages and religion, observable in the new
world, has formed the opinion that it was peopled by several different
nations.
John de Laet, a Flemish writer, maintains that America received its
first inhabitants from Scythia or Tartary, and soon after the
dispersion of Noah's grand-sons. The resemblance of the northern
Indians, in feature, complexion and manner of living, to the
Scythians, Tartars, and Samojedes, being greater than to any other
nations.
Emanuel de Moraez, in his history of Brazil, says that this
continent was wholly peopled by the Carthaginians and Israelites. In
confirmation of this opinion, he mentions the discoveries which the
Carthaginians are known to have made beyond the coast of Africa. The
progress of these discoveries being stopped by the Senate of Carthage,
those who happened to be in the newly discovered countries, cut off
from all communication with their countrymen, and being destitute of
many of the necessaries of life, easily fell into a state of
barbarism.
George de Huron, a Dutch writer on this subject, considering the short
space of time which elapsed between the creation of the world and the
deluge, maintains that America could not have been peopled before the
flood. He likewise supposes that its first inhabitants were located in
the north; and that the primitive colonies extended themselves over
the whole extent of the continent, by means of the Isthmus of Panama.
It is his opinion that the first founders of these Indian colonies
were Scythians; that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians subsequently
got to America across the Atlantic, and the Chinese across the Pacific
ocean, and that other nations might have landed there by one of these
means, or been thrown on the coast by tempest: since through the whole
extent of the continent, both in its northern and southern parts there
are evident marks of a mixture of the northern nations with those who
have come from other places.
[15] He also supposes that another migration of the Phoenicians took
place during a three years voyage made by the Tyrian fleet in the
service of king Solomon. He asserts, on the authority of Josephus,
that the port at which this embarkation was made, lay in the
Mediterranean. The fleet, he adds, went in quest of Elephants' teeth
and Peacocks, to the western coast of Africa, which is Tarshish, then
for gold to Ophir, which is Haite or the Island of Hispaniola. In the
latter opinion he is supported by Columbus, who, when he discovered
that Island, thought he could trace the furnaces in which the gold had
been refined.
Monsieur Charlevoix, who travelled through North America, is of
opinion that it received its first inhabitants from Tartary and
Hyrcania. In support of this impression he says that some of the
animals which are to be found here, must have come from those
countries: a fact which would go to prove that the two hemispheres
join to the northward of Asia. And in order to strengthen this
conjecture, he relates the following story, which he says was told to
him by Father Grollon, a French Jesuit, as matter of fact.
Father Grollon said, that after having labored some time in the
missions of New France, he passed over to China. One day as he was
travelling in Tartary he met a Huron woman whom he had known in
Canada. He asked her by what adventure she had been carried into a
country so very remote from her own; she replied that having been
taken in war, she was conducted from nation to nation, until she
reached the place where she then was.
Monsieur Charlevoix narrates another circumstance of a similar kind.
He says that he had been assured, another Jesuit had met with a
Floridian woman in China. She also had been made captive by certain
Indians, who gave her to those of a more distant country, and by these
again she was given to those of another nation, 'till having been
successively passed from country to country, and after having
travelled through regions extremely cold, she at length found herself
in Tartary. Here she had married a Tartar, who had attended the
conquerors in China, and with whom she then was.
Arguing from these facts and from the similarity of several kinds of
wild beasts which are found in America, with those of Hyrcania and
Tartary, he arrives at what he deems, a [16] rational conclusion, that
more than one nation in America had Scythian or Tartarian extraction.
Charlevoix possessed a good opportunity of becoming acquainted with
the character and habits of the American Indians. His theory however
has been controverted by some, possessing equal advantages of
observation. Mr. Adair, an intelligent gentleman who resided among the
nations during the space of forty years, and who became well
acquainted with their manners, customs, religion, traditions and
language, has given to them a very different origin. But perfect
soever as may have been his knowledge of their manners, customs,
religion and traditions, yet it must be admitted that any inquiry into
these, with a view to discover their origin, would most probably prove
fallacious. A knowledge of the primitive language, alone can cast much
light on the subject. Whether this knowledge can ever be attained, is,
to say the least, very questionable--Being an unwritten language, and
subject to change for so many centuries, it can scarcely be supposed
now to bear much, if any affinity, to what it was in its purity.
Mr. Adair says, that from the most exact observation he could make
during the long time which he traded among the Indians, he was forced
to believe them lineally descended from the Israelites, either when
they were a maritime power, or soon after the general captivity; most
probably the latter.
He thinks that had the nine tribes and a half, which were carried off
by Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, and which settled in Media, remained
there long, they would, by intermarrying with the nations of that
country, from a natural fickleness and proneness to idolatry, and from
the force of example, have adopted and bowed before the Gods of the
Medes and Assyrians; and have carried them along with them. But he
affirms that there is not the least trace of this idolatry to be
discovered among the Indians: and hence he argues that those of the
ten tribes who were the forefathers of the natives, soon advanced
eastward from Assyria and reached their settlements in the new
continent, before the destruction of the first Temple.
In support of the position that the American Indians are thus
descended, Mr. Adair adduces among others the following arguments:
_1st, Their division into tribes._
"As each nation has its particular symbol, so each tribe has [17] the
badge from which it is denominated. The Sachem is a necessary party
in conveyances and treaties, to which he affixes the mark of his
tribe. If we go from nation to nation among them, we shall not find
one, who does not distinguish himself by his respective family. The
genealogical names which they assume, are derived either from the
names of those animals whereof the cherubim is said in revelation
to be compounded; or from such creatures as are most similar to them.
The Indians bear no religious respect to the animals from which they
derive their names; on the contrary they kill them whenever an
opportunity serves.
"When we consider that these savages have been upwards of twenty
centuries without the aid of letters to carry down their traditions,
it can not be reasonably expected, that they should still retain the
identical names of their primogenial tribes: their main customs
corresponding with those of the Israelites, sufficiently clear the
subject. Moreover they call some of their tribes by the names of the
cherubinical figures, which were carried on the four principal
standards of Israel."
_2nd, Their worship of Jehovah._
"By a strict, permanent, divine precept, the Hebrew nation was ordered
to worship at Jerusalem, Jehovah the true and living God, who by the
Indians is styled '_Yohewah_.' The seventy-two interpreters have
translated this word so as to signify, _Sir_, _Lord_, _Master_,
applying to mere earthly potentates, without the least signification
or relation to that great and awful name, which describes the divine
presence."
_3rd, Their notions of a theocracy._
"Agreeably to the theocracy or divine government of Israel, the
Indians think the deity to be the immediate head of the state. All the
nations of Indians have a great deal of religious pride, and an
inexpressible contempt for the white people. In their war orations
they used to call us _the accursed people_, but flatter themselves
with the name of the _beloved people_, because their supposed
ancestors were, as they affirm, under the immediate government of the
Deity, who was present with them in a peculiar manner, and directed
them by Prophets, while the rest of the world were aliens to the
covenant.[2] When the old Archimagus, or any of their Magi, is [18]
persuading the people at their religious solemnities, to a strict
observance of the old _beloved or divine speech_, he always calls them
the _beloved or holy people_, agreeably to the Hebrew epithet, _Ammi_,
(my people) during the theocracy of Israel. It is this opinion, that
God has chosen them out of the rest of mankind, as his peculiar
people, which inspires the white Jew, and the red American, with that
steady hatred against all the world except themselves, and renders
them hated and despised by all."
_5th, Their language and dialects._
"The Indian language and dialects appear to have the very idiom and
genius of the Hebrew. Their words and sentences are expressive,
concise, emphatical, sonorous and bold; and often both the letters and
signification are synonymous with the Hebrew language." Of these Mr.
Adair cites a number of examples.
_6th, Their manner of counting time._
"The Indians count time after the manner of the Hebrews. They divide
the year into spring, summer, autumn and winter. They number their
year from any of these four periods, for they have no name for a year;
and they subdivide these and count the year by lunar months, like the
Israelites who counted time by moons, as their name sufficiently
testifies.
"The number and regular periods of the religious feasts among the
Indians, is a good historical proof that they counted time by and
observed a weekly Sabbath, long after their arrival in America. They
began the year at the appearance of the first new moon of the vernal
equinox, according to the ecclesiastical year of Moses. 'Till the
seventy years captivity [19] commenced, the Israelites had only
numeral names for their months, except Abib and Ethanim; the former
signifying a _green ear of corn_, the latter _robust or valiant_; by
the first name the Indians as an explicative, term their passover,
which the trading people call _the green corn dance_."
_7th, Their prophets or high priests._
"In conformity to, or after the manner of the Jews, the Indians have
their prophets, high priests, and others of a religious order. As the
Jews have a Sanctum Sanctorum, so have all the Indian nations. There
they deposit their consecrated vessels--none of the laity daring to
approach that sacred place. The Indian tradition says, that their
forefathers were possessed of an extraordinary divine spirit by which
they foretold future events; and that this was transmitted to their
offspring, provided they obeyed the sacred laws annexed to it.[3] [20]
_Ishtoallo_ is the name of all their priestly order and their
pontifical office descends by inheritance to the eldest. There are
traces of agreement, though chiefly lost, in their pontifical dress.
Before the Indian Archimagus officiates in making the supposed holy
fire for the yearly atonement of sin, the _Sagan_ clothes him with a
white ephod, which is a waistcoat without sleeves. In resemblance of
the Urim and Thummim the American Archimagus wears a breastplate made
of a white conch-shell, with two holes bored in the middle of it,
through which he puts the ends of an otter-skin strap; and fastens a
buck-horn white button to the outside of each; as if in imitation of
the precious stones of the Urim."
In remarking upon this statement of Mr. Adair, Faber, a learned divine
of the church of England, has said, that Ishtoallo (the name according
to Adair of the Indian priests) is most probably a corruption of
_Ish-da-Eloah_, a man of God, (the term used by the Shunemitish woman
in speaking of Elisha;) and that _Sagan_ is the very name by which the
Hebrews called the deputy of the High Priest, who supplied his office
and who performed the functions of it in the absence of the high
priest, or when any accident had disabled him from officiating in
person.
_8th, Their festivals, fasts and religious rites._
"The ceremonies of the Indians in their religious worship,[21] are
more after the Mosaic institution, than of Pagan imitation. This could
not be the fact if a majority of the old nations were of heathenish
descent. They are utter strangers to all the gestures practiced by
Pagans in their religious rites. They have likewise an appellative,
which with them is the mysterious, essential name of God; the
_tetragrammaton_, which they never use in common speech. They are
very particular of the time and place, when and where they mention it,
and this is always done in a very solemn manner. It is known that the
Jews had so great and sacred regard for the four lettered, divine
name, as scarcely ever to mention it, except when the High Priest went
into the sanctuary for the expiation of sins."
Mr. Adair likewise says that the American Indians, like the Hebrews,
have an ark in which are kept various holy vessels, and which is never
suffered to rest on the bare ground. "On hilly ground, where stones
are plenty, they always place it on them, but on level land it is made
to rest on short legs. They have also a faith, in the power and
holiness of their ark, as strong as the Israelites had in theirs. It
is too sacred and dangerous to be touched by any one, except the
chieftain and his waiter. The leader virtually acts the part of a
priest of war protempore, in imitation of the Israelites fighting
under the divine military banner."
Among their other religious rites the Indians, according to Adair, cut
out the sinewy part of the thigh; in commemoration, as he says, of the
Angel wrestling with Jacob.
_12th, Their abstinence from unclean things._
"Eagles of every kind are esteemed by the Indians to be unclean food;
as also ravens, crows, bats, buzzards and every species of owl. They
believe that swallowing gnats, flies and the like, always breed
sickness. To this that divine sarcasm alludes 'swallowing a camel and
straining at a gnat.'" Their purifications for their Priests, and for
having touched a dead body or other unclean thing, according to Mr.
Adair, are quite Levitical. He acknowledges however, that they have no
traces of circumcision; but he supposes that they lost this rite in
their wanderings, as it ceased among the Hebrews, during the forty
years in the wilderness.
_15th, Their cities of refuge._
"The Israelites had cities of refuge for those who killed persons
unawares. According to the same particular divine [22] law of mercy,
each of the Indian nations has a house or town of refuge, which is a
sure asylum to protect a man-slayer, or the unfortunate captive, if
they can but once enter into it. In almost every nation they have
peaceable towns, called ancient holy, or white towns. These seem to
have been towns of refuge; for it is not in the memory of man, that
ever human blood was shed in them, although they often force persons
from thence and put them to death elsewhere."
_16th, Their purifications and ceremonies preparatory._
"Before the Indians go to war they have many preparatory ceremonies of
purification and fasting like what is recorded of the Israelites."
_21st, Their raising seed to a deceased brother._
"The surviving brother, by the Mosaic law, was to raise seed to a
deceased brother, who left a widow childless. The Indian custom looks
the very same way; but in this as in their law of blood, the eldest
brother can redeem."
With these and many arguments of a like kind, has Mr. Adair endeavored
to support the conjecture, that the American Indians are lineally
descended from the Israelites; and gravely asks of those who may
dissent from his opinion of their origin and descent, to inform him
how they came here, and by what means they formed the long chain of
rites and customs so similar to those of the Hebrews, and dissimilar
to the rites and customs of the pagan world.
Major Carver, a provincial officer who sojourned some time with the
Indians and visited twelve different nations of them, instead of
observing the great similarity, mentioned by Adair as existing between
the natives and Hebrews, thought he could trace features of
resemblance between them and the Chinese and Tartars; and has
undertaken to shew how they might have got here. He says,
"Although it is not ascertained certainly, that the continents of Asia
and America join each other, yet it is proven that the sea which is
supposed to divide them, is full of islands the distance from which to
either continent, is comparatively trifling. From these islands a
communication with the main land could be more readily effected than
from any other point." "It is very evident that the manners and
customs of the American Indians, resemble that of the Tartars; and I
have no doubt that in some future era, it will be reduced to a
certainty that in some of the wars between the Chinese and Tartars, a
part [23] of the inhabitants of the northern provinces were driven
from their country and took refuge in some of these islands, and from
thence found their way to America. At different periods each nation
might prove victorious, and the conquered by turns fly before the
conquerors; and hence might arise the similitude of the Indians to all
these people, and that animosity which exists among so many of their
tribes."
After remarking on the similarity which exists between the Chinese and
Indians, in the singular custom of shaving or plucking out the hair
leaving only a small spot on the crown of the head; and the
resemblance in sound and signification which many of the Chinese and
Indian words bear to each other, he proceeds, "After the most critical
inquiry and mature deliberation, I am of opinion that America received
its first inhabitants from the northeast, by way of the islands
mentioned as lying between Asia and America. This might have been
effected at different times and from different parts: from Tartary,
China, Japan or Kamschatka, the inhabitants of these countries
resembling each other, in color, feature and shape."
Other writers on this subject, coinciding in opinion with Carver,
mention a tradition which the Indians in Canada have, that foreign
merchants clothed in silk formerly visited them in great ships: these
are supposed to have been Chinese, the ruins of Chinese ships having
been found on the American coast. The names of many of the American
kings, are said to be Tartar; and Tartarax, who reigned formerly in
Quivira, means the Tartar. Manew, the founder of the Peruvian empire,
most probably came from the Manchew Tartars. Montezuma, the title of
the emperors of Mexico, is of Japanese extraction; for according to
some authors it is likewise the appellation of the Japanese Monarch.
The plant Ginseng, since found in America, where the natives termed
it Garentoguen, a word of the same import in their language, with
Ginseng in the Tartar, both meaning THE THIGHS OF A MAN.
Dr. Robertson is decidedly of opinion, that the different tribes of
American Indians, excepting the Esquimaux, are of Asiatic extraction.
He refers to a tradition among the Mexicans of the migration of their
ancestors from a remote country, situated to the north-west of Mexico,
and says they point out their various stations as they advanced into
the interior provinces, which is precisely the route they must have
held, if they had been emigrants from Asia.
Mr. Jefferson, in his notes on Virginia, says, that the passage from
Europe to America was always practicable, even to the imperfect [24]
navigation of the ancient times; and that, from recent discoveries, it
is proven, that if Asia and America be separated at all it is only by
a narrow streight. "Judging from the resemblance between the Indians
of America and the eastern inhabitants of Asia, we should say that the
former are descendants of the latter, or the latter of the former,
except indeed the Esquimaux, who, from the same circumstance of
resemblance, and from identity of language, must be derived from the
Greenlanders. A knowledge of their several languages would be the most
certain evidence of their derivation which could be produced. In fact
it is the best proof of the affinity of nations, which ever can be
referred to."
After regretting that so many of the Indian tribes have been suffered
to perish, without our having collected and preserved the general
rudiments of their language, he proceeds,
"Imperfect as is our knowledge of the tongues spoken in America, it
suffices to discover the following remarkable fact. Arranging them
under the radical ones to which they may be palpably traced, and doing
the same by those of the red men of Asia, there will be found probably
twenty in America, for one in Asia, of those radical languages; so
called because if ever they were the same, they have lost all
resemblance to one another. A separation into dialects may be the work
of a few ages only, but for two dialects to recede from one another,
'till they have lost all vestiges of their common origin, must require
an immense course of time; perhaps not less than many people give to
the age of the earth. A greater number of those radical changes of
language having taken place among the red men of America proves them
of greater antiquity than those of Asia."
Indian traditions say, that "in ancient days the Great Island appeared
upon the big waters, the earth brought forth trees, herbs and fruits:
that there were in the world a good and a bad spirit, the good spirit
formed creeks and rivers on the great island, and created numerous
species of animals to inhabit the forests, and fishes of all kinds to
inhabit the water. He also made two beings to whom he gave living
souls and named them Ea-gwe-howe, (real people). Subsequently some of
the people became giants and committed outrages upon the others. After
many years a body of Ea-gwe-howe people encamped on the bank of a
majestic stream, which they named, Kanawaga (St. Lawrence.) After a
long time a number of foreign people sailed from a part unknown, but
unfortunately the winds drove them off and they ultimately landed on
the southern part of the great island and many of the crew perished.
Those who survived, selected a place for residence, erected
fortifications, became a numerous people and extended their
settlements."[4]
Thus various and discordant are the conjectures respecting the manner
in which this continent was first peopled. Although some [25] of them
appear more rational and others, yet are they at best but hypothetical
disquisitions on a subject which will not now admit of certainty. All
agree that America was inhabited long anterior to its discovery by
Columbus, and by a race of human beings, who, however numerous they
once were, are fast hastening to extinction; some centuries hence and
they will be no more known. The few memorials, which the ravages of
time have suffered to remain of them, in those portions of the country
from which they have been long expelled; have destruction dealt them
by the ruthless hand of man. History may transmit to after ages, the
fact that they once were, and give their "local habitation and their
name." These will probably be received as the tales of fiction, and
posterity be at as much loss to determine, whether they ever had an
existence, as we now are to say from whence they sprang.
"I have stood upon Achilles' tomb
And heard Troy doubted. Time will doubt of Rome."
-----
[1] "If a learned man of Tobolski or Pekin were to read some
of our books, be might in this way demonstrate, that the French
are descended from the Trojans. The most ancient writings, he
might say, and those in most esteem in France, are romances:
these were written in a pure language, derived from the ancient
Romans, who were famous for never advancing a falsehood. Now
upwards of twenty of these authentic books, affirm that
Francis, the founder of the monarchy of the Franks, was son to
Hector. The name of Hector has ever since been preserved by
this nation; and even in the present century one of the
greatest generals was called Hector de Villars.
"The neighboring nations (he would continue,) are so
unanimous in acknowledging this truth, that Ariosto, one of
the most learned of the Italians, owns in his Orlando, that
Charlemagne's knights fought for Hector's helmet. Lastly,
there is one proof which admits of no reply; namely, that the
ancient Franks to perpetuate the memory of the Trojans, their
ancestors, built a new city called Troye, in the province of
Champagne; and these modern Trojans have always retained so
strong an aversion to their enemies, the Greeks, that there
is not at present four persons in the whole province of
Champagne, who will learn their language; nay, they would
never admit any Jesuits among them; probably because they had
heard it said, that some of that body used formerly to
explain Homer in their public schools."
Proceeding in this manner, M. de Voltaire shows how easily
this hypothesis might be overturned; and while one might
thus demonstrate that the Parisians are descended from the
Greeks, other profound antiquarians might in like manner prove
them to be of Egyptian, or even of Arabian extraction; and
although the learned world might much puzzle themselves to
decide the question, yet would it remain undecided and in
uncertainty.--_Preface to the Life of Peter the Great._
[2] In a small work entitled "Ancient History of the Six
Nations," written by David Cusick, an educated Indian of the
Tuscarora village, frequent mention is made of the actual
presence among them, of Tarenyawagua, or Holder of the Heavens,
who guided and directed them when present, and left rules for
their government, during his absence. Several miracles
performed by him are particularly mentioned. It likewise speaks
of the occasional visits of Angels or 'agents of the Superior
power' as they are called by Cusick; and tells of a visitor who
came among the Tuscaroras long anterior to the discovery of
America by Columbus. "He appeared to be a very old man, taught
them many things, and informed them that the people beyond the
great water had killed their Maker, but that he rose again. The
old man died among them and they buried him--soon after some
person went to the grave and found that he had risen; he was
never heard of afterwards."
[3] In confirmation of this tradition among the Indians, the
following somewhat singular circumstance related by Mr. Carver,
may with propriety be adduced:
While at Grand Portage, from the number of those who were there
and the fact that the traders did not arrive as soon as was
expected, there was a great scarcity of provisions, and much
consequent anxiety as to the period of their arrival. One day,
Mr. Carver says, that while expressing their wishes for the
event, and looking anxiously to ascertain if they could be seen
on the Lake, the chief Priest of the Kilistines told them that
he would endeavor in a conference with the Great Spirit, to
learn at what time the traders would arrive: and the following
evening was fixed upon for the spiritual conference.
When every preparation had been made, the king conducted Mr.
Carver to a spacious tent, the covering of which was so drawn
up as to render visible to those without, every thing which
passed within. Mr. Carver being seated beside the king within
the tent, observed in the centre a place of an oblong shape,
composed of stakes stuck at intervals in the ground, forming
something like a coffin, and large enough to contain the body
of a man. The sticks were far enough from each other to admit a
distinct view by the spectators, of what ever passed within
them; while the tent was perfectly illuminated.
When the Priest entered, a large Elk-skin being spread on the
ground, he divested himself of all his clothing, except that
around his middle, and laying down on the skin enveloped
himself (save only his head) in it. The skin was then bound
round with about forty yards of cord, and in that situation he
was placed within the ballustrade of sticks.
In a few seconds he was heard to mutter, but his voice,
gradually assuming a higher tone, was at length extended to its
utmost pitch, and sometimes praying, he worked himself into
such an agitation as to produce a foaming at the mouth. To this
succeeded a speechless state of exhaustion, of short duration;
when suddenly springing on his feet, and shaking off the skin,
as easily as if the bands with which it had been lashed around
him, were burned asunder, he addressed the company in a firm
and audible voice: "My Brothers, said he, the Great Spirit has
deigned to hold a talk with his servant. He has not indeed told
me when the traders will be here; but tomorrow when the sun
reaches the highest point in the heavens, a canoe will arrive,
the people in that canoe will inform us when the traders will
arrive."
Mr. Carver adds that on the next day at noon a canoe was descried
on the lake at the distance of about three miles,--completely
verifying the prediction of the High Priest, in point of time.
From the people on board this canoe they learned that the
traders would be at the portage on the second day thereafter,
at which time they actually did arrive.
[4] Indian traditions by Cusick.
INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER III.
The aborigines of America, although divided into many different
tribes, inhabiting various climates, and without a community of
language, are yet assimilated to each other in stature and complexion,
more strikingly than are the inhabitants of the different countries of
Europe. The manners and customs of one nation, are very much the
manners and customs of all; and although there be peculiarities
observable among all, yet are they fewer and less manifest than those
which mark the nations of the old world, and distinguish them so
palpably from each other. A traveller might have traversed the
country, when occupied exclusively by the natives, without remarking
among them, the diversity which exists in Europe; or being impressed
with the contrast which a visit across the Pyrennes would exhibit,
between the affability and vivacity of a Frenchman at a theatre or in
the Elysian fields, and the hauteur and reserve of a Spaniard at their
bloody circus, when "bounds with one lashing spring the mighty
brute."
[26] Nor is there much in savage life, calculated to inspire the mind
of civilized man, with pleasurable sensations. Many of the virtues
practised by them, proceed rather from necessity or ignorance than
from any ethical principle existing among them. The calm composure
with which they meet death and their stoical indifference to bodily
pain, are perhaps more attributable to recklessness of life and
physical insensibility,[1] than to fortitude or magnanimity;
consequently they do not much heighten the zest of reflection, in
contemplating their character. The christian and the philanthropist,
with the benevolent design of improving their morals and meliorating
their condition, may profitably study every peculiarity and trait of
character observable among them; it will facilitate their object and
enable them the more readily to reclaim them from a life of heathenish
barbarity, and to extend to them the high boons of civilization and
christianity.
It has been observed that the different tribes of natives of North
America, resemble each other very much in stature and complexion, in
manners and customs; a general description of these will therefor be
sufficient.
The stature of an Indian, is generally that of the medial stature of
the Anglo Americans; the Osages are said to form an exception to this
rule, being somewhat taller. They are almost universally straight and
well proportioned; their limbs are clean, but less muscular than those
of the whites, and their whole appearance strongly indicative of
effeminacy. In walking, they invariable place one foot directly before
the other--the toes never verging from a right line with the heel.
When traveling in companies, their manner of marching is so peculiar
as to have given rise to the expression, "_Indian file_;" and while
proceeding in this way, each carefully places his foot in the vestige
of the foremost of the party, so as to leave the impression of the
footsteps of but one. They have likewise in their gait and carriage
something so entirely different from the gait and carriage of the
whites, as to enable a person to pronounce on one at a considerable
distance. The hair of an Indian is also strikingly different from that
of the whites. It is always black and straight, hangs loose and looks
as if it were [27] oiled. There is a considerable resemblance in
appearance, between it and the glossy black mane of a thoroughbred
horse; though its texture is finer.
In the squaws there exist, the same delicacy of proportion, the same
effeminacy of person, the same slenderness of hand and foot, which
characterise the female of refined society; in despite too of the
fact, that every laborious duty and every species of drudgery, are
imposed on them from childhood. Their faces are broad, and between the
eyes they are exceedingly wide; their cheek bones are high and the
eyes black in both sexes--the noses of the women inclining generally
to the flat nose of the African; while those of the men are more
frequently aquiline than otherwise.
Instances of decrepitude and deformity, are rarely known to exist
among them: this is probably owing to the manner in which they are
tended and nursed in infancy. It is not necessary that the mother
should, as has been supposed, be guilty of the unnatural crime of
murdering her decrepid or deformed offspring--the hardships they
encounter are too great to be endured by infants not possessed of
natural vigor, and they sink beneath them.
Their countenances are for the most inflexible, stern and immovable.
The passions which agitate or distract the mind, never alter its
expression, nor do the highest ecstacies of which their nature is
susceptible, ever relax its rigidity. With the same imperturbability
of feature, they encounter death from the hand of an enemy, and
receive the greetings of a friend.
In their intercourse with others, they seem alike insensible to
emotions of pleasure and of pain; and rarely give vent to feelings of
either. The most ludicrous scenes scarcely ever cause them to laugh,
or the most interesting recitals draw from them more than their
peculiar monosyllabic expression of admiration.
In conversation they are modest and unassuming; indeed taciturnity is
as much a distinguishing trait of Indian character, as it ever was of
the Roman. In their councils and public meetings, they never manifest
an impatience to be heard, or a restlessness under observations,
either grating to personal feeling or opposite to their individual
ideas of propriety: on the contrary they are still, silent and
attentive; and each is heard with the respect due to his years, his
wisdom, his experience, or the fame which his exploits may have
acquired him. [28] A loud and garrulous Indian is received by the
others with contempt, and a cowardly disposition invariably attributed
to him--
"Bold at the council board,
But in the field he shuns the sword,"
is as much and truly an apothegm with them as with us.
Their taciturnity and irrisibility however, are confined to their
sober hours. When indulging their insatiate thirst for spirit, they
are boisterous and rude, and by their obstreperous laughter, their
demoniacal shrieks and turbulent vociferations, produce an appalling
discord, such as might well be expected to proceed from a company of
infernal spirits at their fiendish revels; and exhibit a striking
contrast to the low, monotonous tones used by them at other times.
There can be no doubt that the Indians are the most lazy, indolent
race of human beings. No attempt which has ever been made to convert
them into slaves, has availed much. The rigid discipline of a Spanish
master, has failed to overcome that inertness, from which an Indian is
roused only by war and the chase--Engaged in these, he exhibits as
much activity and perseverance, as could be displayed by any one; and
to gratify his fondness for them, will encounter toils and privations,
from which others would shrink. His very form indicates at once, an
aptitude for that species of exercise which war and hunting call into
action, and an unfitness for the laborious drudgery of husbandry and
many of the mechanic arts. Could they have been converted into
profitable slaves, it is more than probable we should never have been
told, that "the hand of providence was visible in the surprising
instances of mortality among the Indians, to make room for the
whites."
In their moral character many things appear of a nature, either so
monstrous as to shock humanity, or so absurd as to excite derision;
yet they have some redeeming qualities which must elicit commendation.
And while we view with satisfaction those bright spots, shining more
brilliantly from the gloom which surrounds them, their want of
learning and the absence of every opportunity for refinement, should
plead in extenuation of their failings and their vices. Some of the
most flagrant of these, if not encouraged, have at least been
sanctioned by the whites. In the war between the New England colonies
and the Narragansetts, it was the misfortune of the brave Philip,
after having witnessed the destruction of the [29] greater part of
his nation, to be himself slain by a Mohican. After his head had been
taken off, Oneco, chief of the Mohicans, then in alliance with the
colonists, claimed that he had a right to feast himself on the body of
his fallen adversary. The whites did not object to this, but
composedly looked on Oneco, broiling and eating the flesh of
Philip--and yet cannibalism was one of their most savage traits of
character.
This was a general, if not an universal custom among the Indians, when
America became known to the whites. Whether it has yet entirely ceased
is really to be doubted: some of those who have been long intimate
with them, affirm that it has not; though it is far from being
prevalent.
The Indians are now said to be irritable; but when Europeans first
settled among them, they were not more irascible than their new
neighbors. In their anger however, they differ very much from the
whites. They are not talkative and boisterous as these are, but
silent, sullen and revengeful. If an injury be done them, they never
forget, they never forgive it. Nothing can be more implacable than
their resentment--no time can allay it--no change of circumstances
unfix its purpose. Revenge is to them as exhilarating, as the cool
draught from the fountain, to the parched and fevered lips of a dying
man.
When taking vengeance of an enemy, there is no cruelty which can be
exercised, no species of torture, which their ingenuity can devise,
too severe to be inflicted. To those who have excited a spirit of
resentment in the bosom of an Indian, the tomahawk and scalping knife
are instruments of mercy. Death by the faggot--by splinters of the
most combustible wood, stuck in the flesh and fired--maiming and
disemboweling, tortures on which the soul sickens but to reflect, are
frequently practiced. To an enemy of their own color, they are perhaps
more cruel and severe, than to the whites. In requiting upon him,
every refinement of torture is put in requisition, to draw forth a
sigh or a groan, or cause him to betray some symptom of human
sensibility. This they never effect. An Indian neither shrinks from a
knife, nor winces at the stake; on the contrary he seems to exult in
his agony, and will mock his tormentors for the leniency and mildness
of their torture.[2]
[30] Drinking and gambling are vices, to which the Indians, as well as
the whites, are much addicted. Such is their fondness for spirit of
any kind that they are rarely known to be sober, when they have it in
their power to be otherwise. Neither a sense of honor or of shame has
been able to overcome their propensity for its use; and when drunk,
the ties of race, of friendship and of kindred are too weak, to bind
their ferocious tempers.
In gambling they manifest the same anxiety, which we see displayed at
the card table of the whites. The great difference seems to be, that
we depend too frequently on sleight and dexterity; whereas while they
are shaking their gourd neck of half whited plumbstones, they only use
certain _tricks_ of conjuration, which in their simplicity they
believe will ensure them success. To this method of attaining an
object, they have frequent recourse. Superstition is the concomitant
of ignorance. The most enlightened, are rarely altogether exempt from
its influence--with the uninformed it is a master passion, swaying and
directing the mind in all its operations.
In their domestic economy, Indians are, in some respects, like the
rude of all countries. They manifest but little respect for the
female; imposing on her not only the duties of the hut, but also the
more laborious operations of husbandry; and observing towards them the
hauteur and distance of superior beings.
There are few things, indeed, which mark with equal precision, the
state of civilization existing in any community, as the rank assigned
in it to females. In the rude and barbarous stages of society, they
are invariably regarded as inferior beings, [31] instruments of
sensual gratification, and unworthy the attention and respect of men.
As mankind advance to refinement, females gradually attain an
elevation of rank, and acquire an influence in society, which smoothes
the asperities of life and produces the highest polish, of which human
nature is susceptible.
Among the Indians there is, however rude they may be in other
respects, a great respect always paid to female chastity. Instances in
which it has been violated by them, if to be found at all, are
extremely few. However much the passion of revenge may stimulate to
acts of cruelty, the propensities of nature never lead them to
infringe the virtue of women in their power.
The general character of the Indians, was more estimable, when they
first became known to Europeans, than it is at present. This has been
ascribed to the introduction of ardent spirits among them--other
causes however, have conspired to produce the result.
The cupidity of those who were engaged in commerce with the natives,
too frequently prompted them to take every advantage, for self
aggrandizement, which they could obtain over the Indians. In the
lucrative traffic carried on with them, the influence of honesty
was not predominant--the real value of the commodity procured, was
never allowed; while upon every article given in exchange, extortion
alone affixed the price. These examples could not fail to have a
deteriorating effect upon their untutored minds; and we find them
accordingly losing their former regard for truth, honesty and
fidelity; and becoming instead deceitful, dishonest and treacherous.
Many of their ancient virtues however, are still practised by them.
The rights of hospitality are accorded to those who go among them,
with a liberality and sincerity which would reflect credit on
civilized man. And although it has been justly said that they rarely
forgive an enemy, yet is it equally true that they never forsake their
friends; to them they are always kind, generous and beneficent.
After the ceremony of introduction is over,[3] a captive enemy, [32]
who is adopted by them, is also treated with the utmost humanity and
attention. An Indian cheerfully divides his last morsel with an
adopted son or brother; and will readily risk life in his defence.
Such indeed, is the kindness which captives thus situated invariably
receive, that they frequently regret the hour of their redemption, and
refuse to leave their red brethren, to return and mingle with the
whites.
As members of a community, they are at all times willing to devote
their every faculty, for the good of the whole. The honor and welfare
of their respective tribes, are primary considerations with them. To
promote these, they cheerfully encounter every privation, endure every
hardship, and face every danger. Their patriotism is of the most pure
and disinterested character; and of those who have made us feel so
sensibly, the horrors of savage warfare, many were actuated by motives
which would reflect honor on the citizens of any country. The
unfortunate Tecumseh was a remarkable example of the most ardent and
patriotic devotion to his country.
Possessed of an acute and discerning mind, he witnessed the extending
influence of the whites, with painful solicitude. Listening with
melancholy rapture, to the traditionary accounts of the former
greatness of his nation, and viewing in anticipation the exile or
extinction of his race, his noble soul became fired with the hope that
he might retrieve the fallen fortune of his country, and restore it to
its pristine dignity and grandeur. His attachment to his tribe
impelled him to exertion and every nerve was strained in its cause.
Determined if possible to achieve the independence of his nation, and
to rid her of those whom he considered her oppressors, he formed the
scheme of uniting in hostility against the United States, all the
tribes dwelling east of the Mississippi river. In the prosecution of
this purpose, he travelled from Mackinaw to Georgia,[4] and with
wonderful adroitness practised on the different feelings of his red
brethren. Assuming at times the character of a prophet, he wrought
powerfully on their credulity and superstition.--Again, depending on
the force of oratory, the witchery of his eloquence drew many [33] to
his standard. But all was in vain--His plans were entirely frustrated.
He had brought none of his auxiliaries into the field; and was totally
unprepared for hostilities, when his brother, the celebrated Shawanese
prophet, by a premature attack on the army under Gen. Harrison, at an
inauspicious moment, precipitated him into a war with the United
States.
Foiled by this means, Tecumseh joined the standard of Great Britain in
the war of 1812; and as a Brigadier General in her army, lost his
life, bravely supporting the cause which he had espoused. He deserved
a better fate; and but for prejudice which is so apt to dim the eye
and distort the object, Tecumseh would, most probably, be deemed a
martyr for his country, and associated in the mind with the heroes of
Marathon and Thermopylae.
To contemplate the Indian character, in a religious point of view, is
less gratifying than to consider it in regard to the lesser morals. At
the period of the settlement of Western Virginia, excepting the
Moravians, and a few others who had been induced by the zeal and
exertions of Roman catholic missionaries to wear the cross, the
Indians north west of the Ohio river, were truly heathens. They
believed indeed in a First Cause, and worshiped the Good Spirit; but
they were ignorant of the great truths of Christianity, and their
devotions were but superstitious acts of blind reverence. In this
situation they remain generally at the present day, notwithstanding
the many laudable endeavors which have been made to christianize
them.
Perhaps there was never a tribe in America, but believed in the
existence of a Deity; yet were their ideas of the nature and
attributes of God, not only obscure, but preposterous and absurd. They
believe also in the existence of many inferior deities, whom they
suppose to be employed as assistants in managing the affairs of the
world, and in inspecting the actions of men. Eagles and Owls are
thought by some to have been placed here as observers of the actions
of men; and accordingly, when an eagle is seen to soar about them by
day, or an owl to perch near them at night, they immediately offer
sacrifice, that a good report may be made of them to the Great
Spirit.
They are likewise believers in the immortality of the soul; and have
such an idea of a future state of existence, as accords with their
character and condition here. Strangers to [34] intellectual
pleasures, they suppose that their happiness hereafter will consist of
mere sensual gratifications; and that when they die, they will be
translated to a delightful region, where the flowers never fade, nor
the leaves fall from the trees; where the forests abound in game, and
the lakes in fish, and where they expect to remain forever, enjoying
all the pleasures which delighted them here.[5]
In consequence of this belief, when an Indian dies, and is buried,
they place in the grave with him, his bow and arrows and such weapons
as they use in war, that he may be enabled to procure game and
overcome an enemy. And it has been said, that they grieve more for the
death of an infant unable to provide for itself in the world of
spirits, than for one who had attained manhood and was capable of
taking care of himself. An interesting instance of this is given by
Major Carver, and furnishes at once, affecting evidence of their
incongruous creed and of their parental tenderness. Maj. Carver says:
"Whilst I remained with them, a couple whose tent was near to mine,
lost a son about four years old. The parents were so inconsolable for
its loss, and so much affected by its death, that they pursued the
usual testimonies of grief with such uncommon vigor, as through the
weight of sorrow and loss of blood, to occasion the death of the
father. The mother, who had been hitherto absorbed in grief, no sooner
beheld her husband expire, than she dried up her tears, and appeared
cheerful and resigned.
"As I knew not how to account for so extraordinary a transition, I
took an opportunity to ask her the reason of it. She replied, that as
the child was so young when it died, and unable to support itself in
the country of spirits, both she and her husband had been apprehensive
that its situation would be far from pleasant; but no sooner did she
behold its father depart for the same place, and who not only loved
the child with the tenderest affection, but was a good hunter and [35]
able to provide plentifully for its support, than she ceased to mourn.
She added that she saw no reason to continue her tears, as the child
was now happy under the protection of a fond father; and that she had
only one wish remaining to be gratified, and that was a wish to be
herself with them."[6]
In relation to the Indian antiquities so frequently met with in
America, much doubt still exists. When and for what purpose many of
those vast mounds of earth, so common in the western country, were
heaped up, is matter of uncertainty. Mr. Jefferson has pronounced them
to be repositories of the dead; and many of them certainly were
designed for that purpose; perhaps all with which he had become
acquainted previous to the writing of his notes of Virginia. Mr.
Jefferson did not deem them worthy the name of monuments. Since the
country has been better explored, many have been discovered justly
entitled to that appellation, some of which seem to have been
constructed for purposes other than inhumation.[7] These are
frequently met with in the valley of the Mississippi, and are said to
extend into Mexico. The most celebrated works of this class, are
believed to be those at Circleville in Ohio, which have so frequently
been described, and are justly considered memorials of the labor and
perseverance of those by whom they were erected.
There is a tradition among the Indians of the north, which if true
would furnish a very rational solution to the question, "for what
purpose were they constructed?" According to this tradition about "two
thousand two hundred years, before Columbus discovered America, the
northern nations appointed a prince, and immediately after, repaired
to the south and visited the GOLDEN CITY, the capital of a vast
empire. After a time the emperor of the south built many forts
throughout his dominions, and extending them northwardly almost
penetrated the lake Erie. This produced much excitement. The people of
the north, afraid that they would be deprived of the country on the
south side of the great lakes, determined to defend it against the
infringement of any foreign people; long and bloody wars ensued which
lasted about one hundred years. The people of the north, being more
skillful in the use of bows and arrows, and capable of enduring
hardships which proved fatal to those of the south, gained the
conquest; and all the towns and forts, which had been erected by their
enemy, were totally destroyed and left in a heap of ruins."[8]
The most considerable of those tumuli or sepulchral mounds, which are
found in Virginia, is that on the bottoms of Grave creek, near its
entrance into the Ohio, about twelve miles below Wheeling, and is the
only large one in this section of the country. Its diameter at the
base, is said to be one hundred yards, its perpendicular height about
eighty feet, and the diameter at its summit, forty-five feet. Trees,
of all sizes and of various kinds, are growing on its sides; and
fallen [36] and decayed timber, is interspersed among them; a single
white oak rises out of a concavity in the centre of its summit.[9]
Near to Cahokia there is a group (of about two hundred) of these
mounds, of various dimensions.[10] The largest of these is said to
have a base of eight hundred yards circumference, and an altitude of
ninety feet. These and the one mentioned as being on Grave creek and
many smaller ones in various parts of the country, were no doubt
places of inhumation.[11]--Many have been opened, and found to contain
human bones promiscuously thrown together. Mr. Jefferson supposed the
one examined by him, (the diameter of whose base was only forty feet
and height twelve) to contain the bones of perhaps a thousand human
beings, of each sex and of every age. Others have been examined, in
which were the skeletons of men of much greater stature, than that of
any of the Indians in America, at the time of its discovery, or of
those with whom we have since become acquainted.
It is a well known fact, that since the whites became settled in the
country, the Indians were in the habit of collecting the bones of
their dead and of depositing them in one general cemetery; but the
earth and stone used by them, were taken from the adjacent land. This
was not invariably the case, with those ancient heaps of earth found
in the west. In regard to many of them, this singular circumstance is
said to be a fact, that the earth, of which they are composed, is of
an altogether different nature, from that around them; and must, in
some instances, have been carried a considerable distance. The
tellurine structures at Circleville are of this sort; and the material
of which they were constructed, is said to be distinctly different,
from the earth any where near to them.
The immensity of the size of these and many others, would induce the
supposition that they could not have been raised by a race of people
as indolent as the Indians have been, ever since a knowledge was had
of them. Works, the construction of which would now require the
concentrated exertions of at least one thousand men, aided by the
mechanical inventions of later days, for several months, could hardly
have been erected by persons, so subject to lassitude under labor as
they are: unless indeed their population was infinitely greater than
we now conceive it to have been. Admitting however, this density of
population to have existed, other circumstances would corroborate the
belief, that the country once had other inhabitants, than the
progenitors of those who have been called, the aborigines of America:
one of these circumstances is the uncommon size of many of the
skeletons found in the smaller mounds upon the hills.
If the fact be, as it is represented, that the larger skeletons are
invariably found on elevated situations, remote from the larger water
courses, it would tend to show that there was a diversity of habit,
and admitting their cotemporaneous existence, perhaps no alliance or
intercourse between those, whose remains they are, and the persons by
whom those large mounds and fortifications were erected, [37] these
being found only on plains in the contiguity of large streams or
inland lakes; and containing only the bones of individuals of ordinary
stature.
Another and stronger evidence that America was occupied by others than
the ancestors of the present Indians, is to be found in those
antiquities, which demonstrate that iron was once known here, and
converted to some of the uses ordinarily made of it.
In graduating a street in Cincinnati, there was found, twenty-five
feet below the surface of the earth, a small horse shoe, in which were
several nails. It is said to present the appearance of such erosion as
would result from the oxidation of some centuries. It was smaller than
would be required for a common mule.[12]
Many are the instances of pieces of timber found, various depths below
the surface of the earth, with the marks of the axe palpably visible
on them.[13] A sword too, said to have been enclosed in the wood of
the roots of a tree not less than five hundred years old, is preserved
in Ohio as a curiosity. Many other instances might, if necessary, be
adduced to prove, that implements of iron were in use in this country,
prior to its occupation by the whites. Now if a people once have the
use of that metal, it is far from probable that it will ever after be
lost to them: the essential purposes to which it may be applied, would
preserve it to them. The Indians however, 'till taught by the
Europeans, had no knowledge of it.
Many of the antiquities discovered in other parts of the country, show
that the arts once flourished to an extent beyond what they have ever
been known to do among the Indians. The body found in the saltpetre
cave of Kentucky, was wrapped in blankets made of linen and interwoven
with feathers of the wild turkey, tastefully arranged. It was much
smaller than persons of equal age at the present day, and had
yellowish hair. In Tennessee many walls of faced stone, and even
walled wells have been found in so many places, at such depths and
under such circumstances, as to preclude the idea of their having been
made by the whites since the discovery by Columbus.
[38] In this state too, have been found burying grounds, in which the
skeletons seem all to have been those of pigmies: the graves, in which
the bodies had been deposited, were seldom three feet in length; yet
the teeth in the skulls prove that they were the bodies of persons of
mature age.
Upon the whole there cannot be much doubt, that America was once
inhabited by a people, not otherwise allied to the Indians of the
present day, than that they were descendants of him, from whom has
sprung the whole human family.
-----
[1] It is said that the nerves of an Indian do not shrink as
much, nor shew the same tendency to spasm, under the knife of
the surgeon, as the nerves of a white man in a similar
situation.
[2] A Narraganset, made prisoner by Maj. Talcott in 1679,
begged to be delivered to the Mohicans that he might be put to
death in their own way. The New Englanders complying with his
request, preparations were made for the tragical event. "The
Mohicans, formed a circle, and admitting within it as many of
the whites as chose to witness their proceedings, placed the
prisoner in the centre. One of the Mohicans, who had lost a son
in the late engagement, with a knife cut off the PRISONER'S
EARS! then his NOSE! and then the FINGERS off each hand! after
the lapse of a few moments, his EYES WERE DUG OUT, AND THEIR
SOCKETS FILLED WITH HOT EMBERS!! All this time the prisoner
instead of bewailing his fate, seemed to surpass his tormentors
in expressions of joy. At length when exhausted with loss of
blood and unable to stand, his executioner closed the tragic
scene by beating out his brains with a tomahawk."--_Indian
Wars, by Trumbull._
[3] Indians consider the running of the gauntlet, as but the
ceremony of an introduction; and say that it is "like the shake
hands and howde do, of the whites."
[4] While performing this tour, Tecumseh carried a RED
STICK, the acceptance of which was considered a joining of his
party--Hence those Indians who were hostile to the United
States, were denominated RED STICKS.
[5] Pope has very finely expressed the leading articles of
religion among the Indians in the following lines.
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud science never taught to stray
Far as the Solar Walk or Milky Way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n,
Behind the cloud-topt hill an humbler heav'n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the wat'ry waste;
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
To BE, contents his natural desire,
He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire:
But thinks admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
[6] The author's summary of Indian character is for the most
part excellent, and in accord with more recent conclusions. See
Chap. I. of _The Colonies_, in "Epochs of American History"
(Longmans, 1892.)--R. G. T.
[7] Gen. George Rogers Clark, an early and careful observer,
scouted the idea advanced by Noah Webster, in Carey's _American
Museum_, in 1789, that these extraordinary Western military
defenses were the work of De Soto. "As for his being the author
of these fortifications," says Clark, "it is quite out of the
question; they are more numerous than he had men, and many of
them would have required fifty thousand men for their
occupancy."--L. C. D.
[8] Indian traditions, by Cusick.
[9] This description, written by Withers in 1831, still
holds good in the main. The mound, which proves to have been a
burial tumulus, is now surrounded by the little city of
Moundsville, W. Va., and is kept inclosed by the owner as one
of the sights of the place. The writer visited it in May,
1894.--R. G. T.
[10] George Rogers Clark, who was repeatedly at Cahokia
during the period 1778-80, says: "We easily and evidently
traced the town for upwards of five miles in the beautiful
plain below the present town of Kahokia. There could be no
deception here, because the remains of ancient works were
thick--the whole were mounds, etc." Clark's MS. statement;
Schoolcraft's _Indian Tribes_, IV., p. 135.--L. C. D.
[11] This mound was used, at least in part, for burial
purposes. Nearly fifty years ago, when the writer of this note
explored this remarkable artificial elevation of eighty feet in
height, he found in the excavation numerous beads of shell or
bone, or both, ornaments of the dead buried there.--L. C. D.
[12] This proves nothing. A silver medal of John Quincy
Adams's administration, evidently presented to some Indian
chief was, in 1894, found in Wisconsin, twelve feet below the
surface. Iron and silver tools and ornaments, evidently made in
Paris for the Indian trade, have been found in Ohio and
Wisconsin mounds. It is now sufficiently demonstrated that the
mound-builders were the ancestors of the aborigines found in
the country by the first white settlers, and that the mounds
are of various ages, ranging perhaps from three hundred to a
thousand years. Various _Reports_ of the Bureau of Ethnology go
into the matter with convincing detail.--R. G. T.
[13] Jacob Wolf, in digging a well on Hacker's creek, found a
piece of timber which had been evidently cut off at one end,
twelve or thirteen feet in the ground--marks of the axe were
plainly distinguishable on it.
[39] CHRONICLES OF BORDER WARFARE.
CHAPTER I
At the time when Virginia became known to the whites, it was occupied
by many different tribes of Indians, attached to different nations.
That portion of the state lying north west of the Blue ridge, and
extending to the lakes was possessed by the Massawomees. These were a
powerful confederacy, rarely in amity with the tribes east of that
range of mountains; but generally harrassing them by frequent hostile
irruptions into their country. Of their subsequent history, nothing is
now known. They are supposed by some to have been the ancestors of the
Six Nations. It is however more probable, that they afterwards became
incorporated with these, as did several other tribes of Indians, who
used a language so essentially different from that spoken by the Six
Nations, as to render the intervention of interpreters necessary
between them.
As settlements were extended from the sea shore, the Massawomees
gradually retired; and when the white population reached the Blue
ridge of mountains, the valley between it and the Alleghany, was
entirely uninhabited. This delightful region of country was then only
used as a hunting ground, and as a highway for belligerant parties of
different nations, in their military expeditions against each other.
In consequence of the almost continued hostilities between the
northern and southern Indians, these expeditions were very frequent,
and tended somewhat to retard the settlement of the valley, and render
a residence in it, for some time, insecure and unpleasant. Between
the Alleghany mountains and the Ohio river, within the present limits
of Virginia, there were some villages interspersed, inhabited by small
numbers of Indians; the most [40] of whom retired north west of that
river, as the tide of emigration rolled towards it. Some however
remained in the interior, after settlements began to be made in their
vicinity.
North of the present boundary of Virginia, and particularly near the
junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, and in the
circumjacent country the Indians were more numerous, and their
villages larger. In 1753, when Gen. Washington visited the French
posts on the Ohio, the spot which had been selected by the Ohio
company, as the site for a fort, was occupied by Shingess, king of the
Delawares; and other parts of the proximate country, were inhabited by
Mingoes and Shawanees.[1] When the French were forced to abandon the
position, which they had taken at the forks of Ohio, the greater part
of the adjacent tribes removed farther west. So that when improvements
were begun to be made in the wilderness of North Western Virginia, it
had been almost entirely deserted by the natives; and excepting a few
straggling hunters and warriors, who occasionally traversed it in
quest of game, or of human beings on whom to wreak their vengeance,
almost its only tenants were beasts of the forest.
In the country north west of the Ohio river, there were many
warlike tribes of Indians, strongly imbued with feelings of
rancorous hostility to the neighboring colonists. Among the more
powerful of these were the Delawares, who resided on branches of
Beaver Creek, Cayahoga, and Muskingum; and whose towns contained
about six hundred inhabitants--The Shawanees, who to the number of
300, dwelt upon the Scioto and Muskingum--The Chippewas, near
Mackinaw, of 400--Cohunnewagos, of 300, and who inhabited near
Sandusky--The Wyandots, whose villages were near fort St. Joseph,
and embraced a population of 250--The Twightees, near fort Miami,
with a like population--The Miamis, on the river Miami, near the
fort of that name, reckoning 300 persons--The Pottowatomies of 300,
and the Ottawas of 550, in their villages near to forts St. Joseph
and Detroit,[2] and of 250, in the towns near Mackinaw. Besides
these, there were in the same district of country, others of less
note, yet equally inimical to the whites; and who contributed much
to the annoyance [41] of the first settlers on the Ohio, and its
tributaries.
There were likewise the Munsies, dwelling on the north branch of the
Susquehanna, and on the Allegheny river--The Senecas, on the waters of
the Susquehanna, Ontario and the heads of the Allegheny--The Cayugas,
on Cayuga lake, and the Sapoonies, who resided in the neighborhood of
the Munsies. In these tribes was an aggregate population of 1,380
souls, and they likewise aided in committing depredations on our
frontiers.
Those who ventured to explore and occupy the south western portion
of Virginia, found also in its vicinity some powerful and warlike
tribes. The Cherokees possessed what was then, the western part of
North Carolina and numbered 2,500--The Chicasaws, residing south of
the Cherokees, had a population of 750--and the Catawbas, on the
Catawba river in South Carolina with only 150 persons. These latter
were remarkably adventurous, enterprising and courageous; and
notwithstanding their remote situation, and the paucity of their
numbers, frequently traversed the valley of Virginia, and even
penetrated the country on the north branch of the Susquehanna, and
between the Ohio river and lake Erie, to wage war upon the Delawares.
Their success in many of these expeditions, is preserved in the
traditions of the Delawares, who continue to regard them as having
used in these wars, a degree of cunning and stratagem, to which
other tribes have never approached.[3]
Such were the numbers and positions of many of the proximate Indians
about the time settlements were begun to be [42] made on the
Monongahela river and its branches. Anterior to this period,
adventurers had explored, and established themselves, in various
parts of the valley between the Blue ridge and the Alleghany mountain.
That section of it, which was included within the limits of the
Northern-Neck, was the first to become occupied by the whites. The
facilities afforded by the proprietor for obtaining land within his
grant, the greater salubrity of climate and fertility of soil near
to the Blue ridge, caused the tide of emigration to flow rapidly
towards the upper country, and roll even to the base of that
mountain. Settlements were soon after extended westwardly across
the Shenandoah, and early in the eighteenth century Winchester
became a trading post, with sparse improvements in its vicinity.
About this time Thomas Morlin, a pedlar trading from Williamsburg to
Winchester, resolved, in conjunction with John Salling a weaver also
from Williamsburg, to prosecute an examination of the country, beyond
the limits which had hitherto bounded the exploratory excursions of
other adventurers. With this view, they travelled up the valley of the
Shenandoah, and crossing James river and some of its branches,
proceeded as far as the Roanoke, when Salling was taken captive by a
party of Cherokees. Morlin was fortunate enough to elude their
pursuit, and effect a safe retreat to Winchester.
Upon the return of the party by whom Salling had been captivated, he
was taken to Tennessee where he remained for some years. When on a
hunting expedition to the Salt licks of Kentucky, in company with some
Cherokees to kill buffalo, they were surprised by a party of Illinois
Indians, with whom the Cherokees were then at war, and by them Salling
was again taken prisoner. He was then carried to Kaskaskia, when he
was adopted into the family of a squaw whose son had been killed in
the wars.
While with this nation of Indians, Salling frequently accompanied
parties of them on hunting excursions, a considerable distance to the
south. On several occasions he went with them below the mouth of the
Arkansas, and once to the Gulph of Mexico. In one of those expeditions
they met with a party of Spaniards, exploring the country and who
needed an interpreter. For this purpose they purchased Salling of his
Indian mother for three strands of beads and a Calumet. Salling
attended them to the post at Crevecoeur; from which [43] place he was
conveyed to fort Frontignac: here he was redeemed by the Governor of
Canada, who sent him to the Dutch settlement in New York, whence he
made his way home after an absence of six years.[4]
The emigration from Great Britain to Virginia was then very great, and
at the period of Salling's return to Williamsburg, there were then
many adventurers, who had but recently arrived from Scotland and the
north of England. Among these adventurers were John Lewis[5] and John
Mackey. Salling's return excited a considerable and very general
interest, and drew around him many, particularly of those who had but
lately come to America, and to whom the narrative of one, who had been
nearly six years a captive among the Indians, was highly gratifying.
Lewis and Mackey listened attentively to the description given of the
country in the valley, and pleased with its beauty and fertility as
represented by Salling, they prevailed on him to accompany them on a
visit to examine it more minutely, and if found correspondent with his
description to select in it situations for their future residence.
Lewis made choice of, and improved, a spot a few miles below Staunton,
on a creek which bears his name--Mackey on the middle branch of the
Shenandoah near Buffalo-gap; and Salling in the forks of James river,
below the Natural Bridge, where some of his descendants still reside.
Thus was effected the first white settlement ever made on the James
river, west of the Blue ridge.[6]
In the year 1736, Lewis, being in Williamsburg, met with Benjamin
Burden (who had then just come to the country as agent of Lord
Fairfax, proprietor of the Northern Neck,) and on whom he prevailed to
accompany him home. Burden remained at Lewis's the greater part of the
summer, and on his return to Williamsburg, took with him a buffalo
calf, which while hunting with Samuel[7] and Andrew Lewis (elder sons
of John) they had caught and afterwards tamed. He presented this calf
to Gov. Gooch, who thereupon entered on his journal, [44] an order,
authorizing Burden to locate conditionally, any quantity of land not
exceeding 500,000 acres on any of the waters of the Shenandoah, or of
James river west of the Blue ridge. The conditions of this grant were,
that he should interfere with no previous grants--that he should
settle 100 families, in ten years, within its limits; and should have
1000 acres adjoining each cabin which he should cause to be built,
with liberty to purchase any greater quantity adjoining, at the rate
of fifty pounds per thousand acres. In order to effect a compliance
with one of these conditions, Burden visited Great Britain in 1737;
and on his return to Virginia brought with him upwards of one hundred
families of adventurers, to settle on his grant.[8] Amongst these
adventurers were, John Patton, son-in-law to Benjamin Burden, who
settled on Catawba, above Pattonsburg[9]--Ephraim McDowell, who
settled at Phoebe's falls--John, the son of Ephraim,[10] who settled
at Fairfield, where Col. James McDowell now lives--Hugh Telford, who
settled at the Falling spring, in the forks of James river--Paul
Whitley, who settled on Cedar creek, where the Red Mill now
is--Archibald Alexander, who settled on the North river, opposite
Lexington--Andrew Moore, who settled adjoining Alexander--Sampson
Archer, who settled at Gilmore's spring, east of the Bridge tavern,
and Capt. John Matthews, who married Betsy Archer, (the daughter of
Sampson) settled where Major Matthews lives, below the Natural
bridge.
Among others who came to Virginia at this time, was an Irish girl
named Polly Mulhollin. On her arrival she was hired to James Bell to
pay her passage; and with whom she remained during the period her
servitude was to continue. At its expiration she attired herself in
the habit of a man; and with hunting shirt and mocassons, went into
Burden's grant, for the purpose of making improvements and acquiring a
title to land. Here she erected thirty cabins, by virtue of which she
held one hundred acres adjoining each. When Benjamin Burden the
younger, came on to make deeds to those who held cabin rights, he was
astonished to see so many in the name of Mulhollin. Investigation led
to a discovery of the mystery, to the great mirth of the other
claimants. She resumed her christian name and feminine dress, and many
of [45] her respectable descendants still reside within the limits of
Burden's grant.[11]
When in 1752 Robert Dinwiddie came over as governor of Virginia, he
was accompanied by many adventurers; among whom was John Stuart,[12]
an intimate friend of Dinwiddie, who had married the widow of John
Paul (son of Hugh, bishop of Nottingham.) John Paul, a partizan of the
house of Stuart, had perished in the siege of Dalrymple castle in
1745, leaving three children--John, who became a Roman catholic priest
and died on the eastern shore of Maryland--Audley, who was for ten
years an officer in the British colonial forces,--and Polly, who
married Geo. Matthews, afterwards governor of Georgia. Mrs. Paul
(formerly Jane Lynn, of the Lynns of Loch-Lynn, a sister to the wife
of John Lewis) had issue, by Stuart, John, since known as Col. Stuart
of Greenbrier, and Betsy, who became the wife of Col. Richard Woods of
Albemarle.
The greater part of those, who thus ventured "on the untried
being" of a wilderness life, were Scottish presbyterian dissenters;
a class of religionists, of all others perhaps, the most remarkable
for rigid morality. They brought with them, their religious
principles, and sectional prepossessions; and acting upon those
principles acquired for their infant colony a moral and devotional
character rarely possessed by similar establishments. While these
sectional prepossessions, imbibed by their descendants, gave to their
religious persuasions, an ascendency in that section of country,
which it still retains.
They were also men of industry and enterprise. Hunting, which too
frequently occupies the time, of those who make the forest their
dwelling place, and abstracts the attention from more important
pursuits, was to them a recreation--not the business of life. To
improve their condition, by converting the woods into fertile plains,
and the wilderness into productive meadows, was their chief object. In
the attainment of this, they were eminently successful. Their
individual circumstances became prosperous, and the country
flourishing.
The habits and manners of the primeval inhabitants of any country,
generally give to it a distinctive character, which marks it through
after ages. Notwithstanding the influx of strangers, bringing with
them prejudices and prepossessions, at variance with those of the
community in which they come; [46] yet such is the influence of
example, and such the facility with which the mind imbibes the
feelings and sentiments of those with whom it associates, that former
habits are gradually lost and those which prevail in society,
imperceptibly adopted by its new members.
In like manner, the moral and religious habits of those who
accompanied Burden to Virginia, were impressed on the country which
they settled, and entailed on it that high character for industry,
morality and piety, which it still possesses, in an eminent degree.
At the time of the establishment of this settlement, all that part of
Virginia lying west of the Blue ridge mountains, was included in the
county of Orange. At the fall session, of the colonial legislature, in
1738, the counties of Frederick and Augusta were formed out of
Orange--The country included within the boundaries of the Potomac
river, on the north, the Blue ridge, on the east, and a line, to be
run from the head spring of Hedgman, to the head spring of Potomac, on
the south and west, to be the county of Frederick; the remainder of
the state west of the Blue ridge, to the utmost limits of Virginia to
constitute Augusta. Within its limits were included, not only a
considerable portion of Virginia as she now is, but an extent of
territory out of which has been already carved four states, possessing
great natural advantages, and the extreme fertility of whose soil,
will enable them to support perhaps a more dense population, than any
other portion of North America of equal dimensions. As the settlements
were extended, subdivisions were made, 'till what was once Augusta
county south east of the Ohio river, has been chequered on the map of
Virginia, into thirty-three counties with an aggregate population of
289,362.[13]
[48] About the year 1749 there was in the county of Frederick, a man
subject to lunacy, and who, when laboring under the influence of this
disease, would ramble a considerable distance into the neighboring
wilderness. In one of these wanderings he came on some of the waters
of Greenbrier river. Surprised to see them flowing in a westwardly
direction, on his return to Winchester he made known the fact, and
that the country abounded very much with different kinds of Game. In
consequence of this information two men, recently from New England,
visited the country and took up their residence on the Greenbrier
river.
Having erected a cabin and being engaged in making some other
improvements, an altercation arose, which caused Stephen Suel,[14] one
of them, to forsake the cabin and abide for some time in a hollow tree
not far from the improvement, which was still occupied by his old
companion. They were thus situated in 1751, when John Lewis, of
Augusta and his son Andrew were exploring the country; to whom Suel
made known the cause of their living apart, and the great pleasure
which he experienced now in their morning salutations, when issuing
from their respective habitations; whereas when they slept under the
same roof, none of those kindly greetings passed between them. Suel
however did not long remain in the vicinity of Martin, the other of
the two adventurers; he moved forty miles west of his first
improvement, and soon after fell a prey to Indian ferocity. Martin is
said to have returned to the settlements.
There was no other attempt made by the whites, to improve the
Greenbrier country for several years. Lewis and his son thoroughly
examined it; and when permission was given to the Greenbrier company
(of which John Lewis was a member) to locate 100,000 acres, on the
waters of this river, they became agents to make the surveys and
locations. The war between France and England in 1754 checked their
proceedings; and when they, on the restoration of peace, would have
resumed them, they were interdicted by a royal proclamation, issued in
1761, commanding all those who had made settlements on the western
waters to remove from them; and those who were engaged in making
surveys to desist. Sound policy requiring, that a good understanding
should be maintained with the Indians (who claimed the country) to
prevent a further cooperation on their part with France.[15]
Previous to the issuing of this proclamation, some families had moved
to Greenbrier and made two settlements--the one on Muddy creek, the
other in the Big-Levels. These, disregarding the command of his royal
majesty and rather regardless of their own safety, remained until they
were destroyed by the Indians, in 1763.[16] From this time 'till 1769
Greenbrier was altogether uninhabited. Capt. John Stuart and a few
other young men, then began to settle and improve the country; and
although attempts were subsequently made by the Indians to exterminate
them, yet they ever after continued in possession of it.
[49] In the year 1756 settlements were also made on New river and on
Holstein.[17] Among the daring adventurers who effected them, were
Evan Shelby, William Campbell, William Preston and Daniel Boone, all
of whom became distinguished characters in subsequent history. Thomas
Walden,[18] who was afterwards killed on Clinch river and from whom
the mountain dividing Clinch and Powel rivers derived its name, was
likewise one of them. The lands taken up by them, were held as "_corn
rights_" each acquiring a title to an hundred acres of the adjoining
land, for every acre planted in corn.
Nearly cotemporaneous with these establishments, was that at
Galliopolis, on the north western bank of the Ohio, and below Point
Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kenhawa. This was made by a party
of French Jesuits, by whom the Indians were incited to make
incursions, and commit the most enormous barbarities on the then
frontiers.[19] This place and the mouth of Great Sandy were the chief
points of rendezvous for the Ohio Indians. From the former of these
places they would ascend the Kenhawa and Greenbrier rivers, and from
thence crossing the mountains enter into Augusta; or after having
ascended the Kenhawa, go up the New river, from which they would pass
over to the James and Roanoke. From the mouth of Great Sandy they
would ascend that river, and by the way of Bluestone fall over on the
Roanoke and New river. From those two points, expeditions were
frequently made by the Indians, which brought desolation and death
into the infant settlements of the south west, and retarded their
growth very much. In the spring of 1757 nearly the whole Roanoke
settlement was destroyed by a party of Shawanees, who had thus made
their way to it.
That portion of the valley of Virginia in which establishments were
thus begun to be made, was at that time one continued forest;
overspreading a limestone soil of great fertility; and intersected by
rivers affording extensive bottoms of the most productive alluvial
land. Indeed few rivers of equal size, are bordered with as wide and
fertile levels of this formation of earth, as those which water that
section of country: the Roanoke particularly affords large bodies of
it, capable of producing in great abundance hemp, tobacco and the
different kinds of grain usually grown. In the country generally,
every species of vegetable, to which the climate was congenial, grew
with great luxuriancy; while the calcareous nature of the soil,
adapted it finely to the production of that kind of grain, to which
European emigrants were mostly used.
The natural advantages of the country were highly improved by the
persevering industry of its inhabitants. Its forests, felled by
untiring labor, were quickly reduced to profitable cultivation, and
the weeds which spontaneously sprang from the earth, were soon
succeeded by the various grasses calculated to furnish the most
nutritious food, for the lowing herds with which their farmers were
early stocked; these yielded a present profit, and laid the sure
foundation [50] of future wealth. Some of the most extensive and
successful graziers of Virginia, now inhabit that country; and reap
the rich reward of their management and industry, in the improved and
more contiguous market of Richmond.
In the infancy of these establishments, their only market was at
Williamsburg. Thither the early settlers _packed_ their butter and
poultry, and received in exchange salt, iron, and some of the luxuries
of life; their beef and other stock was taken to the same place. In
the process of time, as the country east of the Blue ridge became
more improved, other markets were opened to them; and the facilities
of communication were gradually increased. Their successors have
already derived great advantage from those improvements; and the
present generation will not only witness their farther extension,
but most probably see the country first tenanted by Lewis and his
cotemporaries, a great thoroughfare for the produce of several of the
western states--a link of communication between the Chesapeak bay and
the Gulph of Mexico.
-----
[1] King Shingiss was a famous village chief, "a terror to
the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania." A brother, and later
the successor of King Beaver, his camp was at the mouth of
Beaver Creek, which empties into the Ohio twenty-six miles
below "the forks" (site of Pittsburg). Christopher Gist visited
him November 24, 1750. In 1759, when Fort Pitt was built,
Shingiss moved up Beaver Creek to Kuskuskis on the Mahoning,
and finally to the Muskingum. The land about the mouth of
Beaver Creek is called "Shingis Old Town" in the Ft. Stanwix
treaty, 1784.--R. G. T.
[2] The numbers here set down and those given below, are as
they were ascertained by Capt. Hutchins, who visited the most
of the tribes for purpose of learning their population in
1768.
[3] A tradition among the Delawares says that formerly the
Catawbas came near one of their hunting camps and remaining in
ambush at night sent two or three of their party round the camp
with Buffalo hoofs fixed to their feet, to make artificial
buffalo tracks and thus decoy the hunters from their camp. In
the morning the Delawares, discovering the tracks and supposing
them to have been made by buffaloes, followed them some time;
when suddenly the Catawbas rose from their covert, fired at and
killed several of the hunters; the others fled, collected a
party and went in pursuit of the Catawbas. These had brought
with them, rattle snake poison corked up in a piece of cane
stalk; into which they dipped small reed splinters, which they
set up along their path. The Delawares in pursuit were much
injured by those poisoned splinters, and commenced retreating
to their camp. The Catawbas discovering this, turned upon their
pursuers, and killed and scalped many of them.
[4] John Peter Salling, sometimes spoken of as Peter Adam
Salling, was, if not of German birth, of German descent. With
his brother Henry, he early settled in the forks of James River
and North Branch, in the southern part of what is now
Rockbridge county, Va. The details of his early explorations in
the West are involved in doubt, but that he had such adventures
there seems no good reason to doubt. It will be noticed that
Withers omits the date; some writers have placed it at about
1724, but the probable time was 1738-40. His descendants told
Draper (about 1850) that the family tradition was, that Salling
and a son were employed by the governor of Virginia to explore
the country to the southwest; and when near the present Salem,
Roanoke county, they were captured by Cherokees and carried to
the Ohio River--one account says by way of the Tennessee,
another by the New (Great Kanawha), their boat being made of
buffalo skins. They appear by this tradition to have escaped,
and in descending the Mississippi to have fallen into the hands
of Spaniards. The son died, and the father was sent in a vessel
bound for Spain, there to be tried as a British spy; but the
Spaniard being captured by an English vessel, our hero was
landed at Charleston, whence he reached his frontier home after
an absence of over three years. This story differs in many
details from the one in Kercheval's _History of the Valley of
Virginia_, and also that in Withers's text, above. Salling kept
a journal which was extant in 1745, for in the Wisconsin
Historical Society's library is a diary kept by Capt. John
Buchanan, who notes that in that year he spent two days in
copying a part of it. In Du Pratz' _History of Louisiana_
(London, 1774), Salling and one John Howard are said to have
made this trip in 1742, and the authority is said to be a
_Report of the Government of Virginia_. But Salling must have
returned home by 1742, for his name is in the roll of Capt.
John McDowell's militia company, and he was probably in the
fight with the Indians (Dec. 14) that year, in which McDowell
lost his life. In 1746, we found Salling himself a militia
captain in the Rockbridge district of Augusta county. In
September, 1747, he was cited to appear at court martial for
not turning out to muster--and this is the last record we have
of him. Descendants, named Sallee, now live in Kentucky and
Tennessee.--R. G. T.
[5] John Lewis, the father of Gen. Andrew Lewis, was
probably of Welsh descent, and born in 1678 in County
Donegal, Ireland. About 1716 he married Margaret Lynn, of the
famous Lynns of Loch Lynn, Scotland. In a dispute over his
tenancy (1729), he killed a man of high station,--some say,
his Catholic landlord,--and fled to Portugal, whence in 1731,
after strange adventures, he emigrated to America, and was
joined there by his family. Fearing to live near a sea-port
he established himself on the frontier, in the Valley of
Virginia, two miles east of the present site of Staunton.
His house was of stone, built for defense, and in 1754 it
successfully stood an Indian siege. Lewis was colonel of
the Augusta county militia as early as 1743, presiding
justice in 1745, and high sheriff in 1748. In 1751, then 73
years of age, he assisted his son Andrew, then agent of the
Loyal Company, to explore and survey the latter's grant on
Greenbrier River. It was because the old man became entangled
in the thicket of greenbriers, that he gave this name to the
stream. He died at his old fort homestead, February 1, 1762,
aged 84 years. Some accounts state that he was a Presbyterian;
he was, however, an Episcopalian.--R. G. T.
[6] Lewis soon afterwards obtained leave from Governor Gooch
to locate 100,000 acres of land in separate parcels on the
waters of the Shenandoah and James rivers; and when he would go
out in search of good land to locate, Mackey would accompany
him to hunt buffalo. The former amassed a large estate, while
the latter lived and died in comparative poverty.
[7] As Col. John Lewis had no son Samuel, probably Thomas
Lewis, the elder brother of Andrew, though near-sighted, may
have engaged in buffalo hunting.--L. C. D.
[8] Of the origin of Benjamin Borden, Sr. (the name was
mispronounced Burden, on the frontier), little is known. He was
probably from New Jersey, and early became a fur trader on the
Virginia frontier; later he was in Lord Fairfax's employ as a
land agent. As such, he visited Governor Gooch and obtained
from him several valuable tracts--one of them (October 3,
1734), Borden Manor, on Sprout run, Frederick county; another,
100,000 acres at the head of the James, on condition of
locating thereon a hundred families. At the end of two years he
had erected 92 cabins with as many families, and a patent was
granted him November 8, 1739, for 92,100 acres. He died in
1742, before further development of his enterprise. His son
Benjamin succeeded to his vast estate, but died of small-pox in
1753. In 1744, he married the widow of John McDowell, mentioned
on the next page, who had been killed in the Indian fight of
December 14, 1742.--R. G. T.
[9] The daughter of John Patton subsequently became the wife
of Col. W. Preston, and the mother of James Patton Preston,
late a governor of Virginia.
------
_Comment by L. C. D._--This note of Mr. Withers, derived from
Taylor's sketches (mentioned below), is erroneous both as to
Patton and Preston. Col. Patton's first name was not John, but
James, as both the records and his own autograph sufficiently
attest. Neither did John Preston, nor his son Col. Wm. Preston,
marry Col. Patton's daughter, but John Preston married his
sister. Miss Elizabeth Patton, while crossing the Shannon in a
boat, met the handsome John Preston, then a young ship
carpenter, and an attachment grew out of their accidental
meeting. But as Miss Patton belonged to the upper class of
society, there was a wide gulf between their conditions, and a
runaway match was the only way out of the difficulty. Gov.
James Patton Preston was named after his grand-uncle. James
Patton was born in County Londonderry, Ireland, in 1692. For
many years he was a prosperous navigator, and crossed the
Atlantic twenty-five times with "redemptioners" for Virginia;
he was also an officer in the royal navy in the wars with the
Netherlands. Having obtained a grant of 120,000 acres above the
Blue Ridge, he himself settled in Virginia in 1735. A man of
wealth, enterprise and influence, he was a justice, sheriff,
Indian treaty commissioner, and finally county lieutenant of
Augusta. In 1755, he was killed by Indians while conveying
ammunition to the borderers.
[10] Capt. John McDowell was of Scotch descent, and born in
Ulster, Ireland, but in early manhood came to America, settling
first in Pennsylvania, and then the Virginia Valley (autumn of
1737). He at once became one of Benjamin Borden's surveyors,
and for five years made surveys on Borden's Manor. Becoming a
captain in the Augusta militia, he was ordered to go out
against a party of Northern Indians who, on the war-path
against the Catawbas, had taken in the Virginia Valley on their
way, and annoyed and plundered the white settlers. The savages
were overtaken on the North Branch of James River, some fifteen
miles from McDowell's place, and an engagement ensued (Dec. 14,
1742), in which McDowell and seven others lost their lives. The
Indians escaped with small losses. This was the first battle
between whites and Indians, in the Virginia Valley.--R. G. T.
[11] This incident is well authenticated. See the deposition
of Mrs. Mary Greenlee, preserved in the famous Borden land
suit, among the court records of Augusta county, Va. Mrs.
Greenlee was the sister of Capt. John McDowell, and among the
very earliest settlers of that part of Augusta, now Rockbridge
county. Mrs Greenlee's deposition is published in full in
Peyton's _History of Augusta County, Va._ (Staunton, Va.,
1882), pp. 69-74.--L. C. D.
[12] The late Charles A. Stuart, of Greenbrier, son of Col.
John Stuart, after the appearance of Hugh Paul Taylor's
sketches over the signature of "Son of Cornstalk," published in
the _Staunton Spectator_ of August 21, 1829, over the signature
of "Son of Blue Jacket," a brief criticism, in the nature of
some corrections regarding his own family, to this effect: That
Mrs. Jane Paul was no relative of Mrs. Margaret Lewis, wife of
Col. John Lewis; that her first husband, Mr. Paul--not John,
but probably Hugh Paul--was apparently from the north of
Ireland--their son Audley Paul was born before the migration of
the family to Pennsylvania; Mr. Paul, Sr., it is said, became
the pastor of the Presbyterian congregation of Chester, in that
province; but as Chester was a Quaker settlement, it is more
likely that he located in some Presbyterian community in that
region, and there must have died. Mrs. Paul, for her second
husband, married Col. David Stuart, also from Ireland, by whom
she had John Stuart and two daughters. Mrs. Stuart's
grandchild, Charles A. Stuart, resided many years in Augusta,
representing that county in the State senate, subsequently
removed back to Greenbrier county, where he died about 1850, at
the age of about sixty-five years. He was a man of sterling
qualities.--L. C. D.
[13] The following table exhibits a list of the several counties west
of the Blue ridge--the counties from which each was taken--when
established--their area in square miles--population in 1830, and
amount of taxation for the same year.
Counties. From what When Area. Population. Taxation.
taken. formed.
Augusta, Orange, 1738 948 19,925 6,734
Alleghany, Bath, Botetourt
and Monroe, 1822 521 2,816 526
Bath, Augusta,
Botetourt and
Greenbrier, 1791 795 4,068 865
[47] Brooke, Ohio, 1797 202 7,040 1,136
Berkeley, Frederick, 1772 308 10,528 3,356
Botetourt, Augusta, 1770 1057 16,354 3,809
Cabell, Kanawha, 1809 1033 5,884 629
Frederick, Orange, 1738 745 26,045 9,396
Greenbrier, Botet't &
Montg'ry, 1778 1409 9,059 1,716
Giles, Montgomery,
Monroe and
Tazewell, 1806 935 5,300 541
Grayson, Wythe, 1793 927 7,675 537
Harrison, Monongalia, 1784 1095 14,713 1,669
Hampshire, Augusta &
Fred'k, 1754 989 11,279 2,402
Hardy, Hampshire, 1786 1156 5,700 2,633
Jefferson, Berkeley, 1801 225 12,927 4,721
Kanawha, Greenb'r &
M'tg'ry, 1789 2090 9,334 1,453
Lewis, Harrison, 1816 1754 6,241 630
Logan, Giles, Kanawha,
Cabell &
Tazewell, 1824 2930 3,680 245
Lee, Russell, 1793 512 9,461 789
Monongalia, District of
W. A'g'ta, 1776 721 14,056 1,492
Monroe, Greenbrier, 1799 614 7,798 1,158
Morgan, Berkeley and
Hampshire, 1820 271 2,702 546
Montgomery, Fincastle, 1777 1089 12,306 1,666
Mason, Kanawha, 1804 904 6,534 915
Nicholas, Kanawha,
Greenbrier and
Randolph, 1818 1431 3,338 373
Ohio, District of
W. A'g'ta, 1776 375 15,590 1,968
Preston, Monongalia, 1818 601 5,144 441
Pendleton, Augusta, Hardy
and Rockingham, 1788 999 6,271 1,120
Pocahontas, Bath, Pendleton
and Randolph, 1821 794 2,542 405
Randolph, Harrison, 1787 2061 5,000 644
Russell, Washington, 1786 1370 6,717 739
Rockingham, Augusta, 1778 833 20,663 5,056
Rockbridge, Augusta &
Botetourt, 1778 680 14,244 3,276
Scott, Lee, Russell and
Washington, 1814 624 5,712 503
Shenandoah, Frederick, 1772 767 19,750 4,922
Tyler, Ohio, 1814 855 4,308 757
Tazewell, Russell & Wythe, 1799 1305 5,573 727
Washington, Fincastle, 1777 1754 15,614 2,918
Wythe, Montgomery, 1790 1998 12,163 2,178
Wood, Harrison, 1799 1223 6,418 1,257
Total, 378,293 76,848
[14] Little and Big Sewell mountains, dividing Fayette and
Greenbrier counties, seem to perpetuate the name and memory of
this early and adventurous pioneer. Col. John Stuart states,
that Sewell's final settlement was forty miles west of his
primitive one, and on a creek bearing his name originating in
Sewell mountain, and flowing into Gauley. Col. Preston, in his
_Register_, gives September, 1756, as the date of Stephen
Sewell's death by the Indians, and Jackson's River as the
locality.
Mrs. Anne Royall, in _Sketches of the History, Life and Manners
of the United States_, (New Haven, 1826), p. 60, who visited
the Greenbrier country in 1824, gives the name of Carver as
Sewell's companion. "These two men," says Mrs. Royall, "lived
in a cave for several years, but at length they disagreed on
the score of religion, and occupied different camps. They took
care, however, not to stay far from each other, their camps
being in sight. Sewell used to relate that he and his friend
used to sit up all night without sleep, with their guns cocked,
ready to fire at each other. 'And what could that be for?'
'Why, because we couldn't agree.' 'Only two of you, and could
you not agree--what did you quarrel about?' 'Why, about
re-la-gin.' One of them, it seems, was a Presbyterian, and the
other an Episcopalian."--L. C. D.
[15] An error as to date. King George's proclamation was
dated Oct. 7, 1763. For full text, see _Wisconsin Historical
Collections_, XI., pp. 46 et seq.--R. G. T.
[16] Thomas King, one of the ablest of the Iroquois chiefs,
related an incident at an Indian conference held at Easton,
Pa., Oct. 18, 1758, which may explain why the Indians evinced
so much hostility against the Greenbrier settlements. "About
three years ago," said Chief King, "eight Seneca warriors were
returning from war, with seven prisoners and scalps with them;
and, at a place called Greenbrier, they met with a party of
soldiers, not less than one hundred and fifty, who kindly
invited them to come to a certain store, saying they would
supply them with provisions. Accordingly they travelled two
days with them, in a friendly manner, and when they came to the
house, they took their arms from the Senecas. The head men
cried out, 'here is death; defend yourselves as well as you
can,' which they did, and two of them were killed on the spot,
and one, a young boy, was taken prisoner. This gave great
offense; and the more so, as it was upon the warrior's road,
and we were in perfect peace with our brethren. It provoked us
to such a degree that we could not get over it. He wished the
boy returned, if alive; and told his name, Squissatego." See
Hazard's _Penna. Register_, V., p. 373; and _Penna. Records_,
VIII., pp. 197-98.--L. C. D.
[17] There were settlers on both New and Holston rivers prior
to 1756--Vause, Stalnacker and others on New River; and Stephen
Holston, at least, on the river bearing his name, which was
known as such anterior to April, 1748, when Dr. Walker, in his
_Journal_ of 1750, refers to it by that designation. But
William Campbell did not settle on Holston until 1767; Wm.
Preston settled in 1769; Evan Shelby and family in 1771; and,
while Daniel Boone passed through that country as early, it is
believed, as 1760, he never "settled" there.
A further notice of Stephen Holston, or Holstein, seems fitting
in this connection. He was of an adventurous turn, and prior to
1748 had, during a hunt, discovered the river named after him.
It was after this discovery that he settled on the Little
Saluda, near Saluda Old Town, in South Carolina, where, in the
summer of 1753, a party of Cherokees returning from a visit to
Gov. Glen, at Charleston, behaved so rudely to Mrs. Holston, in
her husband's absence, as to frighten her and her domestics
away, fleeing several miles to the nearest settlement, when the
house was robbed of utensils and corn, and two valuable horses
were also taken. Holston and some of his neighbors settled on
Holston's River, in what subsequently became Botetourt county:
soon after this, they constructed canoes, and passed down the
Holston into the Tennessee River, through the Muscle Shoals,
and down the Ohio and Mississippi as far as Natchez. Returning
from this notable adventure, his name became fixed to the noble
stream which he discovered, and upon which he made the
primitive settlement. His location on Holston was at the head
spring of the Middle Fork; his log cabin was on the hill side
some thirty rods from the spring. In 1774, one Davis occupied
the place, and related that Holston had left several years
before that date. On the breaking out of the Indian war in
1754, he seems to have retired with his family to Culpeper
county, which was then not exempt from Indian forays; and
Holston, about 1757, was captured by the Indians. But in due
time he returned to the Holston country, served in the battle
of Point Pleasant in 1774, on Christian's campaign against the
Cherokees in 1776, and was reported in service in 1776 or 1777.
As we hear no more of him, he probably did not long survive
after this period.--L. C. D.
[18] The first name of Walden was not Thomas--Elisha
Walden was his proper name. He was a son-in-law of William
Blevins, and both Walden and Blevins lived, in 1774, at the
"Round-About" on Smith's River, two miles east of what is
now Martinsville, Henry county, Virginia. He was then about
forty years of age, nearly six feet in height, a rough
frontiersman, and a noted hunter. He and several others, in
1761, penetrated into Powell's Valley, naming Walden's Mountain
and Walden's Creek, and proceeded on through Cumberland Gap
to Cumberland River, and a few miles beyond to the Laurel
Mountain, where meeting a party of Indians, they returned. In
subsequent years, Walden settled on Holston, about eighteen
miles above Knoxville, where he was residing in 1796; a few
years later, he removed to Powell's Valley, but soon after
migrated to Missouri, where he lived hunting up to extreme
old age. Save what is related from Haywood's _Hist. of
Tennessee_ about the trip of 1761, this information was
communicated to the writer in 1849, by Maj. John Redd, of
Henry county, Va., who personally knew the old hunter very
well.--L. C. D.
[19] A curious misconception, this. Some of the founders of
Marietta acquired in 1788 a large tract west and north of their
own, and as a private speculation organized the Scioto Company.
Joel Barlow, the poet, was sent to Paris to negotiate the sale
of the lands. To the "Society of the Scioto," formed by him
there, he sold three million acres, and France was deluged with
rose-colored immigration pamphlets written by Barlow. In
February, 1790, six hundred Frenchmen--chiefly professional men
and small artisans from the large towns, with not an
agriculturist among them--arrived in Alexandria, Va., _en
route_ for the Scioto. They found that the Society, not having
paid for its lands, had forfeited its rights, and deeds granted
to the intending settlers were void. Five hundred finally went
west, and founded Gallipolis. Poor, not knowing how to work the
soil, and simple folk with no notions of independence, they
suffered from famine, Indians, and yellow fever. They finally
repurchased their lands, and upon the cessation of the border
war gained some strength; but Gallipolis was never more than a
weakling until Americans and Germans came in and put it on its
feet.--R. G. T.
[51] CHAPTER II.
The tract of country usually denominated North Western Virginia,
includes the counties of Brook, Ohio, Tyler, Wood, Lewis, Randolph,
Preston, Harrison and Monongalia, covering an area of 8,887 square
miles, and having a population, according to the census of 1830, of
78,510 souls. These counties, with a portion of Pennsylvania then
deemed to be within the limits of Virginia, constituted the district
of West Augusta; and was the last grand division of the state, to
become occupied by the whites. This was perhaps owing to natural
causes, as well as to the more immediate proximity of hostile
Indians.
The general surface of this district of country is very broken, its
hills, though rich, are yet steep and precipitous, and the various
streams which flow along their bases, afford but few bottoms; and
these of too narrow and contracted dimensions to have attracted the
adventurer, when more invited portions of the country, were alike open
to his enterprise.--The Alleghany ridge of mountains, over which the
eastern emigrant had to pass, presented too, no inconsiderable barrier
to its earlier location; while the cold, bleak, inhospitable region,
extending from the North Branch to the Cheat and Valley rivers, seemed
to threaten an entire seclusion from the eastern settlements, and to
render it an isolated spot, not easily connected with any other
section of the state.
The first attempt on the part of the English to occupy the country
contiguous to the Ohio river, was made in consequence of the measures
adopted by the French to possess themselves of it. France had early
become acquainted with the country, so far as to perceive the facility
with which her possessions in the north, might, by means of a free
communication down the valley of the Mississippi, be connected with
those in the south. To preserve this communication uninterrupted, to
acquire influence over the neighboring Indians and to prevent the
occupancy and settlement by England of the country west [52] of the
Alleghany mountains, the French were early induced to establish
trading posts among the Indians on the Ohio, and to obtain and
preserve possession of the country by the erection of a chain of forts
to extend from Canada to Louisiana.[1]
To counteract those operations of the French, to possess herself of
the country, to which she deemed her title to be good, and to enjoy
the lucrative traffic which was then to be carried on with the
Indians, England gave to an association of gentlemen in Great Britain
and Virginia, (under the title of the Ohio Company,) liberty to locate
and hold in their own right, 600,000 acres of land within the country
then claimed by both England and France. In pursuance of this grant,
steps were directly taken to effect those objects, by establishing
trading houses among the Indians near the Ohio, and by engaging
persons to make such a survey of the country, as would enable the
grantees to effect a location of the quantity allowed them, out of the
most valuable lands. The company endeavored to complete their survey
with all possible secrecy, and by inducing the Indians to believe
their object to be purely commercial, to allay any apprehensions,
which might otherwise arise, of an attempt to gain possession of the
country.
The attempt to accomplish their purpose of territorial aggrandizement,
with secrecy, was fruitless and unavailing.--The Pennsylvania traders,
fearful that they would lose the profitable commerce carried on with
the Indians, excited their jealousy by acquainting them with the real
motive of the company; while the French actually seized, and made
prisoners, of their traders, and opened and secured, by detachments of
troops stationed at convenient situations, a communication from Presq'
Isle to the Ohio river.
The Ohio company sent a party of men to erect a stockade fort at the
confluence of the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers, which had been
recommended by General Washington as a suitable position for the
erection of fortifications.[2] This party of men was accompanied by a
detachment of militia, which had been ordered out by the governor; but
before they could effect their object, they were driven off by the
French, [53] who immediately took possession of the place, and erected
thereon Fort du Quesne. These transactions were immediately succeeded
by the war, usually called Braddock's war, which put an end to the
contemplated settlement, and the events of which are, for the most
part, matter of general history. It may not however be amiss to relate
some incidents connected with this war, which though of minor
importance, may yet be interesting to some; and which have escaped the
pen of the historian.
In Braddock's army there were two regiments of volunteer militia from
Virginia.[3] One of these was commanded by Col. Russel of Fairfax;
the other by Col. Fry, and was from Shenandoah and James rivers. In
this latter regiment there was a company from Culpepper, commanded by
Capt. Grant, (afterwards known as a considerable land holder in
Kentucky) and of which John Field (who was killed in the battle at
Point Pleasant) was a lieutenant. There was likewise in this regiment,
a company of riflemen, from Augusta, commanded by Capt. Samuel Lewis,
(the eldest son of John Lewis, who, with Mackey and Salling, had been
foremost in settling that country) who was afterwards known as Col.
Samuel Lewis of Rockingham.[4] In this company was also contained the
five brothers of Capt. Lewis. Andrew, afterwards Gen. Lewis of
Botetourt--Charles, afterwards Col. Lewis, who was likewise killed at
Point Pleasant--William, John and Thomas. Among their compatriots in
arms, were the five sons of Capt. John Matthews, (who had accompanied
Burden to Virginia) Elihu Barkley, John McDowell,[5] Paul Whitly,
James Bell, Patrick Lockard, and a number of others of the first
settlers of Augusta, Rockbridge and Rockingham.
From the time the army crossed the Alleghany mountain, its movements
were constantly watched by Indian spies, from Fort du Quesne; and as
it approached nearer the point of destination, runners were regularly
despatched, to acquaint the garrison with its progress, and manner of
marching.--When intelligence was received that Braddock still moved in
close order, the Indians laid the plan for surprising him, and carried
it into most effectual execution with but little assistance from the
French.[6]
[54] At the place where the English crossed the Monongahela river,
there are about two acres of bottom land, bounded by the river on the
east, and by a ledge of high cliffs on the west. Through these cliffs
there is a considerable ravine, formed by the flowing of a small
rivulet--On the summit, a wide prospect opens to the west, of a
country whose base is level, but surface uneven. On this summit lay
the French and Indians concealed by the prairie grass and timber, and
from this situation, in almost perfect security, they fired down upon
Braddock's men. The only exposure of the French and Indians, resulted
from the circumstance of their having to raise their heads to peep
over the verge of the cliff, in order to shoot with more deadly
precision. In consequence, all of them who were killed in the early
part of the action, were shot through the head.[7]
The companies, commanded by Capt. Grant and Lewis,[8] were the first
to cross the river. As fast as they landed they formed, and proceeding
up the ravine, arrived at the plain on the head of the rivulet,
without having discovered the concealed enemy which they had just
passed. So soon as the rear of Braddock's army had crossed the river,
the enemy raised a heart rending yell, and poured down a constant and
most deadly fire. Before General Braddock received his wound, he gave
orders for the whole line to countermarch and form a phalanx on the
bottom, so as to cover their retreat across the river. When the main
column was wheeled, Grant's and Lewis' companies had proceeded so far
in advance, that a large body of the enemy rushed down from both sides
of the ravine, and intercepted them. A most deadly contest ensued.
Those who intercepted Grant and Lewis, could not pass down the defile,
as the main body of Braddock's army was there, and it would have been
rushing into the midst of it, to inevitable destruction--the sides of
the ravine were too steep and rocky to admit of a retreat up them, and
their only hope of escape lay in cutting down those two companies and
passing [55] out at the head of the ravine. A dreadful slaughter was
the consequence. Opposed in close fight, and with no prospect of
security, but by joining the main army in the bottom, the companies of
Grant and Lewis literally cut their way through to the mouth of the
ravine. Many of Lewis's men were killed and wounded, and not more than
half of Grant's lived to reach the river bank. Almost the only loss
the enemy sustained was in this conflict.
The unfortunate result of the campaign of 1755, gave to the French a
complete ascendency over the Indians on the Ohio. In consequence of
this there was a general distress on the frontier settlements of
Virginia. The incursions of the Indians became more frequent and were
extended so far, that apprehensions existed of an irruption into the
country east of the Blue ridge.[9] This state of things continued
until the capture of Fort du Quesne in 1758, by Gen. Forbes.
In the regiment commanded by Washington in the army of 1758, Andrew
Lewis was a Major. With this gentleman, Gen. Washington had become
acquainted during the campaign of 1754, and had formed of him, as a
military man, the highest expectations; his conduct at the defeat of
Major Grant, realized those expectations, and acquired for him a
reputation for prudence and courage which he sustained unimpaired,
during a long life of public service.[10]
Gen. Lewis was in person upwards of six feet high, finely proportioned,
of uncommon strength and great activity. His countenance was stern and
rather forbidding--his deportment distant and reserved; this rendered
his person more awful than engaging. When he was at Fort Stanwich in
1768, as one of the commissioners from the colony of Virginia, to
treat, in conjunction with commissioners from the eastern colonies,
with the Six Nations, the Governor of New York remarked "that the earth
seemed to tremble under his tread."
When the war of the revolution commenced, and General [56] Washington
was commissioned commander in chief, he is said to have expressed a
wish, that the appointment had been given to Gen. Lewis. Be this as it
may, it is certain that he accepted the commission of Brigadier
General at the solicitation of Washington; and when, from wounded
pride[11] and a shattered constitution, he was induced to express an
intention of resigning, Gen. Washington wrote him, entreating that he
would not do so, and assuring him that justice should be done, as
regarded his rank. Gen. Lewis, however, had become much reduced by
disease, and did not think himself able, longer to endure the
hardships of a soldier's life--he resigned his commission in 1780, and
died in the county of Bedford, on the way to his home in Botetourt on
Roanoke river.
When Major Grant, (who had been sent with a detachment for the purpose
of reconnoitering the country about Fort du Quesne,) arrived in view
of it, he resolved on attempting its reduction. Major Lewis
remonstrated with him, on the propriety of that course, and endeavored
to dissuade him from the attempt. Grant deemed it practicable to
surprise the garrison and effect an easy conquest, and was unwilling
that the provincial troops should divide with his Highland regulars
the glory of the achievment--he therefore ordered Major Lewis two
miles into the rear, with that part of the Virginia regiment then
under his command.
Soon after the action had commenced, Lewis discovered by the
retreating fire, that Grant was in an unpleasant situation, and
leaving Capt. Bullet with fifty men to guard the baggage, hastened to
his relief. On arriving at the battle ground, and finding Grant and
his detachment surrounded by the Indians, who had passed his rear
under covert of the banks of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers,
Major Lewis commenced a brisk fire and made so vigorous an attack on
the Indians as to open a passage through which Grant and some few of
his men effected an escape. Lewis and his brave provincials became
enclosed within the Indian lines and suffered dreadfully. Out of eight
officers five were killed, a sixth wounded and a seventh taken
prisoner. Capt. Bullet, [57] who defended the baggage with great
bravery and contributed much to save the remnant of the detachment,
was the only officer who escaped unhurt.[12] Out of one hundred and
sixty-six men, sixty-two were killed on the spot and two were
wounded.
Major Lewis was himself made prisoner; and although stripped by the
Indians of every article of his clothing, and reduced to perfect
nudity, he was protected from bodily injury by a French officer, who
took him to his tent and supplied him with clothes. Grant who had
wandered all night with five or six of his men, came in, on the
morning after the engagement, and surrendered himself a prisoner of
war.
While Grant and Lewis were prisoners, the former addressed a letter to
Gen. Forbes giving a detailed account of the engagement and
attributing the defeat to the ill conduct of the latter. This letter,
(being inspected by the French who knew the falsehood of the charge it
contained) was handed to Maj. Lewis. Exasperated at this charge, Lewis
waited on Major Grant and in the interview between them, after having
bestowed on him some abusive epithets, challenged him to the field.
Grant declined to accept the invitation; and Lewis, after spitting in
his face in the presence of several of the French officers, left him
to reflect on his baseness.
After this defeat a council was held by the Indians to determine on
the course proper for them to pursue. The most of them had come from
about Detroit at the instance of the French commandant there, to
fortify Fort du Quesne against an attack by Forbes--the hunting season
had arrived and many of them were anxious to return to their town. The
question which attracted their attention most seriously was, whether
Gen. Forbes would then retreat or advance. As Grant had been most
signally defeated, many supposed that the main arm would retire into
winter quarters, as Dunbar had, after the battle on the Monongahela.
The French expressed a different opinion, and endeavored to prevail on
the Indians to remain and witness the result. This however they
refused to do, and the greater part of them left du Quesne. Upon this
the commandant of the fort, in order to learn the course which Gen.
Forbes would pursue, and to impress upon the English, an idea that the
French were in return preparing to attack them, ordered the remainder
of the Indians, a number of Canadians and some French regulars to
reconnoitre the route [58] along which Gen. Forbes would be most
likely to march his army, to watch their motions and harrass them as
much as possible; determining if they could not thus force him to
abandon the idea of attacking Du Quesne during that campaign, they
would evacuate the fort and retire into Canada.
When Major Grant with his men had been ordered on to Du Quesne, the
main army had been left at Raystown, where it continued for some time;
an advance was however posted at fort Ligonier. Between this vanguard
and the detachment from Du Quesne there was a partial engagement,
which resulted in the loss of some of the Maryland troops. Fort
Ligonier was then closely watched by the French and Indians, and
several of the sentinels were killed, before the point from which the
fires were directed, was discovered; it was at length ascertained that
parties of the enemy would creep under the bank of the Loyal Hanna
till they could obtain a position from which to do execution. Some
soldiers were then stationed to guard this point, who succeeded in
killing two Indians, and in wounding and making prisoner of one
Frenchman. From him the English obtained information that the greater
part of the Indians had left Du Quesne, and that the fort was
defenceless: the army then moved forward and taking possession of its
ruins established thereon Fort Pitt.[13] The country around began
immediately to be settled, and several other forts were erected to
protect emigrants, and to keep the Indians in awe.
Previous to this an attempt had been made by David Tygart and a Mr.
Files to establish themselves on an upper branch of the Monongahela
river.[14] They had been for some time frontier's men, and were
familiar with the scenes usually exhibited on remote and unprotected
borders; and nothing daunted by the cruel murders and savage
enormities, which they had previously witnessed, were induced by some
cause, most probably the uninterrupted enjoyment of the forest in the
pursuit of game, to venture still farther into the wilderness. About
the year 1754 these two men with their families arrived on the east
fork of the Monongahela, and after examining the country, selected
positions for their future residence. Files chose a spot on the river,
at the mouth of a creek which still bears his name, where Beverly, the
county seat of Randolph has been since established. Tygart settled a
few miles farther up and also on the river. The valley in which they
had thus taken up their abode, has been since called Tygart's [59]
valley, and the east fork of the Monongahela, Tygart's-valley river.
The difficulty of procuring bread stuffs for their families, their
contiguity to an Indian village, and the fact that an Indian war path
passed near their dwellings, soon determined them to retrace their
steps.[15] Before they carried this determination into effect, the
family of Files became the victims of savage cruelty. At a time when
all the family were at their cabin, except an elder son, they were
discovered by a party of Indians, supposed to be returning from the
South Branch, who inhumanly butchered them all.[16] Young Files being
not far from the house and hearing the uproar, approached until he
saw, too distinctly, the deeds of death which were doing; and feeling
the utter impossibility of affording relief to his own, resolved if he
could, to effect the safety of Tygart's family. This was done and the
country abandoned by them.
Not long after this, Doctor Thomas Eckarly and his two brothers came
from Pennsylvania and camped at the mouth of a creek, emptying into
the Monongahela, 8 or 10 miles below Morgantown; they were Dunkards,
and from that circumstance, the watercourse on which they fixed
themselves for a while, has been called Dunkard's creek. While their
camp continued at this place, these men were engaged in exploring the
country; and ultimately settled on Cheat river, at the Dunkard bottom.
Here they erected a cabin for their dwelling, and made such
improvements as enabled them to raise the first year, a crop of corn
sufficient for their use, and some culinary vegetables: their guns
supplied them with an abundance of meat, of a flavor as delicious as
the refined palate of a modern epicure could well wish. Their clothes
were made chiefly of the skins of animals, and were easily procured:
and although calculated to give a grotesque appearance to a fine
gentleman in a city drawing room; yet were they particularly suited to
their situation, and afforded them comfort.
Here they spent some years entirely unmolested by the Indians,
although a destructive war was then raging, and prosecuted with
cruelty, along the whole extent of our frontier. At length to obtain
an additional supply of ammunition, salt and shirting, Doctor Eckarly
left Cheat, with a pack of furs and skins, to visit a trading post on
the Shenandoah. On his return, he stopped at Fort Pleasant, on the
South Branch; and having communicated to its inhabitants the place of
his residence, and the length of time he had been living there, he was
charged with being in confederacy with the Indians, and probably at
that instant a spy, examining the condition of the fort. In vain the
Doctor protested his innocence and the fact that he had not even seen
an Indian in the country; the suffering condition [59] of the border
settlements, rendered his account, in their opinion improbable, and he
was put in confinement.
The society, of which Doctor Eckarly was a member, was rather
obnoxious to a number of the frontier inhabitants. Their intimacy with
the Indians, although cultivated with the most laudable motives, and
for noble purposes, yet made them objects at least of distrust to
many. Laboring under these disadvantages, it was with difficulty that
Doctor Eckarly prevailed on the officer of the fort to release him;
and when this was done he was only permitted to go home under certain
conditions--he was to be escorted by a guard of armed men, who were to
carry him back if any discovery were made prejudicial to him. Upon
their arrival at Cheat, the truth of his statement was awfully
confirmed. The first spectacle which presented itself to their view,
when the party came within sight of where the cabin had been, was a
heap of ashes. On approaching the ruins, the half decayed, and
mutilated bodies of the poor Dunkards, were seen in the yard; the
hoops, on which their scalps had been dried, were there, and the
ruthless hand of desolation had waved over their little fields. Doctor
Eckarly aided in burying the remains of his unfortunate brothers, and
returned to the fort on the South Branch.
In the fall of 1758, Thomas Decker and some others commenced a
settlement on the Monongahela river, at the mouth of what is now,
Decker's creek. In the ensuing spring it was entirely broken up by a
party of Delawares and Mingoes; and the greater part of its
inhabitants murdered.
There was at this time at Brownsville a fort, then known as
Redstone fort, under the command of Capt. Paul.[17] One of Decker's
party escaped from the Indians who destroyed the settlement, and
making his way to Fort Redstone, gave to its commander the melancholy
intelligence. The garrison being too weak to admit of sending a
detachment in pursuit, Capt. Paul despatched a runner with the
information to Capt. John Gibson, then stationed at Fort Pitt.
Leaving the fort under the command of Lieut. Williamson, Capt. Gibson
set out with thirty men to intercept the Indians, on their return
to their towns.
In consequence of the distance which the pursuers had to go, and the
haste with which the Indians had retreated, the expedition failed in
its object; they however accidentally came on a party of six or seven
Mingoes, on the head of Cross Creek in Ohio (near Steubenville)--these
had been prowling about the river, below Fort Pitt, seeking an
opportunity of committing depredations.[18] As Capt. Gibson passed the
point of a small knoll, just after day break, he came unexpectedly
upon them--some of them were lying down; the others were sitting round
a fire, making thongs of green hides. Kiskepila or Little Eagle, a
Mingo chief, headed the party. So soon as he discovered Capt. Gibson,
he raised the war whoop and fired [61] his rifle--the ball passed
through Gibson's hunting shirt and wounded a soldier just behind him.
Gibson sprang forward, and swinging his sword with herculean force,
severed the head of the Little Eagle from his body--two other Indians
were shot down, and the remainder escaped to their towns on
Muskingum.
When the captives, who were restored under the treaty of 1763, came
in, those who were at the Mingo towns when the remnant of Kiskepila's
party returned, stated that the Indians represented Gibson as having
cut off the Little Eagle's head with a _long knife_. Several of the
white persons were then sacrificed to appease the manes of Kiskepila;
and a war dance ensued, accompanied with terrific shouts and bitter
denunciations of revenge on "_the Big knife warrior_." This name was
soon after applied to the Virginia militia generally; and to this day
they are known among the north western Indians as the "_Long knives_,"
or "_Big knife nation_."[19]
These are believed to have been the only attempts to effect a
settlement of North Western Virginia, prior to the close of the French
war. The capture of Fort du Quesne and the erection and garrisoning of
Fort Pitt, although they gave to the English an ascendency in that
quarter; yet they did not so far check the hostile irruptions of the
Indians, as to render a residence in this portion of Virginia, by any
means secure.--It was consequently not attempted 'till some years
after the restoration of peace in 1765.
-----
[1] This is misleading. The author has told us, in the
preceding chapter, of several attempts of English coast
colonists to make transmontane settlements, quite apart from
thought of ousting the French. Englishmen had no sooner landed
in America than they attempted to cross the Western mountain
barrier. Ralph Lane made the attempt in 1586, Christopher
Newport and John Smith in 1606, and Newport himself in 1607.
John Lederer, a German surgeon exploring for Governor Berkeley,
of Virginia, reached the top of Blue Ridge in 1609, but did not
descend the western slope. Two years later, Abraham Wood
discovered the Great Kanawha. It is possible that the French
Jesuit Le Moyne was on the Alleghany River as early as 1656. La
Salle was probably at the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville) in
1669. But it was not until about 1700 that French and English
fur-traders met in open rivalry on the Ohio. It was with no
thought of the French that Governor Spottswood, of Virginia,
passed over the Blue Ridge in 1714. The situation in short, was
this: The English colonists early wanted the over-mountain
country watered by the Ohio, but were too weak at first to hold
for agricultural settlement lands so far from home, in the face
of a savage foe. The French wanted the valley solely for the
fur trade, but Iroquois opposition long kept them from
entering; when at last they were able to do so, the English
colonists had also grown strong enough to move in, and then
ensued the long and bloody struggle in which New France
fell.--R. G. T.
[2] In the journal (drawn up for the inspection of Gov.
Dinwiddie) of the events of his mission to the commander of the
French forces on the Ohio; this was the first of those splendid
acts of a public nature, performed by Gen. Washington.
[3] Only five companies of the first Virginia regiment
served on Braddock's campaign--hence there was no second
regiment, nor any Colonel Russell engaged in that service; there
was, however, at this period, a Colonel or Lieut.-Colonel
William Russell, who emigrated from England when a young lawyer,
to Virginia, about 1710, and settled in Culpeper, and by the
readjustment of county lines he was thrown into the new county
of Orange. He was a man of much prominence, and at one time was
high sheriff of Orange; and apparently lieutenant-colonel of
militia, and as such, in the early part of the French and
Indian War, did some frontier service, though rather advanced
in years at the time. In 1753, he was sent as a commissioner
to pacify the Indians in the region where Pittsburg was
subsequently located. He died October 18, 1757, aged about
seventy-two years. His son of the same name served with
reputation at the battle of Point Pleasant, and during the
Revolutionary War, retiring at its close with the brevet rank
of brigadier-general.--L. C. D.
[4] It has already been stated that Col. John Lewis's eldest
son was Thomas, not Samuel.--L. C. D.
[5] Capt. John McDowell was killed in an engagement with the
Indians, in December, 1742, and of course could not have served
under either Andrew or Charles Lewis.--L. C. D.
[6] James Smith, afterwards Col. Smith of Bourbon county in
Kentucky, was then a prisoner at du Quesne. He says that the
Indians in council planned the attack on Braddock's army and
selected the ground from which to make it--that the assailants
did not number more than 400 men, of whom but a small
proportion were French. One of the Indians laughed when he
heard the order of march in Braddock's army, and said "we'll
shoot them down all as one pigeon." Washington beheld the event
in fearful anticipation, and exerted himself in vain with Gen.
Braddock, to alter the order of march.
[7] It is evident that the author never saw the site of
Braddock's defeat, just below the mouth of Turtle Creek, for
his description is quite inaccurate. June 30, 1755, the army,
which had been following the Ohio Company's road from Will's
Creek, _via_ East Meadows, crossed the Youghiogheny and
proceeding in a devious course struck the head of Turtle Creek,
which was followed nearly to its mouth, whence a southern
course was taken to avoid the steep hills. Reaching the
Monongahela just below the mouth of the Youghiogheny, they
crossed (July 9) to the west side, where there is a long,
narrow bottom. Nearly opposite the mouth of Turtle Creek, and
about four miles below the first crossing, hills again closely
approach the west bank, and the east side becomes the more
favorable for marching. Here, only eight miles across country
from Fort Duquesne, Braddock forded the second time, and in
angling up the rather easy slope upon which is now built the
busy iron-making town of Braddock, Pa., was obliged to pass
through a heavily-wooded ravine. This was the place of the
ambuscade, where his army was cut to pieces. Indians from the
Upper Lakes, under the leadership of Charles Langlade, a
Wisconsin fur-trader, were the chief participants in this
affair, on the French side.--R. G. T.
[8] This statement about Capts. Grant and Lewis having taken
part in the battle of the Monongahela, is altogether a mistake.
It must have originated in some traditional account, and become
confused in some way with Grant's defeat, three years later, in
which Maj. James Grant and Maj. Andrew Lewis both took a
prominent part. There is no record of any Capt. Grant in
Braddock's army. Andrew Lewis, though a major, was still in
command of his company, and at the time of Braddock's defeat
was on detached service. Gov. Dinwiddie, writing to Maj. Lewis,
July 8, 1755, says: "You were ordered to Augusta with your
company to protect the frontier of that county;" and, in a
letter of the same date, to Col. Patton, the Governor adds:
"Enclosed you have a letter to Capt. Lewis, which please
forward to him: _I think he is at Greenbrier._" Capt. Robt.
Orme, aide-de-camp to Gen. Braddock, in his Journal appended to
Sargent's _History of Braddock's Expedition_, states under date
of April, 1755, that the Virginia troops having been clothed,
were ordered to march to Winchester, for arming and drilling,
and then adds: "Capt. Lewis was ordered with his company of
Rangers to Greenbrier river, there to build two stockade forts,
in one of which he was to remain himself and to detach to the
other a subaltern and fifteen men. These forts were to cover
the western settlers of Virginia from any inroads of
Indians."--L. C. D.
[9] The MS. Journal of Col. Charles Lewis, in possession of
the Wisconsin Historical Society, covering the period from
October 10 to December 27, 1755, is an unconsciously eloquent
picture of the hardships of life on the Virginia frontier, at
this time.--R. G. T.
[10] After the capitulation of Fort Necessity, and while
some of the soldiers of each army were intermixed, an
Irishman, exasperated with an Indian near him, "cursed the
copper-coloured scoundrel" and raised his musket to shoot
him. Gen. Lewis who had been twice wounded in the engagement,
and was then hobbling on a staff, raised the Irishman's
gun, as he was in the act of firing, and thus not only saved
the life of the Indian, but probably prevented a general
massacre of the Virginia troops.
[11] Congress had given to Gen. Stephens, and some others
(whose senior Lewis had been in former services) commissions as
Major Generals.
[12] Thomas Bullitt was a native of Prince William county,
Virginia. He was appointed an ensign in Washington's first
Virginia regiment, July 20, 1754, and promoted to a lieutenancy
on October 30th following. It is said that he served in
Braddock's defeat; but the records of the Virginia officers
present do not include Lieut. Bullitt's name. He was, perhaps,
with Capt. Lewis in the Greenbrier country, or on some other
detached service. In May, 1756, he was stationed at Winchester;
in July following, in command of Fort Frederick, on Jackson's
River, and in November of that year, in command of Fort
Cumberland. He was in active service in 1757, and early the
next year we find him a captain; as such, he distinguished
himself in checking the enemy and saving many of the fugitives
at Grant's defeat, and shared in Gen. Forbes's successful
expedition in the capture of Fort Du Quesne. In May, 1759,
while guarding with one hundred men, fifteen wagons loaded with
provisions for the westward, he was attacked and defeated by a
strong party of French and Indians, losing thirty-five of his
party killed and prisoners and all his wagons. In 1760, he was
appointed a surveyor of a district bordering on the Ohio, and
had much to do in early Kentucky exploration and surveys,
making an early location and survey at the Falls of Ohio in
1773. In September, 1775, he was appointed adjutant-general of
all the Virginia forces; and on the 9th of December following,
he aided Colonel Woodford in defeating Capt. Fordyce and party
at the Great Bridge. In March, 1776, Congress appointed him
deputy adjutant-general of the Southern Department with the
rank of lieutenant-colonel, and advanced him in May following
to the full rank of colonel. He died while yet in service, in
1778.--L. C. D.
[13] The French destroyed Fort Duquesne in November, 1758.
During the winter following, Fort Pitt was erected by the
English troops. In his _Journal of a Tour to the Ohio River_
(1770), Washington says of it: "The fort is built on the point
between the rivers Alleghany and Monongahela, but not so near
the pitch of it as Fort Duquesne stood. It is five-sided and
regular, two of which next the land are of brick; the others
stockade. A moat encompasses it." Fort Pitt was invested by the
Indians during Pontiac's War (1763). It was fully garrisoned
until 1772, when a corporal and a few men were left as
care-takers. In October of that year, the property was sold,
and several houses were built out of the material. In the
course of the boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and
Virginia, the latter colony took possession of the ruins,
through Lord Dunmore's agent there, John Conolly.--R. G. T.
[14] The author overlooks the settlement made by Christopher
Gist, the summer of 1753, in the town of Dunbar, Fayette
county, Pa., two or three miles west of the Youghiogheny and
some seventy miles northwest of Will's Creek; the site was
doubtless selected by him in his trip of 1751-52. Washington,
who visited him there in November, 1753, on the way to Fort Le
Boeuf, calls it "Gist's new settlement," but the owner's name
for his place was "Monongahela." It was the first settlement of
which there is record, upon the Ohio Company's lands. Gist
induced eleven families to settle near him; and on his journey
home, in January, 1754, Washington met them going out to the
new lands. The victory of the French over Washington, at Fort
Necessity, in July, led to the expulsion from the region of all
English-speaking settlers. The French commander, De Villiers,
reports that he "burnt down all the settlements" on the
Monongahela (from Redstone down), and in the vicinity of
Gist's.--R. G. T.
[15] This trail was a continuation of the famous "Warrior
Branch," which coming up from Tennessee passed through Kentucky
and Southern Ohio, and threading the valley of Fish Creek
crossed over to Dunkard's Creek and so on to the mouth of
Redstone Creek.--R. G. T.
[16] In Col. Preston's MS. Register of Indian Depredations,
in the Wisconsin Historical Society's library, it is stated
that Robert Foyle, wife and five children, were killed on the
Monongahela in 1754. Gov. Dinwiddie, in his speech to the
Virginia house of burgesses in February, 1754, refers to this
barbarous affair, giving the same number of the family
destroyed; and the gazettes of that period state that Robert
Foyle, together with his wife and five children, the youngest
about ten years of age, were killed at the head of the
Monongahela; their bodies, scalped, were discovered February
4th, and were supposed to have been killed about two months
before.--L. C. D.
[17] In 1750, the Ohio Company, as a base of operations and
supplies, built a fortified warehouse at Will's Creek (now
Cumberland, Md.), on the upper waters of the Potomac. Col.
Thomas Cresap, an energetic frontiersman, and one of the
principal agents of the Company, was directed to blaze a
pack-horse trail over the Laurel Hills to the Monongahela. He
employed as his guide an Indian named Nemacolin, whose camp was
at the mouth of Dunlap Creek (site of the present Brownsville,
Pa.), an affluent of the Monongahela. Nemacolin pointed out an
old Indian trace which had its origin, doubtless, in an
over-mountain buffalo trail; and this, widened a little by
Cresap, was at first known as Nemacolin's Path. It led through
Little Meadows and Great Meadows--open marshes grown to grass,
and useful for feeding traders' and explorers' horses.
Washington traveled this path in 1753, when he went to warn the
French at Fort Le Boeuf. Again, but widened somewhat, it was
his highway in 1754, as far north as Gist's plantation; and at
Great Meadows he built Fort Necessity, where he was defeated.
Braddock followed it in great part, in 1755, and henceforth it
became known as "Braddock's Road." The present National Road
from Cumberland to Brownsville, via Uniontown, differs in
direction but little from Nemacolin's Path. For a map of
Braddock's Road, see Lowdermilk's _History of Cumberland, Md._,
p. 140, with description on pages 51, 52, 140-148. Ellis's
_History of Fayette Co., Pa._, also has valuable data.
The terminus of Nemacolin's Path was Dunlap's Creek (Brownsville).
A mile-and-a-quarter below Dunlap's, enters Redstone Creek, and
the name "Redstone" became affixed to the entire region hereabout,
although "Monongahela" was sometimes used to indicate the
panhandle between the Monongahela and the Youghiogheny. In 1752,
the Ohio Company built a temporary warehouse at the mouth of
Dunlap's Creek, at the end of the over-mountain trail. In 1754,
Washington's advance party (Capt. Trent) built a log fort, called
"The Hangard," at the mouth of the Redstone, but this was, later
in the year, destroyed by the French officer De Villiers. In 1759,
Colonel Burd, as one of the features of Forbes's campaign against
Fort Duquesne, erected Fort Burd at the mouth of Dunlap's,
which was a better site. This fort was garrisoned as late as
the Dunmore War (1774), but was probably abandoned soon after the
Revolutionary War. The name "Redstone Old Fort" became attached
to the place, because within the present limits of Brownsville
were found by the earliest comers, and can still be traced,
extensive earthworks of the mound-building era.--R. G. T.
[18] Cross Creek empties into the Ohio through Mingo Bottom
(site of Mingo Junction, O.). On this bottom was, for many
years, a considerable Mingo village.--R. G. T.
[19] This statement, that Capt. Audley Paul commanded at
Redstone, and of his attempting to intercept a foraging Indian
party, can not possibly be true. There was no fort, and
consequently no garrison, at Redstone in 1758. It was not built
'till 1759, and then by Col. James Burd, of the Pennsylvania
forces. James L. Bowman, a native of Brownsville, the locality
of Redstone Old Fort, wrote a sketch of the history of that
place, which appeared in the _American Pioneer_ in February,
1843, in which he says: "We have seen it stated in a creditable
work, that the fort was built by Capt. Paul--doubtless an
error, as the Journal of Col. Burd is ample evidence to settle
that matter." Col. Burd records in his Journal: "Ordered, in
Aug. 1759, to march with two hundred of my battalion to the
mouth of Redstone Creek, to cut a road to that place, and to
erect a fort." He adds: "When I had cut the road, and finished
the fort," etc.
The other part of the story, about Capt. John Gibson commanding
at Fort Pitt in "the fall of 1758," is equally erroneous, as
Gen. Forbes did not possess himself of Fort Duquesne till Nov.
25th, 1758, within five days of the conclusion of "fall" in
that year; and Gen. Forbes commanded there in person until he
left for Philadelphia, Dec. 3d following. There is, moreover,
no evidence that Gibson was then in service. The story of his
decapitating Kis-ke-pi-la, or the Little Eagle, if there was
such a person, or of his beheading any other Indian, is not at
all probable. He was an Indian trader for many years, and was
made prisoner by the Indians in 1763, and detained a long time
in captivity.
Gibson could not by any such decapitating exploit, have
originated the designation of "Big Knife," or "Big Knife
warrior," for this appellation had long before been applied
to the Virginians. Gist says in his Journal, Dec. 7th, 1750, in
speaking of crossing Elk's Eye Creek--the Muskingum--and
reaching an Indian hamlet, that the Indians were all out
hunting; that "the old Frenchman, Mark Coonce, living there,
was civil to me; but after I was gone to my camp, upon his
understanding I came from Virginia, he called me _Big
Knife_." Col. James Smith, then a prisoner with the Indians,
says the Indians assigned as a reason why they did not oppose
Gen. Forbes in 1758, that if they had been only red coats
they could have subdued them; "but they could not withstand
_Ash-a-le-co-a_, or the _Great Knife_, which was the name they
gave the Virginians."--L. C. D.
------
_Comment by R. G. T._--See note on p. 77, regarding erection of
early forts at Redstone. James Veech, in _Monongahela of Old_,
says, "We know that the late Col. James Paull served a month's
duty in a drafted militia company in guarding Continental
stores here [Fort Burd] in 1778." The term "Big Knives" or
"Long Knives" may have had reference either to the long knives
carried by early white hunters, or the swords worn by backwoods
militia officers. See Roosevelt's _Winning of the West_, I., p.
197.
[62] CHAPTER III.
The destruction of the Roanoke settlement in the spring of 1757, by a
party of Shawanees, gave rise to the campaign, which was called by the
old settlers the "Sandy creek voyage." To avenge this outrage,
Governor Dinwiddie ordered out a company of regulars (taken chiefly
from the garrison at Fort Dinwiddie, on Jackson's river) under the
command of Capt. Audley Paul; a company of minute-men from Boutetourt,
under the command of Capt. William Preston; and two companies from
Augusta, under Captains John Alexander[1] and William Hogg. In Capt.
Alexander's company, John M'Nutt, afterwards governor of Nova Scotia,
was a subaltern. The whole were placed under the command of Andrew
Lewis.[2]
Beside the chastisement of the Indians, the expedition had for its
object, the establishment of a military post at the mouth of the Great
Sandy. This would have enabled them, not only to maintain a constant
watch over marauding parties of Indians from that quarter; but to
check the communication between them and the post at Galliopolis; and
thus counteract the influence which the French there had obtained over
them.[3]
The different companies detailed upon the Shawanee expedition, were
required to rendezvous on the Roanoke, near to the present town of
Salem in Bottetourt, where Col. Lewis was then posted. The company
commanded by Capt. Hogg failed to attend at the appointed time; and
Col. Lewis after delaying a week for its arrival, marched forward,
expecting to be speedily overtaken by it.
To avoid an early discovery by the Indians, which would have been the
consequence of their taking the more public route by the Great
Kenhawa; and that they might fall upon the Indians towns in the valley
of the Scioto, without being interrupted or seen by the French at
Galliopolis, they took the route by the way of New river and Sandy.
Crossing New river below the Horse-shoe, they descended it to the
mouth of Wolf creek; and ascending this to its source, passed over to
the head of Bluestone river; where they delayed another week awaiting
the arrival of Capt. Hogg and his company.[4]--They then marched to
the head of the north fork of Sandy, and continued down it to the
great Burning Spring, where they also remained a day. Here the salt
and provisions, which had been conveyed [63] on pack horses, were
entirely exhausted. Two buffaloes, killed just above the spring, were
also eaten while the army continued here; and their hides were hung
upon a beech tree. After this their subsistence was procured
exclusively by hunting.
The army then resumed their march; and in a few days after, it was
overtaken by a runner with the intelligence that Capt. Hogg and his
company were only a day's march in the rear. Col. Lewis again halted;
and the day after he was overtaken by Hogg, he was likewise overtaken
by an express from Francis Fauquier[5] with orders for the army to
return home; and for the disbanding of all the troops except Capt.
Paul's regulars,[6] who were to return to Fort Dinwiddie.
This was one of the first of Gov. Fauquier's official acts; and it was
far from endearing him to the inhabitants west of the Blue ridge. They
had the utmost confidence in the courage and good conduct of Col.
Lewis, and of the officers and men under his command--they did not for
an instant doubt the success of the expedition, and looked forward
with much satisfaction, to their consequent exemption in a great
degree, from future attacks from the Indians. It was not therefore
without considerable regret, that they heard of their countermanding
orders.
Nor were they received by Lewis and his men with very different
feelings. They had endured much during their march, from the
inclemency of the weather; more from the want of provisions--They had
borne these hardships without repining; anticipating a chastisement of
the Indians, and the deriving of an abundant supply of provisions from
their conquered towns--They had arrived within ten miles of the Ohio
river, and could not witness the blasting of their expectations,
without murmuring. A council of war was held--disappointment and
indignation were expressed in every feature. A majority of the
officers were in favor of proceeding to the Ohio river, under the
expectation that they might fall in with some of the enemy--they
marched to the river and encamped two nights on its banks. Discovering
nothing of an enemy, they then turned to retrace their steps through
pathless mountains, a distance of three hundred miles, in the midst of
winter and without provisions.
The reasons assigned by the friends of Gov. Fauquier, for the issuing
of those orders were, that the force detailed by Gov. Dinwiddie, was
not sufficient to render secure an establishment at the contemplated
point--near the Indian towns on the Scioto--within a few days journey
of several thousand warriors on the Miami--in the vicinity of the
hostile post at Galliopolis and so remote from the settled part of
Virginia, that they could not be furnished with assistance, and
supplied with provisions and military stores, without incurring an
expenditure, both of blood and money, beyond what the colony could
spare, for the accomplishment of that object.
Had Capt. Hogg with his company, been at the place of rendezvous at
the appointed time, the countermanding orders of the governor [64]
could not have reached the army, until it had penetrated the enemy's
country. What might have been its fate, it is impossible to say--the
bravery of the troops--their familiar acquaintance with the Indian
mode of warfare--their confidence in the officers and the experience
of many of them, seemed to give every assurance of success--While the
unfortunate result of many subsequent expeditions of a similar nature,
would induce the opinion that the governor's apprehensions were
perhaps prudent and well founded. That the army would soon have had to
encounter the enemy, there can be no doubt; for although not an Indian
had been seen, yet it seems probable from after circumstances, that it
had been discovered and watched by them previous to its return.
On the second night of their march homeward, while encamped at the
Great falls, some of Hogg's men went out on the hills to hunt turkeys,
and fell in with a party of Indians, painted as for war. As soon as
they saw that they were discovered, they fired, and two of Hogg's men
were killed--the fire was returned and a Shawanee warrior was wounded
and taken prisoner. The remaining Indians, yelling their war whoop,
fled down the river.
Many of the whites, thinking that so small a party of Indians would
not have pursued the army alone, were of opinion that it was only an
advanced scout of a large body of the enemy, who were following them:
the wounded Indian refused to give any information of their number or
object. A council of war was convoked; and much diversity of opinion
prevailed at the board. It was proposed by Capt. Paul to cross the
Ohio river, invade the towns on the Scioto, and burn them, or perish
in the attempt.[7] The proposition was supported by Lieut. M'Nutt, but
overruled; and the officers, deeming it right to act in conformity
with the governor's orders, determined on pursuing their way home.
Orders were then given that no more guns should be fired, and no fires
kindled in camp, as their safe return depended very much on silence
and secrecy.
An obedience to this order, produced a very considerable degree of
suffering, as well from extreme cold as from hunger. The pack horses,
which were no longer serviceable (having no provisions to transport)
and some of which had given out for want of provender, were killed and
eaten. When the army arrived at the Burning spring, the buffalo hides,
which had been left there on their way down, were cut into tuggs, or
long thongs, and eaten by the troops, after having been exposed to the
heat produced by the flame from the spring.--Hence they called it Tugg
river--a name by which it is still known. After this the army
subsisted for a while on beachnuts; but a deep snow falling these
could no longer be obtained, and the restrictions were removed.
About thirty men then detached themselves from the main body, to hunt
their way home. Several of them were known to have perished from cold
and hunger--others were lost and never afterwards [65] heard of; as
they had separated into small parties, the more certainly to find game
on which to live. The main body of the army was conducted home by Col.
Lewis, after much suffering--the strings of their mocasons, the belts
of their hunting shirts, and the flaps of their shot pouches, having
been all the food which they had eaten for some days.[8]
A journal of this campaign was kept by Lieut. M'Nutt, a gentleman of
liberal education and fine mind. On his return to Williamsburg he
presented it to Governor Fauquier by whom it was deposited in the
executive archives. In this journal Col. Lewis was censured for not
having proceeded directly to the Scioto towns; and for imposing on the
army the restrictions, as to fire and shooting, which have been
mentioned.--This produced an altercation between Lewis and M'Nutt,
which was terminated by a personal encounter.[9]
During the continuance of this war, many depredations were committed
by hostile Indians, along the whole extent of the Virginia frontier.
Individuals, leaving the forts on any occasion, scarcely ever
returned; but were, almost always, intercepted by Indians, who were
constantly prowling along the border settlements, for purposes of
rapine and murder. The particulars of occurrences of this kind, and
indeed of many of a more important character, no longer exist in the
memory of man--they died with them who were contemporaneous with the
happening of them.[10] On one occasion however, such was the extent of
savage duplicity, and such, and so full of horror, the catastrophe
resulting from misplaced confidence, that the events which marked it,
still live in the recollection of the descendants of some of those,
who suffered on the theatre of treachery and blood.
On the south fork of the South Branch of Potomac, in, what is now, the
county of Pendleton, was the fort of Capt. Sivert.[11] In this fort,
the inhabitants of what was then called the "Upper Tract," all sought
shelter from the tempest of savage ferocity; and at the time the
Indians appeared before [66] it, there were contained within its walls
between thirty and forty persons of both sexes and of different ages.
Among them was Mr. Dyer, (the father of Col. Dyer now of Pendleton)
and his family. On the morning of the fatal day, Col. Dyer and his
sister left the fort for the accomplishment of some object, and
although no Indians had been seen there for some time, yet did they
not proceed far, before they came in view of a party of forty or fifty
Shawanees, going directly towards the fort. Alarmed for their own
safety, as well as for the safety of their friends, the brother and
sister endeavored by a hasty flight to reach the gate and gain
admittance into the garrison; but before they could effect this, they
were overtaken and made captives.
The Indians rushed immediately to the fort and commenced a furious
assault on it. Capt. Sivert prevailed, (not without much opposition,)
on the besieged, to forbear firing 'till he should endeavor to
negotiate with, and buy off the enemy. With this view, and under the
protection of a flag he went out, and soon succeeded in making the
wished for arrangement. When he returned, the gates were thrown open,
and the enemy admitted.
No sooner had the money and other articles, stipulated to be given,
been handed over to the Indians, than a most bloody tragedy was begun
to be acted. Arranging the inmates of the fort, in two rows, with a
space of about ten feet between them, two Indians were selected; who
taking each his station at the head of a row, with their tomahawks
most cruelly murdered almost every white person in the fort; some few,
whom caprice or some other cause, induced them to spare, were carried
into captivity,--such articles as could be well carried away were
taken off by the Indians; the remainder was consumed, with the fort,
by fire.
The course pursued by Capt. Sivert, has been supposed to have been
dictated by timidity and an ill founded apprehension of danger from
the attack. It is certain that strong opposition was made to it by
many; and it has been said that his own son raised his rifle to shoot
him, when he ordered the gates to be thrown open; and was only
prevented from executing his purpose, by the interference of some near
to him. Capt. Sivert was also supported by many, in the plan which he
proposed to rid the fort of its assailants: it was known to be weak,
and incapable of withstanding a vigorous onset; and [67] its garrison
was illy supplied with the munitions of war. Experience might have
taught them, however, the futility of any measure of security, founded
in a reliance on Indian faith, in time of hostility; and in deep and
bitter anguish, they were made to feel its realization in the present
instance.
In the summer of 1761, about sixty Shawanee warriors penetrated the
settlements on James river. To avoid the fort at the mouth of Looney's
creek, on this river, they passed through Bowen's gap in Purgatory
mountain, in the night; and ascending Purgatory creek, killed Thomas
Perry, Joseph Dennis and his child and made prisoner his wife, Hannah
Dennis. They then proceeded to the house of Robert Renix, where they
captured Mrs. Renix, (a daughter of Sampson Archer) and her five
children, William, Robert, Thomas, Joshua and Betsy--Mr. Renix not
being at home. They then went to the house of Thomas Smith, where
Renix was; and shot and scalped him and Smith; and took with them,
Mrs. Smith and Sally Jew, a white servant girl.[12]
William and Audley Maxwell, and George Matthews, (afterwards governor
of Georgia,) were then going to Smith's house; and hearing the report
of the guns, supposed that there was a shooting match. But when they
rode to the front of the house and saw the dead bodies of Smith and
Renix lying in the yard, they discovered their mistake; and
contemplating for a moment the awful spectacle, wheeled to ride back.
At this instant several guns were fired at them; fortunately without
doing any execution, except the cutting off the club of Mr. Matthews'
cue. The door of the house was then suddenly opened; the Indians
rushed out and raising the war cry, several of them fired--Audley
Maxwell was slightly wounded in the arm.
It appeared afterwards, that the Indians had seen Matthews and the
Maxwells coming; and that some of them had crowded into the house,
while the others with the prisoners went to the north side of it, and
concealed themselves behind some fallen timber. Mrs. Renix, after she
was restored to her friends in 1766, stated that she was sitting tied,
in the midst of four Indians, who laying their guns on a log, took
deliberate aim at Matthews; the others firing at the Maxwells--The
sudden wheeling of their horses no doubt saved the lives of all
three.
The Indians then divided, and twenty of them taking the [68]
prisoners, the plunder and some horses which they had stolen, set off
by the way of Jackson's river, for the Ohio; the remainder started
towards Cedar creek, with the ostensible view of committing farther
depredations. But Matthews and the Maxwells had sounded the alarm, and
the whole settlement were soon collected at Paul's stockade fort, at
the Big spring near to Springfield. Here the women and children were
left to be defended by Audley Maxwell and five other men; while the
others, forming a party of twenty-two, with George Matthews at their
head, set out in quest of the enemy.
The Indians were soon overtaken, and after a severe engagement, were
forced to give ground. Matthews and his party followed in pursuit, as
far as Purgatory creek; but the night being very dark in consequence
of a continued rain, the fugitives effected an escape; and overtaking
their comrades with the prisoners and plunder, on the next evening, at
the forks of the James and Cowpasture rivers, proceeded to Ohio
without further molestation.
When Matthews and his men, on the morning succeeding the engagement,
returned to the field of battle, they found nine Indians dead; whom
they buried on the spot. Benjamin Smith, Thomas Maury and the father
of Sally Jew, were the only persons of Matthews' party, who were
killed--these, together with those who had been murdered on the
preceding day, were buried near the fork of a branch, in (what is now)
the meadow of Thomas Cross sr.
In Boquet's treaty with the Ohio Indians, it was stipulated that the
whites detained by them in captivity were to be brought in and
redeemed. In compliance with this stipulation, Mrs. Renix was brought
to Staunton in 1767 and ransomed, together with two of her sons,
William, the late Col. Renix of Greenbrier, and Robert, also of
Greenbrier--Betsy, her daughter, had died on the Miami. Thomas
returned in 1783, but soon after removed and settled, on the Scioto,
near Chilicothe. Joshua never came back; he took an Indian wife and
became a Chief among the Miamies--he amassed a considerable fortune
and died near Detroit in 1810.
Hannah Dennis was separated from the other captives, and allotted to
live at the Chilicothe towns.[13] She learned their language; painted
herself as they do; and in many respects conformed to their manners
and customs. She was attentive to sick persons and was highly esteemed
by the Indians, as [69] one well skilled in the art of curing
diseases. Finding them very superstitious and believers in necromancy;
she professed witchcraft, and affected to be a prophetess. In this
manner she conducted herself, 'till she became so great a favorite
with them, that they gave her full liberty and honored her as a queen.
Notwithstanding this, Mrs. Dennis was always determined to effect her
escape, when a favorable opportunity should occur; and having remained
so long with them, apparently well satisfied, they ceased to entertain
any suspicions of such a design.
In June 1763, she left the Chilicothe towns, _ostensibly_ to procure
herbs for medicinal purposes, (as she had before frequently done,) but
_really_ to attempt an escape. As she did not return that night, her
intention became suspected; and in the morning, some warriors were
sent in pursuit of her. In order to leave as little trail as possible,
she had crossed the Scioto river three times, and was just getting
over the fourth time 40 miles below the towns, when she was discovered
by her pursuers. They fired at her across the river without effect;
but in endeavoring to make a rapid flight, she had one of her feet
severely cut by a sharp stone.
The Indians then rushed across the river to overtake and catch her,
but she eluded them by crawling into the hollow limb, of a large
fallen sycamore. They searched around for her some time, frequently
stepping on the log which concealed her; and encamped near it that
night. On the next day they went on to the Ohio river, but finding no
trace of her, they returned home.
Mrs. Dennis remained at that place three days, doctoring her wound,
and then set off for home. She crossed the Ohio river, at the mouth of
Great Kenhawa, on a log of driftwood, travelling only during the
night, for fear of discovery--She subsisted on roots, herbs, green
grapes, wild cherries and river muscles--and entirely exhausted by
fatigue and hunger, sat down by the side of Greenbrier river, with no
expectation of ever proceeding farther. In this situation she was
found by Thomas Athol and three others from Clendennin's settlement,
which she had passed without knowing it. She had been then upwards of
twenty days on her disconsolate journey, alone, on foot--but 'till
then, cheered with the hope of again being with her friends.
She was taken back to Clendennin's, where they kindly [70] ministered
to her, 'till she became so far invigorated, as to travel on horseback
with an escort, to Fort Young on Jackson's river; from whence she was
carried home to her relations.
In the course of a few days after Hannah Dennis had gone from
Clendennins, a party of about sixty warriors came to the settlement on
Muddy creek, in the county of Greenbrier. That region of country then
contained no inhabitants, but those on Muddy creek, and in the Levels;
and these are believed to have consisted of at least one hundred
souls. The Indians came apparently as friends, and the French war
having been terminated by the treaty of the preceding spring, the
whites did not for an instant doubt their sincerity. They were
entertained in small parties at different houses, and every civility
and act of kindness, which the new settlers could proffer, were
extended to them. In a moment of the most perfect confidence in the
innocense of their intentions, the Indians rose on them and tomahawked
and scalped all, save a few women and children of whom they made
prisoners.
After the perpetration of this most barbarous and bloody outrage, the
Indians (excepting some few who took charge of the prisoners)
proceeded to the settlement in the Levels. Here, as at Muddy creek,
they disguised their horrid purpose, and wearing the mask of
friendship, were kindly received at the house of Mr. Clendennin.[14]
This gentleman had just returned from a successful hunt, and brought
home three fine elks--these and the novelty of being with _friendly
Indians_, soon drew the whole settlement to his house. Here too the
Indians were well entertained and feasted on the fruit of Clendennin's
hunt, and every other article of provision which was there, and could
minister to their gratification. An old woman, who was of the party,
having a very sore leg and having understood that Indians could
perform a cure of any ulcer, shewed it to one near her; and asked if
he could heal it--The inhuman monster raised his tomahawk and buried
it in her head. This seemed to be the signal of a general massacre and
promptly was it obeyed--nearly every man of the settlement was killed
and the women and children taken captive.
While this tragedy was acting, a negro woman, who was [71] endeavoring
to escape, was followed by her crying child.--To save it from savage
butchery, she turned round and murdered it herself.
Mrs. Clendennin, driven to despair by the cruel and unprovoked murder
of her husband and friends, and the spoliation and destruction of all
their property, boldly charged the Indians with perfidy and treachery;
and alleged that cowards only could act with such duplicity. The
bloody scalp of her husband was thrown in her face--the tomahawk was
raised over her head; but she did not cease to revile them. In going
over Keeny's knot on the next day, the prisoners being in the centre,
and the Indians in the front and rear, she gave her infant child to
one of the women to hold for a while.--She then stepped into the
thicket unperceived, and made her escape. The crying of the infant
soon lead to a discovery of her flight--one of the Indians observed
that he could "bring the cow to her calf," and taking the child by the
heels, beat out its brains against a tree.
Mrs. Clendennin returned that night to her home, a distance of ten
miles; and covering the body of her husband with rails and trash,
retired into an adjoining corn field, lest she might be pursued and
again taken prisoner. While in the corn field, her mind was much
agitated by contending emotions; and the prospect of effecting an
escape to the settlements, seemed to her dreary and hopeless. In a
moment of despondency, she thought she beheld a man, with the aspect
of a murderer, standing near her; and she became overwhelmed with
fear. It was but the creature of a sickly and terrified imagination;
and when her mind regained its proper tone, she resumed her flight and
reached the settlement in safety.[15]
These melancholy events occurring so immediately after the escape of
Hannah Dennis; and the unwillingness of the Indians that she should be
separated from them, has induced the supposition that the party
committing those dreadful outrages were in pursuit of her. If such
were the fact, dearly were others made to pay the penalty of her
deliverance.
This and other incidents, similar in their result, satisfied the
whites that although the war had been terminated on the part of the
French; yet it was likely to be continued with all its horrors, by
their savage allies. This was then, and has since been, attributed to
the smothered hostility of the French in [72] Canada and on the Ohio
river; and to the influence which they had acquired over the Indians.
This may have had its bearing on the event; but from the known
jealousy entertained by the Indians, of the English Colonists; their
apprehensions that they would be dispossessed of the country, which
they then held (England claiming jurisdiction over it by virtue of the
treaty of Paris;) and their dissatisfaction at the terms on which
France had negotiated a peace, were in themselves sufficient to induce
hostilities on the part of the Indians. Charity would incline to the
belief that the continuance of the war was rightly attributable to
these causes--the other reason assigned for it, supposing the
existence of a depravity, so deep and damning, as almost to stagger
credulity itself.
In October, 1764, about fifty Delaware and Mingo warriors ascended
the Great Sandy and came over on New river, where they separated;
and forming two parties, directed their steps toward different
settlements--one party going toward Roanoke and Catawba--the other in
the direction of Jackson's river. They had not long passed, when
their trail was discovered by three men, (Swope, Pack and Pitman)
who were trapping on New river. These men followed the trail till
they came to where the Indian party had divided; and judging from
the routes which, had been taken, that their object was to visit
the Roanoke and Jackson's river settlements, they determined on
apprizing the inhabitants of their danger. Swope and Pack set out
for Roanoke and Pitman for Jackson's river. But before they could
accomplish their object, the Indians had reached the settlements on
the latter river, and on Catawba.
The Party which came to Jackson's river, travelled down Dunlap's creek
and crossed James river, above Fort Young, in the night and unnoticed;
and going down this river to William Carpenter's, where was a stockade
fort under the care of a Mr. Brown, they met Carpenter just above his
house and killed him. They immediately proceeded to the house, and
made prisoners of a son of Mr. Carpenter, two sons of Mr. Brown[16]
[73] (all small children) and one woman--the others belonging to the
house, were in the field at work. The Indians then dispoiled the house
and taking off some horses, commenced a precipitate retreat--fearing
discovery and pursuit.
When Carpenter was shot, the report of the gun was heard by those at
work in the field; and Brown carried the alarm to Fort Young. In
consequence of the weakness of this fort, a messenger was despatched
to Fort Dinwiddie, with the intelligence. Capt. Paul (who still
commanded there,) immediately commenced a pursuit with twenty of his
men; and passing out at the head of Dunlap's creek, descended Indian
creek and New river to Piney creek; without making any discovery of
the enemy. On Indian creek they met Pitman, who had been running all
the day and night before, to apprise the garrison at Fort Young of the
approach of the Indians. Pitman joined in pursuit of the party who had
killed Carpenter; but they, apprehending that they would be followed,
had escaped to Ohio, by the way of Greenbrier and Kenhawa rivers.[17]
As Capt. Paul and his men were returning, they accidently met with the
other party of Indians, who had been to Catawba, and committed some
depredations and murders there. They were discovered about midnight,
encamped on the north bank of New river, opposite an island at the
mouth of Indian creek. Excepting some few who were watching three
prisoners, (whom they had taken on Catawba, and who were sitting in
the midst of them,) they were lying around a small fire, wrapped in
skins and blankets. Paul's men not knowing that there were captives
among them, fired in the midst, killed three Indians, and wounded
several others, one of whom drowned himself to preserve his scalp--the
rest of the party fled hastily down the river and escaped.
In an instant after the firing, Capt. Paul and his men rushed forward
to secure the wounded and prevent further escapes. One of the foremost
of his party seeing, as he supposed, a squaw sitting composedly
awaiting the result, raised his tomahawk and just as it was
descending, Capt. Paul threw himself between the assailant and his
victim; and receiving the blow on his arm, exclaimed, "It is a shame
to hurt a woman, even a squaw." Recognising the voice of Paul, the
woman named him. She was Mrs. Catharine Gunn, an English lady, who had
come to the country some years before; and who, previously to her
marriage, had lived in the family of Capt. Paul's father-in-law, where
she became acquainted with that gentleman--She had been taken captive
by the Indians, on the Catawba, a few days before, when her husband
and two only children were killed by them. When questioned why she had
not cried out, or otherwise made known that she was a white prisoner,
she replied, "I had as soon be killed as not--my husband is
murdered--my children are slain--my parents are dead. I have not a
relation in America--every thing dear to me here is gone--I have no
wishes--no hopes--no fears--I would not have risen to my feet to save
my life."
[74] When Capt. Paul came on the enemy's camp, he silently posted his
men in an advantageous situation for doing execution, and made
arrangements for a simultaneous fire. To render this the more deadly
and efficient, they dropped on one knee, and were preparing to take
deliberate aim, when one of them (John M'Collum) called to his
comrades, "Pull steady and send them all to hell." This ill timed
expression of anxious caution, gave the enemy a moment's warning of
their danger; and is the reason why greater execution was not done.
The Indians had left all their guns, blankets and plunder--these
together with the three white captives, were taken by Capt. Paul to
Fort Dinwiddie.[18]
-----
[1] Father of Dr. Archibald Alexander, sometime president of
Hampden Sydney College in Virginia, and afterwards a professor
at Princeton in New Jersey.
------
_Comment by L. C. D._--He was the grandfather of Dr.
Alexander.
[2] The attacks on the Roanoke settlement, mentioned by
Withers, occurred in June and July, 1755 (not the spring of
1757, as he states); that on Greenbrier, in September
following; and the expedition against the Shawnees did not take
place in 1757, but in February and March, 1756. Diaries and
other documents in the Wisconsin Historical Society's library
prove this. Dr. Draper estimated that Lewis's force was about
263 whites and 130 Cherokees--418 in all. The several companies
were officered by Peter Hogg, John Smith, William Preston,
Archibald Alexander, Robert Breckenridge, Obadiah Woodson, John
Montgomery, and one Dunlap. Two of Dr. Thomas Walker's
companions in his Kentucky exploration of 1750, were in the
expedition--Henry Lawless and Colby Chew. Governor Dinwiddie
had stipulated in his note to Washington, in December, 1755,
that either Col. Adam Stephen or Maj. Andrew Lewis was to
command. Washington having selected the latter, dispatched him
from Winchester about the middle of January, 1756, with orders
to hurry on the expedition. To the mismanagement of the guides
is attributed much of the blame for its failure. The
interesting Journals of Capt. William Preston and Lieut. Thomas
Norton are in the possession of the Wisconsin Historical
Society.--R. G. T.
[3] But Gallipolis was not settled until 1790, as has been
previously shown. Withers confounds the modern French town of
Gallipolis, whose residents were the sad victims of Indian
outrages rather than the abettors of them, with the old Shawnee
town just below the mouth of the Scioto (site of Alexandria,
O.). This fur-trading center was a village of log huts built by
the French for the accommodation of their Shawnee allies, and
was a center of frontier disturbances.--R. G. T.
[4] Preston's Journal does not lay much stress on Hogg's
delay. Norton's Journal, speaking of Hogg, says, "common
soldiers were by him scarcely treated with humanity," and he
seems to have regularly overruled and disobeyed Lewis. There
was much rancor in camp, and Norton writes of the Cherokee
allies, "The conduct and concord that was kept up among the
Indians might shame us, for they were in general quite
unanimous and brotherly."--R. G. T.
[5] This expedition was sent out under the auspices of Gov.
Dinwiddie--Fauquier did not become governor until 1758. No
countermanding orders were sent.--L. C. D.
[6] Audley Paul was first lieutenant in Preston's
company.--L. C. D.
[7] Withers, deriving his information from Taylor's
sketches, was misled as to any intention of establishing a
fort at the mouth of the Kanawha; and also as to Paul's, or
any one else's proposition to cross the Ohio, and invade the
Shawnee towns. The only aim was, to reach the Upper Shawnee
town.--L. C. D.
------
_Comment by R. G. T._--"Upper Shawnee town" was an Indian
village at the mouth of Old Town Creek, emptying into the Ohio
from the north, 39 miles above the mouth of the Great Kanawha.
[8] If such a journal ever existed, it passed into the hands
of Gov. Dinwiddie, or possibly to Gov. Fauquier; but no
reference to it is found among the _Dinwiddie Papers_, as
published by the Virginia Historical Society; nor in the
_Calendar of State Papers_, published by the State of Virginia.
It is to be remarked, however, that few of the records of that
period have been preserved by that State.--L. C. D.
[9] Shortly after, M'Nutt was appointed governor of Nova
Scotia, where he remained until the commencement of the
American revolution. In this contest he adhered to the cause of
liberty, and joined his countrymen in arms under Gen. Gates at
Saratoga. He was afterwards known as a meritorious officer in
the brigade of Baron de Kalb, in the south--he died in 1811,
and was buried in the Falling Spring church yard, in the forks
of James river.
[10] Preston's MS. Register of the persons of Augusta county,
Va., killed, wounded, captured by the Indians, and of those who
escaped, from 1754 to May, 1758, is in the Wisconsin Historical
Society's library. It is to be regretted that Col. Preston,
whose opportunities were so good, did not continue the Register
till the end of the Indian wars. It is a most valuable document
as far as it goes, and supplies many dates and facts hitherto
involved in doubt and obscurity.--L. C. D.
[11] Seybert's Fort was situated on the South Fork, twelve
miles northeast of Franklin, in Pendleton County. At the time
of this invasion, there was a fort located on the South Branch,
garrisoned by Capt. James Dunlap and a company of rangers from
Augusta county. Preston's Register states, that on the 27th of
April, 1758, the fort at which Capt. Dunlap was stationed, was
attacked and captured, the captain and twenty-two others
killed; and, the next day, the same party, no doubt, attacked
Seybert's Fort, killing Capt. Seybert and sixteen others, while
twenty-four others were missing. Washington, at the time,
placed the number as "about sixty persons killed and missing."
A gazette account, published at Williamsburg, May 5th ensuing,
says: "The Indians lately took and burnt two forts, where were
stationed one of our ranging companies, forty of whom were
killed and scalped, and Lieut. Dunlap and nineteen missing."
Kercheval's _History of the Valley_ gives some further
particulars: That Seybert's Fort was taken by surprise; that
ten of the thirty persons occupying it, were bound, taken
outside; the others were placed on a log and tomahawked. James
Dyer, a lad of fourteen, was spared, taken first to Logstown,
and then to Chillicothe, and retained a year and ten months,
when as one of an Indian party he visited Fort Pitt, and
managed to evade his associates while there, and finally
reached the settlements in Pennsylvania, and two years later
returned to the South Fork. It is added by the same historian,
as another tradition, that after the fort had been invested two
days, and two of the Indians had been killed, the garrison
agreed to surrender on condition of their lives being spared,
which, was solemnly promised. That when the gate was opened,
the Indians rushed in with demoniac yells, the whites fled, but
were retaken, except one person; the massacre then took place,
and ten were carried off into captivity.
Still another tradition preserved by Kercheval, says the noted
Delaware chief, Killbuck, led the Indians. Seybert's son, a lad
of fifteen, exhibited great bravery in the defense of the fort.
Killbuck called out to Capt. Seybert, in English, to surrender,
and their lives should be spared; when young Seybert at this
instant, aimed his loaded gun at the chief, and the father
seized it, and took it from him, saying they could not
successfully defend the place, and to save their lives should
surrender, confiding in Killbuck's assurances. Capt. Seybert
was among the first of those sacrificed. Young Seybert was
among the prisoners, and told the chief how near he came to
killing him. "You young rascal," laughingly replied Killbuck,
"if you had killed me, you would have saved the fort, for had I
fallen, my warriors would have immediately fled, and given up
the siege in despair."--L. C. D.
[12] The name is Renick. Robert Renick, who was killed on the
occasion referred to, was a man of character and influence in
his day. His name appears on Capt. John Smith's company roll of
Augusta militia as early as 1742; and four years later, he was
lieutenant of a mounted company of Augusta militia. Instead of
1761, the captivity of the Renick family occurred July 25,
1757, as shown by the Preston Register, which states that
Renick and another were killed on that day--Mrs. Renick and
seven children, and a Mrs. Dennis, captured; and the same day,
at Craig's Creek, one man was killed and two wounded. The
Renick traditions state that Mrs. Renick had only five children
when taken; and one born after reaching the Indian towns; and
corrects some other statements not properly related in
Withers's narrative of the affair.--L. C. D.
[13] In 1763-65, the great Shawnee village just below the
mouth of the Scioto (site of Alexandria, O.), was destroyed by
floods. Some of the tribesmen rebuilt their town on a higher
bottom just above the mouth (site of Portsmouth, O.), while
others ascended the Scioto and built successively Old and New
Chillicothe.--R. G. T.
[14] Where Ballard Smith now resides.
[15] Further particulars of this captivity are in Royall's
_Sketches of History, Life, and Manners in U. S._ (New Haven,
1826), pp. 60-66.--R. G. T.
[16] Carpenter's son (since Doctor Carpenter of Nicholas)
came home about fifteen years afterwards--Brown's youngest son,
(the late Col. Samuel Brown of Greenbrier) was brought home in
1769--the elder son never returned. He took an Indian wife,
became wealthy and lived at Brown's town in Michigan. He acted
a conspicuous part in the late war and died in 1815.
------
_Comment by L. C. D._--Adam Brown, who was captured as
mentioned in the above text and note, was thought by his last
surviving son, Adam Brown, Jr., whom I visited in Kansas in
1868, to have been about six years old when taken; and he died,
he thought, about 1817, at about seventy-five years of age. But
these dates, and his probable age, do not agree; he was either
older when taken, or not so old at his death. The mother was
killed when the sons were captured, and the father and some
others of the family escaped. The late William Walker, an
educated Wyandott, and at one time territorial governor of
Kansas, stated to me, that the Wyandotts never made chiefs of
white captives, but that they often attained, by their merits,
considerable consequence. It is, however, certain that Abraham
Kuhn, a white prisoner, grew up among the Wyandotts, and,
according to Heckewelder, became a war chief among them, and
signed the treaty at Big Beaver in 1785; and Adam Brown himself
signed the treaties of 1805 and 1808, and doubtless would have
signed later ones had he not sided with the British Wyandotts,
and retired to Canada, near Malden, where he died.
[17] It is highly probable that this foray took place in
1763. During this year, as features of the Pontiac uprising,
bloody forays were made on the more advanced settlements on
Jackson, Greenbrier, and Calf Pasture rivers, and several
severe contests ensued between whites and Indians. Captains
Moffett and Phillips, with sixty rangers, were ambuscaded with
the loss of fifteen men. Col. Charles Lewis pursued the savages
with 150 volunteers raised in a single night, and on October
3rd surprised them at the head of the South Fork of the
Potomac, killing twenty-one, with no white losses. The spoils
of this victory, beside the "five horses with all their
trappings," sold for L250. This was the most notable of the
several skirmishes which took place on the Virginia frontier,
that year.--R. G. T.
[18] Perhaps this affair is that related by Capt. William
Christian, in a letter dated Roanoke, Oct. 19th, 1763, as
published in the gazettes of that day--there are, at least,
some suggestive similarities: "Being joined by Capt.
Hickenbotham, with twenty-five of the Amherst militia, we
marched on Tuesday last, to Winston's Meadows, where our
scouts informed us, that they had discovered a party of
Indians about three miles off. Night coming on, prevented our
meeting them; and next day, being rainy, made it difficult to
follow their tracks. As they were on their return, Capt.
Hickenbotham marched to join Capt. Ingles down New River. I,
with nineteen men and my ensign, took a different route in
quest of them. We marched next day on their tracks until
two hours before sunset, when we heard some guns, and soon
afterwards discovered three large fires, which appeared to
be on the bank of Turkey Creek, where it empties into New
river. Upon this we immediately advanced, and found they
were on an island. Being within gun-shot, we fired on them,
and loading again, forded the creek. The Indians, after
killing Jacob Kimberlain, a prisoner they had with them, made
but a slight resistence, and ran off. We found one Indian
killed on the spot, and, at a little distance, four blankets
shot through, and very bloody. We took all their bundles,
four guns, eight tomahawks, and two mares. They had several
other horses, which being frightened by the firing, ran off
and were lost. The party consisted of upwards of twenty
Indians. By the tracks of blood, we imagined several of them
were wounded." This affair occurred Oct. 12th.--L. C. D.
[75] CHAPTER IV.
During the continuance of the French war, and of that with the Indians
which immediately succeeded it, the entire frontier from New York to
Georgia was exposed to the merciless fury of the savages. In no
instance were the measures of defence adopted by the different
colonies, adequate to their object.--From some unaccountable fatuity
in those who had the direction of this matter, a defensive war, which
alone could have checked aggression and prevented the effusion of
blood, was delayed 'till the whole population, of the country west of
the Blue ridge, had retired east of those mountains; or were cooped up
in forts.
The chief means of defence employed, were the militia of the adjoining
counties, and the establishment of a line of forts and block-houses,
dispersed along a considerable extent of country, and occupied by
detachments of British colonial troops, or by militiamen. All these
were utterly incompetent to effect security; partly from the
circumstances of the case, and somewhat from the entire want of
discipline, and the absence of that subordination which is absolutely
necessary to render an army effective.
So great and apparent were the insubordination and remissness of duty,
on the part of the various garrisons, that Gen. Washington, declared
them "utterly inefficient and useless;" and the inhabitants
themselves, could place no reliance whatever on them, for protection.
In a particular instance, such were the inattention and carelessness
of the garrison that several children playing under the walls of the
fort, were run down and caught by the Indians, who were not discovered
'till they arrived at the very gate.[1]
In Virginia the error of confiding on the militia, soon became
apparent.[2] Upon the earnest remonstrance and entreaty of General
Washington, the colonial legislature substituted a force of
regulars,[3] [76] which at once effected the partial security of her
frontier, and gave confidence to the inhabitants.
In Pennsylvania, from the pacific disposition of her rulers and their
abhorrence of war of any kind, her border settlements suffered most
severely. The whole extent of her frontier was desolated by the
Indians, and irruptions were frequently made by them into the
interior. The establishments, which had been made in the Conococheague
valley, were altogether broken up and scenes of the greatest
barbarity, on one side, and of the utmost suffering on the other, were
constantly exhibiting. A few instances of this suffering and of that
barbarity, may not be improperly adduced here. They will serve to
illustrate the condition of those who were within reach of the savage
enemy; and perhaps, to palliate the enormities practiced on the
christian Indians.
In the fall of 1754 about forty or fifty Indians entered that
province, and dividing themselves into two parties, sought the
unprotected settlements, for purposes of murder and devastation: the
smaller party went about the forks of Delaware--the other directing
their steps along the Susquehanna. On the 2nd of October, twelve of
the former appeared before the house of Peter Williamson, (a
Scotchman, with no family but his wife,) who had made considerable
improvement near the Delaware river. Mrs. Williamson being from home,
he sat up later than usual, and about 11 o'clock was astounded at the
savage war whoop, resounding from various directions, near to the
house. Going to the window, he perceived several Indians standing in
the yard, one of whom, in broken English, promised that if he would
come out and surrender he should not be killed; threatening at the
same time that if he did not, they would burn him up in his house.
Unable to offer an effectual resistance, and preferring the chance of
safety by surrendering, to the certainty of a horrid death if he
attempted an opposition, he yielded himself up a prisoner.
So soon as he was in their power they plundered the house of such
articles as they could conveniently take with them, and set fire to
it, and to the barn, in which was a quantity of wheat, some horses and
other cattle. After inflicting some severe tortures on Williamson, and
forcing him to carry a heavy weight of the plunder, which they had
taken from him, they went to a neighboring house, occupied by Jacob
Snyder, his wife, five children and a servant. The piercing cries, and
[77] agonizing shrieks of these poor creatures, made no impression on
the savages. The father, mother, and children were tomahawked and
scalped, and their bodies consumed by fire together with the house.
The servant was spared that he might aid in carrying their plunder;
but manifesting deep distress at his situation as prisoner, he was
tomahawked before they proceeded far.
Before they could accomplish farther mischief a fall of snow, making
them apprehensive that they would be pursued by the united force of
the settlement, induced them to return to Alamingo--taking Williamson
with them.
On their way back, they met with the party of Indians, which had
separated from them, as they approached the settlements. These had
been lower down on the Susquehanna, and had succeeded in making
greater havoc, and committing more depredations, than it had fallen to
the lot of those who had taken Williamson, to commit. They had with
them three prisoners and twenty scalps. According to the account of
their transactions as detailed by the prisoners, they had on one day
killed and scalped John Lewis, his wife and three children, and in a
few days after had murdered, with almost every circumstance of
cruelty, Jacob Miller, his wife and six children, and George Folke,
his wife and nine children, cutting up the bodies of the latter
family and giving them piece-meal to the hogs in the pen. Wherever
they had been, destruction marked their course. In every instance the
houses, barns and grain stacks were consumed by fire; and the stock
killed.
The three prisoners who had been brought in by the last party,
endeavored soon after to effect an escape; but their ignorance of the
country, and the persevering activity and vigilance of the Indians,
prevented the accomplishment of their attempt. They were overtaken,
and brought back; and then commenced a series of cruelties, tortures
and death, sufficient to shock the sensibilities of the most obdurate
heart, if unaccustomed to the perpetration of such enormities.
Two of them were tied to trees, around which large fires were kindled,
and they suffered to remain for some time, in the gradual but horrible
state of being scorched to death. After the Indians had enjoyed awhile
the writhings of agony and the tears of anguish, which were drawn from
these suffering victims, one, stepping within the circle, ripped open
their bodies and threw their bowels into the flames. Others, to
emulate [78] this most shocking deed, approached, and with knives,
burning sticks, and heated irons, continued to lacerate, pierce and
tear the flesh from their breasts, arms and legs, 'till death closed
the scene of horrors and rendered its victims insensible to its
pains.
The third was reserved a few hours, that he might be sacrificed under
circumstances of peculiar enormity. A hole being dug in the ground of
a depth sufficient to enable him to stand upright, with his head only
exposed, his arms were pinioned to his body, he placed in it, and the
loose earth thrown in and rammed closely around him. He was then
scalped and permitted to remain in that situation for several hours. A
fire was next kindled near his head. In vain did the poor suffering
victim of hellish barbarity exclaim, that his brains were boiling in
his head; and entreat the mercy of instant death. Deaf to his cries,
and inexorable to his entreaties, they continued the fire 'till his
eye balls burst and gushed from their sockets, and death put a period
to his sufferings.
Of all these horrid spectacles, Williamson was an unwilling spectator;
and supposing that he was reserved for some still more cruel and
barbarous fate, determined on escaping. This he was soon enabled to
do; and returned to the settlements.[4]
The frequent infliction of such enormities as these upon the
helpless and unoffending women and children, as well as upon those
who were more able to resist and better qualified to endure them;
together with the desolation of herds, the devastation of crops, and
the conflagration of houses which invariably characterized those
incursions, engendered a general feeling of resentment, that sought
in some instances, to wreak itself on those who were guiltless of any
participation in those bloody deeds. That vindictive spirit led to
the perpetration of offences against humanity, not less atrocious
than those which they were intended to requite; and which obliterated
every discriminative feature between the perpetrators of them, and
their savage enemies.
The Canestoga Indians, to the number of forty, lived in a village, in
the vicinity of Lancaster; they were in amity with the whites, and had
been in peace and quiet for a considerable length of time. An
association of men, denominated the "Paxton boys," broke into their
little town and murdered all who were found at home--fourteen men,
women and children fell a prey to the savage brutality of those sons
of civilization [79]. The safety of the others was sought to be
effected, by confining them in the jail at Lancaster. It was in vain.
The walls of a prison could afford no protection, from the relentless
fury of these exasperated men. The jail doors were broken open, and
its wretched inmates cruelly murdered.--And, as if their deaths could
not satiate their infuriate murderers, their bodies were brutally
mangled, the hands and feet lopped off, and scalps torn from the
bleeding heads of innocent infants.
A similar fate impended the christian Indians of Nequetank and Nain;
and was only averted, by the timely interposition of the government of
Pennsylvania. They were removed to Philadelphia, where they remained
from November 1763 'till after the close of the war in December 1764;
during which time the Paxton boys twice assembled in the neighborhood
of the city, for the purpose of assaulting the barracks and murdering
the Indians, but were deterred by the military preparations made to
oppose them; and ultimately, but reluctantly, desisted.
Had the feelings excited in the minds of these misguided men, by the
cruelties of the Indians, been properly directed, it would have
produced a quite different result. If, instead of avenging the
outrages of others, upon those who were no otherwise guilty than in
the complexion of their skin, they had directed their exertions to the
repressing of invasion, and the punishment of its authors, much good
might have been achieved; and they, instead of being stigmatized as
murderers of the innocent, would have been hailed as benefactors of
the border settlements. Associations of this kind were formed in that
province, and contributed no little to lessen the frequency of Indian
massacres, and to prevent the effusion of blood, and the destruction
of property. At the time the Paxton boys were meditating and
endeavoring to effect the destruction of the peaceable christian
Indians, another company, formed by voluntary league, was actively
engaged in checking the intrusions, of those who were enemies, and in
punishing their aggressions. A company of riflemen, called the Black
boys (from the fact of their painting themselves red and black, after
the Indian fashion,) under the command of Capt. James Smith,
contributed to preserve the Conococheague valley, during the years
1763 and 1764, from the devastation [80] which had overspread it early
after the commencement of Braddock's war.
Capt. Smith had been captured by the Indians in the spring of 1755,
and remained with them until the spring of 1759, when he left them at
Montreal, and after some time arrived at home in Pennsylvania. He was
in Fort du Quesne, when the Indians and French went out to surprise
Gen. Braddock; and witnessed the burnings and other dreadful tortures
inflicted upon those who were so unfortunate as to have been made
prisoners; and the orgies and demoniacal revels with which the victory
was celebrated. He was subsequently adopted into a family, by which he
was kindly treated; and became well acquainted with their manner of
warfare, and the various arts practised by them, to ensure success in
their predatory incursions, and afterwards to elude pursuit. He became
satisfied from observation, that to combat Indians successfully, they
must be encountered in their own way; and he accordingly instructed
his men in the Indian mode of warfare, dressed them after the Indian
fashion, and fought after the Indian manner.[5]
An instance of the good effect resulting from practicing the arts
and stratagems of the Indians, occurred during this war; and to
its success the garrison of Fort Pitt were indebted for their
preservation.
After the ratification of the treaty of peace which had been concluded
between England and France, war continued to be waged by the Indians
on the whole western frontier. A large body of them had collected and
marched to Fort Pitt, with a view to its reduction by famine. It had
been invested for some time and the garrison being too weak to sally
out and give battle to the besiegers, Capt. Ecuyer dispatched
messengers with the intelligence of his situation and a request for
aid and provisions: these were either compelled to return or be
killed, as the country for some distance east of Fort Pitt was in the
possession of the savages.[6]
At length a quantity of provisions were ordered by Gov. Amherst for
the relief of the fort, and forwarded under a strong guard commanded
by Colonel Boquet. The Indians were soon apprized of this and
determined on intercepting the provisions, and if practicable, to
prevent their reaching the place of their destination. With this
object in view, a considerable force was detached, to watch the
motions of Col. Boquet and [81] upon a favorable opportunity to give
him battle. In a narrow defile on Turtle creek an attack was made by
the Indians, and a severe engagement ensued. Both armies fought with
the most obstinate bravery, from one o'clock 'till night, and in the
morning it was resumed, and continued with unabated fury for several
hours. At length Col. Boquet, having placed four companies of infantry
and grenadiers in ambush, ordered a retreat. So soon as this was
commenced, the Indians, confident of victory, pressed forward with
considerable impetuosity, and fell into the ambuscade. This decided
the contest--the Indians were repulsed with great slaughter and
dispersed.
The loss of the British, in killed and wounded, exceeded one hundred.
That they were not entirely cut off, was attributable to the stratagem
of the retreat (a favorite one of the Indians;) the success of which
not only saved the detachment under Col. Boquet, but likewise
preserved Fort Pitt, from falling into the hands of the savage foe.
The loss sustained by the enemy, must have equaled that of the
British; several of their most distinguished chiefs and warriors, were
of the number of the slain: and so decisive was the victory obtained
over them, that in the succeeding campaign against the Indians on the
Muskingum, Boquet found not much difficulty in bringing them to terms.
A cessation of hostilities was agreed to, upon condition that they
would give up all the whites then detained by them in captivity.
Upwards of three hundred prisoners were then redeemed; but the season
being far advanced and the others scattered in different parts of the
country, it was stipulated, that they should be brought into Fort Pitt
early in the ensuing spring; and as a security that they would comply
with this condition of the armistice, six of their chiefs were
delivered up as hostages--these however succeeded in making their
escape before the army arrived at Fort Pitt.[7]
The ill success which had attended the combined operations of the
Indians, during this war, the difficulty of procuring ammunition to
support it, and the fact that it had begun to be carried into their
own country, disposed them to make peace. A treaty was accordingly
concluded with them by Sir William Johnson in 1765. Previous to this
however, some few depredations were committed by the Indians, in
contravention of the agreement made with them by Col. Boquet; and
which induced a belief that the want of clothes and ammunition,[82]
was the real cause of their partial forbearance. It was therefore of
great consequence, to prevent their obtaining a supply of these
necessaries, until there could be some stronger assurance, than had
been given, of their pacific disposition.
Notwithstanding the prevalence of this impression, and the fact, that
a royal proclamation had been issued, forbidding any person trading
with the Indians, yet in March 1765 a number of wagons, laden with
goods and warlike stores for the Indians, was sent from Philadelphia
to Henry Pollens of Conococheague, to be thence transported on pack
horses to Fort Pitt. This very much alarmed the country; and many
individuals remonstrated against the propriety of supplying the
Indians at that particular juncture; alleging the well known fact,
that they were then destitute of ammunition and clothing, and that to
furnish them with those articles, would be to aid in bringing on
another frontier war, and to lend themselves to the commission of
those horrid murders, by which those wars were always distinguished.
Remonstrance was fruitless. The gainful traffick which could be then
carried on with the Indians, banished every other consideration; and
seventy horses, packed with goods, were directed on to Fort Pitt.
In this situation of things, Capt. James Smith, (who had been with
Boquet during the campaign of 1764, and was well convinced that a
supply at that time of clothing and ammunition, would be the signal
for the recommencement of hostilities) collected ten of his "Black
boys," painted and dressed as Indians; and waylaid the caravan, near a
place called the "Side long Hill." He disposed his men in pairs,
behind trees along the road, at intervals of about 60 yards, with
orders for the second not to fire 'till the first had reloaded, so
that a regular, slow fire might be maintained at once, from front to
rear.
As soon as the cavalcade approached, the firing commenced, and the
pack horses beginning to fall by the side of their conductors, excited
the fear of the latter, and induced them to cry out "Gentlemen what
would you have us to do." Captain Smith replied, "collect all your
loads to the front, deposit them in one place; take your private
property and retire." These things were accordingly done; and the
goods left (consisting of blankets, shirts, beads, vermillion, powder,
lead, tomahawks, scalping knives, &c.) were immediately burned or
otherwise destroyed.
[83] The traders then went to Fort Loudon, and obtaining of the
commanding officer a party of Highland soldiers, proceeded in quest of
the _Robbers_ (as they termed them;) some of whom were taken and
carried into the Fort. Capt. Smith then raised about 300 riflemen, and
marching to Fort Loudon, occupied a position on an eminence near it.
He had not been long there before he had more than twice as many of
the garrison, prisoners in his camp, as there were of his men in the
guard house. Under a flag of truce proceeding from the Fort, a
convention for the exchange of prisoners was entered into between
Capt. Grant, the commander of the garrison, and Capt. Smith, and the
latter with his men, immediately returned to their homes. [8]
Occurrences such as this, were afterwards of too frequent [84]
recurrence. The people had been taught by experience, that the fort
afforded very little, if any protection to those who were not confined
within its walls--they were jealous of the easy, and yet secure life
led by the garrison, and apprehensive of the worst consequences from
the intercourse of traders with the Indians. Under those feelings,
they did not scruple to intercept the passage of goods to the trading
posts, and commit similar outrages to those above described, if there
were any interference on the part of the neighboring forts. On one
occasion, Capt. Grant was himself taken prisoner, and [85] detained
'till restitution was made the inhabitants of some guns, which had
been taken from them, by soldiers from the garrison; and in 1769, a
quantity of powder, lead and other articles was taken from some
traders passing through Bedford county, and destroyed. Several
persons, supposed to have been of the party who committed this
outrage, were apprehended, and laid in irons in the guard house at
Fort Bedford.
Capt. Smith, although in no wise engaged in this transaction, nor yet
approving it, was nevertheless so indignant that an offence against
the civil authorities, should be attempted to be punished by a
military tribunal, that he resolved on effecting their release. To
accomplish this, he collected eighteen of his "Black boys," in whom he
knew he could confide; and marched along the main road in the
direction of Fort Bedford. On his way to that place, he did not
attempt to conceal his object, but freely told to every one who
enquired, that he was going to take Fort Bedford. On the evening of
the second day of their march, they arrived at the crossings of
Juniata, (14 miles from Bedford) and erected tents as if they intended
encamping there all night.
Previous to this, Capt. Smith had communicated his intention to Mr.
William Thompson (who lived in Bedford and on whom he could rely,) and
prevailed on him to obtain what information he could as to the effect
produced in the garrison by the preparations which he was making for
its attack; and acquaint him with it. That he might be enabled to do
this with greater certainty, a place and hour were appointed at which
Capt. Smith would meet him.
About 11 o'clock at night the march was resumed, and moving
briskly they arrived near to Bedford, where they met Thompson; who
communicated to them the fact, that the garrison had been apprized
of their object that in consequence of having heard from them on
the preceding evening, at the Crossings of Juniata, it was not
expected they would arrive before mid-day, that their number was
known, and the enterprise ridiculed. Thompson then returned to
Bedford, and the party moved silently under covert of the banks of the
river, 'till they approached near to the Fort, where they lay
concealed, awaiting the opening of the gate. About day light
Thompson apprised them that the guard had thrown open the gate, and
were taking their morning's dram; that the arms were stacked not far
from the entrance into the Fort, and three centinels on the wall.
Upon hearing these things, Capt. Smith with his men rushed rapidly to
the Fort, and the morning being misty, were not discovered 'till they
had reached the gate. At that instant the centinels fired their guns
and gave the alarm; but Capt. Smith and his men took possession of the
arms, and raised a loud shout, before the soldiers of the garrison
could learn the cause of the alarm, or get to the scene of action.
[86] Having thus obtained possession of the Fort, Capt. Smith had the
prisoners released from the guardhouse, and compelling a blacksmith to
knock off their irons, left the Fort with them and returned to
Conococheaque. "This, Capt. Smith says, was the first British fort in
America, taken by what they called American rebels."
Some time after this, an attempt was made to apprehend Capt. Smith, as
he was proceeding to survey and locate land on the Youghogany river.
In the encounter which succeeded, a man (by the name of Johnson) was
killed; and the murder being charged on Smith, he was confined for a
time in Bedford jail; but fearing a release, the civil authority sent
him privately through the wilderness to Carlisle, to await a trial for
the alledged offence. On hearing this, upwards of three hundred
persons (among whom were his old "Black boys,") proceeded to Carlisle
to effect a rescue; and were only prevented the accomplishment of
their object, by the solicitation of Smith himself. He knew his
innocence, and preferred awaiting a trial; and how willing soever he
might have been to oppose any encroachments of the military, he held
in just abhorrence, an opposition to the civil authority of his
country. He was put on his trial and acquitted.[9]
[87] Events such as those which have been narrated, serve to shew the
state of things which existed at that day; and to point out the evils
necessarily resulting, from an absence of municipal regulations. Man,
in every station and condition of life, requires the controlling hand
of civil power, to confine him in his proper sphere, and to check
every advance of invasion, on the rights of others. Unrestrained
liberty speedily degenerates into licentiousness. Without the
necessary curbs and restraints of law, men would relapse into a state
of nature; [88] and although the obligations of justice (the basis of
society) be natural obligations; yet such are the depravity and
corruption of human nature, that without some superintending and
coercive power, they would be wholly disregarded; and human society,
would become the field of oppression and outrage--instead of a theatre
for the interchange of good offices. Civil institutions and judicial
establishments; the comminations of punishment and the denunciations
of law, are barely sufficient to repress the evil propensities of man.
Left to themselves, they spurn all natural restrictions, and riot in
the unrestrained indulgence of every passion.
-----
[1] At Dickenson's fort in 1755.
[2] When the Indians were most troublesome, and threatening
even the destruction of Winchester, Lord Fairfax who was
commandant of the militia of Frederick and Hampshire, ordered
them out. Three days active exertion on his part, brought only
20 in the field.
[3] Rather rangers, who seem to have been enlisted to serve
a year, and were re-engaged when necessary.--L. C. D.
[4] Peter Williamson had singular adventures. When a boy he
was kidnapped at Aberdeen, and sent to America, for which he
afterwards recovered damages. It is said that he passed a
considerable period among the Cherokees. He instituted the
first penny post at Edinburgh, for which, when the government
assumed it, he received a pension. His _Memoirs_, and _French
and Indian Cruelty Examplified_, were works of interest. He
died in Edinburgh in 1799.--L. C. D.
[5] Col. James Smith was born in Franklin county, Pa., in
1737; was captured by Indians in 1755, remaining in captivity
until his escape in 1759. He served as ensign in 1763, and
lieutenant under Bouquet in 1764; he was a leader, for several
years, of the Black Boys--a sort of regulators of the traders
who, the Black Boys thought, supplied the Indians with the
munitions of war. As the troubles with the mother country
began, Smith was selected for frontier service, and held civil
and military positions--captain in the Pennsylvania line; then
in 1777 as major under Washington; in 1778, he was promoted to
the rank of colonel of militia, and led an expedition against
the Indian town on French Creek. In 1788, he removed to
Kentucky; served in the early Kentucky conventions, preparatory
to State organization, and also in the legislature. He did
missionary work in Kentucky and Tennessee, and preached among
the Indians. He wrote a valuable account of his Indian
captivity, republished a few years since by Robert Clarke &
Co., Cincinnati, and a treatise on Indian warfare, besides two
controversial pamphlets against the Shakers. He died in
Washington county, Ky., in 1812, aged about seventy-five
years.--L. C. D.
[6] Captain Simeon Ecuyer, like Bouquet, was a native of
Switzerland; he did good service on the frontiers, especially
in the gallant defense of Fort Pitt in 1763. He became
disgusted with the bad conduct of his soldiers, especially the
grenadiers, and begged leave to resign. "For God's sake," he
implored Bouquet, "let me go, and raise cabbages."--L. C. D.
[7] Henry Bouquet was born at Rolle, in the canton of Berne,
Switzerland, in 1721, and at the age of seventeen he entered
into the service of the states general of Holland; subsequently
engaged under the banner of Sardinia, and distinguished himself
at the battle of Cony. In 1748, he was a lieutenant-colonel in
the Swiss guards, in the service of Holland. At length, in
1756, he entered the English army, serving in the Royal
Americans, and co-operated with Gen. Forbes on the campaign
against Fort Du Quesne, repulsing an attack of French and
Indians on Loyal Hanna. He afterwards served in Canada, and was
sent for the relief of Fort Pitt, when beleagured in 1763.
While marching on this service, he signally defeated the
Indians at Bushy Run, after a two days' engagement, in August
of that year, and relieved Fort Pitt. In 1764, he led an
expedition against the Ohio Indians, compelling them to sue for
peace. He died at Pensacola, September 2, 1765, of a prevailing
fever, in the prime of life, at the age of forty-four years. He
had attained the rank of general.--L. C. D.
[8] The following song was soon after composed by Mr. George Campbell
(an Irish gentleman who had been educated in Dublin,) and was
frequently sung in the neighborhood to the tune of the _Black Joke_.
Ye patriot souls who love to sing,
What serves your country and your king,
In wealth, peace, and royal estate;
Attention give whilst I rehearse,
A modern fact, in jingling verse,
How party interest strove what it cou'd,
To profit itself by public blood,
But justly met its merited fate.
Let all those Indian traders claim,
Their just reward, in glorious fame,
For vile, base and treacherous ends,
To Pollins in the spring they sent
Much warlike stores, with an intent,
To carry them to our barbarous foes,
Expecting that nobody dare oppose
A present to their Indian friends.
Astonished at the wild design
Frontier inhabitants combin'd,
With brave souls to stop their career,
Although some men apostatized
Who first the grand attempt advis'd,
The bold frontiers they bravely stood,
To act for their king, and their country's good
In joint league, and strangers to fear.
On March the fifth, in sixty-five,
Their Indian presents did arrive,
In long pomp and cavalcade,
Near Sidelong-hill, where in disguise,
Some patriots did their train surprise,
And quick as lightning tumbled their loads
And kindled them bonfires in the woods;
And mostly burnt their whole brigade.
At Loudon when they heard the news,
They scarcely knew which way to choose,
For blind rage and discontent;
At length some soldiers they sent out,
With guides for to conduct the route,
And seized some men that were travelling there
And hurried them into Loudon, where
They laid them fast with one consent.
But men of resolution thought
Too much to see their neighbors caught
For no crime but false surmise;
Forthwith they join'd a warlike band,
And march'd to Loudon out of hand,
And kept the jailors pris'ners there,
Until our friends enlarged were,
Without fraud or any disguise.
Let mankind censure or commend,
This rash performance in the end,
Then both sides will find their account.
'Tis true no law can justify
To burn our neighbors property,
But when this property is design'd
To serve the enemies of mankind,
Its high treason in the amount.
[9] The following extract from the _Pennsylvania Gazette_ of
November 2d, 1769, details the circumstances of this
transaction.
"James Smith, his brother and brother in law, were going out
to survey and improve their land, on the waters of the
Youghogany.--Expecting to be gone some time, they took with
them their arms, and horses loaded with necessaries; and as
Smith's brother in law was an artist in surveying, he had also
with him the instruments for that business. Travelling on
their way and within nine miles of Bedford, they overtook
and joined in company with one Johnson and Moorhead, who had
likewise horses packed with liquor and seed wheat--their
intentions being also to make improvements on their lands.
Arrived at the parting of the road near Bedford, they
separated, one party going through town for the purpose of
having a horse shod; these were apprehended and put under
confinement.--James Smith, Johnson and Moorhead taking the
other road, met John Holmes of Bedford, to whom Smith spoke
in a friendly manner but received no answer. Smith and his
companions proceeded to where the two roads again united;
and waited there the arrival of the others.
"At this time a number of men came riding up, and asked Smith
his name. On his telling them who he was, they immediately
presented their pistols, and commanded him to surrender or he
was a dead man. Smith stepped back and asking if they were
highwaymen, charged them to keep off; when immediately Robert
George (one of the assailants) snapped a pistol at Smith's
head; and that (as George acknowledged under oath) before Smith
had offered to [87] shoot. Smith then presented his gun at
another of the assailants, who was holding Johnson with one
hand, while with the other he held a pistol, which he was
preparing to discharge. Two shots were fired, one by Smith's
gun, the other by the pistol, so quick as to be just
distinguishable, and Johnson fell. Smith was then taken and
carried to Bedford, where John Holmes (who had met him on the
road, and hastened to Bedford with the intelligence) held an
inquest over the dead body of Johnson. One of the assailants
being the only witness examined, it was found that "Johnson had
been murdered by Smith," who was thereupon committed for trial.
But jealousy arising in the breasts of many, that the inquest
was not so fair as it should have been, William Deny, (the
coroner of Bedford county) thought proper to re-examine the
matter; and summoning a jury of unexceptionable men, out of
three townships--men whose candour, probity, and honesty are
unquestionable, and having raised the corpse, held a solemn
inquest over it for three days.
"In the course of their scrutiny, they found the shirt of
Johnson, around the bullet hole, blackened by the powder of the
charge with which he had been killed. One of the assailants
being examined, swore to the respective spots of ground on
which they stood at the time of firing, which being measured,
was found to be 28 feet distance from each other. The
experiment was then made of shooting at the shirt an equal
distance both with and against the wind, to ascertain if the
powder produced the stain; but it did not. Upon the whole the
jury, after the most accurate examination and mature
deliberation, brought in their verdict that one of the
assailants must necessarily have done the murder."
Captain Smith was a brave and enterprising man. In 1766, he, in
company with Joshua Horton, Uriah Stone, William Baker and
James Smith, by the way of Holstein, explored the country south
of Kentucky at a time when it was entirely uninhabited; and the
country between the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, to their
entrance into the Ohio. Stone's river, a branch of the
Cumberland and emptying into it not far above Nashville, was
named by them in this expedition.
After his acquittal from the charge of having murdered
Johnson, he was elected and served as one of the board of
commissioners, for regulating taxes and laying the county
levy, in the county of Bedford. [88] He was for several years
a delegate from the county of Westmoreland, to the General
Assembly of Pennsylvania; and in the war of the revolution was
an officer of merit and distinction. In 1781 he removed to
Kentucky and settled in Bourbon county not far from Paris;
was a member of the convention which set at Danville, to
confer about a separation from the state of Virginia, in 1788,
from which time until 1799, with the exception of two years, he
was either a delegate of the convention or of the General
Assembly of Kentucky.
------
_Comment by L. C. D._--It would seem from Col. Smith's own
statement, that his removal to, and settlement in, Bourbon
county, Ky., was in 1788.
[89] CHAPTER V.
The comparative security and quiet, which succeeded the treaty of
1765, contributed to advance the prosperity of the Virginia frontiers.
The necessity of congregating in forts and blockhouses, no longer
existing, each family enjoyed the felicities of its own fireside,
undisturbed by fearful apprehensions of danger from the prowling
savage, and free from the bustle and confusion consequent on being
crowded together. No longer forced to cultivate their little fields in
common, and by the united exertions of a whole neighborhood, with
tomahawks suspended from their belts and rifles attached to their plow
beams, their original spirit of enterprise was revived: and while a
certainty of reaping in unmolested safety, the harvest for which they
had toiled, gave to industry, a stimulus which increased their
prosperity, it also excited others to come and reside among them--a
considerable addition to their population, and a rapid extension of
settlements, were the necessary consequence.
It was during the continuation of this exemption from Indian aggression,
that several establishments were made on the Monongahela and its
branches, and on the Ohio river. These were nearly cotemporaneous; the
first however, in order of time, was that made on the Buchannon--a fork
of the Tygart's valley river, and was induced by a flattering account
of the country as given by two brothers; who had spent some years in
various parts of it, under rather unpleasant circumstances.
Among the soldiers who garrisoned Fort Pitt, were William Childers,
John and Samuel Pringle and Joseph Linsey. In 1761, these four men
deserted from the fort, and ascended the Monongahela as far as to the
mouth of George's creek (the site afterwards selected by Albert
Gallatin, for the town of Geneva.) Here they remained awhile; but not
liking the [90] situation crossed over to the head of the Youghogany;
and encamping in the glades, continued there about twelve months.
In one of their hunting rambles, Samuel Pringle came on a path, which
he supposed would lead to the inhabited part of Virginia. On his
return he mentioned the discovery and his supposition, to his
comrades, and they resolved on tracing it. This they accordingly did,
and it conducted them to Loony's creek, then the most remote western
settlement. While among the inhabitants on Loony's creek, they were
recognized and some of the party apprehended as deserters. John and
Samuel Pringle succeeded in making an escape to their camp in the
glades, where they remained 'till some time in the year 1764.
During this year, and while in the employ of John Simpson (a trapper,
who had come there in quest of furs,) they determined on removing
farther west. Simpson was induced to this, by the prospect of enjoying
the woods free from the intrusion of other hunters (the glades having
begun to be a common hunting ground for the inhabitants of the South
Branch;) while a regard for their personal safety, caused the Pringles
to avoid a situation, in which they might be exposed to the
observation of other men.
In journeying through the wilderness, and after having crossed Cheat
river at the Horse shoe, a quarrel arose between Simpson and one of
the Pringles; and notwithstanding that peace and harmony were so
necessary to their mutual safety and comfort; yet each so far indulged
the angry passions which had been excited, as at length to produce a
separation.
Simpson crossed over the Valley river, near the mouth of Pleasant
creek, and passing on to the head of another water course, gave to it
the name of Simpson's creek. Thence he went westwardly, and fell over
on a stream which he called Elk: at the mouth of this he erected a
camp, and continued to reside for more than twelve months. During this
time he neither saw the Pringles nor any other human being; and at the
expiration of it went to the South Branch, where he disposed of his
furs and skins and then returned to, and continued at, his encampment
at the mouth of Elk, until permanent settlements were made in its
vicinity.
The Pringles kept up the Valley river 'till they observed a large
right hand fork, (now Buchannon),[1] which they ascended [91] some
miles; and at the mouth of a small branch (afterward called Turkey
run) they took up their abode in the cavity of a large Sycamore
tree.[2] The stump of this is still to be seen, and is an object of no
little veneration with the immediate descendants of the first
settlers.
The situation of these men, during a residence here of several years,
although rendered somewhat necessary by their previous conduct, could
not have been very enviable. Deserters from the army, a constant fear
of discovery filled their minds with inquietude.--In the vicinity of a
savage foe, the tomahawk and scalping knife were ever present to their
imaginations.--Remote from civilized man, their solitude was hourly
interrupted by the frightful shrieks of the panther, or the hideous
howlings of the wolf.--And though the herds of Buffalo, Elk and Deer,
which gamboled sportively around, enabled them easily to supply their
larder; yet the want of salt, of bread, and of every species of
kitchen vegetable, must have abated their relish for the, otherwise,
delicious loin of the one, and haunch of the others. The low state of
their little magazine too, while it limited their hunting, to the bare
procuration of articles of subsistence, caused them, from a fear of
discovery, to shrink at the idea of being driven to the settlements,
for a supply of ammunition. And not until they were actually reduced
to two loads of powder, could they be induced to venture again into
the vicinity of their fellow men. In the latter part of the year 1767,
John left his brother, and intending to make for a trading post on the
Shenandoah, appointed the period of his return.
Samuel Pringle, in the absence of John, suffered a good deal. The
stock of provisions left him became entirely exhausted--one of his
loads of powder, was expended in a fruitless attempt to shoot a
buck--his brother had already delayed his return several days longer
than was intended, and he was apprehensive that he had been
recognized, taken to Port Pitt and would probably never get back. With
his remaining load of powder, however he was fortunate enough to kill
a fine buffalo; and John soon after returned with the news of peace,
both with the Indians and French. The two brothers agreed to leave
their retirement.
Their wilderness habitation was not left without some regret. Every
object around, had become more or less endeared to them. The tree, in
whose hollow they had been so [92] frequently sheltered from storm and
tempest, was regarded by them with so great reverence, that they
resolved, so soon as they could prevail on a few others to accompany
them, again to return to this asylum of their exile.
In a population such as then composed the chief part of the South
Branch settlement, this was no difficult matter. All of them were used
to the frontier manner of living; the most of them had gone thither to
acquire land; many had failed entirely in this object, while others
were obliged to occupy poor and broken situations off the river; the
fertile bottoms having been previously located. Add to this the
passion for hunting (which was a ruling one with many,) and the
comparative scarcity of game in their neighborhood, and it need not
excite surprise that the proposition of the Pringles to form a
settlement, in such a country as they represented that on Buchannon to
be, was eagerly embraced by many.
In the fall of the ensuing year (1768) Samuel Pringle, and several
others who wished first to examine for themselves, visited the country
which had been so long occupied by the Pringles alone. Being pleased
with it, they, in the following spring, with a few others, repaired
thither, with the view of cultivating as much corn, as would serve
their families the first year after their emigration. And having
examined the country, for the purpose of selecting the most desirable
situations; some of them proceeded to improve the spots of their
choice. John Jackson (who was accompanied by his sons, George and
Edward) settled at the mouth of Turkey run, where his daughter, Mrs.
Davis, now lives--John Hacker[3] higher up on the Buchannon river,
where Bush's fort was afterwards established, and Nicholas Heavener
now lives--Alexander and Thomas Sleeth, near to Jackson's, on what is
now known as the Forenash plantation. The others of the party (William
Hacker, Thomas and Jesse Hughes, John and William Radcliff and John
Brown) appear to have employed their time exclusively in hunting;
neither of them making any improvement of land for his own benefit.
Yet were they of very considerable service to the new settlement.
Those who had commenced clearing land, were supplied by them with
abundance of meat, while in their hunting excursions through the
country, a better knowledge of it was obtained, than could have been
acquired, had they been engaged in making improvements.
[93] In one of these expeditions they discovered, and gave name to
Stone coal creek; which flowing westwardly, induced the supposition
that it discharged itself directly into the Ohio. Descending this
creek, to ascertain the fact, they came to its confluence with a
river, which they then called, and has since been known as, the West
Fork. After having gone some distance down the river, they returned by
a different route to the settlement, better pleased with the land on
it and some of its tributaries, than with that on Buchannon.
Soon after this, other emigrants arrived under the guidance of Samuel
Pringle. Among them were, John and Benjamin Cutright, who settled on
Buchannon, where John Cutright the younger, now lives; and Henry Rule
who improved just above the mouth of Fink's run. Before the arrival of
Samuel Pringle, John Hacker had begun to improve the spot which
Pringle had chosen for himself. To prevent any unpleasant result,
Hacker agreed that if Pringle would clear as much land, on a creek
which had been recently discovered by the hunters, as he had on
Buchannon, they could then exchange places. Complying with this
condition Pringle took possession of the farm on Buchannon, and Hacker
of the land improved by Pringle on the creek, which was hence called
Hacker's creek.[4] John and William Radcliff, then likewise settled on
this stream--the former on the farm, where the Rev. John Mitchel now
lives; the latter at the place now owned by William Powers Esq.--These
comprise all the improvements which were made on the upper branches of
the Monongahela in the years 1769 and 1770.
At the close of the working season of 1769 some of these adventurers,
went to their families on the South Branch; and when they returned to
gather their crops in the fall, found them entirely destroyed. In
their absence the buffaloes, no longer awed by the presence of man,
had trespassed on their enclosures, and eaten their corn to the
ground--this delayed the removal of their families 'till the winter of
1770.
Soon after the happening of this event, other settlements were made on
the upper branches of the Monongahela river. Capt. James Booth and
John Thomas established themselves on what has been since called
Booth's creek--The former at the place now owned by Jesse Martin; and
the latter where William Martin at present resides, and which is
perhaps the [94] most valuable landed estate in North Western
Virginia, off the Ohio river.
Previous however to the actual settlement of the country above the
forks of the Monongahela, some few families (in 1767) had established
themselves in the vicinity of Fort Redstone, now Brownsville, in
Pennsylvania.[5] At the head of these were Abraham Tegard, James
Crawford, John Province, and John Harden. The latter of these
gentlemen afterwards removed to Kentucky and became distinguished in
the early history of that state, as well for the many excellencies of
his private and public life, as for the untimely and perfidious manner
of his death.
In the succeeding year Jacob Vanmeter, John Swan, Thomas Hughes and
some others settled on the west side of the Monongahela, near the
mouth of Muddy creek, where Carmichaelstown now stands.[6]
In this year too, the place which had been occupied for a while by
Thomas Decker and his unfortunate associates, and where Morgantown is
now situated, was settled by a party of emigrants; one of which was
David Morgan, who became so conspicuous for personal prowess, and for
the daring, yet deliberate courage displayed by him, during the
subsequent hostilities with the Indians.
In 1769, Col. Ebenezer Zane, his brothers Silas and Jonathan, with
some others from the south Branch, visited the Ohio river for the
purpose of commencing improvements;[7] [95] and severally proceeded to
select positions for their future residence. Col. Zane chose for his,
an eminence above the mouth of Wheeling creek, near to the Ohio, and
opposite a beautiful and considerable island in that river. The spot
thus selected by him, is now occupied by his son Noah Zane, Esq. and
is nearly the centre of the present flourishing town of Wheeling.
Silas Zane commenced improving on Wheeling creek where Col. Moses
Shepherd now lives, and Jonathan resided with his brother Ebenezer.
Several of those who accompanied the adventurers, likewise remained
with Colonel Zane, in the capacity of laborers.
After having made those preparations which were immediately
requisite for the reception of their respective families, they
returned to their former homes. In the ensuing year they finally left
the South Branch, and accompanied by Col. David Shepherd, (the father
of Col. Moses Shepherd,) John Wetzel (the father of Lewis) and the
McCulloughs--men whose names are identified with the early history
of that country--repaired again to the wilderness, and took up their
permanent abode in it.
Soon after this, other settlements were made at different points, both
above and below Wheeling; and the country on Buffalo, Short, and Grave
creeks,[8] and on the Ohio river, became the abode of civilized man.
Among those who were first to occupy above Wheeling, were George
Lefler, John Doddridge, Benjamin Biggs, Daniel Greathouse, Joshua
Baker and Andrew Swearingen.[9]
[96] The settlement thus made constituting a kind of advance _guard_,
through which an Indian enemy would have to penetrate, before they
could reach the interior, others were less reluctant to occupy the
country between them and the Alleghany mountains. Accordingly various
establishments were soon made in it by adventurers from different
parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia; and those places in
which settlements had been previously effected, received considerable
accessions to their population.
In 1772, that comparatively beautiful region of country, lying on the
east fork of the Monongahela river, between the Alleghany mountains,
on its south eastern, and the Laurel Hill, or as it is there called
the Rich mountain, on its north western side, and which had received
the denomination of Tygart's valley, again attracted the attention of
emigrants.--In the course of that year, the greater part of this
valley was located, by persons said to have been enticed thither by
the description given of it, by some hunters from Greenbrier who had
previously explored it. Game, though a principal, was not however
their sole object. They possessed themselves at once of nearly all the
level land lying between those mountains--a plain of 25 or 30 miles in
length and varying from three fourths to two miles in width, and of
fine soil. Among those who were first to occupy that section of
country, we find the names of Hadden, Connelly, Whiteman, Warwick,
Nelson, Stalnaker, Riffle and Westfall: the latter of these found and
interred the bones of Files' family, which had lain, bleaching in the
sun, after their murder by the Indians, in 1754.
Cheat river too, on which no attempt at settlement had been made, but
by the unfortunate Eckarly's, became an object of attention, The Horse
Shoe bottom was located by Capt. James Parsons, of the South Branch;
and in his neighborhood settled Robert Cunningham, Henry Fink, John
Goff and John Minear. Robert Butler, William Morgan and some others
settled on the Dunkard bottom.
In this year too, settlements were made on Simpson's creek, the West
Fork river and on Elk creek. Those who made the former, were John
Powers, who purchased Simpson's right (a tomahawk improvement)[10] to
the land on which Benjamin [97] Stout now resides; and James Anderson
and Jonas Webb who located themselves farther up the creek.
On Elk, and in the vicinity of Clarksburg there settled Thomas Nutter,
near to the Forge-mills--Samuel Cottrial, on the east side of the
creek and nearly opposite to Clarksburg--Sotha Hickman, on the west
side of the same creek, and above Cottrial--Samuel Beard at the mouth
of Nanny's run--Andrew Cottrial above Beard, and at the farm now owned
by John W. Patton--Daniel Davisson, where Clarksburg is now situated,
and Obadiah Davisson and John Nutter on the West Fork; the former near
to the old Salt works, and the latter at the place now owned by Adam
Hickman, jr.
There was likewise, at this time, a considerable accession to the
settlements on Buchannon and Hacker's creek. So great was the increase
of population in this latter neighborhood, that the crops of the
preceding season did not afford more than one third of the breadstuff,
which would be ordinarily consumed in the same time, by an equal
number of persons. Such indeed was the state of suffering among the
inhabitants, consequent on this scarcity, that the year 1773 is called
in the traditionary legends of that day, the _starving year_; and such
were the exertions of William Lowther to mitigate that suffering, and
so great the success with which they were crowned, that his name has
been transmitted to their descendants, hallowed by the blessings of
those, whose wants he contributed so largely to relieve.[11]
[98] These were the principal settlements begun in North Western
Virginia, prior to the year 1774. Few and scattered as they were, no
sooner was it known that they were commenced, than hundreds flocked to
them from different parts; and sought there the gratifications of
their respective predilections. That spirit of adventurous emigration,
which has since peopled, with such unprecedented rapidity, the south
western and western states, and which was then beginning to develope
itself, overcame the fond attachments of youth, and impelled its
possessors, to the dreary wilderness. Former homes, encircled by the
comforts of civilization, endeared by the grateful recollections of
by-gone days, and not unfrequently, consecrated as the spots where
their tenants had first inhaled the vital fluid, were readily
exchanged for "the variety of untried being, the new scenes and
changes," which were to be passed, before the trees of the forest
could be supplanted, by the fruits of the field, or society be reared
in the solitude of the desert. With a capability to sustain fatigue,
not to be subdued by toil; and with a cheerfulness, not easily to be
depressed; a patience which could mock at suffering and a daring which
nothing could daunt, every difficulty which intervened, every obstacle
which was interposed between them and the accomplishment of the
objects of their pursuit, was surmounted or removed; and in a
comparatively brief space of time, they rose to the enjoyment of many
of those gratifications, which are experienced in earlier and more
populous settlements. That their morals should, for a while, have
suffered deterioration, and their manners and habits, instead of [99]
approximating those of refined society, should have become perhaps,
more barbarous and uncouth, was the inevitable consequence of their
situation, and the certain result of circumstances, which they could
not control. When that situation was changed, and these circumstances
ceased to exist, a rapid progress was made in the advancement of many
sections of the country, to the refinements of civilized society.
The infantile state of all countries exhibits, in a greater or less
degree, a prevalence of barbarism. The planting of colonies, or
the formation of establishments in new countries, is ever attended
with circumstances unpropitious to refinement. The force with which
these circumstances act, will be increased or diminished in proportion
to the remoteness or proximity of those new establishments, to
older societies, in which the arts and sciences are cultivated; and to
the facility of communication between them. Man is, at all times,
the creature of circumstances. Cut off from an intercourse with his
fellow men, and divested of the conveniences of life, he will readily
relapse into a state of nature.--Placed in contiguity with the
barbarous and the vicious; his manners will become rude, his
morals perverted.--Brought into collision with the sanguinary and
revengeful; and his own conduct will eventually be distinguished,
by bloody and vindictive deeds.
Such was really the situation of those who made the first establishments
in North Western Virginia. And when it is considered, that they were,
mostly, men from the humble walks of life; comparatively illiterate and
unrefined; without civil or religious institutions, and with a love of
liberty, bordering on its extreme; their more enlightened descendants can
not but feel surprise, that their dereliction from propriety had not been
greater; their virtue less.
The objects, for the attainment of which they voluntarily placed
themselves in this situation, and tempted the dangers inseparable
from a residence in the contiguity of Indians, jealous of territorial
encroachment, were almost as various as their individual character.
Generally speaking, they were men in indigent circumstances, unable
to purchase land in the neigborhoods from which they came, and
unwilling longer to remain the tenants of others. These were induced
to [100] emigrate, with the laudable ambition of acquiring homes,
from which they would not be liable to expulsion, at the whim and
caprice of some haughty lordling. Upon the attainment of this object,
they were generally content; and made but feeble exertions to
acquire more land, than that to which they obtained title, by virtue
of their settlements. Some few, however, availed themselves of the
right of pre-emption, and becoming possessed of the more desirable
portions of the country, added considerably to their individual
wealth.
Those who settled on the Ohio, were of a more enterprising and
ambitious spirit, and looked more to the advancement of their
condition in a pecuniary point of view. The fertile bottoms of
that river, and the facility with which, by means of it, their
surplus produce might be transported to a ready market,[12] were
considerations which influenced many. Others, again, looking
forward to the time when the Indians would be divested of the
country north west of the Ohio river, and it be open to location
in the same manner its south eastern shores were, selected this as
a situation, from which they might more readily obtain possession
of the fertile land, with which its ample plains were known to
abound. In anticipation of this period, there were some who
embraced every opportunity, afforded by intervals of peace with
the Indians, to explore that country and select in it what they
deemed, its most valuable parts. Around these they would generally
mark trees, or otherwise define boundaries, by which they could be
afterwards identified. The cession by Virginia to the United States,
of the North Western Territory, and the manner in which its lands
were subsequently brought into market, prevented the realization
of those flattering, and apparently, well founded expectations.
There were also, in every settlement, individuals, who had been drawn
to them solely by their love of hunting, and an attachment to the
wild, unshackled scenes of a wilderness life. These were perhaps,
totally regardless of all the inconveniencies, [101] resulting from
their new situation; except that of being occasionally pent up in
forts; and thus debarred the enjoyment of their favorite pastimes.
Although hunting was not the object of most of the old settlers, yet
it was for a good part of the year, the chief employment of their
time. And of all those, who thus made their abode in the dense forest,
and tempted aggression from the neighboring Indians, none were so well
qualified to resist this aggression, and to retaliate upon its
authors, as those who were mostly engaged in this pursuit. Of all
their avocations, this "mimickry of war" best fitted them to thwart
the savages in their purpose, and to mitigate the horrors of their
peculiar mode of warfare. Those arts which enabled them, unperceived
to approach the watchful deer in his lair, enabled them likewise to
circumvent the Indian in his ambush; and if not always punish, yet
frequently defeat him in his object. Add to this the perfect knowledge
which they acquired of the woods, and the ease and certainty with
which they consequently, when occasion required, could make their way
to any point of the settlements and apprize the inhabitants of
approaching danger; and it will be readily admitted that the more
expert and successful the huntsman, the more skillful and effective
the warrior.
But various soever, as may have been their objects in emigrating, no
sooner had they come together, than there existed in each settlement,
a perfect unison of feeling. Similitude of situation and community of
danger, operating as a magic charm, stifled in their birth those
little bickerings, which are so apt to disturb the quiet of society.
Ambition of preferment and the pride of place, too often lets and
hindrances to social intercourse, were unknown among them. Equality of
condition rendered them strangers alike, to the baneful distinctions
created by wealth and other adventitious circumstances; and to envy,
which gives additional virus to their venom. A sense of mutual
dependence for their common security linked them in amity; and
conducting their several purposes in harmonious concert, together they
toiled and together suffered.
Not all the "pomp and pride and pageantry" of life, could vie with the
Arcadian scenes which encircled the rude cottages of those men. Their
humble dwellings were the abode of virtues, rarely found in the "cloud
capt towers and [102] gorgeous palaces" of splendid ambition. And when
peace reigned around them, neither the gaudy trappings of wealth, nor
the insignia of office, nor the slaked thirst for distinction, could
have added to the happiness which they enjoyed.
In their intercourse with others they were kind, beneficent and
disinterested; extending to all, the most generous hospitality which
their circumstances could afford. That selfishness, which prompts to
liberality for the sake of remuneration, and proffers the civilities
of life with an eye to individual interest, was unknown to them. They
were kind for kindness sake; and sought no other recompense, than the
never failing concomitant of good deeds--the reward of an approving
conscience.
It is usual for men in the decline of life, to contrast the scenes
which are then being exhibited, with those through which they passed
in the days of youth; and not unfrequently, to moralize on the decay
of those virtues, which enhance the enjoyment of life and give to
pleasure its highest relish. The mind is then apt to revert to
earlier times, and to dwell with satisfaction on the manners and
customs which prevailed in the hey-day of youth. Every change which
may have been wrought in them is deemed a deteriorating innovation,
and the sentence of their condemnation unhesitatingly pronounced. This
is not always, the result of impartial and discriminating judgment. It
is perhaps, more frequently founded in prepossession; and based on the
prejudices of education and habit.
On the other hand those who are just entering on the vestibule of
life, are prone to give preference to the habits of the present
generation; viewing, too often, with contemptuous derision, those of
the past. Mankind certainly advance in intelligence and refinement;
but virtue and happiness do not at all times keep pace with this
progress. "To inform the understanding," is not always "to correct and
enlarge the heart;" nor do the blandishments of life invariably add to
the sum of moral excellence; they are often "as dead sea fruit that
tempts the eye, but turns to ashes on the lips."--While a rough
exterior as frequently covers a temper of the utmost benignity, happy
in itself and giving happiness to all around.
Such were the pioneers of this country; and the greater part of
mankind might now derive advantage from the [103] contemplation of
"their humble virtues, hospitable homes and spirits patient, noble,
proud and free--their self respect, grafted on innocent thoughts;
their days of health and nights of sleep--their toils, by danger
dignified, yet guiltless--their hopes of cheerful old age and a quiet
grave, with cross and garland over its green turf, and their grand
children's love for epitaph."
-----
[1] Now spelled Buckhannon.--R. G. T.
[2] Sycamores, which attain gigantic proportions, are given
to rotting in the lower portions of the trunk, and chambers
eight feet in diameter are not uncommon. In the course of a
canoe voyage down the Ohio, in the summer of 1894, I frequently
saw such cavities, with the openings stopped by pickets or
rails, utilized by small bottom farmers as hog-pens,
chicken-coops, and calf stalls.
L. V. McWhorter, of Berlin, W. Va., who has kindly sent me
several MS. notes on Withers's _Chronicles_ (all of which will
be duly credited where used in this edition), writes: "The aged
sycamore now (1894) occupying the site, is the third
generation--the grand-child--of that which housed the Pringles.
It stands on the farm of Webster Dix, who assures me that it
shall not be destroyed. A tradition held by his descendants has
it, that when John Pringle went back to the South Branch for
ammunition, Charity, the wife of Samuel, who was left behind,
started immediately for the wilderness home of her husband, and
found him by the path which John had blazed for his own
return."--R. G. T.
[3] This early and meritorious pioneer was born near
Winchester, Va., Jan. 1, 1743, figured prominently in the
Indian wars of his region, and served on Col. G. R. Clark's
Illinois campaign of 1778; he died at his home on Hacker's
Creek, April 20, 1821, in his 82d year.--L. C. D.
[4] Its Indian name signified "Muddy Water."--R. G. T.
[5] We have already seen (p. 74, _note_), that Gist settled
at Mount Braddock, Fayette county, in 1753, and that eleven
families joined him in January, 1754. There is a tradition that
settlers were in the district even before Gist. It has been
shown that the Gist settlements, and others in the lower
Monongahela, were burned by the French in July, 1754. The
English borderers fled upon the outbreak of disturbances, and
did not return until about 1760-61, when confidence had been
restored.--R. G. T.
[6] Both Van Meter and Swan afterwards served under Col. G.
R. Clark--at least, on the Kaskaskia campaign; Swan commanded a
company on Clark's Shawnee campaign of 1780, and Van Meter on
that of 1782. The latter moved to Kentucky in 1780; settled in
Hardin county, Ky., Nov. 16th, 1798, in his seventy-sixth
year.--L. C. D.
------
_Comment by R. G. T._--This note, written by Dr. Draper a few
days before his death (Aug. 26, 1891), was probably his last
stroke of literary work.
[7] These gentlemen were descendants of a Mr. Zane who
accompanied William Penn, to his province of Pennsylvania, and
from whom, one of the principal streets in Philadelphia,
derived its name. Their father was possessed of a bold and
daring spirit of adventure, which was displayed on many
occasions, in the earlier part of his life. Having rendered
himself obnoxious to the Society of Friends (of which he was a
member,) by marrying without the pale of that society, he moved
to Virginia and settled on the South Branch, where the town of
Moorfield has been since erected. One of his sons (Isaac) was
taken by the Indians, when he was only nine years old, and
carried in captivity, to Mad river, in Ohio. Here he continued
'till habit reconciled him to his situation, when he married a
squaw, became a chief and spent the remainder of his life with
them. He was never known to wage war against the whites; but
was, on several occasions, of infinite service, by apprising
them of meditated attacks of the Indians. His descendants still
reside in Ohio.
The brothers, Ebenezer, Silas and Jonathan, who settled
Wheeling, [95] were also men of enterprise, tempered with
prudence, and directed by sound judgment. Ready at all times,
to resist and punish the aggression of the Indians, they were
scrupulously careful not to provoke them by acts of wanton
outrage, such as were then, too frequently committed along the
frontier. Col. Ebenezer Zane had been among the first, to
explore the country from the South Branch, through the
Alleghany glades, and west of them. He was accompanied in that
excursion by Isaac Williams, two gentlemen of the name of
Robinson and some others; but setting off rather late in the
season, and the weather being very severe, they were compelled
to return, without having penetrated to the Ohio river. On
their way home, such was the extremity of cold, that one of the
Robinsons died of its effects. Williams was much frost bitten,
and the whole party suffered exceedingly. To the bravery and
good conduct of those three brothers, the Wheeling settlement
was mainly indebted for its security and preservation, during
the war of the revolution.
[8] Joseph Tomlinson surveyed a claim at the mouth of Grave
Creek, about 1770, but did not settle there until 1772. His
cabin was the nucleus of the present Moundsville, W.
Va.--R. G. T.
[9] John Doddridge settled in Washington county, Pa., on the
Ohio River a few miles east of the Pennsylvania-Virginia state
line, in 1773; his son, Joseph Doddridge, was the author of
_Notes on the Settlements and Indian Wars of the Western Parts
of Virginia and Pennsylvania_, 1763-83, a valuable antiquarian
work. The names of Greathouse and Baker became execrable
through their connection with the massacre of Chief Logan's
family, in 1774. Leffler and Biggs attained prominence in
border warfare.--R. G. T.
[10] "At an early period of our settlements, there was an
inferior kind of land title, denominated a tomahawk right. This
was made by [97] deadening a few trees near a spring, and
marking on one or more of them, the initials of the name of the
person, by whom the improvement was made. Rights, acquired in
this way, were frequently bought and sold."--_Doddridge's Notes
on Western Virginia._
[11] William Lowther was the son of Robert, and came with his
father to the Hacker creek settlement in 1772. He soon became
one of the most conspicuous men in that section of country;
while his private virtues and public actions endeared him to
every individual of the community. During the war of 1774 and
subsequently, he was the most active and efficient defender of
that vicinity, against the insidious attacks of the savage foe;
and there were very few if any scouting parties proceeding from
thence, by which the Indians were killed or otherwise much
annoyed, but those which were commanded by him.
He was the first justice of the peace in the district of West
Augusta--the first sheriff in the county of Harrison and Wood,
and [98] once a delegate to the General Assembly of the States.
His military merits carried him through the subordinate grades
to the rank of Colonel. Despising the pomp and pageantry of
office, he accepted it for the good of the community, and was
truly an effective man. Esteemed, beloved by all, he might have
exerted his influence, over others, to the advancement of his
individual interest; but he sought the advancement of the
general weal, not a personal or family aggrandizement. His
example might teach others, that offices were created for the
public good, not for private emolument. If aspirants for office
at the present day, were to regard its perquisites less, and
their fitness for the discharge of its duties more, the country
would enjoy a greater portion of happiness and prosperity, and
a sure foundation for the permanence of these be laid, in the
more disinterested character of her counsellors, and their
consequently, increased devotion to her interests.
[12] The Spaniards at New Orleans, from the first settlement
of the country west of the Alleghany Mountains, sought to
attach it to the province of Louisiana. Knowing the powerful
efficacy of gold, in producing such results, they dispensed it
with a liberal hand, to such as made New Orleans their market.
The attachment of the first settlers, to the free institutions
of our country, baffled every attempt to detach them from it.
------
_Comment by R. G. T._--The Spanish conspiracy was, in the main,
"baffled" by the prompt action of our general government.
George Rogers Clark and several other leading Kentuckians were
quite willing to be "detached," for a consideration. The fact
is, that at first the sense of national patriotism was weak,
west of the Alleghanies; the eighteenth century had closed
before efforts at separation from the East were commonly
regarded as treason. The interests of the Western people
apparently were centered in the south-flowing Mississippi; they
seemed to have at the time little in common with the East. So
long as Spain held the mouth of the river, many Western leaders
thought it not improper that the West should ally itself with
that power; when our government finally purchased the Spanish
claim, the Western men had no further complaint. See
Roosevelt's treatment of the Spanish conspiracy, in his
_Winning of the West_, III., ch. iii.--R. G. T.
[104] CHAPTER VI.
In the year 1774, the peace, which had subsisted with but little
violation since the treaty of 1765, received an interruption, which
checked for a while the emigration to the North Western frontier; and
involved its infant settlements in a war with the Indians. This result
has been attributed to various causes. Some have asserted that it had
its origin in the murder of some Indians on the Ohio river both above
and below Wheeling, in the spring of that year. Others suppose it to
have been produced by the instigation of British emissaries, and the
influence of Canadian traders.
That it was not caused by the murders at Captina, and opposite the
mouth of Yellow creek,[1] is fairly inferrible from the fact, that
several Indians had been previously murdered by the whites in a period
of the most profound tranquillity, without having led to a similar
issue; or even given rise to any act of retaliation, on the part of
the friends or countrymen of those, who had been thus murdered.
At different periods of time, between the peace of 1765, and the
renewal of hostilities in 1774, three Indians were unprovokedly
killed by John Ryan, on the Ohio, Monongahela and Cheat rivers. The
first who suffered from the unrestrained licentiousness of this
man, was an Indian of distinction in his tribe, and known by the name
of Capt. Peter; the other two were private warriors. And but that
Governor Dunmore, from the representations made to him, was induced
[105] to offer a reward for his apprehension, which caused him to
leave the country, Ryan would probably have continued to murder
every Indian, with whom he should chance to meet, wandering
through the settlements.
Several Indians were likewise killed on the South Branch, while on a
friendly visit to that country, in the interval of peace. This deed is
said to have been done by Henry Judah, Nicholas Harpold and their
associates; and when Judah was arrested for the offence, so great was
the excitement among those who had suffered from savage enmity, that
he was rescued from confinement by upwards of two hundred men,
collected for that especial purpose.
The Bald Eagle was an Indian of notoriety, not only among his own
nation, but also with the inhabitants of the North Western frontier;
with whom he was in the habit of associating and hunting. In one of
his visits among them, he was discovered alone, by Jacob Scott,
William Hacker and Elijah Runner, who, reckless of the consequences,
murdered him, solely to gratify a most wanton thirst for Indian blood.
After the commission of this most outrageous enormity, they seated him
in the stern of a canoe, and with a piece of journey-cake thrust into
his mouth, set him afloat in the Monongahela. In this situation he was
seen descending the river, by several, who supposed him to be as
usual, returning from a friendly hunt with the whites in the upper
settlements, and who expressed some astonishment that he did not stop
to see them. The canoe floating near to the shore, below the mouth of
George's creek, was observed by a Mrs. Province, who had it brought to
the bank, and the friendly, but unfortunate old Indian decently
buried.
Not long after the murder of the Bald Eagle, another outrage of a
similar nature was committed on a peaceable Indian, by William White;
and for which he was apprehended and taken to Winchester for trial.
But the fury of the populace did not suffer him to remain there
awaiting that event.--The prison doors were forced, the irons knocked
off him and he again set at liberty.
But a still more atrocious act is said to have been soon after
perpetrated. Until then the murders committed, were only on such as
were found within the limits of white settlements, and on men &
warriors. In 1772, there is every reason to believe, that women and
children likewise became victims to the exasperated feelings of our
[106] own citizens; and this too, while quietly enjoying the comforts
of their own huts, in their own village.
There was at that time an Indian town on the Little Kenhawa, (called
Bulltown) inhabited by five families, who were in habits of social and
friendly intercourse with the whites on Buchannon and on Hacker's
creek; frequently visiting and hunting with them.[2] There was
likewise residing on Gauley river, the family of a German by the name
of Stroud.[3] In the summer of that year, Mr. Stroud being from home,
his family were all murdered, his house plundered, and his cattle
driven off. The trail made by these leading in the direction of
Bulltown, induced the supposition that the Indians of that village had
been the authors of the outrage, and caused several to resolve on
avenging it upon them.
A party of five men, (two of whom were William White and William
Hacker,[4] who had been concerned in previous murders) expressed a
determination to proceed immediately to Bulltown. The remonstrance of
the settlement generally, could not operate to effect a change in
that determination. They went; and on their return, circumstances
justified the belief that the pre-apprehension of those who knew
the temper and feelings of White and Hacker, had been well founded;
and that there had been some fighting between them and the Indians.
And notwithstanding that they denied ever having seen an Indian in
their absence, yet it was the prevailing opinion, that they had
destroyed all the men, women and children at Bulltown, and threw their
bodies into the river. Indeed, one of the party is said to have,
inadvertently, used expressions, confirmatory of this opinion; and to
have then justified the deed, by saying that the clothes and other
things known to have belonged to Stroud's family, were found in the
possession of the Indians. The village was soon after visited, and
found to be entirely desolated, and nothing being ever after heard
of its former inhabitants, there can remain no doubt but that the
murder of Stroud's family, was requited on them.
Here then was a fit time for the Indians to commence a system of
retaliation and war, if they were disposed to engage in hostilities,
for offences of this kind alone. Yet no such event was the consequence
of the killing of the Bulltown Indians, or of those other murders
which preceded that outrage; and it may be hence rationally concluded,
that the murders on the Ohio river did not lead to such an event. If
however, a doubt should still remain, that doubt is surely removed by
the declaration of Logan himself. It was his family that was killed
opposite Yellow creek, about the last of April; and in the following
July (after the expedition against the Wappatomica towns, under Col.
McDonald) he says, "the Indiens are not angry on account of those
murders, but only myself." The fact is, that hostilities had commenced
before the happening of the affair at Captina, or that near Yellow
creek; and these, instead of having produced that event, were the
consequence of the previous hostile movements of the Indians.
[107] Those who lived more immediately in the neighborhood of the
scene of action at that time, were generally of opinion, that the
Indians were urged to war by the instigation of emissaries from
Great Britain, and of the Canadian traders; and, independently of
any knowledge which they may have had of the conduct of these,
circumstances of a general nature would seem to justify that opinion.
The relative situation of the American colonies and the mother
country, is matter of general history, and too well known to require
being repeated here. It is equally well known too, that from the first
establishment of a colony in Canada, the Canadians obtained an
influence over the Natives, greater than the Anglo-Americans were ever
able to acquire; and that this influence was frequently exercised by
them, to the great annoyance, and manifest injury of the latter.
France and England have been long considered as natural enemies; and
the inhabitants of their respective plantations in America,
entertained strong feelings of jealousy towards each other. When by
the treaty of Paris, the French possessions in North America (which
had not been ceded to Spain,) were transferred to Great Britain, those
feelings were not subdued. The Canadians still regarded themselves as
a different people. Their national prejudices were too great to be
extinguished by an union under the same prince. Under the influence of
these prejudices, and the apprehension, that the lucrative commerce of
the natives might, by the competition of the English traders, be
diverted from its accustomed channels, they may have exerted
themselves to excite the Indians to war; but that alone would hardly
have produced this result. There is in man an inherent partiality for
self, which leads him to search for the causes of any evil, elsewhere
than in his own conduct; and under the operation of this propensity to
assign the burden of wrong to be borne by others, the Jesuits from
Canada and Louisiana were censured for the continuation of the war on
the part of the Indians, after it had been terminated with their
allies by the treaty of 1763. Yet that event was, no doubt, justly
attributable to the erection of forts, and the location of land, in
the district of country claimed by the natives, in the province of
Pennsylvania. And in like manner, the origin of the war of 1774 may
fairly be charged to the encroachments which were then being made on
the Indian territory. To be convinced of this, it is necessary to
advert to the promptitude of resistance on the part of the Natives, by
which those encroachments were invariably met; and to recur to events
happening in other sections of the country.--Events, perhaps no
otherwise connected with the history of North Western Virginia, than
as they are believed to have been the proximate causes of an
hostility, eventuating in the effusion of much of its blood; and
pregnant with other circumstances, having an important bearing on its
prosperity and advancement.
In the whole history of America, from the time when it first [108]
became apparent that the occupancy of the country was the object of
the whites, up to the present period, is there perhaps to be found a
solitary instance, in which an attempt, made by the English to effect
a settlement in a wilderness claimed by the Natives, was not succeeded
by immediate acts of hostility on the part of the latter. Every
advance of the kind was regarded by them, as tending to effect their
expulsion from a country, which they had long considered as their own,
and as leading, most probably, to their entire extinction as a people.
This excited in them feelings of the most dire resentment; stimulating
to deeds of cruelty and murder, at once to repel the encroachment and
to punish its authors. Experience of the utter futility of those means
to accomplish these purposes, has never availed to repress their use,
or to produce an acquiesence in the wrong. Even attempts to extend
jurisdiction over a country, the right of soil in which was never
denied them, have ever given rise to the most lively apprehensions of
their fatal consequences, and prompted to the employment of means to
thwart that aim. An Indian sees no difference between the right of
empire and the right of domain; and just as little can he discriminate
between the right of property, acquired by the actual cultivation of
the earth, and that which arises from its appropriation to other
uses.
Among themselves they have lines of demarkation, which distinguish
the territory of one nation from that of another; and these are of such
binding authority, that a transgression of them by neighboring Indians,
leads invariably to war. In treaties of purchase, and other
conventional arrangements, made with them by the whites, the validity
of their rights to land, have been repeatedly recognized; and an
infraction of those rights by the Anglo-Americans, encounters
opposition at its threshold. The history of every attempt to settle a
wilderness, to which the Indian title was not previously extinguished,
has consequently been a history of plunder, conflagration and massacre.
That the extension of white settlements into the Indian country, was
the cause of the war of 1774, will be abundantly manifested by a
recurrence to the early history of Kentucky; and a brief review of the
circumstances connected with the first attempts to explore and make
establishments in it. For several reasons, these circumstances merit a
passing notice in this place. Redstone and Fort Pitt (now Brownsville
and Pittsburgh) were for some time, the principal points of
embarkation for emigrants to that country; many of whom were from the
establishments which had been then not long made, on the Monongahela.
The Indians, regarding the settlements in North Western Virginia as
the line from which swarmed the adventurers to Kentucky, directed
their operations to prevent the success of these adventurers, as well
against the inhabitants of the upper country, as against them. While
at the same time, in the efforts which were made to compel the Indians
to desist from farther opposition, the North Western Virginians
frequently combined [109] their forces, and acted in conjunction, the
more certainly to accomplish that object. In truth the war, which was
then commenced, and carried on with but little intermission up to the
treaty of Fort Greenville in 1795 was a war in which they were equally
interested, having for its aim the indiscriminate destruction of the
inhabitants of both those sections of country, as the means of
preventing the farther extension of settlements by the whites.[5]
When Kentucky was first begun to be explored, it is said not to have
been claimed in individual property by any nation of Indians. Its
extensive forests, grassy plains and thick cane brakes, abounding with
every variety of game common to such latitudes, were used as common
hunting grounds, and considered by them, as open for all who chose to
resort to them. The Cherokees, the Chickasaws, the Cataubas, and the
Chicamaugas, from the south east; and the Illinois, the Peorias, the
Delawares, the Mingoes and Shawanees from the west, claimed and
exercised equal rights and privileges within its limits. When the
tribes of those different nations would however meet there, frequent
collisions would arise between them; and so deadly were the conflicts
ensuing upon these, that, in conjunction with the gloom of its dense
forests, they acquired for it the impressive appellation of "the dark
and bloody ground." But frequent and deadly as may have been those
conflicts, they sprang from some other cause, than a claim to
exclusive property in it.
In the summer of 1769, Daniel Boone, in company with John Finley (who
had previously hunted through the country) and a few other men,
entered Kentucky, and travelled over much of its surface, without
meeting with an Indian, until the December following.[6] At this time
Boone and John Steward (one of his companions,) while on a hunting
excursion, were discovered by a party of Indians, who succeeded in
making them prisoners. After a detention of but few days, these men
effected their escape; & returning to their old camp, found that it
had been plundered, and their associates, either killed or taken into
captivity. They were shortly after joined by a brother of Daniel Boone
and another man, from North Carolina, who were so fortunate in
wandering through the wilderness, as to discover the only, though
temporary residence of civilized man within several hundred miles. But
the Indians had become alarmed for the possession of that country; and
fearing that if Boone and Steward should be suffered to escape to the
settlements, they might induce others to attempt its permanent
occupancy, they sought with vigilance to discover and murder them.
They succeeded in killing Steward; but Daniel Boone and his brother,
then the only persons left (the man who came out with the younger
Boone having been killed by a wolf,) escaped from them, and soon after
returned to North Carolina.
The Indians were not disappointed in their expectations. The
description given of the country by the Boones, soon led others to
attempt its settlement; and in 1773, six families and about forty men,
all under the guidance of Daniel Boone, commenced their journey [110]
to Kentucky with a view of remaining there. Before they proceeded far,
they were attacked in the rear by a party of Indians, who had been
observing their movements; and who in the first fire killed six of the
emigrants and dispersed their cattle. Nothwithstanding that, in the
engagement which ensued upon this attack, the assailants were
repulsed, yet the adventurers were so afflicted at the loss of their
friends, and dispirited by such serious and early opposition, that
they abandoned their purpose for a time, and returned to the inhabited
parts of Tennessee.[7]
The Indians elated with their success in defeating this first attempt
at the settlement of Kentucky, and supposing that the route pursued by
the party which they had driven back, would be the pass for future
adventurers, determined on guarding it closely, and checking, if
possible, every similar enterprise. But while their attention was
directed to this point, others found their way into the country by a
different route and from a different direction.
The Virginia troops, who had served in the Canadian war, had been
promised a bounty in Western lands. Many of them being anxious to
ascertain their value, and deeming this a favorable period for the
making of surveys, collected at Fort Pitt in the fall of 1773; and
descending the Ohio river to its falls, at Louisville, proceeded from
thence to explore the country preparatory to a perfection of their
grants.[8]
About the same time too, General Thompson of Pennsylvania, commenced
an extensive course of surveys, of the rich land on the North Fork of
Licking; and other individuals following his example, in the ensuing
winter the country swarmed with land adventurers and surveyors. So
sensible were they all, that these attempts to appropriate those lands
to their own use, would produce acts of hostility, that they went
prepared to resist those acts; and the first party who took up their
abode in Kentucky, no sooner selected a situation for their residence,
than they proceeded to erect a fort for their security.[9] The conduct
of the Indians soon convinced them that their apprehensions were not
ill founded; and many of them, in consequence of the hostile movements
which were being made, and the robberies which were committed,
ascended the Ohio river to Wheeling.
It is not known that any murders were done previously to this, and
subsequently to the attack and repulse of the emigrants who were led
on by Boone in 1773. This event happened on the tenth day of October;
and it was in April the ensuing year, that the land adventurers
retired to Wheeling. In this interval of time, nothing could, perhaps,
be done by the Indians, but make preparation [111] for hostilities in
the spring. Indeed it very rarely happens, that the Indians engage in
active war during the winter; and there is, moreover, a strong
presumption, that they were for some time ignorant of the fact that
there were adventurers in the country; and consequently, they knew of
no object there, on which their hostile intentions could operate.--Be
this as it may, it is certain that, from the movements of the Indians
at the close of the winter, the belief was general, that they were
assuming a warlike attitude, and meditating a continuance of
hostilities. War was certainly begun on their part, when Boone and his
associates, were attacked and driven back to the settlement; and if it
abated for a season, that abatement was attributable to other causes,
than a disposition to remain quiet and peaceable, while the country
was being occupied by the whites.
If other evidence were wanting, to prove the fact that the war of 1774
had its origin in a determination of the Indians to repress the
extension of white settlements, it could be found in the circumstance,
that although it was terminated by the treaty with Lord Dunmore, yet
it revived as soon as attempts were again made to occupy Kentucky, and
was continued with increased ardour, 'till the victory obtained over
them by General Wayne. For, notwithstanding that in the struggle for
American liberty, those Indians became the allies of Great Britain,
yet when independence was acknowledged, and the English forces
withdrawn from the colonies, hostilities were still carried on by
them; and, as was then well understood, because of the continued
operation of those causes, which produced the war of 1774. That the
Canadian traders and British emissaries, prompted the Indians to
aggression, and extended to them every aid which they could, to render
that aggression more effectually oppressive and overwhelming, is
readily admitted. Yet this would not have led to a war, but for the
encroachments which have been mentioned. French influence, united to
the known jealousy of the Natives, would have been unavailingly
exerted to array the Indians against Virginia, at the commencement of
Braddock's war, but for the proceedings of the Ohio company, and the
fact that the Pennsylvania traders represented the object of that
association to be purely territorial. And equally fruitless would
have been their endeavor to involve them in a contest [112] with
Virginians at a later period, but for a like manifestation of an
intention to encroach on their domain.
In the latter end of April 1774, a party of land adventurers, who had
fled from the dangers which threatened them below, came in collision
with some Indians, near the mouth of Captina, sixteen miles below
Wheeling. A slight skirmish ensued, which terminated in the
discomfiture of the whites, notwithstanding they had only one man
wounded, and one or two of the enemy were killed. About the same time,
happened the affair opposite the mouth of Yellow creek; a stream
emptying into the Ohio river from the northwest, nearly midway between
Pittsburg and Wheeling.[10]
In consequence of advices received of the menacing conduct of the
Indians, Joshua Baker (who lived at this place) was preparing,
together with his neighbors, to retire for safety, into some of the
nearer forts, or to go to the older and more populous settlements,
remote from danger. There was at that time a large party of Indians,
encamped on both sides of Yellow creek, at its entrance into the
river; and although in their intercourse at Baker's, they had not
manifested an intention of speedily commencing depredations, yet he
deemed his situation in the immediate contiguity of them, as being far
from secure, and was on the eve of abandoning it, when a party of
whites, who had just collected at his house, fired upon and killed
some Indians, who were likewise there.--Among them were the brother
and daughter of the celebrated chief, Logan.[11]
In justification of this conduct it has been said, that on the
preceding evening a squaw came over from the encampment and informed
Mrs. Baker that the Indians meditated the murder of her family on the
next day; and that before the firing [113] at Baker's, two canoes,
containing Indians painted and armed for war, were seen to leave the
opposite shore. Under these circumstances, an apparently slight
provocation, and one, which would not perhaps have been, otherwise
heeded, produced the fatal result. As the canoes approached the shore,
the party from Baker's commenced firing on them, and notwithstanding
the opposition made by the Indians, forced them to retire.
An interval of quiet succeeded the happening of these events; but it
was as the solemn stillness which precedes the eruption of an
earthquake, when a volcanic explosion has given notice of its
approach;--rendered more awful by the uncertainty where its desolating
influence would be felt. It was however, a stillness of but short
duration. The gathering storm soon burst over the devoted heads of
those, who had neglected to seek a shelter from its wrath. The traders
in the Indian country were the first victims sacrificed on the altar
of savage ferocity; and a general massacre of all the whites found
among them, quickly followed. A young man, discovered near the falls
of Muskingum and within sight of White Eyes town, was murdered,
scalped; literally cut to pieces, and the mangled members of his body,
hung up on trees. White Eyes, a chief of the friendly Delawares,
hearing the scalp halloo, went out with a party of his men; and seeing
what had been done, collected the scattered limbs of the young man,
and buried them. On the next day, they were torn from the ground,
severed into smaller pieces, and thrown dispersedly at greater
distances from each other.
[114] Apprized of impending danger, many of the inhabitants on the
frontiers of North Western Virginia, retired into the interior, before
any depredations were committed, in the upper country; some took
refuge in forts which had been previously built; while others,
collecting together at particular houses, converted them into
temporary fortresses, answering well the purposes of protection, to
those who sought shelter in them. Fort Redstone, which had been
erected after the successful expedition of General Forbes; and Fort
Pitt, at the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers,
afforded an asylum to many. Several private forts were likewise
established in various parts of the country;[12] and every thing which
individual exertion could effect, to ensure protection to the border
inhabitants, was done.
Nor did the colonial government of Virginia neglect the security of
her frontier citizens. When intelligence of the hostile disposition of
the Natives, reached Williamsburg, the house of Burgesses was in
session; and measures were immediately adopted, to prevent massacres,
and to restore tranquillity. That these objects might be the more
certainly accomplished, it was proposed by General Andrew Lewis (then
a delegate from Bottetourt,) to organize a force, sufficient to
overcome all intermediate opposition, and to carry the war into the
enemy's country. In accordance to this proposition, orders were issued
by Governor Dunmore for raising the requisite number of troops, and
for making other necessary preparations for the contemplated campaign;
the plan of which was concerted by the Governor, Gen. Lewis and
Colonel Charles Lewis (then a delegate from Augusta.) But as some time
must necessarily have elapsed before the consummation of the
preparations which were being made; and as much individual suffering
might result from the delays unavoidably incident to the raising,
equipping and [115] organizing a large body of troops, it was deemed
advisable to take some previous and immediate step to prevent the
invasion of exposed and defenceless portions of the country.--The best
plan for the accomplishment of this object was believed to be, the
sending of an advance army into the Indian country, of sufficient
strength to act offensively, before a confederacy could be formed of
the different tribes, and their combined forces be brought into the
field. A sense of the exposed situation of their towns in the
presence of an hostile army, requiring the entire strength of every
village for its defence, would, it was supposed, call home those
straggling parties of warriors, by which destruction is so certainly
dealt to the helpless and unprotected. In conformity with this part of
the plan of operations, four hundred men, to be detailed from the
militia west of the mountains, were ordered to assemble at Wheeling as
soon as practicable. And in the mean time, lest the surveyors and land
adventurers, who were then in Kentucky, might be discovered and fall a
prey to the savages, Daniel Boone was sent by the Governor to the
falls of Ohio, to conduct them home from thence, through the
wilderness; the only practicable road to safety, the Ohio river being
so effectually guarded as to preclude the hope of escaping up it.[13]
Early in June, the troops destined to make an incursion into the
Indian country, assembled at Wheeling, and being placed under the
command of Colonel Angus McDonald, descended the Ohio to the mouth of
Captina. Debarking, at this place, from their boats and canoes, they
took up their march to Wappatomica, an Indian town on the Muskingum.
The country through which the army had to pass, was one unbroken
forest, presenting many obstacles to its speedy advance, not the least
of which was the difficulty of proceeding directly to the point
proposed.[14] To obviate this, however, they were accompanied by three
persons in the capacity of guides;[15] whose knowledge of the woods,
and familiarity with those natural indices, which so unerringly mark
the direction of the principal points, enabled them to pursue the
direct course.--When they had approached within six miles of the town,
the [116] army encountered an opposition from a party of fifty or
sixty Indians lying in ambush; and before these could be dislodged,
two whites were killed, and eight or ten wounded;--one Indian was
killed, and several wounded. They then proceeded to Wappatomica
without further molestation.[16]
When the army arrived at the town, it was found to be entirely
deserted. Supposing that it would cross the river, the Indians had
retreated to the opposite bank, and concealing themselves behind trees
and fallen timber, were awaiting that movement in joyful anticipation
of a successful surprise.--Their own anxiety and the prudence of the
commanding officer, however, frustrated that expectation. Several were
discovered peeping from their covert, watching the motion of the army;
and Colonel McDonald, suspecting their object, and apprehensive that
they would recross the river and attack him in the rear, stationed
videttes above and below, to detect any such purpose, and to apprise
him of the first movement towards effecting it. Foiled by these
prudent and precautionary measures and seeing their town in possession
of the enemy, with no prospect of wresting it from them, 'till
destruction would have done its work, the Indians sued for peace; and
the commander of the expedition consenting to negotiate with them, if
he could be assured of their sincerity, five chiefs were sent over as
hostages, and the army then crossed the river, with these in front.
When a negotiation was begun, the Indians asked, that one of the
hostages might be permitted to go and convoke the other chiefs,
whose presence, it was alleged, would be necessary to the ratification
of a peace. One was accordingly released; and not returning at the
time specified, another was then sent, who in like manner failed
to return. Colonel McDonald, suspecting some treachery, marched
forward to the next town, above Wappatomica, where another slight
engagement took place, in which one Indian was killed and one white
man wounded. It was then ascertained, that the time which should
have been spent in collecting the other chiefs, preparatory to
negotiation, had been employed in removing their old men, their women
and children, together with what property could be readily taken
off, and for making preparations for a combined attack on the
Virginia troops. To punish this duplicity and to render peace
really desirable, Col. McDonald burned their towns and destroyed
their crops; [117] and being then in want of provisions, retraced his
steps to Wheeling, taking with him the three remaining hostages, who
were then sent on to Williamsburg.[17]
The inconvenience of supplying provisions to an army in the
wilderness, was a serious obstacle to the success of expeditions
undertaken against the Indians. The want of roads, at that early
period, which would admit of transportation in wagons, rendered it
necessary to resort to pack horses; and such was at times the
difficulty of procuring these, that, not unfrequently, each soldier
had to be the bearer of his entire stock of subsistence for the whole
campaign. When this was exhausted, a degree of suffering ensued, often
attended with consequences fatal to individuals, and destructive to
the objects of the expedition. In the present case, the army being
without provisions before they left the Indian towns, their only
sustenance consisted of weeds, an ear of corn each day, and
occasionally, a small quantity of venison: it being impracticable to
hunt game in small parties, because of the vigilance and success of
the Indians, in watching and cutting off detachments of this kind,
before they could accomplish their purpose and regain the main army.
No sooner had the troops retired from the Indian country, than the
savages, in small parties, invaded the settlements in different
directions, seeking opportunities of gratifying their insatiable
thirst for blood. And although the precautions which had been taken,
lessened the frequency of their success, yet they did not always
prevent it. Persons leaving the forts on any occasion, were almost
always either murdered or carried into captivity,--a lot sometimes
worse than death itself.
Perhaps the first of these incursions into North Western Virginia,
after the destruction of the towns on the Muskingum, was that made by
a party of eight Indians, at the head of which was the Cayuga chief
Logan.[18] This very celebrated [118] Indian is represented as having
hitherto, observed towards the whites, a course of conduct by no means
in accordance with the malignity and steadfast implacability which
influenced his red brethren generally; but was, on the contrary,
distinguished by a sense of humanity, and a just abhorrence of those
cruelties so frequently inflicted on the innocent and unoffending, as
well as upon those who were really obnoxious to savage enmity. Such
indeed were the acts of beneficence which characterized him, and so
great his partiality for the English, that the finger of his brethren
would point to his cabin as the residence of Logan, "the friend of
white men." "In the course of the French war, he remained at home,
idle and inactive;" opposed to the interference of his nation, "an
advocate for peace." When his family fell before the fury of
exasperated men, he felt himself impelled to avenge their deaths; and
exchanging the pipe of peace, for the tomahawk of war, became active
in seeking opportunities to glut his vengeance.[19] With this object
in view, at the head of the party which has been mentioned, he
traversed the county from the Ohio to the West Fork, before an
opportunity was presented him of achieving any mischief. Their
distance from what was supposed would be the theatre of war, had
rendered the inhabitants of that section of country, comparatively
inattentive to their safety. Relying on the expectation that the first
blow would be struck on the Ohio, and that they would have sufficient
notice of this to prepare for their own security, before danger could
reach them, many had continued to perform the ordinary business of
their farms.
On the 12th day of July, as William Robinson, Thomas Hellen and
Coleman Brown were pulling flax in a field opposite the mouth of
Simpson's creek, Logan and his party approached unperceived and fired
at them. Brown fell instantly; his body perforated by several balls;
and Hellen and Robinson [119] unscathed, sought safety in flight.
Hellen being then an old man, was soon overtaken and made captive; but
Robinson, with the elasticity of youth, ran a considerable distance
before he was taken; and but for an untoward accident might have
effected an escape. Believing that he was outstripping his pursuers,
and anxious to ascertain the fact, he looked over his shoulder, but
before he discovered the Indian giving chase, he ran with such
violence against a tree, that he fell, stunned by the shock and lay
powerless and insensible. In this situation he was secured with a
cord; and when he revived, was taken back to the place where the
Indians had Hellen in confinement, and where lay the lifeless body of
Brown. They then set off to their towns, taking with them a horse
which belonged to Hellen.
When they had approached near enough to be distinctly heard, Logan (as
is usual with them after a successful scout,) gave the scalp halloo,
and several warriors came out to meet them, and conducted the
prisoners into the village. Here they passed through the accustomed
ceremony of running the gauntlet; but with far different fortunes.
Robinson, having been previously instructed by Logan (who from the
time he made him his prisoner, manifested a kindly feeling towards
him,) made his way, with but little interruption, to the council
house; but poor Hellen, from the decrepitude of age, and his ignorance
of the fact that it was a place of refuge, was sadly beaten before he
arrived at it; and when he at length came near enough, he was knocked
down with a war club, before he could enter. After he had fallen, they
continued to beat and strike him with such unmerciful severity, that
he would assuredly have fallen a victim to their barbarous usage, but
that Robinson (at some peril for the interference) reached forth his
hand and drew him within the sanctuary. When he had however, recovered
from the effects of the violent beating which he had received, he was
relieved from the apprehension of farther suffering, by being adopted
into an Indian family.
A council was next convoked to resolve on the fate of Robinson; and
then arose in his breast, feelings of the most anxious inquietude.
Logan assured him, that he should not be killed; but the council
appeared determined that he should die, and he was tied to the stake.
Logan then addressed them, and with much vehemence, insisted that
Robinson too should be spared; and had the eloquence displayed on that
occasion been less than Logan is believed to have possessed, [120] it
is by no means wonderful that he appeared to Robinson (as he
afterwards said) the most powerful orator he ever heard. But
commanding as his eloquence might have been, it seems not to have
prevailed with the council; for Logan had to interpose otherwise than
by argument or entreaty, to succeed in the attainment of his object.
Enraged at the pertinacity with which the life of Robinson was sought
to be taken, and reckless of the consequences, he drew the tomahawk
from his belt, and severing the cords which bound the devoted victim
to the stake, led him in triumph, to the cabin of an old squaw, by
whom he was immediately adopted.
After this, so long as Logan remained in the town where Robinson was,
he was kind and attentive to him; and when preparing to go again to
war, got him to write the letter which was afterwards found on
Holstein at the house of a Mr. Robertson, whose family were all
murdered by the Indians. Robinson remained with his adopted mother,
until he was redeemed under the treaty concluded at the close of the
Dunmore campaign.
-----
[1] Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, represents this
as happening at Grave creek, which empties into the Ohio from
the south eastern, or Virginia side of this river, twelve miles
below Wheeling. Those who lived near at the time and are
supposed to have had the best opportunity of ascertaining the
fact, say that it happened near the mouth of Captina, a creek
sixteen miles below Wheeling, and on the Ohio side.
------
_Comment by R. G. T._--What is called the "Captina affair"
happened April 27th, at Pipe Creek, emptying into the Ohio from
the west, fourteen miles below Wheeling, and six above Captina
Creek. Two friendly Shawnees were killed here by a party
commanded by Michael Cresap, of Redstone, who at the time was
in the neighborhood of Wheeling, surveying and clearing farms
for new settlers. Cresap and his men, among whom was George
Rogers Clark, then a young surveyor who had a claim at the
mouth of Fish Creek, thereupon started out to destroy Chief
Logan's camp, at Baker's Bottom, opposite the mouth of Yellow
Creek, fifty-three miles up the Ohio, and forty miles west of
Pittsburg by land; but as Logan was a well-known friend of the
whites, they became ashamed of their project, and marched on
across country to Fort Redstone. Meanwhile, as will be seen in
due course, others were preparing to destroy Logan's band, and
on April 30th occurred that infamous massacre which Logan
wrongly believed to be Cresap's work.
[2] Capt. Bull was a Delaware chief whose original village
of Oghkwaga was on Unadilla Kiver, an eastern branch of the
Susquehanna, in what is now Boone county, N. Y. He had been the
prime mover in an attempt to interest the Delawares in
Pontiac's conspiracy (1763). In March, 1764, a strong party of
whites and friendly Indians were sent out to capture him, by
Sir William Johnson, English Indian superintendent in New York.
After a sharp struggle, Bull and a number of his adherents were
captured and conveyed in irons to New York City, where they
were imprisoned for a time, but finally discharged. The
Delaware towns on the Unadilla having been burned, Bull and
five families of his relatives settled what the whites called
Bulltown, on the Little Kanawha. This was at a salt spring
about a mile and a quarter below the present Bulltown P. O.,
Braxton county, Va. Capt. Bull and his people were inoffensive,
and very friendly to their white neighbors, as our author
says.--R. G. T.
[3] Adam Stroud lived on Elk River, a few miles south of
Indian Bulltown. The massacre of his family--his wife and seven
children--occurred in June, 1772. Shawnees were the murderers,
and not Bull's people.--R. G. T.
[4] Mr. McWhorter writes me that two others were Jesse
Hughes and John Cutright (corruption of Cartwright?), both of
them settlers on Hacker's Creek. Hughes was a noted border
scout, but a man of fierce, unbridled passions, and so
confirmed an Indian hater that no tribesman, however peaceful
his record, was safe in his presence. Some of the most cruel
acts on the frontier are by tradition attributed to this man.
The massacre of the Bulltown Indians was accompanied by
atrocities as repulsive as any reported by captives in Indian
camps; of these there had long been traditions, but details
were not fully known until revealed by Cutright upon his
death-bed in 1852, when he had reached the age of 105 years.
Want of space alone prevents me from giving Mr. McWhorter's
narrative of Hughes's long and bloody career. "Hughes died," he
says, "in Jackson county, W. Va., at a date unknown to me, but
in very old age. While he was a great scout and Indian trader,
he never headed an expedition of note. This no doubt was
because of his fierce temperament, and bad reputation among his
own countrymen." In studying the annals of the border, we must
not fail to note that here and there were many savage-hearted
men among the white settlers, whose deeds were quite as
atrocious as any attributed to the red-skins. Current histories
of Indian warfare seldom recognize this fact.--R. G. T.
[5] Lord Dunmore's War (1774) was a natural outgrowth of the
strained relations which had long existed between the savages
and the white colonists in their midst. As our author has made
clear, minor hostilities had broken out here and there ever
since the Pontiac uprising, but there had been no general
campaign since Bouquet's treaty in 1764. Affairs had come to
that pass by the early spring of 1774, that diplomacy was no
longer possible, and an Indian war was inevitable. It was
merely a question of detail, as to how and when. The immediate
cause of precipitation--not the cause of the war, for that lay
deeper--was the territorial dispute over the Ft. Pitt region,
between Virginia and Pennsylvania. Dunmore, as royal governor
of Virginia, had several reasons for bringing matters to a
head--he was largely interested in land speculations under
Virginia patents that would be vitiated if Pennsylvania, now
becoming aggressive, should succeed in planting her official
machinery at Ft. Pitt, which was garrisoned by Virginia; again,
his colonists were in a revolutionary frame of mind, and he
favored a distraction in the shape of a popular Indian war;
finally, it seemed as though a successful raid by Virginia
militia would clinch Virginia's hold on the country and the
treaty of peace that must follow would widen the area of
provincial lands and encourage Western settlements. April 25,
1774, he issued a proclamation in which, after reference to
Pennsylvania's claims, it was asserted that Ft. Pitt was "in
danger of some annoyance from the Indians," and he called on
his local military commandant, the fire-eating Dr. John
Connolly, "to embody a sufficient number of men to repel any
insult." Connolly, evidently as part of a preconcerted plan, at
once (April 26) issued a circular letter to the excited
borderers, which was well calculated to arouse them, being in
effect a declaration of war against the Indians. The very next
day occurred the Pipe Creek affair, then came the Logan tragedy
at Baker's Bottom, three days later, and at once the war was on
at full-head.--R. G. T.
[6] Of John Findlay (so he signed his name), "the
precursor and pilot of Daniel Boone to Kentucky," but little is
known and less has been published. Apparently he was a native
of the north of Ireland. In early life he emigrated to the
neighborhood of Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pa., a district
almost wholly settled by Scotch-Irish Protestants. In
February, 1752, we find him a trader among the Shawnees; the
following year, he was robbed and driven off. It is probable
that he served in the Pennsylvania frontier militia from the
opening of the French and Indian War (1754). Boone met him on
the Braddock campaign (1755), and they became fast friends.
Findlay had already (1752) been in Kentucky as far as the
Falls of the Ohio, in the course of his ramblings as a
trader, and inspired Boone with an intense desire to seek this
El Dorado of the West. It was in 1767, when settled near the
head of the Yadkin River, that Boone first tried to reach
Kentucky by way of the Sandy, but failed. In the winter of
1768-69, Findlay, now a peddler, with a horse to carry his
traps, appeared at Boone's cabin on the Yadkin, and the two
old comrades had a happy time rehearsing their various
adventures during the thirteen years of separation. An
expedition to Kentucky was agreed upon, and the party set
out from Boone's cabin, May 1, 1769; it was composed of
Findlay, now advanced in years, Daniel Boone, the latter's
brother-in-law, John Stuart, and three Yadkin neighbors,
Joseph Holden, James Mooney, and William Cooley. The story of
their expedition through Cumberland Gap, and their long hunt,
is now familiar to readers of Western history. Their
principal camp was probably on Red Lick Fork of Station Camp
Creek. In December, Stuart and Boone were captured by
Indians, but escaped early in January (1770), and on
rejoining their comrades on Rockcastle River found that
Daniel's brother, Squire, had arrived with fresh horses and
traps from the North Carolina home; and with him was
Alexander Neely, whom Squire had found on New (Great
Kanawha) River. Findlay, Holden, Mooney, and Cooley now
elected to return home, leaving the others to spend a longer
period in Kentucky; Findlay took the left-hand road through the
West Virginia settlements, to Pennsylvania, and the others,
turning to the right, wended their way to North Carolina
through Cumberland Gap. Not long after this, Stuart was
killed by Indians, while alone in the woods, and Neely,
discouraged by his fate, returned home. The story, often
copied from Withers, that Neely was killed by a wolf, is
erroneous. As for Findlay, he appears to have again become an
Indian trader in Western Pennsylvania; for late in 1771 he is
reported to have been robbed of $500 worth of goods, by a
Seneca war party raiding the Youghiogheny district. There is a
tradition that not long after this he "was lost in the wilds
of the West." Holden and Cooley spent the rest of their
days on the Upper Yadkin. Mooney was killed at the battle of
Point Pleasant (1774).--R. G. T.
[7] The Boones and five other families set out from their
homes on the Yadkin, Sept. 25, 1773. In Powell's Valley they
were joined by forty people under Boone's brother-in-law,
William Bryan. While the main party were slowly advancing
through the valley, a small squad, under Boone's oldest son,
James, went on a side expedition for flour, cattle, and other
supplies. With these they had nearly caught up to the advance,
when, not knowing they were so near, they camped on the evening
of October 9 a few miles in the rear. Early in the morning of
the 10th, a small band of Shawnees and Cherokees, who were
nominally at peace with the whites, fell upon and, after cruel
tortures, slaughtered them. In Dunmore's speech at Fort Pitt,
this tragedy in Powell's Valley was alluded to as one of the
chief causes of the Indian war of 1774. At the Camp Charlotte
treaty (October, 1774), some of the plunder from this massacre
was delivered up by the savages. After the tragedy, the greater
part of the Kentucky caravan returned to their homes, but the
Boones spent the winter of 1773-74 at a settlement some forty
miles distant, on Clinch River. During the Dunmore War, Boone
was active as an Indian fighter.--R. G. T.
[8] The leader of this party was Capt. Thomas Bullitt. He
was born in Fauquier county, Va., in 1730; was one of
Washington's captains at the Great Meadows (1754), and fought
gallantly with Braddock (1755) and Forbes (1758); in 1763, was
made adjutant-general of Virginia; during the early part of the
Revolution he held the same office in the Southern Department
of the United States, but resigned in 1776 because not
promoted; he died in Fauquier county, in 1778. The project of
Franklin, Walpole, and others to found the Colony of
Pittsylvania, with its seat at the mouth of the Great Kanawha,
greatly stimulated Western land speculation, and there was a
rush of those holding military land warrants to locate claims.
Lord Dunmore's agent at Fort Pitt, Dr. John Connolly--with whom
his lordship was doubtless in partnership--had large interests
of this character, and Bullitt went to the Falls of the Ohio
(1773) to survey lands for him. Bullitt had a surveyor's
commission from Williams and Mary College, but Col. William
Preston, county surveyor for Fincastle county--in which
Kentucky was then included--declined to recognize any but his
own deputies. Preston carried his point, and the lands were
re-surveyed the following year (1774) by his deputies. Bullitt
had laid off a town on this Connolly survey; but the Revolution
soon broke out, Bullitt was otherwise engaged, Dunmore was
deposed, Connolly was imprisoned, and the scheme fell through.
In 1778, George Rogers Clark camped at the Falls on his way to
the Illinois, and the garrison he established there grew into
the town of Louisville. With Bullitt's surveying party in 1773,
were James Douglas, James Harrod, James Sodousky, Isaac Hite,
Abraham Haptonstall, Ebenezer Severns, John Fitzpatrick, John
Cowan,--prominent names in later Kentucky history,--and
possibly others. George Rogers Clark was probably with the
party during a part of its canoe voyage down the Ohio, but
seems to have gone no farther than Big Bone Creek.--R. G. T.
[9] This was done by a party of men from the Monongahela,
under the guidance of James Harrod; by whom was built the first
cabin for human habitancy ever erected in Kentucky. This was on
the present site of Harrodsburg.
[10] These are the Pipe Creek and Baker's Bottom affairs,
respectively mentioned on pp. 134, 149, _notes_. Yellow Creek,
opposite Baker's Bottom, empties into the Ohio 51 miles below
Pittsburg; Wheeling is 91 miles below Pittsburg, and Pipe Creek
104.--R. G. T.
[11] There is some difficulty in fixing on the precise time
when these occurrences happened. Col. Ebenezer Zane says that
they took place in the latter part of April, and that the
affair at Captina preceded the one at Yellow creek a few days.
John Sappington, who was of the party at Baker's, and is said
to be the one who killed Logan's brother, says, the murders at
that place occurred on the 24th of May, and that the skirmish
at Captina was on the day before (23rd May.) Col. Andrew
Swearingen, a presbyterian gentleman of much respectability,
one of the early settlers near the Ohio above Wheeling, and
afterwards intimate with those engaged at both places, says
that the disturbance opposite Yellow creek preceded the
engagement [113] at Captina, and that the latter, as was then
generally understood, was caused by the conduct of the Indians,
who had been at Yellow creek and were descending the river,
exasperated at the murder of their friends at Baker's. Mr.
Benjamin Tomlinson, who was the brother-in-law of Baker and
living with him at the time, says that this circumstance
happened in May, but is silent as to the one at Captina. These
gentlemen all agree in the fact that Logan's people were
murdered at Baker's. Indeed Logan himself charges it as having
been done there. The statement of Sappington, that the murders
were caused by the abusive epithets of Logan's brother and his
taking the hat and coat of Baker's brother in law is confirmed
by Col. Swearingen and others; who also say that for some days
previous, the neighborhood generally had been engaged in
preparing to leave the country, in consequence of the menacing
conduct of the Indians.
------
_Comment by R. G. T._--The date is now well established--April
30. Withers is altogether too lenient, in his treatment of the
whites engaged in this wretched massacre. Logan, encamped at
the mouth of Yellow River, on the Ohio side, was a peaceful,
inoffensive Indian, against whom no man harbored a suspicion;
he was made a victim of race hatred, in a time of great popular
excitement. Joshua Baker, who was settled opposite him on
Baker's Bottom, in Virginia, kept a low grog-shop tavern, and
had recently been warned not to sell more liquor to Indians.
Daniel Greathouse lived in the vicinity--a cruel, bloodthirsty
fellow, who served Connolly as a local agent in fomenting
hatred of Indians. It will be remembered (p. 131, _note_) that
Cresap's party were intending to strike the camp of Logan, but
that they abandoned the project. In the meantime, probably
without knowledge of Cresap's intent, Greathouse had collected
a party of 32 borderers to accomplish the same end. Logan's
camp seemed too strong for them to attack openly; so they
secreted themselves in Baker's house, and when Logan's family,
men and women, came over to get their daily grog, and were
quite drunk, set upon them and slew and tomahawked nine or ten.
The chief, standing on the Ohio bank, heard the uproar and
witnessed the massacre; he naturally supposed that the
murderers were led by Cresap. From a friend of the whites,
Logan became their implacable enemy, and during the ensuing war
his forays were the bloodiest on the border. We shall hear of
him and his famous speech, later on.
[12] It was then that Westfall's and Casinoe's forts were
erected in Tygart's valley,--Pricket's, on Pricket's
creek,--Jackson's on Ten Mile, and Shepherd's on Wheeling
creek, a few miles above its mouth. There were also others
established in various parts of the country and on the
Monongahela and Ohio rivers. Nutter's fort, near to Clarksburg,
afforded protection to the inhabitants on the West Fork, from
its source, to its confluence with the Valley river; and to
those who lived on Buchannon and on Hacker's creek, as well as
to the residents of its immediate vicinity.
[13] June 20, Col. William Preston, having charge of the
defenses of Fincastle county, authorized Capt. William Russell
to employ two faithful woodsmen to go to Kentucky and inform
the several surveying parties at work there, of their danger.
June 26, Russell replied, "I have engaged to start immediately
on the occasion, two of the best hands I could think of--Daniel
Boone and Michael Stoner; who have engaged to reach the country
as low as the Falls, and to return by way of Gasper's Lick on
Cumberland, and through Cumberland Gap; so that, by the
assiduity of these men, if it is not too late, I hope the
gentlemen will be apprized of the imminent danger they are
daily in."
Boone and Stoner journeyed overland to Harrodsburg, where
Col. James Harrod and thirty men were making improvements
and laying out the town. The thrifty Boone secured a good
lot, hastily built a claim cabin, and proceeded on his
tour. At Fontaine Blue, three miles below Harrodsburg, the
two scouts found another party of surveyors, whom they warned;
and in going down the Kentucky River came across Capt. John
Floyd's surveying party,--eight men, who had left Preston's
house for Kentucky, April 9,--who agreed to meet them farther
down the river. But circumstances prevented a reunion, and
Floyd's band penetrated through the wilderness on their own
account, and had a painful journey of sixteen days' duration
before reaching Russell's Fort on Clinch River. Meanwhile,
Boone and Stoner descended to the mouth of the Kentucky, and
thence to the Falls of the Ohio, and found more surveyors at
Mann's Lick, four miles southeast. Indians were making bloody
forays through the district, and the scouts had frequent
thrilling adventures. Finally, after having been absent
sixty-one days and travelled 800 miles, they reached Russell's
on the Clinch, in safety. Russell was absent on the Point
Pleasant campaign, and Boone set out with a party of recruits
to reinforce him, but was ordered back to defend the Clinch
settlements. He was busy at this task until the close of
the war. He was present at the Watauga treaty, March 17, 1775;
later that year, he led another band to Kentucky, and early
in April built Fort Boone, on Kentucky River, "a little below
Big Lick," the nucleus of the Henderson colony.--R. G. T.
[14] The party numbered about four hundred men. The line of
march was about ninety miles in length, as estimated by the
zig-zag course pursued.--R. G. T.
[15] They were Jonathan Zane, Thomas Nicholson and Tady
Kelly. A better woodsman than the first named of these three,
perhaps never lived.
[16] Doddridge locates Wapatomica "about sixteen miles below
the present Coshocton." Butterfield (_History of the Girtys_)
places it "just below the present Zanesville, in Logan county,
Ohio, not a great distance from Mac-a-cheek." For localities of
Indian towns on the Muskingum, see map in St. John de Creve
Coeur's _Lettres d'un Cultivateur Americain_ (Paris, 1787),
III., p. 413.--R. G. T.
[17] John Hargus, a private in Capt. Cresap's company, while
stationed as a vidette below the main army, observed an Indian
several times raising his head above his blind, and looking
over the river. Charging his rifle with a second ball, he
fired, and both bullets passed through the neck of the Indian,
who was found next day and scalped by Hargus.
[18] Logan was the son of Shikellemus, a celebrated chief of
the Cayuga nation, who dwelt at Shamokin, and always attached
to the [118] English, was of much service to them on many
occasions. After the close of Dunmore's war, Logan became
gloomy and melancholy, drank freely and manifested symptoms of
mental derangement. He remained some time at Detroit, and while
there, his conduct and expressions evinced a weariness of the
world. Life he said had become a burden to him, he knew no more
what pleasure was, and thought it had been better if he had
never existed. In this disponding and disconsolate condition he
left Detroit, and on his way between that place and Miami, is
said to have been murdered.
[19] See p. 149, _note_, for account of the massacre.--R. G. T.
[121] CHAPTER VII.
When information of the hostile deportment of the Indians was carried
to Williamsburg, Col. Charles Lewis sent a messenger with the
intelligence to Capt. John Stuart, and requesting of him, to apprize
the inhabitants on the Greenbrier river that an immediate war was
anticipated, and to send out scouts to watch the warrior's paths
beyond the settlements. The vigilance and activity of Capt. Stuart,
were exerted with some success, to prevent the re-exhibition of those
scenes which had been previously witnessed on Muddy creek and in the
Big Levels: but they could not avail to repress them altogether.
In the course of the preceding spring, some few individuals had begun
to make improvements on the Kenhawa river below the Great Falls; and
some land adventurers, to examine and survey portions of the adjoining
country. To these men Capt. Stuart despatched an express, to inform
them that apprehensions were entertained of immediate irruptions being
made upon the frontiers by the Indians, and advising them to remove
from the position which they then occupied; as from its exposed
situation, without great vigilance and alertness, they must
necessarily fall a prey to the savages.
When the express arrived at the cabin of Walter Kelly, twelve miles
below the falls, Capt. John Field of Culpepper (who had been in active
service during the French war, and was then engaged in making
surveys,) was there with a young Scotchman and a negro woman. Kelly
with great prudence, directly sent his family to Greenbrier, under the
care of a younger brother. But Capt. Field, considering the
apprehension as groundless, determined on remaining with Kelly, who
from prudential motives did not wish to subject himself to observation
by mingling with others.[1] Left with no persons but the Scotchman
and negro, they were not long permitted to doubt the reality of those
dangers, of which they had been forewarned by Capt Stuart.
[122] Very soon after Kelly's family had left the cabin, and while yet
within hearing of it, a party of Indians approached, unperceived, near
to Kelly and Field, who were engaged in drawing leather from a tan
trough in the yard. The first intimation which Field had of their
approach was the discharge of several guns and the fall of Kelly. He
then ran briskly towards the house to get possession of a gun, but
recollecting that it was unloaded, he changed his course, and sprang
into a cornfield which screened him from the observation of the
Indians; who, supposing that he had taken shelter in the cabin, rushed
immediately into it. Here they found the Scotchman and the negro
woman, the latter of whom they killed; and making prisoner of the
young man, returned and scalped Kelly.
When Kelly's family reached the Greenbrier settlement, they mentioned
their fears for the fate of those whom they had left on the Kenhawa,
not doubting but that the guns which they heard soon after leaving the
house, had been discharged at them by Indians. Capt. Stuart, with a
promptitude which must ever command admiration, exerted himself
effectually to raise a volunteer corps, and proceed to the scene of
action, with the view of ascertaining whether the Indians had been
there; and if they had, and he could meet with them, to endeavor to
punish them for the outrage, and thus prevent the repetition of
similar deeds of violence.
They had not however gone far, before they were met by Capt. Field,
whose appearance of itself fully told the tale of woe. He had ran
upwards of eighty miles, naked except his shirt, and without food; his
body nearly exhausted by fatigue, anxiety and hunger, and his limbs
greviously lacerated with briers and brush. Captain Stuart, fearing
lest the success of the Indians might induce them to push immediately
for the settlements, thought proper to return and prepare for that
event.
In a few weeks after this another party of Indians came to the
settlement on Muddy creek, and as if a certain fatality attended the
Kelly's, they alone fell victims to the incursion. As the daughter of
Walter Kelly was walking with her uncle (who had conducted the family
from the Kenhawa) some distance from the house, which had been
converted into a temporary fort, and in which they lived, they were
discovered and fired upon; the latter was killed and scalped, and the
former being overtaken in her flight, was carried into captivity.
After the murder of Brown, and the taking of Hellen and Robinson, the
inhabitants on the Monongahela and its upper branches, alarmed for
their safety, retired into forts. But in the ensuing September, as
Josiah Pricket and Mrs. Susan Ox, who had left Pricket's fort for the
purpose of driving up their cows, were returning in the evening they
were way laid by a party of Indians, who had been drawn to the path by
the tinkling of the cowbell. Pricket was killed and scalped, and Mrs.
Ox taken prisoner.
[123] It was in the course of this season, that Lewis Wetsel[2] first
gave promise of that daring and discretion, which were so fully
developed in his maturer years, and which rendered him among the most
fortunate and successful of Indian combatants. When about fourteen
years old, he and his brother Jacob, (still younger) were discovered
some distance from the house, by a party of Indians, who had been
prowling through the settlements on the Ohio river, with the
expectation of fortunately meeting with some opportunity of taking
scalps or making prisoners. As the boys were at some distance from
them, and in a situation too open to admit of their being approached
without perceiving those who should advance towards them, the Indians
determined on shooting the larger one, lest his greater activity might
enable him to escape. A shot was accordingly discharged at him, which,
partially taking effect and removing a portion of his breast bone, so
far deprived him of his wonted powers, that he was easily overtaken;
and both he and his brother were made prisoners. The Indians
immediately directed their steps towards their towns, and having
travelled about twenty miles beyond the Ohio river, encamped at the
Big Lick, on the waters of McMahon's creek, on the second night after
they had set off. When they had finished eating, the Indians laid
down, without confining the boys as on the preceding night, and soon
fell to sleep. After making some little movements to test the
soundness of their repose, Lewis whispered to his brother that he must
get up and go home with him; and after some hesitation on the part of
Jacob, they arose and set off. Upon getting about 100 yards from the
camp, Lewis stopped, and telling his brother to await there, returned
to the camp and brought from thence a pair of mocasons for each of
them. He then observed, that he would again go back and get his
father's gun; this he soon effected, and they then commenced their
journey home. The moon shining brightly, they were easily able to
distinguish the trail which they had made in going out; but had not
however pursued it far, before they heard the Indians coming in
pursuit of them. So soon as Lewis perceived by the sound of their
voices that they were approaching tolerably near to them, he led his
brother aside from the path, and squatting down, concealed themselves
'till their pursuers had passed them; when they again commenced
travelling and in the rear of the Indians. Not overtaking the boys as
soon as was expected, those who had been sent after them, began to
retrace their steps. Expecting this, the boys were watchful of every
noise or object before them, and when they heard the Indians
returning, again secreted themselves in the bushes, and escaped
observation. They were then followed by two, of the party who had made
them prisoners, on horseback; but by practising the same stratagem,
they eluded them also; and on the next day reached the Ohio river
opposite to Wheeling. Apprehensive that it would be dangerous to
apprize those on the opposite side of the river of their situation, by
hallooing, Lewis set himself to work as silently, and yet as
expeditiously [124] as possible, and with the aid of his little
brother, soon completed a raft on which they safely crossed the Ohio;
and made their way home.
That persons, should, by going out from the forts, when the Indians
were so generally watching around them, expose themselves to captivity
or death, may at first appear strange and astonishing. But when the
mind reflects on the tedious and irksome confinement, which they were
compelled to undergo; the absence of the comforts, and frequently, of
the necessaries of life, coupled with an overweening attachment to the
enjoyment of forest scenes and forest pastimes, it will perhaps be
matter of greater astonishment that they did not more frequently
forego the security of a fortress, for the uncertain enjoyment of
those comforts and necessaries, and the doubtful gratification of this
attachment. Accustomed as they had been "free to come and free to go,"
they could not brook the restraint under which they were placed; and
rather than chafe and pine in unwilling confinement, would put
themselves at hazard, that they might revel at large and wanton in the
wilderness. Deriving their sustenance chiefly from the woods, the
strong arm of necessity led many to tempt the perils which environed
them; while to the more chivalric and adventurous "the danger's self
were lure alone." The quiet and stillness which reigned around, even
when the enemy were lurking nearest and in greater numbers, inspired
many too, with the delusive hope of exemption from risk, not
unfrequently the harbinger of fatal consequences. It seemed indeed,
impracticable at first to realize the existence of a danger, which
could not be perceived. And not until taught by reiterated suffering
did they properly appreciate the perilous situation of those, who
ventured beyond the walls of their forts. But this state of things was
of short duration. The preparations, which were necessary to be made
for the projected campaign into the Indian country, were completed;
and to resist this threatened invasion, required the concentrated
exertions of all their warriors.
The army destined for this expedition, was composed of volunteers and
militia, chiefly from the counties west of the Blue ridge, and
consisted of two divisions. The northern division, comprehending the
troops, collected in Frederick, Dunmore,[3] and the adjacent counties,
was to be commanded by Lord Dunmore, in person;[4] and the southern,
comprising the different companies raised in Botetourt, Augusta and
the adjoining counties east of the Blue ridge, was to be led on by
Gen. Andrew Lewis. These two divisions, proceeding by different
routes, were to form a junction at the mouth of the Big Kenhawa, and
from thence penetrate the country north west of the Ohio river, as far
as the season would admit of their going; and destroy all the Indian
towns and villages which they could reach.
About the first of September, the troops placed under the command
[125] of Gen. Lewis rendezvoused at Camp Union (now Lewisburg) and
consisted of two regiments, commanded by Col. William Fleming of
Botetourt and Col. Charles Lewis of Augusta, and containing about four
hundred men each. At Camp Union they were joined by an independent
volunteer company under Col. John Field of Culpepper; a company from
Bedford under Capt. Buford and two from the Holstein settlement (now
Washington county) under Capts. Evan Shelby and Harbert. These three
latter companies were part of the forces to be led on by Col.
Christian, who was likewise to join the two main divisions of the army
at Point Pleasant, so soon as the other companies of his regiment
could be assembled. The force under Gen. Lewis, having been thus
augmented to eleven hundred men, commenced its march for the mouth of
Kenhawa on the 11th of September 1774.[5]
From Camp Union to the point proposed for the junction of the northern
and southern divisions of the army, a distance of one hundred and
sixty miles, the intermediate country was a trackless forest, so
rugged and mountainous as to render the progress of the army, at once,
tedious and laborious. Under the guidance of Capt. Matthew Arbuckle,
they however, succeeded in reaching the Ohio river after a march of
nineteen days; and fixed their encampment on the point of land
immediately between that river and the Big Kenhawa.[6] The provisions
and ammunition, transported on packhorses, and the beeves in droves,
arrived soon after.
When the army was preparing to leave Camp Union, there was for a while
some reluctance manifested on the part of Col. Field to submit to the
command of Gen. Lewis. This proceeded from the fact, that in a former
military service, he had been the senior of Gen. Lewis; and from the
circumstance that the company led on by him were Independent
Volunteers, not raised in pursuance of the orders of Governor Dunmore,
but brought into the field by his own exertions, after his escape from
the Indians at Kelly's. These circumstances induced him to separate
his men from the main body of the army on its march, and to take a
different way from the one pursued by it,--depending on his own
knowledge of the country to lead them a practicable route to the
river.[7]
While thus detached from the forces under Gen. Lewis, two of his men
(Clay and Coward) who were out hunting and at some little distance
from each other, came near to where two Indians were concealed. Seeing
Clay only, and supposing him to be alone, one of them fired at him;
and running up to scalp him as he fell, was himself shot by Coward,
who was then about 100 yards off. The other Indian ran off unarmed,
and made his escape. A bundle of ropes found where Clay was killed,
induced the belief that it was the object of these Indians to steal
horses;--it is not however improbable, that they had been observing
the progress of the army, and endeavoring to ascertain its numbers.
Col. Field, fearing that he might [126] encounter a party of the enemy
in ambush, redoubled his vigilance 'till he again joined General
Lewis; and the utmost concert and harmony then prevailed in the whole
army.[8]
When the Southern division arrived at Point Pleasant, Governor Dunmore
with the forces under his command, had not reached there; and unable
to account for his failure to form the preconcerted junction at that
place, it was deemed advisable to await that event; as by so doing, a
better opportunity would be afforded to Col. Christian of coming up,
with that portion of the army, which was then with him.[9] Meanwhile
General Lewis, to learn the cause of the delay of the Northern
division, despatched runners by land, in the direction of Port Pitt,
to obtain tidings of Lord Dunmore, and to communicate them to him
immediately. In their absence, however, advices were received from his
Lordship, that he had determined on proceeding across the country,
directly to the Shawanee towns; and ordering General Lewis to cross
the river, march forward and form a junction with him, near to them.
These advices were received on the 9th of October, and preparations
were immediately begun to be made for the transportation of the troops
over the Ohio river.[10]
Early on the morning of Monday the tenth of that month, two
soldiers[11] left the camp, and proceeded up the Ohio river, in quest
of deer. When they had progressed about two miles, they unexpectedly
came in sight of a large number of Indians, rising from their
encampment, and who discovering the two hunters fired upon them and
killed one;--the other escaped unhurt, and running briskly to the
camp, communicated the intelligence, "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." The main part of the army was immediately
ordered out under Colonels Charles Lewis,[12] and William Fleming; and
having formed into two lines, [127] they proceeded about four hundred
yards, when they met the Indians, and the action commenced.
At the first onset, Colonel Charles Lewis having fallen, and Colonel
Fleming being wounded, both lines gave way and were retreating briskly
towards the camp, when they were met by a reinforcement under Colonel
Field,[13] and rallied. The engagement then became general, and was
sustained with the most obstinate fury on both sides. The Indians
perceiving that the "tug of war" had come, and determined on affording
the Colonial army no chance of escape, if victory should declare for
them, formed a line extending across the point, from the Ohio to the
Kenhawa, and protected in front, by logs and fallen timber. In this
situation they maintained the contest with unabated vigor, from
sunrise 'till towards the close of evening; bravely and successfully
resisting every charge which was made on them; and withstanding the
impetuosity of every onset, with the most invincible firmness, until a
fortunate movement on the part of the Virginia troops, decided the
day.
Some short distance above the entrance of the Kenhawa river into Ohio,
there is a stream, called Crooked creek, emptying into the former
of these, from the North east,[14] whose banks are tolerably high,
and were then covered with a thick and luxuriant growth of weeds.
Seeing the impracticability of dislodging the Indians, by the most
vigorous attack, and sensible of the great danger, which must
arise to his army, if the contest were not decided before night,
General Lewis detached the three companies which were commanded by
Captains Isaac Shelby, George Matthews, and John Stuart, with orders
to proceed up the Kenhawa river, and Crooked creek under cover of
the banks and weeds, 'till they should [128] pass some distance
beyond the enemy; when they were to emerge from their covert,
march downward towards the point and attack the Indians in their
rear.[15] The manoeuvre thus planned, was promptly executed, and gave
a decided victory to the Colonial army. The Indians finding themselves
suddenly and unexpectedly encompassed between two armies, & not
doubting but that in their rear, was the looked for reinforcement
under Colonel Christian, soon gave way, and about sun down,
commenced a precipitate retreat across the Ohio, to their towns on
the Scioto.
Some short time after the battle had ended, Colonel Christian arrived
with the troops which he had collected in the settlements on the
Holstein, and relieved the anxiety of many who were disposed to
believe the retreat of the Indians to be only a feint;[16] and that
an attack would be again speedily made by them, strengthened and
reinforced by those of the enemy who had been observed during the
engagement, on the opposite side of the Ohio and Kenhawa rivers. But
these had been most probably stationed there, in anticipation of
victory, to prevent the Virginia troops from effecting a retreat
across those rivers, (the only possible chance of escape, had they
been overpowered by the enemy in their front;) and the loss sustained
by the Indians was too great, and the prospect of a better fortune,
too gloomy and unpromising, for them to enter again into an
engagement. Dispirited by the bloody repulse with which they had met,
they hastened to their towns, better disposed to purchase security
from farther hostilities by negotiation, than risk another battle with
an army whose strength and prowess, they had already tested; and found
superior to their own. The victory indeed, was decisive, and many
advantages were obtained by it; but they were not cheaply bought. The
Virginia army sustained, in this engagement, a loss of seventy-five
killed, and one hundred and forty wounded.--About one fifth of the
entire number of the troops.
Among the slain were Colonels Lewis and Field; Captains Buford,
Morrow, Wood, Cundiff, Wilson, and Robert McClannahan; and Lieutenants
Allen, Goldsby and Dillon, with some other subalterns. The loss of the
enemy could not be ascertained. On the morning after the action,
Colonel Christian marched his men over the battle ground and found
twenty-one of the Indians lying dead; and twelve others [129] were
afterwards discovered, where they had been attempted to be concealed
under some old logs and brush.[17]
From the great facility with which the Indians either carry off or
conceal their dead, it is always difficult to ascertain the number of
their slain; and hence arises, in some measure, the disparity between
their known loss and that sustained by their opponents in battle.
Other reasons for this disparity, are to be found in their peculiar
mode of warfare, and in the fact, that they rarely continue a contest,
when it has to be maintained with the loss of their warriors. It would
not be easy otherwise to account for the circumstance, that even when
signally vanquished, the list of their slain does not, frequently,
appear more than half as great, as that of the victors. In this
particular instance, many of the dead were certainly thrown into the
river.
Nor could the number of the enemy engaged, be ever ascertained. Their
army is known to have been composed of warriors from the different
nations, north of the Ohio; and to have comprised the flower of the
Shawanee, Delaware, Mingo, Wyandotte and Cayuga tribes; led on by men,
whose names were not unknown to fame,[18] and at the head of whom was
Cornstalk, Sachem of the Shawanees, and King of the Northern
Confederacy.[19]
This distinguished chief and consummate warrior, proved himself on
that day, to be justly entitled to the prominent station which he
occupied. His plan of alternate retreat & attack, was well conceived,
and occasioned the principal loss sustained by the writes. If at any
time his warriors were believed to waver, his voice could be heard
above the din of arms, exclaiming in his native tongue, "Be strong! Be
strong;" and when one near him, by trepidation and reluctance to
proceed to the charge, evinced a dastardly disposition, fearing the
example might have a pernicious influence, with one blow of the
tomahawk he severed his skull. It was perhaps a solitary instance in
which terror predominated. Never did men exhibit a more conclusive
evidence of bravery, in making a charge, and fortitude in withstanding
an onset, than did these undisciplined soldiers of the forest, in the
[130] field at Point Pleasant. Such too was the good conduct of those
who composed the army of Virginia, on that occasion; and such the
noble bravery of many, that high expectations were entertained of
their future distinction. Nor were those expectations disappointed. In
the various scenes through which they subsequently passed, the pledge
of after eminence then given, was fully redeemed; and the names of
Shelby, Campbell, Matthews, Fleming, Moore, and others, their
compatriots in arms on the memorable tenth of October, 1774, have been
inscribed in brilliant characters on the roll of fame.[20]
Having buried the dead, and made every arrangement of which their
situation admitted, for the comfort of the wounded, entrenchments were
thrown up, and the army commenced its march to form a junction with
the northern division, under Lord Dunmore. Proceeding by the way of
the Salt Licks, General Lewis pressed forward with astonishing
rapidity (considering that the march was through a trackless desert);
but before he had gone far, an express arrived from Dunmore, with
orders to return immediately to the mouth of the Big Kenhawa.
Suspecting the integrity of his Lordship's motives, and urged by the
advice of his officers generally, General [131] Lewis refused to obey
these orders; and continued to advance 'till he was met, (at Kilkenny
creek, and in sight of an Indian village, which its inhabitants had
just fired and deserted,) by the Governor, (accompanied by White
Eyes,) who informed him, that he was negotiating a treaty of peace
which would supersede the necessity of the further movement of the
Southern division, and repeating the order for its retreat.
The army under General Lewis had endured many privations and suffered
many hardships. They had encountered a savage enemy in great force,
and purchased a victory with the blood of their friends. When arrived
near to the goal of their anxious wishes, and with nothing to prevent
the accomplishment of the object of the campaign; they received those
orders with evident chagrin; and did not obey them without murmuring.
Having, at his own request, been introduced severally to the officers
of that division; complimenting them for their gallantry and good
conduct in the late engagement, and assuring them of his high esteem,
Lord Dunmore returned to his camp; and General Lewis commenced his
retreat.[21]
If before the opening of this campaign, the belief was prevalent, that
to the conduct of emissaries from Great Britain, because of the
contest then waging between her and her American colonies, the Indian
depredations of that year, were mainly attributable; that belief had
become more general, and had received strong confirmation, from the
more portentous aspect which that contest had assumed, prior to the
battle at Point Pleasant. The destruction of the tea at Boston had
taken place in the March preceding. The _Boston Port Bill_, the signal
for actual conflict between the colonies and mother country, had been
received early in May. The house of Burgesses in Virginia, being in
session at the time, recommended that the first of June, the day on
which that bill was to go into operation, be observed throughout the
colony "as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, imploring the
divine interposition to avert the heavy calamity which threatened
destruction to their civil rights, and the evils of a civil war." In
consequence of this recommendation and its accompanying resolutions,
the Governor had dissolved the Assembly. The Legislature of
Massachusetts had likewise passed declaratory resolutions, expressive
of their sense of the state of public affairs and the designs of
Parliament; and which led [132] to their dissolution also. The
committee of correspondence at Boston, had framed and promulgated an
agreement, which induced Governor Gage, to issue a proclamation,
denouncing it as "an unlawful, hostile and traitorous combination,
contrary to the allegiance due to the King, destructive of the legal
authority of Parliament, and of the peace, good order, and safety of
the community;" and requiring of the magistrates, to apprehend and
bring to trial, all such as should be in any wise guilty of them. A
congress, composed of delegates from the different colonies, and
convened for the purpose "of uniting and guiding the councils, and
directing the efforts of North America," had opened its session on the
4th of September. In fine, the various elements of that tempest, which
soon after overspread the thirteen united colonies, had been already
developed, and were rapidly concentrating, before the orders for the
retreat of the Southern division of the army, were issued by Lord
Dunmore. How far these were dictated by a spirit of hostility to the
cause of the colonies, and of subservience to the interests of Great
Britain, in the approaching contest, may be inferred from his conduct
during the whole campaign; and the course pursued by him, on his
return to the seat of government. If indeed there existed (as has been
supposed,) between the Indians and the Governor from the time of his
arrival with the Northern Division of the army at Fort Pitt, a secret
and friendly understanding, looking to the almost certain result of
the commotions which were agitating America, then was the battle at
Point Pleasant, virtually the first in the series of those brilliant
achievements which burst the bonds of British tyranny; and the blood
of Virginia, there nobly shed, was the first blood spilled in the
sacred cause of American liberty.[22]
It has been already seen that Lord Dunmore failed to form a junction
with General Lewis, at the mouth of the Great Kenhawa, agreeably to
the plan for the campaign, as concerted at Williamsburg by the
commanding officer of each division. No reason for changing the
direction of his march, appears to have been assigned by him; and
others were left to infer his motives, altogether from circumstances.
While at Fort Pitt Lord Dunmore was joined by the notorious Simon
Girty,[23] who accompanied him from thence 'till the close of the
expedition. The subsequent conduct of this man, his attachment to the
side of Great Britain, in her [133] attempts to fasten the yoke of
slavery upon the necks of the American people,--his withdrawal from
the garrison at Fort Pitt while commissioners were there for the
purpose of concluding a treaty with the Indians, as was stipulated in
the agreement made with them by Dunmore,--the exerting of his
influence over them, to prevent the chiefs from attending there, and
to win them to the cause of England,--his ultimate joining the savages
in the war which (very much from his instigation,) they waged against
the border settlements, soon after,--the horrid cruelties, and
fiendish tortures inflicted on unfortunate white captives by his
orders and connivance;--all combined to form an exact counterpart to
the subsequent conduct of Lord Dunmore when exciting the negroes to
join the British standard;--plundering the property of those who were
attached to the cause of liberty,--and applying the brand of
conflagration to the most flourishing town in Virginia.
At Wheeling, as they were descending the river, the army delayed some
days; and while proceeding from thence to form a junction with the
division under general Lewis, was joined, near the mouth of the Little
Kenhawa, by the noted John Connoly, of great fame as a tory.
Of this man, Lord Dunmore thence forward became an intimate associate;
and while encamped at the mouth of Hock Hocking--seemed to make him
his confidential adviser. It was here too, only seventy miles distant
from the head quarters of General Lewis, that it was determined to
leave the boats and canoes and proceed by land to the Chilicothe
towns.[24]
The messengers, despatched by Lord Dunmore to apprize the lower
army of this change of determination, were Indian traders; one of whom
being asked, if he supposed the Indians would venture to give battle
to the superior force of the whites, replied that they certainly
would, and that Lewis' division would soon see his prediction
verified.[25] This was on the day previous to the engagement. On the
return of these men, on the evening of the same day, they must have
seen the Indian army which made the attack on the next morning;
and the belief was general on the day of battle, that they had
communicated to the Indians, the present strength and expected
reinforcement of the southern division. It has also been said that
on the evening of the 10th of October, while [134] Dunmore,
Connoly and one or two others were walking together, his Lordship
remarked "by this time General Lewis has warm work."[26]
The acquaintance formed by the Governor with Connoly, in the ensuing
summer was further continued, and at length ripened into one of the
most iniquitous conspiracies, that ever disgraced civilized man.
In July, 1775, Connoly presented himself to Lord Dunmore with
proposals, well calculated to gain the favor of the exasperated
Governor, and between them a plan was soon formed, which seemed to
promise the most certain success. Assurances of ample rewards from
Lord Dunmore, were transmitted to such officers of the militia on the
frontiers of Virginia, as were believed to be friendly to the royal
cause, on putting themselves under the command of Connoly; whose
influence with the Indians, was to ensure their co-operation against
the friends of America. To perfect this scheme, it was necessary to
communicate with General Gage; and about the middle of September,
Connoly, with despatches from Dunmore, set off for Boston, and in the
course of a few weeks returned, with instructions from the Governor of
Massachusetts, which developed their whole plan. Connoly was invested
with the rank of Colonel of a regiment, (to be raised among those on
the frontiers, who favored the cause of Great Britain,) with which he
was to proceed forthwith to Detroit, where he was to receive a
considerable reinforcement, and be supplied with cannon, muskets and
ammunition. He was then to visit the different Indian nations, enlist
them in the projected enterprise, and rendezvous his whole force at
Fort Pitt. From thence he was to cross the Alleghany mountain, and
marching through Virginia join Lord Dunmore, on the 20th of the
ensuing April, at Alexandria.
This scheme, (the execution of which, would at once, have laid waste a
considerable portion of Virginia, and ultimately perhaps, nearly the
whole state,) was frustrated by the taking of Connoly, and all the
particulars of it, made known. This development, served to shew the
villainous connexion existing between Dunmore and Connoly, and to
corroborate the suspicion of General Lewis and many of his officers,
that the conduct of the former, during the campaign of 1774, was [135]
dictated by any thing else than the interest and well being of the
colony of Virginia.
This suspicion was farther strengthened by the readiness with
which Lord Dunmore embraced the overtures of peace, and the terms on
which a treaty was concluded with them; while the encamping of his
army, without entrenchments, in the heart of the Indian country, and
in the immediate adjacency of the combined forces of the Indian
nations of Ohio, would indicate, that there must have been a
friendly understanding between him and them. To have relied solely
on the bravery and good conduct of his troops, would have been the
height of imprudence. His army was less than that, which had been
scarcely delivered from the fury of a body of savages inferior in
number, to the one with which he would have had to contend; and it
would have been folly in him to suppose, that he could achieve with
a smaller force, what required the utmost exertions of General
Lewis and his brave officers, to effect with a greater one.[27]
When the Northern division of the army resumed its march for
Chilicothe, it left the greater part of its provisions in a block
house which had been erected during its stay at the mouth of the
Hockhocking, under the care of Captain Froman with a small party
of troops to garrison it. On the third day after it left Fort Gore
(the block house at the mouth of Hockhocking) a white man by the name
of Elliott came to Governor Dunmore, with a request from the
Indians that he would withdraw the army from their country, and
appoint commissioners to meet their chiefs at Pittsburg to confer
about the terms of a treaty. To this request a reply was given, that
the Governor was well inclined to make peace, and was willing that
hostilities should cease; but as he was then so near their towns,
and all the chiefs of the different nations were at that time with the
army, it would be more convenient to negotiate then, than at a
future period. He then named a place at which he would encamp, and
listen to their proposals; and immediately despatched a courier to
General Lewis with orders for his return.[28]
The Indian spies reporting that General Lewis had disregarded these
orders, and was still marching rapidly towards their towns, the
Indians became apprehensive of the result; and one of their chiefs
(the White Eyes) waited on Lord Dunmore in person, and complained that
the "Long Knives" [136] were coming upon them and would destroy all
their towns. Dunmore then, in company with White Eyes, visited the
camp of General Lewis, and prevailed with him, as we have seen, to
return across the Ohio.
In a few days after this, the Northern division of the army approached
within eight miles of Chilicothe, and encamped on the plain, at the
place appointed for the chiefs to meet without entrenchments or breast
works, or any protection, save the vigilance of the sentinels and the
bravery of the troops.[29] On the third day from the halting of the
army eight chiefs, with Cornstalk at their head, came into camp; and
when the interpreters made known who Cornstalk was, Lord Dunmore
addressed them, and from a written memorandum, recited the various
infractions, on the part of the Indians, of former treaties, and
different murders, unprovokedly committed by them. To all this
Cornstalk replied, mixing a good deal of recrimination with the
defence of his red brethren; and when he had concluded, a time was
specified when the chiefs of the different nations should come in, and
proceed to the negotiation of a treaty.
Before the arrival of that period, Cornstalk came alone to the camp,
and acquainted the Governor that none of the Mingoes would attend; and
that he was apprehensive there could not a full council be convened.
Dunmore then requested that he would convoke as many chiefs of the
other nations as he could, and bring them to the council fire without
delay, as he was anxious to close the war at once; and that if this
could not be effected peaceably, he should be forced to resume
hostilities. Meantime two interpreters were despatched to Logan,[30]
by Lord Dunmore, requesting his attendance;--but Logan replied, that
"he was a warrior, not a councillor, and would not come."[31]
On the night after the return of the interpreters to camp [137]
Charlotte (the name of Dunmore's encampment,) Major William Crawford,
with three hundred men, left the main army about midnight, on an
excursion against a small Mingo village, not far off. Arriving there
before day, the detachment surrounded the town; and on the first
coming out of the Indians from their huts, there was some little
firing on the part of the whites, by which one squaw and a man were
killed--the others about 20 in number were all made prisoners and
taken to the camp; where they remained until the conclusion of a
treaty. Every thing about the village, indicated an intention of their
speedily deserting it.[32]
Shortly after Cornstalk and two other chiefs, made their appearance at
camp Charlotte, and entered into a negotiation which soon terminated
in an agreement to forbear all farther hostilities against each
other,--to give up the prisoners then held by them, and to attend at
Pittsburgh, with as many of the Indian chiefs as could be prevailed on
to meet the commissioners from Virginia, in the ensuing summer, where
a treaty was to be concluded and ratified--Dunmore requiring hostages,
to guarantee the performance of those stipulations, on the part of the
Indians.
If in the battle at Point Pleasant, Cornstalk manifested the bravery
and generalship of a mighty captain; in the negotiations at camp
Charlotte, he displayed the skill of a statesman, joined to powers
of oratory, rarely, if ever surpassed. With the most patriotic
devotion to his country, and in a strain of most commanding eloquence,
he recapitulated the accumulated wrongs, which had oppressed their
fathers, and which were oppressing them. Sketching in lively
colours, the once happy and powerful condition of the Indians, he
placed in striking contrast, their present fallen fortunes and
unhappy destiny. Exclaiming against the perfidiousness of the
whites, and the dishonesty of the traders, he proposed as the basis
of a treaty, that no persons should be permitted to carry on a
commerce with the Natives, for individual profit; but that [138]
their white brother should send them such articles as they needed,
by the hands of honest men, who were to exchange them at a fair price,
for their skins and furs; and that no spirit of any kind should be
sent among them, as from the "fire water" of the whites, proceeded
evil to the Indians.[33]
This truly great man, is said to have been opposed to the war from its
commencement; and to have proposed on the eve of the battle at Point
Pleasant, to send in a flag, and make overtures for peace; but this
proposal was overruled by the general voice of the chiefs. When a
council was first held after the defeat of the Indians, Cornstalk,
reminding them of their late ill success, and that the Long Knives
were still pressing on them, asked what should be then done. But no
one answered. Rising again, he proposed that the women and children
should be all killed; and that the warriors should go out and fight,
until they too were slain. Still no one answered. Then, said he,
striking his tomahawk into the council post, "I will go and make
peace." This was done, and the war of 1774 concluded.
-----
[1] He is said to have committed some offence, in the upper
part of South Carolina, which rendered him obnoxious to the
laws of that colony, and to evade the punishment for which, he
had fled to the wilderness and taken up his abode in it.
[2] Lewis Wetzel, the son of a German settler on Wheeling
Creek, some fourteen miles above its mouth, was born about
1764. He and his brothers Martin, Jacob, John, and George
became famous in border warfare after the close of the
Revolution; the annals of the frontier abound in tales of their
hardy achievements. Martin and Lewis were the heroes of most
remarkable escapes from Indian captivity; John was also famous
as an Indian fighter; and Jacob's name will ever be connected
with the exploits of that other great border scout, Simon
Kenton. But of all the brothers, Lewis achieved the widest
celebrity, and two biographies of him have been published: by
Cecil B. Hartley (Phila., 1860), and by R. C. V. Meyers
(Phila., 1883).--R. G. T.
[3] Now Shenandoah.
[4] The northern wing was composed of men from Frederick,
Berkeley, and Dunmore (afterwards Shenandoah) counties, and
Col. Adam Stephen was placed in command. With this wing went
Lord Dunmore and Major John Connolly. Counting the forces
already in the field under Maj. Angus McDonald and Capt.
William Crawford, this levy numbered some twelve hundred men.
Among them, as scouts, were George Roger Clark, Simon Kenton,
and Michael Cresap.--R. G. T.
[5] Lewis was colonel of the militia of Botetourt county.
Camp Union (so called because several bodies of troops met
there) was on the Big Savannah or Great Levels of Greenbrier
River; the town of Lewisburg now occupies the site.
In Dunmore's letter to Andrew Lewis, dated July 12, he directed
him to raise a sufficient body of men, and proceeding to the
mouth of the Great Kanawha there erect a fort; if he deemed
best he was to cross the Ohio, proceed directly to the Indian
towns, and destroy their crops and supplies; in any event he
was to keep communication open between Fort Wheeling and Fort
Dunmore (Pittsburg). It is evident that his lordship then
contemplated no separate expedition of his own, for he talks of
sending Major Angus McDonald's party and a new levy to Lewis's
assistance. But he changed his mind, and August 30 wrote to
Lewis directing that the latter meet him at the mouth of the
Little Kanawha. Lewis replied through Col. William Preston that
it was now too late to change his plans; he should proceed at
once with the levy just summoned, to the mouth of the Great
Kanawha, and there await further orders.--R. G. T.
[6] This cape was called Point Pleasant, and is now occupied
by the West Virginia town of that name.--R. G. T.
[7] This is misleading. On September 6, Col. Charles Lewis,
with his Augusta troops, numbering about six hundred, were
detached to proceed to the mouth of the Elk, and there make
canoes for transporting the supplies to the mouth of the Great
Kanawha. This body had in charge a drove of 108 beef cattle,
and 400 pack-horses laden with 54,000 lbs. of flour. Field's
company soon followed this advance.--R. G. T.
[8] Saturday, the 10th, Clay and Coward were sent out to
hunt deer for Field's company, on the banks of the Little
Meadow. Then occurred the incident related by Withers. The
Indian who escaped, hurried on to the Shawnee towns and gave
them their first notice of the approach of the army. Alarmed at
this incident, Field hurried and caught up with the advance
under Charles Lewis. The text reads as though he had hastened
back to Andrew Lewis, who had not yet left Camp Union.--R. G.
T.
[9] Col. Andrew Lewis marched out of Camp Union the 12th,
with about 450 men. These consisted of Fleming's Botetourt
troops, three companies of Fincastle men under Capts. Evan
Shelby, William Herbert, and William Russell, the Bedford men
under Thomas Buford, and Dunmore men under Slaughter. They had
with them 200 pack-horses laden with flour, and the remainder
of the beeves. Col. William Christian, who arrived at Camp
Union the day Andrew Lewis left, was ordered, with the rest of
the Fincastle men, to remain there, to guard the residue of the
provisions, and when the brigade of horses sent to the mouth of
the Elk had returned, to hurry every thing forward to the mouth
of the Great Kanawha. Five weeks were thus consumed in
transporting the troops and the supplies a distance of 160
miles through the tangled forest, to Point Pleasant, where the
main army, upwards of 1,100 strong, had arrived, quite spent
with exertions, on the 6th of October.
When Christian left Camp Union for the front, Anthony Bledsoe,
with a company of Fincastle men, was detailed to remain behind
with the sick, while the base of supplies at the mouth of the
Elk was placed in charge of Slaughter. As will be seen,
Christian arrived too late to engage in the battle of Point
Pleasant.--R. G. T.
[10] When Lewis arrived at Point Pleasant (October 6th), he
found awaiting him in a hollow tree dispatches from Dunmore,
brought by Simon Kenton and two companions, directing him to
join his lordship at the mouth of the Big Hockhocking, where
the governor's northern wing, under Major Crawford, was
building a stockade. But Lewis's men were spent, and pens had
to be built for the cattle, and shelter for the stores, so no
move was made. On Saturday, the 8th, came a further message
from the governor, who was still at the Big Hockhocking. Lewis
replied that he would join him there as soon as the troops,
food supply, and powder had all reached Point Pleasant. His men
were angry at Dunmore's interference, and argued with Lewis
that it was sixty miles by river and over half that by land, to
Dunmore's camp, whereas it was less than either to the hostile
towns which they had started out to attack; and to turn aside
from this purpose was to leave open for the hostiles the
back-door to the frontier settlements of Virginia. The 9th was
Sunday, and these sturdy Scotch-Irish Presbyterians spent the
day in religious exercises, listening to a stout sermon from
their chaplain. On the morrow, they were surprised by the
Indians, as the sequel relates.--R. G. T.
[11] James Mooney, of Russell's company, and Joseph
Hughey, of Shelby's. They were surprised at the mouth of Old
Town Creek, three miles distant. Hughey was killed by a shot
fired by Tavenor Ross, a white renegade in Cornstalk's
party.--R. G. T.
[12] Few officers were ever more, or more deservedly,
endeared to those under their command than Col. Charles Lewis.
In the many skirmishes, which it was his fortune to have, with
the Indians he was uncommonly successful; and in the various
scenes of life, thro' which he passed, his conduct was
invariably marked by the distinguishing characteristicks of a
mind, of no ordinary stamp. His early fall on this bloody
field, was severely felt during the whole engagement; and to it
has been attributed the partial advantages gained by the Indian
army near the commencement of the action. When the [127] fatal
ball struck him, he fell at the root of a tree; from whence he
was carried to his tent, against his wish, by Capt. Wm. Morrow
and a Mr. Bailey, of Captain Paul's company, and died in a few
hours afterwards. In remembrance of his great worth, the
legislature named the county of Lewis after him.
[13] An active, enterprising and meritorious officer, who had
been in service in Braddock's war, and profited by his
experience of the Indian mode of fighting. His death checked
for a time the ardor of his troops, and spread a gloom over the
countenances of those, who had accompanied him on this
campaign.
[14] A half-mile up the Big Kanawha.--R. G. T.
[15] From MS. journals and letters in possession of the
Wisconsin Historical Society, it appears that the conduct of
the battle was as follows: Andrew Lewis, who as yet thought the
enemy to be but a scouting party, and not an army equal in size
to his own, had the drums beat to arms, for many of his men
were asleep in their tents; and while still smoking his pipe,
ordered a detachment from each of the Augusta companies, to
form 150 strong under Col. Charles Lewis, with John Dickinson,
Benjamin Harrison, and John Skidmore as the captains. Another
party of like size was formed under Col. Fleming, with Captains
Shelby, Russell, Buford, and Philip Love. Lewis's party marched
to the right, near the foot of the hills skirting the east side
of Crooked Creek. Fleming's party marched to the left, 200
yards apart from the other. A quarter of a mile from camp, and
half a mile from the point of the cape, the right-going party
met the enemy lurking behind trees and fallen logs at the base
of the hill, and there Charles Lewis was mortally wounded.
Fleming marched to a pond three-quarters of a mile from camp,
and fifty rods inland from the Ohio--this pond being one of the
sources of Crooked Creek. The hostile line was found to extend
from this pond along Crooked Creek, half way to its mouth. The
Indians, under Cornstalk, thought by rushes to drive the whites
into the two rivers, "like so many bullocks," as the chief
later explained; and indeed both lines had frequently to fall
back, but they were skillfully reinforced each time, and by
dusk the savages placed Old Town Creek between them and the
whites. This movement was hastened, a half hour before sunset,
by a movement which Withers confounds with the main tactics.
Captains Matthews, Arbuckle, Shelby, and Stuart were sent with
a detachment up Crooked creek under cover of the bank, with a
view to securing a ridge in the rear of the enemy, from which
their line could be enfiladed. They were discovered in the act,
but Cornstalk supposed that this party was Christian's advance,
and in alarm hurried his people to the other side of Old Town
Creek. The battle was, by dark, really a drawn game; but
Cornstalk had had enough, and fled during the night.--R. G. T.
[16] During the day, a messenger had been dispatched to hurry
on Christian, who with 250 men was convoying cattle and powder.
In the early evening, fifteen miles from Point Pleasant, this
rear party was found, toiling painfully over the wilderness
trail. Christian at once left his property in charge of a small
party, and arrived in camp by midnight.--R. G. T.
[17] Most of the killed and wounded, on both sides, were shot
in the head or breast, which indicates good marksmanship. The
Indians, though skillful marksmen, did not exhibit sufficient
mechanical knowledge to enable them properly to clean their
guns, and thus were at some disadvantage.
The statistician was at work in those days, as now, for we
learn from an old diary that at Old Town Creek were found by
the white victors, 78 rafts with which the Indians had crossed
the Ohio to the attack, the night of October 9-10; and on the
battlefield during the 10th and 12th, were collected 23 guns,
27 tomahawks, 80 blankets, and great numbers of war-clubs,
shot-pouches, powder-horns, match-coats, deer-skins, "and
other articles," all of which were put up at auction by the
careful commissary, and brought nearly L100 to the army
chest.--R. G. T.
[18] Such were Redhawk, a Delaware chief,--Scoppathus, a
Mingo,--Ellinipsico, a Shawanee, and son to Cornstalk,--Chiyawee, a
Wyandotte, and Logan, a Cayuga.
[19] The first recorded foray of Cornstalk was on October
10, 1759, against the Gilmore family and others, on Carr's
Creek, in what is now Rockbridge county, Va. "The Carr's
Creek massacre" was long remembered on the border as one of
the most daring and cruel on record. He was again heard of
during the Pontiac conspiracy, in 1763, when he led a large
war-party from the Scioto towns against the Virginia
frontier. Both at Muddy Creek, and the Clendenning farm
near Lewisburg, on the Levels of the Greenbrier, the
marauders pretended to be friendly with the settlers, and
in an unguarded moment fell upon and slew them. Other
massacres, in connection with the same foray, were at Carr's
Creek, Keeney's Knob, and Jackson's River. The story of the
captivity of Mrs. Clendenning and her children, who were
taken to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto, is one of the
most heartrendering in Western history. In 1764, Bouquet
raided these towns, and Cornstalk was one of the hostages
sent to Fort Pitt in fulfillment of the terms of the treaty,
but later he effected his escape. Nothing more is heard of
this warrior until 1774, when he became famous as leader of the
Indians at the battle of Point Pleasant. Cornstalk's
intelligence was far above that of the average Shawnee. He
had, before the Dunmore War, strongly counseled his people
to observe the peace, as their only salvation; but when
defeated in council, he with great valor led the tribesmen to
war. After the treaty of Fort Charlotte, he renewed his peace
policy, and was almost alone in refusing to join the
Shawnee uprising in 1777. Late in September, that year, he
visited his white friends at Fort Randolph (Point Pleasant),
and was retained as one of several hostages for the tribe.
Infuriated at some murders in the vicinity, the private
soldiers in the fort turned upon the Indian prisoners and
basely killed them, Cornstalk among the number. Governor
Patrick Henry and General Hand--the latter then organizing his
futile expedition against the Shawnees--wished to punish
the murderers; but in the prevalent state of public opinion on
the border, it was easy for them to escape prosecution.--R.
G. T.
[20] The following gentlemen, with others of high reputation
in private life, were officers in the battle at Point Pleasant.
Gen. Isaac Shelby, the first governor of Kentucky, and
afterwards, secretary of war;--Gen. William Campbell and Col.
John Campbell, heroes of King's mountain and Long Island;--Gen.
Evan Shelby, one of the most favored citizens of Tennessee,
often honored with the confidence of that state;--Col. William
Fleming, an active governor of Virginia during the revolutionary
war;--Gen. Andrew Moore of Rockbridge, the only man ever
elected by Virginia, from the country west of the Blue ridge, to
the senate of the United States;--Col. John Stuart, of
Greenbrier;--Gen. Tate, of Washington county, Virginia;--Col.
William McKee, of Lincoln county, Kentucky;--Col. John Steele,
since a governor of Mississippi territory;--Col. Charles
Cameron, of Bath;--Gen. Bazaleel Wells, of Ohio; and Gen.
George Matthews, a distinguished officer in the war of the
revolution, the hero of Brandywine, Germantown, and of
Guilford;--a governor of Georgia, and a senator from that
state in the congress of the United States. The salvation of
the American army at Germantown, is ascribed, in Johnston's
life of Gen. Green, to the bravery and good conduct of two
regiments, one of which was commanded by General, then Col.
Matthews.
[21] In order to get a clearer view of the situation, a
few more details are essential here. For several days after the
battle of Point Pleasant, Lewis was busy in burying the dead,
caring for the wounded, collecting the scattered cattle, and
building a store-house and small stockade fort. Early on
the morning of October 13th, messengers who had been sent on to
Dunmore, advising him of the battle, returned with orders to
Lewis to march at once with all his available force,
against the Shawnee towns, and when within twenty-five
miles of Chillicothe to write to his lordship. The next day,
the last rear guard, with the remaining beeves, arrived
from the mouth of the Elk, and while work on the defenses at
the Point was hurried, preparations were made for the march.
By evening of the 17th, Lewis, with 1,150 men in good
condition, had crossed the Ohio and gone into camp on the north
side. Each man had ten days' supply of flour, a half pound of
powder, and a pound and a half of bullets; while to each
company was assigned a pack-horse for the tents. Point
Pleasant was left in command of Col. Fleming,--who had been
severely wounded in the battle,--Captains Dickinson,
Lockridge, Herbert, and Slaughter, and 278 men, few of whom
were fit for service. On the 18th, Lewis, with Captain
Arbuckle as guide, advanced towards the Shawnee towns, eighty
miles distant in a straight line, and probably a hundred and
twenty-five by the circuitous Indian trails. The army marched
about eleven miles a day, frequently seeing hostile parties
but engaging none. Reaching the salt licks near the head of
the south branch of Salt Creek (in the present Lick township,
Jackson county, O.), they descended that valley to the
Scioto, and thence to a prairie on Kinnikinnick (not Kilkenny)
Creek, where was the freshly-deserted Indian village
referred to above, by Withers. This was thirteen miles south of
Chillicothe (now Westfall). Here they were met, early on the
24th, by a messenger from his lordship, ordering them to
halt, as a treaty was nearly concluded at Camp Charlotte. But
Lewis's army had been fired on that morning, and the place was
untenable for a camp in a hostile country, so he concluded to
seek better ground. A few hours later another messenger came,
again peremptorily ordering a halt, as the Shawnees had
practically come to terms. Lewis now concluded to join the
northern division in force, at Camp Charlotte, not liking to
have the two armies separated in the face of a treacherous
enemy; but his guide mistook the trail, and took one leading
directly to the Grenadier Squaw's Town. Lewis camped that
night on the west bank of Congo Creek, two miles above its
mouth, and five and a quarter miles from Chillicothe, with
the Indian town half-way between. The Shawnees were now
greatly alarmed and angered, and Dunmore himself, accompanied
by the Delaware chief White Eyes, a trader, John Gibson, and
fifty volunteers, rode over in hot haste that evening to stop
Lewis, and reprimand him. His lordship was mollified by Lewis's
explanations, but the latter's men, and indeed Dunmore's, were
furious over being stopped when within sight of their hated
quarry, and tradition has it that it was necessary to
treble the guards during the night to prevent Dunmore and White
Eyes from being killed. The following morning (the 25th), his
lordship met and courteously thanked Lewis's officers for
their valiant service; but said that now the Shawnees had
acceded to his wishes, the further presence of the southern
division might engender bad blood. Thus dismissed, Lewis led
his army back to Point Pleasant, which was reached on the
28th. He left there a garrison of fifty men under Captain
Russell, and then by companies the volunteers marched
through the wilderness to their respective homes, where they
disbanded early in November.--R. G. T.
[22] This is not the view of students in our own day, coolly
looking at the affair from the distance of a hundred and twenty
years. There now seems no room to doubt that Dunmore was
thoroughly in earnest, that he prosecuted the war with vigor,
and knew when to stop in order to secure the best possible
terms. Our author wrote at a time when many heroes of Point
Pleasant were still alive, and his neighbors; he reflected
their views, and the passions of the day. That it was, in view
of the events then transpiring, the best policy to turn back
the southern army, after the great battle, and not insist too
closely on following up the advantage gained, seems now
incontrovertible.--R. G. T.
[23] Butterfield's _History of the Girtys_ (Cincinnati,
1890) is a valuable contribution to Western history. Simon,
James, and George Girty were notorious renegade whites, who
aided the Indians against the borderers from 1778 to 1783;
Simon and George were similarly active in the Indian war of
1790-95.--R. G. T.
[24] Upon leaving Pittsburg,--where the governor held a
council with several Delaware and Mingo chiefs, to whom he
recited the outrages perpetrated by the Shawnees since
Bouquet's treaty of 1764--the northern division divided into
two wings. One, 700 strong, under Dunmore, descended the river
in boats; the other 500 went across the "pan-handle" by land,
with the cattle, and both rendezvoused, September 30th, at
Wheeling, 91 miles below Pittsburg. Next day, Crawford resumed
his march along the south bank of the Ohio, to a point opposite
the mouth of Big Hockhocking, 107 miles farther down. Here the
men, the 200 bullocks, and the 50 pack-horses swam the Ohio,
and just above the Big Hockhocking (the site of the present
Hockingport) erected a blockhouse and stockade, which they
called Fort Gower, in honor of the English earl of that name. A
part of the earthwork can still (1894) be seen in the garden of
a Hockingport residence. Dunmore's party, in 100 canoes and
pirogues, arrived a few days later. While at Fort Gower, he was
joined by the Delaware chiefs, White Eyes and John Montour, the
former of whom was utilized as an agent to negotiate with the
Shawnees--R. G. T.
[25] This was William McCulloch.--R. G. T.
[26] The authority for this is Stuart's _Indian Wars_, p.
56. Abraham Thomas, in his _Sketches_, relates that the
governor, placing his ear at the surface of the river, said
he thought he heard the firing of guns; and Thomas, then a
young militiaman, was asked to do likewise, and reported that
it was the rattle of musketry. The distance across country
to Point Pleasant was but twenty-eight miles, but by the river
windings was sixty-six. These anecdotes have been related as
proof that Dunmore desired Lewis beaten. White Eyes had
notified the governor that a conflict was expected, though
he had reported a much smaller Indian army than Lewis's;
hence his lordship had no fear of the result. Had he known
that the opposing forces were equal in number, and that the
whites had been surprised, he doubtless would have sent
relief. Knowing the Shawnee warriors were away from home,
fighting Lewis, whom he had reason to suppose was very well
able to handle them, he determined to advance inland to the
deserted towns on the Scioto and destroy their houses and
crops. He was upon this errand when met and stopped by the
messengers of peace.--R. G. T.
[27] The two wings of the white army had about the same
strength--1100 under Dunmore, and 1150 (after leaving Point
Pleasant) under Lewis. The fighting quality was also the same,
in both. It is to be remembered that in the army under Dunmore
there was very little discontent at the issue, and at the close
of the campaign the men heartily thanked his lordship for his
valuable services in behalf of the people. They did this, too,
at a time when they knew from Eastern news received in camp,
that the Revolution was near at hand, and Dunmore must soon be
fighting against them in behalf of his royal master.--R. G. T.
[28] Dunmore had, through White Eyes, summoned the Shawnee
chiefs to treat with him at Fort Gower (not Gore), but they had
declined to come in. He then set out, October 11th, to waste
their towns on the Scioto, as previously noted, leaving the
fort in charge of Captain Kuykendall (not Froman), with whom
remained the disabled and the beeves. Each man on the
expedition carried flour for sixteen days. Just after the Point
Pleasant battle, Lewis had dispatched a messenger to his
lordship with news of the affair; Dunmore's messenger to Lewis,
with instructions to the latter to join him _en route_, crossed
Lewis's express on the way. The messenger from Lewis found that
his lordship had marched up the Big Hockhocking valley for the
Scioto, and hurried after him. The governor was overtaken at
the third camp out (west of the present Nelsonville, Athens
county, O.), and the good news caused great joy among the
soldiers. October 17th, Dunmore arrived at what he styled Camp
Charlotte (on the northern bank of Sippo Creek, Pickaway
county, eight miles east of Chillicothe, in view of Pickaway
Plains), and here the treaty of peace was concluded.--R. G. T.
[29] Doddridge's _Notes_ says that the camp was surrounded by
a breastwork of fallen trees, and an entrenchment, and
Roosevelt's _Winning of the West_ follows him. But Dr. Draper
was distinctly told (in 1846-51) by two survivors of the
campaign, Samuel Murphy and John Grim, that Withers's account
is correct; and this is confirmed in Whittlesey's _Fugitive
Essays_. In the center of the field, a building of poles was
erected, in which to hold the council; around this, the army
encamped. A large white oak having been peeled, Dunmore wrote
upon it in red chalk, "Camp Charlotte," thus honoring the then
English queen.--R. G. T.
[30] Logan was the Mingo chief, the massacre of whose family
at Baker's Bottom, the previous April, has already been
described. He had just returned (October 21) from a foray on
the Holston border, bringing several scalps and three
prisoners, when the trader Gibson and the scout Simon Girty
were sent to him by his lordship.--R. G. T.
[31] Colonel Benjamin Wilson, Sen. (then an officer in
Dunmore's army, and whose narrative of the campaign furnished
the facts which are here detailed) says that he conversed
freely with one of the interpreters (Nicholson) in regard to
the mission to Logan, and that neither from the interpreter,
nor any other one during the campaign, did he hear of the
charge preferred in Logan's speech against Captain Cresap, as
being engaged in the affair at Yellow creek.--Captain Cresap
was an officer in the division of the army under Lord Dunmore;
and it would seem strange indeed, if Logan's speech had been
made public, at camp Charlotte, and neither he, (who was so
materially interested in it, and could at once have proved the
falsehood of the allegation which it contained,) nor Colonel
Wilson, (who was present during the whole conference between
Lord Dunmore and the Indian chiefs, and at the time when the
speeches were delivered sat immediately behind and close to
Dunmore,) should have heard nothing of it until years after.
------
_Comment by R. G. T._--Withers thus shortly disposes of the
famous speech by Logan, which schoolboys have been reciting for
nearly a hundred years as one of the best specimens extant, of
Indian eloquence. The evidence in regard to the speech, which
was undoubtedly recited to Gibson, and by him written out for
Lord Dunmore's perusal, and later "improved" by Jefferson, is
clearly stated in Roosevelt's _Winning of the West_, I., app.
iii.
[32] The reason for the attack was, that the Mingoes were
implacable, and Dunmore had learned that instead of coming into
the treaty they purposed retreating to the Great Lakes with
their prisoners and stolen horses. This Mingo village was
Seekonk (sometimes called the Hill Town), 30 or 40 miles up the
Scioto. Crawford left Camp Charlotte the night of the 25th, and
surprised the town early in the morning of the 27th. Six were
killed, several wounded, and fourteen captured; the rest
escaping into the forest. Crawford burned several Mingo towns
in the neighborhood.--R. G. T.
[33] In remarking on the appearance and manner of Cornstalk
while speaking, Colonel Wilson says, "When he arose, he was in
no wise confused or daunted, but spoke in a distinct, and
audible voice, without stammering or repetition, and with
peculiar emphasis. His looks while addressing Dunmore, were
truly grand and majestic; yet graceful and attractive. I have
heard the first orators in Virginia, Patrick Henry and Richard
Henry Lee, but never have I heard one whose powers of delivery
surpassed those of Cornstalk on that occasion."
[139] CHAPTER VIII.
Upon the close of the campaign of 1774, there succeeded a short period
of perfect quiet, and of undisturbed repose from savage invasion,
along the borders of North Western Virginia. The decisive battle of
the 10th of October, repressed incursion for a time, and taught those
implacable enemies of her citizens, their utter inability, alone and
unaided, to maintain a contest of arms, against the superior power of
Virginia. They saw that in any future conflict with this colony, her
belligerent operations would no longer be confined to the mere
purposes of defence; but that war would be waged in their own country,
and their own towns become the theatre of its action. Had the leading
objects of the Dunmore campaign been fully accomplished,--had the
contemplated junction of the different divisions of the army taken
place;--had its combined forces extended their march into the Indian
territory, and effected the proposed reduction of the Chilicothe, and
other towns on the Scioto and Sandusky, it would have been long
indeed, before the frontier settlements, became exposed to savage
inroad. A failure to effect these things however, left the Indians
comparatively at liberty, and prepared to renew invasion, and revive
their cruel and bloody deeds, whenever a savage thirst for vengeance
should incite them to action, and the prospect of achieving them with
impunity, be open before them. In the then situation of our country,
this prospect was soon presented to them.
The contest between Great Britain and her American colonies, which had
been for some time carried on with increasing warmth, was ripening
rapidly into war. The events of every day, more and more confirmed the
belief, that the "_unconditional submission_" of the colonies, was the
object of the parent state; and that to accomplish this, she was [140]
prepared to desolate the country by a civil war, and imbrue her hands
in the blood of its citizens. This state of things the Indians knew,
would favor the consummation of their hopes. Virginia, having to apply
her physical strength to the repulsion of other enemies, could not be
expected to extend her protecting aegis over the remote and isolated
settlements on her borders. These would have to depend on themselves
alone, for resistance to ruthless irruption, and exemption from total
annihilation. The Indians well knew the weakness of those settlements,
and their consequent incapacity to vie in open conflict with the
overwhelming force of their savage foes; and their heriditary
resentment to the whites prompted them to take advantage of that
weakness, to wreak this resentment, and involve them once more in
hostilities.
Other circumstances too, combined in their operation, to produce this
result. The plan of Lord Dunmore and others, to induce the Indians to
co-operate with the English in reducing Virginia to subjection, and
defeated by the detection and apprehension of Connoly, was soon after
resumed on a more extensive scale. British agents were busily engaged
from Canada to the Gulph of Mexico, in endeavoring by immediate
presents and the promise of future reward, to excite the savages to a
war upon the western frontiers. To accomplish this object, no means
which were likely to be of any avail, were neglected to be used.
Gratified resentment and the certainty of plunder, were held up to
view as present consequences of this measure; and the expulsion of the
whites, and the repossession, by the Natives, of the country from
which their fathers had been ejected, as its ultimate result.--Less
cogent motives might have enlisted them on the side of Great Britain.
These were too strong to be resisted by them, and too powerful to be
counteracted by any course of conduct, which the colonies could
observe towards them; and they became ensnared by the delusive bait,
and the insidious promises which accompanied it.
There were in the colonies too, many persons, who from principle or
fear, were still attached to the cause of Great Britain; and who not
only, did not sanction the opposition of their country to the
supremacy of Parliament, but were willing in any wise to lend their
aid to the royal cause. Some of those disaffected Americans, (as they
were at first denominated) who resided on the frontiers, foreseeing
the [141] attachment of the Indians to the side of Britain, and
apprehensive that in their inroads, the friends as well as the enemies
of that country, might, from the difficulty of discriminating, be
exposed to savage fury; and at the same time, sensible that they had
become obnoxious to a majority of their neighbors, who were perhaps,
too much inclined to practice summary modes of punishment, sought a
refuge among the Indians, from those impending evils. In some
instances, these persons were under the influence of the most
rancorous and vindictive passions, and when once with the savages,
strove to infuse those passions into their breasts, and stimulate them
to the repetition of those enormities, which had previously, so
terribly annoyed the inhabitants of the different frontiers.[1] Thus
wrought upon, their inculcated enmity to the Anglo-Americans
generally, roused them to action, and the dissonant notes of the war
song, resounded in their villages. For a while indeed, they refrained
from hostilities against North Western Virginia. It was however, but
to observe the progress of passing events, that they might act against
the mountain borders, simultaneously with the British on the Atlantic
coast; as a premature movement on their part, might, while Virginia
was yet at liberty to bear down upon them with concentrated forces,
bring upon their towns the destruction which had so appallingly
threatened them after the battle at Point Pleasant.
But though the inhabitants on the Virginia frontiers, enjoyed a
momentary respite from savage warfare; yet were the Indians not wholly
unemployed in deeds of aggression. The first attempt to occupy
Kentucky, had been the signal of hostilities in 1774; and the renewed
endeavors to form establishments in it, in 1775, induced their
continuance, and brought on those who were engaged in effecting them,
all the horrors of savage warfare.
Upon the close of the campaign under Lord Dunmore, Kentucky became
more generally known. James Harrod, with those who had associated
themselves with him in making a settlement in that country and aided
in the erection of the fort at Harrodsburg, joined the army of General
Lewis at Point Pleasant; and when, after the treaty of Camp Charlotte,
the army was disbanded, many of the soldiers and some of the officers,
enticed by the description given of it by Harrod, returned to south
Western Virginia, through that country.[2] The result of their
examination of it, induced many to migrate thither immediately; and in
1775, families began to take up their residence in it.
At that time, the only white persons residing in Kentucky, were those
at Harrod's fort; and for a while, emigrants to that country [142]
established themselves in its immediate vicinity, that they might
derive protection from its walls, from the marauding irruptions of
Indians. Two other establishments were, however, soon made, and
became, as well as Harrod's, rallying points for land adventurers, and
for many of those, whose enterprising spirits led them, to make their
home in that wilderness. The first of these was that at Boonesborough,
and which was made, under the superintendence of Daniel Boone.
The prospect of amassing great wealth, by the purchase of a large body
of land from the Indians, for a comparatively trifling consideration,
induced some gentlemen in North Carolina, to form a company, and
endeavor by negotiation to effect such purpose. This association was
known under the title of Henderson and company; and its object was,
the acquisition of a considerable portion of Kentucky.[3] The first
step, necessary towards the accomplishment of this object, was, to
convene a council of the Indians; and as the territory sought to be
acquired, did not belong, in individual property to any one nation of
them, it was deemed advisable to convoke the chiefs of the different
nations south of the Ohio river. A time was then appointed at which
these were to assemble; and it became necessary to engage an agent,
possessing the requisite qualifications, to attend the council, on
behalf of Henderson and company, and to transact the business for
them. The fame of Daniel Boone which had reached them, recommended
him, as one eminently qualified to discharge the duties devolving on
an agent; and he was employed in that capacity. At the appointed
period, the council was held, and a negotiation commenced, which
resulted in the transfer, to Henderson and company, of the title of
the southern Indians to the land lying south of the Kentucky river,
and north of the Tennessee.[4]
Boone was then placed at the head of a party of enterprising men, sent
to open a road from the Holstein settlement, through the wilderness,
to the Kentucky river, and to take possession of the company's
purchase. When within fifteen miles of the termination of their
journey, they were attacked by a body of northern Indians, who killed
two of Boone's comrades, and wounded two others.
Two days after, they were again attacked by them, and had two more of
their party killed and three wounded.[5] From this time they
experienced no farther molestation until they had arrived within the
limits of the purchase, and erected a fort, at a lick near the
southern bank of the Kentucky river--the site of the present town of
Boonesborough. Enfeebled by the loss sustained in the attacks made on
them by the Indians; and worn down by the continued labor of opening a
road through an almost impervious wilderness, it was some time before
they could so far complete the fort, so as to render it secure against
anticipated assaults of the savages, and justify a detachment being
sent from the garrison, to escort the family of Boone to his new
situation. When it was thus far completed, an office [143] was opened
for the sale of the company's land;[6] and Boone and some others
returned to Holstein, and from thence, guarded the family of Boone,
through the wilderness, to the newly erected fort. Mrs. Boone and her
daughter, are believed to be the first white females who ever stood on
the banks of the Kentucky river.[7]
[143] In 1775 Benjamin Logan, who had been with Lord Dunmore at Camp
Charlotte, visited Kentucky and selected a spot for his future
residence, near to the present village of Stamford, erected thereon a
fort; and in the following year moved his family thither.
These were the only settlements then begun to be made within the
limits of the now state of Kentucky. As the tide of emigration flowed
into the country, those three forts afforded an asylum, from the
Indian hostility to which the whites were incessantly subjected; and
never perhaps lived three men better qualified by nature and habit, to
resist that hostility, and preserve the settlers from captivity and
death, than James Harrod, Daniel Boone, and Benjamin Logan. Reared in
the lap of danger, and early inured to the hardships and sufferings of
a wilderness life, they were habitually acquainted with those arts
which were necessary to detect and defeat the one, and to lessen and
alleviate the others. Intrepid and fearless, yet cautious and prudent,
there was united in each of them, the sly, circumventive powers of the
Indian, with the bold defiance, and open daring of the whites. Quick,
almost to intuition, in the perception of impending dangers, instant
in determining, and prompt in action; to see, to resolve, and to
execute, were with them the work of the same moment. Rife in
expedients, the most perplexing difficulties rarely found them at a
loss. Possessed of these qualities, they were placed at the head of
the little colonies planted around them; not by ambition, but by the
universal voice of the people; from a deep and thorough conviction,
that they only were adequate to the exigencies of their situation.
The conviction was not ill founded. Their intellectual and physical
resources were powerfully and constantly exerted for the preservation
and security of the settlements; and frequently, with astonishing
success, under the most inauspicious circumstances. Had they indeed,
by nature, been supine and passive, their isolated situation, and the
constantly repeated attempts of the Indians, at their extermination,
would have aroused them, as it did others, to activity and energy, and
brought their every [144] nerve into action. For them, there were no
"weak, piping times of peace,"--no respite from danger. The
indefatigable vigilance and persevering hostility of an unrelenting
foe, required countervailing exertions on their part; and kept alive
the life, which they delighted to live.
From the instant those establishments were made, and emigrants placed
themselves in their vicinity, the Savages commenced their usual mode
of warfare; and marauding parties were ever in readiness, to seize
upon, those, whose misfortune it was to become exposed to their
vigilance. In the prosecution of these hostilities, incidents of the
most lively and harrowing interest, though limited in their
consequences, were constantly recurring; before a systematic course of
operations, was undertaken for the destruction of the settlers.
The Indians, seeing that they had to contend with persons, as well
skilled in their peculiar mode of warfare, as themselves, and as likely
to detect them, while lying in wait for an opportunity to strike the
deadly blow, as they were to strike it with impunity, they entirely
changed their plans of annoyance. Instead of longer endeavoring to cut
off the whites in detail, they brought into the country a force,
sufficiently numerous and powerful to act simultaneously against all
the settlements. The consequence of this was, much individual
suffering and several horrid massacres. Husbandmen, toiling to secure
the product of the summer's labor, for their sustenance another
season, were frequently attacked, and murdered.--Hunters, engaged in
procuring meat for immediate and pressing use, were obliged to
practise the utmost wariness to evade the ambushed Indian, and make
sure their return to the fort. Springs and other watering places, and
the paths leading to them, were constantly guarded by the savages; who
would lie near them day and night, until forced to leave their covert,
in quest of food to satisfy their extreme hunger; and who, when this
end was attained, would return to their hiding places, with renovated
strength, and increased watchfulness. The cattle belonging to the
garrisons were either driven off, or killed, so that no supplies
could be derived from them. This state of things continued, without
intermission, 'till the severity of winter forced the Indians to
depart for their towns; and then succeeded, of necessity, a truce,
which had become extremely desirable to the different settlements.
When we reflect on the dangers, the difficulties, the complicated
distresses, to which the inhabitants were then exposed, it is really
matter of astonishment that they did not abandon the country, and seek
elsewhere an exemption from those evils. How women, with all the
feminine weakness of the sex, could be prevailed upon to remain during
the winter, and encounter with the returning spring, the returning
horrors of savage warfare, is truly surprising. The frequent
recurrence of danger, does indeed, produce a comparative insensibility
and indifference to it; but it is difficult to conceive, [145] that
familiarity with the tragic scenes which were daily exhibited there,
could reconcile persons to a life of constant exposure to them. Yet
such was the fact; and not only did the few, who were first to venture
on them, continue in the country, but others, equally adventurous,
moved to it; encountering many hardships and braving every danger, to
aid in maintaining possession of the modern Canaan, and to obtain a
home in that land of milk and honey. If for a while, they flattered
themselves with the hope, that the ravages which had been checked by
winter, would not be repeated on the return of spring, they were sadly
disappointed. Hostilities were resumed, as soon as the abatement of
cold, suffered the Indians to take the field; and were carried on
with renovated ardor, and on an enlarged scale.[8]
Feeling the hopelessness of extirpating the settlements, so long as
the forts remained to afford a safe retreat to the inhabitants; and
having learned, by the experience of the preceding season, that the
whites were but little, if at all, inferior to them in their own arts,
and were competent to combat them, in their own mode of warfare, the
Indians resolved on bringing into the country a larger force, and to
direct their united energies to the demolition of the different forts.
To prevent any aid being afforded by the other garrisons, while
operations were leveled against one, they resolved on detaching from
their main body, such a number of men as was deemed sufficient to keep
watch around the other forts, and awe their inmates from attempting to
leave them, on any occasion. This was a course of excellent policy. It
was calculated not only to prevent the marching of any auxiliary
forces from one to the other of the fortresses, but at the same time
by preventing hunting parties from ranging the woods, cut off the
principal source, from which their supplies were derived; and thus
tended to render their fall, the more certain and easy.
Accordingly in March 1777, they entered Kentucky with a force of
upwards of two hundred warriors; and sending some of their most expert
and active men to watch around Boone's and Logan's forts, marched
with the chief part of their army to attack Harrodsburg. On the 14th
of March three persons (who were engaged in clearing some land) not
far from Harrod's fort, discovered the Indians proceeding through the
woods, and sought to escape observation and convey the intelligence to
the garrison. But they too, were discovered and pursued; and one of
them was killed, another taken prisoner, and the third (James,
afterwards Gen. Ray, then a mere youth) reached Harrodsburg alone in
safety.[9] Aware that the place had become alarmed, and that they had
then no chance of operating on it, by surprise, they encamped near to
it on that evening; and early on the morning of the 15th commenced a
furious and animated attack.
Apprized of the near approach of the enemy, the garrison had made
every preparation for defense, of which their situation admitted; and
when the assailants rushed to the assault, not intimidated by their
horrible and unnatural yells, nor yet dispirited by the [146] presence
of a force so far superior to their own, they received them with a
fire so steady and well directed, as forced them to recoil; leaving
one of their slain on the field of attack. This alone, argued a great
discomfiture of the Indians; as it is well known to be their
invariable custom, to remove, if practicable, those of their warriors
who fall in battle. Their subsequent movements, satisfied the inmates
of the fort, that there had been indeed a discomfiture; and that they
had but little to apprehend from a renewed assault on their little
fortress. After reconnoitering for a while, at a prudent distance from
the garrison, the Indians kindled their fires for the night; and in
the following day, leaving a small party for the purpose of annoyance,
decamped with the main body of their army, and marched towards
Boonesborough.[10] In consequence however, of a severe spell of March
weather, they were forced to remain inactive for a time; and did not
make their appearance there, until the middle of April.
In the assault on Boone's fort, the Indians soon, became satisfied
that it was impregnable against them; and although their repulse was
not as signal here, as it had been at Harrodsburg, yet they soon
withdrew from the contest, and marched towards Logan's fort,--having
killed one and wounded four, of the whites.[11]
Several causes combined to render an attack on the fort at Logan's
station, an event of most fearful consequence.[12] Its inmates had
been but a short time in the country, and were not provided with an
ample supply either of provisions or ammunition. They were few in
number; and though of determined spirit and undaunted fortitude, yet
such was the disparity between thirteen and two hundred--the force of
the garrison and the force of the assailants, joined to their
otherwise destitute situation, that hope itself, could scarcely live
in so perilous a situation. Had this been the first point, against
which the enemy levelled their operations when they arrived in the
country, it must have fallen before them. But by deferring the attack
on it, 'till they had been repulsed at the two other forts, the
garrison was allowed time; and availing themselves of it, to fortify
their position more strongly, the issue was truly, most fortunate,
though unexpected.
On the night preceding the commencement of the attack on the fort, the
Indians had approached near to it unperceived, and secreted themselves
in a cane brake, which had been suffered to remain around the cabins.
Early in the morning the women, went out to milk, guarded by most of
the garrison; and before they were aware of impending danger, the
concealed Indians opened a general fire, which killed three of the
men, and drove the others, hastily within the fort.[13] A most
affecting spectacle was then presented to view, well calculated to
excite the sympathies of human nature, and arouse to action a man
possessed of the generous sensibility and noble daring, which animated
the bosom of Logan.
One of the men who had fallen on the first fire of the Indians and
had been supposed by his comrades to be dead, was in truth though
[147] badly wounded, yet still alive; and was observed feebly
struggling to crawl towards the fort. The fear of laceration and
mangling from the horrid scalping knife, and of tortures from more
barbarous instruments, seemed to abate his exertions in dragging
his wounded body along, lest he should be discovered and borne off by
some infuriated and unfeeling savage. It was doubtful too, whether
his strength would endure long enough to enable him to reach the
gate, even if unmolested by any apprehension of danger. The
magnanimous and intrepid Logan resolved on making an effort to
save him. He endeavored to raise volunteers, to accompany him without
the fort, and bring in their poor wounded companion. It seemed as if
courting the quick embrace of death, and even his adventurous
associates for an instant, shrunk from the danger. At length a man
by the name of Martin, who plumed himself on rash and daring deeds,
consented to aid in the enterprise; and the two proceeded towards
the gate. Here the spirit of Martin forsook him, and he recoiled from
the hazardous adventure. Logan was then alone. He beheld the feeble,
but wary exertions of his unfortunate comrade, entirely subside;
and he could not hesitate. He rushed quickly through the gate, caught
the unhappy victim in his arms, and bore him triumphantly into the
fort, amid a shower of bullets aimed at him; and some of which buried
themselves in the pallisades close by his head. A most noble and
disinterested achievement, and worthy of all commendation.[14]
[148] The siege being maintained by the Indians, the animation of the
garrison was nearly exhausted, in repelling the frequent assaults made
on the fort; and it was apparent, that the enemy did not intend
speedily to withdraw their forces. Parties of Indians were frequently
detached from the main body, as well to obtain a supply of provisions
by hunting, as to intercept and cut off any [147] aid, which might be
sent to St. Asaph's[15] from the other forts. In this posture of
affairs, it was impossible that the garrison could long hold out,
unless its military stores could be replenished; and to effect this,
under existing circumstances, appeared to be almost impossible.
Harrodsburg and Boonesborough were not themselves amply provided with
stores; and had it been otherwise, so closely was the intermediate
country between them and St. Asaph's, guarded by the savages, that no
communication could be carried from one to the other of them. The
settlement on the Holstein was the nearest point, from which it could
be practicable to derive a supply of ammunition, and the distance to
that neighborhood, was considerable.
Logan knew the danger which must result to the garrison, from being
weakened as much as it must be, by sending a portion of it on this
hazardous enterprise; but he also knew, that the fort could not be
preserved from falling, unless its magazine was soon replenished.
Prefering the doubtful prospect of succeeding in its relief, by
adopting the plan of sending to Holstein, he proposed the measure to
his companions, and they eagerly embraced it. It remained then to
select the party, which was to venture on this high enterprise.
Important as the presence of Logan, was known to be, in the fort, yet
as the lives of all within, depended on the success of the expedition
and as to effect this, required the exercise of qualities rarely
possessed in so great degree by any other individual, he was
unanimously chosen to conduct the enterprise.
Accompanied by four of the garrison, Logan, as slyly as possible,
slipped from the fort, and commenced his tedious journey.[16] To
lessen the chance of coming in contact [148] with straggling bands of
Indians, he avoided the pack road which had been opened by Boone; and
pursuing an untrodden route, reached the settlement in safety. The
requisite supplies were soon engaged; and while they were being
prepared for transportation, Logan was actively engaged in endeavoring
to prevail on the inhabitants, to form a company as expeditiously as
possible and march to their relief. With a faint promise of
assistance, and with the assurance that their situation should be
immediately made known to the executive authority of the state, he set
off on his return. Confiding the ammunition which he had obtained, to
the care of his companions, and prudently advising and instructing
them in the course best to be pursued, he left them, and hastened to
make his way alone, back to St. Asaph. In ten days after his departure
from the fort, he returned to it again; and his [149] presence
contributed much to revive and encourage the garrison; 'till then in
almost utter despair of obtaining relief. In a few days after, the
party arrived with the ammunition, and succeeded in entering the fort
unperceived; though it was still surrounded by the Indians. With so
much secrecy and caution had the enterprise been conducted, that the
enemy never knew it had been undertaken, until it was happily
accomplished.
For some time after this the garrison continued in high expectation of
seeing the besiegers depart, despairing of making any impression on
the fort. But they were mistaken in this expectation. Each returning
day shewed the continued investiture of the fort, and exhibited the
Indians as pertinaciously intent on its reduction by assault or
famine, as they were on the day of their arrival before it. Weeks
elapsed, and there was no appearance of the succours which had been
promised to Logan, when in the settlement on Holstein. And although
the besieged were still successful in repelling every assault on the
garrison, yet their stock of provisions was almost entirely exhausted;
and there was no chance of obtaining a farther supply, but from the
woods around them. To depend on the success of hunting parties, to
relieve their necessities and prevent their actual starvation or
surrender, seemed indeed, but a slender reed on which to rely; and
the gloom of despondency overshadowed their hitherto sanguine
countenances. But as they were resigning themselves to despair, and
yielding up the last hope of being able to escape from savage fury and
savage vengeance, Colonel Bowman arrived to their relief, and forced
the Indians to raise the siege. It was not however, without some loss
on his part. A detachment of his men, which had preceded the advance
of the main army, was unfortunately unable to reach the fort,
undiscovered by the besiegers; who attacked and killed them before
they could enter the garrison. On the body of one of these men, was
left a proclamation, issued by the Governor of Detroit promising
protection and reward to those who would renounce the cause of the
American colonies, and espouse that of Great Britain; and denouncing
those who would not. When this proclamation was carried to Logan, he
carefully kept secret its contents, lest it might produce an
unfavorable effect on the minds of some of his men; worn down,
exhausted, and discouraged as they then were.[17]
[150] After the arrival of Colonel Bowman in the country, there was
for a time, a good deal of skirmishing between his forces, aided by
individuals from the different forts, and those Indians. In all of
them, the superiority of the whites in the use of the rifle, became
apparent to the savages; and as the feat of Captain Gibson with the
sword, had previously acquired for the Virginians, the appellation of
the Long Knives,[18] the fatal certainty, with which Bowman's men and
the inhabitants of the various settlements in Kentucky, then aimed
their shots, might have added to that title, the forcible epithet of
sharp-shooters. They were as skilful and successful, too, in the
practice of those arts, by which one is enabled to steal unaware upon
his enemy, as the Natives themselves; and were equally as sure to
execute the purposes, for which those arts were put in requisition, as
these were. The consequence was, that the Indians were not only more
shy in approaching the garrison, than they had been; but they likewise
became, more cautious and circumspect, in their woods operations, than
formerly.
The frequent success of Colonel Bowman's men, in scouring the
surrounding country, gave to the inhabitants of all the settlements,
an opportunity of cultivating their little fields, and of laying in
such a stock of provisions and military stores, as would suffice in
the hour of need; when that force should be withdrawn from the
country, and the Indians consequently be again enabled to overrun it.
All that the inhabitants, by reason of the paucity of their numbers,
could yet do, was to shut themselves in forts, and preserve these from
falling into the hands of the enemy. When the term of those, who had
so opportunely came to their relief, expired, and they returned to
their homes, there were at Boonesborough only twenty-two, at
Harrodsburg sixty-five, and at St. Asaph's fifteen men. Emigrants
however, flocked to the country during the ensuing season, in great
numbers; and their united strength enabled them the better to resist
aggression, and conduct the various operations of husbandry and
hunting--then the only occupations of the men.
While these things were transacting in Kentucky, North Western
Virginia enjoyed a repose undisturbed, save by the conviction of the
moral certainty, that it would be again involved in all the horrors of
savage warfare; and that too, at no distant period: The machinations
of British agents, to [151] produce this result, were well known to be
gaining advocates daily, among the savages; and the hereditary
resentments of these, were known to be too deeply seated, for the
victory of Point Pleasant to have produced their eradication, and to
have created in their stead, a void, to become the future receptacle
of kindlier feelings, towards their Virginia neighbors. A coalition
of the many tribes north west of the Ohio river, had been some time
forming, and the assent of the Shawanees, alone, was wanting to its
perfection. The distinguished Sachem at the head of that nation, was
opposed to an alliance with the British, and anxious to preserve a
friendly intercourse with the colonists. All his influence, with all
his energy, was exerted, to prevent his brethren from again involving
themselves, in a war with the whites. But it was likely to be in vain.
Many of his warriors had fallen at the mouth of the Kenhawa, and his
people had suffered severely during the continuance of that war; they
were therefore, too intent on retaliation, to listen to the sage
counsel of their chief. In this posture of affairs, Cornstalk, in the
spring of 1777, visited the fort, which had been erected at Point
Pleasant after the campaign of 1774, in company with the Red Hawk, and
another Indian. Captain Matthew Arbuckle was then commandant of the
garrison; and when Cornstalk communicated to him the hostile
preparations of the Indians,--that the Shawanees alone were wanting to
render a confederacy complete,--that, as the "current set so strongly
against the colonies, even they would float with the stream in despite
of his endeavors to stem it," and that hostilities would commence
immediately, he deemed it prudent to detain him and his companions as
hostages, for the peace and neutrality of the different tribes of
Indians in Ohio. He at the same time acquainted the newly organized
government of Virginia, with the information which he had received
from Cornstalk, and the course which he had taken with that chief, and
the others who accompanied him to the garrison.
Upon the receipt of this intelligence, it was resolved, if volunteers
could be had for this purpose, to march an army into the Indian
country and effectually accomplish the objects, which had been
proposed to be achieved in the campaign of Lord Dunmore in 1774. The
volunteers in Augusta and Bottetourt, were to rendezvous as early as
possible, at the mouth of the Big Kenhawa, where they would be joined
by [152] other troops under General Hand,[19] who would then assume
the command of the whole expedition.
In pursuance of this resolve, three or four companies only, were
raised in the counties of Bottetourt and Augusta; and these
immediately commenced their march, to the place of general rendezvous,
under the command of Colonel George Skillern. In the Greenbrier
country, great exertions were made by the militia officers there, to
obtain volunteers, but with little effect. One company only was
formed, consisting of thirty men, and the officers, laying aside all
distinctions of rank, placed themselves in the line as common
soldiers, and proceeded to Point Pleasant with the troops led on by
Colonel Skillern. Upon their arrival at that place, nothing had been
heard of General Hand, or of the forces which it was expected would
accompany him from Fort Pitt; and the volunteers halted, to await some
intelligence from him.
The provisions, for the support of the army in its projected invasion
of the Indian country, were expected to be brought down the river,
from Fort Pitt; and the troops under Colonel Skillern had only taken
with them, what was deemed sufficient for their subsistence on their
march to the place of rendezvous. This stock was nearly exhausted, and
the garrison was too illy supplied, to admit of their drawing on its
stores.--While thus situated, and anxiously awaiting the arrival of
General Hand with his army and provisions, the officers held frequent
conversations with Cornstalk, who seemed to take pleasure in
acquainting them with the geography of the country west of the Ohio
river generally, and more particularly with that section of it lying
between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. One afternoon while he
was engaged in delineating on the floor a map of that territory, with
the various water courses emptying into those two mighty streams, and
describing the face of the country, its soil and climate, a voice was
heard hallooing from the opposite shore of the Ohio, which he
immediately recognised to be that of his son Ellinipsico, and who
coming over at the instance of Cornstalk, embraced him most
affectionately. Uneasy at the long absence of his father, and fearing
that some unforseen evil might have befallen him, he had come to learn
some tidings of him here; knowing that it was the place, to go to
which he had left the nation. His visit was prompted by feelings [153]
which do honor to human nature--anxious solicitude for a father,--but
it was closed by a most terrible catastrophe.
On the day after the arrival of Ellinipsico, and while he was yet in
the garrison, two men, from Captain Hall's company of Rockbridge
volunteers, crossed the Kenhawa river on a hunting excursion. As they
were returning to the canoe for the purpose of recrossing to the Fort,
after the termination of the hunt, Gilmore was espied by two Indians,
concealed near the bank, who fired at, killed and scalped him. At that
instant, Captains Arbuckle and Stuart (the latter having accompanied
the Greenbrier volunteers as a private soldier) were standing on the
point opposite to where lay the canoe in which Hamilton and Gilmore
had crossed the river; and expressed some astonishment that the men
should be so indiscreet as to be shooting near to the encampment,
contrary to commands. They had scarcely time to express their
disapprobation at the supposed violation of orders, when Hamilton was
seen running down the bank of the river, and heard to exclaim, that
Gilmore was killed. A party of Captain Hall's men immediately sprang
into a canoe and went over to relieve Hamilton from danger, and to
bring the body of Gilmore to the encampment. Before they relanded with
the bloody corpse of Gilmore, a cry arose, "let us go and kill the
Indians in the fort;" and pale with rage they ascended the bank, with
captain Hall at their head, to execute their horrid purpose. It was
vain to remonstrate. To the interference of Captains Arbuckle and
Stuart to prevent the fulfilling of this determination, they
responded, by cocking their guns, and threatening instant death to any
one who should dare to oppose them.
The interpreter's wife, (who had lately returned from Indian
captivity, and seemed to entertain a feeling of affection for
Cornstalk and his companions) seeing their danger, ran to their cabin
to apprise them of it, and told them that Ellinipsico was charged with
having brought with him the Indians who had killed Gilmore. This
however he positively denied, averring that he came alone, and with
the sole object of learning something of his father. In this time
Captain Hall and his men had arrived within hearing, and Ellinipsico
appeared much agitated. Cornstalk however, encouraged him to meet his
fate composedly, saying, "my son, the Great Spirit has seen fit that
we should die together, and has sent you here to that [154] end. It is
his will and let us submit;--it is all for the best;" and turning to
meet his murderers at the door, received seven bullets in his body and
fell without a groan.
Thus perished the mighty Cornstalk, Sachem of the Shawanees, and king
of the northern confederacy in 1774: A chief remarkable for many great
and good qualities. He was disposed to be at all times the friend of
white men; as he ever was, the advocate of honorable peace. But when
his country's wrongs "called aloud to battle," he became the
thunderbolt of war; and made her oppressors feel the weight of his
uplifted arm. He sought not to pluck the scalp from the head of the
innocent, nor to war against the unprotected and defenceless; choosing
rather to encounter his enemies, girded for battle, and in open
conflict. His noble bearing,--his generous and disinterested
attachment to the colonies, when the thunder of British cannon was
reverberating through the land--his anxiety to preserve the frontier
of Virginia from desolation and death, (the object of his visit to
Point Pleasant)--all conspired to win for him the esteem and respect
of others; while the untimely, and perfidious manner of his death,
caused a deep and lasting regret to pervade the bosoms, even of those
who were enemies to his nation; and excited the just indignation of
all, towards his inhuman and barbarous murderers.
When the father fell, Ellinipsico continued still and passive; not
even raising himself from the seat, which he had occupied before they
received notice, that some infuriated whites were loudly demanding
their immolation. He met death in that position, with the utmost
composure and calmness. The trepidation which first seized upon him,
was of but momentary duration, and was succeeded by a most dignified
sedateness and stoical apathy. It was not so with the young Red Hawk.
He endeavored to conceal himself up the chimney of the cabin, in which
they were; but without success. He was soon discovered and killed. The
remaining Indian was murdered by piece-meal; and with almost all those
circumstances of cruelty and horror, which characterize the savage, in
wreaking vengeance upon an enemy.
Cornstalk is said to have had a presentiment of his approaching
fate. On the day preceding his death, a council of officers was
convoked, in consequence of the continued absence of General Hand,
and their entire ignorance of his [155] force or movements, to
consult and determine on what would be the course for them to pursue
under existing circumstances. Cornstalk was admitted to the council;
and in the course of some remarks, with which he addressed it, said,
"When I was young and went to war, I often thought, each might be my
last adventure, and I should return no more. I still lived. Now I
am in the midst of you, and if you choose, may kill me. I can die
but once. It is alike to me, whether now or hereafter." Little did
those who were listening with delight to the eloquence of his
address, and deriving knowledge from his instruction, think to see
him so quickly and inhumanly, driven from the theatre of life. It
was a fearful deed; and dearly was it expiated by others. The
Shawanees were a warlike people, and became henceforward the most
deadly foe, to the inhabitants on the frontiers.
In a few days after the perpetration of this diabolical outrage upon
all propriety, General Hand arrived from Pittsburg without an army,
and without provisions for those who had been awaiting his coming. It
was then determined to abandon the expedition; and the volunteers
returned to their homes.[20]
-----
[1] Chief among the fomenters of disorder were the
renegades Simon Girty, Matthew Elliott, and Alexander
McKee. The dastardly deeds of this trio are fully set forth
in Butterfield's _History of the Girtys_, an important work
to all students of the annals of the West during the
Revolutionary War.--R. G. T.
[2] James Harrod's father emigrated from England to
Virginia, about 1734, and was one of the first settlers on the
Shenandoah, in the Valley of Virginia. One of his sons, Samuel,
accompanied Michael Stoner on his famous Western hunting and
exploring trip, in 1767; another, William, born at the new
family seat, at Big Cove, in what is now Bedford County, Pa.,
served with distinction under George Rogers Clark. James, born
in 1742, was twelve years old when his father died, leaving a
large family on an exposed frontier, at the opening of the
French and Indian War. In November, 1755, a raid was made on
the Big Cove settlement, by the Delaware chief Shingiss (p. 45,
_note_), but the Harrods were among the few families who
escaped unharmed to Fort Littleton. When James was sixteen
years of age he served with his brother William on Forbes's
campaign, and very likely saw further service during that war.
In 1772, when he had attained wide celebrity on the border as
an adept in woodcraft, he helped William settle on Ten Mile
Creek, a tributary of the Monongahela; and in 1773 he and
several other explored Kentucky, returning home by way of
Greenbrier River. We have seen (p. 152, _note_) that he was
surveying the site of Harrodsburg in 1774, when warned by Boone
and Stoner. Retiring with his men to the Holston, he and they
joined Col. Christian's regiment, but arrived at Point Pleasant
a few hours after the battle of October 10. Returning to his
abandoned Kentucky settlement March 18, 1775, a fortnight
before Boonesborough was founded, he was chosen a delegate to
the Transylvania convention, and became a man of great
prominence in the Kentucky colony. In 1779 he commanded a
company on Bowman's campaign, and the year following was a
captain on Clark's Indian campaign; declining a majorship, he
served as a private on Clark's campaign of 1782. He was a
member of the Kentucky convention (at Danville) of December,
1784, and at one time represented Kentucky in the Virginia
legislature. In February, 1792, having made his will, he set
out from Washington, Ky., with two men, in search of a silver
mine reported to be at the Three Forks of the Kentucky. No more
was heard of him or his companions, and it is still the belief
of the family that the latter murdered him. He was survived by
his wife and a daughter, and left a large landed estate.
Harrod, although unlettered, was a man of fine presence and
many sterling qualities, and made a strong impress on his
generation. He is still remembered in Kentucky as one of the
worthiest pioneers of that state.--R. G. T.
[3] The company--successively called The Louisa Company,
Henderson & Co., and The Transylvania Company--was composed of
Col. Richard Henderson, Col. John Williams, Thomas Hart, Col.
David Hart, Capt. Nathaniel Hart, Col. John Luttsell, James
Hogg, William Johnston, and Leonard Henley Bullock.
Henderson's paternal great-grandfather was a Scottish
immigrant, and one of his grandmothers was Welsh. The family
settled in Hanover County, Va., where Richard, son of Samuel
Henderson, was born April 20, 1735. Samuel moved with his
family to North Carolina, in 1745, and became sheriff of
Granville County. Richard had the education of a rural youth of
good station, and became a lawyer. In 1767 he was appointed one
of the two associate justices of the superior court of the
colony, and served with great credit for six years, when the
court was abolished. During professional visits to Salisbury,
Henderson heard frequently--chiefly through the brothers
Hart--of the exploits of Boone, and the latter's glowing
reports of the beauty and fertility of Kentucky. Relying
implicitly on Boone's statements, these four men energetically
resolved to settle the country. In the autumn of 1774,
Henderson and Nathaniel Hart visited the Cherokees to ascertain
if they would sell their claims to Kentucky, and receiving a
favorable reply agreed to meet the Indians in treaty council at
the Sycamore Shoals, on Watauga River. On their return home,
they were accompanied by a wise old Indian (Little Carpenter),
and a young buck and his squaw, delegates to see that proper
goods were purchased for the proposed barter. These goods were
bought in December at Cross Creek, now Fayetteville, N. C., and
forwarded by wagons to Watauga.
Boone was then sent out to collect the Indians, and when the
council opened (March 14, 1775) had twelve hundred assembled at
the Sycamore Shoals--half of them warriors. The council
proceeded slowly, with much characteristic vacillating on the
part of the Indians; but on the third day (March 17) the deed
of sale was signed to what came to be known as "the great
grant:" The tract from the mouth of the Kentucky (or Louisa)
River to the head spring of its most northerly fork; thence
northeasterly to the top of Powell's Mountain; thence westerly
and then northwesterly to the head spring of the most southerly
branch of the Cumberland; thence down that stream, including
all its waters, to the Ohio, and thence up the Ohio to the
mouth of the Kentucky. The Indians were conscious that they had
sold what did not belong to them; and Dragging Canoe and other
chiefs were outspoken in their opinion that the whites would
have difficulty in settling the tract. The Indians were much
dissatisfied with the division of the goods. These "filled a
house" and cost L10,000 sterling, yet when distributed among so
many greedy savages each had but a small share. One warrior,
who received but a shirt for his portion, said he "could have
shot more game in one day on the land ceded, than would pay for
so slight a garment."
Governors Martin, of North Carolina, and Dunmore, of Virginia,
issued proclamations against the purchase, as contrary to the
royal proclamation of 1763. But those who were present at the
treaty--among them such prominent borderers as Daniel Boone,
James Robertson, John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, Felix Walker, the
Bledsoes, Richard Callaway, William Twitty, William Cocke, and
Nathaniel Henderson--were heedless of such proclamations, and
eager to become settlers under the company's liberal offer made
to them on the spot: for each man who assisted in the first
settlement, and went out and raised a crop of corn that year, a
grant of 500 acres for L5 sterling, clear of all charges.
Boone, as the company's agent, started out at once (March 10)
with twenty men, soon reinforced to thirty; with their hatchets
they blazed a bridle path over Cumberland Gap, and across
Cumberland, Laurel, and Rockcastle rivers, to the banks of the
Kentucky, where, after a running fight with the Indians, they
arrived April 1, and founded Boonesborough. Henderson, at the
head of thirty men conveying the wagons and supplies, arrived
at Boonesborough April 20; with him were Luttsell and Nathaniel
Hart. May 23, there met at Boonesborough the Legislature of
Transylvania, in which sat eighteen delegates from the little
group of four frontier forts, all established at about this
time--Harrodsburg, Boiling Springs, and St. Asaph's (or Logan's
Station), lying some thirty or more miles southwest of
Boonesborough, the capital of this little western colony.
Withers does not mention this first legislative assembly held
in the Mississippi Valley. It is an interesting and suggestive
episode in American commonwealth-building, and deserves careful
study. Roosevelt gives it admirable treatment, in his _Winning
of the West_. The journal of the convention is given at length
in the appendix to the second edition of Butler's _Kentucky_;
Hall's _Sketches of the West_, i., pp. 264, 265; Louisville
_Literary News-Letter_, June 6, 1840; and Hazard's _U. S.
Register_, iii., pp. 25-28. Henderson's MS. Journal is in the
possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society, and has never
yet been published.
Virginia and North Carolina did not favor an independent
government in Kentucky, and annulled the title of the Henderson
company--but Virginia (1795) granted the proprietors in
recompense 200,000 acres on Powell's and Clinch rivers.
We hear little more of Richard Henderson, in pioneer history.
In 1779, he was one of the North Carolina commissioners to
extend the western boundary between that State and Virginia.
During the winter of 1789-90 he was at the French Lick on
Cumberland, where he opened a land office. His last public
service was in 1781, when a member of the North Carolina house
of commons. He died at his country seat in Granville County, N.
C., January 30, 1785, in his fiftieth year. Two of his sons,
Archibald and Leonard, attained eminence at the bar of their
native State.--R. G. T.
[4] Among Dr. Draper's manuscripts I find this succinct
review of the aboriginal claims to Kentucky: "There is some
reason to suppose that the Catawbas may once have dwelt upon
the Kentucky River; that stream, on some of the ancient maps
published a hundred years ago, was called the 'Cuttawa or
Cawtaba River.' But that tribe of Indians, so far as we know,
never laid any claim to the territory.
"It would appear from the historical evidences extant, that the
Shawanoes were the earliest occupants of Kentucky of whom we
have any certain knowledge. Colden, the primitive historian of
the Iroquois Confederacy, informs us, that when the French
commenced the first settlement of Canada in 1603, the Five
Nations, who then resided near the present locality of
Montreal, were at war with the powerful Adirondacks, who at
that time lived three hundred miles above the Three Rivers, in
Canada. The Iroquois found it difficult to withstand the
vigorous attacks of their enemies, whose superior hardihood was
to be attributed to their constant devotion to the chase, while
the Iroquois had been chiefly engaged in the more peaceful
occupation of planting corn. Compelled to give way before their
haughty foes, the confederates had recourse to the exercise of
arms, in order, if possible, to retrieve their martial
character and prowess. To raise the spirits of their people,
the Iroquois leaders turned their warriors against the Satanas
or Shawanoes, 'who then,' says Colden, 'lived on the banks of
the lakes,'--or, as other historians assert, in Western New
York, and south of Lake Erie,--and soon subdued and drove them
out of the country. The Shawanoes then retired to the Ohio,
along which and its tributaries they planted numerous
settlements. Some of them, however, when driven from Western
New York, seem to have located somewhere on the Delaware, for
De Laet, in 1624, speaks of _Sawanoos_ residing on that river.
"The _Jesuit Relations_ of 1661-62, allude to their residence
in the West under the name of Ontouagannha or Chaoueanons; they
seem to have been the same as were called Tongorias, Erighecks,
Erieehonons, Eries, or Cats, by the early missionaries and
historians; and the same, moreover, known in the traditions of
the Senecas as Gah-kwahs, who resided on Eighteen Mile Creek, a
few miles southwest of Buffalo, in Western New York, which the
Senecas still call Gah-kwah-gig-a-ah Creek, which means _the
place where the Gah-kwahs lived_. In 1672, the Shawanoes and
their confederates in the Ohio Valley met with a disastrous
overthrow by the Five Nations at Sandy Island, just below the
Falls of Ohio, where large numbers of human bones were still to
be seen at the first settlement of the country. The surviving
Shawanoes must then have retired still farther down the Ohio,
and settled probably in the western part of Kentucky; and
Marquette, in 1673, speaks of their having twenty-three
villages in one district, and fifteen in another, all lying
quite near each other: At length the Shawanoes departed from
Kentucky, and seem to have gone to the upper part of the
Carolinas, and to the coast of Florida, and ever after proved a
migratory people. They were evidently 'subdued,' as Colden,
Evans, and Pownall inform us, and the decisive battle was
fought at Sandy Island, where a vital blow was given to the
balance of power on the Ohio, which decided finally the fall of
Kentucky with its ancient inhabitants.
"It was this conquest that gave to the powerful Iroquois all
the title they ever acquired to Kentucky. At the peace of
Ryswick, in 1697, their right to their western conquests was
fully acknowledged; and at the treaty of Lancaster, in
Pennsylvania, in 1744, they ceded to Virginia all their lands
west of that colony. In 1752, the Shawanoes and other western
tribes, at Logstown on the Ohio, confirmed the Lancaster
treaty, and sold their claim to the country south of the Ohio;
and, at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1768, the Six Nations
made a new cession of their claim to Kentucky as low as the
Cherokee or Tennessee River. Up to this period, the Cherokees
never so much as thought of contesting with the Iroquois their
claim to the Kentucky country; for some of the visiting
Cherokees, while on their route to attend the Fort Stanwix
treaty, killed game for their subsistence, and on their arrival
at Fort Stanwix, tendered the skins to the Six Nations, saying,
'They are yours, we killed them after passing the Big River,'
the name by which they had always designated the Tennessee. But
probably discovering that other Indian nations were driving a
good business by disposing of their distant land rights, the
Cherokees managed to hatch up some sort of claim, which they,
in part, relinquished to Virginia, at the treaty of Lochaber in
1770; and when Col. Donelson ran the line the following year,
the boundary was fixed, at the suggestion of the Cherokee
deputies, on the Kentucky River as the south-western line, as
they delighted, they said, in natural landmarks. This
considerably enlarged the cession, for which they received an
additional compensation.
"In 1772, the Shawanoes made no claim to Kentucky; and at the
treaty of Camp Charlotte, in October, 1774, they tacitly
confirmed their old sale of that country in 1752, by agreeing
not even to hunt south of the Ohio. Thus, then, we see that the
Iroquois had twice ceded their right to Kentucky as low as the
Tennessee River, and twice received their pay; the Shawanoes
had disposed of their claim, such as it was, and received
for it a valuable consideration; and the Cherokees, finding
it profitable to lay claim to some valuable unoccupied
region, sold their newly assumed right to the country south
and east of Kentucky River. Their claim, if indeed it rises to
the dignity of a claim, south and west of the Kentucky, was
fairly purchased by Henderson and Company, and thus with the
subsequent purchase by treaty, of the Chickasaws, of the
strip between the Tennessee and Mississippi, the Indian
title to the whole Kentucky country was fully and fairly
extinguished."--R. G. T.
[5] The first attack occurred the morning of March 25, when
the party were encamped near the head of Taylor's Fork of
Silver Creek. Capt. Twitty and Felix Walker were severely
wounded, and a negro servant killed; Twitty subsequently died
from his wound. The other attack was on an outlying company,
probably on Tate's Creek; this occurred the 27th, and "Thomas
McDowell and Jeremiah McFeeters were," Boone wrote to
Henderson, "killed and sculped."--R. G. T.
[6] The purchase of Henderson and company, was subsequently
declared by the legislature of Virginia, to be null and void,
so far as the purchasers were concerned; but effectual as to
the extinguishment of the Indian title, to the territory thus
bought of them. To indemnify the purchasers for any advancement
of money or other things which they had made to the Indians,
the assembly granted to them 200,000 acres of land, lying at
the mouth of Green river, and known generally as Henderson's
grant.
[7] Boone set out from Boonesborough, June 13, 1775. He left
the settlement in a state approaching anarchy; there were
several good men in the district, but the majority were
shiftless wanderers who would brook no exercise of authority.
The buffalo were fast moving westward, and all game was now
getting scarce--"hunt or starve" was the motto of the hour. A
diarist (Capt. Floyd) estimated that there were then a total of
300 people in all the Kentucky settlements--not reckoning "a
great many land-jobbers from towards Pittsburg, who go about on
the north side of Kentucky, in companies, and build forty or
fifty cabins a piece on lands where no surveying has yet been
done." Among the best of the numerous arrivals, were George
Rogers Clark, Simon Kenton, Benjamin Logan, and Whitley, who
came to be very prominent characters in Kentucky history.
Boone, with his wife and daughters, and twenty-one men, arrived
at Boonesborough September 6 or 7. "My wife and daughters,"
writes Boone, "were the first women that ever stood on the
banks of Kentucky river." Mrs. McGary, Mrs. Hogan, and Mrs.
Denton arrived at Harrodsburg the 8th of September, and were
the first white women in that settlement. With the arrival of
these families, and fresh fighting men, the Kentucky colony
began to take on a permanent air, and thenceforward there was
better order.--R. G. T.
[8] In the winter of 1776-77, McClelland's Station and
Logan's Station, (indifferently styled Fort or Station) were
abandoned because of Indian attacks, and the settlers huddled
into Boonesborough and Harrodsburg--although possibly Price's
settlement, on the Cumberland, maintained a separate existence
throughout the winter. There were at this time not to exceed a
hundred and fifty white men in the country, available for
active militia duty. As during January and February, 1777, the
Indians were quiet, confidence was restored in some degree, and
during the latter month, Logan, with his own and some half
dozen other families, left Harrodsburg and re-occupied Logan's
Station. Thus far, each settlement had chosen its own military
leader, and discipline was practically unknown. March 5, under
order and commissions from Virginia, the militia of Kentucky
county were assembled and organized at Boonesborough,
Harrodsburg, and Logan's Station, with George Rogers Clark as
major, and Daniel Boone, James Harrod, John Todd, and Benjamin
Logan as captains.--R. G. T.
[9] This foray took place March 6--not the 14th, as in the
text--at Shawnee Springs, four miles north-east of Harrodsburg.
The whites--James Ray, William Ray, Thomas Shores, and William
Coomes--were sugar-making, when attacked by about seventy
Shawnees, under Black Fish. William Ray was killed, and Shores
taken prisoner. James Ray outran his pursuers and gave the
alarm. The unsuccessful attack on the incomplete fort of
Harrodsburg occurred early the following morning, the 7th.
Other brief attacks on Harrodsburg, were on March 18 and
28.--R. G. T.
[10] A small detachment from Black Fish's party made a dash
on workers in the Boonesborough fields, the day after the
Harrodsburg fight--killing a negro, and wounding several
whites.--R. G. T.
[11] This assault on Boonesborough occurred the morning of
Thursday, April 24. The Indians numbered about one hundred.
Boone was wounded, and very nearly lost his life, in a sortie.
The story of the fight abounds with instances of heroism on the
part of both women and men.--R. G. T.
[12] It occurred throughout Friday, May 30. The Indians are
reported to have numbered fifty-seven.--R. G. T.
[13] Those who went out early in the morning to milk the
cows, were Mrs. Ann Logan, Mrs. Whitley, and a negro woman.
They were guarded only by William Hudson, Burr Harrison, John
Kennedy, and James Craig. The women and Craig escaped into the
fort unharmed; Kennedy, with four balls in his body, contrived
also to escape; Hudson was killed outright, and Harrison fell
wounded. He was supposed by friend and foe to have been killed.
The story of his final rescue by Logan, is related by Withers
below. As told to Dr. Draper, by Capt. Benjamin Biggs, and as
recorded in Whitley's MS. Narrative, in possession of the
Wisconsin Historical Society, the story in Withers is
substantially correct. It is said that Logan rolled a bag of
wool before him, and thus approached Harrison under cover; then
making a rush towards the latter, he picked him up in his arms
and dashed successfully into the fort. These accounts make no
mention of Martin's intervention. Harrison died of his wounds,
June 13.--R. G. T.
[14] Benjamin Logan was by birth a Virginian; and at the age
of fourteen was left by the death of his father, to provide for
his mother and her other children, and with the other cares of
a family upon his infant hands. He discharged the duties thus
devolving on him, with the utmost fidelity; and having provided
amply for the support of his mother, and placed the other
members of her household in eligible situations, he removed to
the Holstein, married, purchased land, and commenced making
improvements. From thence he went to Kentucky, where he spent
the balance of his life, in the discharge of every social and
relative duty, with credit to himself and advantage to the
community. He was a delegate to the Virginia legislature from
the county of Kentucky in 1780; was soon after commissioned
county Lieutenant, (then the highest military title in the
militia of a county) and in the various battles, as well as in
the many skirmishes, which he fought with the Indians, his
conduct and bearing were such, as fully established for him the
reputation of a brave, skilful, prudent and meritorious
officer. In private life, and in his intercourse with his
fellow men, his whole course was distinguished by the most
uncompromising honor, and expanded philanthrophy. The heroic
adventure, by which he saved his wounded comrade, from the
tomahawk, the scalping knife, and from fire, was but one of
many such exploits, whereby he achieved good to others, at the
most imminent hazard of his own life.
[15] This was the name given to the station of Logan.
[16] Whitley's MS. Narrative and Cowan's MS. Diary, in the
Wisconsin Historical Society's library, say that Logan left
alone during the night of June 6. Logan returned to his fort on
the 23d, having travelled almost incessantly, and brought news
that relief would soon come. Soon after Logan's expedition to
the Holston, other messengers were sent to the East, clamoring
for help--McGary and Hoggin to Fort Pitt, and Smith to the
Yadkin; and twice Harrod vainly went forth to meet expected
troops. But the Continental army was hard pressed in those
days, and despite the rumor on the coast that Kentucky was in a
sad way, it was long before relief could be sent.--R. G. T.
[17] Bowman arrived at Boonesborough the first of August,
with two companies from Virginia, under Capts. Henry Pauling
and John Dunkin--the latter being soon succeeded by Isaac
Ruddell. The force numbered 100 men. August 25, while six of
Bowman's men were on their way to Logan's, they were attacked
by Indians, two being killed and one wounded. Before escaping,
the Indians left on the body of one of the men, several copies
of a proclamation addressed to Clark and Logan in person, by
Lieut.-Gov. Henry Hamilton, at the head of the British forces
at Detroit, offering immunity to repentant rebels.--R. G. T.
[18] See pp. 79, 80, _note_, for origin of the term "Long
Knives."--R. G. T.
[19] Edward Hand was born in Ireland. He came to America in
1774 as a surgeon's mate in the Eighth (Royal Irish) Regiment,
and soon settled in Pennsylvania as a physician. When the
Revolution broke out he joined a Pennsylvania regiment as
lieutenant colonel, and served in the siege of Boston. In
April, 1777, he was appointed brigadier-general in the
Continental army, and the first of June assumed command of Fort
Pitt. Lieut.-Gov. Henry Hamilton, of Detroit, under orders from
London, was actively engaged in stirring up the Northwest
Indians to forays on the Virginia and Pennsylvania borders,
thus harrying the Americans in the rear. Hand, in whose charge
was the frontier from Kittanning to the Great Kanawha,
determined on an aggressive policy, and in February, 1778,
undertook a campaign against the savages. An open winter, with
heavy rains, prevented the force of about 500 men--chiefly from
Westmoreland county--making satisfactory headway. Finally, the
expedition was abandoned when it had proceeded no farther than
Mahoning Creek. From the fact that this first American movement
against the savages, during the Revolution, resulted only in
the capture of non-combatants, in the almost deserted villages,
it was long known as "the squaw campaign." Hand was a competent
officer, but was much pestered, at Fort Pitt, with the
machinations of tories, who were numerous among the borderers.
Succeeded at Fort Pitt in 1778, by Brig.-Gen. Lachlan McIntosh,
Hand in turn succeeded Stark in command at Albany. We find him,
in 1779, actively engaged on Sullivan's campaign against the
New York Indians, and in 1780 he became adjutant general. A
member of congress in 1784-85, he was in 1790 a member of the
constitutional convention of Pennsylvania, and died at
Rockford, Lancaster County, Pa., September 3, 1802--R. G. T.
[20] See p. 172, _note_ 2, for sketch of life and death of
Cornstalk.--R. G. T.
[156] CHAPTER IX.
While Cornstalk was detained at Point Pleasant, as surety for the
peace and neutrality of the Shawanees, Indians, of the tribes already
attached to the side of Great Britain, were invading the more
defenceless and unprotected settlements. Emerging, as Virginia then
was, from a state of vassalage and subjection, to independence and
self-government--contending in fearful inferiority of strength and the
munitions of war with a mighty and warlike nation--limited in
resources, and wanting in means, essential for supporting the unequal
conflict, she could not be expected to afford protection and security
from savage inroad, to a frontier so extensive as hers; and still less
was she able to spare from the contest which she was waging with that
colossal power, a force sufficient to maintain a war in the Indian
country and awe the savages into quiet. It had not entered into the
policy of this state to enlist the tomahawk and scalping knife in her
behalf; or to make allies of savages, in a war with Christians and
civilized men. She sought by the force of reason and the conviction of
propriety, to prevail on them to observe neutrality--not to become her
auxiliaries. "To send forth the merciless cannibal, thirsting for
blood, against protestant brethren," was a refinement in war to which
she had not attained. That the enemy, with whom she was struggling for
liberty and life as a nation, with all the lights of religion and
philosophy to illumine her course, should have made of them allies,
and "let loose those horrible hell-hounds of war against their
countrymen in America, endeared to them by every tie which should
sanctify human nature," was a most lamentable circumstance--in its
consequences, blighting and desolating the fairest portions of the
country, and covering the face of [157] its border settlements, with
the gloomy mantle of sorrow and woe.
There is in the Indian bosom an hereditary sense of injury, which
naturally enough prompts to deeds of revengeful cruelty towards the
whites, without the aid of adventitious stimulants. When these are
superadded, they become indeed, the most ruthless and infuriated
enemy--"thirsting for blood," and causing it literally to flow, alike
from the hearts of helpless infancy and hoary age--from the timorous
breast of weak woman, and the undaunted bosom of the stout warrior.
Leagued with Great Britain, the Indians were enabled more fully and
effectually, to glut their vengeance on our citizens, and gratify
their entailed resentment towards them.
In the commencement of Indian depredations on North Western Virginia,
during this war, the only places of refuge for the inhabitants,
besides private forts and block-houses, were at Pittsburg, Redstone,
Wheeling and Point Pleasant. Garrisons had been maintained at Fort
Pitt and Redstone, ever after their establishment; and fortresses were
erected at the two latter places in 1774. They all seemed to afford an
asylum to many, when the Indians were known to be in the country; but
none of them had garrisons, strong enough to admit of detachments
being sent, to act offensively against the invaders. All that they
could effect, was the repulsion of assaults made on them, and the
expulsion from their immediate neighborhoods, of small marauding
parties of the savage enemy. When Captain Arbuckle communicated to the
Governor the information derived from Cornstalk, that extensive
preparations were making by the Indians, for war, and the probability
of its early commencement, such measures were immediately adopted, to
prevent its success, as the then situation of the country would
justify. A proclamation was issued, advising the inhabitants of the
frontier, to retire into the interior as soon as practicable; and that
they might be enabled the better to protect themselves from savage
fury, some ammunition was forwarded to settlements on the Ohio river,
remote from the state forts, and more immediately exposed to danger
from incursion. General Hand too, then stationed at Fort Pitt, sent an
express to the different settlements, recommending that they should
be immediately abandoned, and the individuals composing them, should
forthwith seek shelter in some contiguous fortress, or retire east of
the [158] mountain. All were apprized of the impending danger, and
that it was impracticable in the pressing condition of affairs, for
the newly organized government to extend to them any effective
protection.
Thus situated, the greater part of those who had taken up their abode
on the western waters, continued to reside in the country. Others,
deeming the means of defence inadequate to security, and unwilling to
encounter the horrors of an Indian war, no better provided than they
were, pursued the advice of government, and withdrew from the presence
of danger. Those who remained, sensible of dependence on their
individual resources, commenced making preparations for the
approaching crisis. The positions which had been selected as places of
security and defence in the war of 1774, were fortified anew, and
other block-houses and forts were erected by their unaided exertion,
into which they would retire on the approach of danger. Nor was it
long before this state of things was brought about.
In June 1777,[1] a party of Indians came to the house of Charles
Grigsby on Rooting creek, a branch of the West Fork, and in the county
of Harrison. Mr. Grigsby being from home, the Indians plundered the
house of every thing considered valuable by them, and which they could
readily carry with them; and destroying many other articles, departed,
taking with them Mrs. Grigsby and her two children as prisoners.
Returning home soon after, seeing the desolation which had been done
in his short absence, and unable to find his wife and children, Mr.
Grigsby collected some of his neighbors and set out in pursuit of
those, by whom the mischief had been effected,--hoping that he might
overtake and reclaim from them the partner of his bosom, and the
pledges of her affection. His hopes were of but momentary existence.
Following in the trail of the fugitive, when they had arrived near to
Loss creek, a distance of but six miles, they found the body of Mrs.
Grigsby and of her younger child, where they had recently been killed
and scalped. The situation of this unfortunate woman (being near the
hour of confinement,) and the entire helplessness of the child, were
hindrances to a rapid retreat; and fearing pursuit, the Indians thus
inhumanly rid themselves of those incumbrances to their flight and
left them to accidental discovery, or to become food for the beasts of
the forest.
[159] Stimulated to more ardent exertions by the distressing scene
just witnessed, the pursuers pushed forward, with increased
expectation of speedily overtaking and punishing, the authors of this
bloody deed; leaving two of their party to perform the sepulture of
the unfortunate mother, and her murdered infant. But before the whites
were aware of their nearness to the Indians, these had become apprized
of their approach, and separated, so as to leave no trail by which
they could be farther traced. They had of course to give over the
pursuit; and returned home, to provide more effectually against the
perpetration of similar acts of atrocity and darkness.
A short time after this, two Indians came on the West Fork, and
concealed themselves near to Coon's fort, awaiting an opportunity of
effecting some mischief. While thus lying in ambush, a daughter of Mr.
Coon came out for the purpose of lifting some hemp in a field near to
the fort, and by the side of the road. Being engaged in performing
this business, Thomas Cunningham and Enoch James passing along, and
seeing her, entered into conversation with her, and after a while
proceeded on their road. But before they had gone far, alarmed by the
report of a gun, they looked back and saw an Indian run up to the
girl, tomahawk and scalp her. The people of the fort were quickly
apprised of what had been done, and immediately turned out in pursuit;
but could not trace the course taken by the savages. It afterwards
appeared that the Indians had been for some time waiting for the girl
to come near enough for them to catch and make her prisoner, before
she could alarm the fort, or get within reach of its guns; but when
one of them crossed the fence for this purpose, she espied him and ran
directly towards the fort.--Fearing that he would not be able to
overtake her, without approaching the fort so as to involve himself in
some danger, he shot her as she ran; and going up to her he tomahawked
and scalped her. In endeavoring then to secure himself by flight, he
was shot at by James, but at so great distance as to prevent the doing
of execution.
In the neighborhood of Wheeling, some mischief of this kind was
done about the same time, and by Indians who acted so warily, as to
avoid being discovered and punished. A man by the name of Thomas Ryan
was killed in a field some distance from the house, and a negro
fellow at work with him, [160] taken prisoner and carried off. No
invasion however, of that country, had been as yet, of sufficient
importance to induce the people to forsake their homes and go into
the forts.--Scouting parties were constantly traversing the woods
in every direction, and so successfully did they, observe every
avenue to the settlements, that the approach of Indians was generally
discovered and made known, before any evil resulted from it. But in
August the whole country bordering on the Ohio, from Fort Pitt to
Wheeling, became justly alarmed for its fate; and the most serious
apprehensions for the safety of its inhabitants, were excited in the
bosoms of all. Intelligence was conveyed to General Hand at Fort
Pitt,[2] by some friendly Indians from the Moravian towns, that a
large army of the north western confederacy, had come as far as those
villages, and might soon be expected to strike an awful blow on some
part of the Ohio settlements. The Indian force was represented as
being so great, as to preclude all idea of purchasing safety, by open
conflict; and the inhabitants along the river, generally retired into
forts, as soon as they received information of their danger, and made
every preparation to repel an assault on them. They did not
however, remain long in suspense, as to the point against which the
enemy would direct its operations.
Wheeling Fort, although it had been erected by the proper authorities
of the government, and was supplied with arms and ammunition from the
public arsenal, was not at this time garrisoned, as were the other
state forts on the Ohio, by a regular soldiery; but was left to be
defended solely by the heroism and bravery of those, who might seek
shelter within its walls.[3] The settlement around it was flourishing,
and had grown with a rapidity truly astonishing, when its situation,
and the circumstances of the border country generally, are taken into
consideration. A little village, of twenty-five or thirty houses, had
sprung up, where but a few years before, the foot of civilized man had
never trod; and where the beasts of the forest had lately ranged
undisturbedly, were to be seen lowing herds and bleating flocks, at
once, the means of sustenance, and the promise of future wealth to
their owners.--In the enjoyment of this, comparatively, prosperous
condition of things, the inhabitants little dreamed, how quickly those
smiling prospects were to be blighted, their future hopes blasted, and
they deprived of almost every necessary of life. They [161] were not
insensible to the danger which in time of war was ever impending over
them; but relying on the vigilance of their scouts, to ascertain and
apprize them of its approach, and on the proximity of a fort into
which they could retire upon a minute's warning, they did not shut
themselves up within its walls, until advised of the immediate
necessity of doing so, from the actual presence of the enemy.
On the night of the first of September, Captain Ogal, who with a party
of twelve men, had been for some days engaged in watching the paths to
the settlement and endeavoring to ascertain the approach of danger,[4]
came into Wheeling with the assurance that the enemy were not at hand.
In the course of that night, however, the Indian army, consisting of
three hundred and eighty-nine warriors,[5] came near to the village,
and believing from the lights in the fort, that the inhabitants were
on their guard, and that more might be effected by an ambuscade in the
morning, than by an immediate and direct attack, posted themselves
advantageously for that purpose. Two lines were formed, at some
distance from each, extending from the river across the point to the
creek, with a cornfield to afford them concealment. In the centre
between these lines, near a road leading through the field to the
fort, and in a situation easily exposing them to observation, six
Indians were stationed, for the purpose of decoying within the lines,
any force which might discover, and come out to molest them.
Early in the morning of the second, two men, going to a field for
horses, passed the first line, and came near to the Indians in the
centre, before they were aware of danger.[6]--Perceiving the six
savages near them, they endeavored to escape by flight. A single shot
brought one of them to the ground: the other was permitted to escape
that he might give the alarm. Captain Mason (who, with Captain Ogal
and his party, and a few other men had occupied the fort the
preceding night) hearing that there were but six of the enemy,
marched with fourteen men, to the place where they had been seen. He
had not proceeded far from the fort, before he came in view of them;
and leading his men briskly towards where they were, soon found
themselves enclosed by a body of Indians, who 'till then had
remained concealed.--Seeing the impossibility of maintaining a
conflict with them, he endeavored to retreat with his men, to the
fort; but in [162] vain. They were intercepted by the Indians, and
nearly all literally, cut to pieces.[7] Captain Mason however, and his
sergeant succeeded in passing the front line, but being observed by
some of the enemy, were pursued, and fired at, as they began to
rise the hill. The sergeant was so wounded by the ball aimed at him,
that he fell, unable again to get up; but seeing his Captain pass near
without a gun and so crippled that he moved but slowly in advance of
his pursuers, he handed him his, and calmly surrendered himself to
his fate.
Captain Mason had been twice wounded, and was then so enfeebled by the
loss of blood, and faint from fatigue that he almost despaired of ever
reaching the fort; yet he pressed forward with all his powers. He was
sensible that the Indian was near him, and expecting every instant,
that the tomahawk would sever his skull, he for a while forgot that
his gun was yet charged. The recollection of this, inspiring him with
fresh hopes, he wheeled to fire at his pursuer, but found him so close
that he could not bring his gun to bear on him. Having greatly the
advantage of ground, he thrust him back with his hand. The uplifted
tomahawk descended to the earth with force; and before the Indian
could so far regain his footing as to hurl the fatal weapon from his
grasp, or rush forward to close in deadly struggle with his
antagonist, the ball from Captain Mason's gun had done its errand, and
the savage fell lifeless to the earth. Captain Mason was able to
proceed only a few paces farther; but concealing himself by the side
of a large fallen tree, he remained unobserved while the Indians
continued about the fort.
The shrieks of Captain Mason's men, and the discharge of the guns,
induced Capt. Ogal to advance with his twelve scouts, to their relief.
Being some distance in the rear of his men, the Indians, in closing
round them, fortunately left him without the circle, and he concealed
himself amid some briers in the corner of the fence; where he lay
until the next day. The same fate awaited his men, which had befallen
Capt. Mason's. Of the twenty six who were led out by these two
officers, only three escaped death, and two of these were badly
wounded: a striking evidence of the fact, that the ambuscade was
judiciously planned, and the expectations of its success, well
founded.[8]
While these things were doing, the inhabitants of the village were
busily employed in removing to the fort and preparing for its
defense. A single glance at the situation of the parties led on by
Mason and Ogal, convinced them of the overwhelming force of the [163]
Indians, and the impossibility of maintaining an open contest with
them. And so quick had been the happening of the events which have
been narrated, that the gates of the fort were scarcely closed, before
the Indian army appeared under its walls, with a view to its reduction
by storm.[9] But before the assault was begun to be made, the
attention of the garrison was directed to a summons for its surrender,
made by that infamous renegado, Simon Girty.[10]
This worse than savage wretch, appeared at the end window of a house
not far from the fort, and told them, that he had come with a large
army to escort to Detroit, such of the Inhabitants along the frontier,
as were willing to accept the terms offered by Governor Hamilton, to
those who would renounce the cause of the colonies and attach
themselves to the interest of Great Britain; calling upon them to
remember their fealty to their sovereign; assuring them of protection,
if they would join his standard, and denouncing upon them, all the
woes which spring from the uncurbed indulgence of savage vengeance, if
they dared to resist, or fire one gun to the annoyance of his men. He
then read to them, Gov. Hamilton's proclamation; and told them, he
could allow only fifteen minutes to consider of his proposition. It
was enough. In love with liberty, attached to their country, and
without faith in his proffered protection, they required but little
time to "deliberate, which of the two to choose, slavery or death."
Col. Zane replied to him, "that they had consulted their wives and
children, and that all were resolved to perish, sooner than place
themselves under the protection of a savage army with him at its head,
or abjure the cause of liberty and of the colonies." Girty then
represented to them the great force of the Indians,--the impossibility
that the fort could withstand the assault,--the certainty of
protection if they acceded to his propositions, and the difficulty of
restraining the assailants, if enraged and roused to vengeance by
opposition and resistance. A shot discharged at him from the fort,
caused him to withdraw from the window and the Indians commenced the
assault.
There were then in the fort but thirty-three men, to defend it against
the attack of upwards of three hundred and eighty Indians; and bravely
did they maintain their situation against the superior force of the
enemy, and all that art and fury could effect to accomplish their
destruction. For twenty-three hours, all was life, and energy, and
activity within the walls. Every individual had particular duties to
perform; and promptly and faithfully were they discharged. The more
expert of the women, took stations by the side of the men; and
handling their guns with soldier like readiness, aided in the repulse,
with fearless intrepidity.[11] Some were engaged in moulding bullets;
others in loading and supplying the [164] men with guns already
charged; while the less robust were employed in cooking, and in
furnishing to the combatants, provisions and water, during the
continuance of the attack. It seemed indeed, as if each individual
were sensible, that the safety of all depended on his lone exertions;
and that the slightest relaxation of these, would involve them all in
one common ruin.
Finding that they could make no impression on the fort, and fearing to
remain longer before it, lest their retreat might be cut off, by
reinforcements from the surrounding country, the assailants fired all
the houses without the walls; killed all the stock, which could be
found; and destroying every thing on which they could lay their hands,
retired about day light, and left the garrison in possession of the
fortress, but deprived of almost every thing else. The alarm of the
presence of Indians having been given after day light, and the attack
on the fort commencing before sun rise, but little time was afforded
them, for securing their moveable property. The greater part had taken
with them nothing but their clothes, while some had left their homes
with their night apparel only. Few were left the enjoyment of a bed,
or the humble gratification of the coarse repast of bread and milk.
Their distress was consequently great; and their situation for some
time, not much more enviable, than when pent within the fort, and
straining every nerve to repel its savage assailants.
Before this, the Governor had sent to Col. Andrew Swearingen, a
quantity of ammunition for the defence of those who remained in
the country above Wheeling. By his exertions, and under his
superintendence, Bolling's and Holliday's old forts were repaired,
and the latter made strong enough to serve as a magazine. In it was
collected, all the inhabitants from its neighborhood; and it was
generally regarded, as a strong position, and able, occasionally,
to detach part of its garrison, for the aid of other portions of
the country. Soon after the attack was begun to be made on Wheeling,
the alarm reached Shepherd's fort, and a runner was despatched
from thence to Holliday's fort with the intelligence, and the
apprehension that if speedy relief were not afforded, the garrison
at Wheeling must fall. No expectation, of being able to collect a
force sufficient to cope with the assailants, was entertained. All
that was expected was, to throw succours into the fort, and thus
enable the garrison the more successfully to repel assaults, and
preserve it from the violence of the Indian onsets. For this
purpose, Col. Swearingen left Holliday's with fourteen men, who
nobly volunteered to accompany him in this hazardous enterprise,
to the regret of those who remained, from an apprehension that thus
weakened, if Holliday's fort were attacked it must fall easily into
the hands of the enemy. These men got into a large _continental
canoe_, and plied their paddles industriously, to arrive in time
to be of service to the besieged. But the night being dark, and a
dense fog hanging over the river, they toiled to great disadvantage,
frequently coming in contact with the banks; until [165] at length it
was thought advisable to cease rowing and float with the current,
lest they might, unknowingly, pass Wheeling, and at the appearance
of day be obliged to contend with the force of the stream, to regain
that point. Floating slowly, they at length descried the light which
proceeded from the burning of the houses at Wheeling, and with all
their exertion could not then attain their destination before the
return of day. Could they have realized their expectation of
arriving before day, they might from, the river bank, in the
darkness of the night, have gained admission into the fort; but
being frustrated in this, they landed some of the men near above
Wheeling, to reconnoiter and ascertain the situation of things: it
being doubtful to them, from the smoke and fog, whether the fort
and all, were not a heap of ruins. Col. Swearingen, Cap. Bilderbock
and William Boshears, volunteered for this service, and proceeding
cautiously soon reached the fort.
When arrived there, it was still questionable whether the Indians had
abandoned the attack, or were only lying concealed in the cornfield,
in order to fall on any, who might come out from the fort, under the
impression that danger was removed from them. Fearing that the latter
was the case, it was thought prudent, not to give the preconcerted
signal for the remainder of Col. Swearingen's party to come on, lest
it might excite the Indians to greater vigilance and they intercept
the men on their way to the fort. To obviate the difficulty arising
from this apprehension, Col. Swearingen, Capt. Bilderbock and William
Boshears, taking a circuitous route to avoid passing near the
cornfield, returned to their companions, and escorted them to
Wheeling. It then remained to ascertain whether the Indians had really
withdrawn, or were only lying in ambush. A council, consisting of Col.
Zane, Col. Shepherd, Doctor McMahon and Col. Swearingen, being
requested to devise some expedient by which to be assured of the fact,
recommended that two of their most active and vigilant men, should go
out openly from the fort, and carelessly, but surely, examine the
cornfield near to the palisade. Upon their return, twenty others,
under the guidance of Col. Zane, marched round at some distance from
the field, and approaching it more nearly on their return, became
assured that the Indians had indeed despaired of success, and were
withdrawn from the field. About this time Major M'Cullough arrived
with forty-five men, and they all proceeded to view the battle
ground.
Here was indeed a pitiable sight. Twenty-three of the men who had
accompanied Capts. Mason and Ogal in the preceding morning, were lying
dead; few of them had been shot, but the greater part, most inhumanly
and barbarously butchered with the tomahawk and scalping knife.
Upwards of three hundred head of cattle, horses, and hogs, wantonly
killed by the savages, were seen lying about the field, and all the
houses, with every thing which they contained, and which could not be
conveniently taken off by the enemy, were but heaps of ashes. It was
long indeed, before the [166] inhabitants of that neighborhood
regained the comforts, of which that night's desolation had deprived
them.
Soon after the happening of these events a company of militia under
the command of Capt. Foreman, arrived from east of the Alleghany, to
afford protection to the settlements around Wheeling, and occupy the
fort at this place. While stationed in it, it was known that parties
of Indians were still lurking about, seeking opportunities of doing
mischief, and to prevent which, detachments were frequently sent on
scouting expeditions. On the 26th of September, Capt. Foreman with
forty five men, went about twelve miles below Wheeling and encamped
for the night. He was ignorant of the practices of the Indians, and
seemed rather indisposed to take council of those, who were conversant
with them. After building fires for the night, he remained with his
men close around them, contrary to the advice of one of the settlers,
by the name of Lynn, who had accompanied him as a spy. Lynn however,
would not consent to remain there himself, but taking with him those
of the frontiers men who were in company, retired some distance from
the fires, and spent the night. Before it was yet light, Lynn, being
awake, thought he heard such a noise, as would be probably produced by
the launching of rafts on the river, above the position occupied by
Capt. Foreman. In the morning he communicated his suspicion that an
Indian force was near them, and advised the Captain to return to
Wheeling along the hill sides and avoid the bottoms. His advice was
rejected; but Lynn, with the caution of one used to such a condition
of things, prudently kept on the hill side with four others, while
they, who belonged to the command of Capt. Foreman, continued along
the level at the base of the hill.
In marching along the Grave creek narrows, one of the soldiers saw a
parcel of Indian ornaments lying in the path; and picking them up,
soon drew around him the greater part of the company. While thus
crowded together inspecting the trinkets, a galling fire was opened on
them by a party of Indians who lay in ambush, and which threw them
into great confusion. The fire was continued with deadly effect, for
some minutes; and must eventually have caused the loss of the whole
party, but that Lynn, with his few comrades rushed from the hill
discharging their guns, and shouting so boisterously, as induced the
Indians to believe that a reinforcement was at hand, and they
precipitately retreated.
In this fatal ambuscade there were twenty-one of Captain Foreman's
party killed, and several much wounded; among the slain were the
Captain and his two sons.
It appeared that the Indians had dropped their ornaments, purposely to
attract the attention of the whites; while they themselves were lying
concealed in two parties; the one to the right of the path, in a
sink-hole on the bottom, and the other to the left, under covert of
the river bank. From these advantageous positions, they [167] fired
securely on our men; while they were altogether exempt from danger
'till the party in the sink hole was descried by Lynn. His firing was
not known to have taken effect; but to his good conduct is justly
attributable the saving of the remnant of the detachment. The Indian
force was never ascertained. It was supposed to have been small; not
exceeding twenty warriors.
On the ensuing day, the inhabitants of the neighborhood of Wheeling
under the direction and guidance of Colonel Zane, proceeded to Grave
Creek and buried those who had fallen.[12]
At the time of the happening of those occurrences the belief was
general, that the army which had been led to Wheeling by Girty, had
been ordered on, for the purpose of conducting the tories from the
settlements to Detroit; and that detachments from that army continued
to hover about the frontiers for some time, to effect that object.
There was then, unfortunately for the repose and tranquility of many
neighborhoods, a considerable number of those misguided and deluded
wretches, who, disaffected to the cause of the colonies, were willing
to advance the interest of Britain, by the sacrifice of every social
relation, and the abandonment of every consideration, save that of
loyalty to the king. So far did their opposition, to those who
espoused the cause of American liberty, blunt every finer and more
noble feeling, that many of them were willing to imbrue their hands in
the blood of their neighbors, in the most sly and secret manner, and
in the hour of midnight darkness, for no offence but attachment to the
independence of the colonies. A conspiracy for the murder of the whigs
and for accepting the terms, offered by the Governor of Canada to
those who would renounce their allegiance to the United States and
repair to Detroit, by the relenting of one individual, was prevented
being carried into effect; and many were consequently saved from
horrors, equalling, if not transcending in enormity, the outrages of
the savages themselves. Scenes of licentiousness and fury, followed
upon the discovery of the plot.--Exasperated at its heinousness, and
under the influence of resentful feelings, the whigs retaliated upon
the tories, some of the evils which these had conspired to inflict
upon them. In the then infuriated state of their minds, and the little
restraint at that time imposed on the passions by the operation of the
laws, it is really matter of admiration that they did not proceed
farther, and requite upon those deluded wretches, the full measure of
their premeditated wrongs. The head only of this fiendish league, lost
his life; but many depredations were committed, on the property of its
members.
A court, for the trial of the conspirants, was held at Redstone Fort;
and many of them were arraigned at its bar. But as their object had
been defeated by its discovery, and as no farther danger was
apprehended from them, they were released, after having been required
to take the oath of allegiance to the United States and to bear with
the injuries which had [168] been done their property. Those who were
suspected for the murder of the chief conspirator, were likewise
arraigned for that offence, but were acquitted.
Hitherto the inhabitants of Tygart's Valley had escaped the ill
effects of savage enmity; Indian hostility not having prompted an
incursion into that country, since its permanent settlement was
effected previous to the war of 1774. This however had not the effect
to lull them into confident security. Ascribing their fortunate
exemption from irruptions of the enemy, to other causes than a
willingness on the part of the Indians, to leave them in quiet and
repose, they exercised the utmost vigilance to discover their
approach, and used every precaution to ensure them safety, if the
enemy should appear among them. Spies were regularly employed in
watching the warriors paths beyond the settlements, to detect their
advance and to apprize the inhabitants of it.
In September of this year (1777) Leonard Petro and Wm. White, being
engaged in watching the path leading up the Little Kenhawa, killed an
Elk late in the evening; and taking part of it with them, withdrew a
short distance for the purpose of eating their suppers and spending
the night. About midnight, White, awaking from sleep, discovered by
the light of the moon, that there were several Indians near, who had
been drawn in quest of them by the report of the gun in the evening.
He saw at a glance, the impossibility of escaping by flight; and
preferring captivity to death, he whispered to Petro to lie still,
lest any movement of his, might lead to this result. In a few minutes
the Indians sprang on them; and White raising himself as one lay hold
on him, aimed a furious blow, with his tomahawk, hoping to wound the
Indian by whom he was beset, and then make his escape. Missing his aim
he affected to have been ignorant of the fact that he was encountered
by Indians, professed great joy at meeting with them, and declared
that he was then on his way to their towns. They were not deceived by
the artifice; for although he assumed an air of pleasantness and
gaity, calculated to win upon their confidence, yet the woful
countenance and rueful expression of poor Petro, convinced them that
White's conduct was feigned, that he might lull them into inattention,
and they be enabled to effect an escape. They were both tied for the
night; and in the morning White being painted red, and Petro black,
they were forced to proceed to the Indian towns. When approaching a
[169] village, the whoop of success brought several to meet them; and
on their arrival at it, they found that every preparation was made for
their running the gauntlet; in going through which ceremony both were
much bruised. White did not however remain long in captivity. Eluding
their vigilance, he took one of their guns and began his flight
homeward.--Before he had travelled far, he met an Indian on horseback,
whom he succeeded in shooting; and mounting the horse from which he
fell, his return to the Valley was much facilitated. Petro was never
heard of afterwards. The painting of him black, had indicated their
intention of killing him; and the escape of White probably hastened
his doom.
During this time, and after the return of White among them, the
inhabitants of Tygart's Valley practiced their accustomed watchfulness
'till about the twentieth of November; when there was a considerable
fall of snow. This circumstance induced them to believe, that the
savages would not attempt an irruption among them until the return of
spring; and they became consequently, inattentive to their safety.
Generally, the settlements enjoyed perfect quiet from the first
appearance of winter, until the return of spring. In this interval of
time, the Indians are usually deterred from penetrating into them, as
well because of their great exposure to discovery and observation in
consequence of the nakedness of the woods and the increased facility
of pursuing their trail in the snows which then usually covered the
earth, as of the suffering produced by their lying in wait and
travelling, in their partially unclothed condition, in this season of
intense cold. Instances of their being troublesome during the winter
were rare indeed; and never occurred, but under very peculiar
circumstances: the inhabitants, were therefore, not culpably remiss,
when they relaxed in their vigilance, and became exposed to savage
inroad.
A party of twenty Indians, designing to commit some depredations
during the fall, had nearly reached the upper end of Tygart's Valley,
when the snow, which had inspired the inhabitants with confidence in
their security, commenced falling. Fearful of laying themselves open
to detection, if they ventured to proceed farther at that time, and
anxious to effect some mischief before they returned home, they
remained concealed about ten miles from the settlements, until the
snow disappeared. On the 15th of December, they came to the [170]
house of Darby Connoly, at the upper extremity of the Valley, and
killed him, his wife and several of the children, and took three
others prisoners. Proceeding to the next house, killed John Stewart,
his wife and child, and took Miss Hamilton (sister-in-law to Stewart)
into captivity. They then immediately changed their direction, and
with great dispatch, entered upon their journey home; with the
captives and plunder, taken at those two places.
In the course of the evening after these outrages were committed, John
Hadden passing by the House of Connoly saw a tame elk belonging there,
lying dead in the yard. This, and the death-like silence which reigned
around, excited his fears that all was not right; and entering into
the house, he saw the awful desolation which had been committed.
Seeing that the work of blood had been but recently done, he hastened
to alarm the neighborhood, and sent an express to Capt. Benjamin
Wilson, living about twenty miles lower in the Valley, with the
melancholy intelligence. With great promptitude, Capt. Wilson went
through the settlement, exerting himself to procure as many
volunteers, as would justify going in pursuit of the aggressors; and
so indefatigable was he in accomplishing his purpose, that, on the day
after the murders were perpetrated, he appeared on the theatre of
their exhibition with thirty men, prepared to take the trail and push
forward in pursuit of the savages. For five days they followed through
cold and wet, without perceiving that they had gained upon them. At
this time many of the men expressed a determination to return. They
had suffered much, travelled far, and yet saw no prospect of
overtaking the enemy. It is not wonderful that they became dispirited.
In order to expedite their progress, the numerous water courses which
lay across their path, swollen to an unusual height and width, were
passed without any preparation to avoid getting wet; the consequence
was that after wading one of them, they would have to travel with
icicles hanging from their clothes the greater part of a day, before
an opportunity could be allowed of drying them. They suffered much too
for the want of provisions. The short time afforded for preparation,
had not admitted of their taking with them as much as they expected
would be required, as they had already been on the chase longer than
was anticipated. Under these circumstances it was with great
difficulty, Captain Wilson could prevail [171] on them to continue the
pursuit one day longer; hoping the Indians would have to halt, in
order to hunt for food. Not yet being sensible that they gained upon
them, the men positively refused going farther; and they returned to
their several homes.
This was the last outrage committed by the savages on North Western
Virginia, in this year. And although there was not as much mischief
effected by them in this season, as had been in others, yet the year
1777, has become memorable in the annals of Border Warfare. The murder
of Cornstalk and his companions,--the attack on Wheeling Fort,--the
loss of lives and destruction of property which then took place,
together with the fatal ambuscade at Grave Creek Narrows, all
conspired to render it a period of much interest, and to impress its
incidents deeply on the minds of those who were actors in these
scenes.
-----
[1] This "year of the three sevens," as it was called, was
long known as "the bloody year" of border history.--R. G. T.
[2] General Hand was commandant, and George Morgan Indian
agent, at Fort Pitt. Runners from the Moravian towns on the
Tuscarawas and Muskingum rivers, in Ohio, frequently came into
the fort during the summer, with dispatches for either of
these officials. The Delawares, as a nation, were friendly
throughout the year. The hostiles were chiefly composed of
Wyandots and Mingoes, but with them were a few Shawnees and
Delawares.--R. G. T.
[3] The first fort at Wheeling was built in the summer of
1774, by order of Lord Dunmore, under direction of Majors
William Crawford and Angus McDonald. It stood upon the Ohio
bank about a quarter of a mile above the entrance of Wheeling
Creek. Standing in open ground, it was a parallelogram of
square pickets pointed at top, with bastions and sentry boxes
at the angles, and enclosed over half an acre. It ranked in
strength and importance, next to Fort Pitt. Within the fort
were log barracks, an officers' house, a storehouse, a well,
and cabins for families. A steep hill rises not far inland;
between the fort and the base of this hill the forest had been
leveled, and a few log cabins were nestled in the open. Such
was Wheeling in 1777. At first the fort had been called
Fincastle, for the Ohio Valley settlements were then in
Fincastle County, Va.; but upon the opening of the Revolution
the post, now in Ohio County, was named Fort Henry, in honor of
the first state governor of Virginia.--R. G. T.
[4] News came to Fort Pitt, early in August, that an Indian
attack in force, on Wheeling, might be expected at any time.
Says the Shane MSS., "White Eyes came to Fort Pitt and told
them the Indians were going to take Wheeling home." August
2d, Gen. Hand wrote to David Shepherd, lieutenant of Ohio
County, warning him of the perilous situation, and ordering
him to leave his own fort, six miles from Fort Henry, and
to rally at the latter all the militia between the Ohio and
Monongahela,--the "pan-handle." Shepherd did this, and by
the close of the month Fort Henry was, as he said, "Indian
proof." But the non-arrival of the foe caused a relaxation of
vigilance. Nine companies were allowed to go home, and by
the last day of August only two companies remained in the
fort, those of Capts. Joseph Ogle and Samuel Mason.--R. G. T.
[5] Shepherd to Hand, Sept. 15, 1777: "By the best judges
here ... it is thought their numbers must have been not less
than between two and three hundred." The Shepherd, Hand, Shane,
and Doddridge MSS., in the library of the Wisconsin Historical
Society, throw much light on this episode.--R. G. T.
[6] The Indians made their appearance on the night of August
31st--not September 1st, as in the text. The incident here
related occurred at about sunrise of September 1st. Andrew
Zane, young John Boyd, Samuel Tomlinson, and a negro, set out
to hunt for the horses of Dr. James McMechen, because the
latter wished that day to return to the older settlements,
either on the Monongahela, or east of the mountains. Boyd was
killed, but his companions escaped--Zane, by leaping from a
cliff, the height of which local tradition places at seventy
feet.--R. G. T.
[7] De Hass, in his _History of the Early Settlement and
Indian Wars of West Virginia_,--a conscientious work, which
depends, however, too closely on traditions,--says (p. 225),
"out of the fourteen, but two escaped."--R. G. T.
[8] Among the survivors was Ogle who, like Mason, hid
himself in the bushes until nightfall enabled him to return to
the fort.--R. G. T.
[9] As a matter of fact, the Indians made no attack on the
fort at this time, being content with the success of their
ambuscade. After throwing up some rude earth-works and blinds,
scalping the dead whites, killing all the live stock within
reach, and setting fire to the outlying cabins, they retired
across the Ohio in the night, and dispersed. Their loss was one
killed and nine wounded; the whites lost fifteen killed and
five wounded. The next day (September 2), the whites buried
their dead, and unavailingly scoured the country for Indians.
Tradition has made sad havoc with the records, in regard to
this first "siege" of Wheeling. Some of the deeds of heroism
related below, by Withers, were incidents of the second
siege--September 11, 1782, seven years later; but most of them
are purely mythical, or belong to other localities. Perhaps no
events in Western history have been so badly mutilated by
tradition, as these two sieges.--R. G. T.
[10] This statement of Withers, that Simon Girty was at the
siege of Wheeling, was long accepted as fact by Western
historians. But it is now established beyond doubt, that
neither Simon nor his brothers were present at that affair,
being at the time in the employ of Indian Agent Morgan, at Fort
Pitt. For details of the evidence, consult Butterfield's
_History of the Girtys_, _passim_.--R. G. T.
[11] [163] The notes furnished the compiler, mention
particularly a Mrs. Glum and Betsy Wheat, as performing all the
duties of soldiers with firmness and alacrity.
------
_Comment by R. G. T._--Withers derived his information from
traditional notes in the possession of Noah Zane, son of
Ebenezer.
[12] After the affair at Wheeling, September 1, the Indians
returned home. But soon thereafter, Half King, head chief of
the Wyandots, set out with forty of that tribe to again harry
the Wheeling country. On the morning of the 26th, Capts.
William Foreman with twenty-four men, Ogle with ten men, and
William Linn with nine, started from Fort Henry on a scout.
Linn was ranking officer, although there was little discipline.
Foreman was a new arrival from Hampshire County, enlisted to go
on Hand's intended expedition. They intended crossing the Ohio
at Grave Creek, 12 miles below, and proceeding 8 miles farther
down to Captina. At Grave, however, they found that the
Tomlinson settlement (nucleus of the present Mound City, W.
Va.) had been abandoned, and sacked by Indians, and no canoes
were to be had. They camped for the night, and the next morning
(the 27th) started to return along the river bank, to Wheeling.
Linn, apprehensive of Indians, marched along the hill crest,
but Ogle and Foreman kept to the trail along the bottom. At a
point where the bottom narrows because of the close approach of
the hills to the river--a defile then known as McMechen's (or
McMahon's) Narrows--they were set upon by Half King's party,
awaiting them in ambush. Foreman and twenty others were killed,
and one captured. The story about Linn's gallant attack on the
Indians from his vantage point on the hilltop, is without
foundation. His party helped to secrete a wounded man who
escaped in the melee, and then put off in hot haste for home.
It was not until four days later, when reinforcements had
arrived from Fort Pitt, that Colonel Shepherd ventured from the
fort to bury the dead. In 1835, an inscribed stone was set up
at the Narrows, to commemorate the slain.--R. G. T.
[172] CHAPTER X.
After the winter became so severe as to prevent the Indians from
penetrating the country and committing farther aggression, the
inhabitants became assured of safety, and devoted much of their time
to the erection of new forts, the strengthening of those which had
been formerly established, and the making of other preparations,
deemed necessary to prevent the repetition of those distressing
occurrences, which had spread gloom and sorrow over almost every part
of North Western Virginia. That the savages would early renew their
exertions to destroy the frontier settlements, and harrass their
citizens, could not for an instant be doubted.--Revenge for the murder
of Cornstalk, and the other chiefs killed in the fort by the whites,
had operated to unite the warlike nation of the Shawanees in a league
with the other Indians, against them; and every circumstance seemed to
promise increased exertions on their part, to accomplish their
purposes of blood and devastation.
Notwithstanding all which had been suffered during the preceding
season; and all, which it was confidently anticipated, would have to
be undergone after the return of spring, yet did the whole frontier
increase in population, and in capacity to defend itself against the
encroachments of a savage enemy, aided by British emissaries, and led
on by American tories. The accession to its strength, caused by the
number of emigrants, who came into the different settlements, was
indeed considerable; yet it was insufficient, to enable the
inhabitants to purchase by offensive operations, exemption from [173]
invasion, or security from the tomahawk and scalping knife. Assured of
this, Virginia extended to them farther assistance; and a small body
of regular troops, under the command of General McIntosh, was
appropriated to their defence.
In the spring of 1778, General McIntosh,[1] with the regulars and some
militiamen, attached to his command, descended the Ohio river from
Fort Pitt, to the mouth of Big Beaver--a creek discharging itself into
that river from the north-west.[2] This was a favorable position, at
which to station his troops to effect the partial security of the
frontier, by intercepting parties of Indians on their way to the
settlements on the opposite side of the river, and by pursuing and
punishing them while engaged, either in committing havoc, or in
retreating to their towns, after the consummation of their horrid
purposes. Fort McIntosh was accordingly erected here, and garrisoned;
a six pounder mounted for its defence.
From Wheeling to Point Pleasant, a distance of one hundred and
eighty-six miles,[3] there was then no obstacle whatever, presented
to the advance of Indian war parties, into the settlements on the
East and West Forks of the Monongahela, and their branches. The
consequences of this exposure had been always severely felt; and
never more so than after the establishment of Fort McIntosh. Every
impediment to their invasion of one part of the country, caused more
frequent irruptions into others, where no difficulties were
interposed to check their progress, and brought heavier woes on
them.--This had been already experienced, in the settlements on the
upper branches of the Monongahela, and as they were the last to feel
the effects of savage enmity in 1777, so were they first to become
sacrificed to its fury in 1778.
Anticipating the commencement of hostilities at an earlier period of
the season, than usual, several families retired into Harbert's
block-house, on Ten Mile (a branch of the West Fork,) in the month of
February. And notwithstanding the prudent caution manifested by them
in the step thus taken; yet, the state of the weather lulling them
into false security, they did not afterwards exercise the vigilance
and provident care, which were necessary to ensure their future
safety. On the third of March, some children, playing with a crippled
crow, at a short distance from the yard, espied a number of Indians
proceeding towards them; and running briskly to the house, told "that
a number of _red men_ were close by."--[174] John Murphey stepped to
the door to see if danger had really approached, when one of the
Indians, turning the corner of the house, fired at him. The ball took
effect, and Murphey fell back into the house. The Indian springing
directly in, was grappled by Harbert, and thrown on the floor. A shot
from without, wounded Harbert, yet he continued to maintain his
advantage over the prostrate savage, striking him as effectually as he
could with his tomahawk, when another gun was fired at him from
without the house. The ball passed through his head, and he fell
lifeless. His antagonist then slipped out at the door, sorely wounded
in the encounter.
Just after the first Indian had entered, an active young warrior,
holding in his hand a tomahawk with a long spike at the end, also came
in. Edward Cunningham instantly drew up his gun to shoot him; but it
flashed, and they closed in doubtful strife. Both were active and
athletic; and sensible of the high prize for which they were
contending, each put forth his utmost strength, and strained his every
nerve, to gain the ascendency. For a while, the issue seemed doubtful.
At length, by great exertion, Cunningham wrenched the tomahawk from
the hand of the Indian, and buried the spike end to the handle, in his
back. Mrs. Cunningham closed the contest. Seeing her husband
struggling closely with the savage, she struck at him with an axe.
The edge wounding his face severely, he loosened his hold, and made
his way out of the house.
The third Indian, which had entered before the door was closed,
presented an appearance almost as frightful as the object which he had
in view. He wore a cap made of the unshorn front of a buffalo, with
the ears and horns still attached to it, and which hanging loosely
about his head, gave to him a most hideous aspect. On entering the
room, this infernal monster, aimed a blow with his tomahawk at a Miss
Reece, which alighting on her head, wounded her severely. The mother
of this girl, seeing the uplifted arm about to descend on her
daughter, seized the monster by the horns; but his false head coming
readily off, she did not succeed in changing the direction of the
weapon. The father then caught hold of him; but far inferior in
strength and agility, he was soon thrown on the floor, and must have
been killed, but for the timely interference of Cunningham. Having
[175] succeeded in ridding the room of one Indian, he wheeled, and
sunk a tomahawk into the head of the other.
During all this time the door was kept by the women, tho' not without
great exertion. The Indians from without endeavored several times to
force it open and gain admittance; and would at one time have
succeeded, but that, as it was yielding to their effort to open it,
the Indian, who had been wounded by Cunningham and his wife, squeezing
out at the aperture which had been made, caused a momentary relaxation
of the exertions of those without, and enabled the women again to
close it, and prevent the entrance of others.--These were not however,
unemployed. They were engaged in securing such of the children in the
yard, as were capable of being carried away as prisoners, and in
killing and scalping the others; and when they had effected this,
despairing of being able to do farther mischief, they retreated to
their towns.
Of the whites in the house, one only was killed and four were wounded;
and seven or eight children in the yard, were killed or taken
prisoners. One Indian was killed, and two badly wounded. Had Reece
engaged sooner in the conflict, the other two who had entered the
house, would no doubt have been likewise killed; but being a quaker,
he looked on, without participating in the conflict, until his
daughter was wounded. Having then to contend singly, with superior
prowess, he was indebted for the preservation of his life, to the
assistance of those whom he refused to aid in pressing need.
On the eleventh of April, some Indians visited the house of Wm.
Morgan, at the Dunkard bottom of Cheat river. They there killed a
young man by the name of Brain, Mrs. Morgan, (the mother of
William) and her grand daughter, and Mrs. Dillon and her two
children; and took Mrs. Morgan (the wife) and her child prisoners.
When, on their way home, they came near to Pricket's fort, they bound
Mrs. Morgan to a bush, and went in quest of a horse for her to
ride, leaving her child with her. She succeeded in untying with
her teeth, the bands which confined her, and wandered the balance of
that day and part of the next before she came in sight of the fort.
Here she was kindly treated and in a few days sent home. Some men
going out from Pricket's fort some short time after, found at the
spot where Mrs. Morgan had [176] been left by the Indians, a fine
mare stabbed to the heart.--Exasperated at the escape of Mrs.
Morgan, they had no doubt vented their rage on the animal which they
had destined to bear her weight.
In the last of April, a party of about twenty Indians came to the
neighborhoods of Hacker's creek and the West Fork. At this time the
inhabitants of those neighborhoods had removed to West's fort, on the
creek, and to Richards' fort on the river; and leaving the women and
children in them during the day, under the protection of a few men,
the others were in the habit of performing the usual labors of their
farms in companies, so as to preserve them from attacks of the
Indians. A company of men, being thus engaged, the first week of May,
in a field, now owned by Minter Bailey, on Hacker's creek, and being a
good deal dispersed in various occupations, some fencing, others
clearing, and a few ploughing, they were unexpectedly fired upon by
the Indians, and Thomas Hughes and Jonathan Lowther shot down: the
others being incautiously without arms fled for safety. Two of the
company, having the Indians rather between them and West's fort, ran
directly to Richards', as well for their own security as to give the
alarm there. But they had been already apprized that the enemy was at
hand. Isaac Washburn, who had been to mill on Hacker's creek the day
before, on his return to Richards' fort and near to where Clement's
mill now stands, was shot from his horse, tomahawked and scalped. The
finding of his body, thus cruelly mangled, had given them the alarm,
and they were already on their guard, before the two men from Hacker's
creek arrived with the intelligence of what had been done there. The
Indians then left the neighborhood without effecting more havoc; and
the whites were too weak to go in pursuit, and molest them.
The determination of the Shawanees to revenge the death of their
Sachem, had hitherto been productive of no very serious consequences.
A while after his murder, a small band of them made their appearance
near the fort at Point Pleasant; and Lieutenant Moore was dispatched
from the garrison, with some men, to drive them off. Upon his advance,
they commenced retreating; and the officer commanding the detachment,
fearing they would escape, ordered a quick pursuit. He did not proceed
far before he fell into an ambuscade. He and three of his men were
killed at the first [177] fire;--the rest of the party saved
themselves by a precipitate flight to the fort.
In the May following this transaction, a few Indians again came in
sight of the fort. But as the garrison had been very much reduced by
the removal of Captain Arbuckle's company, and the experience of the
last season had taught them prudence, Captain McKee forbore to detach
any of his men in pursuit of them. Disappointed, in their expectations
of enticing others to destruction, as they had Lieutenant Moore in the
winter, the Indians suddenly rose from their covert, and presented an
unbroken line, extending from the Ohio to the Kanawha river in front
of the fort. A demand for the surrender of the garrison, was then
made; and Captain McKee asked 'till the next morning to consider of
it. In the course of the night, the men were busily employed in
bringing water from the river, expecting that the Indians would
continue before the fort for some time.
In the morning, Captain McKee sent his answer by the grenadier squaw,
(sister to Cornstalk, and who, notwithstanding the murder of her
brother and nephew, was still attached to the whites, and was
remaining at the fort in the capacity of interpreter)[4] that he could
not comply with their demand.--The Indians immediately began the
attack, and for one week kept the garrison closely besieged. Finding
however, that they made no impression on the fort, they collected the
cattle about it and instead of returning towards their own country
with the plunder, proceeded up the Kanawha river towards the
Greenbrier settlement.
Believing their object to be the destruction of that settlement, and
knowing from their great force that they would certainly accomplish
it, if the inhabitants were unadvised of their approach, Captain McKee
despatched two men to Col. Andrew Donnelly's, (then the frontier
house,) with the intelligence. These men soon came in view of the
Indians; but finding that they were advancing in detached groups, and
dispersed in hunting parties, through the woods, they despaired of
being able to pass them, and returned to the fort. Captain McKee then
made an appeal to the chivalry of the garrison, and asked, "who would
risk his life to save the people of Greenbrier." John Pryor and Philip
Hammond, at once stepped forward, and replied "WE WILL." They were
then habited after the Indian manner, and painted in Indian style by
the Grenadier Squaw, and departed on their hazardous, but noble and
generous undertaking. Travelling, night and day, with great rapidity,
they [178] passed the Indians at Meadow river, and arrived, about
sunset of that day at Donnelly's fort, twenty miles farther on.
As soon as the intelligence of the approach of the Indians, was
communicated by these men, Col. Donnelly had the neighbors all advised
of it; and in the course of the night, they collected at his house. He
also dispatched a messenger to Capt. John Stuart, to acquaint him with
the fact; and made every preparation to resist attack and ensure their
safety, of which his situation admitted. Pryor and Hammond told them
how, by the precaution of Captain McKee, the garrison at Point
Pleasant had been saved from suffering by the want of water; and
advised them to lay in a plentiful supply, of that necessary article.
A hogshead was accordingly filled and rolled behind the door of the
kitchen, which adjoined the dwelling house.
Early next morning, John Pritchet (a servant to Col. Donnelly) went
out for some firewood, and while thus engaged, was fired at and
killed. The Indians then ran into the yard, and endeavored to force
open the kitchen door; but Hammond and Dick Pointer (a negro belonging
to Col. Donnelly) who were the only persons within, aided by the
hogshead of water, prevented their accomplishing this object. They
next proceeded to cut it in pieces, with their tomahawks. Hammond
seeing that they would soon succeed in this way, with the assistance
of Dick, rolled the hogshead to one side, and letting the door
suddenly fly open, killed the Indian at the threshold, and the others
who were near gave way. Dick then fired among them, with a musket
heavily charged with swan shot, and no doubt with effect, as the yard
was crowded with the enemy; a war club with a swan shot in it, was
afterwards picked up near the door.
The men in the house, who were asleep at the commencement of the
attack, being awakened at the firing of Hammond and Dick, now opened a
galling fire upon the Indians. Being chiefly up stairs they were
enabled to do greater execution, and fired with such effect that,
about one o'clock, the enemy retired a small distance from the house.
Before they retired however, some of them succeeded in getting under
the floor, when they were aided by the whites below in raising some of
the puncheons of which it was made. It was to their advantage to do
this; and well did they profit by it. Several of the Indians were
killed in this attempt to gain admittance, while only one of the
whites received a wound, which but slightly injured his hand.
When intelligence was conveyed to Capt. Stuart of the approach of so
large a body of savages, Col. Samuel Lewis was with him; and they both
exerted themselves to save the settlement from destruction, by
collecting the inhabitants at a fort where Lewisburg now stands.
Having succeeded in this, they sent two men to Donnelly's to learn
whether the Indians had advanced that far. As they approached, the
firing became distinctly audible, and they returned [179] with the
tidings. Capt. Stuart and Col. Lewis proposed marching to the relief
of Donnelly's fort, with as many men as were willing to accompany
them; and in a brief space of time, commenced their march at the head
of sixty-six men. Pursuing the most direct route without regarding the
road, they approached the house on the back side; and thus escaped an
ambuscade of Indians placed near the road to intercept and cut off any
assistance which might be sent from the upper settlements.
Adjoining the yard, there was a field of well grown rye, into which
the relief from Lewisburg, entered about two o'clock; but as the
Indians had withdrawn to a distance from the house, there was no
firing heard. They soon however, discovered the savages in the field,
looking intently towards Donnoly's; and it was resolved to pass them.
Capt. Stuart and Charles Gatliff fired at them, and the whole party
rushed forward into the yard, amid a heavy discharge of balls from the
savage forces. The people in the fort hearing the firing in the rear
of the house, soon presented themselves at the port holes, to resist,
what they supposed, was a fresh attack on them; but quickly
discovering the real cause, they opened the gates, and all the party
led on by Stuart and Lewis, safely entered.
The Indians then resumed the attack, and maintained a constant fire at
the house, until near dark, when one of them approached, and in broken
English called out, "we want peace." He was told to come in and he
should have it; but he declined the invitation to enter, and they all
retreated, dragging off those of their slain, who lay not too near
the fort.
Of the whites, four only were killed by the enemy. Pritchet, before
the attack commenced,--James Burns and Alexander Ochiltree, as they
were coming to the house early in the morning,--and James Graham while
in the fort. It was impossible to ascertain the entire loss of the
Indians. Seventeen lay dead in the yard; and they were known to carry
off others of their slain. Perhaps the disparity of the killed,
equalled, if it did not exceed the disparity of the number engaged.
There were twenty-one men at Donnoly's fort, before the arrival of the
reinforcement under Stuart and Lewis; and the brunt of the battle was
over before they came. The Indian force exceeded two hundred men.
It was believed, that the invasion of the Greenbrier country had been
projected, some time before it actually was made. During the preceding
season, an Indian calling himself John Hollis, had been very much
through the settlement; and was known to take particular notice of the
different forts, which he entered under the garb of friendship. He was
with the Indians in the attack on Donnoly's fort; and was recognized
as one of those who were left dead in the yard.
On the morning after the Indians departed, Capt. Hamilton went in
pursuit of them with seventy men; but following two days, without
[180] perceiving that he gained on them, he abandoned the chase and
returned.
About the middle of June, three women went out from West's fort, to
gather greens in a field adjoining; and while thus engaged were
attacked by four Indians, lying in wait. One gun only was fired, and
the ball from it, passed through the bonnet of Mrs. Hackor, who
screamed aloud and ran with the others towards the fort. An Indian,
having in his hand a long staff, with a spear in one end, pursuing
closely after them, thrust it at Mrs. Freeman with such violence that,
entering her back just below the shoulder, it came out at her left
breast. With his tomahawk, he cleft the upper part of her head, and
carried it off to save the scalp.
The screams of the women alarmed the men in the fort; and seizing
their guns, they ran out, just as Mrs. Freeman fell. Several guns were
fired at the Indian while he was getting her scalp, but with no
effect. They served however, to warn the men who went out, that danger
was at hand; and they quickly came in.
Jesse Hughs[5] and John Schoolcraft (who were out) in making their way
to the fort, came very near two Indians standing by the fence looking
towards the men at West's, so intently, that they did not perceive any
one near them. They however, were observed by Hughs and Schoolcraft,
who, avoiding them, made their way in, safely, Hughs immediately took
up his gun, and learning the fate of Mrs. Freeman, went with some
others to bring in the corpse. While there, he proposed to go and shew
them, how near he had approached the Indians after the alarm had been
given, before he saw them. Charles and Alexander West, Chas. Hughs,
James Brown and John Steeth, went with him. Before they had arrived at
the place, one of the Indians was heard to howl like a wolf; and the
men with Hughs moved on in the direction from which the sound
proceeded. Supposing that they were then near the spot, Jesse Hughs
howled in like manner, and being instantly answered, they ran to a
point of the hill and looking over it, saw two Indians coming towards
them. Hughs fired and one of them fell. The other took to flight.
Being pursued by the whites, he sought shelter in a thicket of brush;
and while they were proceeding to intercept him at his coming out, he
returned by the way he had entered, and made his escape. The wounded
Indian likewise got off. When the whites were in pursuit of the one
who took to flight, they passed near to him who had fallen, and one of
the men was for stopping and finishing him; but Hughs called to him,
"he is safe--let us have the other," and they all pressed forward. On
their return, however, he was gone; and although his free bleeding
enabled them to pursue his track readily for a while, yet a heavy
shower of rain soon falling, all trace of him was quickly lost and
could not be afterwards regained.
On the 16th of June as Capt. James Booth and Nathaniel Cochran, were
at work in a field on Booth's creek, they were fired at by [181] the
Indians. Booth fell, but Cochran, being very slightly wounded, took to
flight. He was however, overtaken, and carried into captivity to their
towns. From thence he was taken to Detroit, where he remained some
time; and endeavoring to escape from that place, unfortunately took a
path which led him immediately to the Maumee old towns. Here he was
detained a while, & then sent back to Detroit, where he was exchanged,
and from whence he made his way home, after having had to endure much
suffering and many hardships. The loss of Booth was severely felt by
the inhabitants in that settlement. He was not only an active and
enterprising man, but was endowed with superior talents, and a better
education than most of those who had settled in the country; and on
these accounts was very much missed.
In a few days after this transaction, Benjamin Shinn, Wm. Grundy, and
Benjamin Washburn, returning from a lick on the head of Booth's creek,
were fired on by the Indians, when near to Baxter's run. Washburn and
Shinn escaped unhurt, but Grundy was killed: he was brother to Felix
Grundy of Tennessee, whose father was then residing at Simpson's
creek, at a farm afterwards owned by Colonel Benjamin Wilson, senior.
This party of Indians continued for some days, to prowl about the
neighborhood, seeking opportunities of committing murder on the
inhabitants; fortunately however, with but little success. James
Owens, a youth of sixteen years of age, was the only one whom they
succeeded in killing after the murder of Grundy. Going from Powers'
fort on Simpson's creek, to Booth's creek, his saddle girth gave way,
and while he was down mending it, a ball was discharged at him, which
killed both him and the horse.
Seeing that the whites, in that neighborhood, had all retired to the
fort; and being too weak, openly to attack it, they crossed over to
Bartlett's run, and came to the house of Gilbert Hustead, who was then
alone, and engaged in fixing his gun lock. Hearing a noise in the
yard, for which he was unable to account, he slipped to the door, to
ascertain from whence it proceeded. The Indians were immediately round
it, and there was no chance for his escape. Walking out with an air of
the utmost pleasantry, he held forth his hand to the one nearest him,
and asked them all to walk in. While in the house he affected great
cheerfulness, and by his tale [182] won their confidence and
friendship. He told them that he was a King's man and unwilling to
live among the rebels; for which reason, when others retired into the
fort, he preferred staying at his own house, anxiously hoping for the
arrival of some of the British Indians, to afford him an opportunity
of getting among English friends. Learning upon enquiry, that they
would be glad to have something to eat, he asked one of them to shoot
a fat hog which was in the yard, that they might regale on it that
night, and have some on which to subsist while travelling to their
towns. In the morning, still farther to maintain the deception he was
practising, he broke his furniture to pieces, saying "the rebels shall
never have the good of you." He then accompanied them to their towns,
acting in the same, apparently, contented and cheerful manner, 'till
his sincerity was believed by all, and he obtained leave to return for
his family. He succeeded in making his way home, where he remained,
sore at the destruction of his property, but exulting in the success
of his artifice.
While this party of Indians were thus engaged, on Booth's creek and in
the circumjacent country, a more numerous body had invaded the
settlements lower down, and were employed in the work of destruction
there. They penetrated to Coburn's creek unperceived, and were making
their way (as was generally supposed) to a fort not far from
Morgantown, when they fell in with a party of whites, returning from
the labors of the cornfield, and then about a mile from Coburn's fort.
The Indians had placed themselves on each side of the road leading to
the fort, and from their covert fired on the whites, before they were
aware of danger. John Woodfin being on horseback, had his thigh broken
by a ball; which killed his horse and enabled them to catch him
easily.--Jacob Miller was shot through the abdomen, and soon
overtaken, tomahawked and scalped.--The others escaped to the fort.
Woodfin was afterwards found on a considerable eminence overlooking the
fort, tomahawked and scalped. The Indians had, most probably, taken him
there, that he might point out to them the least impregnable part of
the fortress, and in other respects give them such information, as
would tend to ensure success to their meditated attack on it; but when
they heard its strength and the force with which it was garrisoned,
despairing of being able to reduce it, in a fit of disappointed
fury, they murdered him on the spot.
[183] They next made their appearance on Dunkard creek, and near to
Stradler's fort. Here, as on Coburn's creek, they lay in ambush on the
road side, awaiting the return of the men who were engaged at work, in
some of the neighboring fields. Towards evening the men came on,
carrying with them some hogs which they had killed for the use of the
fort people, and on approaching where the Indians lay concealed, were
fired on and several fell. Those who escaped injury from the first
fire, returned the shot, and a severe action ensued. But so many of
the whites had been killed before the savages exposed themselves to
view, that the remainder were unable long to sustain the unequal
contest. Overpowered by numbers, the few, who were still unhurt, fled
precipitately to the fort, leaving eighteen of their companions dead
in the road. These were scalped and mangled by the Indians in a most
shocking manner, and lay some time, before the men in the fort,
assured of the departure of the enemy, went out and buried them.
Weakened by the severe loss sustained in this bloody skirmish, had the
Indians pushed forward to attack the fort, in all human probability,
it would have fallen before them. There were at that day very few
settlements which could have maintained possession of a garrison for
any length of time, after having suffered so great a diminution of
the number of their inhabitants, against the onsets of one hundred
savages, exercising their wonted energy: and still less would they be
able to leave their strong holds, and cope with such superior force,
in open battle. Nor were the settlements, as yet, sufficiently
contiguous to each other, to admit of their acting in concert, and
combining their strength, to operate effectively against their
invaders. When alarmed by the approach of the foe, all that they could
generally do, was, retire to a fort, and endeavor to defend it from
assault. If the savages, coming in numbers, succeeded in committing
any outrage, it usually went unpunished. Sensible of their want of
strength, the inhabitants rarely ventured in pursuit, to harrass or
molest the retiring foe. When, however, they would hazard to hang on
their retreat, the many precautions which they were compelled to
exercise, to prevent falling into ambuscades and to escape the
entangling artifices of their wily enemies, frequently rendered their
enterprises abortive, and their exertions inefficient.
[184] The frequent visits paid by the Indians to the country on the
West Fork, and the mischief which they would effect at these times,
led several of the inhabitants to resolve on leaving a place so full
of dangers, as soon as they could make the necessary preparations. A
family of Washburns particularly, having several times very narrowly
escaped destruction, commenced making arrangements and fitting up for
their departure. But while two of them were engaged in procuring pine
knots, from which to make wax for shoemaking, they were discovered,
and shot at by the Indians. Stephen fell dead, and James was taken
prisoner and carried to their towns.--He was there forced to undergo
repeated and intense suffering before death closed the scene of his
miseries.
According to the account given by Nathaniel Cochran on his return from
captivity, Washburn was most severely beaten, on the first evening of
his arrival at their village, while running the gauntlet; and although
he succeeded in getting into the council house, where Cochran was, yet
he was so disfigured and mutilated, that he could not be recognised by
his old acquaintance; and so stunned and stupified, that he remained
nearly all night in a state of insensibility. Being somewhat revived
in the morning, he walked to where Cochran sat by the fire, and being
asked if he were not James Washburn, replied with a smile--as if a
period had been put to his sufferings by the sympathetic tone in which
the question was proposed--that he was. The gleam of hope which
flashed over his countenance, was transient and momentary. In a few
minutes he was again led forth, that the barbarities which had been
suspended by the interposition of night, might be revived; and he made
to endure a repetition of their cruelties. He was now feeble and too
much exhausted to save himself from the clubs and sticks, even of the
aged of both sexes. The old men and the old women, who followed him,
had strength and activity enough to keep pace with his fleetest
progress, and inflict on him their severest blows. Frequently he was
beaten to the ground, and as frequently, as if invigorated by the
extremity of anguish, he rose to his feet. Hobbling before his
tormentors, with no hope but in death, an old savage passed a knife
across his ham, which cutting the tendons, disabled him from
proceeding farther. Still they repeated their unmerciful blows with
all their energy. He was next scalped, though alive, and struggling to
regain his feet. [185] Even this did not operate to suppress their
cruelty. They continued to beat him, until in the height of suffering
he again exhibited symptoms of life and exerted himself to move. His
head was then severed from his shoulders, attached to a pole, and
placed in the most public situation in the village.
After the attack on the Washburns, there were but two other outrages
committed in the upper country during that season. The cessation on
the part of the savages, of hostile incursions, induced an abandonment
of the forts, and the people returned to their several homes, and
respective occupations. But aggression was only suspended for a time.
In October, two Indians appeared near the house of Conrad Richards,
and finding in the yard a little girl at play, with an infant in her
arms, they scalped her and rushed to the door. For some time they
endeavored to force it open; but it was so securely fastened within,
that Richards was at liberty to use his gun for its defence. A
fortunate aim wounded one of the assailants severely, and the other
retreated, helping off his companion. The girl who had been scalped in
the yard, as soon as she observed the Indians going away, ran, with
the infant still in her arms and uninjured, and entered the house--a
spectacle of most heart-rending wretchedness.
Soon after, David Edwards, returning from Winchester with salt, was
shot near the Valley river, tomahawked and scalped; in which situation
he lay for some time before he was discovered. He was the last person
who fell a victim to savage vengeance, in North Western Virginia in
the year 1778.
The repeated irruptions of the Indians during the summer of the
year;[6] and the frequent murders and great devastation committed by
them, induced Government to undertake two expeditions into the Indian
country. One thousand men were placed under the command of General
McIntosh, some time in the fall, and he received orders to proceed
forthwith against the Sandusky towns. Between two and three hundred
soldiers were likewise placed under Colonel Clarke, to operate against
the Canadian settlements in Illinois. It was well known that the
Governor of those settlements was an indefatigable agent of British
cruelty, stimulating the savages to aggression, and paying them well
for scalps, torn alike from the heads of the aged matron and the
helpless infant.[7] [186] The settlements in Kentucky, were constantly
the theatre of outrage and murder; and to preserve these from entire
destruction, it was necessary that a blow should be aimed, at the
hives from which the savages swarmed, and if possible, that those
holds, into which they would retire to reap the rewards of their
cruelties and receive the price of blood, should be utterly broken up.
The success of those two expeditions could not fail to check savage
encroachments, and give quiet and security to the frontier; and
although the armies destined to achieve it, were not altogether
adequate to the service required, yet the known activity and
enterprise of the commanding officers, joined to their prudence and
good conduct, and the bravery and indefatigable perseverance and
hardiness of the troops, gave promise of a happy result.
The success of the expedition under Colonel Clarke,[8] fully realized
the most sanguine expectations of those, who were acquainted with the
adventurous and enterprising spirit of its commander; and was
productive of essential benefit to the state, as well as of
comparative security to the border settlements. Descending the Ohio
river, from Fort Pitt to the Falls, he there landed his troops, and
concealing his boats, marched directly towards Kaskaskias. Their
provisions, which were carried on their backs, were soon exhausted;
and for two days, the army subsisted entirely on roots. This was the
only circumstance, which occurred during their march, calculated to
damp the ardor of the troops. No band of savage warriors, had
interposed to check their progress,--no straggling Indian, had
discovered their approach. These fortunate omens inspired them with
flattering hopes; and they pushed forward, with augmented energy.
Arriving before Kaskaskias in the night, they entered it, unseen and
unheard, and took possession of the town and fort, without opposition.
Relying on the thick and wide extended forests which interposed
between them and the American settlements, the inhabitants had been
lulled to repose by fancied security, and were unconscious of danger
until it had become too late to be avoided. Not a single individual
escaped, to spread the alarm in the adjacent settlements.
But there still remained other towns, higher up the Mississippi,
which, if unconquered, would still afford shelter to the savages and
furnish them the means of annoyance and of ravage. Against these,
Colonel Clarke immediately directed [187] operations. Mounting a
detachment of men, on horses found at Kaskaskias, and sending them
forward, three other towns were reduced with equal success. The
obnoxious governor at Kaskaskias was sent directly to Virginia, with
the written instructions which he had received from Quebec, Detroit
and Michillimacinac, for exciting the Indians to war, and remunerating
them for the blood which they might shed.
Although the country within which Colonel Clarke had so successfully
carried on operations, was considered to be within the limits of
Virginia; yet as it was occupied by savages and those who were but
little, if any, less hostile than they; and being so remote from her
settlements, Virginia had as yet exercised no act of jurisdiction over
it. But as it now belonged to her, by conquest as well as charter, the
General Assembly created it into a distinct county, to be called
Illinois; a temporary government was likewise established in it, and a
regiment of infantry and a troop of cavalry, ordered to be enlisted
for its defence, and placed under the command of its intrepid and
enterprising conqueror.
The expedition directed under General McIntosh, was not equally
successful. The difficulty of raising, equipping, and organizing, so
large a force as was placed under his command, at so great a distance
from the populous district of the state, caused the consumption of so
much time, that the season for carrying on effective operations had
well nigh passed before he was prepared to commence his march. Anxious
however, to achieve as much as could then be effected for the security
of the frontier, he penetrated the enemy's country, as far as
Tuscarawa, when it was resolved to build and garrison a fort, and
delay farther operations 'till the ensuing spring. Fort Laurens was
accordingly erected on the banks of the Tuscarawa, a garrison of one
hundred and fifty men, under the command of Colonel John Gibson, left
for its preservation, and the main army returned to Fort Pitt.
-----
[1] Lachlan McIntosh was born near Inverness, Scotland,
March 17, 1725. With his father, and 100 others of the Clan
McIntosh, he emigrated to Georgia in 1736, in the train of
Oglethorpe. The party founded New Inverness, in McIntosh
County. Lachlan entered the Colonial army at the opening of
the Revolution, and rose to be brigadier-general. In a duel
with Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of
Independence, he killed the latter. General McIntosh was at the
siege of Savannah in 1779, was a prisoner of war in 1780, a
member congress in 1784, and in 1785 a commissioner to treat
with the Southern Indians. He died at Savannah, February 20,
1806.--R. G. T.
[2] The distance below Pittsburg is 26 miles. See p.
45, _note_, for notice of Shingiss Old Town, at this
point.--R. G. T.
[3] The distance, according to the shore meanderings of the
U. S. Corps of Engineers, is 263 miles; the mileage of the
channel would be somewhat greater.--R. G. T.
[4] See p. 176, _note_, for notice of Grenadier Squaw's
Town, near Chillicothe.--R. G. T.
[5] See p. 137, _note_, for notice of Jesse Hughes; also,
Peyton's _History of Augusta County_, p. 353.--R. G. T.
[6] These war parties largely emanated from the Detroit
region. Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, the British commander at
Detroit, writing to his superior, General Haldimand, September
16, 1778, mentions incidentally that he sent out small parties
of Miamis and Chippewas, August 5, and September 5 and 9; these
were but three of dozens of such forays which he incited
against the Virginia and Pennsylvania borders, during that
year.--R. G. T.
[7] This reference is to Lieut.-Governor Hamilton, whom
George Rogers Clark called "the hair-buying general."--R. G. T.
[8] Gen. George Rogers Clark was born November 19, 1752,
near Monticello, Albemarle County, Va. At the age of twenty he
was practicing his profession as a surveyor on the upper Ohio,
and took up a claim at the mouth of Fish Creek. In 1774, he
participated as a captain in Dunmore's campaign against the
Shawnees and Mingoes. Early in 1775, Clark went as a surveyor
to Kentucky, where he acquired marked popularity, and in 1776
was elected as "a delegate to the Virginia convention, to urge
upon the state authorities the claims of the colony for
government and defense." He secured the formation of the new
county of Kentucky, and a supply of ammunition for the defense
of the border. In 1777, Clark, now a major of militia, repelled
the Indian attacks on Harrodsburg, and proceeded on foot to
Virginia to lay before the state authorities his plan for
capturing the Illinois country and repressing the Indian forays
from that quarter. His scheme being approved, he was made a
lieutenant-colonel, and at once set out to raise for the
expedition a small force of hardy frontiersmen. He rendezvoused
and drilled his little army of a hundred and fifty on Corn
Island in the Ohio river, at the head of the Falls (or rapids),
opposite the present city of Louisville. June 24, 1778, he
started in boats down the Ohio, and landed near the deserted
Fort Massac, which was on the north bank, ten miles below the
mouth of the Tennessee; thence marching across country, much
pressed for food, he reached Kaskaskia in six days. The
inhabitants there were surprised and coerced during the night
of July 4-5, without the firing of a gun. Cahokia and Vincennes
soon quietly succumbed to his influence. Lieut.-Governor
Hamilton, on hearing of this loss of the Illinois country and
the partial defection to the Americans of the tribes west and
southwest of Lake Michigan, at once set out to organize an
army, chiefly composed of Indians, to retake the Illinois. He
proceeded via the Wabash and Maumee, with eight hundred men,
and recaptured Vincennes, December 17.
The intelligence of this movement of Hamilton was not long in
reaching Clark at Kaskaskia, and he at once set out for
Vincennes to recapture it. The march thither was one of the
most heroic in American military annals. Hamilton surrendered
to him, February 25, and was forwarded to Virginia as a
prisoner. Early in 1780 he established Fort Jefferson, just
below the mouth of the Ohio, and later in the season aided in
repelling a body of British and Indians who had come to regain
the Illinois country and attack the Spaniards at St. Louis.
Leaving Colonel Montgomery to pursue the enemy up the
Mississippi, Clark, with what force could be spared, hastened
to Kentucky, where he quickly raised a thousand men, and
invaded and laid waste the Shawnee villages, in retaliation for
Capt. Henry Bird's invasion (see p. 262, _note_).
Later, he was engaged in some minor forays, and was appointed a
brigadier-general; but his favorite scheme of an expedition to
conquer Detroit miscarried, owing to the poverty of Virginia
and the activity of the enemy under Brant, McKee, Girty, and
other border leaders. In 1782 Clark led a thousand men in a
successful campaign against the Indians on the Great Miami.
This was his last important service, his subsequent expeditions
proving failures. His later years were spent in poverty and
seclusion, and his social habits became none of the best. In
1793 he imprudently accepted a commission as major-general from
Genet, the French diplomatic agent, and essayed to raise a
French revolutionary legion in the West to overcome the Spanish
settlements on the Mississippi; upon Genet's recall, Clark's
commission was canceled. Later, he sought to secure employment
under the Spanish (see p. 130, _note_.) He died February 18,
1818, at Locust Grove, near Louisville, and lies buried at Cave
Hill, in the Louisville suburbs. In his article on Clark, in
Appleton's _Cyclop. of Amer. Biog._, i., pp. 626, 627, Dr.
Draper says: "Clark was tall and commanding, brave and full of
resources, possessing the affection and confidence of his men.
All that rich domain northwest of the Ohio was secured to the
republic, at the peace of 1783, in consequence of his prowess."
Cf. William F. Poole, in Winsor's _Narr. and Crit. Hist.
Amer._, vi., pp. 710-742. While due credit should be given to
Clark for his daring and successful undertaking, we must not
forget that England's jealousy of Spain, and shrewd diplomacy
on the part of America's peace plenipotentiaries, were factors
even more potent in winning the Northwest for the United
States.--R. G. T.
[188] CHAPTER XI.
No sooner had the adventurous advance of Col. Clarke, and the success
with which it was crowned, become known at Detroit, than preparations
were made to expel him from Kaskaskias, or capture his little army,
and thus rid the country of this obstacle to the unmolested passage of
the savages, to the frontier of Virginia. An army of six hundred men,
principally Indians, led on by Hamilton, the governor of Detroit--a
man at once bold and active, yet blood-thirsty and cruel, and well
known as a chief instigator of the savages to war, and as a stay and
prop of tories--left Detroit and proceeded towards the theatre of
Clarke's renown. With this force, he calculated on being able to
effect his purpose as regarded Col. Clarke and his little band of bold
and daring adventurers, and to spread devastation and death along the
frontier, from Kentucky to Pennsylvania. Arriving at Fort St.
Vincent,[1] on the Wabash, about the middle of December, and deeming
it too late to advance towards Kaskaskias, he repaired its battlements
and converting it into a repository for warlike implements of every
description, he detached the greater part of his force in marauding
parties to operate against the settlements on the Ohio river,
reserving for the security of his head quarters only one company of
men.
While these alarming preparations were being made, Col. Clarke was
actively engaged in acquiring an ascendency over the neighboring
tribes of Indians; and in endeavors to attach them to the cause of the
United States, from principle or fear. The aid which had been voted
him, fell far short of [189] the contemplated assistance, and had not
yet arrived; but his genius and activity amply compensated for the
deficiency. In the heart of an Indian country,--remote from every
succour,--and in the vicinity of powerful and hostile tribes, he yet
not only maintained his conquest and averted injury, but carried
terror and dismay into the very strongholds of the savages.
Intelligence of the movement of Hamilton at length reached him, and
hostile parties of Indians soon hovered around Kaskaskias. Undismayed
by the tempest which was gathering over him, he concentrated his
forces, withdrawing garrisons from the other towns to strengthen this,
and made every preparation to enable him to endure a siege, and
withstand the assault of a powerful army. The idea of abandoning the
country never occurred to him. He did not despair of being able to
maintain his position, and he and his gallant band resolved that they
would do it, or perish in the attempt. In this fearful juncture, all
was activity and industry, when the arrival of a Spanish merchant who
had been at St. Vincents brought information of the reduced state of
Hamilton's army.[2] Convinced that a crisis had now arrived, Clarke
resolved by one bold stroke to change the aspect of affairs, and
instead of farther preparing to resist attack, himself to become the
assailant. For this purpose, a galley, mounting two four pounders and
four swivels, and having on board a company of men, was despatched,
with orders to the commanding officer, to ascend the Wabash and
station himself a few miles below St. Vincents, allowing no one to
pass him until the arrival of the main army. Garrisoning Kaskaskias,
with militia, and embodying the inhabitants for the protection of the
other towns, Colonel Clarke set forward on his march across the
country, on the 7th of February, 1779, at the head of one hundred and
thirty brave and intrepid men.[3]
Such was the inclemency of the weather, and so many and great the
obstacles which interposed, that in despite of the ardor, perseverance
and energy of the troops, they could yet advance very slowly towards
the point of destination. They were five days in crossing the drowned
lands of the Wabash, and for five miles had to wade through water and
ice, frequently up to their breasts. They overcame every difficulty
and arrived before St. Vincents on the evening of the twenty-third of
February and almost simultaneously with the galley.
Thus far fortune seemed to favor the expedition. The army had not been
discovered on its march, and the garrison was totally ignorant of its
approach. Much however yet remained to be done. They had arrived
within view of the enemy, but the battle was yet to be fought.
Sensible of the advantage to be derived from commencing the attack,
while the enemy was ignorant of his approach, at seven o'clock he
marched to the assault. The inhabitants instead of offering
opposition, received the troops with gladness, and surrendering [190]
the town, engaged with alacrity in the siege of the fort. For eighteen
hours the garrison resisted the repeated onsets of the assailants; but
during the night succeeding the commencement of the attack, Colonel
Clarke had an entrenchment thrown up within rifle shot of the enemy's
strongest battery, and in the morning, from this position, poured upon
it such a well-directed shower of balls, that in fifteen minutes he
silenced two pieces of cannon without sustaining any loss whatever.
The advantages thus gained, induced Hamilton to demand a parley,
intimating an intention of surrendering. The terms were soon arranged.
The governor and garrison became prisoners of war, and a considerable
quantity of military stores fell into the hands of the conqueror. [4]
During the continuance of the siege, Colonel Clarke received
information that a party of Indians which had been detached by
Hamilton to harrass the frontiers, was returning and then near to St.
Vincents with two prisoners. He immediately ordered a detachment of
his men to march out and give them battle--nine Indians were taken and
the two prisoners released.
History records but few enterprises, which display as strikingly the
prominent features of military greatness, and evince so much of the
genius and daring which are necessary to their successful termination,
as this; while the motives which led to its delineation, were such, as
must excite universal admiration. Bold and daring, yet generous and
disinterested, Colonel Clarke sought not his individual advancement in
the projection or execution of this campaign. It was not to gratify
the longings of ambition, or an inordinate love of fame, that prompted
him to penetrate the Indian country to the Kaskaskias, nor that
tempted him forth from thence, to war with the garrison at St.
Vincent. He was not one of
"Those worshippers of glory,
Who bathe the earth in blood,
And launch proud names for an after age,
Upon the crimson flood."
The distress and sufferings of the frontier of Virginia required that
a period should speedily be put to them, to preserve the country from
ravage and its inhabitants from butchery. Clarke had seen and
participated in that distress and those sufferings, and put in
requisition every faculty of his mind and all the energies of his
body, to alleviate and prevent them. Providence smiled on his
undertaking, and his exertions were crowned with complete success. The
plan which had been concerted for the ensuing campaign against the
frontier of Virginia, threatening to involve the whole country west of
the Alleghany mountains in destruction and death, was thus happily
frustrated; and he, who had been mainly instrumental in impelling the
savages to war, and in permitting, if not instigating them to the
commission of the most atrocious barbarities, was a prisoner in the
hands of the enemy. So justly obnoxious had he [191] rendered himself
by his conduct, that a more than ordinary rigor was practised upon
him; and by the orders of the governor of Virginia, the governor of
Detroit was manacled with irons, and confined in jail.[5]
Far different was the termination of the enterprise entrusted to the
conduct of General McIntosh. It has been already seen that the
approach of winter forced the main army to retire to the settlements
into winter quarters, before they were able to accomplish any thing,
but the erection of Fort Laurens.[6] Colonel Gibson, the commandant of
the garrison, though a brave and enterprising officer, was so
situated, that the preservation of the fort, was all which he could
accomplish; and this was no little hazard of failure, from the very
superior force of the enemy, and the scarcity of provisions for the
subsistance of the garrison. So soon as the Indians became acquainted
with the existence of a fort so far in their country, they put in
practice those arts which enable them, so successfully to annoy their
enemies.
Early in January, a considerable body of savages approached Fort
Laurens unperceived and before the garrison was apprised that an
Indian knew of its erection.[7] In the course of the night they
succeeded in catching the horses outside of the fort; and taking off
their bells, carried them into the woods, some distance off. They then
concealed themselves in the prairie grass, along a path leading from
the fort, and in the morning commenced rattling the bells, at the
farther extremity of the line of ambushment, so as to induce the
belief that the horses was there to be found. The stratagem succeeded.
Sixteen men were sent out to bring in the horses. Allured by the sound
of the bells, they kept the path, along which the Indians lay
concealed, until they found themselves unexpectedly in the presence of
an enemy, who opened upon them a destructive fire from front and rear.
Fourteen were killed on the spot, and the remaining two were taken
prisoners.
On the evening of the day on which this unfortunate surprise took
place, the Indian army, consisting of eight hundred and forty-seven
warriors, painted and equipped for war, marched in single file through
a prairie near the fort and in full view of the garrison, and encamped
on an adjacent elevation on the opposite side of the river. From this
situation, frequent conversations were held by them with the whites,
in which they deprecated the longer continuance of hostilities, but
yet protested against the encroachment made upon their territory by
the whites, the erection of a fort and the garrisoning soldiers within
their country, not only unpermitted by them, but for some time before
they knew any thing of it. For these infringements on their rights,
they were determined on prosecuting the war, and continued the
investure of the fort, for six weeks. In this time they became
straitened for provisions, and aware that without a fresh supply of
them, they would be forced to abandon the siege, they sent word to the
commander of the garrison, by a Delaware [192] Indian, calling himself
John Thompson, (who, though with the whites in the fort, was permitted
by both parties to go in and out, as he choose) that they were
desirous of peace, and were willing to enter into a negotiation, if he
would send them a barrel of flour and some tobacco. Scarce as these
articles had actually become in the garrison, yet Col. Gibson complied
with their request, hoping that they might be induced to make peace,
or withdraw from the fort, and hopeless of timely succours from the
settlements. Upon the receipt of those presents, the Indians raised
the siege and marched their army off, much to the relief of the
garrison, although they did not fulfil their promise of entering into
a treaty.
During the time the Indians remained about the fort, there was much
sickness in the garrison; and when they were believed to have retired,
the commandant detached Col. Clarke, of the Pennsylvania line,[8] with
a party of fifteen men, to escort the invalids to Fort McIntosh. They
proceeded but a small distance from the gate, where they were
attacked by some Indians, who had been left concealed near the fort,
for the purpose of effecting farther mischief. A skirmish ensued; but
overpowered by numbers and much galled by the first fire, Col. Clarke
could not maintain the conflict. With much difficulty, he and three
others reached the fort in safety: the rest of the party were all
killed.
Col. Gibson immediately marched out at the head of the greater part of
the garrison, but the Indians had retreated as soon as they succeeded
in cutting off the detachment under Col. Clarke, and prudence forbade
to proceed in pursuit of them, as the main army was believed to be yet
in the neighborhood. The dead were however brought in, and buried with
the honors of war, in front of the fort gate.
In a few days after this, Gen. McIntosh arrived with a considerable
body of troops and a supply of provisions for the garrison. While the
savages were continuing the siege, a friendly Indian, had been
despatched by Col. Gibson to acquaint Gen. McIntosh with the
situation at Fort Laurens, and that without the speedy arrival of a
reinforcement of men and an accession to their stock of provisions,
the garrison would have to surrender; or seek a doubtful safety,
by evacuating the fort and endeavoring to regain the Ohio river,
in the presence of an overwhelming body of the enemy. With great
promptitude the settlers flocked to the standard of Gen. McIntosh,
and loading pack horses, with abundance of provisions for the
supply of the garrison at Fort Laurens, commenced a rapid march to
their relief. Before their arrival, they had been relieved from the
most pressing danger, by the withdrawal of the Indian army; and were
only suffering from the want of flour and meat. A manifestation of
the great joy felt upon the arrival of Gen. McIntosh, had well
nigh deprived them of the benefit to be derived from the provisions
brought for them. When the relief army approached the fort, a
salute was fired by the garrison, which, alarming the pack horses,
caused them [193] to break loose and scatter the greater part of
the flour in every direction through the woods, so that it was
impossible to be again collected.
The remains of those, who had unfortunately fallen into the ambuscade
in January, and which had lain out until then, were gathered together
and buried;[9] and a fresh detachment, under Major Vernon, being left
to garrison the fort, in the room of that which had been stationed
there during winter, Gen. McIntosh, withdrew from the country and
returned to Fort McIntosh. In the ensuing fall, Fort Laurens was
entirely evacuated; the garrison having been almost reduced to
starvation, and it being found very difficult to supply them with
provisions at so great a distance from the settlements and in the
heart of the Indian country.
During the year 1778, Kentucky was the theatre of many outrages. In
January, a party of thirty men, among whom was Daniel Boone, repaired
to the "Lower Blue Licks" for the purpose of making salt; and on the
7th of February, while Boone was alone in the woods, on a hunt to
supply the salt makers with meat, he was encountered by a party of one
hundred and two Indians and two Canadians, and made prisoner. The
savages advanced to the Licks, and made prisoners of twenty-seven of
those engaged in making salt.[10] Their object in this incursion, was
[193] the destruction of Boonesborough; and had they continued their
march thither, there is no doubt but that place, weakened as it was by
the loss of so many of its men and not expecting an attack at that
inclement season, would have fallen into their hands; but elated with
their success, the Indians marched directly back with their prisoners
to Chillicothe. The extreme suffering of the prisoners, during this
march, inspired the savages with pity, and induced them to exercise an
unusual lenity towards their captives. In March, Boone was carried to
Detroit, where the Indians refused to liberate him, though an hundred
pounds were offered for his ransom, and from which place he
accompanied them back to Chillicothe in the latter part of April. In
the first of June, he went with them to the Scioto salt springs, and
on his return found one hundred and fifty choice warriors of the
Shawanee nation, painting, arming, and otherwise equipping themselves
to proceed again to the attack of Boonesborough.
[194] Hitherto Boone had enjoyed as much satisfaction, as was
consistent with his situation, and more than would have been
experienced by the most of men, in captivity to the Indians; but when
he found such great preparations making for an attack on the place
which contained all that he held most dear, his love of family, his
attachment to the village reared under his superintending hand, and to
its inhabitants protected by his fostering care, determined him to
attempt an immediate escape. Early on the morning of the 16th of June,
he went forth as usual to hunt. He had secreted as much food as would
serve him for one meal, and with this scanty supply, he resolved on
finding his way home. On the 20th, having travelled a distance of one
hundred and sixty miles, crossed the Ohio and other rivers, and with
no sustenance, save what he had taken with him from Chillicothe, he
arrived at Boonesborough. The fort was quickly repaired, and every
preparation made to enable it to withstand a siege.
In a few days after, another, of those who had been taken prisoners at
the Blue Licks, escaped, and brought intelligence that in consequence
of the flight of Boone, the Indians had agreed to postpone their
meditated irruption, for three weeks.[11] This intelligence determined
Boone to invade the Indian country, and at the head of only ten men
he went forth on an expedition against Paint creek town. Near to this
place, he met with a party of Indians going to join the main army,
then on its march to Boonesborough, whom he attacked and dispersed
without sustaining any loss on his part. The enemy had one killed and
two severely wounded in this skirmish; and lost their horses and
baggage. On their return, they passed the Indian army on the 6th of
August, and on the next day entered Boonesborough.[12]
On the 8th of August, the Indian army, consisting of four hundred and
fifty men, and commanded by Capt. Du Quesne, eleven other Frenchmen,
and their own chiefs, appeared before the Fort and demanded its
surrender.[13] In order to gain time, Boone requested two days'
consideration, and at the expiration of that period, returned for
answer, that the garrison had resolved on defending it, while one
individual remained alive within its walls.
Capt. Du Quesne then made known, that he was charged by Gov.
Hamilton, to make prisoners of the garrison, but not to treat them
harshly; and that if nine of their principal men would come out,
and negotiate a treaty, based on a renunciation of allegiance to
the United States, and on a renewal of their fealty to the king, the
Indian army should be instantly withdrawn. Boone did not confide in
the sincerity of the Frenchman, but he determined to gain the
advantage of farther preparation for resistance, by delaying the
attack. He consented to negotiate on the terms proposed; but
suspecting treachery, insisted that the conference should be held
near the fort walls. The garrison were on the alert, while the
negotiation continued, and did not fail to remark that many of the
Indians, not [195] concerned in making the treaty, were stalking
about, under very suspicious circumstances. The terms on which the
savage army was to retire were at length agreed upon, and the
articles signed, when the whites were told that it was an Indian
custom, in ratification of compacts, that two of their chiefs should
shake hands with one white man. Boone and his associates, consenting
to conform to this custom, not without suspicion of a sinister
design, were endeavored to be dragged off as prisoners by the
savages; but strong and active, they bounded from their grasp, and
entered the gate, amid a heavy shower of balls--one only of the
nine, was slightly wounded. The Indians then commenced a furious
assault on the fort, but were repulsed with some loss on their part;
and every renewed attempt to carry it by storm, was in like manner,
frustrated by the intrepidity and gallantry of its inmates.[14]
Disappointed in their expectation of succeeding in this way, the
savages next attempted to undermine the fort, commencing at the water
mark of the Kentucky river, only sixty yards from the walls. This
course was no doubt dictated to them by their French commanders,
as they are ignorant of the practice of war, farther than depends
on the use of the gun, and tomahawk, and the exercise of stratagem
and cunning. The vigilance of the besieged however, soon led to a
discovery of the attempt--the water below, was colored by the clay
thrown out from the excavation, while above it retained its usual
transparency; and here again they were foiled by the active
exertion of the garrison. A countermine was begun by them, the earth
from which being thrown over the wall, manifested the nature of their
operations, and led the enemy to raise the siege, and retire from the
country.[15]
In the various assaults made on the fort by this savage army, two
only, of the garrison, were killed, and four wounded. The loss of the
enemy, as usual, could not be properly ascertained: thirty-seven were
left dead on the field, and many, were no doubt wounded.[16]
So signally was the savage army repulsed, in their repeated attacks on
Boonesborough, that they never afterwards made any great effort to
effect its reduction. The heroism and intrepidity of Boone and his
assistants rendered it impregnable to their combined exertions to
demolish it; while the vigilance and caution of the inhabitants,
convinced them, that it would be fruitless and unavailing to devise
plans for gaining admission into the fort, by stratagem or wile. Still
however, they kept up a war of ravage and murder, against such as were
unfortunately found defenceless and unprotected; and levelled combined
operations against other and weaker positions.
[196] The success of the expedition under Col. Clarke, though
productive of many and great advantages to the [195] frontier
inhabitants, did not achieve for them, an unmolested security. Their
property was still liable to plunder, and families newly arrived among
them, to be murdered or taken prisoners. Combined efforts were
required, to put a period to savage aggression; and a meeting of the
settlers was held at Harrodsburg, to concert measures to effect that
object. Their consultation resulted in a determination, to carry the
war into the enemy's country; and as the Shawanees had been most
efficient in waging hostilities, it was resolved to commence
operations, against their most considerable town. Two hundred
volunteers were accordingly raised, and when rendezvoused at
Harrodsburg, were placed under the command of Col. Bowman, and
proceeded against Chillicothe.[17]
The expedition thus fitted out, arrived, by forced marches, near to
Chillicothe in the evening towards the latter end of July, 1779; and
on deliberation, it was agreed to defer the attack 'till next morning.
Before dawn the army was drawn up and arranged in order of battle. The
right wing led on by Col. Bowman, was to assume a position on one
side of the town, and the left, under Capt. Logan, was to occupy the
ground on the opposite side; and at a given signal, both were to
develope to the right and left, so as to encircle and attack it in
concert.[18] The party, led on by Logan, repaired to the point
assigned, and was waiting in anxious, but vain expectation for the
signal of attack to be given, when the attention of the Indians was
directed towards him by the barking of their dogs. At this instant a
gun was discharged by one of Bowman's men, and the whole village
alarmed. The squaws and children were hurried into the woods, along a
path not yet occupied by the assailants, and the warriors collected in
a strong cabin.[19] Logan, being near enough to perceive every
movement of the enemy, ordered his men quietly to occupy the deserted
huts, as a momentary shelter from the Indian fires, until Col. Bowman
should march forward. It was now light; and the savages began a
regular discharge of shot at his men, as they advanced to the deserted
cabins. This determined him to move directly to the attack of the
cabin, in which the warriors were assembled; and ordering his men to
tear off the doors and hold them in front, as a shield, while
advancing to the assault, he was already marching on the foe, when he
was overtaken by an order from Col. Bowman, to retreat.
Confounded by this command, Capt. Logan was for a time reluctant to
obey it; a retreat was however, directed; and each individual,
sensible of his great exposure while retiring from the towns, sought
to escape from danger, in the manner directed by his own judgment; and
fled to the woods at his utmost speed. There they rallied, and
resumed more of order, though still too much terrified to stand a
contest, when the Indians sallied out to give battle. Intimidated by
the apprehension of danger, which they had not seen, [197] but
supposed to be great from the retreating order of Col. Bowman, they
continued to fly before the savages, led on by their chief, the Black
Fish. At length they were brought to a halt, and opened a brisk,
though inefficient fire, upon their pursuers. Protected by bushes, the
Indians maintained their ground, 'till Capts. Logan and Harrod, with
some of the men under their immediate command, mounted on pack horses,
charged them with great spirit, and dislodged them from their covert.
Exposed in turn to the fire of the whites, and seeing their chief
fall, the savages took to flight, and Col. Bowman continued his
retreat homeward, free from farther interruption.[20]
In this illy conducted expedition, Col. Bowman had nine of his men
killed and one wounded. The Indian loss was no doubt less: only two or
three were known to be killed. Had the commanding officer, instead of
ordering a retreat when Logan's men were rushing bravely to the
conflict, marched with the right wing of the army to their aid, far
different would have been the result. The enemy, only thirty strong,
could not long have held out, against the bravery and impetuosity of
two hundred backwoodsmen, stimulated to exertion by repeated
suffering, and nerved by the reflection, that they were requiting it
upon its principal authors. Col. Bowman doubtless believed that he was
pursuing a proper course. The gallantry and intrepidity, displayed by
him on many occasions, forbid the supposition that he was under the
influence of any unmilitary feeling, and prompted to that course by a
disposition to shrink from ordinary dangers. His motives were
certainly pure, and his subsequent exertions to rally his men and
bring them to face the foe, were as great as could have been made by
any one; but disheartened by the fear of unreal danger, and in the
trepidation of a flight, deemed to be absolutely necessary for their
safety, they could not be readily brought to bear the brunt of battle.
The efforts of a few cool and collected individuals, drove back the
pursuers, and thus prevented an harrassed retreat.
Notwithstanding the frequent irruptions of the Indians, and the
constant exposure of the settlers to suffering and danger, Kentucky
increased rapidly in population. From the influx of emigrants during
the fall and winter months, the number of its inhabitants were
annually doubled for some years; and new establishments were made in
various parts of the country. In April 1779, a block house was erected
on the present site of Lexington,[21] and several stations were
selected in its vicinity, and in the neighborhood of the present town
of Danville. Settlements were also made, in that year, on the waters
of Bear Grass, Green and Licking rivers, and parts of the country
began to be distinguished by their interior and frontier situation.
-----
[1] Called by the English, Fort Sackville.--R. G. T.
[2] From Clark's Journal: "January 29.--M. Vigo, a Spanish
subject who had been at Post St. Vincents on his lawful
business, arrived and gave us intelligence that Governor
Hamilton, with thirty regulars and fifty volunteers and about
400 Indians, had arrived in November and taken that post with
Capt. Helms and such other Americans who were there with arms,
and disarmed the settlers and inhabitants."--R. G. T.
[3] Forty-six men, under Lieut. John Rogers, went with the
artillery and stores, in a large galley or batteau, called the
"Willing." The distance to Vincennes by land, was a hundred and
fifty miles.--R. G. T.
[4] The originals of the correspondence between Clark and Hamilton
are, with much other MS. material relative to the movements of
Clark, in possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Hamilton's letter, in a neat, scholarly hand, ran:
"Lieutenant Governor Hamilton proposes to Colonel Clark a Truce
for three days, during which time he promises, there shall not
be any defensive work carried on in the Garrison, on Condition
Colo^l. Clark shall observe on his part a like cessation from any
offensive Work--
"He further proposes that whatever may pass between them two and
any persons (mutually agreed upon to be) present, shall remain
secret, till matters be finally concluded--
"As he wishes that whatever the result of their conference may be
the honor and credit of each party may be considered, so he wishes
to confer with Colo^l. Clark as soon as may be--
"As Colo^l. Clark makes a difficulty of coming into the Garrison,
L^t. G. Hamilton will speak with him before the Gate--
Henry Hamilton.
"Feb^y. 24^th. 1779--Fort Sackville--"
Clark's gruff reply, in rugged, but not unclerical chirography, was
as follows:
"Colonel Clark's Compliments to M^r. Hamilton and begs leave to
inform him that Co^l. Clark will not agree to any Other Terms than
that of M^r. Hamilton's Surrendering himself and Garrison, Prisoners
at Discretion--
"If M^r. Hamilton is Desirous of a Conferance with Co^l. Clark he
will meet him at the Church with Capt^n. Helms--
"Feb^y. 24^th., 1779. G. R. CLARK."--R. G. T.
[5] Hamilton, in a letter of July 6, 1781, contained in the
Haldimand Papers, in the British Museum, gives what he calls "a
brief account" of his ill-starred expedition. See Roosevelt's
_Winning of the West, passim._--R. G. T.
[6] On the Tuscarawas River, about ten miles north of the
present New Philadelphia, O., and a mile south of what is now
Bolivar, Tuscarawas County. At the time Withers alludes to, it
was garrisoned by 150 men under Col. John Gibson.--R. G. T.
[7] Simon Girty and seventeen Indians, mostly Mingoes.
Withers confounds this raid with the more formidable siege in
February and March. In the January assault, Girty's band
ambushed Capt. John Clark, a sergeant, and fourteen men,
returning to Fort Pitt from convoying provisions to Fort
Laurens. Two whites were killed, four wounded, and one taken
prisoner. In February, came an attacking party of a hundred
and twenty Indians (mostly Wyandots and Mingoes), led by
Capt. Henry Bird, of the Eighth (or King's) Regiment; with
him were Simon Girty and ten soldiers. The enemy arrived
February 22, but remained in hiding. The next day Gibson sent
out a guard of eighteen men, despite warnings of the enemy's
presence, to assist the wagoner in collecting the horses of
the fort. All the party were killed and scalped, within
sight of the fort, save two, who were made prisoners. The fort
was then openly invested until March 20, when the besiegers
withdrew, torn with dissensions and short of supplies. See
Butterfield's _Washington-Irvine Correspondence_ for further
details.--R. G. T.
[8] Not to be confounded with George Rogers Clark, of
Kentucky.--R. G. T.
[9] The bodies of these men were found to have been much
devoured by the wolves, and bearing the appearance of having
been recently torn by them. With a view of taking revenge on
these animals for devouring their companions, the fatigue party
sent to bury their remains, after digging a grave sufficiently
capacious to contain all, and having deposited them in it, they
covered the pit with slender sticks, bark and rotten wood, too
weak to bear the weight of a wolf, and placed a piece of meat
on the top and near the center of this covering, as a bait. In
the morning seven wolves were found in the pit, and killed and
the grave then filled up.
[10] Boone had left Boonesborough January 8, in charge of
thirty men, to make salt at the Lower Blue Licks, on
Licking River. They carried with them, on horses, several
large boiling pans, given to the settlement by the government
of Virginia. So weak was the water there, that 840 gallons
were necessary to make a bushel of salt, against ninety at the
Kanawha salines, and forty at Onondaga. While the salt-makers
were at work, two or three others of the party served as
scouts and hunters; generally, Boone was one of these. This
day (Saturday, February 7) Boone started out alone with his
pack-horse for a supply of game, which usually was plenty in
the neighborhood of the salt licks; Thomas Brooks and
Flanders Callaway, his fellow scouts, were taking another
circuit. Having killed a buffalo, Boone was on his way home
in the afternoon, with the choicest of the meat packed upon
his horse. Snow was falling fast, and he was ten miles from
camp, when discovered by four Indians, outlying members of a
large party of Shawnees under Munseka and Black Fish, who
had taken the war-path to avenge the murder of Cornstalk
(see p. 172, _note_. 2). Benumbed by cold, and unable easily
to untie or cut the frozen thongs which bound on the pack,
Boone could not unload and mount the horse, and after a sharp
skirmish was captured, and led to the main Indian encampment, a
few miles away. Boone induced his fellow salt-makers to
surrender peaceably the following day (February 8); the number
of prisoners was, including Boone, twenty-seven--two scouts
and two salt-packers being absent. After a ten days'
"uncomfortable journey, in very severe weather," says Boone,
in which they "received as good treatment as prisoners could
expect from savages," the party arrived at Little Chillicothe,
on Little Miami--so called in contradistinction to Old
Chillicothe, on the Scioto. Boone's strong, compact build
caused the Indians to call him Big Turtle, and under that name
he was adopted as the son of Black Fish, who took a fancy
to him; sixteen of his companions were also adopted by other
warriors. The ten who were not adopted were, with Boone, taken
on a trip to Detroit (starting March 10), guarded by forty
Indians under Black Fish. The ten were sold to Lieut.
Governor Hamilton and citizens of Detroit, for L20 each,
the usual price for American prisoners. Boone remained in
Detroit until April 10, during which he was treated with
great courtesy by Hamilton, who offered Black Fish L100 for
him, but the latter declined and took the great pioneer home
with him; but Boone himself was given by Hamilton a horse and
trappings, with silver trinkets to give to the Indians. At
Little Chillicothe, Boone was kindly treated by Black Fish,
and little by little his liberty was extended. June 16,
while the family were making salt on the Scioto, preparatory
to another expedition against Boonesborough, Boone escaped
on the horse given him by Hamilton. After many curious
adventures, in the course of which he swam the Ohio, he
safely reached Boonesborough, June 20, having traveled, he
estimated, a hundred and sixty miles in four days. Boone's
wife and family, supposing him dead, had returned to their
old home in North Carolina, but Boone himself remained to
assist in the defense of Boonesborough against the impending
attack, of which he had brought intelligence.--R. G. T.
[11] This was William Hancock, who had, like Boone, been
adopted into an Indian family. Not so expert a woodsman as
Boone, he had consumed twelve days in the journey from
Chillicothe to Boonesborough, and suffered great hardships. He
arrived at the fort July 17. In consequence of Boone's escape,
he reported, the Indians had postponed their intended attack
for three weeks. The next day (July 18), Boone wrote to Arthur
Campbell, lieutenant of Washington County, Va. (the Holston
settlements, 200 miles away), that he expected the enemy in
twelve days, and that the fort was prepared for a siege of
three or four weeks; but relief would then be of infinite
service.--R. G. T.
[12] At the close of six weeks after Hancock's arrival, Boone
had become weary of waiting for the enemy, hence his expedition
with nineteen men--not ten, as in the text--against the Shawnee
town on Paint Creek, during the last week of August. It was the
5th of September when, undiscovered, he passed the Indian force
encamped at Lower Blue Licks, and the next day arrived at
Boonesborough.--R. G. T.
[13] About 10 A. M. of Monday, September 7,--Withers places
it a month, less a day, too early,--the hostiles crossed the
Kentucky a mile and a half above Boonesborough, at a point
since known as Black Fish's Ford, and soon made their
appearance marching single file, some of them mounted, along
the ridge south of the fort. They numbered about 400, and
displayed English and French flags. The strength of the force
has been variously estimated, from 330 Indians and 8 Frenchmen
(Col. John Bowman), to 444 Indians and 12 Frenchmen (Boone's
Narrative, by Filson). The English Indian department was
represented by Capt. Isidore Chene, who had with him several
other French-Canadians; there was also a negro named Pompey,
who had long lived with the Indians, and served them as
interpreter; the principal chiefs were, Black Fish, Moluntha,
Black Hoof, and Black Beard.--R. G. T.
[14] The garrison numbered, old and young, white and black,
sixty persons capable of bearing arms; only forty, however,
were really effective. Women and children, dressed and armed as
men, frequently appeared upon the walls, to give an appearance
of greater strength.--R. G. T.
[15] This ruse of the Indians was discovered on Friday, the
11th. The garrison commenced its countermine immediately, and
prosecuted the work for several days. The rival parties could
hear each other at work underground. When the Indians had
proceeded about forty yards, two-thirds of the distance from
the river bank, successive rainstorms had so saturated the
earth that sections of their tunnel caved in, and this it was
that frustrated their scheme.--R. G. T.
[16] When the Indians retired from before Boonesboro, one
hundred and twenty-five pounds weight of bullets were picked up
by the garrison, besides many that stuck in the logs of the
fort. A conclusive proof that the Indians were not idle, during
the continuance of the siege.
[17] John Bowman, of Harrodsburgh, was lieutenant of
Kentucky County, and colonel of its militia. During the
spring of 1779, there was a general desire to raid the
unsuspecting Shawnees, in retaliation for their invasions of
Kentucky, and Bowman decided to command in person this "first
regular enterprise to attack, in force, the Indians beyond the
Ohio, ever planned in Kentucky." The company of volunteers of
the interior rendezvoused in May at Harrodsburgh, and under
Capts. Benjamin Logan and Silas Harlan marched to Lexington,
where they met the Boonesborough company under Capt. John
Holder, and another party under Capt. Levi Todd. At the mouth
of the Licking (site of Covington, Ky.), the general
rendezvous agreed on, they found a company from the Falls
of the Ohio (site of Louisville), under Capt. William
Harrod. Also in the little army, which finally mustered 297
men, including officers, were frontiersmen from Redstone Old
Fort, and other settlements in the valleys of the Ohio and
Monongahela. The Redstone men were on their way home, when
they heard of the expedition, and joined it at the Licking;
they had been on a visit to Big Bone Lick, and had a
canoe-load of relics therefrom, which they were transporting
up river. The force crossed the Ohio, May 28, just below the
mouth of the Licking; 32 men remained behind in charge of the
boats, leaving 265 to set out for the Shawnee town of Little
Chillicothe, on the Little Miami, distant about sixty-five
miles northeast. George Clark and William Whitley were pilots,
and George M. Bedinger adjutant and quartermaster.--R. G. T.
[18] Without having seen an Indian, the expedition arrived in
sight of Little Chillicothe, at dusk of May 29--Withers places
the date two months ahead of the actual time. Capt. Logan had
charge of the left wing, Harrod of the right, and Holder of the
center. The white force now numbered 263--two men having
returned to the boats, disabled; the Indians numbered about 100
warriors and 200 squaws and children. Black Fish was the
principal village chief, and subordinate to him were Black Hoof
and Black Beard.--R. G. T.
[19] This was the council house, which was so stoutly
defended that the white assailants were glad to take
refuge in a neighboring hut, from which they escaped with
difficulty.--R. G. T.
[20] The chief cause of alarm, and the consequent disorder,
was a false report started among the whites, that Simon Girty
and a hundred Shawnees from the Indian village of Piqua, twelve
miles distant, were marching to the relief of Black Fish. Order
was soon restored, and when, fourteen miles out upon the
homeward trail, Indians were discovered upon their rear, the
enemy were met with vigor, and thereafter the retreat was
unhampered. The force reached the Ohio, just above the mouth of
the Little Miami, early on June 1. The "pack-horses" alluded to
by Withers, were 163 Indian ponies captured in the Chillicothe
woods; the other plunder was considerable, being chiefly silver
ornaments and clothing. After crossing the Ohio in boats--the
horses swimming--there was an auction of the booty, which was
appraised at L32,000, continental money, each man getting goods
or horses to the value of about L110. The Indian loss was five
killed at the town, and many wounded; the whites had seven men
killed. Little Chillicothe had been for the most part destroyed
by fire, and its crops destroyed. The newspapers of the day
regarded the expedition as an undoubted success.--R. G. T.
[21] George W. Ranck: "April 1. Robert Patterson, at the head
of twenty-five men, commenced a block house where Lexington now
stands."--R. G. T.
[198] CHAPTER XII.
In North Western Virginia, the frequent inroads of small parties of
savages in 1778, led to greater preparations for security, from
renewed hostilities after the winter should have passed away; and many
settlements received a considerable accession to their strength, from
the number of persons emigrating to them. In some neighborhoods, the
sufferings of the preceding season and the inability of the
inhabitants, from the paucity of their numbers, to protect themselves
from invasion, led to a total abandonment of their homes. The
settlement on Hacker's creek was entirely broken up in the spring of
1779,--some of its inhabitants forsaking the country and retiring east
of the mountains; while the others went to the fort on Buchannon, and
to Nutter's fort, near Clarksburg, to aid in resisting the foe and in
maintaining possession of the country. When the campaign of that year
opened, the whole frontier was better prepared to protect itself from
invasion and to shield its occupants from the wrath of the savage
enemy, than it had ever been, since it became the abode of white men.
There were forts in every settlement, into which the people could
retire when danger threatened, and which were capable of withstanding
the assaults of savages, however furious they might be, if having to
depend for success, on the use of small arms only. It was fortunate
for the country, that this was their dependence. A few well directed
shots even from small cannon, would have demolished [199] their
strongest fortress, and left them no hope from death, but captivity.
In the neighborhood of Pricket's fort, the inhabitants were early
alarmed, by circumstances which induced a belief that the Indians were
near, and they accordingly entered that garrison. It was soon
evident that their fears were groundless, but as the season was
fast approaching, when the savages might be expected to commence
depredations, they determined on remaining in the fort, of a
night, and yet prosecute the business of their farms as usual during
the day. Among those who were at this time in the fort, was David
Morgan, (a relation of General Daniel Morgan,) then upwards of sixty
years of age. Early in April, being himself unwell, he sent his
two children--Stephen, a youth of sixteen, and Sarah, a girl of
fourteen--to feed the cattle at his farm, about a mile off. The
children, thinking to remain all day and spend the time in preparing
ground for water melons, unknown to their father took with them
some bread and meat. Having fed the stock, Stephen set himself to
work, and while he was engaged in grubbing, his sister would remove
the brush, and otherwise aid him in the labor of clearing the
ground; occasionally going to the house to wet some linen which
she had spread out to bleach. Morgan, after the children had been
gone some time, betook himself to bed, and soon falling asleep,
dreamed that he saw Stephen and Sarah walking about the fort yard,
scalped. Aroused from slumber by the harrowing spectacle presented
to his sleeping view, he enquired if the children had returned,
and upon learning they had not, he set out to see what detained
them, taking with him his gun. As he approached the house, still
impressed with the horrible fear that he should find his dream
realized, he ascended an eminence, from which he could distinctly see
over his plantation, and descrying from thence the objects of his
anxious solicitude, he proceeded directly to them, and seated
himself on an old log, near at hand. He had been here but a few
minutes, before he saw two Indians come out from the house and make
toward the children. Fearing to alarm them too much, and thus
deprive them of the power of exerting themselves ably to make an
escape, he apprized them in a careless manner, of their danger,
and told them to run towards the fort--himself still maintaining
his seat on the log. The Indians then raised a hideous yell and
ran in pursuit; but the old [200] gentleman shewing himself at
that instant, caused them to forbear the chase, and shelter themselves
behind trees. He then endeavored to effect an escape, by flight, and
the Indians followed after him. Age and consequent infirmity,
rendered him unable long to continue out of their reach; and aware
that they were gaining considerably on him, he wheeled to shoot.
Both instantly sprang behind trees, and Morgan seeking shelter in
the same manner, got behind a sugar, which was so small as to leave
part of his body exposed. Looking round, he saw a large oak about
twenty yards farther, and he made to it. Just as he reached it, the
foremost Indian sought security behind the sugar sapling, which he
had found insufficient for his protection. The Indian, sensible that
it would not shelter him, threw himself down by the side of a log
which lay at the root of the sapling. But this did not afford him
sufficient cover, and Morgan, seeing him exposed to a shot, fired
at him. The ball took effect, and the savage, rolling over on his
back, stabbed himself twice in the breast.
Having thus succeeded in killing one of his pursuers, Morgan again
took to flight, and the remaining Indian after him. It was now that
trees could afford him no security--His gun was unloaded, and his
pursuer could approach him safely.--The unequal race was continued
about sixty yards, when looking over his shoulder, he saw the savage
within a few paces of him, and with his gun raised. Morgan sprang to
one side, and the ball whizzed harmlessly by him. The odds was now not
great, and both advanced to closer combat, sensible of the prize for
which they had to contend, and each determined, to deal death to his
adversary. Morgan aimed a blow with his gun; but the Indian hurled a
tomahawk at him, which cutting the little finger of his left hand
entirely off, and injuring the one next it very much, knocked the gun
out of his grasp, and they closed. Being a good wrestler, Morgan
succeeded in throwing the Indian; but soon found himself overturned,
and the savage upon him, feeling for his knife and sending forth a
most horrifick yell, as is their custom when they consider victory as
secure. A woman's apron, which he had taken from the house and
fastened round him above his knife, so hindered him in getting at it
quickly, that Morgan, getting one of his fingers in his mouth,
deprived him of the use of that hand, and disconcerted him very much
by continuing to grind it between his teeth. At length the [201]
Indian got hold of his knife, but so far towards the blade, that
Morgan too got a small hold on the extremity of the handle; and as the
Indian drew it from the scabbard, Morgan, biting his finger with all
his might, and thus causing him somewhat to relax his grasp, drew it
through his hand, gashing it most severely.
By this time both had gained their feet, and the Indian, sensible of
the great advantage gained over him, endeavored to disengage himself;
but Morgan held fast to the finger, until he succeeded in giving him a
fatal stab, and felt the almost lifeless body sinking in his arms. He
then loosened his hold and departed for the fort.
On his way he met with his daughter, who not being able to keep pace
with her brother, had followed his footsteps to the river bank where
he had plunged in, and was then making her way to the canoe. Assured
thus far of the safety of his children, he accompanied his daughter to
the fort, and then, in company with a party of the men, returned to
his farm, to see if there were any appearance of other Indians being
about there. On arriving at the spot where the desperate struggle had
been, the wounded Indian was not to be seen; but trailing him by the
blood which flowed profusely from his side, they found him concealed
in the branches of a fallen tree.--He had taken the knife from his
body, bound up the wound with the apron, and on their approaching him,
accosted them familiarly, with the salutation "How do do broder, how
do broder." Alas! poor fellow! their brotherhood extended no farther
than to the gratification of a vengeful feeling. He was tomahawked and
scalped; and, as if this would not fill the measure of their
vindictive passions, both he and his companion were flayed, their
skins tanned and converted into saddle seats, shot pouches and
belts--A striking instance of the barbarities, which a revengeful
spirit will lead its possessors to perpetrate.[1]
The alarm which had caused the people in the neighborhood of Pricket's
fort, to move into it for safety, induced two or three families on
Dunkard creek to collect at the house of Mr. Bozarth, thinking they
would be more exempt from danger when together, than if remaining at
their several homes. About the first of April, when only Mr. Bozarth
and two men were in the house, the children, who had been out at play,
came running into the yard, exclaiming that there were [202] "_ugly
red men coming._" Upon hearing this, one of the two men in the house,
going to the door to see if Indians really were approaching, received
a glancing shot on his breast, which caused him to fall back. The
Indian who had shot him, sprang in immediately after, and grappling
with the other white man, was quickly thrown on the bed. His
antagonist having no weapon with which to do him any injury called to
Mrs. Bozarth for a knife. Not finding one at hand, she siezed an axe,
and at one blow, let out the brains of the prostrate savage. At that
instant a second Indian entering the door, shot dead the man engaged
with his companion on the bed. Mrs. Bozarth turned on him, and with a
well directed blow, let out his entrails and caused him to bawl out
for help. Upon this, others of his party, who had been engaged with
the children in the yard, came to his relief. The first who thrust his
head in at the door, had it cleft by the axe of Mrs. Bozarth and fell
lifeless on the ground. Another, catching hold of his wounded, bawling
companion, drew him out of the house, when Mrs. Bozarth, with the aid
of the white man who had been first shot and was then somewhat
recovered, succeeded in closing and making fast the door. The children
in the yard were all killed, but the heroism and exertions of Mrs.
Bozarth and the wounded white man, enabled them to resist the
repeated attempts of the Indians, to force open the door, and to
maintain possession of the house, until they were relieved by a party
from the neighboring settlement.--The time occupied in this bloody
affair, from the first alarm by the children to the shutting of the
door, did not exceed three minutes. And in this brief space, Mrs.
Bozarth, with infinite self possession, coolness and intrepidity,
succeeded in killing three Indians.
On the eleventh of the same month, five Indians came to a house on
Snowy creek, (in the, now, county of Preston,) in which lived James
Brain and Richard Powell, and remained in ambush during the night,
close around it. In the morning early, the appearance of some ten or
twelve men, issuing from the house with guns, for the purpose of
amusing themselves in shooting at a mark, deterred the Indians from
making their meditated attack. The men seen by them, were travellers,
who had associated for mutual security, and who, after partaking of a
morning's repast, resumed their journey, unknown to the savages; when
Mr. Brain and the sons of Mr. Powell [203] went to their day's work.
Being engaged in carrying clap-boards for covering a cabin, at some
distance from the house, they were soon heard by the Indians, who,
despairing of succeeding in an attack on the house, changed their
position, & concealed themselves by the side of the path, along which
those engaged at work had to go. Mr. Brain and one of his sons being
at a little distance in front of them, they fired and Brain fell. He
was then tomahawked and scalped, while another of the party followed
and caught the son as he was attempting to escape by flight.
Three other boys were then some distance behind and out of sight, and
hearing the report of the gun which killed Brain, for an instant
supposed that it proceeded from the rifle of some hunter in quest of
deer. They were soon satisfied that this supposition was unfounded.
Three Indians came running towards them, bearing their guns in one
hand, and tomahawks in the other. One of the boys stupefied by
terror,--and unable to stir from the spot, was immediately made
prisoner. Another, the son of Powell, was also soon caught; but the
third, finding himself out of sight of his pursuer, ran to one side
and concealed himself in a bunch of alders, where he remained until
the Indian passed the spot where he lay, when he arose, and taking a
different direction, ran with all his speed, and effected an escape.
The little prisoners were then brought together; and one of Mr.
Powell's sons, being discovered to have but one eye, was stripped
naked, had a tomahawk sunk into his head, a spear ran through his
body, and the scalp then removed from his bleeding head.
The little Powell who had escaped from the savages, being forced to go
a direction opposite to the house, proceeded to a station about eight
miles off, & communicated intelligence of what had been done at
Brain's. A party of men equipped themselves and went immediately to
the scene of action; but the Indians had hastened homeward, as soon as
they perpetrated their horrid cruelties. One of their little captives,
(Benjamin Brain) being asked by them, "how many men were at the
house," replied "twelve." To the question, "how far from thence was
the nearest fort," he answered "two miles." Yet he well knew that
there was no fort, nearer than eight miles, and that there was not a
man at the house,--Mr. Powell being from home, and the twelve
travellers having departed, before his father and he had gone out to
[204] work. His object was to save his mother and the other women and
children, from captivity or death, by inducing them to believe that it
would be extremely dangerous to venture near the house. He succeeded
in the attainment of his object. Deterred by the prospect of being
discovered, and perhaps defeated by the superior force of the white
men, represented to be at Mr. Brain's, they departed in the greatest
hurry, taking with them their two little prisoners, Benjamin and Isaac
Brain.
So stilly had the whole affair been conducted (the report of a gun
being too commonly heard to excite any suspicion of what was doing,)
and so expeditiously had the little boy who escaped, and the men who
accompanied him back, moved in their course, that the first intimation
given Mrs. Brain of the fate of her husband, was given by the men who
came in pursuit.
Soon after the happening of this affair, a party of Indians came into
the Buchannon settlement, and made prisoner Leonard Schoolcraft, a
youth of about sixteen, who had been sent from the fort on some
business.--When arrived at their towns and arrangements being made for
his running the gauntlet, he was told that he might defend himself
against the blows of the young Indians who were to pursue him to the
council house. Being active and athletic, he availed himself of this
privilege, so as to save himself from the beating which he would
otherwise have received, and laying about him with well timed blows,
frequently knocked down those who came near to him--much to the
amusement of the warriors, according to the account given by others,
who were then prisoners and present. This was the last certain
information which was ever had concerning him. He was believed
however, to have been afterwards in his old neighborhood in the
capacity of guide to the Indians, and aiding them, by his knowledge of
the country, in making successful incursions into it.
In the month of June, at Martin's fort on Crooked Run, another
murderous scene was exhibited by the savages. The greater part of the
men having gone forth early to their farms, and those who remained,
being unapprehensive of immediate danger, and consequently supine and
careless, the fort was necessarily, easily accessible, and the
vigilance of the savages who were lying hid around it, discovering its
exposed and [205] weakened situation, seized the favorable moment to
attack those who were without. The women were engaged in milking the
cows outside the gate, and the men who had been left behind were
loitering around. The Indians rushed forward, and killed and made
prisoners of ten of them. James Stuart, James Smally and Peter Crouse,
were the only persons who fell, and John Shiver and his wife, two sons
of Stuart, two sons of Smally and a son of Crouse, were carried into
captivity. According to their statement upon their return, there were
thirteen Indians in the party which surprised them, and emboldened by
success, instead of retreating with their prisoners, remained at a
little distance from the fort 'till night, when they put the captives
in a waste house near, under custody of two of the savages, while the
remaining eleven, went to see if they could not succeed in forcing an
entrance at the gate. But the disaster of the morning had taught the
inhabitants the necessity of greater watchfulness. The dogs were shut
out at night, and the approach of the Indians exciting them to bark
freely, gave notice of impending danger, in time for them to avert it.
The attempt to take the fort being thus frustrated, the savages
returned to the house in which the prisoners were confined, and moved
off with them to their towns.
In August, two daughters of Captain David Scott living at the mouth of
Pike run, going to the meadow with dinner for the mowers, were taken
by some Indians who were watching the path. The younger was killed on
the spot; but the latter being taken some distance farther, and every
search for her proving unavailing, her father fondly hoped that she
had been carried into captivity, and that be might redeem her. For
this purpose he visited Pittsburg and engaged the service of a
friendly Indian to ascertain where she was and endeavour to prevail on
them to ransom her. Before his return from Fort Pitt, some of his
neighbors directed to the spot by the buzzards hovering over it, found
her half eaten and mutilated body.
In September, Nathaniel Davisson and his brother, being on a hunting
expedition up Ten Mile, left their camp early on the morning of the
day on which they intended to return home; and naming an hour at which
they would be back, proceeded through the woods in different
directions. At the appointed time, Josiah went to the camp, and after
waiting there in vain for the arrival of his brother, and becoming
uneasy lest [206] some unlucky accident had befallen him, he set out
in search of him. Unable to see or hear anything of him he returned
home, and prevailed on several of his neighbors to aid in endeavouring
to ascertain his fate. Their search was likewise unavailing; but in
the following March, he was found by John Read, while hunting in that
neighborhood. He had been shot and scalped; and notwithstanding he
had lain out nearly six months, yet he was but little torn by wild
beasts, and was easily recognized.
During this year too, Tygarts Valley, which had escaped being visited
by the Indians in 1778 again heard their harrowing yells; and although
but little mischief was done by them while there, yet its inhabitants
were awhile, kept in fearful apprehension that greater ills would
betide them. In October of this year, a party of them lying in ambush
near the road, fired several shots at Lieut. John White, riding by,
but with no other effect than by wounding the horse to cause him to
throw his rider. This was fatal to White. Being left on foot and on
open ground, he was soon shot, tomahawked and scalped.
As soon as this event was made known, Capt. Benjamin Wilson, with his
wonted promptitude and energy, raised a company of volunteers, and
proceeding by forced marches to the Indian crossing at the mouth of
the Sandy fork of Little Kenhawa, he remained there nearly three days
with a view to intercept the retreat of the savages. They however,
returned by another way and his scheme, of cutting them off while
crossing the river, consequently failed.
Some time after this several families in the Buchannon settlement,
left the fort and returned to their homes, under the belief that
the season had advanced too far, for the Indians again to come among
them. But they were sorely disappointed. The men being all assembled
at the fort for the purpose of electing a Captain, some Indians
fell upon the family of John Schoolcraft, and killed the women and
eight children,--two little boys only were taken prisoners. A
small girl, who had been scalped and tomahawked 'till a portion of
her brains was forced from her head, was found the next day yet
alive, and continued to live for several days, the brains still oozing
from the fracture of her skull.
The last mischief that was done this fall, was perpetrated at the house
of Samuel Cottrail near to the present town of Clarksburg.--During the
night considerable fear was excited, both at Cottrial's and at Sotha
Hickman's on the opposite side of Elk creek, by the continued barking
of the dogs, that Indians were lurking near, and in consequence of this
apprehension Cottrial, on going to bed, secured well the doors and
directed that no one should stir out in the morning until it was
ascertained that there was no danger threatening. A while before
day, Cottrial being fast asleep, Moses Coleman, who lived with him,
got up, shelled some corn, and giving a few ears to Cottrial's
nephew with directions to feed the pigs around [207] the yard, went to
the hand mill in an out house, and commenced grinding. The little boy,
being squatted down shelling the corn to the pigs, found himself
suddenly drawn on his back and an Indian standing over him, ordering
him to lie there. The savage then turned toward the house in which
Coleman was, fired, and as Coleman fell ran up to scalp him.
Thinking this a favorable time for him to reach the dwelling house,
the little boy sprang to his feet, and running to the door, it was
opened and he admitted. Scarcely was it closed after him, when one
of the Indians with his tomahawk endeavored to break it open.
Cottrail fired through the door at him, and he went off. In order to
see if others were about, and to have a better opportunity of shooting
with effect, Cottrail ascended the loft, and looking through a crevice
saw them hastening away through the field and at too great distance
for him to shoot with the expectation of injuring them. Yet he
continued to fire and halloo; to give notice of danger to those who
lived near him.
The severity of the following winter put a momentary stop to savage
inroad, and gave to the inhabitants on the frontier an interval of
quiet and repose extremely desirable to them, after the dangers and
confinement of the preceding season. Hostilities were however, resumed
upon the first appearance of spring, and acts of murder and
devastation, which had, of necessity, been suspended for a time, were
begun to be committed, with a firm determination on the part of the
savages, utterly to exterminate the inhabitants of the western
country. To effect this object, an expedition was concerted between
the British commandant at Detroit and the Indian Chiefs north west of
the Ohio to be carried on by their united forces against Kentucky,
while an Indian army alone, was to penetrate North Western Virginia,
and spread desolation over its surface. No means which could avail to
ensure success and which lay within their reach, were left unemployed.
The army destined to operate against Kentucky, was to consist of six
hundred Indians and Canadians, to be commanded by Col. Byrd (a British
officer) and furnished with every implement of destruction, from the
war club of the savages, to the cannon of their allies.[2] Happily for
North Western Virginia, its situation exempted its inhabitants from
having to contend against these instruments of war; the want of roads
prevented the transportation of cannon through the intermediate
forests, and the difficulty and labor of propelling them up the Ohio
river, forbade the attempt in that way.
While the troops were collecting for these expeditions, and other
preparations were making for carrying them on, the settlements of
North Western Virginia were not free from invasion. Small parties of
Indians would enter them at unguarded moments, and kill and plunder,
whenever opportunities occurred of their being done with impunity, and
then retreat to their villages. Early in March (1780) Thomas Lackey
discovered some mocason tracks near the upper extremity of Tygarts
Valley, and thought he heard a voice saying in [208] an under tone,
"_let him alone, he will go and bring more_." Alarmed by these
circumstances, he proceeded to Hadden's fort and told there what he
had seen, and what he believed, he had heard. Being so early in the
season and the weather yet far from mild, none heeded his tale, and
but few believed it. On the next day however, as Jacob Warwick,
William Warwick and some others from Greenbrier were about leaving the
fort on their return home, it was agreed that a company of men should
accompany them some distance on the road. Unapprehensive of danger, in
spite of the warning of Lackey, they were proceeding carelessly on
their way, when they were suddenly attacked by some Indians lying in
ambush, near to the place, where the mocason tracks had been seen on
the preceding day. The men on horse back, all got safely off; but
those on foot were less fortunate. The Indians having occupied the
pass both above and below, the footmen had no chance of escape but in
crossing the river and ascending a steep bluff, on its opposite side.
In attempting this several lost their lives. John McLain was killed
about thirty yards from the brow of the hill.--James Ralston, when a
little farther up it, and James Crouch was wounded after having nearly
reached its summit, yet he got safely off and returned to the fort on
the next day. John Nelson, after crossing over, endeavored to escape
down the river; but being there met by a stout warrior, he too was
killed, after a severe struggle. His shattered gun breech, the uptorn
earth, and the locks of Indian hair in his yet clenched hands, showed
that the victory over him had not been easily won.
Soon after this, the family of John Gibson were surprised at their
sugar camp, on a branch of the Valley river, and made prisoners. Mrs.
Gibson, being incapable of supporting the fatigue of walking so far
and fast, was tomahawked and scalped in the presence of her children.
West's fort on Hacker's creek, was also visited by the savages, early
in this year.[3] The frequent incursions of the Indians into this
settlement, in the year 1778, had caused the inhabitants to desert
their homes the next year, and shelter themselves in places of greater
security; but being unwilling to give up the improvements which they
had already made and commence anew in the woods, some few families
returned to it during the winter, & on the approach of spring, moved
into the fort. They had not been long here, before the savages made
their appearance, and continued to invest the fort for some time. Too
weak to sally out and give them battle, and not knowing when to expect
relief, the inhabitants were almost reduced to despair, when Jesse
Hughs resolved at his own hazard, to try to obtain assistance to drive
off the enemy. Leaving the fort at night, he broke by their sentinels
and ran with speed to the Buchannon fort. Here he prevailed on a party
of the men to accompany him to West's, and relieve those who had been
so long confined there. They arrived before day, and it was thought
advisable to abandon the place once more, and remove to Buchannon. On
their way, the [209] Indians used every artifice to separate the
party, so as to gain an advantageous opportunity of attacking them;
but in vain. They exercised so much caution, and kept so well
together, that every stratagem was frustrated, and they all reached
the fort in safety.
Two days after this, as Jeremiah Curl, Henry Fink and Edmund West, who
were old men, and Alexander West,[4] Peter Cutright, and Simon
Schoolcraft, were returning to the fort with some of their neighbor's
property, they were fired at by the Indians who were lying concealed
along a run bank. Curl was slightly wounded under the chin, but
disdaining to fly without making a stand he called to his companions,
"_stand your ground, for we are able to whip them._" At this instant a
lusty warrior drew a tomahawk from his belt and rushed towards him.
Nothing daunted by the danger which seemed to threaten him, Curl
raised his gun; but the powder being damped by the blood from his
wound, it did not fire. He instantly picked up West's gun (which he
had been carrying to relieve West of part of his burden) and
discharging it at his assailant, brought him to the ground.
The whites being by this time rid of their encumbrances, the Indians
retreated in two parties and pursued different routes, not however
without being pursued. Alexander West being swift of foot, soon came
near enough to fire, and brought down a second, but having only
wounded him, and seeing the Indians spring behind trees, he could not
advance to finish him; nor could he again shoot at him, the flint
having fallen out when he first fired. Jackson (who was hunting sheep
not far off) hearing the report of the guns, ran towards the spot, and
being in sight of the Indian when West shot, saw him fall and
afterwards recover and hobble off. Simon Schoolcraft, following after
West, came to him just after Jackson, with his gun cocked; and asking
where the Indians were, was advised by Jackson to get behind a tree,
or they would soon let him know where they were. Instantly the report
of a gun was heard, and Schoolcraft let fall his arm. The ball had
passed through it, and striking a steel tobacco box in his waistcoat
pocket, did him no farther injury. Cutright, when West fired at one of
the Indians, saw another of them drop behind a log, and changing his
position, espied him, where the log was a little raised from the
earth. With steady nerves, he drew upon him. The moaning cry of the
savage, as he sprang from the ground and moved haltingly away,
convinced them that the shot had taken effect. The rest of the Indians
continued behind trees, until they observed a reinforcement coming up
to the aid of the whites, and they fled with the utmost precipitancy.
Night soon coming on, those who followed them, had to give over the
pursuit.
A company of fifteen men went early next morning to the battle ground,
and taking the trail of the Indians and pursuing it some distance,
came to where they had some horses (which they had stolen after the
skirmish) hobbled out on a fork of Hacker's creek. They [210] then
found the plunder which the savages had taken from neighboring houses,
and supposing that their wounded warriors were near, the whites
commenced looking for them, when a gun was fired at them by an Indian
concealed in a laurel thicket, which wounded John Cutright.[5] The
whites then caught the stolen horses and returned with them and the
plunder to the fort.
For some time after this, there was nothing occurring to indicate the
presence of Indians in the Buchannon settlement, and some of those who
were in the fort, hoping that they should not be again visited by them
this season, determined on returning to their homes. Austin
Schoolcraft was one of these, and being engaged in removing some of
his property from the fort, as he and his niece were passing through a
swamp in their way to his house, they were shot at by some Indians.
Mr. Schoolcraft was killed and his niece taken prisoner.
In June, John Owens, John Juggins and Owen Owens, were attacked by
some Indians, as they were going to their cornfield on Booth's creek;
and the two former were killed and scalped. Owen Owens being some
distance behind them, made his escape to the fort. John Owens the
younger, who had been to the pasture field for the plough horses,
heard the guns, but not suspecting any danger to be near, rode forward
towards the cornfield. As he was proceeding along the path by a fence
side, riding one and leading another horse, he was fired at by several
Indians, some of whom afterwards rushed forward and caught at the
bridle reins; yet he escaped unhurt from them all.
The savages likewise visited Cheat river, during the spring, and
coming to the house of John Sims, were discovered by a negro woman,
who ran immediately to the door and alarmed the family.--Bernard Sims
(just recovering from the small pox) taking down his gun, and going to
the door, was shot. The Indians, perceiving that he was affected with
a disease, of all others the most terrifying to them, not only did not
perform the accustomed operation of scalping, but retreated with as
much rapidity, as if they had been pursued by an overwhelming force of
armed men,--exclaiming as they ran "_small pox, small pox._"
After the attack on Donnelly's fort in May 1778, the Indians made no
attempt to effect farther mischiefs in the Greenbrier country, until
this year. The fort at Point Pleasant guarded the principal pass to
the settlements on the Kenhawa, in the Levels, and on Greenbrier
river, and the reception with which they had met at Col. Donnelly's,
convinced them that not much was to be gained by incursions into that
section of the frontiers. But as they were now making great
preparations for effectual operations against the whole border
country, a party of them was despatched to this portion of it, at once
for the purpose of rapine and murder, and to ascertain the state of
the country and its capacity to resist invasion.
The party then sent into Greenbrier consisted of twenty-two [211]
warriors, and committed their first act of atrocity near the house of
Lawrence Drinnan, a few miles above the Little Levels. Henry Baker and
Richard Hill, who were then staying there, going early in the morning
to the river to wash, were shot at by them: Baker was killed, but Hill
escaped back to the house. When the Indians fired at Baker, he was
near a fence between the river and Drinnan's and within gunshot of the
latter place. Fearing to cross the fence for the purpose of scalping
him, they prized it up, and with a pole fastening a noose around his
neck, drew him down the river bank & scalped and left him there.
Apprehensive of an attack on the house, Mr. Drinnan made such
preparations as were in his power to repel them, and despatched a
servant to the Little Levels, with the intelligence and to procure
assistance. He presently returned with twenty men, who remained there
during the night, but in the morning, seeing nothing to contradict the
belief that the Indians had departed, they buried Baker, and set out
on their return to the Levels, taking with them all who were at
Drinnan's and the most of his property. Arrived at the fork of the
road, a question arose whether they should take the main route,
leading through a gap which was deemed a favorable situation for an
ambuscade, or continue on the farther but more open and secure way. A
majority preferred the latter; but two young men, by the name of
Bridger, separated from the others, and travelling on the nearer path,
were both killed at the place, where it was feared danger might be
lurking.
The Indians next proceeded to the house of Hugh McIver, where they
succeeded in killing its owner, and in making prisoner his wife; and
in going from thence, met with John Prior, who with his wife and
infant were on their way to the country on the south side of the Big
Kenawha. Prior was shot through the breast, but anxious for the fate
of his wife and child, stood still, 'till one of the Indians came up
and laid hold on him. Notwithstanding the severe wound which he had
received, Prior proved too strong for his opponent, and the other
Indians not interfering, forced him at length to disengage himself
from the struggle. Prior, then seeing that no violence was offered to
Mrs. Prior or the infant, walked off without any attempt being made to
stop, or otherwise molest him: the Indians no doubt suffering him to
depart under the expectation that he would obtain assistance and
endeavor to regain his wife and child, and that an opportunity of
waylaying any party coming with this view, would be [212] then
afforded them. Prior returned to the settlement, related the above
incidents and died that night. His wife and child were never after
heard of, and it is highly probable they were murdered on their way,
as being unable to travel as expeditiously as the Indians wished.
They next went to a house, occupied by Thomas Drinnon and a Mr. Smith
with their families, where they made prisoners of Mrs. Smith, Mrs.
Drinnon and a child; and going then towards their towns, killed, on
their way, an old gentleman by the name of Monday and his wife. This
was the last outrage committed by the Indians in the Greenbrier
settlements. And although the war was carried on by them against the
frontier settlements, with energy for years after, yet did they not
again attempt an incursion into it. Its earlier days had been days of
tribulation and wo, and those who were foremost in occupying and
forming settlements in it, had to endure all that savage fury could
inflict. Their term of probation, was indeed of comparatively short
duration, but their sufferings for a time, were many and great. The
scenes of murder and blood, exhibited on Muddy creek and the Big
Levels in 1776, will not soon be effaced from the memory; and the
lively interest excited in the bosoms of many, for the fate of those
who there treacherously perished, unabated by time, still gleams in
the countenance, when tradition recounts the tale of their unhappy
lot.
-----
[1] L. V. McWhorter, of Berlin, W. Va., writes me: "A few
years ago, the descendants of David Morgan erected a monument
on the spot where fell one of the Indians. On the day of the
unveiling of the monument, there was on exhibition at the spot,
a shot-pouch and saddle skirt made from the skins of the
Indians. Greenwood S. Morgan, a great-grandson of the Indian
slayer, informs me that the shot-pouch is now in the possession
of a distant relative, living in Wetzel County, W. Va. The
knife with which the Indian was killed, is owned by Morgan's
descendants in Marion County, W. Va."--R. G. T.
[2] See p. 262, _note_, for account of Capt. Henry Bird's
attack on Fort Laurens.--R. G. T.
[3] Mr. McWhorter says that this fort stood on an eminence,
where is now the residence of Minor C. Hall. Upon the fort
being abandoned by the settlers, the Indians burned it. When
the whites again returned to their clearings, a new fort was
erected, locally called Beech Fort, "because built entirely of
beech logs--beech trees standing very thick in this locality."
Beech Fort was not over 500 yards from the old West Fort; it
was "in a marshy flat, some 75 yards east of the house built by
the pioneer Henry McWhorter, and still extant as the residence
of Ned J. Jackson." In the same field where Beech Fort was,
"Alexander West discovered an Indian one evening; he fired and
wounded him in the shoulder. The Indian made off, and fearing
an ambuscade West would not venture in pursuit. Two weeks
later, he ventured to hunt for the red man. Two miles distant,
on what is now known as Life's Run, a branch of Hacker's Creek,
the dead savage was found in a cleft of rocks, into which he
had crawled and miserably perished. His shoulder was badly
crushed by West's bullet."
Henry McWhorter, born in Orange County, N. Y., November 13,
1760, was a soldier in the Revolution, from 1777 to the
close. In 1784, he settled about two miles from West's Fort;
three years later, he moved nearer to the fort, and there
built the house of hewn logs, mentioned above, which "is
to-day in a good state of preservation." McWhorter died
February 4, 1848.--R. G. T.
[4] Alexander West was prominent as a frontier scout. Rev.
J. M. McWhorter, who saw him frequently, gives this description
of him: "A tall, spare-built man, very erect, strong, lithe,
and active; dark-skinned, prominent Roman nose, black hair,
very keen eyes; not handsome, rather raw-boned, but with an air
and mien that commanded the attention and respect of those with
whom he associated. Never aggressive, he lifted his arm against
the Indians only in time of war." West died in 1834. His house
of hewed logs is, with its large barn, still standing and
occupied by his relatives, about a mile east of the site of
West's Fort.--R. G. T.
[5] L. V. McWhorter says: "The branch of Hacker's creek on
which John Cutright was wounded, is now known as Laurel Lick,
near Berlin, W. Va." For notice of Cutright, see p. 137,
_note_.--R. G. T.
[213] CHAPTER XIII.
Early in June 1780, every necessary preparation having been previously
made, the Indian and Canadian forces destined to invade Kentucky,
moved from their place of rendezvous, to fulfil the objects of the
expedition. In their general plan of the campaign, Louisville was the
point against which operations were first to be directed. The hero of
Kaskaskias and St. Vincent had been for some time stationed there,
with a small body of troops, to intercept the passage of war parties
into the interior, and the force thus placed under his command, having
been considerably augmented by the arrival of one hundred and fifty
Virginia soldiers under Colonel Slaughter, that place had assumed the
appearance of a regular fortification, capable of withstanding a
severe shock;[1] while detachments from it gave promise of security to
the settlements remote from the river, as well by detecting and
checking every attempt at invasion, as by acting offensively against
the main Indian towns, from which hostile parties would sally,
spreading desolation along their path. The reduction of this
establishment, would at once give wider scope to savage hostilities
and gratify the wounded pride of the Canadians. Stung by the boldness
and success of Colonel Clarke's adventure, and fearing the effect
which it might have on their Indian allies, they seemed determined to
achieve a victory over him, and strike a retributive blow against the
position which he then held.
[214] It is highly probable however, that the reputation which, the
gallant exploits of Colonel Clarke had acquired for him, induced some
doubts, in the minds of the commanding officers, of the ultimate
success of a movement against that post.[2] They changed their
destination; and when their army arrived in their boats at the Ohio,
instead of floating with its rapid current to the point proposed, they
chose to stem the stream; and availing themselves of an uncommon swell
of the waters, ascended the river Licking to its forks, where they
landed their men and munitions of war.[3]
Not far from the place of debarkation, there was a station,[4] reared
under the superintendence of Captain Ruddle, and occupied by several
families and many adventurers. Thither Colonel Byrd, with his combined
army of Canadians and Indians then amounting to one thousand men,
directed his march; and arriving before it on the 22d of June, gave
the first notice, which the inhabitants had of the presence of an
enemy, by a discharge of his cannon. He then sent in a flag, demanding
the immediate surrender of the place. Knowing that it was impossible
to defend the station against artillery, Captain Ruddle consented to
surrender it, provided the inhabitants should be considered prisoners
to the British, and not to the Indians. To this proposition Colonel
Byrd assented, and the gates were thrown open. The savages instantly
rushed in, each laying his hands on the first person with whom he
chanced to meet. Parents and children, husbands and wives, were thus
torn from each other; and the [214] air was rent with sighs of
wailing, and shrieks of agony. In vain did Captain Ruddle exclaim,
against the enormities which were perpetrated in contravention to the
terms of capitulation. To his remonstrances, Colonel Byrd replied that
he was unable to control them, and affirmed, that he too was in their
power.
That Colonel Byrd was really unable to check the enormities of the
savages, will be readily admitted, when the great disparity of the
Canadian and Indian troops, and the lawless and uncontrolable temper
of the latter, are taken into consideration. That he had the
inclination to stop them, cannot be [215] doubted--his subsequent
conduct furnished the most convincing evidence, that the power to
effect it, was alone wanting in him.[5]
After Ruddle's station had been completely sacked, and the prisoners
disposed of, the Indians clamoured to be led against Martin's station,
then only five miles distant. Affected with the barbarities which he
had just witnessed, Colonel Byrd peremptorily refused, unless the
chiefs would guaranty that the prisoners, which might be there taken,
should be entirely at his disposal. For awhile the Indians refused to
accede to these terms, but finding Colonel Byrd, inflexible in his
determination, they at length consented, that the prisoners should be
his, provided the plunder were allowed to them.--Upon this agreement,
they marched forward. Martin's station, like Ruddle's, was incapable
of offering any available opposition. It was surrendered on the first
summons, and the prisoners and plunder divided, in conformity with the
compact between Colonel Byrd and the savages.
The facility, with which these conquests were made, excited the thirst
of the Indians for more. Not satisfied with the plundering of Ruddle's
and Martin's stations, their rapacity prompted them to insist on going
against Bryant's and Lexington. Prudence forbade it. The waters were
rapidly subsiding, and the fall of the Licking river, would have
rendered it impracticable to convey their artillery to the Ohio. Their
success too, was somewhat doubtful; and it was even then difficult to
procure provisions, for the subsistence of the prisoners already
taken.[6] Under the influence of these considerations, Colonel Byrd
determined to return to the boats, and embarking on these his
artillery and the Canadian troops, descended the river; while the
Indians, with their plunder, and the prisoners taken at Ruddle's,
moved across the country.
Among those who were taken captive at Ruddle's station, was a man of
the name of Hinkstone, remarkable for activity and daring, and for
uncommon tact and skill as a woodsman. On the second night of their
march, the Indians encamped on the bank of the river, and in
consequence of a sudden shower of rain, postponed kindling their fires
until dark, when part of the savages engaged in this business, while
the remainder guarded the prisoners. Hinkstone thought the darkness
favorable to escape, and inviting its attempt. He resolved on trying
it, and springing suddenly from them, ran a small [216] distance and
concealed himself behind a large log, under the shade of a wide
spreading tree. The alarm was quickly given, and the Indians,
pursuing, searched for him in every direction. It was fruitless and
unavailing. Hid in thick obscurity, no eye could distinguish his
prostrate body. Perceiving at length, by the subsiding of the noise
without the camp, that the Indians had abandoned the search, he
resumed his flight, with the stillness of death. The heavens afforded
him no sign, by which he could direct his steps. Not a star twinkled
through the dark clouds which enveloped the earth, to point out his
course. Still he moved on, as he supposed, in the direction of
Lexington. He had mistaken the way, and a short space of time, served
to convince him that he was in error. After wandering about for two
hours, he came in sight of the Indian fires again. Perplexed by his
devious ramble, he was more at fault than ever. The sky was still all
darkness, and he had recourse to the trees in vain, to learn the
points of the compass by the feeling of the moss. He remembered that
at nightfall, the wind blew a gentle breeze from the west; but it had
now, become so stilled, that it no longer made any impression on him.
The hunter's expedient, to ascertain the direction of the air,
occurred to him.--He dipped his finger in water, and, knowing that
evaporation and coolness would be first felt on the side from which
the wind came, he raised it high in the air. It was enough.--Guided by
this unerring indication, and acting on the supposition that the
current of air still flowed from the point from which it had proceeded
at night, he again resumed his flight. After groping in the wilderness
for some time, faint and enfeebled, he sat down to rest his wearied
limbs, and sought their invigoration in refreshing sleep. When he
awoke, fresh dangers encircled him, but he was better prepared to
elude, or encounter them.
At the first dawn of day, his ears were assailed by the tremulous
bleating of the fawn, the hoarse gobbling of the turkey, and the
peculiar sounds of other wild animals. Familiar with the deceptive
artifices, practised to allure game to the hunter, he was quickly
alive to the fact, that they were the imitative cries of savages in
quest of provisions. Sensible of his situation, he became vigilant to
discover the approach of danger, and active in avoiding it. Several
times however, with all his wariness, he found himself within a few
paces of [217] some one of the Indians; but fortunately escaping their
observation, made good his escape, and reached Lexington in safety,
gave there the harrowing intelligence of what had befallen the
inhabitants of Ruddle's and Martin's stations.
The Indians after the escape of Hinkstone, crossed the Ohio river at
the mouth of Licking, and, separating into small parties, proceeded to
their several villages. The Canadian troops descended Licking to the
Ohio, and this river to the mouth of the Great Miami, up which they
ascended as far as it was navigable for their boats, and made their
way thence by land to Detroit.
The Indian army destined to operate against North Western Virginia,
was to enter the country in two divisions of one hundred and fifty
warriors each; the one crossing the Ohio near below Wheeling, the
other, at the mouth of Racoon creek, about sixty miles farther up.
Both were, avoiding the stronger forts, to proceed directly to
Washington, then known as Catfishtown, between which place and the
Ohio, the whole country was to be laid waste.
The division crossing below Wheeling, was soon discovered by scouts,
who giving the alarm, caused most of the inhabitants of the more
proximate settlements, to fly immediately to that place, supposing
that an attack was meditated on it. The Indians however, proceeded
on the way to Washington making prisoners of many, who, although
apprized that an enemy was in the country, yet feeling secure in
their distance from what was expected to be the theatre of operations,
neglected to use the precaution necessary to guard them against
becoming captives to the savages. From all the prisoners, they
learned the same thing,--that the inhabitants had gone to Wheeling
with a view of concentrating the force of the settlements to effect
their repulsion. This intelligence alarmed them. The chiefs held a
council, in which it was determined, instead of proceeding to
Washington, to retrace their steps across the Ohio, lest their
retreat, if delayed 'till the whites had an opportunity of organizing
themselves for battle, should be entirely cut off. Infuriate at the
blasting of their hopes of blood and spoil, they resolved to murder
all their male prisoners--exhausting on their devoted heads, the
fury of disappointed expectation. Preparations to carry this
resolution into effect, were immediately begun to be made.
The unfortunate victims to their savage wrath, were led [218] forth
from among their friends and their families,--their hands were
pinioned behind them,--a rope was fastened about the neck of each and
that bound around a tree, so as to prevent any motion of the head.
The tomahawk and scalping knife were next drawn from their belts, and
the horrid purpose of these preparations, fully consummated.
"Imagination's utmost stretch" can hardly fancy a more heart-rending
scene than was there exhibited. Parents, in the bloom of life and glow
of health, mercilessly mangled to death, in the presence of children,
whose sobbing cries served but to heighten the torments of the
dying.--Husbands, cruelly lacerated, and by piece-meal deprived of
life, in view of the tender partners of their bosoms, whose agonizing
shrieks, increasing the anguish of torture, sharpened the sting of
death. It is indeed
----"A fearful thing,
To see the human soul, take wing,
In any shape,--in any mood;"
but that wives and children should be forced to behold the last ebb of
life, and to witness the struggle of the departing spirit of husbands
and fathers, under such horrific circumstances, is shocking to
humanity, and appalling, even in contemplation.
Barbarities such as these, had considerable influence on the temper
and disposition of the inhabitants of the country. They gave birth to
a vindictive feeling in many, which led to the perpetration of similar
enormities and sunk civilized man, to the degraded level of the
barbarian. They served too, to arouse them to greater exertion, to
subdue the savage foe in justifiable warfare, and thus prevent their
unpleasant recurrence.
So soon as the Indian forces effected a precipitate retreat across the
Ohio, preparations were begun to be made for acting offensively
against them. An expedition was concerted, to be carried on
against the towns at the forks of the Muskingum; and through the
instrumentality of Col's Zane and Shepard, Col. Broadhead, commander
of the forces at Fort Pitt, was prevailed upon to co-operate in it.[7]
Before however, it could be carried into effect, it was deemed
advisable to proceed against the Munsie towns, up the north branch of
the Alleghany river; the inhabitants of which, had been long engaged
in active [219] hostilities, and committed frequent depredations on
the frontiers of Pennsylvania. In the campaign against them, as many
of those, who resided in the settlements around Wheeling, as could
be spared from the immediate defence of their own neighborhoods,
were consociated with the Pennsylvania troops, and the regulars under
Col. Broadhead. It eventuated in the entire destruction of all their
corn, (upwards of 200 acres,) and in the cutting off a party of
forty warriors, on their way to the settlements in Westmoreland
county.
Very soon after the return of the army, from the Alleghany, the
troops, with which it was intended to operate against the Indian
villages up the Muskingum and amounting to eight hundred, rendezvoused
at Wheeling. From thence, they proceeded directly for the place of
destination, under the command of Col. Broadhead.[8]
When the army arrived near to Salem (a Moravian town,)[9] many of the
militia expressed a determination to go forward and destroy it,
but as the Indians residing there, had ever been in amity with the
whites, and were not known to have ever participated in the
murderous deeds of their more savage red brethren, the officers
exerted themselves effectually, to repress that determination. Col.
Broadhead sent forward an express to the Rev'd Mr. Heckewelder (the
missionary of that place,)[10] acquainting him with the object of the
expedition, & requesting a small supply of provisions, and that he
would accompany the messenger to camp. When Mr. Heckewelder came,
the commander enquired of him, if any christian Indians were
engaged in hunting or other business, in the direction of their
march,--stating, that if they were, they might be exposed to
danger, as it would be impracticable to distinguish between them and
other Indians, and that he should greatly regret the happening to
them, of any unpleasant occurrence, through ignorance or mistake. On
hearing there were not, the army was ordered to resume its march,
and proceeded towards the forks of the river.
At White Eyes plain, near to the place of destination, an Indian was
discovered and made prisoner. Two others were seen near there, and
fired at; and notwithstanding one of them was wounded, yet both
succeeded in effecting their escape. Apprehensive that they would
hasten to the Indian towns, and communicate the fact that an army of
whites was near at hand, Col. Broadhead moved rapidly forward with the
[220] troops, notwithstanding a heavy fall of rain, to reach
Coshocton, (the nearest village,)[11] and take it by surprise. His
expectations were not disappointed. Approaching the town, the right
wing of the army was directed to occupy a position above it, on the
river; the left to assume a stand below, while the centre marched
directly upon it. The Indian villages, ignorant of the fact that an
enemy was in their country, were all made prisoners without the firing
of a single gun. So rapid, and yet so secret, had been the advance of
the army, that every part of the town was occupied by the troops,
before the Indians knew of its approach.
Successful as they thus far were, yet the expedition accomplished but
a portion of what had been contemplated. The other towns were situated
on the opposite side of the river, and this was so swollen by the
excessive rains which had fallen and continued yet to deluge the
earth, that it was impracticable to cross over to them; and Col.
Broadhead, seeing the impossibility of achieving any thing farther,
commenced laying waste the crops about Coshocton. This measure was not
dictated by a spirit of revenge, naturally enkindled by the
exterminating warfare, waged against the whites by the savages, but
was a politic expedient, to prevent the accomplishment of their horrid
purposes and to lessen the frequency of their incursions. When they
fail to derive sustenance from their crops of corn and other edible
vegetables, the Indians are forced to have recourse to hunting, to
obtain provisions, and consequently, to suspend their hostile
operations for a season. To produce this desirable result, was the
object sought to be obtained by the destruction which was made of
every article of subsistence, found here and at the Munsie towns, and
subsequently at other places.
It remained then to dispose of the prisoners. Sixteen warriors,
particularly obnoxious for their diabolical deeds, were pointed out by
Pekillon (a friendly Delaware chief who accompanied the army of Col.
Broadhead) as fit subjects of retributive justice; and taken into
close custody. A council of war was then held, to determine on their
fate, and which doomed them to death. They were taken some distance
from town, despatched with tomahawks and spears, and then scalped. The
other captives were committed to the care of the militia, to be
conducted to Fort Pitt.
On the morning after the taking of Coshocton, an Indian, [221] making
his appearance on the opposite bank of the river, called out for the
"Big Captain." Col. Broadhead demanded what he wished. I want peace
replied the savage. Then send over some of your chiefs, said the
Colonel. May be you kill, responded the Indian. No, said Broadhead,
they shall not be killed. One of their chiefs, a fine looking fellow,
then come over; and while he and Col. Broadhead were engaged in
conversation, a militiaman came up, and with a tomahawk which he had
concealed in the bosom of his hunting shirt, struck him a severe blow
on the hinder part of his head. The poor Indian fell, and immediately
expired.
This savage like deed was the precursor of other, and perhaps equally
attrocious enormities. The army on its return, had not proceeded more
than half a mile from Coshocton, when the militia guarding the
prisoners, commenced murdering them. In a short space of time, a few
women and children alone remained alive. These were taken to Fort
Pitt, and after a while exchanged for an equal number of white
captives.
The putting to death the sixteen prisoners designated by Pekillon, can
be considered in no other light, than as a punishment inflicted for
their great offences; and was certainly right and proper. Not so with
the deliberate murder of the chief, engaged in negotiation with Col.
Broadhead. He had come over under the implied assurance of the
security, due to a messenger for peace, and after a positive promise
of protection had been given him by the commander of the army.--His
death can, consequently, only be considered as an unwarrantable
murder; provoked indeed, by the barbarous and bloody conduct of the
savages. These, though they do not justify, should certainly extenuate
the offence.
The fact, that the enemy, with whom they were contending, did not
observe the rules of war, and was occasionally, guilty of the crime,
of putting their prisoners to death, would certainly authorize the
practice of greater rigor, than should be exercised towards those who
do not commit such excesses. This extraordinary severity, of itself,
tends to beget a greater regard for what is allowable among civilized
men, and to produce conformity with those usages of war, which were
suggested by humanity, and are sanctioned by all. But the attainment
of this object, if it were the motive which prompted to the deed, can
not justify the murder of the prisoners, placed [222] under the safe
keeping of the militia. It evinced a total disregard of the authority
of their superior officer. He had assured them they should only be
detained as prisoners, and remain free from farther molestation; and
nothing, but the commission of some fresh offence, could sanction the
enormity. But, however sober reflection may condemn those acts as
outrages of propriety, yet so many and so great, were the barbarous
excesses committed by the savages upon the whites in their power, that
the minds of those who were actors in those scenes, were deprived of
the faculty of discriminating between what was right or wrong to be
practised towards them. And if acts, savouring of sheer revenge, were
done by them, they should be regarded as but the ebullitions of men,
under the excitement of great and damning wrongs, and which, in their
dispassionate moments, they would condemn, even in themselves.
When, upon the arrival of Hinkston at Lexington, the people became
acquainted with the mischief which had been wrought by the Canadian
and Indian army,[12] every bosom burned with a desire to avenge
those outrages, and to retort them on their authors. Runners were
despatched in every direction, with the intelligence, and the cry
for retribution, arose in all the settlements. In this state of
feeling, every eye was involuntarily turned towards Gen. Clarke as
the one who should lead them forth to battle; and every ear was
opened, to receive his counsel. He advised a levy of four-fifths of
the male inhabitants, capable of bearing arms, and that they
should speedily assemble at the mouth of Licking, and proceed from
thence to Chilicothe. He ordered the building of a number of
transport boats, and directed such other preparations to be made, as
would facilitate the expedition, and ensure success to its object.
When all was ready, the boats with the provisions and stores on board,
were ordered up the Ohio, under the command of Col. Slaughter.
In ascending the river, such was the rapidity of the current, that the
boats were compelled to keep near to the banks, and were worked up, in
two divisions--one near each shore. While thus forcing their way
slowly up the stream, one of the boats, being some distance in
advance of the others and close under the north western bank, was
fired into by a party of Indians. The fire was promptly returned; but
before the other boats could draw nigh to her aid, a number of those
on [223] board of her, was killed and wounded. As soon however, as
they approached and opened a fire upon the assailants, the savages
withdrew, and the boats proceeded to the place of rendezvous, without
farther interruption.
On the second of August, General Clarke took up the line of march from
the place where Cincinnati now stands, at the head of nine hundred and
seventy men. They proceeded without any delay, to the point of
destination, where they arrived on the sixth of the month. The town
was abandoned, and many of the houses were yet burning, having been
fired on the preceding day. There were however, several hundred acres
of luxuriant corn growing about it, every stalk of which was cut down
and destroyed.
The army then moved in the direction of the Piqua Towns, twelve miles
farther, and with a view to lay waste every thing around it, and with
the hope of meeting there an enemy, with whom to engage in battle; but
before they had got far, a heavy shower of rain, accompanied with loud
thunder and high winds, forced them to encamp. Every care which could
be taken to keep the guns dry, was found to be of no avail, and
General Clarke, with prudent precaution, had them all fired and
re-loaded--continuing to pursue this plan, to preserve them fit for
use, whenever occasion required, and keeping the troops on the alert
and prepared to repel any attack which might be made on them--during
the night.
In the afternoon of the next day, they arrived in sight of Piqua, and
as they advanced upon the town, were attacked by the Indians concealed
in the high weeds which grew around. Colonel Logan, with four hundred
men, was ordered to file off,--march up the river to the east, and
occupy a position from which to intercept the savages, should they
attempt to fly in that direction. Another division of the army was in
like manner posted on the opposite side of the river, while General
Clarke with the troops under Colonel Slaughter and those attached to
the artillery, was to advance directly upon the town. The Indians
seemed to comprehend every motion of the army, and evinced the skill
of tacticians in endeavoring to thwart its purpose. To prevent being
surrounded by the advance of the detachment from the west, they made a
powerful effort to turn the left wing. Colonel Floyd extended his line
some distance west of the town, and the engagement became general.
Both armies fought with determined [224] resolution, and the contest
was warm and animated for some time. The Indians, finding that their
enemy was gaining on them retired unperceived, through the prairie, a
few only remaining in the town. The piece of cannon was then bro't to
bear upon the houses, into which some of the savages had retired to
annoy the army as it marched upon the village.--They were soon
dislodged and fled.
On reaching the houses, a Frenchman was discovered concealed in one of
them. From him it was learned, that the Indians had been apprized of
the intention of Gen. Clarke to march against Chilicothe and other
towns in its vicinity, by one of Col. Logan's men, who had deserted
from the army while at the mouth of Licking, and was supposed to have
fled to Carolina, as he took with him the horse furnished him for the
expedition. Instead of this however, he went over to the enemy, and
his treason,
----"Like a deadly blight,
Came o'er the councils of the brave,
And damped them in their hour of might."
Thus forwarned of the danger which threatened them, they were enabled
in a considerable degree to avoid it, and watching all the movements
of the army, were on the eve of attacking it silently, with tomahawks
and knives, on the night of its encamping between Chilicothe and
Piqua. The shooting of the guns, convincing them that they had not
been rendered useless by the rain, alone deterred them from executing
this determination.
Notwithstanding that the victory obtained by Gen. Clarke, was
complete and decided, yet the army under his command sustained a
loss in killed and wounded, as great as was occasioned to the
enemy. This circumstance was attributable to the sudden and
unexpected attack made on it, by the Indians, while entirely
concealed, and partially sheltered. No men could have evinced more
dauntless intrepidity and determined fortitude than was displayed
by them, when fired upon by a hidden foe, and their comrades were
falling around them. When the "combat thickened," such was their
noble daring, that Girty, (who had been made chief among the
Mingoes,) remarking the desperation with which they exposed
themselves to the hottest of the fire, drew off his three hundred
warriors; observing, that it was useless to fight with fools and
madmen. The loss in killed under the peculiar [225] circumstances,
attending the commencement of the action, was less than would perhaps
be expected to befall an army similarly situated;--amounting in all
to only twenty men.
Here, as at Chilicothe, the crops of corn and every article of
subsistence on which the troops could lay their hands, were entirely
laid waste. At the two places, it was estimated that not less than
five hundred acres of that indispensable article, were entirely
destroyed.[13]
An unfortunate circumstance, occurring towards the close of the
engagement, damped considerably the joy which would otherwise have
pervaded the army. A nephew of Gen. Clarke, who had been taken, and
for some time detained, a prisoner by the savages, was at Piqua during
the action. While the battle continued, he was too closely guarded to
escape to the whites; but upon the dispersion of the savages which
ensued upon the cannonading of the houses into which some of them had
retreated, he was left more at liberty. Availing himself of this
change of situation, he sought to join his friends. He was quickly
discovered by some of them, and mistaken for an Indian. The mistake
was fatal. He received a shot discharged at him, and died in a few
hours.
Notwithstanding the success of the expeditions commanded by Col.
Broadhead and Gen. Clarke, and the destruction which took place on the
Alleghany, at Coshocton, Chilicothe and Piqua, yet the savages
continued to commit depredations on the frontiers of Virginia. The
winter, as usual, checked them for awhile, but the return of spring,
brought with it, the horrors which mark the progress of an Indian
enemy. In Kentucky and in North Western Virginia, it is true that the
inhabitants did not suffer much by their hostilities in 1781, as in
the preceding years; yet were they not exempt from aggression.
Early in March a party of Indians invaded the settlements on the upper
branches of Monongahela river; and on the night of the 5th of that
month, came to the house of Capt. John Thomas, near Booth's creek.
Unapprehensive of danger, with his wife and seven children around him,
and with thoughts devotedly turned upon the realities of another
world, this gentleman was engaging in his accustomed devotions when
the savages approached his door; and as he was repeating the first
lines of the hymn, "Go worship at Emanuel's feet," a gun was fired at
him, and he fell. The Indians [226] immediately forced open the door,
and, entering the house, commenced the dreadful work of death. Mrs.
Thomas raised her hands and implored their mercy for herself and her
dear children. It was in vain. The tomahawk was uplifted, and stroke
followed stroke in quick succession, till the mother and six children
lay weltering in blood, by the side of her husband and their father--a
soul-chilling spectacle to any but heartless savages. When all were
down, they proceeded to scalp the fallen, and plundering the house of
what they could readily remove, threw the other things into the fire
and departed--taking with them one little boy a prisoner.
Elizabeth Juggins, (the daughter of John Juggins who had been murdered
in that neighborhood, the preceding year) was at the house of Capt.
Thomas, when the Indians came to it; but as soon as she heard the
report of the gun and saw Capt. Thomas fall, she threw herself under
the bed, and escaped the observation of the savages. After they had
completed the work of blood and left the house, fearing that they
might be lingering near, she remained in that situation until she
observed the house to be in flames. When she crawled forth from her
asylum, Mrs. Thomas was still alive, though unable to move; and
casting a pitying glance towards her murdered infant, asked that it
might be handed to her. Upon seeing Miss Juggins about to leave the
house, she exclaimed, "Oh Betsy! do not leave us." Still anxious for
her own safety, the girl rushed out, and taking refuge for the night
between two logs, in the morning early spread the alarm.
When the scene of those enormities was visited, Mrs. Thomas was found
in the yard, much mangled by the tomahawk and considerably torn by
hogs--she had, perhaps in the struggle of death, thrown herself out at
the door. The house, together with Capt. Thomas and the children, was
a heap of ashes.[14]
In April, Matthias, Simon and Michael Schoolcraft left Buchannon fort,
and went to the head of Stone coal creek for the purpose of catching
pigeons. On their return, they were fired upon by Indians, and
Matthias killed--the other two were taken captive. These were the last
of the Schoolcraft family,--fifteen of them were killed or taken
prisoners in the space of a few years. Of those who were carried into
captivity, none ever returned. They were believed to have consociated
with the savages, and from the report of others [227] who were
prisoners to the Indians, three of them used to accompany war parties,
in their incursions into the settlements.
In the same month, as some men were returning to Cheat river from
Clarksburg, (where they had been to obtain certificates of
settlement-rights to their lands, from the commissioners appointed to
adjust land claims in the counties of Ohio, Youghiogany and
Monongalia) they, after having crossed the Valley river, were
encountered by a large party of Indians, and John Manear, Daniel
Cameron and a Mr. Cooper were killed,--the others effected their
escape with difficulty.
The savages then moved on towards Cheat, but meeting with James Brown
and Stephen Radcliff, and not being able to kill or take them, they
changed their course, and passing over Leading creek, (in Tygarts
Valley) nearly destroyed the whole settlement. They there killed
Alexander Roney, Mrs. Dougherty, Mrs. Hornbeck and her children, Mrs.
Buffington and her children, and many others; and made prisoners, Mrs.
Roney and her son, and Daniel Dougherty. Jonathan Buffington and
Benjamin Hornbeck succeeded in making their escape and carried the
doleful tidings to Friend's and Wilson's forts. Col. Wilson
immediately raised a company of men and proceeding to Leading creek,
found the settlement without inhabitants, and the houses nearly all
burned. He then pursued after the savages, but not coming up with them
as soon as was expected, the men became fearful of the consequences
which might result to their own families, by reason of this
abstraction of their defence, provided other Indians were to attack
them, and insisted on their returning. On the second day of the
pursuit, it was agreed that a majority of the company should decide
whether they were to proceeded farther or not. Joseph Friend, Richard
Kettle, Alexander West and Col. Wilson, were the only persons in favor
of going on, and they consequently had to return.
But though the pursuit was thus abandoned, yet did not the savages get
off with their wonted impunity. When the land claimants, who had been
the first to encounter this party of Indians escaped from them, they
fled back to Clarksburg, and gave the alarm. This was quickly
communicated to the other settlements, and spies were sent out, to
watch for the enemy. By some of these, the savages were discovered on
the West Fork, near the mouth of Isaac's Creek, and intelligence of
it immediately carried to the forts. Col. Lowther [228] collected a
company of men, and going in pursuit, came in view of their
encampment, awhile before night, on a branch of Hughes' river, ever
since known as _Indian creek_. Jesse and Elias Hughs--active, intrepid
and vigilant men--were left to watch the movements of the savages,
while the remainder retired a small distance to refresh themselves,
and prepare to attack them in the morning.
Before day Col. Lowther arranged his men in order of attack, and when
it became light, on the preconcerted signal being given, a general
fire was poured in upon them. Five of the savages fell dead and the
others fled leaving at their fires, all their shot bags and plunder,
and all their guns, except one. Upon going to their camp, it was found
that one of the prisoners (a son of Alexander Rony who had been killed
in the Leading creek massacre) was among the slain. Every care had
been taken to guard against such an occurrence, and he was the only
one of the captives who sustained any injury from the fire of the
whites.[15]
In consequence of information received from the prisoners who were
retaken (that a larger party of Indians was expected hourly to come
up,) Col. Lowther [228] deemed it prudent not to go in pursuit of
those who had fled, and collecting the plunder which the savages had
left, catching the horses which [229] they had stolen, and having
buried young Rony, the party set out on its return and marched
home--highly gratified at the success which had crowned their
exertions to punish their untiring foe.
Some short time after this, John Jackson and his son George, returning
to Buchannon fort, were fired at by some Indians, but fortunately
missed. George Jackson having his gun in his hand, discharged it at a
savage peeping from behind a tree, without effect; and they then rode
off with the utmost speed.
At the usual period of leaving the forts and returning to their farms,
the inhabitants withdrew from Buchannon and went to their respective
homes. Soon after, a party of savages came to the house of Charles
Furrenash, and made prisoners of Mrs. Furrenash and her four children,
and despoiled their dwelling. Mrs. Furrenash, being a delicate and
weakly woman, and unable to endure the fatigue of travelling far on
foot, was murdered on Hughes' river. Three of the children were
afterwards redeemed and came back,--the fourth was never more heard
of. In a few days after, the husband and father returned from
Winchester (where he had been for salt) and instead of the welcome
greeting of an affectionate wife, and the pleasing prattle of his
innocent children, was saluted with the melancholy intelligence of
their fate. It was enough to make him curse the authors of the
outrage, and swear eternal enmity to the savage race.
The early period in spring at which irruptions were frequently made by
the savages upon the frontier, had induced a belief, that if the
Moravian Indians did not participate in the bloody deeds of their red
bretren, yet that they afforded to them shelter and protection from
the inclemency of winter, and thus enabled them, by their greater
proximity to the white settlements, to commence depredations earlier
than they otherwise could. The consequence of this belief was, the
engendering in the minds of many, a spirit of hostility towards those
Indians; occasionally threatening a serious result to them. Reports
too, were in circulation, proceeding from restored captives, at war
with the general pacific profession of the Moravians, and which,
whether true or false, served to heighten the acrimony of feeling
towards them, until the militia of a portion of the frontier came to
the determination of breaking up the villages on the Muskingum.[16] To
[230] carry this determination into effect, a body of troops,
commanded by Col. David Williamson, set out for those towns, in the
latter part of the year 1781. Not deeming it necessary to use the fire
and sword, to accomplish the desired object, Col. Williamson resolved
on endeavoring to prevail on them to move farther off; and if he
failed in this, to make prisoners of them all, and take them to Fort
Pitt. Upon his arrival at their towns, they were found to be nearly
deserted, a few Indians only, remaining in them. These were made
prisoners and taken to Fort Pitt; but were soon liberated.
It is a remarkable fact, that at the time the whites were planning the
destruction of the Moravian villages, because of their supposed
co-operation with the hostile savages, the inhabitants of those
villages were suffering severely from the ill treatment of those very
savages, because of their supposed attachment to the whites. By the
one party, they were charged with affording to Indian war parties, a
resting place and shelter, and furnishing them with provisions. By the
other, they were accused of apprizing the whites of meditated
incursions into the country, and thus defeating their purpose, or
lessening the chance of success; and of being instrumental in
preventing the Delawares from entering in the war which they were
waging. Both charges were probably, well founded, and the Moravian
Indians yet culpable in neither.[17]
Their villages were situated nearly midway between the frontier
establishments of the whites, and the towns of the belligerent
Indians, and were consequently, convenient resting places for warriors
proceeding to and from the settlements. That they should have
permitted war parties after ravages to refresh themselves there, or
even have supplied them with provisions, does not argue a disposition
to aid or encourage their hostile operations. It was at any time in
the power of those warring savages, to exact by force whatever was
required of the Moravian Indians, and the inclination was not wanting,
to do this or other acts of still greater enormity. That the warriors
were the better enabled to make incursions into the settlements, and
effect their dreadful objects by reason of those accommodations, can
not be questioned; the fault however, lay not in any inimical feeling
of the christian Indians towards the whites, but in their physical
inability to withhold whatever might be demanded of them.
And although they exerted themselves to prevail on other [231] tribes
to forbear from hostilities against the whites, and apprised the
latter of enterprizes projected against them, yet did not these things
proceed from an unfriendly disposition towards their red brethren.
They were considerate and reflecting, and saw that the savages must
ultimately suffer, by engaging in a war against the settlements; while
their pacific and christian principles, influenced them to forewarn
the whites of impending danger, that it might be avoided, and the
effusion of blood be prevented. But pure and commendable as were, no
doubt, the motives which governed them, in their intercourse with
either party, yet they were so unfortunate as to excite the enmity and
incur the resentment of both, and eventually were made to suffer,
though in different degrees, by both.
In the fall of 1781, the settlements of the Moravians were almost
entirely broken up by upwards of three hundred warriors, and the
missionaries, residing among them, after having been robbed of almost
every thing, were taken prisoners and carried to Detroit. Here they
were detained until the governor became satisfied that they were
guiltless of any offence meriting a longer confinement; when they were
released & permitted to return to their beloved people. The Indians
were left to shift for themselves in the Sandusky plains where most of
their horses and cattle perished from famine.[18]
-----
[1] Col. Reuben T. Durrett, in his _Centenary of Louisville_,
p. 47, says that Louisville at this time consisted of Clark's
original block house, with eighteen cabins, on Corn Island, at
the head of the rapids; a small fort at the foot of Third
street, erected by Col. John Floyd in 1779; "a large fort on
the east side of a ravine that entered the Ohio at Twelfth
street, and a few rude log cabins scattered through the woods
near the Twelfth street fort, all occupied by one hundred
inhabitants, who had cleared and cultivated garden-spots around
their humble cabins."--R. G. T.
[2] The expedition was sent out by Maj. A. S. De Peyster,
then British commandant at Detroit. It was headed by Capt.
Bird, with whom were Simon, James, and George Girty. The force,
as rendezvoused at Detroit, consisted of 150 whites, and 100
Indians from the Upper Lakes; they carried two cannon. They
were joined on the Miami by Capt. McKee, deputy Indian agent,
and a large party of Indians, making the force of savages
amount to 700.--R. G. T.
[3] The original destination was Louisville, but en route
the Indian chiefs compelled Bird to first proceed against the
forts on the Licking.--R. G. T.
[4] A station was a parallelogram of cabins, united by
palisades so as to present a continued wall on the outer side,
the cabin doors opening into a common square, on the inner
side. They were the strong holds of the early settlers.
[5] There seems to be abundant evidence that Bird, a
competent officer, was humanely inclined; but he was quite in
the power of his savage allies, who would brook little control
of their passions. The number of prisoners taken at Isaac
Ruddell's was nearly 300; about fifty more were taken at
Martin's.--R. G. T.
[6] The Indians had, contrary to Bird's expostulations,
wantonly slaughtered all the cattle at Ruddell's Station, and
this it was that caused the famine. With an abundance of food
to sustain both prisoners and warriors, Bird might readily have
carried out his purpose of uprooting nearly every settlement in
Kentucky. There is nothing in his official report of the
expedition, to warrant the statement that high water had any
thing to do with the matter.--R. G. T.
[7] Col. Daniel Brodhead was in command of the Eighth
Pennsylvania Regiment. He succeeded McIntosh at Fort Pitt, in
April, 1779.--R. G. T.
[8] Brodhead set out from Fort Pitt, April 7, 1781, with 150
regulars; at Wheeling he picked up David Shepherd, lieutenant
of Ohio County, Va., with 134 militia, including officers;
besides these were five friendly Indians, eager for Delaware
scalps.--R. G. T.
[9] Salem, established by Heckewelder for his Indian
converts, was on the west bank of the Tuscarawas, a mile and a
half south-west of the present Port Washington.--R. G. T.
[10] John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder was born at Bedford,
England, March 12, 1743. Coming to Pennsylvania in 1754, he was
at first a cooper, but later became an assistant to Charles
Frederick Post, the Moravian missionary. In 1771, he first
became an evangelist to the Indians, on his own account, and
spent fifteen years in Ohio, where he assisted in the work of
David Zeisberger. He was a man of learning, and made important
contributions to the study of American archaeology and,
ethnology. The last thirteen years of his life were spent in
literary work. He died at Bethlehem, Pa., January 21,
1823.--R. G. T.
[11] Called in some of the contemporary chronicles,
Goschocking.--R. G. T.
[12] Withers here reverts to the Bird invasion in the summer
of 1780, and the escape of Hinkstone from his British captors,
related _ante_, pp. 295-98. Clark's retaliatory expedition was
made during August, 1780.--R. G. T.
[13] Butterfield, in _History of the Girtys_, p. 121, places
the white loss at seventeen killed, and "a number wounded;" and
the Indian loss at six killed and three wounded. Clark's
nephew, Joseph Rogers, was killed on August 8, the day of the
general engagement. Clark left Piqua, the 10th.--R. G. T.
[14] I am informed by S. R. Harrison, of Clarksburg, W. Va.,
that the bodies of the victims were buried about five rods from
the house, and "the graves are yet marked by the original rude
stones." Mr. Harrison continues, "This burial ground, and also
where the house stood, had never been disturbed until March,
1888--a hundred and seven years after the massacre--when the
ground about the site of the house was plowed; many interesting
relics were turned up, among them a compass and sun-dial in a
copper case. I myself found a number of relics among the
charred ruins of the house."--R. G. T.
[15] As soon as the fire was opened upon the Indians, Mrs.
Rony (one of the prisoners) ran towards the whites rejoicing at
the prospect of deliverance, and exclaiming, "I am Ellick
Rony's wife, of the Valley, I am Ellick Rony's wife, of the
Valley, and a pretty little woman too, if I was well dressed."
The poor woman, ignorant of the fact that her son was weltering
in his own gore, and forgetting for an instant that her husband
had been so recently killed, seemed intent only on her own
deliverance from the savage captors.
Another of the captives, Daniel Dougherty, being tied down, and
unable to move, was discovered by the whites as they rushed
towards the camp. Fearing that he might be one of the enemy and
do them some injury if they advanced, one of the men, stopping,
demanded who he was. Benumbed with cold, and discomposed by the
sudden firing of the whites, he could not render his Irish
dialect intelligible to them. The white man raised his gun and
directed it towards him, calling aloud, that if he did not make
known who he was, he should blow a ball through him, let him be
white man or Indian. Fear supplying him with energy, Dougherty
exclaimed, "Loord Jasus! and am I too be killed by white people
at last!" He was heard by Col. Lowther and his life saved.
[16] The Moravian Indians were originally from the
Susquehanna River. They moved to the Tuscarawas River in
1772, under the missionaries Zeisberger and Heckewelder,
who built two villages on the eastern bank of that river, on
land set apart for them by the Delawares: Schoenbrunn, about
three miles south-east of the present New Philadelphia, in
what is now Goshen township, Tuscarawas County, O., and
Gnadenhuetten, lower down, in the outskirts of the present
town of that name, in Clay township. The principal Delaware
town, at that time, was some distance below, near the site of
the present Newcomerstown; this was later moved to what is now
Coshocton, at the confluence of the Tuscarawas and Walholding,
which unite to form the Muskingum. At this time there was a
Moravian village called Friedensstadt, on Beaver River, in what
is now Lawrence County, Pa. In 1776 a new village for the
accommodation of converts was established on the east bank of
the Muskingum, two and a half miles below Coshocton, and called
Lichtenau; William Edwards was the missionary in charge. In
consequence of the disturbances on the border, Schoenbrunn and
Gnadenhuetten were deserted in 1777, and all the teachers
returned to Pennsylvania save Zeisberger and Edwards, who
gathered the Indians together at Lichtenau; but in the spring
of 1778, Gnadenhuetten was re-occupied, with Edwards in
charge. This was not for a long time, however, for in July we
find Zeisberger, Heckewelder, and Edwards in charge of the
union station at Lichtenau, the others being deserted. The
spring of 1779 finds Edwards again at the resuscitated
Gnadenhuetten, Zeisberger re-occupying Schoenbrunn with a
small party, and Heckewelder at Lichtenau. Later in the
season Zeisberger began New Schoenbrunn on the west bank of
the Tuscarawas, in what is now Goshen township, a quarter of a
mile from the present Lockport, and a mile and a quarter
south of New Philadelphia; thither he removed his flock in
December. In the spring of 1780, Heckewelder abandoned
Lichtenau, and took his converts to the west bank of the
Tuscarawas, where he established Salem, in the present Salem
township, a mile and a half north-west of Port Washington. In
the autumn the Moravian villages were in general charge of
Zeisberger, who traveled from one to the other; Gottlob
Senseman being in charge of New Schoenbrunn, Edwards of
Gnadenhuetten, and Heckewelder of Salem. It will thus be seen
that at the time of the massacre, the Moravian villages were
wholly in the valley of the Tuscarawas.--R. G. T.
[17] Zeisberger and Heckewelder kept Brodhead continually
informed, by letters, of the movements and councils of the
hostiles. The position of the missionaries was one of exceeding
delicacy, but the voluminous correspondence between them and
Brodhead proves that the former were steadfast friends of the
American colonies, and did effective service throughout the
several years of disturbance on the frontier.--R. G. T.
[18] Brodhead's successful expedition against the Coshocton
Indians, in April, 1781, led to preparations for a retaliatory
foray. Headed by the renegade Capt. Matthew Elliott, a party of
about 250 Indians,--mostly Wyandots, with chiefs Half King,
Pipe, Snip, John and Thomas Snake, and others--assembled at
Gnadenhuetten, for a talk with the Moravian teachers,
preparatory to an expedition against Wheeling. They arrived
August 17, and Zeisberger at once secretly sent a message of
warning to Ft. Pitt, which threw the frontier into alarm, and
caused the garrison at Wheeling to be fully prepared when the
enemy appeared. A boy whom the Wyandots captured outside of
Wheeling told them of Zeisberger's warning, and when the
unsuccessful war party returned to Gnadenhuetten (Sept. 2),
vengeance was wreaked on the Moravians. The town was sacked
that day, and the missionaries were kept as prisoners for
several days. Finally they were released (Sept.6), on promise
that they remove their converts from the line of the warpaths.
September 11, the Moravians and their teachers left Salem in a
body, with but few worldly goods, for most of their property
had been destroyed by the Wyandots. They proceeded down the
Tuscarawas to the mouth of the Walhonding, thence up the latter
stream and Vernon River, and across country to the Sandusky,
where they arrived October 1, and erected a few huts on the
east bank of the river, about two and a-half miles above the
present Upper Sandusky. Fourteen days later, the missionaries
were summoned to appear before the British commandant at
Detroit, Major De Peyster. Zeisberger, Heckewelder, Edwards,
and Senseman left for Detroit, October 25. De Peyster
questioned them closely, and finally released them with the
statement that he would confer with them later, relative to
their final abode. They reached the Sandusky, on their return,
November 22. Meanwhile, the winter had set in early; and in
danger of starving, a party of the Moravians had returned to
the Tuscarawas to gather corn in the abandoned fields; while
there, a party of border rangers took them prisoners and
carried them to Fort Pitt. Brig.-Gen. William Irvine, then in
command, treated the poor converts kindly, and allowed them to
go in peace, many returning to their old villages on the
Tuscarawas, to complete their dismal harvesting.--R. G. T.
[232] CHAPTER XIV.
The revengeful feelings which had been engendered, by inevitable
circumstances, towards the Moravian Indians, and which had given rise
to the expedition of 1781, under Col. Williamson, were yet more deeply
radicated by subsequent events. On the night after their liberation
from Fort Pitt, the family of a Mr. Monteur were all killed or taken
captive; and the outrage, occurring so immediately after they were set
at liberty and in the vicinity of where they were, was very generally
attributed to them. An irruption was made too, in the fall of 1781,
into the settlement on Buffalo creek, and some murders committed and
prisoners taken. One of these, escaping from captivity and returning
soon after, declared that the party committing the aggression, was
headed by a Moravian warrior.
These circumstances operated to confirm many in the belief, that those
Indians were secretly inimical to the whites, and not only furnished
the savages with provisions and a temporary home, but likewise engaged
personally in the war of extermination, which they were waging against
the frontier. Events occurring towards the close of winter, dispelled
all doubt, from the minds of those who had fondly cherished every
suggestion which militated against the professed, and generally
accredited, neutrality and pacific disposition of the Moravians.
On the 8th of February 1782, while Henry Fink and his son John, were
engaged in sledding rails, on their farm in the Buchannon settlement,
several guns were simultaneously discharged at them; and before John
had time to reply to his father's inquiry, whether he were hurt,
another gun was fired and he fell lifeless. Having unlinked the chain
which fastened the horse to the sled, the old man [233] galloped
briskly away. He reached his home in safety, and immediately moved his
family to the fort. On the next day the lifeless body of John, was
brought into the fort.--The first shot had wounded his arm; the ball
from the second passed through his heart, & he was afterwards
scalped.
Near the latter part of the same month, some Indians invaded the
country above Wheeling, and succeeded in killing a Mr. Wallace, and
his family, consisting of his wife and five children, & in taking John
Carpenter a prisoner. The early period of the year at which those
enormities were perpetrated, the inclemency of the winter of 1781--2,
and the distance of the towns of hostile Indians from the theatre of
these outrages, caused many to exclaim, "_the Moravians have certainly
done this deed_." The destruction of their villages was immediately
resolved, and preparations were made to carry this determination into
effect.
There were then in the North Western wilderness, between three and
four hundred of the christian Indians, and who, until removed by the
Wyandots and whites in 1781, as before mentioned, had resided on the
Muskingum in the villages of the Gnadenhutten, Salem and Shoenbrun.
The society of which they were members, had been established in the
province of Pennsylvania about the year 1752, and in a short time
became distinguished for the good order and deportment of its members,
both as men and as christians. During the continuance of the French
war, they nobly withstood every allurement which was practised to draw
them within its vortex, and expressed their strong disapprobation of
war in general; saying, "that it must be displeasing to that Great
Being, who made men, not to destroy men, but to love and assist each
other." In 1769 emigrants from their villages of Friedenshutten,
Wyalusing and Shesheequon in Pennsylvania, began to make an
establishment in the North Western wilderness, and in a few years,
attained a considerable degree of prosperity, their towns increased
rapidly in population, and themselves, under the teaching of pious and
beneficent missionaries, in civilization and christianity. In the war
of 1774, their tranquil and happy hours were interrupted, by reports
of the ill intention of the whites along the frontier, towards them,
and by frequent acts of annoyance, committed by war parties of the
savages.
This state of things continued with but little, if any, intermission,
occasionally assuming a more gloomy and portentious aspect, until the
final destruction of their villages. In the spring of 1781, the
principal war chief of the Delawares apprised the missionaries and
them, of the danger which threatened them, as well from the whites as
the savages, and advised them to remove to some situation, where they
would be exempt from molestation by either. Conscious of the rectitude
of their conduct as regarded both, and unwilling to forsake the
comforts which their industry had procured for them, and the fields
rendered productive by their labor, they disregarded the [234]
friendly monition, and continued in their villages, progressing in the
knowledge and love of the Redeemer of men, and practising the virtues
inculcated by his word.
This was their situation, at the time they were removed to Sandusky,
early in the fall of 1781. When their missionaries and principal men
were liberated by the governor of Detroit, they obtained leave of the
Wyandot chiefs to return to the Muskingum to get the corn which had
been left there, to prevent the actual starvation of their families.
About one hundred and fifty of them, principally women and children
went thither for this purpose, and were thus engaged when the second
expedition under Col. Williamson proceeded against them.
In March 1782, between eighty and ninety men assembled themselves for
the purpose of effecting the destruction of the Moravian towns.[1] If
they then had in contemplation the achieving of any other injury to
those people, it was not promulgated in the settlements. They avowed
their object to be the destruction of the houses and the laying waste
the crops, in order to deprive the hostile savages of the advantage of
obtaining shelter and provisions, so near to the frontier; and the
removal of the Moravians to Fort Pitt, to preserve them from the
personal injury which, it was feared, would be inflicted on them by
the warriors. Being merely a private expedition, each of the men took
with him, his own arms, ammunition and provisions; and many of them,
their horses. They took up the line of march from the Mingo Bottom,
and on the second night thereafter, encamped within one mile of the
village of Gnadenhutten; and in the morning proceeded towards it, in
the order of attack prescribed by a council of the officers.
The village being built upon both sides of the river, and the scouts
having discovered and reported that it was occupied on both sides,
one-half the men were ordered to cross over and bear down upon the
town on the western bank, while the other half would possess
themselves of that part of it which lay on the eastern shore. Upon the
arrival of the first division at the river, no boat or other small
craft was seen in which they could be transported across; and they
were for a time, in some difficulty how they should proceed. What
appeared to be a canoe was at length discovered on the opposite bank,
and a young man by the name of Slaughter, plunging in swam to it. It
proved to be a trough for containing sugar water, and capable of
bearing only two persons at a time. To obviate the delay which must
have resulted from this tedious method of conveying themselves over,
many of the men unclothed themselves, and placing their garments, arms
and ammunition in the trough, swam by its sides, notwithstanding that
ice was floating in the current and the water, consequently, cold and
chilling.
When nearly half this division had thus reached the western bank, two
sentinels, who on the first landing had been stationed a short
distance in advance, discovered and fired at, one of the Indians.
[235] The shot of one broke his arm,--the other killed him. Directions
were then sent to the division which was to operate on the eastern
side of the river, to move directly to the attack, lest the firing
should alarm the inhabitants and they defeat the object which seemed
now to be had in view. The few who had crossed without awaiting for
the others, marched immediately into the town on the western shore.
Arrived among the Indians, they offered no violence, but on the
contrary, professing peace and good will, assured them, they had come
for the purpose of escorting them safely to Fort Pitt, that they might
no longer be exposed to molestation from the militia of the whites, or
the warriors of the savages. Sick of the sufferings which they had so
recently endured, and rejoicing at the prospect of being delivered
from farther annoyance they gave up their arms, and with alacrity
commenced making preparations for the journey, providing food as well
for the whites, as for themselves. A party of whites and Indians was
next despatched to Salem, to bring in those who were there. They then
shut up the Moravians left at Gnadenhutten, in two houses some
distance apart, and had them well guarded, When the others arrived
from Salem, they were treated in like manner, and shut up in the same
houses with their brethren of Gnadenhutten.
The division which was to move into the town on the eastern side of
the river, coming unexpectedly upon one of the Indian women, she
endeavored to conceal herself in a bunch of bushes at the water edge,
but being discovered, by some of the men, was quickly killed. She was
the wife of Shabosh, who had been shot by the sentinels of the other
division. Others, alarmed at the appearance of a party of armed men,
and ignorant that a like force was on the opposite side of the river,
attempted to escape thither.--They did not live to effect their
object. Three were killed in the attempt; and the men then crossed
over, with such as they had made prisoners, to join their comrades, in
the western and main part of the town.
A council of war was then held to determine on the fate of the
prisoners. Col. Williamson having been much censured for the lenity of
his conduct towards those Indians in the expedition of the preceding
year, the officers were unwilling to take upon themseves the entire
responsibility of deciding upon their fate now, and agreed that it
should be left to the men. The line was soon formed, and they were
told it remained with them to say, whether the Moravian prisoners
should be taken to Fort Pitt or murdered; and Col. Williamson
requested that those who were inclined to mercy, should advance and
form a second link, that it might be seen on which side was the
majority. Alas! it required no scrutiny to determine. Only sixteen, or
at most eighteen men, stepped forward to save the lives of this
unfortunate people, and their doom became sealed.[2]
From the moment those ill fated beings were immured in houses they
seemed to anticipate the horrid destiny which awaited them; [236] and
spent their time in holy and heartfelt devotion, to prepare them for
the awful realities of another world. They sang, they prayed, they
exhorted each other to a firm reliance on the Saviour of men, and
soothed those in affliction with the comfortable assurance, that
although men might kill the body, they had no power over the soul, and
that they might again meet in a better and happier world, "where the
wicked cease from troubling and the weary find rest." When told that
they were doomed to die, they all affectionately embraced, and
bedewing their bosoms with mutual tears, reciprocally sought, and
obtained forgiveness for any offences which they might have given each
other through life. Thus at peace with God, and reconciled with one
another, they replied to those, who impatient for the slaughter had
asked if they were not yet prepared, "Yes! We have commended our souls
to God, and are ready to die."
What must have been the obduracy of those, who could remain inflexible
in their doom of death, amid such scenes as these? How ruthless &
unrelenting their hearts, who unmoved by the awful spectacle of so
many fellow creatures, preparing for the sudden and violent
destruction of life and asking of their God, mercy for themselves and
forgiveness for their enemies--could yet thirst for blood, and
manifest impatience that its shedding was delayed for an instant? Did
not the possibility of that innocence, which has been ever since so
universally accorded to their victims, once occur to them; or were
their minds so under the influence of exasperation and resentment,
that they ceased to think of any thing, but the gratification of those
feelings? Had they been about to avenge the murder of friends on its
_known authors_, somewhat might have been pardoned to retaliation and
to vengeance; but involving all in one common ruin, for _the supposed
offences_ of a few, there can be no apology for their conduct,--no
excuse for their crime.
It were well, if all memory of the tragedy at Gnadenhutten, were
effaced from the mind; but it yet lives in the recollection of many
and stands recorded on the polluted page of history.--Impartial truth
requires, that it should be here set down.
A few of the prisoners, supposed to have been actively engaged in war,
were the first to experience their doom. They were tied and taken some
distance from the houses in which [237] they had been confined;
despatched with spears and tomahawks, and scalped. The remainder of
both sexes, from the hoary head of decrepitude, incapable of wrong, to
helpless infancy, pillowed on its mother's breast, were cruelly &
shockingly murdered; and the different apartments of those houses of
blood, exhibited their bleeding bodies, mangled by the tomahawk,
scalping knife and spear, and disfigured by the war-club and the
mallet.[3]
Thus perished ninety-six of the Moravian Indians. Of these, sixty-two
were grown persons, one-third of whom were women; the remaining
thirty-four were children.[4] Two youth alone, made their escape. One
of them had been knocked down and scalped, but was not killed. He had
the presence of mind to lie still among the dead, until nightfall,
when he crept silently forth and escaped. The other, in the confusion
of the shocking scene, slipped through a trap door into the cellar,
and passing out at a small window, got off unnoticed and uninjured.
In the whole of this transaction the Moravians were passive and
unresisting. They confided in the assurances of protection given them
by the whites, and until pent up in the houses, continued cheerful and
happy. If when convinced of the murderous intent of their visitors,
they had been disposed to violence and opposition, it would have
availed them nothing. They had surrendered their arms (being requested
to do so, as a guarantee for the security of the whites,) and were no
longer capable of offering any effectual or available resistance, and
while the dreadful work of death was doing, "they were as lambs led to
the slaughter; & as sheep before the shearers are dumb, so opened they
not their mouths." There was but a solitary exception to this
passiveness, and it was well nigh terminating in the escape of its
author, and in the death of some of the whites.
As two of the men were leading forth one of the supposed warriors to
death, a dispute arose between them, who should have the scalp of this
victim to their barbarity. He was progressing after them with a silent
dancing motion, and singing his death song. Seeing them occupied so
closely with each other, he became emboldened to try an escape.
Drawing a knife from its scabbard, he cut the cord which bound him;
and springing forward, aimed a thrust at one of his conductors. The
cutting of the rope had, however, drawn it so [238] tightly that he
who held it became sensible that it was wrought upon in some way; and
turning quickly round to ascertain the cause, scarcely avoided the
stab. The Indian then bounded from them, and as he fled towards the
woods, dexterously removed the cord from his wrists. Several shots
were discharged at him without effect, when the firing was stopped,
lest in the hurry and confusion of the pursuit, some of their own
party might suffer from it. A young man, mounting his horse, was soon
by the side of the Indian, and springing off, his life had well nigh
been sacrificed by his rashness. He was quickly thrown to the ground,
and the uplifted tomahawk about to descend on his head, when a timely
shot, directed with fatal precision, took effect on the Indian and
saved him.
Had the Moravians been disposed for war, they could easily have
ensured their own safety, and dealt destruction to the whites. If,
when their town was entered by a party of only sixteen, their thirty
men, aided by the youths of the village, armed and equipped as all
were, had gone forth in battle array, they could have soon cut off
those few; and by stationing some gunners on the bank of the river,
have prevented the landing of the others of the expedition. But their
faith in the sincerity of the whites--their love of peace and
abhorrence of war, forbade it; and the confidence of those who first
rushed into the town, in these feelings and dispositions of the
Indians, no doubt prompted them to that act of temerity, while an
unfordable stream was flowing between them and their only support.
During the massacre at Gnadenhutten, a detachment of the whites was
ordered to Shoenbrun to secure the Moravians who were there.
Fortunately however, two of the inhabitants of this village had
discovered the dead body of Shabosh in time to warn their brethren of
danger, and they all moved rapidly off. When the detachment arrived,
nothing was left for them _but plunder_.--_This was secured_, and they
returned to their comrades. Gnadenhutten was then _pillaged_ of every
article of value which could be easily removed; its houses--even those
which contained the dead bodies of the Moravians--were burned to
ashes, and the men set out on their return to the settlements.[5]
The expedition against the Moravian towns on the Muskingum, was
projected and carried on by inhabitants of the [239] western counties
of Pennsylvania,--a district of country which had long been the
theatre of Indian hostilities. Its result (strange as it may now
appear) was highly gratifying to many; and the ease with which so much
_Indian_ blood had been made to flow, coupled with an ardent desire to
avenge the injuries which had been done them by the savages, led to
immediate preparations for another, to be conducted on a more
extensive scale, and requiring the co-operation of more men. And
although the completion of the work of destruction, which had been so
successfully begun, of the Moravian Indians, was the principal
inducement of some, yet many attached themselves to the expedition,
from more noble and commendable motives.
The residence of the Moravians ever since they were removed to the
plains of Sandusky, was in the immediate vicinity of the Wyandot
villages, and the warriors from these had been particularly active
and untiring in their hostility to the frontier settlements of
Pennsylvania. The contemplated campaign against the Moravians, was
viewed by many as affording a fit opportunity to punish those savages
for their many aggressions, as it would require that they should
proceed but a short distance beyond the point proposed, in order
to arrive at their towns; and they accordingly engaged in it for that
purpose.
Other causes too, conspired to fill the ranks and form an army for the
accomplishment of the contemplated objects.--The commandants of the
militia of Washington and Westmoreland counties (Cols. Williamson
and Marshall)[6] encouraged the inhabitants to volunteer on this
expedition, and made known, that every militia man who accompanied
it, finding his own horse and gun, and provisions for a month,
should be exempt from two tours of militia duty; and that all
horses unavoidably lost in the service, should be replaced from those
taken in the Indian country. From the operation of these different
causes, an army of nearly five hundred men was soon raised, who being
supplied with ammunition by the Lieutenant Colonel of Washington
county, proceeded to the Old Mingo towns, the place of general
rendezvous--where an election was held to fill the office of commander
of the expedition.[7] The candidates were Colonel Williamson and
Colonel Crawford; and the latter gentleman being chosen immediately
organized the troops, and prepared to march.
[240] On the 25th of May, the army left the Mingo towns, and pursuing
"Williamson's trail," arrived at the upper Moravian town on the
Muskingum (Shoenbrun,) where (finding plenty of corn of the preceding
year's crop, yet on the stalk) they halted to refresh their horses.
While here, Captains Brenton and Bean, discovered and fired upon two
Indians; and the report of the guns being heard in camp, the men, in
despite of the exertions of their officers, rushed towards the source
of alarm, in the most tumultuous and disorderly manner.--Colonel
Crawford, used to the discipline of continental soldiers, saw in the
impetuosity and insubordination of the troops under his command,
enough to excite the liveliest apprehensions for the event of the
expedition. He had volunteered to go on the campaign, only in
compliance with the general wish of the troops that he should head
them, and when chosen commander in chief of the forces assembled at
the Mingo towns, he is said to have accepted the office with
reluctance, not only sensible of the impracticability of controlling
men unused to restraint, but opposed to some of the objects of the
expedition, and the frequently expressed determination of the troops,
to spare no Indian whom accident or the fortune of war should place in
their power.
From Shoenbrun the army proceeded as expeditiously as was practicable
to the site of the Moravian village, near the Upper Sandusky; but
instead of meeting with this oppressed and persecuted tribe, or having
gained an opportunity of plundering their property, they saw nothing
which manifested that it had been the residence of man, save a few
desolate and deserted huts,--the people, whom it was their intention
to destroy, had some time before, most fortunately for themselves,
moved to the Scioto.
Discontent and dissatisfaction ensued upon the disappointment. The
guides were ignorant of there being any Indian towns nearer than those
on Lower Sandusky, and the men became impatient to return home. In
this posture of affairs, a council of war, consisting of the field
officers and captains, was held, and it was resolved to move forward,
and if no enemy appeared that day, to retrace their steps. Just after
this determination was made known, an express arrived, from a
detachment of mounted men, which had been sent forward to reconnoitre,
with information that about three miles in advance a large body of
Indians had been discovered hastening [241] rapidly to meet them. The
fact was, that Indian spies had watched and reported the progress of
the expedition, ever after it left the Mingo towns; and when satisfied
of its destination, every arrangement which they could make to defeat
its object, and involve the troops in the destruction to which it was
their purpose to consign others, was begun by the savages. Having
perfected these, they were marching on to give battle to the whites.
Immediately upon the reception of this intelligence, the army moved
forward, and meeting the reconnoitreing party coming in, had proceeded
but a short distance farther, when they came in view of the Indians
hastening to occupy a small body of woods, in the midst of an
extensive plain. The battle was then begun by a heavy fire from both
sides, and the savages prevented gaining possession of the woods. A
party of them having however, taken post in them before the whites
came up, continued much to annoy the troops, until some of them,
alighting from their horses, bravely rushed forward and dislodged
them. The Indians then attempted to gain a small skirt of wood on
Colonel Crawford's right; but the vigilance of the commanding officer
of the right wing, (Major Leet) detected the movement, and the bravery
of his men defeated it. The action now became general and severe and
was warmly contested until dark, when it ceased for a time without
having been productive of much advantage to either side. During the
night, both armies lay on their arms; adopting the wise policy of
kindling large fires along the line of battle, and retreating some
distance behind them, to prevent being surprised by a night attack.
Early in the morning a few shots were fired, but at too great distance
for execution. The Indians were hourly receiving reinforcements, and
seemed busily engaged in active preparations for a decisive
conflict. The whites became uneasy at their increasing strength;
and a council of the officers deemed it expedient to retreat. As it
would be difficult to effect this in open day, in the presence of
an enemy of superior force, it was resolved to postpone it until
night, making in the mean time every arrangement to ensure its
success.--The killed were buried, and fires burned over the graves
to prevent discovery,--litters were made for bearing the wounded, and
the army was formed into three lines with them in the centre.
[242] The day passed, without an attack being made by the Indians.
They were still seen to traverse the plains in every direction, and in
large bodies; and not until the troops were about forming the line of
retreat, did they seem to have any idea that such a movement was
intended. They then commenced firing a few shots, and in a little
while it became apparent that they had occupied every pass, leaving
open only that which led to Sandusky. Along this way, the guides
conducted the main army, until they had passed the Indian lines about
a mile; when wheeling to the left, they marched round and gained the
trail of their outward march. Continuing in this they proceeded to the
settlements without any interruption.--The savage warriors thinking it
better to follow detached parties than the main army.
The few shots which were fired by the Indians as the whites were
forming the line of retreat, were viewed by many as evidence that
their purpose had been discovered, and that these were signal guns
preceding a general attack. Under these impressions, the men in
front hurried off and others following the example, at least one
third of the army were to be seen flying in detached parties, and
in different directions from that taken by the main body, supposing
that the attention of the Indians would be wholly turned to this
point. They were not permitted to proceed far under this delusive
supposition. Instead of following the main army, the Indians pursued
those small parties with such activity, that not many of those
composing them were able to escape;--one company of forty men under
a Captain Williamson,[8] was the only party detached from the
principal body of the troops, fortunate enough to get with the
main army on its retreat. Late in the night, they broke through the
Indian lines under a heavy fire and with some loss, and on the
morning of the second day of the retreat, again joined their comrades
in the expedition, who had marched off in a body; in compliance
with the orders of the commander-in-chief.
Colonel Crawford himself proceeded at the head of the army for some
short distance, when missing his son, his son-in-law (Major Harrison)
and two nephews,[9] he stopped to enquire for them. Receiving no
satisfactory information respecting either of them, he was induced
through anxiety for their fate to continue still, until all had
passed on, when he resumed his flight, in company with doctor
Knight[10] and two [243] others. For their greater security, they
travelled some distance apart, but from the jaded and exhausted
condition of their horses could proceed but slowly. One of the two men
in company with the Colonel and doctor Knight, would frequently fall
some distance behind the others, and as frequently call aloud for them
to wait for him. Near the Sandusky creek he hallooed to them to halt,
but the yell of a savage being heard near him, they went on and never
again was _he heard of_. About day, Colonel Crawford's horse gave out
and he was forced to proceed on foot, as was also the other of the two
who had left the field with him and Knight. They continued however to
travel together, and soon overtook Captain Biggs, endeavoring to
secure the safety of himself and Lieutenant Ashly, who had been so
badly wounded that he was unable to ride alone. A heavy fall of rain
induced them to halt, and stripping the bark from some trees, they
formed a tolerable shelter from the storm, and remained there all
night. In the morning they were joined by another of the troops, when
their company consisted of six--Colonel Crawford and Doctor Knight,
who kept about an hundred yards in front--Captain Biggs and Lieutenant
Ashly, in the center; and the other two men in the rear. They
proceeded in this way about two miles, when a party of Delawares
suddenly sprang from their hiding places into the road, and making
prisoners of Colonel Crawford and Doctor Knight, carried them to the
Indian camp near to where they then were. On the next day the scalps
of Captain Biggs and Lieutenant Ashly, were brought in by another
party of Indians who had been likewise watching the road. From the
encampment, they were led, in company with nine other prisoners, to
the old Wyandot town, from which place they were told they would be
taken to the new town, not far off. Before setting out from this
place, Colonel Crawford and Doctor Knight were painted black by
Captain Pipe, a Delaware chief, who told the former, that he intended
to have him shaved when he arrived among his friends, and the latter
that he was to be carried to the Shawnee town, to see some of his old
acquaintance. The nine prisoners were then marched off in front of
Colonel Crawford and Doctor Knight, who were brought on by Pipe and
Wingenim,[11] another of the Delaware chiefs. As they went on, they
passed the bodies of four of the captives, who had been tomahawked and
scalped on the way, and came [244] to where the remaining five were,
in time to see them suffer the same fate from the hands of squaws and
boys. The head of one of them (John McKinley, formerly an officer in
one of the Virginia regiments) was cut off, and for some time kicked
about on the ground. A while afterwards they met Simon Girty and
several Indians on horseback; when Col. Crawford was stripped naked,
severely beaten with clubs and sticks, and made to sit down near a
post which had been planted for the purpose, and around which a fire
of poles was burning briskly. His hands were then pinioned behind him,
and a rope attached to the band around his wrist and fastened to the
foot of a post about fifteen feet high, allowing him liberty only to
sit down, or walk once or twice round it, and return the same way.
Apprehensive that he was doomed to be burned to death, he asked Girty
if it were possible that he had been spared from the milder
instruments of the tomahawk and scalping knife, only to suffer the
more cruel death by fire. "_Yes, said Girty, composedly, you must be
burned Colonel._" "It is dreadful, replied Crawford, but I will
endeavor to bear it patiently." Captain Pipe then addressed the
savages in an animated speech, at the close of which, they rent the
air with hideous yells, and immediately discharged a number of loads
of powder at the naked body of their victim. His ears were then cut
off, and while the men would apply the burning ends of the poles to
his flesh, the squaws threw coals and hot embers upon him, so that in
a little time he had too, to walk on fire. In the midst of these
sufferings, he begged of the infamous Girty to shoot him. That worse
than savage monster, tauntingly replied, "how can I? you see I have no
gun," and laughed heartily at the scene.
For three hours Colonel Crawford endured the most excruciating agonies
with the utmost fortitude, when faint and almost exhausted, he
commended his soul to God, and laid down on his face. He was then
scalped, and burning coals being laid on his head and back, by one of
the squaws, he again arose and attempted to walk; but strength failed
him and he sank into the welcome arms of death. His body was then
thrown into the fire and consumed to ashes.[12]
Of the whole of this shocking scene, Doctor Knight was [245] an
unwilling spectator; and in the midst of it was told by Girty, that it
should be his fate too, when he arrived at the Shawanee towns. These
were about forty miles distant; and he was committed to the care of a
young warrior to be taken there. On the first day they travelled about
twenty-five miles, and when they stopped for the night, the Doctor was
securely fastened. In vain did he anxiously watch for an opportunity
to endeavor to [244] release himself from the cords which bound him.
The Indian was vigilant and slept none. About day light they arose,
and while the Indian was kindling a fire, the gnats were so
troublesome that he untied his prisoner, and set him likewise to
making a fire to relieve them from the annoyance. The doctor took a
burning coal between two sticks, and going behind the Indian towards
the spot at which he was directed to excite a smoke, turned suddenly
around, and struck the savage with all his force. The Indian fell
forward, but quickly recovering and seeing his gun in the hands of his
assailant, ran off, howling hideously.--The anxiety of Doctor Knight,
saved the life of the savage.--When he seized the gun, he drew back
the cock in such haste and with so much violence as to break the main
spring and render it useless to him; but as the Indian was ignorant of
this circumstance, he continued his flight and the doctor was then
enabled to escape. After a toilsome travel of twenty-one days, during
which time he subsisted altogether on wild gooseberries, young
nettles, a raw terrapin and two young birds, he arrived safely at Fort
McIntosh--meagre, emaciated and almost famished.
Another instance of great good-fortune occurred in the person of John
Slover,[13] who was also made prisoner after having travelled more
than half the distance from the fatal scene of [246] action to Fort
Pitt. When only eight years of age he had been taken by some Indians
on New river, and detained in captivity for twelve years. In this time
he became well acquainted with their manners and customs, and attached
to their mode of living so strongly, that when ransomed by his
friends, he left his Indian companions with regret. He had become too,
while with them, familiar with the country north west of the Ohio, and
an excellent woodsman; and in consequence of these attainments was
selected a principal guide to the army on its outward march. When a
retreat was prematurely began to be made by detached parties, he was
some distance from camp, and having to equip himself for flight, was
left a good way in the rear. It was not long however, before he came
up with a party, whose horses were unable to extricate themselves from
a deep morass, over which they had attempted to pass. Slover's was
soon placed in the same unpleasant situation, and they all, alighting
from them, proceeded on foot. In this manner they traveled on until
they had nearly reached the Tuscarawa, when a party of savages from
the way side, fired upon them. One of the men was killed, Slover and
two others made prisoners, & the fifth escaped to Wheeling.
Those taken captive were carried first to Wachatomakah (a small town
of the Mingoes and Shawanees,) from whence after having been severely
beaten, they were conducted to a larger town two miles farther. On
their arrival here, they had all to pass through the usual ceremonies
of running the gauntlet; and one of them who had been stripped of his
clothes and painted black, was most severely beaten, mangled, and
killed, and his body cut in pieces and placed on poles outside the
town. Here too, Slover saw the dead bodies of Col. McClelland, Major
Harrison and John Crawford; and learned that they had all been put to
death but a little while before his arrival there; and although he was
spared for some time, yet every thing which he saw acted towards other
prisoners, led him to fear that he was reserved for a more cruel fate,
whenever the whim of the instant should suggest its consummation. At
length an express arrived from Detroit with a speech for the warriors,
which decided his doom. Being decyphered from the belt of wampum which
contained it, the speech began by enquiring why they continued to take
prisoners, and said, "Provisions are scarce and when you send in [247]
prisoners, we have them to feed, and still some of them are getting
off, and carrying tidings of our affairs. When any of your people are
taken by the rebels, they shew no mercy. Why then should you? My
children take no more prisoners of any sort, men, women, or children."
Two days after the arrival of the express with this speech, a council
of the different tribes of Indians near, was held, and it was
determined to act in conformity with the advice of the Governor of
Detroit. Slover was then the only white prisoner at this town; and on
the morning after the council was dissolved, about forty warriors came
to the house where he was, and tying a rope around his neck, led him
off to another village, five miles distant. Here again he was severely
beaten with clubs & the pipe end of the tomahawk, & then tied to a
post, around which were piles of wood. These were soon kindled, but a
violent rain falling unexpectedly, extinguished the flames, before
they had effected him. It was then agreed to postpone his execution,
until the next day, and being again beaten and much wounded by their
blows, he was taken to a block house, his hands tied, the rope about
his neck fastened to a beam of the building, and three warriors left
to guard him for the night.
If the feelings of Slover would have permitted him to enjoy sleep, the
conduct of the guard would have prevented it. They delighted in
keeping alive in his mind the shocking idea of the suffering which he
would have to endure, & frequently asking him "how he would like to
eat fire," tormented him nearly all night. Awhile before day however,
they fell asleep, and Slover commenced untying himself. Without much
difficulty he loosened the cord from his arms, but the ligature around
his neck, of undressed buffalo-hide, seemed to defy his exertions to
remove it; and while he was endeavoring to gnaw it in vain, one of the
sleeping Indians, rose up and going near to him, sat and smoked his
pipe for some time. Slover lay perfectly still, apprehensive that all
chance of escape was now lost to him. But no--the Indian again
composed himself to sleep, and the first effort afterwards made, to
loose the band from his neck by slipping it over his head, resulted in
leaving Slover entirely unbound. He then crept softly from the house
and leaping a fence, gained the cornfield. Passing on, as he
approached a tree, he espied a squaw with several children lying at
its root; and fearing that some of them might discover him and give
the alarm of his [248] escape, he changed his course. He soon after
reached a glade, in which were several horses, one of which he
caught; and also found a piece of an old rug, which afforded him his
only covering until he reached Wheeling. This he was enabled to do in
a few days, being perfectly acquainted with the country.
The town, from which Slover escaped, was the one to which Dr.
Knight was to have been taken. The Indian who had him in charge,
came in while Slover was there, and reported his escape--magnifying
the Doctor's stature to gigantic size and attributing to him
herculean strength. When Slover acquainted the warriors with the
fact, that Doctor Knight was diminutive and effeminate, they laughed
heartily at this Indian, and mocked at him for suffering the escape.
He however bore a mark which showed that, weak and enfeebled as he
was, the Doctor had not played booty when he aimed the blow at his
conductor.--It had penetrated to the skull and made a gash of full
four inches length.
These are but few of the many incidents which no doubt occurred, to
individuals who endeavored to effect an escape by detaching themselves
from the main army. The number of those, thus separated from the
troops, who had the good fortune to reach the settlements, was small
indeed; and of the many of them who fell into the hands of the
savages, Knight and Slover are believed to be the only persons, who
were so fortunate as to make an escape. The precise loss sustained in
the expedition, was never ascertained, and is variously represented
from ninety to one hundred and twenty.
Among those of the troops who went out under Col. Crawford, that came
into Wheeling, was a man by the name of Mills.[14] Having rode very
fast, and kept his horse almost continually travelling, he was forced
to leave him, near to the present town of St. Clairsville in Ohio. Not
liking the idea of loosing him altogether, upon his arrival at
Wheeling he prevailed on Lewis Wetsel[15] to go with him to the place
where his horse gave out, to see if they could not find him.
Apprehensive that the savages would pursue the fugitives to the
border of the settlements, Wetsel advised Mills that their path would
not be free from dangers, and counselled him to "prepare for
fighting."
When they came near to the place where the horse had been left, they
met a party of about forty Indians going towards [249] the Ohio river
and who discovered Mills and Wetsel as soon as these saw them. Upon
the first fire from the Indians Mills was wounded in the heel, and
soon overtaken and killed. Wetzel singled out his mark, shot, and
seeing an Indian fall, wheeled and ran. He was immediately followed by
four of the savages, who laid aside their guns that they might the
more certainly overtake him. Having by practice, acquired the art of
loading his gun as he ran, Wetsel was indifferent how near the savages
approached him, if he were out of reach of the rifles of the others.
Accordingly, keeping some distance ahead of his pursuers whilst
re-loading his gun, he relaxed his speed until the foremost Indian had
got within ten or twelve steps of him. He then wheeled, shot him dead,
and again took to flight. He had now to exert his speed to keep in
advance of the savages 'till he should again load, & when this was
accomplished and he turned to fire, the second Indian was near enough
to catch hold of the gun, when as Wetsel expressed it, "_they had a
severe wring_." At length he succeed in raising the muzzle to the
breast of his antagonist, and killed him also.
In this time both the pursuers and pursued had become much jaded, and
although Wetsel had consequently a better opportunity of loading
quickly, yet taught wariness by the fate of their companions, the two
remaining savages would spring behind trees whenever he made a
movement like turning towards them. Taking advantage of a more open
piece of ground, he was enabled to fire on one of them who had sought
protection behind a sapling too small to screen his body. The ball
fractured his thigh, and produced death. The other, instead of
pressing upon Wetsel, uttered a shrill yell, and exclaiming, "no catch
_him_, gun always loaded," returned to his party.
-----
[1] One hundred and eighty-six men, mounted, from the
Monongahela settlements. Early in March, 1782, they assembled
under David Williamson, colonel of one of the militia
battalions of Washington County, Pa., on the east bank of the
Ohio, a few miles below Steubenville. The water was high, the
weather cold and stormy, and there were no boats for crossing
over to Mingo Bottom. Many turned back, but about two
hundred succeeded in crossing. The expedition was not a
"private" affair, but was regularly authorized by the military
authority of Washington County; its destination was not the
Moravian settlements, but the hostile force, then supposed
to be on the Tuscarawas river. It seems to have generally
been understood on the border that the Moravian towns were
now deserted.--R. G. T.
[2] Contemporary accounts speak of a council of war, held in
the evening, at which this question was decided. But a small
majority voted for the butchery; Williamson himself was in the
minority. Dorsey Pentecost, writing from Pittsburg, May 8, 1782
(see _Penn. Arch._, ix., p. 540), says: "I have heard it
intimated that about thirty or forty only of the party gave
their consent or assisted in the catastrophe."--R. G. T.
[3] Lineback's Relation (_Penn. Arch._, ix., p. 525) says:
"In the morning, the militia chose two houses, which they
called the 'slaughter houses,' and then brought the Indians two
or three at a time, with ropes about their necks, and dragged
them into the slaughter houses where they knocked them down."
This accords with Heckewelder's _Narrative_, p. 320, which says
they were knocked down with a cooper's mallet. The victims
included those converts living at Salem, who had peaceably come
in to Gnadenhuetten with their captors; but those at New
Schoenbrunn had taken the alarm and fled.--R. G. T.
[4] Later authorities put the total number at
ninety--twenty-nine men, twenty-seven women, and thirty-four
children.--R. G. T.
[5] Salem, New Schoenbrunn and Gnadenhuetten were all
destroyed by fire. The whites returned home the following day,
with ninety-six scalps--ninety Moravians and six outlying
Indians. It seems certain that a few hostiles were with the
Moravians at the time of the massacre.--R. G. T.
[6] David Williamson, as previously seen, was a colonel of
militia in Washington County, Pa.; James Marshal, as county
lieutenant of Washington, was his superior officer.--R. G. T.
[7] The place of rendezvous was Mingo Bottom (the present
Mingo Junction, O.), and the date May 20. It was the 24th
before all were present. The volunteers numbered 480, of
whom two-thirds were from Washington County; most of the
others were from Fayette County, Pa., and a few from Ohio
County, Va. In the vote for commander, William Crawford
received 235, and Williamson 230. Four field majors were
elected to rank in the order named: Williamson, Thomas
Gaddis, John McClelland, and one Brinton. The standard
modern authority for the details of this expedition, is
Butterfield's _Crawford's Expedition Against Sandusky_
(Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1873).--R. G. T.
[8] Col. David Williamson.--R. G. T.
[9] His son John, his son-in-law Major William Harrison, and
one of his nephews,--not two,--William Crawford. They were
captured by the Indians and killed.--R. G. T.
[10] Dr. John Knight, surgeon to the expedition. He was
captured, and sentenced to death, but after thrilling
adventures finally escaped.--R. G. T.
[11] Wingenund.--R. G. T.
[12] Colonel Crawford was then about fifty years of age, and
had been an active warrior against the savages for a great
while. During [245] the French war, he distinguished himself by
his bravery and good conduct, and was much noticed by General
Washington, who obtained for him an ensigncy. At the
commencement of the revolution, he raised a regiment by his own
exertions, and at the period of this unfortunate expedition,
bore the commission of Colonel in the Continental army. He
possessed a sound judgment, was a man of singular good nature
and great humanity, and remarkable for his hospitality. His
melancholy sufferings and death spread a gloom over the
countenances of all who knew him. His son, John Crawford, and
his son-in-law, Major Harrison, were taken prisoners, carried
to the Shawanee towns and murdered.
------
_Comment by R. G. T._--Crawford was born in 1732, in Orange
County, Va., of Scotch-Irish parentage. He made the friendship
of Washington while the latter was surveying for Lord Fairfax,
in the Shenandoah Valley, in 1749. Washington taught him his
art, but in 1755 he abandoned it for a military life, and
thenceforward was a prominent character on the frontier, often
serving under Washington. From 1767 forward, his home was on
the banks of the Youghiogheny, on Braddock's Road. Crawford
fought in Dunmore's War, and throughout the Revolution did
notable service on the Virginia border.
[13] John Slover, one of the guides to the expedition, was
among the best known scouts of his day, on the Upper Ohio. His
published _Narrative_ is a prime source of information relative
to the events of the campaign.--R. G. T.
[14] Thomas Mills.--R. G. T.
[15] Lewis Wetzel, a noted Indian fighter. See p. 161,
_note_.--R. G. T.
[250] CHAPTER XV.
While expeditions were carrying on by the whites, against the Moravian
and other Indians, the savages were prosecuting their accustomed
predatory and exterminating war, against several of the settlements.
Parties of Indians, leaving the towns to be defended by the united
exertions of contiguous tribes, would still penetrate to the abode of
the whites, and with various success, strive to avenge on them their
real and fancied wrongs.
On the 8th of March as William White, Timothy Dorman and his wife,
were going to, and in site of Buchannon fort, some guns were
discharged at them, and White being shot through the hip soon fell
from his horse, and was tomahawked, scalped and lacerated in the most
frightful manner.[1]--Dorman and his wife were taken prisoners. The
people in the fort heard the firing and flew to arms; but the river
being between, the savages cleared themselves, while the whites were
crossing over.
After the killing of White (one of their most active and vigilant
warriors and spies) and the capture of Dorman, it was resolved to
abandon the fort, and seek elsewhere, security from the greater ills
which it was found would befall them if they remained. This
apprehension arose from the fact, that Dorman was then with the
savages, and that to gratify his enmity to particular individuals in
the settlement, he would unite with the Indians, and _from his
knowledge of the_ [251] _country, be enabled_ to conduct them the more
securely to blood and plunder. He was a man of sanguinary and
revengeful disposition, prone to quarrelling, and had been known to
say, that if he caught particular individuals with whom he was at
variance, in the woods alone, he would murder them and attribute it to
the savages. He had led, when in England, a most abandoned life, and
after he was transported to this country, was so reckless of
reputation and devoid of shame for his villainies, that he would often
recount tales of theft and robbery in which he had been a conspicuous
actor. The fearful apprehensions of increased and aggravated injuries
after the taking of him prisoner, were well-founded; and subsequent
events fully proved, that, but for the evacuation of the fort, and the
removal of the inhabitants, all would have fallen before the fury of
savage warriors, with this abandoned miscreant at their head.
While some of the inhabitants of that settlement were engaged in
moving their property to a fort in Tygart's Valley (the others
removing to Nutter's fort and Clarksburg,) they were fired upon by a
party of savages, and two of them, Michael Hagle and Elias Paynter,
fell. The horse on which John Bush was riding, was shot through; yet
Bush succeeded in extricating himself from the falling animal, and
escaped though closely pursued by one of the savages. Several times
the Indian following him, would cry out to him, "_Stop, and you shall
not be hurt--If you do not, I will shoot you_," and once Bush, nearly
exhausted, and in despair of getting off, actually relaxed his pace
for the purpose of yielding himself a prisoner, when turning round he
saw the savage stop also, and commence loading his gun. This inspired
Bush with fear for the consequences, and renewing his flight he made
his escape. Edward Tanner, a mere youth, was soon taken prisoner, and
as he was being carried to their towns, met between twenty and thirty
savages, headed by Timothy Dorman, proceeding to attack Buchannon
fort. Learning from him that the inhabitants were moving from it, and
that it would be abandoned in a few days, the Indians pursued their
journey with so much haste, that Dorman had well nigh failed from
fatigue. They arrived however, too late, for the accomplishment of
their bloody purpose; the settlement was deserted, and the inhabitants
safe within the walls of other fortresses.
[252] A few days after the evacuation of the fort, some of its former
inmates went from Clarksburg to Buchannon for grain which had been
left there. When they came in sight, they beheld a heap of ashes where
the fort had been; and proceeding on, became convinced that the
savages were yet lurking about. They however, continued to go from
farm to farm collecting the grain, but with the utmost vigilance and
caution, and at night went to an out house, near where the fort had
stood. Here they found a paper, with the name of Timothy Dorman
attached to it, dated at the Indian towns, and containing information
of those who had been taken captive in that district of country.
In the morning early, as some of the men went from the house to the
mill, they saw the savages crossing the river, Dorman being with
them. Thinking it best to impress them with a belief that they were
able to encounter them in open conflict, the men advanced towards
them,--calling to their companions in the house, to come on. The
Indians fled hastily to the woods, and the whites, not so rash as to
pursue them, returned to the house, and secured themselves in it, as
well as they could. At night, Captain George Jackson went privately
forth from the house, and at great hazzard of being discovered by
the waylaying savages, proceeded to Clarksburg, where he obtained such
a reinforcement as enabled him to return openly and escort his
former companions in danger, from the place of its existence.
Disappointed in their hopes of involving the inhabitants of the
Buchannon settlements in destruction, the savages went on to the
Valley. Here, between Westfall's and Wilson's forts, they came upon
John Bush and his wife, Jacob Stalnaker and his son Adam. The two
latter being on horse back and riding behind Bush and his wife, were
fired at, and Adam fell. The old gentleman, rode briskly on, but some
of the savages were before him and endeavored to catch the reins of
his bridle, and thus stop his flight. He however, escaped them all.
The horse from which Adam Stalnaker had fallen, was caught by Bush,
and both he and Mrs. Bush got safely away on him.
The Indians then crossed the Alleghany mountains, and coming to the
house of Mrs. Gregg, (Dorman's former master) made an attack on it. A
daughter of that gentleman, alone fell a victim to their thirst for
blood. When taken prisoner, [253] she refused to go with them, and
Dorman sunk his tomahawk into her head and then scalped her. She
however, lived several days and related the circumstances above
detailed.
After the murder of John Thomas and his family in 1781, the settlement
on Booth's creek was forsaken, and its inhabitants went to Simpson's
creek, for greater security. In the Spring John Owens procured the
assistance of some young men about Simpson's creek, and proceeded to
Booth's creek for the purpose of threshing some wheat at his farm
there.--While on a stack throwing down sheaves, several guns were
fired at him by a party of twelve Indians, concealed not far off.
Owens leapt from the stack, and the men caught up their guns. They
could not, however, discover any one of the savages in their covert
and thought it best to retreat to Simpson's creek and strengthen their
force before they ventured in pursuit of their enemy. They accordingly
did so, and when they came again to Booth's creek, the Indians had
decamped, taking with them the horses left at Owens'. The men however
found their trail and followed it until night.--Early next morning,
crossing the West Fork at Shinnston, they went on in pursuit and came
within sight of the Indian camp, and seeing some of the savages lying
near their fires, fired at them, but, as was believed without effect.
The Indians again took to flight; and as they were hastening on, one
of them suddenly wheeled and fired upon his pursuers. The ball passed
through the hunting-shirt of one of the men, & Benjamin Coplin (then
an active, enterprising young man) returning the shot, an Indian was
seen suddenly to spring into a laurel thicket. Not supposing that
Coplin's ball had taken effect, they followed the other savages some
distance farther, and as they returned got the horses and plunder left
at the camp. Some time afterwards a gun was found in the thicket, into
which the Indian sprang, and it was then believed that Coplin's shot
had done execution.
In the same spring the Indians made their appearance on Crooked run,
in Monongalia county. Mr. Thomas Pindall, having been one day at
Harrison's fort, at a time when a greater part of the neighbourhood
had gone thither for safety, prevailed on three young men, (Harrison,
Crawford and Wright, to return and spend the night with him.) Some
time after they had been abed, the females waked Mr. Pindall, and
telling him that they had heard several times a noise very much [254]
resembling the whistling on a charger, insisted on going directly to
the fort. The men heard nothing, and being inclined to believe that
the fears of the females had given to the blowing of the wind, that
peculiar sound, insisted that there was no danger and that it would be
unpleasant to turn out then, as the night was very dark. Hearing
nothing after this, for which they could not readily account, the men
rose in the morning unapprehensive of interruption; and the females,
relieved of their fears of being molested by savages during the night,
continued in bed. Mr. Pindall walked forth to the woods to catch a
horse, and the young men went to the spring hard by, for the purpose
of washing. While thus engaged three guns were fired at them, and
Crawford and Wright were killed. Harrison fled and got safely to the
fort.
The females alarmed at the report of the guns, sprang out of bed and
hastened towards the fort, pursued by the Indians. Mrs. Pindall was
overtaken and killed, but Rachael Pindall, her sister-in-law, escaped
safely to the fort.
In June some Indians came into the neighborhood of Clarksburg, and not
meeting with an opportunity of killing or making prisoners any of the
inhabitants without the town, one of them, more venturous than the
rest, came so near as to shoot Charles Washburn as he was chopping a
log of wood in the lot, and then running up, with the axe, severed his
skull, scalped him, and fled safely away. Three of Washburn's brothers
had been previously murdered by the savages.
In August as Arnold and Paul Richards were returning to Richard's
fort, they were shot at by some Indians, lying hid in a cornfield
adjoining the fort, and both fell from their horses. The Indians
leaped over the fence immediately and tomahawked and scalped them.
These two men were murdered in full view of the fort, and the firing
drew its inmates to the gate to ascertain its cause. When they saw
that the two Richards' were down, they rightly judged that Indians had
done the deed; and Elias Hughes, ever bold and daring, taking down his
gun, went out alone at the back gate, and entered the cornfield, into
which the savages had again retired, to see if he could not avenge on
one of them the murder of his friends. Creeping softly along, he came
in view of them standing near the fence, reloading their guns, and
looking intently at the people at the fort gate. Taking [255] a
deliberate aim at one of them, he touched the trigger. His gun
flashed, and the Indians alarmed ran speedily away.
A most shocking scene was exhibited some time before this, on Muddy
creek in Pennsylvania. On the 10th of May as the Reverend John Corbly,
his wife and five children were going to meeting, (Mr. Corbly being a
short distance behind) they were attacked by a party of savages
waylaying the road. The shrieks of Mrs. Corbly and the children, drew
the husband and father to the fatal spot. As he was approaching, his
wife called to him, "to fly," He knew that it was impossible for him
to contend successfully against the fearful odds opposed to him, and
supposing that his family would be carried away as prisoners, and that
he would be enabled either to recover them by raising a company and
pursuing the savages, or to ransom them, if conducted to the Indian
towns, he complied with her wish, and got safely off, though pursued
by one of the savages. But it was not their intention to carry them
into captivity. They delighted too much, to look upon the lifeblood
flowing from the heart; and accordingly shed it most profusely. The
infant in its mother's arms was the first on whom their savage fury
fell,--it was tomahawked and scalped. The mother then received several
severe blows, but not falling, was shot through the body, by the
savage who chased her husband; and then scalped. Into the brains of a
little son, six years old, their hatchets were sunk to the heft. Two
little girls, of two and four years of age, were tomahawked and
scalped. The eldest child, also a daughter, had attempted to escape by
concealing herself in a hollow log, a few rods from the scene of
action. From her hiding place, she beheld all that was done, and when
the bleeding scalp was torn from the head of her last little sister, &
she beheld the savages retiring from the desolation which they had
wrought, she crawled forth from concealment. It was too soon. One of
the savages yet lingered near, to feast to satiety on the horrid
spectacle. His eyes caught a glimpse of her as she crept from the log,
and his tomahawk and scalping knife became red with her blood.
When Mr. Corbly returned, all his hopes vanished. Which ever way he
turned, the mangled body of some one of his family was presented to
his view. His soul sickened at the contemplation of the scene, and he
fainted and fell. When he had revived, he was cheered with the hope
that some of [256] them might yet survive. Two of his daughters had
manifested symptoms of returning life, and with care and attention
were restored to him.
Thus far in the year 1782, the settlements only suffered from the
accustomed desultory warfare of the savages. No numerous collection of
Indians had crossed their border,--no powerful army of warriors,
threatening destruction to the forts, those asylums of their safety,
had appeared among them.--But the scene was soon to change.
In August, there was a grand council convened at Chilicothe, in which
the Wyandots, the Shawanees, the Mingoes, the Tawas, Pottowatomies, and
various other tribes were represented.[2] Girty and McKee--disgraces
to human nature--aided in their deliberations. The surrender of
Cornwallis, which had been studiously kept secret from the Indians,
was now known to them, and the war between Great Britain and the
United States, seemed to them to be verging to a close.--Should a
peace ensue, they feared that the concentrated strength of Virginia,
would bear down upon them and crush them at once. In anticipation of
this state of things, they had met to deliberate, what course it best
became them to pursue. Girty addressed the council. He reminded them
of the gradual encroachments of the whites;--of the beauty of Kentucky
and its value to them as a hunting ground.--He pointed out to them the
necessity of greater efforts to regain possession of that country, and
warned them that if they did not combine their strength to change the
present state of things, the whites would soon leave them no hunting
grounds; and they would consequently, have no means of procuring rum
to cheer their hearts, or blankets to warm their bodies. His advice
was well received and they determined to continue the war.[3]
When the council was adjourned, the warriors proceeded to execute its
determinations. Two armies, the one of six hundred, and the other
three hundred and fifty men, prepared to march, each to it assigned
station--The larger was destined to operate against Kentucky, while
the smaller, was to press upon North Western Virginia; and each was
abundantly supplied with the munitions of war.[4] Towards the last of
August the warriors who were to act in Kentucky, appeared before
Bryant's station, south of Licking river, and placed themselves under
covert during night,[5] and in advantageous [257] situations for
firing upon the station, so soon as its doors should be thrown open.
There were at that time but few inhabitants occupying that station.
William Bryant, its founder, and one in whose judgment, skill and
courage, many confidently reposed for security from savage enormity,
had been unfortunately discovered by some Indians near the mouth of
Cane run, and killed.--His death caused most of those who had come to
that place from North Carolina, to forsake the station, and return to
their own country. Emigrants from Virginia, arriving some short time
before, and among whom was Robert Johnson, (the father of Richard M.
Johnson) to a certain extent supplied this desertion; yet it was in
respect to numbers so far inferior to the savage forces, that the most
resolute shuddered in apprehension of the result.
The station too, was at that time, careless and inattentive to its own
defence; not anticipating the appearance of a savage army before its
gates. Indeed had the Indians delayed their attack a few hours, it
would have been in almost an entirely defenceless condition; as the
men were on that morning to have left it, for the purpose of aiding in
the defence of another station, which was then understood to be
assailed by an army of Indians. Fortunately however, for the
inhabitants, as soon as the doors of some of the cabins were opened in
the morning, the savages commenced the fire, and thus admonished them
of danger, while it was not yet too late to provide against it.
The Indians in the attack on Bryant's station practised their
usual stratagem, to ensure their success. It was begun on the
south-east angle of the station, by one hundred warriors, while the
remaining five hundred were concealed in the woods on the opposite
side, ready to take advantage of its unprotected situation when, as
they anticipated, the garrison would concentrate its strength, to
resist the assault on the south-east. But their purpose was fully
comprehended by the garrison, and instead of returning the fire of the
one hundred, they secretly sent an express to Lexington for
assistance, and commenced repairing the pallisades, and putting
themselves in the best possible condition to withstand the fury of
the assailants. Aware that the Indians were posted near the
spring, and believing that they would not fire unless some of the
men should be seen going thither, the women [258] were sent to bring
in water for the use of the garrison. The event justified their
expectations--The concealed Indians, still farther to strengthen the
belief, that their whole force were engaged in the attack on the
south-east, forbore to fire, or otherwise contradict the impression
which they had studiously sought to make on the minds of its inmates.
When a sufficiency of water had been provided, and the station placed
in a condition of defence, thirteen men were sent out in the direction
from which the assault was made. They were fired upon by the assailing
party of one hundred, but without receiving any injury; and retired
again within the pallisades. Instantly the savages rushed to the
assault of, what they deemed, the unprotected side of the station,
little doubting their success. A steady, well directed fire, put them
quickly to flight. Some of the more desperate and daring however,
approached near enough to fire the houses, some of which were
consumed; but a favorable wind drove the flames from the mass of the
buildings and the station escaped conflagration.
Disappointed of the expected success of their first stratagem, the
assailants withdrew a short distance, and concealed themselves under
the bank of the creek, to await the arrival of the assistance, which
was generally sent to a besieged fort or station, arranging themselves
in ambushment to intercept its approach.
When the express from Bryant's station reached Lexington, the male
inhabitants had left there to aid in the defence of Holder's
station, which was reported to be attacked. Following on their
route, they overtook them at Boonesborough, and sixteen mounted, and
thirty footmen were immediately detached to aid the inhabitants of
Bryant's station. When this reinforcement came near, the firing had
entirely ceased, no enemy was visible, and they approached in the
confidence that all was well. A sudden discharge of shot from the
savages in ambush, dispelled that hope. The horsemen however, passed
safely by. The cloud of dust produced by the galloping of their
horses, obscured the view and hindered the otherwise deadly aim of
the Indians. The footmen were less fortunate. Two of them were killed,
and four wounded; and but for the luxuriant growth of corn in the
field through which they passed, nearly all must have fallen, before
the overwhelming force of the enemy.
[259] Thus reinforced, the garrison did not for an instant doubt of
safety; while the savages became hopeless of success by force of
arms, and resorted to another expedient to gain possession of the
station. In the twilight of evening, Simon Girty covertly drew near,
and mounting on a stump from which he could be distinctly heard,
demanded the surrender of the place. He told the garrison, that a
reinforcement, with cannon, would arrive that night, and that this
demand was suggested by _his humanity_, as the station must
ultimately fall, and he could assure them of protection if they
surrendered, but could not if the Indians succeeded by storm; and then
demanded, if "they knew who was addressing them." A young man by the
name of Reynolds, (fearing the effect which the threat of cannon might
have upon the garrison, as the fate of Ruddle's and Martin's
stations was yet fresh in their recollections,) replied, that he
"knew him well, and held him in such contempt, that he had named a
worthless dog which he had SIMON GIRTY; that his reinforcements and
threats, were not heeded by the garrison, who expected to receive
before morning such an auxiliary force as would enable them to give
a good account of the cowardly wretches that followed him, whom he
held in such contempt that he had prepared a number of switches with
which to drive them out of the country if they remained there 'till
day."[6]
Affecting to deplore their obstinacy, Girty retired, and during the
night, the main body of the Indian army marched off, leaving a few
warriors to keep up an occasional firing and the semblance of a
siege.[7]
Shortly after the retreat of the savages, one hundred and sixty men,
from Lexington, Harrodsburg and Boonesborough, assembled at Bryant's
station, and determined to pursue them.[8] Prudence should have
prevailed with them to await the arrival of Colonel Logan, who was
known to be collecting additional forces from the other station; but
brave and fearless, well equipped, and burning with ardent desire to
chastise their savage invaders, they rather indiscreetly chose to
march on, unaided, sooner than risk suffering the enemy to retire, by
delaying for other troops. But the Indians had no wish to retire, to
avoid the whites. The trail left by them, to the experienced eye of
Daniel Boone, furnished convincing evidence, that they were only
solicitous to conceal their numbers, in reality to tempt pursuit.
[260] When the troops arrived at the Lower Blue Licks, they saw the
only Indians, which had met their eye on the route. These were slowly
ascending the ridge on the opposite side of the river. The party was
halted, and Boone consulted as to what course it would be best to
pursue. He was of opinion that the savage force was much greater, than
most had been led to believe by the appearance of the trail, and
anticipating pursuit, were then in ambush in the ravines; and he
advised that the force be divided into two equal parts, the one,
marching up the river, to cross it at the mouth of Elk creek, above
the upper ravine, while the other party should take a position below
for the purpose of co-operating whenever occasion might require; but
that neither party should by any means cross the river, until spies
were sent out to learn the position and strength of the enemy.[9] The
officers generally were inclined to follow the counsel of Boone, but
Major McGary, remarkable for impetuosity, exclaiming, "Let all who are
not cowards, follow me," spurred his horse into the river. The whole
party caught the contagious rashness,--all rushed across the river.
There was no order,--no arrangement--no unity or concert. None "paused
in their march of terror," lest "we should hover o'er the path," but
each, following his own counsel, moved madly towards the sheltered
ravines and wooded ground, where Boone had predicted the savages lay
hid. The event justified the prediction, and showed the wisdom of his
counsel.
At the head of a chosen band of warriors, Girty[10] advanced with
fierceness upon the whites, from the advantageous position which he
covertly occupied, and "madness, despair and death succeed, the
conflict's gathering wrath." The Indians had greatly the advantage in
numbers, as well as position, and the disorderly front of the
whites, gave them still greater superiority. The bravery of the troops
for a while withstood the onset, and the contest was fierce and
sanguinary 'till their right wing being turned, a retreat became
inevitable. All pressed towards the ford, but a division of the
savage army, foreseeing this, had been placed so as to interpose
between them and it; and they were driven to a point on the river,
where it could only be crossed by swimming. Here was indeed a
scene of blood and carnage. Many were killed on the bank; others
in swimming over, and some were tomahawked in the edge of the
water. Some of those who had been foremost in getting across the
river, wheeled and opened a steady fire upon the pursuers. Others,
animated by the example, as soon as they reached the bank discharged
their guns upon the savages, and checking them for a while enabled
many to escape death. But for this stand, the footmen would have
been much harrassed, and very many of them entirely cut off. As it
was, the loss in slain was great. Of one hundred and seventy-six (the
number of whites,) sixty-one were killed, and eight taken prisoners.
Cols. Todd and Trigg,--Majors Harland and Bulger,--Capts. Gordon,
McBride, and a son of Daniel Boone, were among those who fell. The
loss of the savages was never known;--they [261] were left in
possession of the battle ground, and at leisure to conceal or carry
off their dead, and when it was next visited by the whites, none
were found.[11]
A most noble and generous act, performed by one of the whites,
deserves to be forever remembered. While they were flying before the
closely pursuing savages, Reynolds (who at Bryant's station had so
cavalierly replied to Girty's demand of its surrender) seeing Col.
Robert Patterson, unhorsed and considerably disabled by his wounds,
painfully struggling to reach the river, sprang from his saddle, and
assisting him to occupy the relinquished seat, enabled that veteran
officer to escape, and fell himself into the hands of the savages. He
was not long however, detained a prisoner by them. He was taken by a
party of only three Indians; and two whites passing hurriedly on
towards the river, just after, two of his captors hastened in pursuit
of them, and he was left guarded by only one. Reynolds was cool and
collected, and only awaited the semblance of an opportunity, to
attempt an escape. Presently the savage in whose custody he was,
stooped to tie his moccason. Suddenly he sprang to one side, and being
fleet of foot, got safely off.
The battle of the Blue Licks was fought on the 19th of August. On the
next day Col. Logan, with three hundred men, met the remnant of the
troops retreating to Bryant's station; and learning the fatal result
of the contest, hurried on to the scene of action to bury the dead,
and avenge their fall--if the enemy should be found yet hovering near.
On his arrival not a savage was to be seen. Flushed with victory, and
exulting in their revenge, they had retired to their towns, to feast
the eyes of their brethren, with the scalps of the slain. The field of
battle presented a miserable spectacle. All was stillness, where so
lately had arisen the shout of the impetuous, but intrepid whites, and
the whoop and yell of the savages, as they closed in deadly conflict;
not a sound was to be heard but the hoarse cry of the vulture,
flapping her wings and mounting into the air, alarmed at the intrusion
of man. Those countenances, which had so lately beamed with daring and
defiance, were unmeaning and inexpressive; and what with the effect
produced on the dead bodies, by the excessive heat and the mangling
and disfiguration of the tomahawk and scalping knife, scarcely one
could be distinguished from another. Friends tortured themselves in
vain, to find friends, in the huge mass of slain,--fathers to
recognize their sons. The mournful gratification of bending over the
lifeless bodies of dear relations and gazing with intense anxiety on
their pallid features, was denied them. Undistinguished, though not
unmarked, all were alike consigned to the silent grave, amid sighs of
sorrow and denunciations of revenge.
An expedition against the Indian towns was immediately resolved upon,
and in September, Gen. Clarke marched towards them, at the head of
nearly one thousand men. Being discovered on their route and the
intelligence soon spreading that an army from [262] Kentucky was
penetrating the country, the savages deserted their villages and fled;
and the expedition was thus hindered of its purpose of chastising
them. The towns however were burned, and in a skirmish with a party of
Indians, five of them were killed, and seven made prisoners, with the
loss of only one man.[12]
The Indian forces which were to operate against North Western
Virginia, for some time delayed their purpose, and did not set out on
their march, until awhile before the return of those who had been
sent into Kentucky. On their way, a question arose among them--against
what part of the country they should direct their movements--and their
division on this subject, rising by degrees 'till it assumed a serious
aspect, led many of the chiefs to determine on abandoning the
expedition; but a runner arriving with intelligence of the great
success which had crowned the exertion of the army in Kentucky, they
changed that determination, and proceeded hastily towards Wheeling.
In the first of September, John Lynn (a celebrated spy and the same
who had been with Capt. Foreman at the time of the fatal ambuscade at
Grave creek) being engaged in watching the warriors paths, northwest
of the Ohio, discovered the Indians marching with great expedition for
Wheeling, and hastening to warn the inhabitants of the danger which
was threatening them, swam the river, and reached the village, but a
little while before the savage army made its appearance. The fort was
at this time without any regular garrison, and depended for defence
exclusively, on the exertions of those who sought security within its
walls. The brief space of time which elapsed between the alarm by
Lynn, and the arrival of the Indians, permitted only those who were
immediately present to retire into it, and when the attack was begun
to be made, there were not within its pallisades, twenty effective men
to oppose the assault. The dwelling house of Col. Ebenezer Zane,
standing about forty yards from the fort, contained the military
stores which had been furnished by the government of Virginia; and as
it was admirably situated as an out post from which to annoy the
savages in their onsets, he resolved on maintaining possession of it,
as well to aid in the defence of the fort, as for the preservation of
the ammunition. Andrew Scott, George Green, Mrs. Zane, Molly Scott and
Miss McCullough, were all who remained with him. The kitchen
(adjoining) was occupied by Sam (a negro belonging to Col, Zane) and
Kate, his wife.--Col. Silas Zane commanded in the fort.
When the savage army approached, the British colors were waving over
them; and before a shot was discharged at the fort, they demanded the
surrender of the garrison. No answer was deigned to this demand, but
the firing of several shot (by order of Silas Zane) at the standard
which they bore; and the savages rushed to the assault. A well
directed and brisk fire opened upon them from Col. Zane's house and
the fort, soon drove them back. Again they rushed forward; and again
were they repulsed. The number of [263] arms in the house and fort,
and the great exertions of the women in moulding bullets, loading guns
and handing them to the men, enabled them to fire so briskly, yet so
effectively, as to cause the savages to recoil from every charge. The
darkness of night soon suspended their attacks, and afforded a
temporary repose to the besieged. Yet were the assailants not wholly
inactive. Having suffered severely by the galling fire poured upon
them from the house, they determined on reducing it to ashes. For this
purpose, when all was quietness and silence, a savage, with a
firebrand in his hand crawled to the kitchen, and raising himself from
the ground, waving the torch to and fro to rekindle its flame, and
about to apply it to the building, received a shot which forced him to
let fall the engine of destruction and hobble howling away. The
vigilance of Sam had detected him, in time to thwart his purpose.
On the return of light, the savages were seen yet environing the fort,
and although for some time they delayed to renew their suspended
assault, yet it was evident they had not given over its contemplated
reduction. They were engaged in making such preparations, as they were
confident would ensure success to their exertions.
Soon after the firing of the preceding day had subsided, a small boat,
proceeding from Fort Pitt to the Falls of Ohio with cannon balls for
the use of the troops there, put to shore at Wheeling; and the man who
had charge of her, although discovered and slightly wounded by the
savages, reached the postern and was admitted to the fort. The boat of
course fell into the hands of the enemy, and they resolved on using
the balls aboard, for the demolition of the fortress. To this end they
procured a log, with a cavity as nearly corresponding with the size
of the ball, as they could; and binding it closely with some chains
taken from a shop hard by, charged it heavily, and pointing it towards
the fort, in imagination beheld its walls tumbling into ruin, and the
garrison bleeding under the strokes and gashes of their tomahawks and
scalping knives. All things being ready, the match was applied.--A
dreadful explosion ensued. Their cannon burst;--its slivers flew in
every direction; and instead of being the cause of ruin to the fort,
was the source of injury only to themselves. Several were killed, many
wounded, and all, dismayed by the event. Recovering from the shock,
they presently returned with redoubled animation to the charge.
Furious from disappointment, exasperated with the unforseen yet fatal
result, they pressed to the assault with the blindness of phrensy.
Still they were received with a fire so constant and deadly, that they
were again forced to retire; and most opportunely for the garrison.
When Lynn gave the alarm that an Indian army was approaching, the fort
having been for some time unoccupied by a garrison, and Col. Zane's
house being used as a magazine, those who retired into the fortress
had to take with them a supply of ammunition for its defence. The
supply of powder, deemed ample at the time, by reason of the long
continuance of the savages, and the repeated [264] endeavors made by
them, to storm the fort was now almost entirely exhausted, a few loads
only, remaining. In this emergency, it became necessary to replenish
their stock, from the abundance of that article in Col. Zane's house.
During the continuance of the last assault, apprized of its security,
and aware of the danger which would inevitably ensue, should the
savages after being again driven back, return to the assault before a
fresh supply could be obtained, it was proposed that one of their
fleetest men should endeavor to reach the house, obtain a keg and
return with it to the fort. It was an enterprise full of danger; but
many of the chivalric spirits, then pent up within the fortress, were
willing to encounter them all.
Among those who volunteered to go on this emprise, was Elizabeth,
the younger sister of Colonel Zane. She was then young active and
athletic;--with precipitancy to dare danger, and fortitude to
sustain her in the midst of it. Disdaining to weigh the hazard of her
own life, against the risk of that of others, when told that a man
would encounter less danger by reason of his greater fleetness, she
replied--"and should he fall, his loss will be more severely felt.
You have not one man to spare;--a woman will not be missed in the
defence of the fort." Her services were accepted. Divesting herself
of some of her garments, as tending to impede her progress, she
stood prepared for the hazzardous adventure; and when the gate was
opened, she bounded forth with the buoyancy of hope, and in the
confidence of success. Wrapt in amazement, the Indians beheld her
spring forward; and only exclaiming, "a squaw, a squaw," no attempt
was made to interrupt her progress. Arrived at the door, she
proclaimed her embassy. Col. Zane fastened a table cloth around her
waist, and emptying into it a keg of powder, again she ventured
forth. The Indians were no longer passive. Ball after ball passed
whizzing and innocuous by. She reached the gate and entered the fort
in safety.[13]
Another instance of heroic daring, deserves to be recorded [265] here.
When intelligence of the investiture of Wheeling by the savages,
reached Shepherd's fort, a party was immediately detached from it, to
try and gain admission into the besieged fortress, and aid in its
defence. Upon arriving in view, it was found that the attempt would be
hopeless and unavailing, and the detachment consequently prepared to
return. Francis Duke, (son-in-law to Colonel Shepherd) was unwilling
to turn his back on a people, straitened as he knew the besieged must
be, and declared his intention of endeavoring to reach the fort, that
he might contribute to its defence. It was useless to disuade him from
the attempt;--he knew its danger, but he also knew their weakness,
and putting spurs to his horse, rode briskly forward, calling aloud,
"open the gate,--open the gate." He was seen from the fort, and the
gate was loosed for his admission; but he did not live to reach
it.--Pierced by the bullets of the savages, he fell, to the regret of
all. Such noble daring, deserved a better fate.
During that night and the next day, the Indians still maintained the
seige, and made frequent attempts to take the fort by storm; but they
were invareiably repulsed by the deadly fire of the garrison and the
few brave men in Colonel Zane's house. On the third night, despairing
of success, they resolved on raising the siege; and leaving one
hundred chosen warriors to scour and lay waste the country, the
remainder of their army retreated across the Ohio, and encamped at the
Indian Spring,--five miles from the river. Their loss in the various
assaults upon the fort, could not be ascertained; but was doubtless
very considerable. Of the garrison, none were killed and only two
wounded,--the heroic Francis Duke was the only white who fell during
the siege. The gallantry displayed by all, both men and women, in the
defence of the fort, can not be too highly commended; but to the
caution and good conduct of those few brave individuals who occupied
Colonel Zane's house, its preservation has been mainly attributed.
In the evening preceding the departure of the savages from before
Wheeling, two white men, who had been among them for several years,
and then held commands in the army, deserted from them, and on the
next morning early were taken prisoners by Colonel Swearingen, who,
with ninety-five men, was on his way to aid in the defence of Wheeling
fort, and the chastisement of its assailants. Learning from them [266]
the determination of the savages to withdraw from Wheeling, and detach
a portion of their force to operate in the country, he despatched
runners in every direction to alarm the country and apprize the
inhabitants of danger.[14] The intelligence was received by Jacob
Miller when some distance from home, but apprehensive that the
meditated blow would be aimed at the fort where he resided, he
hastened thither, and arrived in time to aid in preparing for its
defence.
The place against which the savages directed their operations, was
situated on Buffaloe creek, twelve or fifteen miles from its entrance
into the Ohio, and was known as Rice's fort. Until Miller's return
there were in it only five men; the others having gone to Hagerstown
to exchange their peltries, for salt, iron and ammunition. They
immediately set about making preparations to withstand an assault; and
in a little while, seeing the savages approaching from every
direction, forsook the cabins and repaired to the blockhouse. The
Indians perceived that they were discovered, and thinking to take the
station by storm, shouted forth the war whoop and rushed to the
assault. They were answered by the fire of the six brave and skilful
riflemen in the house, and forced to take refuge behind trees and
fallen timber. Still they continued the firing; occasionally calling
on the whites to "_give up, give up. Indian too many. Indian too big.
Give up. Indian no kill._" The men had more faith in the efficacy of
their guns to purchase their safety, than in the preferred mercy of
the savages; and instead of complying with their demand, called on
them, "as cowards skulking behind logs to leave their coverts, and
shew but their yellow hides, and they would make holes in them."
The firing was kept up by the savages from their protected situation,
until night, and whenever even a remote prospect of galling them was
presented to the whites, they did not fail to avail themselves of it.
The Indian shots in the evening, were directed principally against the
stock as it came up as usual to the station, and the field was strewed
with its dead carcases. About ten o'clock of the night they fired a
large barn (thirty or forty yards from the blockhouse) filled with
grain and hay, and the flames from which seemed for awhile to endanger
the fort; but being situated on higher ground, and the current of air
flowing in a contrary direction, it escaped conflagration. Collecting
on the side of the fort opposite [267] to the fire, the Indians took
advantage of the light it afforded them to renew the attack; and kept
it up until about two o'clock, when they departed. Their ascertained
loss was four warriors,--three of whom were killed by the first firing
of the whites,--the other about sundown. George Folebaum was the only
white who suffered. Early in the attack, he was shot in the forehead,
through a port-hole, and instantly expired; leaving Jacob Miller,
George Leffler, Peter Fullenwieder, Daniel Rice and Jacob Leffler,
junior, sole defenders of the fort; and bravely and effectually did
they preserve it, from the furious assaults of one hundred chosen
savage warriors.
Soon after the Indians left Rice's fort, they moved across the hills
in different directions and in detached parties. One of these
observing four men proceeding towards the fort which they had lately
left, waylaid the path and killed two of them on the first fire. The
remaining two fled hastily; and one of them swift of foot, soon made
his escape. The other, closely pursued by one of the savages, and in
danger of being overtaken, wheeled to fire. His gun snapped, and he
again took to flight. Yet more closely pressed by his pursuer, he once
more attempted to shoot. Again his gun snapped, and the savage being
now near enough, hurled a tomahawk at his head. It missed its object
and both strained every nerve for the chase. The Indian gained rapidly
upon him; and reaching forth his arm, caught hold of the end of his
belt. It had been tied in a bow-knot, and came loose.--Sensible that
the race must soon terminate to his disadvantage unless he could kill
his pursuer, the white man once more tried his gun. It fired; and the
savage fell dead at his feet.
Some time in the summer of this year, a party of Wyandots, consisting
of seven warriors, (five of whom were, one of the most distinguished
chiefs of that nation and his four brothers) came into one of the
intermediate settlements between Fort Pitt and Wheeling, killed an old
man whom they found alone, robbed his cabin, and commenced retreating
with the plunder. They were soon discovered by spies; and eight men,
two of whom were Adam and Andrew Poe, (brothers, remarkable for
uncommon size, great activity, and undaunted bravery) went in pursuit
of them. Coming on their trail not far from the Ohio, Adam Poe,
fearing an ambuscade, left his companions [268] to follow it, while he
moved across to the river under cover of the high weeds and bushes,
with the view to attack them in the rear should he find them situated
as he expected.--Presently he espied an Indian raft at the water's
edge, but seeing nothing of the savages, moved cautiously down the
bank; and when near the foot, discovered the large Wyandot chief and a
small Indian standing near and looking intently towards the party of
whites, then some distance lower down the bottom. Poe raised his gun,
and aiming surely at the chief, pulled trigger. It missed fire, and
the snap betrayed his presence. Too near to retreat, he sprang
forward; and seizing the large Indian by the breast, and at the same
instant encircling his arms around the neck of the smaller one, threw
them both to the ground. Extricating himself from the grasp of Poe,
the small savage raised his tomahawk; but as he aimed the blow, a
vigorous and well directed kick, staggered him back, and he let fall
the hatchet. Recovering quickly, he aimed several blows in defiance
and exultation,--the vigilance of Poe distinguished the real from the
feigned stroke, and suddenly throwing up his arm, averted it from his
head, but received a wound in his wrist. By a violent effort, he freed
himself from the grip of the chief, and snatching up a gun, shot his
companion through the breast, as he advanced the third time with the
tomahawk.
In this time the large chief had regained his feet; and seizing Poe by
the shoulder and leg threw him to the ground.--Poe however, soon got
up, and engaged with the savage in a close struggle, which terminated
in the fall of both into the water. Now it became the object of each
to drown his antagonist, and the efforts to accomplish this were
continued for some time with alternate success;--first one and then
the other, being under water. At length, catching hold of the long
tuft of hair which had been suffered to grow on the head of the chief,
Poe held him under water, until he supposed him dead; but relaxing
his hold too soon, the gigantic savage was again on his feet and ready
for another grapple. In this both were carried beyond their depth, and
had to swim for safety. Both sought the shore, and each, with all his
might, strained every nerve to reach it first that he might end the
conflict with one of the guns lying on the beach. The Indian was the
more expert swimmer, and Poe, outstripped by him, turned and swam
farther into the river, in the hope of avoiding being [269] shot by
diving. Fortunately his antagonist laid hold on the gun which had been
discharged at the little Indian, and he was enabled to get some
distance into the river.
At this juncture, two others of the whites came up; and one of them
mistaking Poe for a wounded savage attempting to escape, shot and
wounded him in the shoulder. He then turned to make for shore, and
seeing his brother Andrew on the bank, called to him to "shoot the big
Indian." Having done this, Andrew plunged into the river to assist
Adam in getting out; and the wounded savage, to preserve his scalp,
rolled himself into the water, and struggling onward, sunk and could
not be found.
During the continuance of this contest, the whites had overtaken the
other five Indians, and after a desperate conflict, succeeded in
killing all but one; with the loss of three of their companions.--A
great loss, when the number engaged is taken into consideration.
-----
[1] L. V. McWhorter informs me that White, who was a
prominent settler, was once with others on a hunting
expedition, when they surprised a small party of Indians. They
killed several, but one active young brave ran off, with White
close at his heels. The Indian leaped from a precipice,
alighting in a quagmire in which he sank to his waist. White,
with tomahawk in hand, jumped after him. In the struggle which
ensued, White buried his weapon in the red man's skull. The
victim's father was among those who escaped, and for a long
time--McWhorter says "several years"--he lurked about the
settlements trailing White. Finally, he succeeded in shooting
his man, within sight of the fort. Mrs. White was an
eye-witness of the tragedy. McWhorter claims that Withers is
mistaken in saying that White was "tomahawked, scalped and
lacerated in the most frightful manner." The avenging Indian
tried to get his scalp, but an attacking party from the fort
were so close upon him that he fled before accomplishing his
object. McWhorter reports another case, not mentioned in
Withers. One Fink was "killed by Indians in ambush, while
letting down a pair of bars one evening, just in front of where
the Buckhannon court-house now stands."--R. G. T.
[2] The council was held at Wapatomica, in June. There were
present representatives of the Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandots,
Delawares, Shawnees, Munsees, and Cherokees. Simon Girty came
with the Wyandots; Captain McKee was then a trader at
Wapatomica.--R. G. T.
[3] See the alleged speech in Butterfield's _History of the
Girtys_, pp. 190, 191.--R. G. T.
[4] The Kentucky party was under Capt. William Caldwell, who
wrote, "I crossed the Ohio with three hundred Indians and
rangers." Capts. McKee and Elliott, and the three Girtys were
with the expedition. Caldwell crossed the river early in July,
not far below the mouth, of Limestone creek--site of the
present Maysville, Ky.--R. G. T.
[5] They arrived on the night of August 15.--R. G. T.
[6] The above incident is mentioned in none of the
contemporary chronicles, and is probably fiction.--R. G. T.
[7] The attack was begun early in the morning of the 16th,
and continued with more or less vigor until about 10 A. M. of
the 17th. Caldwell then withdrew his force "in a leisurely
manner." The attacking party lost five killed and two wounded,
all Indians; the garrison lost four killed and three
wounded.--R. G. T.
[8] A hundred and eighty-two, under Col. John Todd. Pursuit
was commenced on the 18th.--R. G. T.
[9] The battle occurred at 8 A. M. of August 19, a short
distance north of the Lower Blue Licks, on the Licking river,
in what is now Nicholas County.--R. G. T.
[10] The tendency among early Western chroniclers has been
greatly to magnify the importance of Simon Girty. He was merely
an interpreter on this, as on most other expeditions. Caldwell
was in command. The British force now consisted of 200 Indians
and 30 rangers. Some of the Indians had already left for their
villages.--R. G. T.
[11] The British rangers lost one of their number by death;
of their Indian allies, ten were killed and fourteen wounded.
Of the Kentuckians, about seventy were killed, several badly
wounded, and seven made prisoners. Caldwell continued his
leisurely retreat to Upper Sandusky, which he reached September
24, the Indians meanwhile dispersing to their several
homes.--R. G. T.
[12] Gen. George Rogers Clark gave this official report of
his expedition against the Shawnees, in a letter dated Lincoln,
November 27, 1782: "We left the Ohio the 4th instant, with 1050
men, surprised the principal Shawanese Town in the evening of
the 10th, and immediately detached strong parties to different
quarters; and in a few hours afterwards two thirds of the towns
were laid in ashes, and every thing they were possessed of
destroyed, except such as were most useful to the troops, the
enemy not having time to secrete any part of their property.
The British trading post at the head of the Miami and Carrying
Place to the waters of the Lakes, shared the same by a party of
150 horse, commanded by Col. Logan, and property to a great
amount was also destroyed: the quantity of provisions burnt far
surpassed any idea we had of their stores. The loss of the
enemy was ten scalps, seven prisoners, and two whites retaken;
ours, one killed and one wounded.
"After laying part of four days in their towns, and finding all
attempts to bring them to a general action fruitless, we
retired, as the season was far advanced and the weather
threatening. I could not learn by the prisoners that they had
the least idea of General Irvin's design of penetrating into
their country. Should he have given them another stroke at
Sandusky, it will more than double the advantages already
gained.
"We might probably have got many more scalps and prisoners--could
we have known in time whether or not we were discovered, which we
took for granted until getting within three miles when some
circumstances occurred that gave us reason to think otherwise,
though uncertain.--Col. Floyd, with 300 men, was ordered to
advance and bring on an action or attack the town, Major Wells
with a party of horse being previously detached by a
different route as a party of observation: although Col.
Floyd's motion was so quick as to get to the town but a few
minutes later than those who discovered his approach, the
inhabitants had sufficient notice to effect their escape to
the woods by the alarm cry being given, and which was repeated by
all that heard it; of course our party only fell in with the
rear of the enemy.
"I must beg leave to recommend the militia of Kentucky whose
behaviour on the occasion does them honour, particularly their
desire of saving prisoners."
The document is here given as found in Almon's _Remembrancer_,
xvi., pp. 93, 94; but it has of course been edited, after the
fashion of that day, for Clark's original letters abound in
misspellings.--R. G. T.
[13] [264] This heroine had but recently returned from
Philadelphia, where she had received her education, and was
totally unused to such scenes as were daily exhibiting on the
frontier. She afterwards became the wife of Mr. McGlanlin; and
he dying, she married a Mr. Clarke, and is yet living in Ohio.
[14] See p. 224, _note_ 1, for reference to confusion between
the two sieges of Wheeling, and the over-statement of early
border historians.--R. G. T.
[270] CHAPTER XVI.
The treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, which
terminated so gloriously the war of the revolution, did not put a
period to Indian hostilities.[1] The aid which had been extended to
the savages, and which enabled them so successfully to gratify their
implacable resentment against the border country, being withdrawn,
they were less able to cope with the whites than they had been, and
were less a hindrance to the population and improvement of those
sections of country which had been the theatre of their many outrages.
In North Western Virginia, indeed, although the war continued to be
waged against its inhabitants, yet it assumed a different aspect. It
became a war rather of plunder, than of blood; and although in the
predatory incursions of the Indians, individuals some times fell a
sacrifice to savage passion; yet this was of such rare occurrence,
that the chronicles of those days are divested of much of the
interest, which attaches to a detail of Indian hostilities. For
several years, scarce an incident occurred worthy of being rescued
from oblivion.
In Kentucky it was far otherwise. The war continued to be prosecuted
there, with the wonted vigor of the savages.--The General Assembly
of Virginia having, at the close of the revolution, passed an act
for surveying the land set apart for her officers and soldiers, south
of Green river, the surveyors descended to the Ohio, to explore the
country and perform the duties assigned them. On their arrival they
found it occupied by the savages, and acts of hostilities immediately
[271] ensued. In December, 1783, the Legislature likewise passed an
act, appropriating the country between the Scioto and Miami rivers,
for the purpose of satisfying the claims of the officers and
soldiers, if the land previously allotted, in Kentucky, should prove
insufficient for that object. This led to a confederacy of the many
tribes of Indians, interested in those sections of country, and
produced such feelings and gave rise to such acts of hostility on
their part, as induced Benjamin Harrison the Governor of Virginia, in
November, 1784, to recommend the postponement of the surveys; and
in January, 1785, a proclamation was issued, by Patrick Henry,
(successor of Gov. Harrison) commanding the surveyors to desist and
leave the country. A treaty was soon after concluded, by which the
country on the Scioto, Miami, and Muskingum, was ceded to the
United States.[2] In this interval of time, North Western Virginia
enjoyed almost uninterrupted repose. There was indeed an alarm of
Indians, on Simpson's creek in 1783, but it soon subsided; and the
circumstance which gave rise to it (the discharge of a gun at Major
Power) was generally attributed to a white man.
In 1784, the settlement towards the head of West Fork, suffered
somewhat from savage invasion. A party of Indians came to the house of
Henry Flesher, (where the town of Weston now is) and fired at the old
gentleman, as he was returning from the labors of the field. The gun
discharged at him, had been loaded with two balls, and both taking
effect, crippled his arm a good deal. Two savages immediately ran
towards him; and he, towards the door; and just as he was in the act
of entering it, one of them had approached so closely as to strike at
him with the butt end of his gun. The breech came first in contact
with the facing of the door, and descending on his head, seemed to
throw him forward into the house, and his wife closing the door, no
attempt was made by the savages to force it open. Still, however, they
did not feel secure; and as soon as they became assured that the
savages were withdrawn, they left the house and sought security
elsewhere. Most of the family lay in the woods during the night,--one
young woman succeeded in finding the way to Hacker's creek, from
whence Thomas Hughes immediately departed to find the others. This was
effected early next morning, and all were safely escorted to that
settlement.
[272] The foregoing event happened in September, and in a few days
after, as Daniel Radcliff was proceeding to the Brushy Fork of Elk
creek on a hunting expedition, he was shot (probably by the Indians
who had been at Flesher's,) tomahawked and scalped in a shocking
manner.
In 1785, six Indians came to Bingamon creek, (a branch of the West
Fork) and made their appearance upon a farm occupied by Thomas and
Edward Cunningham. At this time the two brothers were dwelling with
their families in separate houses, but nearly adjoining, though not in
a direct line with each other. Thomas was then on a trading visit east
of the mountain, and his wife and four children were collected in
their room for the purpose of eating dinner, as was Edward with his
family, in their house. Suddenly a lusty savage entered where were
Mrs. Thomas Cunningham and her children, but seeing that he would be
exposed to a fire from the other house, and apprehending no danger
from the woman and children, he closed the door and seemed for a time
only intent on the means of escaping.
Edward Cunningham had seen the savage enter his brother's house, and
fastened his own door, seized his gun and stepping to a small aperture
in the wall next the house in which was the Indian, and which served
as well for a port hole as for the admission of light, was ready to
fire whenever the savage should make his appearance. But in the other
house was a like aperture, and through it the Indian fired at Edward,
and shouted the yell of victory. It was answered by Edward. He had
seen the aim of the savage only in time to avoid it,--the bark from
the log close to his head, was knocked off by the ball and flew into
his face. The Indian seeing that he had missed his object, and
observing an adze in the room, deliberately commenced cutting an
aperture in the back wall through which he might pass out without
being exposed to a shot from the other building.[3]
Another of the Indians came into the yard just after the firing of his
companion, but observing Edward's gun pointing through the port hole,
he endeavored to retreat out of its range. He failed of his purpose.
Just as he was about to spring over the fence, the gun was fired and
he fell forward. The ball however only fractured his thigh bone, and
he was yet able to hobble over the fence and take shelter behind a
[273] coverlet suspended on it, before Edward could again load his
gun.
While the Indian was engaged in cutting a hole in the wall, Mrs.
Cunningham made no attempt to get out. She was well aware that it
would draw down upon her head the fury of the savage; and that if she
escaped this, she would most probably be killed by some of those who
were watching around, before the other door could be opened for her
admission.--She knew too, that it was impossible for her to take the
children with her, and could not brook the idea of leaving them in the
hands of the savage monster. She even trusted to the hope that he
would withdraw, as soon as he could, without molesting any of them. A
few minutes served to convince her of the fallacy of this expectation.
When the opening had been made sufficiently large, he raised his
tomahawk, sunk it deep into the brains of one of the children, and
throwing the scarcely lifeless body into the back yard, ordered the
mother to follow after. There was no alternative but death, and she
obeyed his order, stepping over the dead body of one of her
children,[4] with an infant in her arms and two others screaming from
horror at the sight, and clinging to her. When all were out he scalped
the murdered boy, and setting fire to the house, retired to an
eminence in the field, where two of the savages were, with their
wounded companion.--leaving the other two to watch the opening of
Edward Cunningham's door, when the burning of the house should force
the family from their shelter. They were disappointed in their
expectation of that event by the exertions of Cunningham and his son.
When the flame from the one house communicated to the roof of the
other, they ascended to the loft, threw off the loose boards which
covered it, and extinguished the fire;--the savages shooting at them
all the while, and their balls frequently striking close by.
Despairing of accomplishing farther havoc, and fearful of detection
and pursuit, the Indians collected together and prepared to retreat.
Mrs. Cunningham's eldest son was first tomahawked and scalped; the
fatal hatchet sunk into the head of her little daughter, whom they
then took by the arms and legs, and slinging it repeatedly against a
tree, ended its sufferings with its life. Mrs. Cunningham stood
motionless with grief, and in momentary expectation of having the same
dealt to her and her innocent infant. But no! She was [274] doomed to
captivity; and with her helpless babe in her arms, was led off from
this scene of horror and of wo. The wounded savage was carried on a
rough litter, and they all departed, crossing the ridge to Bingamon
creek, near which they found a cave that afforded them shelter and
concealment.[5] After night, they returned to Edward Cunningham's, and
finding no one, plundered and fired the house.
When the savages withdrew in the evening, Cunningham went with his
family into the woods, where they remained all night, there being no
settlement nearer than eight or ten miles. In the morning, proceeding
to the nearest house, they gave the alarm and a company of men was
soon collected to go in pursuit of the Indians. When they came to
Cunningham's and found both houses heaps of ashes, they buried the
bones which remained of the boy who was murdered in the house, with
the bodies of his brother and little sister, who were killed in the
field; but so cautiously had the savages conducted their retreat that
no traces of them could be discovered, and the men returned to their
homes.
Some days after, circumstances induced the belief that the Indians
were yet in the neighborhood, and men were again assembled for the
purpose of tracing them. They were now enabled to distinguish the
trail, and pursued it near to the cave, where from the number of rocks
on the ground and the care which had been taken by the Indians to
leave no vestige, they could no longer discover it. They however
examined for it in every direction until night forced them to desist.
In thinking over the incidents of the day; the cave occurred to the
mind of Major Robinson, who was well acquainted with the woods, and he
concluded that the savages must be concealed in it. It was examined
early next morning, but they had left it the preceding night and
departed for their towns. After her return from captivity, Mrs.
Cunningham stated, that in time of the search on the day before, the
Indians were in the cave, and that several times the whites approached
so near, that she could distinctly hear their voices; the savages
standing with their guns ready to fire, in the event of their being
discovered, and forcing her to keep the infant to her breast, lest its
crying might point to the place of their concealment.[6]
In consequence of their stay at this place on account of their wounded
companion, it was some time before they arrived [275] in their own
country;[7] and Mrs. Cunningham's sufferings, of body as well as mind
were truly great. Fatigue and hunger oppressed her sorely,--the infant
in her arms, wanting the nourishment derived from the due sustenance
of the mother, plied at the breast for milk, in vain--blood came in
stead; and the Indians perceiving this, put a period to its
sufferings, with the tomahawk, even while clinging to its mother's
bosom. It was cast a little distance from the path, and left without a
leaf or bush to hide it from beasts of prey.
The anguish of this woman during the journey to the towns, can only be
properly estimated by a parent; her bodily sufferings may be inferred
from the fact, that for ten days her only sustenance consisted of the
head of a wild turkey and three papaws, and from the circumstance that
the skin and nails of her feet, scalded by frequent wading of the
water, came with her stockings, when upon their arrival at a village
of the Delawares, she was permitted to draw them off. Yet was she
forced to continue on with them the next day.--One of the Indians
belonging to the village where they were, by an application of some
sanative herbs, very much relieved the pain which she endured.
When she came to the town of those by whom she had been made prisoner,
although receiving no barbarous or cruel usage, yet everything
indicated to her, that she was reserved for some painful torture. The
wounded Indian had been left behind, and she was delivered to his
father. Her clothes were not changed, as is the case when a prisoner
is adopted by them; but she was compelled to wear them, dirty as they
were,--a bad omen for a captive. She was however, not long in
apprehension of a wretched fate. A conference was soon to take place
between the Indians and whites, preparatory to a treaty of peace; and
witnessing an uncommon excitement in the village one evening, upon
inquiring, learned that the Great captain Simon Girty had arrived. She
determined to prevail with him, if she could, to intercede for her
liberation, and seeing him next day passing near on horseback, she
laid hold on his stirrup, and implored his interference. For a while
he made light of her petition,--telling her that she would be as well
there as in her own country, and that if he were disposed to do her a
kindness he could not as his saddle bags were too small to conceal
her; but her importunity at length prevailed, and he whose heart had
been so long steeled [276] against every kindly feeling, every
sympathetic impression, was at length induced to perform an act of
generous, disinterested benevolence. He paid her ransom, had her
conveyed to the commissioners for negotiating with the Indians, and by
them she was taken to a station on the south side of the Ohio.[8] Here
she met with two gentlemen (Long and Denton) who had been at the
treaty to obtain intelligence of their children taken captive some
time before, but not being able to gain any information respecting
them, they were then returning to the interior of Kentucky and kindly
furnished her a horse.
In consequence of the great danger attending a journey through the
wilderness which lay between the settlements in Kentucky and those on
the Holstein, persons scarcely ever performed it but at particular
periods of the year, and in caravans, the better to defend themselves
against attacks of savages. Notice of the time and place of the
assembling of one of these parties being given, Mrs. Cunningham
prepared to accompany it; but before that time arrived, they were
deterred from the undertaking by the report that a company of
travellers, stronger than theirs would be, had been encountered by the
Indians, and all either killed or made prisoners. Soon after another
party resolved on a visit to Virginia, and Mrs. Cunningham was
furnished a horse belonging to a gentleman on Holstein (which had
escaped from him while on a buffalo hunt in Kentucky and was found
after his return,) to carry her that far on her way home. Experiencing
the many unpleasant circumstances incident to such a jaunt, she
reached Holstein, and from thence, after a repose of a few days,
keeping up the Valley of Virginia, she proceeded by the way of
Shenandoah, to the county of Harrison.[9] Here she was sadly
disappointed in not meeting with her husband. Having understood that
she had been ransomed and taken to Kentucky, he had, some time before,
gone on in quest of her. Anxiety for his fate, alone and on a journey
which she well knew to be fraught with many dangers, she could not
cheerily partake of the general joy excited by her return. In a few
days however, he came back. He had heard on Holstein of her having
passed there and he retraced his steps. Arriving at his brother
Edward's, he again enjoyed the satisfaction of being with all that was
then dear to him on earth. It was a delightful satisfaction, but
presently damped by the recollection of [277] the fate of his luckless
children--Time assuaged the bitterness of the recollection and blessed
him with other and more fortunate children.[10]
In October 1784, a party of Indians ascended Sandy river and passing
over to the head of Clynch, came to the settlement near where Tazewell
court house is now located. Going first to the house of a Mr.
Davisson, they killed him and his wife; and setting fire to their
dwelling, proceeded towards the residence of James Moore, sr. On their
way they met Moore salting his horses at a _lick trough_ in the woods,
and killed him. They then went to the house and captured Mrs. Moore
and her seven children, and Sally Ivens, a young lady who was there
on a visit. Fearing detection, they immediately departed for Ohio with
the prisoners; and in order to expedite their retreat, killed John
Moore, jr. and the three younger children.
Upon their arrival at the Shawanee town on the Scioto (near the mouth
of Paint creek) a council was held, and it was resolved that two of
the captives should be _burned alive_, to avenge the death of some of
their warriors who had been killed on the Kentucky river. This
dreadful doom was allotted to Mrs. Moore and her daughter Jane,--an
interesting girl about sixteen years of age. They were tied to a post
and tortured to death with burning splinters of pine, in the presence
of the remaining members of the family.
After the death of his mother and sister, James Moore was sent to
the Maumee towns in Michigan, where he remained until December
1785,--his sister Mary and Sally Ivins remaining with the Shawanees.
In December 1786, they were all brought to Augusta county in
conformity with the stipulations of the treaty of Miami, and ransomed
by their friends.[11]
In the fall of 1796, John Ice and James Snodgrass were killed by the
Indians when looking for their horses which they [278] had lost on a
buffalo hunt on Fishing creek. Their remains were afterwards
found--the flesh torn from the bones by the wolves--and buried.
In a few days after Ice and Snodgrass left home in quest of their
horses, a party of Indians came to Buffalo creek in Monongalia, and
meeting with Mrs. Dragoo and her son in a corn field gathering beans,
took them prisoners, and supposing that their detention would induce
others to look for them, they waylaid the path leading [277] from the
house. According to their expectation, uneasy at their continued
absence, Jacob Strait and Nicholas Wood went to ascertain its cause.
As they approached the Indians fired from their covert, and Wood
fell;--Strait taking to flight was soon overtaken. Mrs. Strait and her
daughter, hearing the firing and seeing the savages in pursuit of Mr.
Strait, betook themselves also to flight, but were discovered by some
of the Indians who immediately ran after them. The daughter concealed
herself in a thicket of bushes and escaped observation. Her mother
sought concealment under a large shelving rock, and was not afterwards
discovered by the savages, although those in pursuit of her husband,
passed near and overtook him not far off. Indeed she was at that time
so close, as to hear Mr. Strait say, when overtaken, "don't kill me
and I will go with you;" and the savage replying "will you go with
me," she heard the fatal blow which deprived her husband of life.
Mrs. Dragoo being infirm and unable to travel to their towns, was
murdered on the way. Her son (a lad of seven) remained with the
Indians upwards of twenty years,--he married a squaw, by whom he had
four children,--two of whom he brought home with him, when he forsook
the Indians.
In 1787 the Indians again visited the settlement on Buffaloe, and as
Levi Morgan was engaged in skinning a wolf which he had just taken
from his trap, he saw three of them--one riding a horse which he well
knew, the other two walking near behind--coming towards him. On first
looking in the direction they were coming, he recognized the horse,
and supposed the rider to be its owner--one of his near neighbors. A
second glance discovered the mistake, and he siezed his gun and sprang
behind a large rock,--the Indians at the same instant taking shelter
by the side of a large tree.--As soon as his body was obscured from
their view, he turned, and seeing the Indians looking towards the
farther end of the [279] rocks as if expecting him to make his
appearance there, he fired and one of them fell. Instantly he had
recourse to his powder horn to reload, but while engaged in skinning
the wolf the stopper had fallen out and his powder was wasted. He
then fled, and one of the savages took after him. For some time he
held to his gun; but finding his pursuer sensibly gaining on him, he
dropped it under the hope that it would attract the attention of the
Indian and give him a better chance of escape. The savage passed
heedlessly by it. Morgan then threw his shot pouch and coat in the
way, to tempt the Indian to a momentary delay. It was equally
vain,--his pursuer did not falter for an instant. He now had recourse
to another expedient to save himself from captivity or death. Arriving
at the summit of the hill up which he had directed his steps, he
halted; and, as if some men were approaching from the other side,
called aloud, "come on, come on; here is one, make haste." The Indian
not doubting that he was really calling to some men at hand, turned
and retreated as precipitately as he had advanced; and when he heard
Morgan exclaim, "shoot quick, or he will be out of reach," he seemed
to redouble his exertion to gain that desirable distance. Pleased with
the success of the artifice, Morgan hastened home; leaving his coat
and gun to reward the savage for the deception practised on him.[12]
In September of this year, a party of Indians were discovered in the
act of catching some horses on the West Fork above Clarksburg; and a
company of men led on by Col. Lowther, went immediately in pursuit of
them.[13] On the third night the Indians and whites, unknown to each
other, encamped not far apart; and in the morning the fires of the
latter being discovered by Elias Hughes, the detachment which was
accompanying him fired upon the camp, and one of the savages fell. The
remainder taking [279] to flight, one of them passed near to where
Col. Lowther and the other men were, and the Colonel firing at him as
he ran, the ball entering at his shoulder, perforated him, and he
fell. The horses and plunder which had been taken by the savages, were
then collected by the whites, and they commenced their return home, in
the confidence of false security. They had not proceeded far, when two
guns were unexpectedly fired at them, and John Bonnet fell, pierced
through the body. He died before he reached home.[14]
[280] The Indians never thought the whites justifiable in flying to
arms to punish them for acts merely of rapine. They felt authorized to
levy contributions of this sort, whenever an occasion served, viewing
property thus acquired as (to use their own expression) the "only rent
which they received for their lands;" and if when detected in secretly
exacting them, their blood paid the penalty, they were sure to
retaliate with tenfold fury, on the first favorable opportunity. The
murder of these two Indians by Hughes and Lowther was soon followed by
acts of retribution, which are believed to have been, at least
mediately, produced by them.
On the 5th of December, a party of Indians and one white man (Leonard
Schoolcraft) came into the settlement on Hacker's creek, and meeting
with a daughter of Jesse Hughes, took her prisoner. Passing on, they
came upon E. West, Senr. carrying some fodder to the stable, and
taking him likewise captive, carried him to where Hughes' daughter had
been left in charge of some of their party.--Here the old gentleman
fell upon his knees and expressed a fervent wish that they would not
deal harshly by him. His petition was answered by a stroke of the
tomahawk, and he fell dead.
They then went to the house of Edmund West, Jun. where were Mrs. West
and her sister (a girl of eleven years old, daughter of John Hacker)
and a lad of twelve, a brother of West. Forcing open the door,
Schoolcraft and two of the savages entered; and one of them
immediately tomahawked Mrs. West. The boy was taking some corn from
under the bed,--he was drawn out by the feet and the tomahawk sank
twice in his forehead, directly above each eye. The girl was standing
behind the door. One of the savages approached and aimed at her a
blow. She tried to evade it; but it struck on the side of her neck,
though not with sufficient force to knock her down. She fell however,
and lay as if killed. Thinking their work of death accomplished here,
they took from a press some milk, butter and bread, placed it on the
table, and deliberately sat down to eat,--the little girl observing
all that passed, in silent stillness. When they had satisfied their
hunger, they arose, scalped the woman and boy, plundered the
house--even emptying the feathers to carry off the ticking--and
departed, dragging the little girl by the hair, forty or fifty yards
from the house. They then threw her over the fence, and scalped her;
but as she evinced symptoms of life, Schoolcraft observed "_that is
not enough_," when immediately one of the savages thrust a knife into
her side, and they left her. Fortunately the point of the knife came
in contact with a rib and did not injure her much.
Old Mrs. West and her two daughters, who were alone when the old
gentleman was taken, became uneasy that he did not return; and fearing
that he had fallen into the hands of savages (as they could not
otherwise account for his absence) they left the house and went to
Alexander West's, who was then on a hunting expedition with his
brother Edmund. They told of the absence of old Mr. West and [281]
their fears for his fate; and as there was no man here, they went over
to Jesse Hughes' who was himself uneasy that his daughter did not come
home. Upon hearing that West too was missing, he did not doubt but
that both had fallen into the hands of Indians; and knowing of the
absence from home of Edmund West, Jun. he deemed it advisable to
apprize his wife of danger, and remove her to his house. For this
purpose and accompanied by Mrs. West's two daughters, he went on. On
entering the door, the tale of destruction which had been done there
was soon told in part. Mrs. West and the lad lay weltering in their
blood, but not yet dead. The sight overpowered the girls, and Hughes
had to carry them off.--Seeing that the savages had but just left
them; and aware of the danger which would attend any attempt to move
out and give the alarm that night, Hughes guarded his own house until
day, when he spread the sorrowful intelligence, and a company were
collected to ascertain the extent of the mischief and try to find
those who were known to be missing.
Young West was found--standing in the creek about a mile from where he
had been tomahawked. The brains were oozing from his head; yet he
survived in extreme suffering for three days. Old Mr. West was found
in the field where he had been tomahawked. Mrs. West was in the house;
she had probably lived but a few minutes after Hughes and her
sisters-in-law had left there.--The little girl (Hacker's daughter)
was in bed at the house of old Mr. West. She related the history of
the transactions at Edmund West's, Jun. and said that she went to
_sleep_ when thrown over the fence and was awaked by the scalping.
After she had been stabbed at the suggestion of Schoolcraft and left,
she tried to re-cross the fence to the house, but as she was climbing
up she again went to sleep and fell back. She then walked into the
woods, sheltered herself as well as she could in the top of a fallen
tree, and remained there until the cocks crew in the morning.
Remembering that there was no person left alive at the house of her
sister, awhile before day she proceeded to old Mr. West's. She found
no person at home, the fire nearly out, but the hearth warm and she
laid down on it. The heat produced a sickly feeling, which caused her
to get up and go to the bed, in which she was found.--She recovered,
grew up, was married, gave birth to ten children, and died, as was
believed, of an affection of the head, occasioned by the wound she
received that night. Hughes' daughter was ransomed by her father the
next year, and is yet living in sight of the theatre of those savage
enormities.
In March 1789, two Indians came to the house of Mr. Glass in the upper
end of Ohio (now Brooke) county. They were discovered by a negro
woman, who immediately exclaimed, "here are Indians." Mrs. Glass rose
up from her spinning wheel, ran to the door, and was met by an Indian
with his gun presented. She laid hold on the muzzle and turning it
aside, begged that he would not kill, [282] but take her prisoner. He
walked into the house and when joined by another Indian with the negro
woman and her boy, about four years old, they opened a chest, took out
a small box and some articles of clothing, and without doing farther
mischief, departed with the prisoners,--Mrs. Glass and her child, two
years of age, the negro woman and boy and her infant child. They had
proceeded but a short distance when a consultation was held, and Mrs.
Glass supposing from their gestures and frequent pointing towards the
children they were the subject of deliberation, held forth her little
boy to one of the savages and begged that he might be spared--adding,
"he will make a fine little Indian after awhile." He signed to her to
go on. The other savage then struck the negro boy with the pipe end of
his tomahawk, and with the edge gave him a blow across the back of the
neck, and scalped and left him.
In the evening they came to the Ohio river just above Wellsburg, and
descended it in a canoe about five miles, to the mouth of Rush run.
They drew the canoe some distance up the run and proceeding between
one and two miles farther encamped for the night.--Next morning they
resumed their march and about two o'clock halted on Indian Short
creek, twenty miles farther.
When the savages came to the house of Mr. Glass he was at work in a
field some few hundred yards off, and was ignorant that any thing
extraordinary had occurred there, until in the afternoon.--Searching
in vain for his wife, he became satisfied that she had been taken by
the Indians; and proceeding to Well's fort prevailed on ten men to
accompany him in quest of them. Early next morning they discovered the
place where the Indians embarked in the canoe; and as Mr. Glass
readily distinguished the impression made by Mrs. Glass' shoe on the
sand, they crossed the river with great expectation of being able to
overtake them. They then went down the river to the mouth of Rush run,
where the canoe was found and identified by some of Mr. Glass' papers,
purposely left there by Mrs. Glass. From this place the trail of the
Indians and their prisoners was plainly visible, and pursuing it, the
party arrived in view of the smoke from their fire on Short creek,
about an hour after the Indians had halted. Crossing slyly forward,
when rather more than one hundred yards off they beheld the two
savages attentively inspecting a red jacket which one of them held,
and Mrs. Glass and her little boy and the negro woman and her child a
few paces from them.--Suddenly the Indians let fall the jacket, and
looked towards the men. Supposing they were discovered, they
discharged their guns and rushed towards the fire. One of the Indians
fell and dropped his gun, but recovering, ran about one hundred yards
when a shot aimed at him by Major McGuire brought him to his hands and
knees.--Mrs. Glass informing them that there was another encampment of
Indians close by, instead of following the wounded savage, they
returned home with all speed.
[283] In August five Indians on their way to the settlements on the
waters of the Monongahela, met with two men on Middle Island creek,
and killed them. Taking their horses they continued on their route
until they came to the house of William Johnson on Ten Mile, and made
prisoner of Mrs. Johnson and some children; plundered the house,
killed part of the stock, and taking with them one of Johnson's
horses, returned towards the Ohio. When the Indians came to the house,
Johnson had gone to a lick not far off, and on his return in the
morning, seeing what had been done, and searching until he found the
trail of the savages and their prisoners, ran to Clarksburg for
assistance. A company of men repaired with him immediately to where
he had discovered the trail, and keeping it about a mile, found four
of the children lying dead in the woods. The savages had tomahawked
and scalped them, and placing their heads close together, turned their
bodies and feet straight out so as to represent a cross. The dead were
buried and farther pursuit given over.
Other Indians, about the same time, came to the house of John Mack on
a branch of Hacker's creek. He being from home, they killed all who
were at the house. Two of the children, who had been sent into the
woods to hunt the cattle, returning, saw a little sister lying in the
yard scalped, and directly fled, and gave the alarm. In the morning
some men assembled and went to ascertain the extent of the mischief.
The house was no longer to be seen,--a heap of ashes was all that
remained of it. The little girl who had been scalped in the yard, was
much burned, and those who had been murdered in the house, were
consumed with it. Mrs. Mack had been taken some distance from the
house, tomahawked, scalped, and stripped naked. She was yet alive; and
as the men approached, a sense of her situation induced her to exert
her feeble strength in drawing leaves around her so as to conceal her
nakedness. The men wrapped their hunting shirts about her, and carried
her to a neighboring house. She lived a few days, gave birth to a
child and died.
Some time after the murder of Mack's family, John Sims, living on a
branch of Gnatty creek, seeing his horses come running up much
affrighted, was led to believe that the Indians had been trying to
catch them. In a few minutes, the dogs began to bark furiously in the
corn field adjoining, and he became satisfied the savages were
approaching. Knowing [284] that he could offer no effectual
resistance, if they should attack his house, he contrived an artifice
to deter them from approaching. Taking down his gun, he walked around
the house backward and forward, and as if speaking to men in it,
called out, "_Be watchful._ They will soon be here, and as soon as you
see them, draw a fine bead;" Mrs. Sims in a coarse tone of voice and
with feigned resolution, answering as she had been advised, "Never
fear! let them once shew their yellow hides, and we'll pepper them."
He would then retire into the house, change his garments, the better
to support the deception, and again go forth to watch and give
directions to those within. He pursued this plan until night, when he
withdrew with his family to a place of safety. The Indians had
actually been in the cornfield, and near enough to have shot
Sims,--the place where they had been sitting being plainly discernible
next morning. Sims' artifice no doubt drove them off, and as they were
retreating they fired the house of Jethro Thompson on Lost creek.
In the spring of 1790, the neighborhood of Clarksburg was again
visited by Indians in quest of plunder, and who stole and carried off
several horses. They were discovered and pursued to the Ohio river,
when the pursuers, being reinforced, determined to follow on over into
the Indian country. Crossing the river and ascending the Hockhocking,
near to the falls, they came upon the camp of the savages. The whites
opened an unexpected fire, which killing one and wounding another of
the Indians, caused the remainder to fly, leaving their horses about
their camp.--These were caught, brought back and restored to their
owners.
In April as Samuel Hull was engaged in ploughing a field for Major
Benjamin Robinson, he was discovered by some Indians, shot,
tomahawked, and scalped. The murder was first ascertained by Mrs.
Robinson. Surprised that Hull did not come to the house as usual, to
feed the horses and get his own dinner, she went to the field to see
what detained him. She found the horses some distance from where they
had been recently at work; and going on, presently saw Hull lying
where he had been shot.
-----
[1] News of the preliminary articles of peace, which had
been signed at Paris, November 30, 1782, did not reach Fort
Pitt until May, 1783. In July following, De Peyster, British
commandant at Detroit, gathered at that post the chiefs of
eleven tribes as far south as the Great Miami and the Wabash,
and informed them of the event.--R. G. T.
[2] The treaty was held at Fort McIntosh, at the mouth of
the Beaver, early in January, 1785. The tribes represented were
the Wyandots, Chippewas, Delawares, and Ottawas. The
commissioners were Arthur Lee, Richard Butler, and George
Rogers Clark. Col. Josiah Harmar was in charge of the
troops.--R. G. T.
[3] L. V. McWhorter, well informed in the local traditions,
writes: "When the Indian sprang into the house, with drawn
tomahawk, he closed and for a few moments stood with his back
to the door. Then, while cutting an opening through the wall,
he asked Mrs. Cunningham how many men there were in the other
house. She answered by holding up the extended fingers of both
hands, indicating 10."--R. G. T.
[4] McWhorter: "Mrs. Cunningham related that the last
she saw of her little daughter, was one quivering little
foot sticking up over a log behind which she had been
thrown."--R. G. T.
[5] McWhorter: "The cave in which Mrs. Cunningham was
concealed is on Little Indian Run, a branch of Big Bingamon
Creek, on which stream the tragedy took place. The cave is
about two miles northwest of the site of the capture, and in
Harrison County, W. Va."--R. G. T.
[6] McWhorter: "Mrs. Cunningham stated that an Indian stood
over her with an uplifted tomahawk, to prevent her from crying
out. At times, the whites were upon the very rock above their
heads."--R. G. T.
[7] McWhorter says local tradition has it that the Indians
remained in the cave a night and a day; they departed before
daylight, during the second night. Mrs. Cunningham related that
just before leaving, the wounded brave was borne from the cave
by his fellows, and she never again saw him; her opinion was,
that he was then dead, and his body was sunk in a neighboring
pool.--R. G. T.
[8] Mrs. Cunningham had been over three years with the
savages, when she was taken to a great Indian conference held
at the foot of the Maumee rapids, "at or near the site of the
present Perrysburgh, Ohio," in the autumn of 1788. Girty
brought the attention of McKee, then a British Indian agent, to
the matter, and McKee furnished the trinkets which constituted
the ransom.--R. G. T.
[9] See McKnight's _Our Western Border_, pp. 714,
716.--R. G. T.
[10] Superstition was rife among the Scotch-Irish borderers.
McWhorter writes: "On the day before the capture, a little bird
came into Mrs. Cunningham's cabin and fluttered around the
room. Ever afterwards, she grew frightened whenever a bird
would enter her house. The fear that such an occurrence would
bring bad luck to a household, was an old and widely-spread
superstition."--R. G. T.
[11] Mary Moore afterwards became the wife of Mr. Brown, a
presbyterian preacher in Augusta. Her brother James Moore, jr.,
still resides in Tazewell county; and notwithstanding that he
witnessed the cruel murder of his mother and five brothers and
sisters by the hands of the savages, he is said to have formed
and still retain a strong attachment to the Indians. The
anniversary of the burning of Mrs. Moore & her daughter, is
kept by many in Tazewell as a day of fasting and prayer; and
that tragical event gave rise to some affecting verses,
generally called "Moore's Lamentation."
[12] At the treaty of Au Glaize, Morgan met with the Indian
who had given him this chase, and who still had his gun. After
talking over the circumstance, rather more composedly than they
had acted it, they agreed to test each other's speed in a
friendly race. The Indian being beaten, rubbed his hams and
said, "_stiff, stiff; too old, too old_." "Well, said Morgan,
you got the gun by outrunning me then, and I should have it now
for outrunning you;" and accordingly took it.
[13] McWhorter: "Alexander West was with Col. William Lowther
on this expedition. They followed the Indians to the Little
Kanawha River."--R. G. T.
[14] Another case of border superstition is related to me by
McWhorter. Alexander West had been doing sentry duty most of
the night before, and on being relieved early in the morning,
sat with his back to a tree and, rifle across his lap, fell to
sleep. On awakening he sprang to his feet and cried, "Boys,
look out! Some of us will be killed to-day! I saw the _red doe_
in my dream; that is the sign of death; I never knew it to
fail!" When Bonnett fell, it was considered in camp to be a
verification of the "red sign." Bonnett was carried by his
comrades on a rude stretcher, but in four days died. His body
was placed in a cleft of rock and the entrance securely
chinked.--R. G. T.
[285] CHAPTER XVII.
Upon the close of the war of the revolution, many circumstances
conspired to add considerably to the population of Kentucky; and her
strength and ability to cope with the savages and repel invasion, were
consequently much increased. Conscious of this, and sensible of their
own condition, weakened by the withdrawal of their allies, the Indians
did not venture upon expeditions against its inhabitants, requiring to
be conducted by the co-operation of many warriors. They preferred to
wage war in small parties, against detached settlements and
unprotected families; and guarding the Ohio river and the "_wilderness
trace_,"[1] to cut off parties of emigrants removing to that country.
In all of those they were eminently successful. In the interval of
time, between the peace of 1783 and the defeat of General Harmar, in
1790, it is inferred from evidence laid before Congress, that in
Kentucky, not less than one thousand human beings were killed and
taken prisoners. And although the whites were enabled to carry the war
into the heart of the Indian country, and frequently with success, yet
did not this put a stop to their enormities. When pressed by the
presence of a conquering army, they would sue for peace, and enter
into treaties, which they scarcely observed inviolate 'till those
armies were withdrawn from among them.
In April 1785, some Indians hovering about Bear Grass, met with
Colonel Christian and killed him. His loss was severely felt
throughout the whole country.[2]
In October of the same year, several families moving to the [286]
country were attacked and defeated on Skegg's creek. Six of the whites
were killed, and a number of the others made prisoners, among whom
were Mrs. McClure and her infant. When the attack was begun, she
secreted herself with four children in some bushes, which together
with the darkness of the night, protected her from observation; and
could she have overcome the feelings of a mother for her child, she
might have ensured her own safety and that of her three other children
by leaving her infant at some distance from them. She was aware of the
danger to which its cries would expose her, and sought to prevent them
by giving it the breast. For awhile it had that effect, but its
shrieks at length arose and drew the savages to the spot. Three of her
children were slain by her side.
On hearing of this disastrous event, Capt. Whitley collected
twenty-one men from the nearer stations, and went in pursuit of the
aggressors. He presently overtook them, killed two of their party, and
retook the prisoners and the scalps of those whom they had slain.--So
signal was his success over them.
In ten days afterwards, another company of _movers_, led on by Mr.
Moore, was attacked, and in the skirmish which ensued, nine of their
party were killed. Again Capt. Whitley went in pursuit of the savage
perpetrators of this outrage, having thirty men to accompany him. On
the sixth day of the pursuit, they overtook twenty mounted Indians,
some of whom were clad in the clothes of those they had slain; and who
dismounted and fled upon the first fire. Three of them however were
killed, and eight scalps and all the plunder were recovered.
In consequence of the many repeated aggressions of the savages, an
expedition was this fall concerted against their towns on the Wabash,
to be carried into immediate execution. Through the exertions of the
county lieutenants an army of one thousand men, was soon assembled at
Louisville[3] and placed under the command of Gen. Clarke, who marched
directly for the theatre of contemplated operations--leaving the
provisions and much of their munitions to be transported in boats. The
army arrived near the towns, before the boats;--the men became
dissatisfied and mutinous, and Gen. Clarke was in consequence,
reluctantly forced to return without striking a blow.[4]
[287] When the army under Gen. Clarke marched from Louisville, Col.
Logan knowing that the attention of the Indians would be drawn almost
exclusively towards it, & other towns be left exposed and defenceless,
raised a body of troops and proceeded against the villages on the
Great Miami, and on the head waters of Mad river. In this campaign he
burned eight large towns, killed twenty warriors and took between
seventy and eighty prisoners.[5]
Among the troops led on by Col. Logan, was the late Gen. Lyttle (since
of Cincinnati) then a youth of sixteen.[6] At the head of a party of
volunteers, when the first towns on the Mad river were reduced, he
charged on some of the savages whom he saw endeavoring to reach a
close thicket of hazel and plum bushes. Being some distance in front
of his companions, when within fifty yards of the retreating enemy, he
dismounted, and raising his gun to fire, saw the warrior at whom he
was aiming, hold out his hand in token of surrendering. In this time
the other men had come up and were making ready to fire, when young
Lyttle called to them, "they have surrendered; and remember the
Colonel's orders to kill none who ask for quarters." The warrior
advanced towards him with his hand extended, and ordering the others
to follow him. As he approached, Lyttle gave him his hand, but with
difficulty restrained the men from tomahawking him. It was the head
chief with his three wives and children, two or three of whom were
fine looking lads, and one of them a youth of Lyttle's age. Observing
the conduct of Lyttle in preventing the murder of the chief, this
youth drew close to him. When they returned to the town, a crowd of
men rushed around to see the chief, and Lyttle stepped out of the
crowd to fasten his horse. The lad accompanied him. A young man who
had been to the spring to drink, seeing Lyttle with the Indian lad,
came running towards him. The youth supposed that he was advancing to
kill him, and in the twinkling of an eye let fly an arrow. It passed
through Curner's dress, and grazed his side; and but for the timely
twitch which Lyttle gave the lad's arm, would have killed him. His
other arrows were then taken away, and he sternly reprimanded.
Upon the return of Lyttle to where the chief stood, he heard Col.
Logan give orders that the prisoners must not be molested, but taken
to a house and placed under guard for their [288] security; and seeing
Major McGary[7] riding up and knowing his disposition, he called to
him saying, "Major McGary, you must not molest those prisoners" and
rode off. McGary mutteringly replied, "I'll see to that;" and
dismounting, entered the circle around the prisoners. He demanded of
the chief, if he were at the battle of the Blue Licks. The chief
probably not understanding the purport of the question, replied
affirmatively. McGary instantly seized an axe from the Grenadier
Squaw, standing by and sunk it into his head. Lyttle saw the
descending stroke and interposed his arm to prevent it or break its
force. The handle came in contact with his wrist and had well nigh
broke it. Indignant at the barbarous deed, with the impetuosity of
youth he drew his knife to avenge it. His arm was arrested, or the
steel would have been plunged into the heart of McGary. The bloody act
of this man caused deep regret, humiliation and shame to pervade the
greater part of the army, and none were more affected by it, than the
brave and generous Logan.--When the prisoners were conducted to the
house, it was with much difficulty the Indian lad could be prevailed
upon to quit the side of Lyttle.
The commencement of the year 1786 witnessed treaties of peace with all
the neighboring tribes;[8] but its progress was marked by acts of
general hostility. Many individual massacres were committed and in the
fall, a company of _movers_ were attacked, and twenty-one of them
killed. This state of things continuing, in 1787 the secretary of war
ordered detachments of troops to be stationed at [288] different
points for the protection of the frontier. Still the Indians kept up
such an incessant war against it, as after the adoption of the federal
constitution, led the general government to interpose more effectually
for the security of its inhabitants, by sending a body of troops to
operate against them in their own country.
While these things were doing, a portion of the country north west of
the river Ohio, began to be occupied by the whites. One million and a
half acres of land in that country, having been appropriated as
military land, a company, composed of officers and soldiers in the war
of the revolution, was formed in Boston in March 1786 under the title
of the [289] "Ohio Company," and Gen. Rufus Putnam was appointed its
agent. In the spring of 1788, he with forty-seven other persons, from
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, repaired to Marietta,
erected a stockade fort for security against the attacks of Indians,
and effected a permanent settlement there.[9] In the autumn of the
same year, twenty families, chiefly from Essex and Middlesex counties
in Massachusetts, likewise moved there, and the forests of lofty
timber fell before their untiring and laborious exertions. Many of
those who thus took up their abodes in that, then _distant_ country
had been actively engaged in the late war, and were used, not only to
face danger with firmness when it came upon them; but also to devise
and practice, means to avert it. Knowing the implacable resentment of
the savages to the whites generally, they were at once careful not to
provoke it into action, and to prepare to ward off its effects. In
consequence of this course of conduct, and their assiduity and
attention to the improvement of their lands, but few massacres were
committed in their neighborhoods, although the savages were waging a
general war against the frontier, and carrying destruction into
settlements, comparatively in the interior.
In the winter of 1786, Mr. Stites of Redstone visited New York with
the view of purchasing (congress being then in session there) for
settlement, a tract of country between the two Miamies. The better
to insure success to his project, he cultivated the acquaintance of
many members of congress and endeavored to impress upon their minds
its propriety and utility. John Cleves Symmes, then a representative
from New Jersey, and whose aid Stites solicited to enable him to
effect the purchase, becoming impressed with the great pecuniary
advantage which must result from the speculation, if the country were
such as it was represented to be, determined to ascertain this fact by
personal inspection. He did so; and on his return a purchase of one
million of acres, lying on the Ohio and between the Great and Little
Miami, was made in his name. Soon after, he sold to Matthias Denman
and others, that part of his purchase which forms the present site of
the city of Cincinnati; and in the fall of 1789, some families from
New York, New Jersey, and Redstone, descended the Ohio river to the
mouth of the Little Miami. As the Indians were now more than
ordinarily troublesome, forty soldiers under Lieut. Kersey, were
ordered to join them for the [290] defence of the settlement. They
erected at first a single blockhouse, and soon after adding to it
three others, a stockade fort was formed on a position now included
within the town of Columbia.
In June 1789, Major Doughty with one hundred and forty regulars,
arrived opposite the mouth of Licking, and put up four block houses on
the purchase made by Denman of Symmes, and directly after, erected
Fort Washington. Towards the close of the year, Gen. Harmar arrived
with three hundred other regulars, and occupied the fort. Thus assured
of safety, Israel Ludlow, (jointly interested with Denman and
Patterson) with twenty other persons, moved and commenced building
some cabins along the river and near to the fort.--During the winter
Mr. Ludlow surveyed and laid out the town of Losantiville,[10] but
when Gen. St. Clair came there as governor of the North Western
Territory, he changed its name to Cincinnati.[11]
[290] In 1790, a settlement was made at the forks of Duck creek,
twenty miles up the Muskingum at the site of the present town of
Waterford; another fifteen miles farther up the river at Big Bottom,
and a third at Wolf creek near the falls. These settlements were made
on a tract of one hundred thousand acres, laid off into "donation"
lots of one hundred acres, and gratuitously assigned to _actual
settlers_; and at the close of the year they contained nearly five
hundred men, of whom one hundred and seven had families.
Thus was the present flourishing State of Ohio begun to be occupied by
the whites; and the mind cannot but be struck with astonishment in
contemplating the wonderful changes which have been _wrought there_,
in such brief space of time, by industry and enterprise. Where then
stood mighty and unbroken forests, through which the savage passed on
his mission of blood; or stalked the majestic buffaloe, gamboled the
sportive deer, or trotted the shaggy bear, are now to [291] be seen
productive farms, covered with lowing herds and bleating flocks, and
teeming with all the comforts of life.--And where then stood the town
of Losantiville with its three or four little cabins and their twenty
inmates, is now to be seen a flourishing city with its splendid
edifices, and a population of 26,513 souls. Continuing thus
progressively to improve, the mind of man, "pervading and far darting"
as it is, can scarcely picture the state which may be there exhibited
in the lapse of a few centuries.
The formations of those establishments north west of the Ohio river,
incited the savages to the commission of such and so frequent
enormities that measures were taken by the general government to
reduce them to quiet and render peace truly desirable to them. While
preparations were making to carry those measures into operation,
detachments from the regular troops at Fort Washington were stationed
at Duck creek, the Big Bottom and Wolf creek, for the security of the
_settlers_ at those places; and when every thing was prepared, Gen.
Harmar, at the head of three hundred and twenty regulars, moved from
his head quarters at Fort Washington, to the Little Miami, where the
militia detailed for the expedition, were then assembled. The object
was to bring the Indians, if possible, to a general engagement; and if
this could not be effected, to destroy their towns and crops on the
Scioto and Miami.
On the last day of September 1790, the army then consisting of
fourteen hundred and forty-three men, (of whom only three hundred and
twenty were regulars) marched forward, and on the 17th of October
reached the Great Miami village.[12] It was found to be entirely
deserted and all the valuable buildings in flames--having been fired
by the Indians. As it was apparent that the savages had but recently
left there, Col. Hardin was detached with two hundred and ten men,
sixty of whom were regulars to overtake them. Having marched about six
miles, he was suddenly attacked by a body of Indians who were
concealed in thickets on every side of an open plain. On the first
onset, the militia made a most precipitate retreat, leaving the few,
but brave regulars to stand the charge. The conflict was short but
bloody. The regular troops, over powered by numbers, were literally
cut to pieces; and only seven of them made their escape and rejoined
the main army at the Great Miami town.[13]
[292] Among those who were so fortunate as to escape after the
shameful flight of the militia, was Capt. Armstrong of the regulars.
He reached a pond of water about two hundred yards from the field of
action; and plunging himself up to the neck in it, remained there all
night, a spectator of the horrid scene of a savage war dance,
performed over the dead and wounded bodies of his brave soldiers. The
escape of ensign Hartshorn was perhaps owing entirely to a lucky
accident. As he was flying at his best speed he faltered over a log,
which lay in his path, and by the side of which he concealed himself
from the view of the savages.
Notwithstanding the disastrous termination of this engagement, the
detachment succeeded in reducing the other towns to ashes, and in
destroying their crops of corn and other provisions; and rejoining the
main army under Gen. Harmar, commenced their return to Fort
Washington. Anxious to wipe off in another action, the disgrace which
he felt would attach to the defeat, when within eight miles of
Chilicothe, Gen. Harmar halted his men, and again detached Col. Hardin
and Major Wylleys, with five hundred militia and sixty regulars, to
find the enemy and bring them to an engagement.
Early next morning, a small body of the enemy was discovered, and
being attacked, fled in different directions.--The militia pursued
them as they ran in despite of orders; and when by this means the
regulars were left alone, they were attacked by the whole force of the
Indians, excepting the small parties whose flight had drawn off the
militia. A severe engagement ensued. The savages fought with
desperation; & when the troops which had gone in pursuit of those who
fled upon the first onset, returned to take part in the engagement,
they threw down their guns and rushed upon the regulars tomahawk in
hand. Many of them fell, but being so very far superior in numbers,
the regulars were at last overpowered. Their firmness and bravery
could not avail much, against so overwhelming a force; for though one
of them might thrust his bayonet into the side of an Indian, two other
savages were at hand to sink their tomahawks into his head. In his
official account of this battle, Gen. Harmar claimed the victory; but
the thinned ranks of his troops shewed that they had been severely
worsted. Fifty of the regulars and one hundred of the militia were
killed in the contest, and many wounded. The loss of the Indians was
no doubt considerable, [293] or they would not have suffered the army
to retire to Fort Washington unmolested.[14]
Instead of the security from savage hostilities, which it was expected
would result from Harmar's campaign, the inhabitants of the frontier
suffered from them, more than they had been made to endure since the
close of the war with Great Britain. Flushed with the success which
had crowned their exertions to repel the invasion which had been made
into their country, and infuriated at the destruction of their crops
and the conflagration of their villages, they became more active and
zealous in the prosecution of hostilities.
The settlements which had been recently made in Ohio up the Muskingum,
had ever after their first establishment, continued apparently on the
most friendly terms with the Indians; but on the part of the savages,
friendship had only been feigned, to lull the whites into a ruinous
security. When this end was attained, they too were made to feel the
bitterness of savage enmity. On the 2d of January 1791, a party of
Indians came to the Big Bottom, and commenced an indiscriminate murder
of the inhabitants; fourteen of whom were killed and five taken
prisoners. The settlement at Wolf's creek escaped a similar fate, by
being apprized of the destruction of Big Bottom by two men who got
safely off in time of the massacre. When the Indians arrived there the
next morning, finding the place prepared to receive them, they
withdrew without making any serious attempt to take it.
On the 24th of April, John Bush (living on Freeman's creek,) having
very early sent two of his children to drive up the cattle, became
alarmed by their screams, and taking down his gun, was proceeding to
learn the cause of it, when he was met at the door by an Indian, who
caught hold of the gun, forced it from his grasp, and shot him with
it. Bush fell across the threshold, and the savage drew his knife to
scalp him. Mrs. Bush ran to the assistance of her husband, and with an
axe, aimed a blow at the Indian with such force that it fastened
itself in his shoulder, and when he jumped back his exertion pulled
the handle from her hand. She then drew her husband into the house and
secured the door.
In this time other of the savages had come up, and after endeavoring
in vain to force open the door, they commenced shooting through it.
Fortunately Mrs. Bush remained unhurt, although eleven bullets passed
through her frock and some of [294] them just grazing the skin. One of
the savages observing an aperture between the logs, thrust the muzzle
of his gun thro' it. With another axe Mrs. Bush struck on the barrel
so as to make it ring, and, the savage on drawing it back, exclaimed
"_Dern you._" Still they were endeavoring to force an entrance into
the house, until they heard what they believed to be a party of whites
coming to its relief. It was Adam Bush, who living close by and
hearing the screams of the children and the firing of the gun, had set
off to learn what had given rise to them, and taking with him his
dogs, the noise made by them in crossing the creek alarmed the
savages, and caused them to retreat, taking off the two children as
prisoners. A company of men were soon collected and went in pursuit of
the Indians; but were unable to surprise them and regain the
prisoners. They however, came so nearly upon them, on the Little
Kenhawa,[15] that they were forced to fly precipitately, leaving the
plunder and seven horses which they had taken from the settlement:
these were retaken and brought back.
In May, as John McIntire and his wife were returning from a visit,
they passed through the yard of Uriah Ashcraft; and in a small space
of time after, Mr. Ashcraft, startled by the sudden growling and
springing up of one of his dogs, stepped quickly to the door to see
what had aroused him. He had hardly reached the door, when he espied
an Indian on the outside with his gun presented. Closing and making
fast the door, he ascended the stairs that he might the better fire
upon the unwelcome intruder; and after snapping three several times,
and having discovered that there were other Indians in the yard, he
raised a loud shout to apprize those who were within the sound of his
voice, that he was surrounded by danger. Upon this the Indians moved
off; and three brothers of McIntire coming to his relief, they all
pursued the trail of the savages. About a mile from Ashcraft's, they
found the body of John McIntire, tomahawked, scalped, and stripped;
and concluding that Mrs. McIntire, was taken prisoner, they sent
intelligence to Clarksburg of what had happened, and requested
assistance to follow the Indians and recover the prisoner from
captivity. The desired assistance was immediately afforded; and a
company of men, led on by Col. John Haymond and Col. George Jackson,
went in pursuit. On Middle Island creek,[16] before they were aware of
their proximity to the savages, they were fired upon by them, and
[295] two of the party very narrowly escaped being shot.--A ball
passed through the hankerchief on the head of Col. Haymond, and
another through the sleeve of Col. Jackson's shirt. The fire was
promptly returned, and the men rushed forward. The Indians however,
made good their retreat, though not without having experienced some
injury; as was discovered by the blood, and the throwing down some of
the plunder which they had taken. It was here first ascertained that
Mrs. McIntire had been killed,--her scalp being among the things
left--and on the return of the party, her body was found some small
distance from where that of her husband had been previously
discovered.
Towards the last of June, another party of Indians invaded the
settlement on Dunkard creek, in the county of Monongalia. Early in the
morning, as Mr. Clegg, Mr. Handsucker, and two of Handsucker's sons
were engaged at work in a cornfield near the house, they were shot at
by some concealed savages, and Handsucker was wounded and soon
overtaken. Clegg and Handsucker's sons ran towards the house, and the
former entering it, defended it for a while; but confident that he
would soon be driven out by fire, he surrendered on condition that
they would spare his life and that of his little daughter with him.
The boys passed the house, but were taken by some of the savages who
were also concealed in the direction which they ran, and who had just
made captive Mrs. Handsucker and her infant. They then plundered and
set fire to the house, caught the horses and made off with the
prisoners, leaving one of their company, as usual, to watch after
their retreat.
When the firing was first heard, Mrs. Clegg being some distance from
the house, concealed herself in the creek, under some projecting
bushes, until every thing became quiet. She then crept out, but
perceiving the Indian who had remained near the burning house, she
took to flight; and he having at the same time discovered her, ran in
pursuit. She was so far in advance, and ran so well, that the savage,
despairing of overtaking her, raised his gun and fired as she ran. The
ball just grazed the top of her shoulder, but not impeding her flight,
she got safely off. Mr. Handsucker, his wife and child, were murdered
on the dividing ridge between Dunkard and Fish creeks.[17] Mr. Clegg
after some time got back, and upon the close of the Indian war,
ransomed his two daughters.
[296] In the month of September Nicholas Carpenter set off to Marietta
with a drove of cattle to sell to those who had established themselves
there; and when within some miles from the Ohio river, encamped for
the night.[18] In the morning early, and while he and the drovers were
yet dressing, they were alarmed by a discharge of guns, which killed
one and wounded another of his party. The others endeavored to save
themselves by flight; but Carpenter being a cripple (because of a
wound received some years before) did not run far, when finding
himself becoming faint, he entered a pond of water where he fondly
hoped he should escape observation. But no! both he and a son who had
likewise sought security there, were discovered, tomahawked and
scalped. George Legget, one of the drovers, was never after heard of;
but Jesse Hughes succeeded in getting off though under disadvantageous
circumstances. He wore long leggins, and when the firing commenced at
the camp, they were fastened at top to his belt, but hanging loose
below. Although an active runner, yet he found that the pursuers were
gaining and must ultimately overtake him if he did not rid himself of
this incumbrance. For this purpose he halted somewhat and stepping on
the lower part of his leggins, broke the strings which tied them to
his belt; but before he accomplished this, one of the savages
approached and hurled a tomahawk at him. It merely grazed his head,
and he then again took to flight and soon got off.
It was afterwards ascertained that the Indians by whom this mischief
was effected, had crossed the Ohio river near the mouth of Little
Kenhawa, where they took a negro belonging to Captain James Neal, and
continued on towards the settlements on West Fork, until they came
upon the trail made by Carpenter's cattle. Supposing that they
belonged to families moving, they followed on until they came upon the
drovers; and tying the negro to a sapling made an attack on them. The
negro availed himself of their employment elsewhere, and loosing the
bands which fastened him, returned to his master.
After the defeat of General Harmer, the terrors and the annoyance
proceeding from Indian hostilities, still continued to harrass
Kentucky, and to spread destruction over its unprotected portions.
Seeing that the expeditions of the savages were yet conducted on a
small scale, the better to effect their purposes, the inhabitants had
recourse to other measures [297] of defence; and established many
posts on the frontier, garrisoned by a few men, to watch the motions
of the enemy, and intercept them in their progress, or spread the
alarm of their approach. It was productive of but little benefit, and
all were convinced, that successful offensive war could alone give
security from Indian aggression. Convinced of this, preparations were
made by the General Government for another campaign to be carried on
against them; the objects of which were the destruction of the Indian
villages between the Miamies; the expulsion of their inhabitants from
the country, and the establishment of a chain of forts to prevent
their return, until a general peace should give promise of a cessation
of hostilities on their part. Means, deemed adequate to the
accomplishment of those objects, were placed by Congress at the
disposal of the executive, and of the army destined to effect them, he
directed General Arthur St. Clair to take the command.[19]
It was some time before the troops detailed for this campaign, could
be assembled at Fort Washington; but as soon as they rendezvoused
there, the line of march was taken up.[20] Proceeding immediately for
the principal establishments of the Indians on the Miami, General St.
Clair had erected the Forts Hamilton and Jefferson,[21] and placing
sufficient garrisons in each, continued his march. The opening of a
road for the passage of the troops and artillery, necessarily consumed
much time; and while it was in progress, small parties of the enemy
were often seen hovering near, and some unimportant skirmishes took
place; and as the army approached the Indian villages, sixty of the
militia deserted in a body. To prevent the evil influence of this
example, General St. Clair despatched Major Hamtrack at the head of a
regiment, to overtake and bring them back; and the rest of the army
moved forward.
On the night of the third of November, General St. Clair encamped near
the Great Miami village, and notwithstanding the reduced state of the
forces under his command, (by reason of the detachment of so large a
body in pursuit of the deserters,) he proposed to march in the morning
directly to its attack.[22] Having understood that the Indians were
collected in great force, and apprehensive of a night attack, his men
were drawn up in a square, and kept under arms until the return of
day, when they were dismissed from parade for [298] the purpose of
refreshment. Directly after, and about half an hour before sun rise,
an attack was begun by the Indians on the rear line, and the militia
there immediately gave way, and retreated,--rushing through a
battalion of regulars, to the very centre of the camp. The confusion
was great. Thrown into disorder by the tumultuous flight of the
militia, the utmost exertion of the officers could not entirely
compose the regulars, so as to render them as effective as they would
otherwise have been.
After the first fire, the Indians rushed forward, tomahawk in hand,
until they were checked by the well directed aim of the front line;
which being almost simultaneously attacked by another body of the
enemy, had to direct their attention to their own assailants, and the
action became general. The weight of the enemy being brought to bear
on the centre of each line where the artillery had been placed, the
men were driven with great slaughter from the guns and these rendered
useless by the killing of the matrosses. The enemy taking advantage of
this state of things, pushed forward upon the lines, and confusion
began to spread itself in every quarter. A charge was ordered, and
Lieutenant Colonel Drake succeeded in driving back the Indians three
or four hundred yards at the point of the bayonet; but rallying, they
returned to the attack, and the troops in turn gave way. At this
moment the camp was entered by the left flank: and, another charge was
directed. This was made by Butler and Clark's battalions with great
effect, and repeated several times with success; but in each of these
charges, many being killed, and particularly the officers, it was
impossible longer to sustain the conflict, and a retreat was
directed.
To enable the troops to effect this they were again formed into line,
as well as could be under such circumstances, and another charge was
made, as if to turn the right flank of the enemy, but in reality to
gain the road. This object was effected; and a precipitate flight
commenced which continued until they reached Fort Jefferson, a
distance of thirty miles, the men throwing away their guns and
accoutrements as they ran.
Great was the havoc done by the Indians in this engagement. Of the
twelve hundred men engaged under General St. Clair, nearly six hundred
were left dead on the field, and many were wounded. Every officer of
the second regiment [299] was killed in the various charges made by it
to retrieve the day, except three, and one of these was shot through
the body. Major General Butler having been wounded, and carried to a
convenient place to have his wounds dressed, an Indian desperately
adventurous, broke through the guard in attendance, rushed up,
tomahawked and scalped him, before his own life paid the forfeit of
his rashness. General St. Clair had many narrow escapes.[23] Early in
the action, a number of savages surrounded his tent and seemed
resolved on entering it and sacrificing him. They were with difficulty
restrained by some regular soldiers at the point of the bayonet.
During the engagement eight balls passed through his clothes, and
while the troops were retreating, having had his own horse killed, and
being mounted on a sorry beast, "which could not be pricked out of a
walk," he had to make his way to Fort Jefferson as he could,
considerably in the rear of the men. During the action Adjutant
Bulgess received a severe wound, but yet continued to fight with
distinguished gallantry. Presently a second shot took effect and he
fell. A woman who was particularly attached to him had accompanied him
in the campaign, raised him up, and while supporting him in her arms,
received a ball in the breast which killed her instantly.
The Chicasaws were then in amity with the whites, and some of their
warriors were to have cooperated with Gen. St. Clair, but did not
arrive in time. There was however one of that nation in the
engagement, and he killed and scalped eleven of the enemy with his own
hands, and while engaged with the twelfth was himself killed, to the
regret of those who witnessed his deeds of daring and of courage.
According to the statement of the Indians, they killed six hundred and
twenty of the American troops, and took seven pieces of cannon, two
hundred head of oxen, many horses, but no prisoners.[24] They gave
their own loss in killed at only sixty-five; but it was no doubt much
greater. Their force consisted of four thousand warriors, and was led
on by a Missasago chief who had served with the British in the late
war; and who planned and conducted the attack contrary to the opinion
of a majority of the chiefs, who yet, having such confidence in his
skill and judgment, yielded their individual plans and gave to him the
entire control of their movements. He is reported to have caused the
savages to forbear the pursuit of the retreating troops; telling them
that they had killed enough, and it was time to enjoy the booty they
had gained with the victory. He was then about forty-five years of
age, six feet in height, and of a [300] sour, morose countenance. His
dress was Indian leggins and moccasons, a blue petticoat coming half
way down his thighs, and European waistcoat and surtout. His head was
bound with an Indian cap, reaching midway his back, and adorned with
upwards of two hundred silver ornaments. In each ear he had two ear
rings, the upper part of each of which was formed of three silver
meddles of the size of a dollar; the lower part consisted of quarters
of dollars, and more than a foot in length; one from each ear hanging
down his breast,--the others over his back. In his nose he wore
ornaments of silver curiously wrought and painted.
Two days after the action the warriors from the Chicasaw nation
arrived at Fort Jefferson, under the command of Piomingo, or the
"Mountain Leader." On their march they heard of the fatal battle, and
saw one of the enemy; who mistaking Piomingo's party for some of his
own comrades, made up to them. He discovered the mistake when it was
too late to rectify it. Piomingo accosted him in harsh tones,
saying--"Rascal, you have been killing the whites," and immediately
ordered two of his warriors to expand his arms, and a third to shoot
him. This was done and his scalp taken.
After the disastrous termination of this campaign,[25] the inhabitants
of Kentucky were as much as, or perhaps more than ever, exposed to
savage enmity and those incursions which mark the bitterness of Indian
resentment. Soon after the retreat of the army under Gen. Sinclair, a
party of them came upon Salt river, where two men and some boys were
fishing; and falling suddenly upon them killed the men and made
prisoners of the boys. They then liberated one of the boys, and giving
him a tomahawk, directed him to go home; shew it to his friends;
inform them what had been the fate of his companions, and what they
were to expect for their own. The threat was fearfully executed. Many
families were entirely cut off and many individuals sacrificed to
their fury. Companies of Indians were constantly traversing the
country in secret, and committing depredations, wherever they supposed
it could be done with impunity. A remarkable instance of their failure
and suffering in attempting to form an entrance into a house where was
an almost unprotected family, deserves to be particularly mentioned.
On the 24th of December 1791, a party of savages attacked the house of
John Merril, in Nelson county. Mr. Merril, alarmed by the barking of
the dogs, hastened to the door to learn the cause.--On opening it, he
was fired at by two Indians and his leg and arm were both broken. The
savages then ran forward to enter the house, but before they could do
this, the door was closed and secured by Mrs. Merril and her daughter.
After a fruitless attempt to force it open, they commenced hewing off
a part of it with their tomahawks, and when a passage was thus opened,
one of them attempted to enter through it. The heroic Mrs. Merril, in
the midst of her screaming and affrighted children, and her groaning
suffering husband, seized an axe, gave the ruffian a fatal blow, and
[301] instantly drew him into the house. Supposing that their end was
now nearly attained, the others pressed forward to gain admittance
through the same aperture. Four of them were in like manner despatched
by Mrs. Merril, before their comrades were aware that any opposition
was making in the house. Discovering their mistake the survivors
retired for awhile, and returning, two of them endeavored to gain
admittance by climbing to the top of the house, and descending in the
chimney, while the third was to exert himself at the door. Satisfied
from the noise on the top of the house, of the object of the Indians,
Mr. Merril directed his little son to rip open a bed and cast its
contents on the fire. This produced the desired effect.--The smoke and
heat occasioned by the burning of the feathers brought the two Indians
down, rather unpleasantly; and Mr. Merril somewhat recovered, exerted
every faculty, and with a billet of wood soon despatched those half
smothered devils. Mrs. Merril was all this while busily engaged in
defending the door against the efforts of the only remaining savage,
whom she at length wounded so severely with the axe, that he was glad
to get off alive.
A prisoner, who escaped from the Indians soon after the happening of
this transaction, reported that the wounded savage was the only one,
of a party of eight, who returned to their towns; that on being asked
by some one, "what news,"--he replied, "bad news for poor Indian, me
lose a son, me lose a brother,--the squaws have taken the breech
clout, and fight worse than the Long Knives."
The frequent commission of the most enormous outrages, led to an
expedition against the Indians, carried on by the inhabitants of
Kentucky alone. An army of one thousand mounted volunteers was
raised, and the command of it being given to Gen. Scott, he marched
immediately for their towns.[26] When near them, he sent out two spies
to learn the state of the enemy; who reported that they had seen a
large body of Indians, not far from the fatal spot where St. Clair's
bloody battle had been fought, enjoying themselves with the plunder
there taken, riding the oxen, and acting in every respect as if drunk.
Gen. Scott immediately gave orders to move forward briskly; and
arranging his men into three divisions, soon came upon and attacked
the savages. The contest was short but decisive.--Two hundred of the
enemy were killed on the spot, the cannon and such of the other stores
as were in their possession, retaken, and the savage forces completely
routed. The loss of the Kentuckians was inconsiderable,--only six men
were killed and but few wounded.
Gen. Scott on his return, gave an affecting account of the appearance
of the field, where Gen. St. Clair had been encountered by the
savages. "The plain," said he, "had a very melancholy appearance. In
the space of three hundred and fifty yards, lay three hundred skull
bones, which were buried by my men while on the ground; from thence
for miles on, and the road was strewed with skeletons, muskets, &c." A
striking picture of the desolation wrought there on the bloody fourth
of November.
-----
[1] The "Wilderness Road" (or "trace") was the overland
highway through Cumberland Gap. It was sometimes called
"Boone's trace." From North Carolina and Southern Virginia, it
was the nearest road to Kentucky; to those living farther
north, the Ohio was the favorite highway. While the river was
an easier path, it was more dangerous on account of Indians:
but travelers of the early period who had come down the Ohio,
preferred returning east by the Wilderness Road to poling up
stream. See Thomas Speed's _Wilderness Road_, in the Filson
Club publications (Louisville, 1886.)--R. G. T.
[2] Col. William Christian, who served in Lord Dunmore's
War. He was killed in April, 1786. John May, writing to
Governor Henry from Crab Orchard, Ky., April 19, says: "The
Indians about the Wabash had frequently been on Bear Grass, and
Col. Christian, in order to induce others to go in pursuit of
them, has upon every occasion gone himself. And last week he
with about twenty men crossed the Ohio, and overtook three
Indians, whom they killed; but his men not obeying his orders,
which were to rush altogether on them, he with three others
only overtook the Indians, and was so unfortunate as to receive
a mortal wound himself and Capt. Isaac Kellar received
another."--R. G. T.
[3] The time for rendezvous was September 10, 1786 (letter
of Col. Levi Todd to Governor Henry, August 29).--R. G. T.
[4] Clark was roundly scored in contemporary accounts, for
being much of the time under the influence of liquor. His
futile expedition was against the Indians around Vincennes,
while Logan's party, which appears practically to have revolted
from Clark, had a successful campaign against the towns on Mad
River. See Green's _Spanish Conspiracy_, ch. v., and
Roosevelt's _Winning of the West_, iii., _passim_.--R. G. T.
[5] Col. Benjamin Logan to Governor Randolph, Dec. 17, 1786:
"Sept. 14, 1786, I received orders [from Clark] to collect a
sufficient number of men in the District of Kentucky to march
against the Shawnee's Towns. Agreeable to said orders I
collected 790 men, and on the 6th of October I attacked the
above mentioned Towns, killed ten of the chiefs of that nation,
captured thirty-two prisoners, burnt upwards of two hundred
dwelling houses and supposed to have burnt fifteen thousand
bushels of corn, took some horses and cattle, killed a number
of hogs, and took near one thousand pounds value of Indian
furniture, and the quantity of furniture we burnt I can not
account for." The force was on duty "not above twenty-seven
days ... and I would venture to say the expenses will be found
to be very moderate."--R. G. T.
[6] William Lytle, born in Carlisle, Pa., September 1, 1770.
He came to Ohio with his father, at the age of ten, and
subsequently became surveyor-general of the Northwest
Territory. His father served as a captain in the French and
Indian War, and as a colonel in the Revolution, and headed a
large colony to Ohio in 1780.--R. G. T.
[7] This name is sometimes written Magery. It is the same
individual who caused the disaster at the Blue Licks in August
1782.
[8] The treaty with the Shawnees was negotiated January 30,
1786, at Fort Finney, near the mouth of the Great Miami, by
George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Samuel H. Parsons,
commissioners. The treaty with the Wyandots, Delawares,
Chippewas, and Ottawas was negotiated at Fort McIntosh, January
21, 1785, by Clark, Butler, and Arthur Lee. These treaties were
of little avail, so long as British agents like McKee, Elliott,
and Simon Girty lived among the Indians and kept them in a
constant ferment against the Americans.--R. G. T.
[9] The several states which, under their colonial charters
had claims to territory beyond the Ohio River,--Virginia, New
York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts,--had (1781-84)
relinquished their several claims to the newly-formed United
States, and the Ordinance of 1787 had provided for this
Northwest Territory an enlightened form of government which was
to be the model of the constitutions of the five states into
which it was ultimately to be divided. There was formed in
Boston, in March, 1786, the Ohio Company of Associates, and
October 17, 1787, it purchased from Congress a million and a
half acres in the new territory, about the mouth of the
Muskingum. Many of the shareholders were Revolutionary
soldiers, and great care was taken to select only good men as
colonists--oftentimes these were the best and most prosperous
men of their several localities. Gen. Rufus Putnam, a cousin of
Israel, and a near friend of Washington, was chosen as
superintendent of the pioneers. Two parties--one rendezvousing
at Danvers, Mass., and the other at Hartford, Conn.--arrived
after a difficult passage through the mountains at Simrall's
Ferry (now West Newton), on the Youghiogheny, the middle of
February, 1788. A company of boat-builders and other mechanics
had preceded them a month, yet it was still six weeks more
before the little flotilla could leave: "The Union Gally of 45
tons burden; the Adelphia ferry boat, 3 tons; & three log
canoes of different sizes. No. of pioneers, 48." The winter had
been one of the severest known on the Upper Ohio, and the
spring was cold, wet, and backward; so that amid many hardships
it was the seventh of April before they arrived at the
Muskingum and founded Marietta, named for the unfortunate Marie
Antoinette, for the love of France was still strong in the
breasts of Revolutionary veterans.--R. G. T.
[10] Perhaps there never was a more strange compound
derivative term than this. Being situated opposite to the mouth
of Licking, the name was made expressive of its locality, by
uniting the Latin word _os_, (the mouth) with the Greek, _anti_
(opposite) and the French, _ville_, (a town,) and prefixing to
this union from such different sources, the initial (_L_) of
the river. The author of this word, must have been good at
invention, and in these days of _town making_ could find ample
employment for his talent.
[11] In 1788, John Cleves Symmes--uncle of he of "Symmes's
Hole"--the first United States judge of the Northwest
Territory, purchased from congress a million acres of land on
the Ohio, lying between the two Miami Rivers. Matthias Denman
bought from him a square mile at the eastern end of the grant,
"on a most delightful high bank" opposite the Licking, and--on
a cash valuation for the land of two hundred dollars--took in
with him as partners Robert Patterson and John Filson. Filson
was a schoolmaster, had written the first history of Kentucky,
and seems to have enjoyed much local distinction. To him was
entrusted the task of inventing a name for the settlement which
the partners proposed to plant here. The outcome was
"Losantiville," a pedagogical hash of Greek, Latin, and French:
_L_, for Licking; _os_, Greek for mouth; _anti_, Latin for
opposite; _ville_, French for city--Licking-opposite-City, or
City-opposite-Licking, whichever is preferred. This was in
August; the Fates work quickly, for in October poor Filson was
scalped by the Indians in the neighborhood of the Big Miami,
before a settler had yet been enticed to Losantiville. But the
survivors knew how to "boom" a town; lots were given away by
lottery to intending actual settlers, who moved thither late in
December or early in January, and in a few months Judge Symmes
was able to write that "it populates considerably."
A few weeks previous to the planting of Losantiville, a party
of men from Redstone had settled at the mouth of the Little
Miami, about where the suburb of California now is; and a
few weeks later, a third colony was started by Symmes
himself at North Bend, near the Big Miami, at the western
extremity of his grant, and this the judge wished to make the
capital of the new Northwest Territory. At first it was a race
between these three colonies. A few miles below North Bend,
Fort Finney had been built in 1785-86, hence the Bend had at
first the start; but a high flood dampened its prospects, the
troops were withdrawn from this neighborhood to Louisville,
and in the winter of 1789-90 Fort Washington was built at
Losantiville by General Harmar. The neighborhood of the new
fortress became in the ensuing Indian war the center of the
district. To Losantiville, with its fort, came Arthur St.
Clair, the new governor of the Northwest Territory (January,
1790), and making his headquarters here, laid violent hands
on Filson's invention, at once changing the name to Cincinnati,
in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati, of which the new
official was a prominent member--"so that," Judge Symmes
sorrowfully writes, "Losantiville will become extinct." It
was a winter of suffering for the Western Cincinnati. The
troops were in danger of starvation, and three professional
hunters were contracted with to supply them with game, till
corn could come in from Columbia and other older settlements
on the river.--R. G. T.
[12] Col. Josiah Harmar's militia were from Virginia, Kentucky,
and Pennsylvania. He left Fort Washington (Cincinnati), October 3.
At this time the Miami Indians had seven villages in the
neighborhood of the junction of St. Joseph and St. Mary's, which
streams unite to form the Maumee. The village which lay in the
forks of the St. Joseph and the Maumee, was the principal; one
in the forks of the St. Mary's and the Maumee, which was called
Kekionga, had 30 houses; at Chillicothe, on the north bank of
the Maumee, were 58 houses, and opposite these 18 houses. The
Delawares had two villages on the St. Mary's, 45 houses in all,
and a town on the St. Joseph of 36 houses.--R. G. T.
[13] A third expedition, under Maj. J. F. Hamtramck,
went against the Wabash Indians, successfully destroyed
several deserted villages, and reached Vincennes without
loss.--R. G. T.
[14] In his report to the Secretary of War, October 29,
1790, Governor St. Clair said: "I have the pleasure to
inform you of the entire success of Gen. Harmar at the Indian
towns on the Miami and St. Joseph Rivers, of which he has
destroyed five in number, and a very great quantity of corn
and other vegetable provisions. It is supposed that about
two hundred of the Indians have likewise fallen in the
different encounters that have happened between them and
the detachment, for there has been no general action; but it
has not been without considerable loss on our part.... Of the
Federal troops, Major Wyllys and Lieutenant Frothingham and
seventy-seven men; of the militia, Major Fontaine, Captain
McMurtry, and Captain Scott, a son of General Scott, and
seventy-three men, are among the slain."--R. G. T.
[15] Thirteen miles below Marietta.--R. G. T.
[16] Eighteen miles above Marietta, and one above St. Mary's,
W. Va.--R. G. T.
[17] Dunkard Creek flows eastward into the Monongahela. Fish
Creek flows southwestward into the Ohio, emptying 113 miles
below Pittsburg, and 58 above Marietta. A famous Indian
war-trail ran up Fish and down Dunkard--a short-cut from Ohio
to the western borders of Pennsylvania and Virginia.--R. G. T.
[18] Soon after the establishment of Marietta, a rude wagon
road was opened through the forest between that colony and
Redstone (Brownsville, Pa.) This was the road Carpenter was
following.--R. G. T.
[19] With Gen. Richard Butler, who was killed in the final
battle, second in command.--R. G. T.
[20] Early in September, 1791. St. Clair had 2,000 men,
fifty per cent less than had been promised him by the war
department.--R. G. T.
[21] Fort Hamilton, a stockade with four bastions, was on the
Big Miami, 24 miles from Fort Washington (Cincinnati), on the
site of the present Hamilton, O. Fort Jefferson, built of logs
laid horizontally, was six miles south of the present
Greenville, O. The army left Fort Jefferson, October
24.--R. G. T.
[22] The army then numbered 1,400 men, and was encamped at
the site of the present Fort Recovery, O., 55 miles away, as
the crow flies, from the head of the Maumee, the objective
point of the expedition.--R. G. T.
[23] He lay sick in his tent, when the action opened, but
arose and acted with remarkable courage throughout the fight.
General Butler was acting commandant while St. Clair was ill,
and was credibly informed by his scouts, the night before the
battle, of the proximity of the enemy. But he took no
precautions against surprise, neither did he communicate his
news to his superior. Upon Butler's head appears to rest much
of the blame for the disaster.--R. G. T.
[24] The Americans lost 37 officers and 593 men, killed and
missing, and 31 officers and 252 men, wounded. See _St. Clair
Papers_, edited by William Henry Smith (Cincinnati: Robert
Clarke & Co., 1882), for official details of the disaster. For
Simon Girty's part, consult Butterfield's _History of the
Girtys, passim._--R. G. T.
[25] St. Clair arrived at Fort Washington, on his return,
November 8--R. G. T.
[26] This expedition under Gen. Charles Scott, one of the
Kentucky committee of safety, was made in June, 1791, against
the Miami and Wabash Indians. It was followed in August by a
second expedition under Gen. James Wilkinson. In the course of
the second campaign, at the head of 500 Kentuckians, Wilkinson
laid waste the Miami village of L'Anguille, killing and
capturing 42 of the savages.--R. G. T.
[302] CHAPTER XVIII.
Neither the signal success of the expedition under General Scott, nor
the preparations which were being made by the general government, for
the more rigorous prosecution of the war against them, caused the
Indians to relax their exertions to harrass the frontier inhabitants.
The ease with which they had overcome the two armies sent against them
under Harmar and St. Clair, inspired them with contempt for our
troops, and induced a belief of their own invincibility, if practising
the vigilance necessary to guard against a surprise. To the want of
this vigilance, they ascribed the success of Gen. Scott; and deeming
it necessary only to exercise greater precaution to avoid similar
results, they guarded more diligently the passes into their country,
while discursive parties of their warriors would perpetrate their
accustomed acts of aggression upon the persons and property of the
whites.
About the middle of May, 1792, a party of savages came upon a branch
of Hacker's creek, and approaching late in the evening a field
recently cleared by John Waggoner, found him seated on a log, resting
himself after the labors of the day. In this company of Indians was
the since justly celebrated General Tecumseh, who leaving his
companions to make sure of those in the house, placed his gun on the
fence and fired deliberately at Waggoner. The leaden messenger of
death failed of its errand, and passing through the sleeve of his
shirt, left Waggoner uninjured, to try his speed with the Indian.
Taking a direction opposite the house, to avoid coming in contact with
the savages there, he outstripped his pursuer, and got safely off.
[303] In the mean time, those who had been left to operate against
those of the family who were at the house, finding a small boy in the
yard, killed and scalped him; and proceeding on, made prisoners of
Mrs. Waggoner and her six children, and departed immediately with
them, lest the escape of her husband, should lead to their instant
pursuit. They were disappointed in this expectation. A company of
men was soon collected, who repaired to the then desolate mansion,
and from thence followed on the trail of the savages. About a mile
from the house, one of the children was found where its brains had
been beaten out with a club, and the scalp torn from its head. A
small distance farther, lay Mrs. Waggoner and two others of her
children,--their lifeless bodies mangled in the most barbarous and
shocking manner. Having thus freed themselves from the principal
impediments to a rapid retreat, the savages hastened on; and the
pursuit was unavailing. They reached their towns with the remaining
prisoners--two girls and a boy--and avoided chastisement for the
outrage. The elder of the two girls did not long remain with them;
but escaping to the neighborhood of Detroit with another female
prisoner, continued there until after the treaty of 1795. Her sister
abided with her captors 'till the close of the war; and the boy until
during the war of 1812. He was then seen among some friendly
Indians, and bearing a strong resemblance in features to his
father, was recognized as Waggoner's captive son. He had married a
squaw, by whom he had several children, was attached to his manner
of life, and for a time resisted every importunity, to withdraw
himself from among them. When his father visited him, it was with
difficulty he was enticed to return to the haunts of his childhood,
and the associates of his younger days, even on a temporary visit.
When however he did return to them, the attention and kindly
conduct of his friends, prevailed with him to remain, until he
married and took up his permanent abode amid the habitations of
civilized men. Still with the feelings natural to a father, his
heart yearns towards his children in the forest; and at times he
seems to lament that he ever forsook them.[1]
In the summer of this year, a parcel of horses were taken from the
West Fork, and the Indians who had stolen them, being discovered as
they were retiring, they were pursued by Captain Coburn, who was
stationed at the mouth of Little [304] Kenhawa with a party of men as
scouts. Following them across the Ohio river, he overtook them some
distance in the Indian country, and retaking the horses, returned to
his station. Hitherto property recovered from the savages, had been
invariably restored to those from whom it had been stolen; but on the
present occasion a different course was pursued. Contending that they
received compensation for services rendered by them in Virginia, and
were not bound to treat without its limits in pursuit of the savages
or to retake the property of which they had divested its rightful
owners, they claimed the horses as plunder taken from the Indians,
sold them, and divided the proceeds of sale among themselves--much to
the dissatisfaction of those from whom the savages had taken them.[2]
In the course of the ensuing fall, Henry Neal, William Triplett and
Daniel Rowell, from Neal's station ascended the Little Kenhawa in
canoes to the mouth of the Burning Spring run, from whence they
proceeded on a Buffoloe hunt in the adjoining woods. But they had been
seen as they plied their canoes up the river, by a party of Indians,
who no sooner saw them placed in a situation favoring the bloody
purposes of their hearts, than they fired upon them. Neal and Triplett
were killed, and fell into the river.--Rowell was missed and escaped
by swimming the Kenhawa, the Indians shooting at him as he swam. In a
few days after the dead were found in a ripple and buried. The
Indians had not been able to draw them from their watery grave, and
obtain their scalps.
During this year unsuccessful attempts were made by the general
government, to terminate Indian hostilities by negotiation. They were
too much elated with their recent success, to think of burying their
resentments in a treaty of peace; and so little did they fear the
operation of the governmental forces, and such was their confidence in
their own strength, that they not only refused to negotiate at all,
but put to death two of those who were sent to them as messengers of
peace. Major Truman and Col. Hardin, severally sent upon this mission,
were murdered by them; and when commissioners to treat with them, were
received by them, their only answer was, a positive refusal to enter
into a treaty.[3]
When this determination was made known to the President, every
precaution which could be used, was taken by him to prevent the
recurrence of these enormities which were daily committed on the
[305] frontier, and particularly in the new state of Kentucky. Gen.
St. Clair, after having asked that a court of enquiry should be held,
to consider of his conduct in the campaign of 1791, and finding
that his request could not be granted, resigned the command of the
army, and was succeeded by Gen. Anthony Wayne. That the operations
of the army might not be defeated as heretofore, by a too great
reliance on undisciplined militia, it was recommended to Congress to
authorize the raising of three additional regiments of regular
soldiers; and the bill for complying with this recommendation,
notwithstanding it was strenuously opposed by a strong party
hostile to the then administration, was finally passed.[4]
The forts Hamilton and Jefferson, erected by Gen. St. Clair, continued
to be well garrisoned; but there was some difficulty in supplying
them with provisions--the Indians being always in readiness to
intercept them on their way. As early as April 1792, they taught
us the necessity of having a strong guard to escort supplies with
safety, by a successful attack on Major Adair; who with one
hundred and twenty volunteers from Kentucky, had charge of a number
of pack horses laden with provisions. He was engaged by a body of
savages, not much superior in number, and although he was under
cover of Fort St. Clair, yet did they drive him into the fort, and
carry off the provisions and pack horses. The courage and bold
daring of the Indians, was eminently conspicuous on this occasion.
They fought with nearly equal numbers, against a body of troops,
better tutored in the science of open warfare, well mounted and
equipped, armed with every necessary weapon, and almost under the
guns of the fort. And they fought successfully,--killing one captain
and ten privates, wounding several, and taking property estimated
to be worth fifteen thousand dollars. Nothing seemed to abate their
ardor for war. Neither the strong garrisons placed in the forts
erected so far in advance of the settlements, nor the great
preparations which were making for striking an effectual blow at
them, caused them for an instant to slacken in hostilities, or check
their movements against the frontier.
In the spring of 1793, a party of warriors proceeding towards the head
waters of the Monongahela river, discovered a marked way, leading a
direction which they did not know to be inhabited by whites. It led to
a settlement which had been recently made on Elk river, by Jeremiah
and Benjamin Carpenter and a few others from Bath county, and who had
been particularly careful to make nor leave any path which might lead
to a discovery of their situation, but Adam O'Brien moving into the
same section of country in the spring of 1792, and being rather an
indifferent woodsman, incautiously blazed the trees in several
directions so as to enable him readily to find his home, when business
or pleasure should have drawn him from it. It was upon one of these
marked traces that the Indians chanced to fall; and pursuing it, came
to the deserted cabin of [306] O'Brien: he having returned to the
interior, because of his not making a sufficiency of grain for the
subsistence of his family. Proceeding from O'Brien's, they came to the
House of Benjamin Carpenter, whom they found alone and killed. Mrs.
Carpenter being discovered by them, before she was aware of their
presence, was tomahawked and scalped, a small distance from the yard.
The burning of Benjamin Carpenter's house, led to a discovery of these
outrages; and the remaining inhabitants of that neighborhood, remote
from any fort or populous settlement to which they could fly for
security, retired to the mountains and remained for several days
concealed in a cave. They then caught their horses and moved their
families to the West Fork; and when they visited the places of their
former habitancy for the purpose of collecting their stock and
carrying it off with their other property, scarce a vestige of them
was to be seen,--the Indians had been there after they left the cave,
and burned the houses, pillaged their movable property, and destroyed
the cattle and hogs.
Among the few interesting incidents which occurred in the upper
country, during this year, was the captivity and remarkable escape of
two brothers, John and Henry Johnson:--the former thirteen, the latter
eleven years of age. They lived at a station on the west side of the
Ohio river near above Indian Short creek; and being at some distance
from the house, engaged in the sportive amusements of youth, became
fatigued and seated themselves on an old log for the purpose of
resting. They presently observed two men coming towards them, whom
they believed to be white men from the station until they approached
so close as to leave no prospect of escape by flight, when to their
great grief they saw that two Indians were beside them. They were made
prisoners, and taken about four miles, when after partaking of some
roasted meat and parched corn given them by their captors, they were
arranged for the night, by being placed between the two Indians and
each encircled in the arms of the one next him.
Henry, the younger of the brothers, had grieved much at the idea of
being carried off by the Indians, and during his short but sorrowful
journey across the hills, had wept immoderately. John had in vain
endeavored to comfort him with the hope that they should be enabled to
elude the vigilence of the savages, and to return to the hearth of
their parents and brethren. He refused to be comforted.--The ugly red
man, with his tomahawk and scalping knife, which had been often called
in to quiet the cries of his infancy, was now actually before him; and
every scene of torture and of torment which had been depicted, by
narration, to his youthful eye, was now present to his terrified
imagination, hightened by the thought that they were about to be
re-enacted on himself. In anticipation of this horrid doom for some
time he wept in bitterness and affliction; but
[307] "The tear down childhood's cheek that flows,
Is like the dew drop on the rose;--
When next the summer breeze comes by
And waves the bush, the flower is dry."--
When the fire was kindled at night, the supper prepared and offered to
him, all idea of his future fate was merged in their present
kindness; and Henry soon sunk to sleep, though enclosed in horrid hug,
by savage arms.
It was different with John. He felt the reality of their situation.--He
was alive to the anguish which he knew would agitate the bosom of his
mother, and he thought over the means of allaying it so intensely,
that sleep was banished from his eyes. Finding the others all locked
in deep repose, he disengaged himself from the embrace of the savage at
his side, and walked to the fire. To test the soundness of their
sleep, he rekindled the dying blaze, and moved freely about it. All
remained still and motionless,--no suppressed breathing, betrayed a
feigned repose. He gently twitched the sleeping Henry, and whispering
softly in his ear, bade him get up. Henry obeyed, and they both stood by
the fire. "I think, said John, we had better go home now." "Oh!
replied Henry, they will follow and catch us again." "Never fear
that, rejoined John, we'll kill them before we go." The idea was for
some time opposed by Henry; but when he beheld the savages so soundly
asleep, and listened to his brother's plan of executing his wish, he
finally consented to act the part prescribed him.
The only gun which the Indians had, was resting against a tree, at the
foot of which lay their tomahawks. John placed it on a log, with the
muzzle near to the head of one of the savages; cocked it, and leaving
Henry with his finger to the trigger, ready to pull upon the signal
being given, he repaired to his own station. Holding in his hand one
of their tomahawks, he stood astride of the other Indian, and as he
raised his arm to deal death to the sleeping savage, Henry fired, and
shooting off the lower part of the Indian's jaw, called to his
brother, "_lay on, for I've done for this one_," seized up the gun and
ran off. The first blow of the tomahawk took effect on the back of the
neck, and was not fatal. The Indian attempted to spring up; but John
repeated his strokes with such force and so quickly, that he soon
brought him again to the ground; and leaving him dead proceeded on
after his brother.
They presently came to a path which they recollected to have
travelled, the preceding evening, and keeping along it, arrived at
the station awhile before day. The inhabitants were however, all up
and in much uneasiness for the fate of the boys; and when they came
near and heard a well known voice exclaim in accents of deep distress,
"_Poor little fellows, they are killed or taken prisoners_," John
replied aloud,--"No mother, we are here again."
When the tale of their captivity, and the means by which their
deliverance was effected, were told, they did not obtain full
credence. [308] Piqued at the doubts expressed by some, John observed,
"you had better go and see." "But, can you again find the spot," said
one. "Yes, replied he, I hung my hat up at the turning out place and
can soon shew you the spot." Accompanied by several of the men, John
returned to the theatre of his daring exploits; and the truth of his
statement received ample confirmation. The savage who had been
tomahawked was lying dead by the fire--the other had crawled some
distance; but was tracked by his blood until found, when it was agreed
to leave him, "_as he must die at any rate_."
Companies of rangers had been for several seasons stationed on the
Ohio river, for the greater security of the persons and property of
those who resided on and near the frontier. During this year a company
which had been stationed at the mouth of Fishing creek,[5] and had
remained there until its term of service had expired, determined then
on a scout into the Indian country; and crossing the river, marched on
for some days before they saw any thing which indicated their nearness
to Indians. Pursuing a path which seemed to be much used, they came in
view of an Indian camp, and observing another path, which likewise
seemed to be much frequented, Ensign Levi Morgan was sent with a
detachment of the men, to see if it would conduct them to where were
others of the Indians, who soon returned with the information that he
had seen another of their encampments close by. Upon the receipt of
this intelligence, the Lieutenant was sent forward with a party of
men to attack the second encampment, while the Captain with the
residue of the company should proceed against that which had been
first discovered, and commence an assault on it, when he should hear
the firing of the Lieutenant's party at the camp which he was sent to
assail.
When the second camp was approached and the men posted at intervals
around it, awaiting the light of day to begin the assault, the
Lieutenant discovered that there was a greater force of Indians with
whom he would have to contend than was expected, and prudently
resolved to withdraw his men without coming into collision with them.
Orders for this movement were directly given, and the party
immediately retired. There was however, one of the detachment, who had
been posted some small distance in advance of the others with
directions to fire as soon as the Indians should be seen stirring, and
who, unapprized of the withdrawal of the others, [309] maintained his
station, until he observed a squaw issuing from a camp, when he fired
at her and rushed up, expecting to be supported by his comrades. He
fell into the hands of those whom he had thus assailed; but his fate
was far different from what he had every reason to suppose it would
be, under those circumstances. It was the hunting camp of Isaac Zane,
and the female at whom he had shot was the daughter of Zane; the ball
had slightly wounded her in the wrist. Her father, although he had
been with the Indians ever since his captivity when only nine years of
age, had not yet acquired the ferocious and vindictive passions of
those with whom he had associated; but practising the forbearance and
forgiveness of christian and civilized man, generously conducted the
wanton assailant so far upon his way, that he was enabled though alone
to reach the settlement in safety. His fate was different from that of
those, who had been taken prisoners by that part of the company which
remained at the first camp with the Captain. When the Lieutenant with
the detachment, rejoined the others, disappointment at the failure of
the expedition under him, led some of the men to fall upon the Indian
prisoners and inhumanly murder them.
Notwithstanding that preparations for an active campaign against the
savages was fast ripening to their perfection, and that the troops of
the general government had penetrated as far as to the field, on which
had been fought the fatal battle of the fourth of November, 1791, and
erected there Fort Recovery,[6] yet did they not cease from their
accustomed inroads upon the settlements, even after the winter of
1793.--In March 1794, a party of them crossed the Ohio river, and as
they were advancing towards the settlements on the upper branches of
the Monongahela, met with Joseph Cox, then on his way to the mouth of
Leading creek on Little Kenhawa, for a load of furs and skins which he
had left there, at the close of his hunt the preceding fall. Cox very
unexpectedly met them in a narrow pass, and instantly wheeled his
horse to ride off. Endeavoring to stimulate the horse to greater speed
by the application of the whip, the animal became stubborn and refused
to go at all, when Cox was forced to dismount and seek safety on foot.
His pursuers gained rapidly upon him, and he saw that one of them
would soon overtake him. He faced the savage who was near, and raised
his gun to fire; but nothing daunted, the Indian rushed forward. Cox's
gun [310] missed fire, and he was instantly a prisoner. He was taken
to their towns and detained in captivity for some time; but at length
made his escape, and returned safely to the settlement.
On the 24th of July, six Indians visited the West Fork river, and at
the mouth of Freeman's creek, met with, and made prisoner, a daughter
of John Runyan. She was taken off by two of the party of savages, but
did not go more than ten or twelve miles, before she was put to death.
The four Indians who remained, proceeded down the river and on the
next day came to the house of William Carder, near below the mouth of
Hacker's creek. Mr. Carder discovered them approaching, in time to
fasten his door; but in the confusion of the minute, shut out two of
his children, who however ran off unperceived by the savages and
arrived in safety at the house of a neighbor. He then commenced firing
and hallooing, so as to alarm those who were near and intimidate the
Indians. Both objects were accomplished. The Indians contented
themselves with shooting at the cattle, and then retreated; and Mr.
Joseph Chevront, who lived hardby, hearing the report of the guns and
the loud cries of Carder, sent his own family to a place of safety,
and with nobleness of purpose, ran to the relief of his neighbor. He
enabled Carder to remove his family to a place of greater security,
although the enemy were yet near, and engaged in skinning one of the
cattle that they might take with them a supply of meat. On the next
day a company of men assembled, and went in pursuit; but they could
not trail the savages far, because of the great caution with which
they had retreated, and returned without accomplishing any thing.
Two days afterward, when it was believed that the Indians had left the
neighborhood, they came on Hacker's creek near to the farm of Jacob
Cozad, and finding four of his sons bathing, took three of them
prisoners, and killed the fourth, by repeatedly stabbing him with a
bayonet attached to a staff. The boys, of whom they made prisoners,
were immediately taken to the Indian towns and kept in captivity until
the treaty of Greenville in 1795. Two of them were then delivered up
to their father, who attended to enquire for them,--the third was not
heard of for some time after, but was at length found at Sandusky, by
his elder brother and brought home.
After the victory obtained by General Wayne over the Indians, [311]
Jacob Cozad, Jr. was doomed to be burned to death, in revenge of the
loss then sustained by the savages. Every preparation for carrying
into execution this dreadful determination was quickly made. The wood
was piled, the intended victim was apprized of his approaching fate,
and before the flaming torch was applied to the faggots, he was told
to take leave of those who were assembled to witness the awful
spectacle. The crowd was great, and the unhappy youth could with
difficulty press his way through them. Amid the jeers and taunts of
those whom he would address, he was proceeding to discharge the last
sad act of his life, when a female, whose countenance beamed with
benignity, beckoned him to follow her. He did not hesitate. He
approached as if to bid her farewell, and she succeeded in taking him
off unobserved by the many eyes gazing around, and concealed him in a
wigwam among some trunks and covered loosely with a blanket. He was
presently missed, and a search immediately made for him. Many passed
near in quest of the devoted victim, and he could hear their steps and
note their disappointment. After awhile the uproar ceased, and he felt
more confident of security. In a few minutes more he heard approaching
footsteps and felt that the blanket was removed from him. He turned to
surrender himself to his pursuers, and meet a dreadful death.--But no!
they were two of his master's sons who had been directed where to find
him, and they conducted him securely to the Old Delaware town, where
he remained until carried to camp upon the conclusion of a treaty of
peace.[7]
In a short time after the happening of the events at Cozad's, a party
of Indians made an irruption upon Tygart's Valley. For some time the
inhabitants of that settlement had enjoyed a most fortunate exemption
from savage molestation; and although they had somewhat relaxed in
vigilance, they did not however omit to pursue a course calculated to
ensure a continuance of their tranquillity and repose. Instead of
flying for security, as they had formerly, to the neighboring forts
upon the return of spring, the increase of population and the
increased capacity of the communion to repel aggression, caused them
to neglect other acts of precaution, and only to assemble at
particular houses, when danger was believed to be instant and at hand.
In consequence of the reports which reached them of the injuries
lately committed by the [312] savages upon the West Fork, several
families collected at the house of Mr. Joseph Canaan for mutual
security, and while thus assembled, were visited by a party of
Indians, when perfectly unprepared for resistance. The savages entered
the house awhile after dark, and approaching the bed on which Mr.
Canaan was lolling, one of them addressed him with the familiarity of
an old acquaintance and saying "how d'ye do, how d'ye do," presented
his hand. Mr. Canaan was rising to reciprocate the greeting, when he
was pierced by a ball discharged at him from another savage, and fell
dead. The report of the gun at once told, who were the visitors, and
put them upon using immediate exertions to effect their safety by
flight. A young man who was near when Canaan was shot, aimed at the
murderer a blow with a drawing knife, which took effect on the head of
the savage and brought him to the ground. Ralston then escaped through
the door, and fled in safety, although fired at as he fled.
When the Indians entered the house, there was a Mrs. Ward sitting in
the room. So soon as she observed that the intruders were savages, she
passed into another apartment with two of the children, and going out
with them through a window, got safely away. Mr. Lewis (brother to
Mrs. Canaan) likewise escaped from a back room, in which he had been
asleep at the firing of the gun. Three children were tomahawked and
scalped,--Mrs. Canaan made prisoner, and the savages withdrew. The
severe wound inflicted on the head of the Indian by Ralston, made it
necessary that they should delay their return to their towns, until
his recovery; and they accordingly remained near the head of the
middle fork of Buchannon, for several weeks. Their extreme caution in
travelling, rendered any attempt to discover them unavailing; and when
their companion was restored they proceeded on, uninterruptedly. On
the close of the war, Mrs. Canaan was redeemed from captivity by a
brother from Brunswick, in New Jersey, and restored to her surviving
friends.
Thus far in the year 1794, the army of the United States had not been
organised for efficient operations. Gen. Wayne had been actively
employed in the discharge of every preparatory duty devolving on him;
and those distinguishing characteristics of uncommon daring and
bravery, which had acquired for him the appellation of "_Mad
Anthony_," and which [313] so eminently fitted him for the command of
an army warring against savages, gave promise of success to his arms.
Before the troops marched from Fort Washington, it was deemed
advisable to have an abundant supply of provisions in the different
forts in advance of this, as well for the supply of their respective
garrisons, as for the subsistence of the general army, in the event of
its being driven into them, by untoward circumstances. With this view,
three hundred pack-horses, laden with flour, were sent on to Fort
Recovery; and, as it was known that considerable bodies of the enemy
were constantly hovering about the forts, and awaiting opportunities
of cutting off any detachments from the main army, Major McMahon, with
eighty riflemen under Capt. Hartshorn, and fifty dragoons, under Capt.
Taylor, was ordered on as an escort. This force was too great to
justify the savages in making an attack, until they could unite the
many war parties which were near;.and before this could be effected,
Major McMahon reached his destination.
On the 30th of July,[8] as the escort was about leaving Fort Recovery,
it was attacked by an army of one thousand Indians, in the immediate
vicinity of the fort. Captain Hartshorn had advanced only three or
four hundred yards, at the head of the riflemen, when he was
unexpectedly beset on every side. With the most consummate bravery and
good conduct, he maintained the unequal conflict, until Major McMahon,
placing himself at the head of the cavalry, charged upon the enemy,
and was repulsed with considerable loss. Maj. McMahon, Capt. Taylor
and Cornet Terry fell upon the first onset, and many of the privates
were killed or wounded. The whole savage force being now brought to
press on Capt. Hartshorn, that brave officer was forced to try and
regain the Fort, but the enemy interposed its strength, to prevent
this movement. Lieutenant Drake and Ensign Dodd, with twenty
volunteers, marched from Fort Recovery and forcing a passage through a
column of the enemy at the point of the bayonet, joined the rifle
corps, at the instant that Capt. Hartshorn received a shot which broke
his thigh. Lieut. Craig being killed and Lieut. Marks taken prisoner,
Lieut. Drake conducted the retreat; and while endeavoring for an
instant to hold the enemy in check, so as to enable the soldiers to
bring off their wounded captain, himself received a shot in the groin,
and the retreat was resumed, leaving Capt. Hartshorn on the field.
[314] When the remnant of the troops came within the walls of the
Fort, Lieut. Michael, who had been early detached by Capt. Hartshorn
to the flank of the enemy, was found to be missing, and was given up
as lost. But while his friends were deploring his unfortunate fate,
he and Lieut. Marks, who had been early taken prisoner, were seen
rushing through the enemy, from opposite directions towards the Fort.
They gained it safely, notwithstanding they were actively pursued,
and many shots fired at them. Lieut. Marks had got off by knocking
down the Indian who held him prisoner; and Lieut. Michael had lost
all of his party, but three men. The entire loss of the Americans was
twenty-three killed, and forty wounded.[9] The riflemen brought in
ten scalps which were taken early in the action; beyond this the
enemy's loss was never ascertained. Many of them were no doubt
killed and wounded, as they advanced in solid columns up to the
very muzzles of the guns, and were afterwards seen carrying off many
of their warriors on pack horses.
At length Gen. Wayne put the army over which he had been given the
command, in motion;[10] and upon its arrival at the confluence of the
Au Glaize and the Miami of the Lakes, another effort was made for the
attainment of peace, without the effusion of blood. Commissioners were
sent forward to the Indians to effect this desirable object; who
exhorted them to listen to their propositions for terminating the war,
and no longer to be deluded by the counsels of white emissaries, who
had not the power to afford them protection; but only sought to
involve the frontier of the United States in a war, from which much
evil, but no good could possibly result to either party. The savages
however felt confident that success would again attend their arms, and
deriving additional incentives to war from their proximity to the
British fort, recently erected at the foot of the rapids, declined the
overture for peace, and seemed ardently to desire the battle, which
they knew must soon be fought.
The Indian army at this time, amounted to about two thousand warriors,
and when reconnoitered on the 19th of August were found encamped in a
thick bushy wood and near to the British Fort. The army of Gen. Wayne
was equal in numbers to that of the enemy; and when on the morning of
the 20th, it took up the line of march, the troops were so disposed as
to avoid being surprised, and to come into action on the [315]
shortest notice, and under the most favorable circumstances. A select
battalion of mounted volunteers, commanded by Major Price, moving in
advance of the main army, had proceeded but a few miles, when a fire
so severe was aimed at it by the savages concealed, as usual, that it
was forced to fall back. The enemy had chosen their ground with great
judgment, taking a position behind the fallen timber,[11] which had
been prostrated by a tornado, and in a woods so thick as to render it
impracticable for the cavalry to act with effect. They were formed
into three regular lines, much extended in front, within supporting
distance of each other, and reaching about two miles; and their first
effort was to turn the left flank of the American army.
Gen. Wayne ordered the first line of his army to advance with trailed
arms, to rouse the enemy from their covert at the point of the
bayonet, and when up to deliver a close and well directed fire, to be
followed by a charge so brisk as not to allow them time to reload or
form their lines. The second line was ordered to the support of the
first; and Capt. Campbell at the head of the cavalry, and Gen. Scott
at the head of the mounted volunteers were sent forward to turn the
left and right wings of the enemy. All these complicated orders were
promptly executed; but such was the impetuosity of the charge made by
the first line of infantry, so completely and entirely was the enemy
broken by it, and so rapid the pursuit, that only a small part of the
second line and of the mounted volunteers were in time to participate
in the action, notwithstanding the great exertions of their respective
officers to co-operate in the engagement; and in less than one hour,
the savages were driven more than two miles and within gunshot of the
British Fort, by less than one half their numbers.
Gen. Wayne remained three days on the banks of the Miami, in front of
the field of battle left to the full and quiet possession of his army,
by the flight and dispersion of the savages. In this time, all the
houses and cornfields, both above and below the British Fort, and
among the rest, the houses and stores of Col. McKee,[12] an English
trader of great influence among the Indians and which had been
invariably exerted to prolong the war, were consumed by fire or
otherwise entirely destroyed. On the 27th, the American army returned
to its head quarters, laying waste the cornfields and villages on each
side of the river for about fifty miles; and [316] this too in the
most populous and best improved part of the Indian country.
The loss sustained by the American army, in obtaining this brilliant
victory, over a savage enemy flushed with former successes, amounted
to thirty-three killed and one hundred wounded:[13] that of the enemy
was never ascertained. In his official account of the action, Gen.
Wayne says, "The woods were strewed for a considerable distance, with
the dead bodies of the Indians and their white auxiliaries;" and at a
council held a few days after, when British agents endeavored to
prevail on them to risk another engagement, they expressed a
determination to "bury the bloody hatchet" saying, that they had just
lost more than two hundred of their warriors.
Some events occurred during this engagement, which are deemed worthy
of being recorded here, although not of general interest. While Capt.
Campbell was engaged in turning the left-flank, of the enemy, three of
them plunged into the river, and endeavored to escape the fury of the
conflict, by swimming to the opposite shore. They were seen by two
negroes, who were on the bank to which the Indians were aiming, and
who concealed themselves behind a log for the purpose of intercepting
them. When within shooting distance one of the negroes fired and
killed one of the Indians. The other two took hold of him to drag him
to shore, when one of them was killed, by the fire of the other negro.
The remaining Indian, being now in shoal water, endeavored to draw
both the dead to the bank; but before he could effect this, the negro
who had first fired, had reloaded, and again discharging his gun,
killed him also, and the three floated down the river.
Another circumstance is related, which shows the obstinacy with which
the contest was maintained by individuals in both armies. A soldier
and an Indian came in collision, the one having an unloaded gun,--the
other a tomahawk. After the action was over, they were both found
dead; the soldier with his bayonet in the body of the Indian,--and the
Indian with his tomahawk in the head of the soldier.
Notwithstanding the signal victory, obtained by General Wayne over the
Indians, yet did their hostility to the whites lead them to acts of
occasional violence, and kept them for some time from acceding to the
proposals for peace. In [317] consequence of this, their whole country
was laid waste, and forts erected in the hearts of their settlements
at once to starve and awe them into quiet. The desired effect was
produced. Their crops being laid waste, their villages burned,
fortresses erected in various parts of their country and kept well
garrisoned, and a victorious army ready to bear down upon them at any
instant, there was no alternative left them but to sue for peace. When
the Shawanees made known their wish to bury the _bloody hatchet_, Gen.
Wayne refused to treat singly with them, and declared that all the
different tribes of the North Western Indians should be parties to any
treaty which he should make. This required some time as they had been
much dispersed after the defeat of the 20th of August, and the great
devastation committed on their crops and provisions by the American
army, had driven many to the woods, to procure a precarious
subsistence by hunting. Still however, to such abject want and
wretchedness were they reduced, that exertions were immediately made
to collect them in general council; and as this was the work of some
time, it was not effected until midsummer of 1795.
In this interval of time, there was but a solitary interruption,
caused by savage aggression, to the general repose and quiet of North
Western Virginia; and that interruption occurred in a settlement which
had been exempt from invasion since the year 1782. In the summer of
1795, the trail of a large party of Indians was discovered on Leading
creek, and proceeding directly towards the settlements on the head of
the West Fork, those on Buchannon river, or in Tygart's Valley. In
consequence of the uncertainty against which of them, the savages
would direct their operations, intelligence of the discovery which had
been made, was sent by express to all; and measures, to guard against
the happening of any unpleasant result, were taken by all, save the
inhabitants on Buchannon. They had so long been exempt from the
murderous incursions of the savages, while other settlements not
remote from them, were yearly deluged with blood, that a false
security was engendered, in the issue, fatal to the lives and
happiness of some of them, by causing them to neglect the use of such
precautionary means, as would warn them of the near approach of
danger, and ward it when it came.
Pursuing their usual avocations in despite of the warning which had
been given them, on the day after the express had [318] sounded an
alarm among them, as John Bozarth, sen. and his sons George and John
were busied in drawing grain from the field to the barn, the agonizing
shrieks of those at the house rent the air around them; and they
hastened to ascertain, and if practicable avert the cause. The
elasticity of youth enabled George to approach the house some few
paces in advance of his father, but the practised eye of the old
gentleman, first discovered an Indian, only a small distance from his
son, and with his gun raised to fire upon him. With parental
solicitude he exclaimed, "See George, an Indian is going to shoot
you." George was then too near the savage, to think of escaping by
flight. He looked at him steadily, and when he supposed the fatal aim
was taken and the finger just pressing on the trigger, he fell, and
the ball whistled by him. Not doubting but that the youth had fallen
in death, the savage passed by him and pressed in pursuit of the
father.
Mr. Bozarth had not attained to that age when the sinews become too
much relaxed for active exertion, but was yet springy and agile, and
was enabled to keep ahead of his pursuer. Despairing of overtaking
him, by reason of his great speed, the savage hurled a tomahawk at his
head. It passed harmless by; and the old gentleman got safely off.
When George Bozarth fell as the Indian fired, he lay still as if dead,
and supposing the scalping knife would be next applied to his head,
determined on seizing the savage by the legs as he would stoop over
him, and endeavor to bring him to the ground; when he hoped to be able
to gain the mastery over him. Seeing him pass on in pursuit of his
father, he arose and took to flight also. On his way he overtook a
younger brother, who had become alarmed, and was hobbling slowly away
on a sore foot. George gave him every aid in his power to facilitate
his flight, until he discovered that another of the savages was
pressing close upon them. Knowing that if he remained with his
brother, both must inevitably perish, he was reluctantly forced to
leave him to his fate. Proceeding on, he came up with his father, who
not doubting but he was killed when the savage fired at him, broke
forth with the exclamation, "_Why George, I thought you were dead_,"
and manifested, even in that sorrowful moment, a joyful feeling at his
mistake.
The Indians who were at the house, wrought their work of blood upon
such as would have been impediments to their [319] retreat; and
killing two or three smaller children, took Mrs. Bozarth and two boys
prisoners. With these they made their way to their towns and arrived
in time to surrender their captives to Gen. Wayne.
This was the last mischief done by the Indians in North Western
Virginia. For twenty years the inhabitants of that section of the
country, had suffered all the horrors of savage warfare, and all the
woes which spring from the uncurbed indulgence of those barbarous and
vindicitive passions, which bear sway in savage breasts. The treaty of
Greenville, concluded on the 3d of August 1795, put a period to the
war, and with it, to those acts of devastation and death which had so
long spread dismay and gloom throughout the land.
FINIS.
-----
[1] Drake, in _Aboriginal Races of North America_ (15th
ed.), p. 616, cites the Waggoner massacre as "the first exploit
in which we find Tecumseh engaged." L. V. McWhorter sends me
this interesting note, giving the local tradition regarding the
affair: "John Waggoner lived on Jesse's Run, more than two
miles above its junction with Hacker's Creek. While engaged in
burning logs in his clearing, he was sitting upon a log, with a
handspike lying across his lap. It was thought that Tecumseh
mistook this tool for a gun, and was nervous. But three in
number, the Indians had entered the district with some
trepidation. Over Sunday, while the settlers were holding
religious services in West's Fort, the savages lay in a
neighboring ravine. The dogs of the settlement barked furiously
at them, and ran toward their hiding place, trying to lead
their masters; but the latter supposed that the animals had
merely scented wolves, hence paid no attention to them.
Tecumseh was but thirty paces from Waggoner when he fired, and
it is singular that he missed, for the latter was a large man
and in fair view. Waggoner sprang up and started for his cabin,
a short distance only, but when about fifteen yards away saw an
Indian chasing one of the children around the house. Waggoner
was unarmed; his gun was in the house, but he feared to enter,
so ran for help to the cabin of Hardman, a neighbor. But
Hardman was out hunting, and there was no gun left there. The
screams of his family were now plainly heard by Waggoner, and
he was with difficulty restrained from rushing back to help
them, unarmed. Jesse Hughes carried the news into the fort, and
a rescue party at once set out. Mrs. Waggoner and her three
youngest children had been carried across the ridge to where is
now Rev. Mansfield McWhorter's farm, on McKenley's Run, and
here they were tomahawked and scalped. Henry McWhorter helped
to carry the bodies to the fort, but made no mention of their
being 'mangled in the most barbarous and shocking manner.'"
The boy Peter, then eight years old, remained with the Indians
for twenty years. The manner of his return, as related to me by
Mr. McWhorter, was singular, and furnishes an interesting and
instructive romance of the border. One Baker, one of John
Waggoner's neighbors, went to Ohio to "squat," and on Paint
Creek saw Peter with a band of Indians, recognizing him by the
strong family resemblance. Baker at once wrote to the elder
Waggoner, telling him of his discovery, and the latter soon
visited the Paint Creek band, with a view to inducing his son
to return home. But Peter was loth to go. He was united to a
squaw, and by her had two children. In tears, she bitterly
opposed his going. When finally he yielded to parental appeals,
he promised her he would soon be back again. When the time for
his return to the forest came, his relatives kept him under
guard; when it had passed, he was afraid to return to his
Indian relatives, having broken his word. Gradually he became
reconciled in a measure to his new surroundings, but was ever
melancholy, frequently lamenting that he had left his savage
family. "Some time after his return to civilization," continues
McWhorter, "an Indian woman, supposed to be his wife, passed
through the Hacker Creek settlements, inquiring for Peter, and
going on toward the East. She appeared to be demented, and sang
snatches of savage songs. Peter never knew of her presence, nor
would any one inform her of his whereabouts. He was reticent
about his life among the Indians, and no details of that
feature of his career became known to his white friends."
Tecumseh, who is said to have been born on Hacker's Creek,
possibly at a village near the mouth of Jesse's Run, visited
the white settlements there, after the peace, and told the
whites of his experiences in connection with the Waggoner
massacre.--R. G. T.
[2] It must be acknowledged that many of these militia forays
against the Indians partook of the nature of buccaneering. The
spoils were often considerable. Clark, in his Kaskaskia campaign
(1778), captured so much booty, in property and slaves, that he
declares his men were made "almost rich."--R. G. T.
[3] In the spring of 1792, Major Trueman, Colonel Hardin,
and Mr. Freeman were dispatched from Fort Washington by
different routes, to open peace negotiations, but they were
murdered by the savages. Gen. Rufus Putnam, aided by
Hekewelder, the Moravian, succeeded in binding the Wabash and
Illinois Indians to keep the peace. Later, Benjamin Lincoln,
Timothy Pickering, and Beverly Randolph were ordered by the
president to go to the Maumee to conclude a general treaty
which Indians had declared their willingness to enter into. But
the commissioners were detained at Niagara by sham conferences
with Gov. John Graves Simcoe, of Canada, until the middle of
July, when the Indians sent them word that unless they would in
advance "agree that the Ohio shall remain the boundary between
us," the proposed "meeting would be altogether unnecessary."
The commissioners declined to accept this ultimatum, and
returned home. Meanwhile, General Wayne was prosecuting
preparations for an active campaign against the hostiles.--R.
G. T.
[4] On a plain near the old French-Indian-English trading
village, called Logstown (just below the present Economy, Pa.,
on the north side of the Ohio, 18 miles below Pittsburg),
Wayne's army lay encamped from November, 1792, to April 30,
1793. The army was fancifully called the "Legion of the United
States," and the camp was known as Legionville. From here,
Wayne proceeded to Cincinnati, and took up his headquarters in
Fort Washington.--R. G. T.
[5] Fishing Creek enters the Ohio 128 miles below
Pittsburgh. At its mouth is now the town of New Martinsville,
W. Va.--R. G. T.
[6] This was an expedition made by Gen. James Wilkinson,
second in command under Wayne, in December, 1793. He marched to
the field from Fort Washington at the head of a thousand men,
and left a garrison at the new fort.--R. G. T.
[7] McWhorter says that the capture of the Cozad boys took
place at the mouth of Lanson Run, near Berlin, W. Va. The boy
who was killed was but six years of age; crying for his mother,
an Indian grasped him by the heels and cracked his head against
a tree,--a favorite method of murdering white children, among
Indian war parties. "Jacob yelled once, after starting with the
Indians, but was knocked down by a gun in the hands of one of
the savages. When he came to his senses, a squaw was dragging
him up hill by one foot. He remained with the Indians for about
two years, being adopted into a chief's family. He died in
1862, in his eighty-ninth year."--R. G. T.
[8] Thirtieth of June.--R. G. T.
[9] The white loss, in killed, was 22, including Major
McMahon.--R. G. T.
[10] The force started August 8. Besides the regulars, were
about 1,100 mounted Kentucky militia, under Gen. Charles
Scott.--R. G. T.
[11] Hence the popular name of the engagement, "Battle of
Fallen Timbers."--R. G. T.
[12] Alexander McKee, the renegade, of whom mention has
frequently been made in foregoing pages.--R. G. T.
[13] Later authorities place the white loss at 107, killed
and wounded.--R. G. T.
INDEX.
Acosta, Father Joseph, on origin of Indians, 14.
Adair, James, _History of American Indians_, 17-23.
Adair, Maj., attacked by Indians, 413.
Albermarle county, Va., 54.
Alexander, Archibald, early settler, 52;
in Sandy-creek voyage, 81.
Alexander, John, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81.
Alexandria, O., old Shawneetown at, 82, 92.
Alexandria, Va., 60, 181.
Alleghany county, Va., census (1830), 55.
Alleghany mountains, early Indians in, 44, 45, 47;
crossed by English, 63-66.
Alleghany river, early Indians on, 45, 46, 73;
discovered by Le Moyne, 64;
French on, 65;
Grant's defeat, 71;
in Dunmore's war, 150;
in Revolution, 301, 309.
Allen, ----, killed at Point Pleasant, 171.
Almon, J., _Remembrancer_, 355.
Amherst county, Va., militia of, 99.
Amherst, Jeffrey, orders Bouquet's expedition, 107.
Anderson, James, early settler, 126.
Appalachas, Indian village, attacked by Narvaez, 7.
Arbuckle, Matthew, in Dunmore's war, 165, 170, 175;
at murder of Cornstalk, 211, 212, 216;
commandant of Ft. Randolph, 209, 241.
Archaeology. _See_ Mound-builders.
Archer, Betsy, daughter of Sampson, 52.
Archer, Sampson, early settler, 52, 89.
Arkansas river, Salling at, 48.
Armstrong, Capt., on Harmar's campaign, 394.
Ashcraft, Uriah, attacked by Indians, 397.
Ashly, Lieut., killed by Indians, 332.
Athol, Thomas, 93.
Au Glaize river, treaty of, 376;
Wayne on, 424, 425.
Augusta county, Va., formed, 55, 57, 61, 151;
early settlers in, 53;
census (1830), 55, 56;
militia of, 49, 52, 66, 68, 81, 90, 164, 166, 170, 209, 210;
McDowell's fight, 52;
ransom of Moores, 374;
Preston's _Register of Indian Depredations_, 87;
_History of_, 246.
Bailey, ----, in Dunmore's war, 169.
Bailey, Minter, 240.
Baker, ----, discovers Peter Waggoner, 410.
Baker, Henry, killed by Indians, 291, 292.
Baker, Joshua, murders Logan family, 125, 148-150.
Baker, William, explores Kentucky, 115.
Baker's bottom, massacre of Indians at, 134, 142, 148-150, 184.
Bald Eagle, killed by whites, 135, 136.
Barkley, Elihu, with Braddock, 66.
Barlow, Joel, agent of Scioto Co., 60.
Bartlett's run, 248.
Bath county, Va., census (1830), 55, 56.
Baxter's run, 247.
Bean, Capt., on Sandusky campaign, 328.
Beard, Samuel, early settler, 127.
Bear Grass river, early settlements on, 274;
foray on, 384, 385.
Beaver, Delaware chief, 45.
Beaver river, Shingiss Old Town, 45;
Moravians on, 314;
Ft. McIntosh built, 237;
treaty at Ft. McIntosh, 366.
Bedinger, George M., in Bowman's campaign, 271.
Bedford county, Pa., 190;
in "Black boys" uprising, 112-114.
Bedford county, Va., 70; militia of, 164.
Bell, James, with Braddock, 66.
Berkeley county, W. Va., census (1830), 55, 56;
militia of, 164.
Berkeley, Sir William, fosters western exploration, 64.
Berlin, W. Va., 290;
foray near, 421.
Beverly, W. Va., origin of, 74.
Big Beaver river. _See_ Beaver.
Big Bone creek, Clark at, 146.
Big Bone lick, 271.
Biggs, Benjamin, early settler, 125, 203;
killed by Indians, 332.
Big Hockhocking river. _See_ Hockhocking.
Big Kanawha river. _See_ Great Kanawha.
Big Knives. _See_ Long Knives.
Big lick, 162.
Big Miami river. _See_ Miami.
Big Sandy river, in Shawnee campaign, 81-86.
Big Sewell mountain, origin of name, 57.
Bildercock, ----, militia officer, 227, 228.
Bingamon creek, forays on, 367, 369.
Bird, Henry, attacks American borderers, 254;
beseiges Ft. Laurens, 262;
invades Kentucky, 286, 297-300, 305.
Black Beard, Shawnee chief, 268.
Black boys, border regulators, 105, 106;
attack Pennsylvania traders, 109-116.
Black Fish, Shawnee chief, 201, 202, 266, 268, 273.
Black Hoof, Shawnee chief, 268.
Bledsoe, Anthony, in Dunmore's war, 167.
Blevins, William, early settler, 59, 60.
Blue licks, 268;
Boone's captivity, 265-267;
battle of, 351-354, 388.
Blue ridge, 69, 83, 100;
early tribes of, 44, 47;
early explorations of, 64;
Borden grant, 51;
first settlements beyond, 50, 52, 55.
Bluestone river, 61;
in Sandy creek voyage, 82.
Boiling Springs, Ky., represented in Transylvania legislature, 193.
Bolivar, O., 261.
Bonnett, John, killed by Indians, 377.
Boone county, N. Y., Delawares in, 136.
Boone, Daniel, on Holston, 59;
first explores Kentucky, 142-144;
second trip (1773), 144, 145, 147;
in Dunmore's war, 152, 153, 190;
founds Boonesborough, 190-197;
captured by Indians, 265-267;
in Chene's attack on Boonesborough, 268, 269;
in Paint creek expedition, 267, 268;
at battle of Blue licks, 351-353.
Boone, Mrs. Daniel, first white woman in Kentucky, 196, 197.
Boone, James, killed by Indians, 144, 145.
Boone, Squire, explores Kentucky, 143, 144.
Boonesborough, Ky., founded, 190-197;
first attacked by Indians, 200, 202, 205;
Bowman's arrival, 207, 208;
during Boone's captivity, 265-267;
Chene's attack on, 268, 270;
during Revolution, 350, 351.
Booth's creek, origin of name, 122, 123;
forays on, 247, 248, 290, 309, 343.
Booth, James, early settler, 122, 123;
killed by Indians, 247.
Borden, Benjamin, Sr., land-grant, 50-54, 66;
sketch, 51.
Borden, Benjamin, Jr., 52.
Boshears, William, scouting service, 227, 228.
Botetourt county, Va., 66, 70;
census (1830), 55, 56;
Holston settlement, 59;
militia of, 81, 164, 165, 167, 209, 210.
Bouquet, Henry, campaign against Indians, 106-109, 173;
treaty with Indians, 91, 141, 173, 179.
Bourbon county, Ky., 67, 115.
Bowman, James L., 79.
Bowman, John, campaign (1779), 190;
early defense of Kentucky, 207, 208;
Chillicothe expedition, 271-274;
cited, 268;
sketch, 271.
Boyd, John, killed by Indians, 222.
Bozarth, George, adventure with Indians, 429, 430.
Bozarth, John, Sr., attacked by Indians, 279, 429, 430.
Bozarth, John, Jr., adventure with Indians, 429, 430.
Bozarth, Mrs., adventures with Indians, 279, 280.
Braddock, Edward, campaign and defeat of, 65-69, 71, 72, 77, 105, 106,
143, 145, 147, 169.
Braddock, Pa., 68.
Braddock's road, history of, 77.
Brain, ----, killed by Indians, 240.
Brain, Benjamin, captured by Indians, 280, 281.
Brain, Isaac, captured by Indians, 280, 281.
Brain, James, killed by Indians, 280, 281.
Brant, Joseph, Indian chief, 254.
Braxton county, Va., Bulltown massacre, 136-138.
Breckenridge, Robert, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81.
Brenton, Capt., on Sandusky campaign, 328.
Bridger, ----, killed by Indians, 292.
Brinton, Maj., on Sandusky campaign, 328.
Brodhead, Daniel, expedition to Muskingum, 300-305, 309;
receives news from Moravians, 315.
Brooke county, W. Va., census (1830), 55, 63;
forays in, 380, 381.
Brooks, Thomas, scout, 266.
Brown, ----, in New-river foray, 96, 97.
Brown, ----, killed by Indians, 161.
Brown, Adam, Sr., imprisoned by Indians, 96, 97.
Brown, Adam, Jr., 96.
Brown, Coleman, killed by Indians, 156.
Brown, James, chases Indians, 246;
attacked by Indians, 311.
Brown, John, early hunter, 121.
Brown, Samuel, captured by Indians, 96.
Brownsville, Pa. _See_ Redstone.
Bryan, William, companion of Boone, 144.
Bryant, William, killed by Indians, 348.
Bryant station, Ky., threatened by Bird, 296;
beseiged by Caldwell, 348-351, 353, 354.
Buchanan, John, diary of, 49.
Buckhannon river, early settlements on, 117-122, 127;
Bulltown massacre, 136;
in Dunmore's war, 151;
Indian forays on, 151, 275, 282, 284, 288, 290, 318, 319, 340, 342,
343, 422, 428.
Buffalo creek, first settlement on, 125;
Indian forays, 318, 374-376.
Buffalo gap, Mackey's settlement near, 50.
Buffington, Jonathan, captured by Indians, 311.
Buffington, Mrs., killed by Indians, 311.
Buford, ----, captain in Dunmore's war, 164, 165, 170, 171.
Bulger, Maj., killed at Blue licks, 353.
Bulgess, Adj., killed by Indians, 403.
Bull, Capt., killed by whites, 136-138.
Bullitt, Thomas, in Forbes's campaign, 71;
surveys Connolly tract, 145, 146;
sketch, 71, 72.
Bullock, Leonard Henley, of Transylvania Co., 191.
Bulltown, Va., massacre of Delawares near, 136-138.
Burd, James, at Redstone, 77-79.
Burning Spring, 82, 85.
Burns, James, killed by Indians, 245.
Bush, Adam, chases Indians, 397.
Bush, John, adventure with Indians, 341, 343;
killed by Indians, 396.
Bush, Mrs. John, adventure with Indians, 396, 397.
Bushy run, Bouquet's fight on, 108.
Butler, Mann, _Kentucky_, 193.
Butler, Richard, treaty commissioner, 366, 388;
in St. Clair's campaign, 401-403.
Butler, Robert, early settler, 126.
Butterfield, Consul W., _Crawford's Expedition Against Sandusky_, 328;
_History of the Girtys_, 153, 178, 189, 224, 308, 347, 404;
_Washington-Irvine Correspondence_, 262.
Cabell county, W. Va., census (1830), 55, 56.
Cahokia, Ill., founded by La Salle, 6;
Indian mounds at, 40;
captured by Clark, 253.
Caldwell, William, expedition against Kentucky, 348-354.
California, O., founded, 392.
Calf Pasture river, in Pontiac war, 97.
Callaway, Richard, at Watauga treaty, 192.
Cameron, Charles, at Point Pleasant, 174.
Cameron, Daniel, killed by Indians, 311.
Campbell, Arthur, militia officer, 268.
Campbell, Capt., on Wayne's campaign, 426, 427.
Campbell, George, border poet, 110, 111.
Campbell, John, at Point Pleasant, 174.
Campbell, William, settles on Holston, 59;
at Point Pleasant, 174.
Camp Charlotte, Indian treaty at, 145, 173, 176-186, 190, 197.
Camp Union, in Dunmore's war, 164, 165, 167.
Canaan, Joseph, killed by Indians, 422.
Canestoga Indians, killed by Paxton boys, 104, 105.
Captina creek, in Dunmore's war, 134, 138, 148, 149, 153;
in Revolution, 230.
Carder, William, attacked by Indians, 419, 420.
Carlisle, Pa., trial of Smith, 113-115;
Scotch-Irish at, 143.
Carmichael's, Pa., founded, 123.
Carpenter, Benjamin, killed by Indians, 414.
Carpenter, Dr., captured by Indians, 96, 97.
Carpenter, Jeremiah, 414.
Carpenter, John, captured by Indians, 319.
Carpenter, Nicholas, adventure with Indians, 399, 400.
Carpenter, William, killed by Indians, 96, 97.
Carr's creek, massacre on, 172, 173.
Carver, ----, settles on Greenbrier, 57.
Carver, Jonathan, visits western Indians, 20, 21, 23, 24;
on Indian creek, 38.
Casper's lick, 152.
Catawba Indians, early strength of, 46;
attack Delawares, 47;
fought by McDowell, 52;
claim Kentucky, 142, 194.
Catawba river, early Indians on, 46;
Patton's settlement, 51;
forays on, 96, 98.
Catholics (Roman), missionary efforts of, 36;
at Gallipolis, 60. _See_ Jesuits.
Cayahoga river, Delawares on, 45.
Cayuga Indians, strength of, 46;
in Dunmore's war, 155, 172.
Cedar creek, early settlement on, 52.
Champlain, Samuel de, founds Quebec, 4, 5.
Charleston, S. C., 49, 59.
Charlevoix, Father, on origin of Indians, 15, 16.
Cheat river, 63, 118;
first settlements on, 75, 76, 126;
massacre of Indians on, 135;
Indian forays on, 240, 291, 310, 311.
Chene, Isidore, attacks Boonesborough, 268-270.
Cherokee Indians, early strength of, 46;
capture Salling, 48, 49;
Williamson among, 104;
visit Gov. Glen, 59;
in Sandy-creek voyage, 81, 82;
opposition to Kentucky settlers, 142, 145;
cession to Henderson, 192, 195;
during Revolution, 347.
Chevrout, Joseph, relieves Carder, 420.
Chew, Colby, explores Kentucky, 81.
Chickamauga Indians, claim Kentucky, 142.
Chickasaw Indians, early strength, 46;
claim Kentucky, 142;
cession to Henderson, 195;
in St. Clair's campaign, 403-405.
Childers, William, settles on Youghiogheny, 117, 118.
Chillicothe towns, Dyer's captivity, 87;
in Dunmore's war, 176, 179, 182, 183, 187;
Boone's captivity, 266, 267;
Bowman's expedition against, 271-274;
in Piqua expedition, 305, 307-309;
Indian council at, 346, 347;
in Harmar's campaign, 393, 394.
Chillicothe (Old), Renick captivity, 91;
Hannah Dennis's escape, 91-93.
Chillicothe (New), Hannah Dennis's escape, 92.
Chippewa Indians, early strength, 46;
fight Clark, 252;
during Revolution, 347;
at Ft. McIntosh treaty, 366, 388.
Chiyawee, Wyandot chief, 172.
Christian, William, in Cherokee campaign, 59;
in New-river foray, 99;
in Dunmore's war, 165, 167, 170, 171, 190;
killed by Indians, 385.
Cincinnati, Indian relics found in, 42;
Clark on site of, 306;
genesis of, 390-393;
in Harmar's campaign, 393-395;
in St. Clair's campaign, 401, 405;
in Wayne's campaign, 413, 419, 423.
Circleville, O., Indians mounds at, 41.
Clark, ----, on St. Clair's campaign, 402.
Clark, George, scout, 271.
Clark, George Rogers, on Indian mounds, 40;
in Dunmore's war, 134, 164;
arrival in Kentucky, 197, 200;
in early defense of Kentucky, 207;
founds Louisville, 146;
Illinois campaign, 121, 123, 190, 252-255, 257-261, 270, 294, 295, 411;
Piqua campaign, 305-309;
Shawnee campaign, 354, 355;
Wabash campaign, 386;
treaty commissioner, 366, 388;
in Spanish conspiracy, 130;
sketch, 253, 254.
Clark, John, ambushed by Indians, 262.
Clarke, Col., Pennsylvania militia officer, 263, 264.
Clarksburg, W. Va., 275;
founded, 127;
in Dunmore's war, 151;
during Revolution, 284, 310, 311, 341, 342, 345;
miscellaneous forays near, 376, 381, 383, 397.
Clay, ----, killed by Indians, 166.
Clegg, ----, family captured by Indians, 398, 399.
Clendennin's settlement, Hannah Dennis at, 93;
massacre at, 93-95;
family captured by Indians, 172, 173.
Clinch river, first settlements on, 59, 60;
Boone on, 145, 152;
in Henderson's grant, 193;
foray on, 374.
Coburn, Capt., chases Indians, 410, 411.
Coburn's creek, 248, 249.
Cochran, Nathaniel, captured by Indians, 247, 250, 251.
Cocke, William, at Watauga treaty, 192.
Cohunnewago Indians, strength of, 46.
Colden, C., _Five Nations of New York_, 194.
Coleman, Moses, killed by Indians, 285.
Columbia, O., founded, 391, 392.
Congo creek, 176.
Connecticut, relinquishes Western land claim, 389.
Connelly, ----, early settler, 126.
Connoly, Darby, killed by Indians, 234.
Connolly, John, agent of Dunmore, 74, 142, 145, 149;
in Dunmore's war, 164, 179-181, 188;
land claim at Louisville, 145, 146.
Conococheague valley, massacre in, 101, 105;
a fur-trade centre, 109, 113.
Cooley, William, companion of Boone, 143.
Coomes, William, adventure with Indians, 201.
Coon, ----, daughter killed by Indians, 218, 219.
Coonce, Mark, French trader, 79.
Cooper, ----, killed by Indians, 311.
Coplin, Benjamin, kills an Indian, 344.
Corbly, John, attacked by Indiana, 345.
Corn island, Clark at, 253, 294.
Cornstalk, Shawnee chief, at Point Pleasant, 168, 170, 172, 173;
at treaty of Camp Charlotte, 183-186;
imprisoned at Ft. Randolph, 209, 215, 216;
murder of, 173, 211-214, 235, 236, 241, 266;
sketch of, 172, 173.
Cornwallis, Lord, surrender of, 347.
Coshocton, O., 153, 314.
Coshocton, Indian village, Brodhead's expedition against, 302-305, 309,
316.
Cottrial, Andrew, early settler, 127.
Cottrial, Samuel, early settler, 127;
attacked by Indians, 284, 285.
Cowan, John, on Bullitt's survey, 146.
Coward, ----, adventure with Indians, 166.
Cowpasture river, 91.
Cox, Joseph, captured by Indians, 419.
Cozad, Jacob, Sr., sons killed by Indians, 420.
Cozad, Jacob, Jr., escapes from Indians, 420, 421.
Craig, Lieut., killed by Indians, 424.
Craig, James, adventure with Indians, 203.
Craig's creek, 90.
Crawford, ----, killed by Indians, 344.
Crawford, James, early settler, 123.
Crawford, John, killed by Indians, 331, 334, 336.
Crawford, William, in Dunmore's war, 164, 168, 179, 185, 220;
Sandusky campaign of, 328-339;
sketch, 334.
Crawford, William (nephew of foregoing), killed by Indians, 331.
Cresap, Michael, in Dunmore's war, 134, 149, 154, 164;
accused by Logan, 184.
Cresap, Thomas, opens Braddock's road, 77.
Crooked creek, 169, 170.
Crooked run, Indian forays on, 282, 344.
Cross creek, 78.
Cross, Thomas, Sr., 91.
Crouch, James, wounded by Indians, 287.
Crouse, Peter, killed by Indians, 282.
Culpeper county, Va., 59;
militia of, 66;
in Dunmore's war, 159, 164.
Cumberland county, Pa., 143.
Cumberland Gap, Walden's trip, 60;
Boone opens path, 143, 192.
Cumberland, Md., Ohio Co.'s post at, 77.
Cumberland river, Walden's trip, 60;
explored by Smith, 115;
Boone on, 152;
in Henderson's purchase, 192, 193;
foray on, 200.
Cundiff, ----, killed at Point Pleasant, 171.
Cunningham, Edward, fight with Indians, 238, 239, 367-370, 373.
Cunningham, Robert, early settler, 126.
Cunningham, Thomas, 218;
family attacked by Indians, 367, 373.
Cunningham, Mrs. Thomas, captured by Indians, 367-373.
Curl, Jeremiah, attacked by Indians, 288, 289.
Curner, ----, on Mad-river campaign, 387.
Cusick, David, _Ancient History of Six Nations_, 18, 26, 40.
Cutright, Benjamin, early settler, 122.
Cutright, John, Sr., early settler, 122;
murders Indians, 137;
wounded by Indians, 290.
Cutright, John, Jr., 122.
Cutright, Peter, attacked by Indians, 288, 289.
Danville, Ky., origin of, 274;
convention at, 115, 190.
Davis, ----, settles on Holston, 59.
Davis, Mrs., daughter of John Jackson, 121.
Davisson, ----, killed by Indians, 373.
Davisson, Daniel, early settler, 127.
Davisson, Josiah, brother of Nathaniel, 283.
Davisson, Nathaniel, killed by Indians, 283, 284.
Davisson, Obadiah, early settler, 127.
Decker, Thomas, early settler, 123;
attacked by Indians, 77, 78.
Decker's creek, first settlement on, 77.
De Creve Coeurs, St. John, _Lettres_, 153.
De Hass, Wills, _History of Indian Wars_, 222.
De Huron, George, on origin of Indians, 15.
De Kalb, Baron, 86.
De Laet, John, on origin of Indians, 14.
Delaware Indians, on Upper Ohio, 45, 46;
attacked by Catawbas, 47;
in Decker's creek massacre, 77-79;
Seybert massacre, 88, 89;
New-river foray, 96-99;
Bulltown massacre, 136-138;
Pontiac's conspiracy, 136;
claim Kentucky, 142;
in Dunmore's war, 150, 172, 179;
during Revolution, 219, 263, 301, 303, 314, 315, 320, 332, 333, 347;
in Harmar's campaign, 393;
Ft. McIntosh treaty, 366, 388;
subsequent foray, 371;
Wayne's campaign, 421.
Delaware river, massacre on, 101-104.
De Moraez, Emanuel, on origin of Indians, 14.
Denman, Matthias, founds Cincinnati, 390-392.
Dennis, Hannah, imprisoned by Indians, 89-93, 95.
Dennis, Joseph, killed by Indians, 89.
Denton, ----, assists Mrs. Cunningham, 372.
Denton, Mrs., settles in Kentucky, 197.
Deny, William, coroner of Bedford, 114.
De Peyster, Arent Schuyler, commandant at Detroit, 295, 317, 365.
De Soto, Ferdinand, discovers Mississippi, 7, 8.
Detroit, 91;
Indian villages near, 46;
under French domination, 72;
Logan at, 155, 156;
Connolly at, 181;
Boone at, 266, 267;
English headquarters during Revolution, 252, 254, 255, 257;
English machinations at, 207, 231, 247, 286, 295, 299, 317, 320, 336,
337;
arrival of peace news, 365.
De Villiers, defeats Washington, 74;
destroys Redstone fort, 77.
Dickinson, John, in Dunmore's war. 170, 175.
Dillon, ----, killed at Point Pleasant, 171.
Dillon, Mrs., killed by Indians, 240.
Dinwiddie, Robert, governor of Virginia, 53, 65;
authorizes Sandy-creek voyage, 81, 83, 84;
_Papers_, 68, 86.
Dix, Webster, 119.
Dodd, Ensign, on Wayne's campaign, 424.
Doddridge, John, early settler, 125.
Doddridge, Joseph, _Notes on the Settlements_, 125, 126, 153, 183;
MS. of, 221.
Donelson, Col., runs Indian boundary, 195.
Donnelly, Andrew, beseiged by Indians, 242-245;
repulses them, 291.
Dorman, Timothy, captured by Indians, 340, 341;
turns renegade, 341, 342.
Dougherty, Daniel, captured by Indians, 311, 312.
Dougherty, Mrs., killed by Indians, 311.
Doughty, Maj., builds Ft. Washington, 391.
Douglas, James, on Bullitt's survey, 146.
Dragging Canoe, Cherokee chief, 192.
Dragoo, Mrs., killed by Indians, 374, 375.
Drake, Lieut., on Wayne's campaign, 424.
Drake, Lieut.-col., on St. Clair's campaign, 402.
Drake, Samuel G., _Aboriginal Races of North America_, 409.
Draper, Lyman C., historical notes by, 40, 50-53, 57-60, 65, 66, 68, 71,
72, 75, 79, 81, 83, 85-88, 90, 96, 97, 99, 101, 104, 106-108, 115,
121, 123;
interviews Salling's descendants, 48;
on aboriginal claims to Kentucky, 193-195;
cited, 183, 203, 254.
Drinnon, Thomas, attacked by Indians, 292, 293.
Drinnon, Lawrence, attacked by Indians, 291, 292.
Duke, Francis, killed by Indians, 359, 360.
Dunbar, Pa., settled by Gist, 74.
Dunkard bottom, settled, 126;
massacre on, 240.
Dunkard creek, a war trail, 75:
first settled on, 75;
forays on, 249, 250, 279, 398, 399.
Dunkards, early settlements by, 75;
massacre of, 76, 77.
Dunkin, John, militia officer, 207.
Dunlap, James, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81;
killed by Indians, 87.
Dunlap creek, first settlement on, 77;
foray on, 96.
Dunmore, Lord, 74;
in Dunmore's war, 135-190, 197, 209, 220, 253, 385;
opposes Henderson's purchase, 192.
Du Pratz, Le Page, _History of Louisiana_, 49.
Durrett, Reuben T., _Centenary of Louisville_, 294.
Dutch, introduce African slavery, 10;
in New York, 48.
Dyer, James, imprisoned by Indians, 87, 88.
East Meadows, Braddock at, 67.
Eckarly family, early settlers, 126.
Eckarly, Thomas, Dunkard pioneer, 75;
massacre of his brother, 76, 77.
Economy, Pa., 413.
Ecuyer, Simeon, under Bouquet. 107.
Edwards, David, killed by Indians, 252.
Edwards, William, Moravian missionary, 314, 317.
Elk creek, in Caldwell's invasion, 351;
during Revolution, 284;
foray on, 367.
Elk river, origin of name, 118, 119;
first settlement on, 126, 127;
Stroud massacre, 136, 137;
in Dunmore's war, 166, 167, 175;
foray on, 414.
Elk's Eye creek. _See_ Muskingum.
Ellinipsico, Cornstalk's son, 172, 211-213.
Elliott, Matthew, in Dunmore's war, 182, 189;
attacks Wheeling, 316, 317;
encourages forays, 347, 388.
Ellis, Franklin, _History of Fayette Co._, 77.
English, territorial claims of, 1-5, 7;
emigration to Virginia, 49;
first occupation of the Ohio, 63;
struggle for Forks of Ohio, 64-74;
Braddock's campaign, 65-69;
Forbes's campaign, 69-73;
Bouquet's expedition, 106-109;
Dunmore's war, 134-190;
Bird's invasion, 294-300, 305, 336, 337;
Caldwell's invasion, 348-354;
second seige of Wheeling, 356, 357;
encourage forays on American borderers, 147, 207-210, 215, 216, 224,
225, 231, 236, 252, 253, 260, 285, 286, 317, 388, 425-427.
Episcopalians, 50, 57.
Fairfax, Lord, land-grant of, 50, 51, 334;
militia officer, 101.
Fairfield, Va., settled, 52.
Fallen Timbers, battle of, 425-428.
Falling Spring, Va., 86.
Falls of Ohio. _See_ Louisville.
Fauquier county, Va., 145.
Fauquier, governor of Virginia, 86.
Fayette county, Pa., settled, 74, 123;
militia from, 328.
Fayette county, W. Va., 57.
Fayetteville, N. C., 192.
Field, John, with Braddock, 66;
adventure with Indians, 159-161;
in Dunmore's war, 164, 166, 169, 171.
Files. _See_ Foyle, Robert.
Files creek, first settlement on, 74.
Files family, massacre of, 126.
Filson, John, partner of Denman, 391;
_Boone's Narrative_, 268.
Fincastle county, Va., 56, 220;
Preston as surveyor, 140, 146;
militia of, 167.
Findlay, John, explores Kentucky, 142-144.
Fink, ----, killed by Indians, 340.
Fink, John, killed by Indians, 318, 319.
Fink, Henry, early settler, 126;
attacked by Indians, 288, 318, 319.
Fink's run, 122.
Fish creek, a war trail, 75, 399;
Clark at, 134, 253;
foray on, 399.
Fishing creek, foray on, 374;
garrison on, 417.
Fitzpatrick, John, on Bullitt's survey. 146.
Fleming, William, in Dunmore's war, 164, 167-170, 174, 175.
Flesher, Henry, attacked by Indians, 366, 367.
Floyd, John, Kentucky surveyor, 152;
_Diary of_, 196;
builds fort at Louisville, 294;
in Piqua campaign, 307.
Florida, discovered by Spanish, 7, 8.
Folebaum, George, killed by Indians, 362.
Folke, George, killed by Indians, 102, 103.
Fontaine, Maj., killed by Indians, 395.
Forbes, John, campaign against Ft. Du Quesne, 69-73, 77, 79, 108, 145,
190.
Fordyce, Capt., 72.
Foreman, William, defeated by Indians, 228-230, 356.
Fort Bedford, in "Black boys" uprising, 112-114.
Fort Bolling, during Revolution, 226.
Fort Boone, seat of Henderson colony, 153.
Fort Buckhannon, during Revolution, 313.
Fort Burd. _See_ Redstone.
Fort Bush, 121.
Fort Casinoe, in Dunmore's war, 151.
Fort Coburn, during Revolution, 248.
Fort Crevecoeur, built by La Salle, 6; Salling at, 48.
Fort Cumberland, 71.
Fort Dickenson, massacre of children, 100.
Fort Dinwiddie, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81;
in New-river foray, 97, 99;
during Revolution, 291.
Fort Du Quesne, erected, 65;
Braddock's expedition, 65-69;
Forbes's campaign, 69-73;
destroyed, 73.
_See_ Pittsburg.
Fort Fincastle. _See_ Wheeling.
Fort Finney, built, 392;
treaty of, 388.
Fort Frederick, 71.
Fort Frontenac, built by La Salle, 6;
Salling at, 48.
Fort Gower, in Dunmore's war, 179, 182.
Fort Greenville. _See_ Greenville, O.
Fort Hadden, during Revolution, 286.
Fort Hamilton, built by St. Clair, 401;
in Wayne's campaign, 413.
Fort Henry. _See_ Wheeling.
Fort Holliday, during Revolution, 226, 227.
Fort Jackson, in Dunmore's war, 151.
Fort Jefferson (Ky.), built by Clark, 254.
Fort Jefferson (O.), built by St. Clair, 401-403, 405;
in Wayne's campaign, 413.
Fort Laurens, during Revolution, 256, 261-265.
Fort Le Boeuf, Washington at, 74, 77.
Fort Ligonier, in Forbes's campaign, 73.
Fort Littleton, in French and Indian war, 190.
Fort Loudon, in "Black boys" uprising, 110, 111.
Fort McIntosh, built, 237;
during Revolution, 263, 265;
treaty of, 366.
Fort Martin, during Revolution, 282.
Fort Massac, Clark at, 253.
Fort Miami, Indian villages near, 46.
Fort Necessity, Washington's defeat at, 69, 74, 77, 145.
Fort Nutter, in Dunmore's war, 151;
during Revolution, 275, 341.
Fort Pitt. _See_ Pittsburg.
Fort Pleasant, Eckarly at, 76.
Fort Powers, during Revolution, 247.
Fort Pricket, in Dunmore's war, 151;
during Revolution, 240, 275, 279.
Fort Randolph. _See_ Point Pleasant.
Fort Recovery, 401;
built by Wilkinson, 419;
in Wayne's campaign, 423, 424.
Fort Richards, during Revolution, 240, 241.
Fort Sackville. _See_ Vincennes.
Fort St. Joseph, Indian villages near, 46;
in Wayne's campaign, 413.
Fort Seybert, massacre at, 87-89.
Fort Shepherd, in Dunmore's war, 151.
Fort Stradler, during Revolution, 249, 250.
Fort Stanwix, treaty of, 70, 195.
Fort Washington. _See_ Cincinnati.
Fort Wells, 381.
Fort West, during Revolution, 240, 241, 245, 246;
forays against, 287-290, 410.
Fort Westfall, in Dunmore's war, 151;
during Revolution, 343.
Fort Wilson, during Revolution, 343.
Fort Young, Hannah Dennis at, 93;
in New-river foray, 96, 97.
Fox river, explored by French, 6.
Foyle, Robert, settles on Files's creek, 74;
massacre of family, 75.
Franklin, Benjamin, 145.
Franklin county, Pa., 106.
Franklin, W. Va., 87.
Frederick county, Va., established, 55;
census (1830), 55, 56;
Borden manor, 51;
militia of, 101, 164.
Freeman, ----, killed by Indians, 412.
Freeman, Mrs., killed by Indians, 245, 246.
Freeman's creek, forays on, 396, 419.
French in America, territorial claims, 5;
early explorations, 4-6;
occupy Upper Ohio, 45, 63, 64;
ransom Salling, 48;
conflict with Ohio Co., 64, 65, 74, 77, 123, 147;
on Muskingum, 79:
on Scioto, 82;
Braddock's campaign, 65-69;
Forbes's campaign, 69-73;
French and Indian war, 143, 145, 156, 159, 190, 334;
found Gallipolis, 60, 82;
make peace with England, 106, 120;
in attack on Boonesborough, 268-270;
relations with Clark, 254.
French creek, Smith's expedition to, 106.
French lick, 193.
Friedensstadt, Pa., Moravian village, 314, 319.
Friend, Joseph, chases Indians, 311.
Frothingham, Lieut., killed by Indians, 395.
Fry, Col., in Braddock's army, 66.
Fullenwieder, Peter, defends Rice's fort, 362.
Fur trade, tribal barter, 34;
at Winchester, 47;
Borden's trade, 51;
of Ohio Co., 64, 65, 67, 74, 77, 147;
on Scioto, 82;
French and English rivalry, 138, 139;
Findlay's adventures, 143;
of Dunkards, 76;
Gibson's, 79;
"Black-boys" trouble, 106, 109-116;
Simpson's adventures, 118, 119;
at Pringle's fort, 120;
in Dunmore's war, 150;
McKee's, 347;
in W. Va., 361.
Furrenash, Charles, children killed by Indians, 313.
Gaddis, Thomas, on Sandusky campaign, 328.
Gage, Thomas, confers with Connolly, 181.
Gallatin, Albert, founds Geneva, W. Va., 117.
Gallipolis, founded by French, 60, 82, 84.
Game, pioneers as hunters, 131;
on Greenbrier, 56, 57, 126;
in Kentucky, 196, 198, 199, 206, 265, 266;
in Valley of Virginia, 119-122;
in Tygart's valley, 232, 234;
in West Virginia, 280, 283, 367, 374, 375, 410, 411.
Garcia, Gregorio, on origin of Indians, 14.
Gates, Horatio, at Saratoga, 86.
Gatliff, Charles, fights Indians, 244.
Gauley river. 57;
Stroud massacre, 136, 137.
Genet, Edmund Charles, commissions Clark, 254.
Geneva, W. Va., founded, 117.
George, Robert, attacks James Smith, 114.
George's creek, Pringle settlement, 117;
murder of Bald Eagle, 136.
Georgia, early slavery in, 9, 10;
in Tecumseh's conspiracy, 36.
Germans, at Gallipolis. 60.
Gibson, Col. John, at Fort Pitt, 78, 79;
in Dunmore's war, 176, 184;
expert swordsman, 207;
commands Ft. Laurens, 256, 261-265.
Gibson, John, family captured by Indians, 287.
Giles county, Va., census (1830), 55, 56.
Gilmore, ----, killed by Indians, 211, 212.
Girty, George and James, renegades, 178;
during Revolution, 295.
Girty, Simon, in Dunmore's war, 178, 179, 184, 189;
not at Wheeling seige, 224, 225, 231;
during Revolution, 254, 262, 273, 295, 308, 333, 334, 347, 350-353;
subsequent forays, 372, 388;
in St. Clair's defeat, 404.
Gist, Christopher, visits Shingiss, 45;
trip down Ohio, 79;
settles Fayette Co., Pa., 74, 77, 123.
Glass, ----, family attacked by Indians, 380, 381.
Glenn, ----, governor of South Carolina, 59.
Glum, Mrs., at seige of Wheeling, 225.
Gnadenhuetten, Moravian village, 314, 317;
sacked by whites, 319, 321-327.
Gnatty creek, foray on, 382.
Goff, John, early settler, 126.
Goldsby, ----, killed at Point Pleasant, 171.
Gooch, Sir William, grants Borden manor, 50, 51.
Gordon, Capt, killed at Blue Licks, 353.
Goschocking. _See_ Coshocton.
Graham, James, killed by Indians, 245.
Grand Portage, Carver at, 20.
Grand river. _See_ Ottawa.
Grant, James, with Braddock, 66;
defeated by Indians, 68-73;
in "Blackboys" uprising, 110, 111.
Grave creek, Indian mounds on, 40;
first settlement on, 125;
in Dunmore's war, 134;
in Foreman's defeat, 229, 230, 235, 356.
Grayson county, Va., census (1830), 55.
Great bridge, Va., defeat of Fordyce, 72.
Greathouse, Daniel, murders Logan's family, 125, 149.
Great Kanawha river, 60, 61;
Salling on, 49;
discovered by Wood, 64;
in Sandycreek voyage, 82, 85;
in Hannah Dennis's escape, 93;
Squire Boone on, 143;
in Dunmore's war, 145, 159-161, 164-167, 169-174, 178;
in Hand's expedition, 209-211;
during Revolution, 291-292;
salines of, 265.
Great Meadows. Washington at, 77, 145.
Great Miami river. _See_ Miami.
Great Sandy river, 60, 61;
in New-river foray, 96.
Green, George, at seige of Wheeling, 356.
Green river, Henderson's grant on, 196;
early surveys, 365;
early settlements, 274.
Green, Thomas M., _Spanish Conspiracy_, 386.
Greenbrier county, W. Va., 53, 54, 57, 71, 91;
census (1830), 55, 56;
Shawnee attack (1755), 81;
Clendennin massacre, 93-95;
militia from, 210, 211;
emigrants from, 286;
forays into, 242-245, 291-293.
Greenbrier river, 61;
explored, 126;
origin of name, 49;
Loyal Co.'s grant, 49;
first settlements on, 56-59;
Lewis on, 68;
in Pontiac's war, 97.
Greenlee, Mary, enters land on Borden manor, 52, 53.
Greenville, O., Ft. Hamilton built, 401;
treaty at, 420, 430.
Gregg, Mrs., attacked by Indians, 343.
Grenadier Squaw, in Dunmore's war, 176;
at Ft. Randolph, 242;
in Mad-river campaign, 388.
Grigsby; Charles, family killed by Indians, 217, 218.
Grim, John, 183.
Grollon, Father, on origin of Indians, 15, 16.
Grundy, Felix, 247.
Grundy, William, killed by Indians, 247.
Gunn, Catharine, imprisoned by Indians, 98.
Gwinnett, Button, killed by McIntosh, 237.
Hacker, John, settles on Buckhannon, 121, 122;
daughter wounded by Indians, 378-380.
Hacker, Mrs., attacked by Indians, 245.
Hacker, William, early hunter, 121;
murders Indians, 135, 137;
attacked by Indians, 245.
Hacker's creek, Indian relics on, 42;
origin of name, 121, 122;
first settlement on, 127;
in Dunmore's war, 151;
Bulltown massacre, 136, 137;
killing of Hughes and Lowther, 240, 241;
Waggoner massacre, 408, 411;
miscellaneous forays on, 275, 287-290, 367, 377, 382, 419, 420.
Hadden, ----, early settler, 126.
Hadden, John, 234.
Hagerstown, Md., 361.
Hagle, Michael, killed by Indians, 341.
Haldimand, Sir Frederick, English general-in-chief, 252, 261.
Half King, Wyandot chief, 230, 316.
Hall, Capt., murders Cornstalk, 211, 212.
Hall, James, _Sketches of the West_, 193.
Hall, Minor C., 287.
Hamilton, ----, adventure with Indians, 211, 212.
Hamilton, Capt., chases Indians. 245.
Hamilton, Henry, English lieutenant-governor, 207, 210;
encourages Indian forays, 224, 225, 252, 266, 268, 269;
attacks Clark, 253, 257, 258;
captured by Clark, 254, 255, 259-261.
Hamilton, Miss, captured by Indians, 234.
Hammond, Philip, scouting adventure, 242, 243.
Hampden Sydney College, Va., 81.
Hampshire county, W. Va., census (1830), 56;
militia from, 101, 230.
Hamtramck, J. F., on Harmar's campaign, 394;
on St. Clair's campaign, 401.
Hancock, William, escapes from Indians, 267, 268.
Hand, Edward, commands Ft. Pitt. 209-211, 213, 214, 216, 219, 221, 230;
MS. of, 221;
sketch, 210.
Handsucker, ----, killed by Indians, 398, 399.
Hangard. _See_ Redstone.
Hanover county, Va., 191.
Haptonstall, Abraham, on Bullitt's survey, 146.
Harbert, ----, killed by Indians, 233.
Hardin county, Ky., origin of name, 123.
Hardin, John, early Kentucky settler, 123;
on Harmar's campaign, 394;
killed by Indians, 412.
Hardman, ----, of Hacker's creek, 410.
Hardy county, W. Va., census (1830), 56.
Hargus, John, kills an Indian, 154, 155.
Harlan, Silas, in Bowman's campaign, 271.
Harland, Maj., killed at Blue Licks, 253.
Harmar, Josiah, at treaty of Ft. McIntosh, 366;
occupies Ft. Washington, 391, 392;
campaign of, 384, 393-395, 400, 408.
Harpold, Nicholas, kills Indians, 135.
Harrison, ----, attacked by Indians, 344.
Harrison, Benjamin, in Dunmore's war, 170;
governor of Virginia, 366.
Harrison, Burr, rescued by Logan, 203.
Harrison county, W. Va., 373;
census (1830), 56, 63;
first sheriff of, 127;
forays in, 217, 369.
Harrison, S. R., cited, 310.
Harrison, William, killed by Indians, 331, 334, 336.
Harrison, William H., defeats Tecumseh, 36.
Harrod, James, on Bullitt's survey, 146;
founds Harrodsburg, 152, 190, 191;
prominence as a pioneer, 197, 200;
sketch, 190, 191.
Harrod, Samuel, explores Kentucky, 190.
Harrod, William, with Clark, 190;
in Bowman's campaign, 271, 273.
Harrodsburg, Ky., founded, 146, 152, 190, 191, 197;
represented in Transylvania legislature, 193;
first attacked by Indians, 200-202, 205, 208;
Clark's defense of, 253;
settlers' council at, 271.
Hart, David, of Transylvania Co., 191.
Hart, Nathaniel, of Transylvania Co., 191-193.
Hart, Thomas, of Transylvania Co., 191.
Hartley, Cecil B., _Life of Wetzel_, 161.
Hartshorn, ----, ensign in Harmar's campaign, 394;
captain with Wayne, 423, 424.
Haymond, John, chases Indians, 398.
Hayward, John, _History of Tennessee_, 60.
Hazard, Samuel, _U. S. Register_, 193.
Heavener, Nicholas, 121.
Heckewelder, John G., Moravian missionary, 97, 301, 302, 314, 315, 317;
peace commissioner, 412;
_Narrative_, 325;
sketch, 301, 302.
Hedgman river, 55.
Hellen, Thomas, captured by Indians, 156, 157;
killed by Indians, 161.
Helms, Leonard, holds Vincennes, 258, 260.
Henderson, Archibald, 193.
Henderson, Nathaniel, at Watauga treaty, 192.
Henderson, Richard, founds Transylvania, 153, 191-196;
sketch, 191-193.
Henderson, Samuel, father of Richard, 191.
Henderson, Leonard, 193.
Hennepin, Father Louis, French explorer, 6.
Henry county, Va., 60.
Henry, Patrick, governor of Virginia, 173, 186, 220, 366.
Herbert, William, in Dunmore's war, 167, 175.
Hickenbotham, Capt., attacks Indians, 99.
Hickman, Adam, Jr., 127.
Hickman, Sotha, early settler, 127, 284.
Hill, Richard, attacked by Indians, 291.
Hinkstone, ----, captured by Indians, 297, 298, 305.
Hite, Isaac, on Bullitt's survey, 146.
Hockhocking river, in Dunmore's war, 168, 179, 182, 183;
Indians raided on, 383.
Hockingport, O., founded, 179.
Hogan, Mrs., settles in Kentucky, 197.
Hogg, James, of Transylvania Co., 191.
Hogg, Peter, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81-85.
Hogg, William, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81.
Hoggin, ----, of St. Asaph's, 205.
Holden, Joseph, companion of Boone, 143.
Holder, John, in Bowman's campaign, 271.
Holder's station, Ky., during Caldwell's invasion, 349.
Hollis, John, Indian spy, 245.
Holmes, John, informs against James Smith, 114.
Holston, Stephen, settles on Holston, 59.
Holston river, 60; first settlements on, 58, 115;
forays on, 158, 184.
Holston settlements, militia of, 165, 170, 268;
Harrod at, 190;
Boone at, 196;
Logan at, 204-206;
Mrs. Cunningham at, 372, 373.
Hornbeck, Benjamin, captured by Indians, 311.
Hornbeck, Mrs., killed by Indians, 311.
Horse Shoe bottom, settled, 126.
Horton, Joshua, explores Kentucky, 115.
Howard, John, companion of Salling, 49.
Hudson, William, killed by Indians, 203.
Hughes, Charles, chases Indians, 246.
Hughes, Elias, scouting service, 312;
fights Indians, 345, 376, 377.
Hughes, Jesse, early hunter, 121;
chases Indians, 246, 378, 379, 410;
services at Ft. West, 288;
scouting service, 312;
escapes from Indians, 399, 400;
daughter captured by Indians, 377-380;
character, 137.
Hughes, Thomas, early settler, 121, 123;
defense of borderers, 367;
killed by Indians, 240, 241.
Hughey, Joseph, killed by Indians, 168.
Hull, Samuel, killed by Indians, 383.
Huron Indians, possible origin of, 16.
Husted, Gilbert, captured by Indians, 248.
Hutchins, Thomas, geographer, 46.
Iberville. Lemoyne d', finds Mississippi, 7.
Ice, John, killed by Indians, 374.
Illinois, early French in, 6, 7;
Clark's expedition to, 146, 252-255, 257, 261.
Illinois Indians, claim Kentucky, 142;
agree to keep peace, 412.
Ingles, Capt., on New-river campaign, 99.
Indian creek, foray on, 312, 313.
Indian Short creek, 380, 381, 415.
Indians, origin of, 12-27;
beliefs, customs and traditions, 17-43;
forest commerce, 34;
prehistoric remains, 39-43;
intimacy with French, 5, 64;
relations with Spanish, 7-9;
claims to Kentucky reviewed, 193-195;
relations with first settlers, 129-133;
Christian missions among, 106.
_See_ the several tribes.
Iroquois Indians, supposed origin of, 44;
oppose French on Ohio, 64;
at Easton treaty, 58;
at Ft. Stanwix treaty, 70;
claim Kentucky, 194, 195.
Irvine, William, releases Moravians, 317;
Indian campaign of, 355.
Isaac's creek, 312.
Ivens, Sally, captured by Indians, 373, 374.
Jackson, ----, adventure with Indians, 289.
Jackson county, O., 175.
Jackson county, W. Va., 137.
Jackson, Edward, early settler, 121.
Jackson, George, early settler, 121;
attacked by Indians, 313;
defends Buckhannon, 342;
chases Indians, 398.
Jackson, John, early settler, 121;
attacked by Indians, 313.
Jackson, Ned J., 287.
Jackson's river, 57, 71, 81;
Hannah Dennis on, 93;
in Pontiac war, 97;
forays on, 90, 96, 173.
James, Enoch, adventure with Indians, 218, 219.
James river, 61, 66, 86;
Salling on, 48, 50;
early settlements on, 52;
McDowell's fight, 52;
Borden's grant, 50-53;
forays on, 89-91, 96.
Jefferson county, W.Va., census (1830), 56.
Jefferson, Thomas, on origin of Indians, 13, 14, 25, 26;
on Indian mounds, 41;
"improves" Logan's speech, 184;
_Notes on Virginia_, 134.
Jesuits, early missions to Indians, 14, 15, 60, 64, 410, 411:
_Relations_, 194.
Jew, ----, killed by Indians, 91.
Jew, Sally, imprisoned by Indians, 90.
Johnson, ----, thought to have been killed by James Smith, 113-115.
Johnson, Henry and John, escape from Indians, 415-417.
Johnson, Richard M., 348.
Johnson, Robert, arrives in Kentucky, 348.
Johnson, William, family massacred by Indians, 381, 382.
Johnson, Sir William, British Indian superintendent, 108, 136.
Johnston, William, of Transylvania, 191.
Joliet, Louis, discovers Mississippi, 5, 6.
Judah, Henry, kills Indians, 135.
Juggins, Elizabeth, adventure with Indians, 309, 310.
Juggins, John, killed by Indians, 290.
Juniata river, 112, 113.
Kanawha county, W. Va., census (1830), 55, 56.
Kaskaskia, Ill., 294;
founded by La Salle, 6;
Salling at, 48;
Clark's capture of, 253-255, 257, 258, 260, 411.
Kate (negress), at seige of Wheeling, 356.
Keeney's knob, massacre at, 173.
Kekionga, Miami village, 393.
Kellar, Isaac, killed by Indians, 385.
Kelly, Tady, in Dunmore's war, 153.
Kelly, Walter, killed by Indians, 159-161.
Kennedy, John, wounded by Indians, 203.
Kenton, Simon, border scout, 161;
in Dunmore's war, 164, 167;
arrival in Kentucky, 197.
Kentucky, 66, 67, 75;
Indian antiquities in, 43;
exploration by Salling, 48, 49;
by Bullitt, 71;
by Walker, 81;
by Smith, 115;
by Findlay, 142, 143;
by Boone, 142-145, 147, 152, 153, 190;
by Stone, 190;
Indian claims to, 193-195;
Connolly's survey, 145, 146;
first settlements in, 123, 197;
early land jobbing, 196, 197;
Harrodsburg founded, 146, 190;
Indian opposition to first settlers, 140-142, 189, 190, 200-208;
character of pioneers, 197-200;
rapid increase of population, 274;
Transylvania Co., 191-196;
early missions, 106;
Spanish conspiracy, 130;
state convention, 106.
Kentucky river, Boone on, 152, 153;
Harrod on, 190;
Catawbas on, 194;
in Henderson's
purchase. 192, 193, 195, 196;
forays on, 268, 269, 374.
Kercheval, Samuel, _History of Valley of Virginia_, 49, 87, 88.
Kersey, Lieut. [Kearsey, John], builds at Columbia. 390, 391.
Kettle, Richard, chases Indians, 311.
Killbuck, Delaware chief, 88.
Kimberlain, Jacob, escapes from Indians, 99.
King, Thomas, Iroquois chief, 58.
Kinnikinnick creek, 174, 176.
Kiskepila. _See_ Little Eagle.
Kittanning, in Hand's expedition, 210.
Knight, John, captured by Indians, 332-335, 338.
Knoxville, Tenn., 60.
Kuhn, Abraham, Wyandot chief, 97.
Kuydendall, Capt., in Dunmore's war, 182.
Lackey, Thomas, warns settlers, 286.
Lake Cayuga, early Indians on, 46.
Lake Erie, Catawbas on, 47.
Lake Michigan, early French on, 6.
Lancaster, Pa., massacre of Canestogas, 104, 105;
treaty of, 195.
Land claims, Loyal Co., 49, 58;
Lord Fairfax, 50, 51;
Borden manor, 50-53;
Ohio Co., 64, 65, 67, 74, 77, 147;
Pittsylvania, 145;
Virginia military warrants, 145;
Transylvania Co., 191-196;
Connolly, 145, 146;
early Kentucky jobbers, 196, 197;
"tomahawk rights," 126;
Indian attitude toward, 140, 141;
commissioners killed by Indians, 311;
post-Revolutionary military warrants, 365, 366;
Ohio Co. of Associates, 389, 390;
Scioto Co., 60;
Miami purchase, 390-392.
Lane, Lalph, attempts western exploration, 64.
Langlade, Charles, at Braddock's defeat, 68.
L'Anguille, Miami village, 407.
La Salle, Chevalier, explorations of, 6, 7;
at falls of Ohio, 64.
Lanson run, 421.
Laurel hills, 126;
explored by Walden, 60;
by Cresap, 77;
by Boone, 192.
Lawless, Henry, explores Kentucky, 81.
Leading creek, 419;
forays on, 311, 428.
Lederer, John, on Blue ridge, 64.
Lee. Arthur, treaty commissioner, 366, 388.
Lee county, Va., census (1830), 56.
Leet, Maj., on Sandusky campaign, 330.
Leffler, George, early settler, 125;
defends Rice's fort, 362.
Leffler, Jacob, Jr., defends Rice's fort, 362.
Legget, George, lost in Indian foray, 399.
Le Moyne, Father, discovers Alleghany, 64.
Lewis, ----, escapes from Indians, 422.
Lewis, Andrew, 49, 50;
explores Greenbrier, 57, 58;
with Braddock, 66;
in Forbes's campaign, 68-73;
in Sandy-creek voyage, 81-83, 86;
in Dunmore's war, 151, 164-168, 170, 174-176, 178-183, 190;
_Journal_, 81, 82.
Lewis, Charles, with Braddock, 66;
in Pontiac's war, 97;
in Dunmore's war, 151, 159, 166-168;
death, 168-171;
_Journal_, 69.
Lewis county, W. Va., census (1830), 56, 63.
Lewis, John (1), father of Andrew, 53, 62;
explores Greenbrier, 57, 58;
with Braddock, 66;
settles Augusta, 66;
sketch, 49, 50.
Lewis, John (2), scalped by Indians, 102.
Lewis, John, Jr., with Braddock, 66.
Lewis, Margaret, wife of John (1), 53.
Lewis, Samuel, defends Greenbrier, 244, 245.
Lewis, Thomas, son of John (1), 50;
with Braddock, 66.
Lewis, William, with Braddock, 66.
Lewisburgh, W. Va., founded, 164, 165, 244;
massacre near, 172, 173.
Lexington, Ky., 271;
founded, 52, 274;
threatened by Bird, 296-298, 305;
during Caldwell's invasion, 349, 351.
Licking river, Thompson's surveys, 146;
early settlements on, 274;
Boone's captivity, 265, 266;
Bird's invasion, 295, 297, 298;
in Piqua campaign, 305, 307;
in Caldwell's invasion, 348;
other Revolutionary happenings, 271, 352.
Lichtenau, Moravian village, 314.
Limestone creek, 348.
Lincoln, Benjamin, peace commissioner, 412.
Lineback, ----, _Relation_, 324.
Linn, John, in defense of Wheeling, 356, 358.
Linn, William, at Foreman's defeat, 229, 230.
Linsey, Joseph, settles on Youghiogheny, 117, 118.
Little Carpenter, a Cherokee, 192.
Little Eagle, Mingo chief, 78, 79.
Little Kenawha river, Bulltown massacre, 136-138;
in Dunmore's war, 165, 179;
during Revolution, 232, 284;
miscellaneous forays on, 376, 397, 400, 411, 419.
Little Meadow creek, 166.
Little Meadows, 77.
Little Miami river, Shawnees on, 271;
Boone on, 266;
during Revolution, 273;
Symmes's land-grant on, 390-392;
in Harmar's campaign, 393;
in St. Clair's campaign, 400-405.
Little Saluda river, Holston on, 59.
Little Sewell mountain, origin of name, 57.
Lochaber, treaty of, 195.
Lockard, Patrick, with Braddock, 66.
Lockport, O., 314.
Lockridge, ----, at Point Pleasant, 175.
Locust Grove, Ky., 254.
Logan, Ann, adventure with Indians, 203.
Logan, Benjamin, builds Logan's station, 197;
in seige thereof, 200, 202-207;
in Bowman's campaign, 271-273;
in Piqua campaign, 306;
at Blue Licks, 351-354;
in Shawnee campaign, 355;
in Miami campaign, 386-388;
sketch, 204.
Logan county, O., 153.
Logan county, W. Va., census (1830), 56.
Logan, Mingo chief, massacre of family, 125, 134, 138, 142, 148-150, 184;
attacks whites, 155-158;
speech of, 184.
Logan's station, Ky., founded, 197;
represented in Transylvania legislature, 193;
attacked by Indians, 200, 202-208.
Logstown, old trading post, 413;
Dyer's captivity, 87;
treaty at, 195.
Long, ----, assists Mrs. Cunningham, 372.
"Long Knives," origin of term, 79, 80;
use of, 183, 186, 207, 406.
Looney's creek, 89;
Pringle settlement on, 118.
Losantiville, origin of name, 391, 392.
_See_ Cincinnati.
Loss creek, 218.
Lost creek, foray on, 383.
Louisa Company, settles Kentucky, 191.
Louisiana, founded, 7;
French in, 64;
Spanish in, 130.
Louisville, 271, 357;
Iroquois defeat Shawnees, 194, 195;
La Salle at, 64;
Findlay at, 143;
Boone at, 152;
surveyed by Bullitt, 145;
founded by Clark, 146, 253, 254;
threatened by Bird, 294;
in Clark's Wabash expedition, 386;
_Literary News-Letter_, 193.
Love, Philip, in Dunmore's war, 170.
Lowdermilk, Will H., _History of Cumberland_, 77.
Lowther, Jonathan, killed by Indians, 241.
Lowther, Robert, early settler, 127.
Lowther, William, militia officer, 127, 128;
chases Indians, 312, 313, 376, 377.
Loyal Company, land grant on Greenbrier, 49, 58.
Loyal Hanna river, in Forbes's campaign, 73;
foray on, 108.
Ludlow, Israel, partner of Denman, 391.
Luttsell, John, of Transylvania Co., 191, 193.
Lynn, Jane, marries Hugh Paul and David Stuart, 53, 54.
Lynn, Margaret, wife of John Lewis, 49.
Lytle, William, on Mad-river campaign, 387, 388.
McBride, Capt., killed at Blue Licks, 353.
McClannahan, Robert, killed at Point Pleasant, 171.
McClelland, John, on Sandusky campaign, 328, 336.
McClelland's station, Ky., attacked by Indians, 200.
McClure, Mrs., captured by Indians, 385.
McCollum, John, in New-river foray, 99.
McCulloch, William, in Dunmore's war, 180.
McCullough family, early settlers, 125.
McCullough, Maj., at seige of Wheeling, 228.
McCullough, Miss, at seige of Wheeling, 356.
McDonald, Angus, Wapatomica expedition, 138, 153-155, 164, 165;
in Dunmore's war, 220.
McDowell, Ephraim, early settler, 52.
McDowell, James, 52.
McDowell, John, early settler, 53;
killed by Indians, 49, 51, 52, 66.
McDowell, Thomas, killed by Indians, 196.
McFeeters, Jeremiah, killed by Indians, 196.
McGary, Maj., of St. Asaph's, 205;
at Blue Licks, 352;
in Mad-river campaign, 388.
McGary, Mrs., settles in Kentucky, 197.
McGuire, Maj., wounds an Indian, 381.
McIntire, John, killed by Indians, 397, 398.
McIntosh, Lachlan, commandant at Pittsburgh, 210, 237, 300;
expedition against Sandusky, 252, 255, 256, 261, 264, 265.
McIver, Hugh, killed by Indians, 292.
Mack, John, family massacred by Indians, 382.
McKee, Alexander, in Dunmore's war, 189;
during Revolution, 254, 295, 347;
ransoms Mrs. Cunningham, 372;
encourages forays, 388;
property destroyed by Wayne, 426.
McKee, Capt., commandant at Ft. Randolph, 241-243.
McKee, William, at Point Pleasant, 174.
McKenley's run, 410.
Mackey, John, early settler, 49, 50, 66.
Mackinaw, in Tecumseh's conspiracy, 36;
Chippewa villages near, 46.
McKinley, John, killed by Indians, 333.
McKnight, Charles, _Our Western Border_, 373.
McLain, John, killed by Indians, 287.
McMahon, Maj., killed by Indians, 423.
McMahon's creek, 162.
McMechen, James, a Wheeling settler, 222, 228, 230.
McMurtry, Capt., killed by Indians, 395.
McNutt, John, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81, 85, 86;
in Revolution, 86;
_Journal_, 86.
McWhorter, Henry, early settler, 287, 288, 410.
McWhorter, J. M., 288.
McWhorter, L. V., cited, 119, 137, 278, 287, 340, 368-371, 376, 377,
409-411, 421.
McWhorter, Mansfield, 410.
Mad river, 124;
Logan's campaign to, 386-388.
Mahoning creek, 210.
Manear, John, killed by Indians, 311.
Mann's lick, 152.
Marietta, O., the Scioto purchase, 60;
settled by Ohio Co., 389, 390;
cattle supply attacked, 399, 400.
Marion county, W. Va., 279.
Marks, Lieut., on Wayne's campaign, 424.
Marquette, Father James, discovers Mississippi, 5, 6.
Marshall, James, militia officer, 327, 328.
Martin, ----, settles on Greenbrier, 57.
Martin, ----, in seige of St. Asaph's, 204.
Martin, Gov., opposes Henderson's purchase, 192, 193.
Martin, Jesse, 123.
Martin, William, 123.
Martin's station, Ky., sacked by Bird, 296, 298;
defended, 350.
Martinsville, Va., 60.
Maryland, emigrants from, 125.
Mason county, W. Va., census (1830), 56.
Mason, Samuel, at seige of Wheeling, 221-224, 228.
Massachusetts, relinquishes Western land claim, 389.
Massawomee Indians, in West Virginia, 44.
Matthew, John, early settler, 52.
Matthews, George, attacked by Indians, 90, 91;
in Dunmore's war, 169, 170, 174.
Matthews, John, with Braddock, 66.
Matthews, Maj., 52.
Maumee Indians, 374.
Maumee river, Mrs. Cunningham on, 372;
in Harmar's campaign, 393;
in St. Clair's campaign, 401;
peace commissioners sent to, 412;
in Wayne's campaign, 424-426.
Maury, Thomas, killed by Indians, 91.
Maxwell, Audley, attacked by Indians, 90, 91.
Maxwell, William, attacked by Indians, 90, 91.
May, John, 385.
Maysville, Ky., 348.
Meadow river, 242.
Merrill, John, wounded by Indians, 405, 406.
Merrill, Mrs. John, adventure with Indians, 406.
Myers, R. C. V., _Life of Wetzel_, 161.
Miami Indians, early strength of, 46;
Renick captivity, 91;
operate against Clark, 252;
in Harmar's campaign, 393-395;
in St. Clair's campaign, 400-405:
raided by Scott, 407, 408.
Miami river, Indians on, 46;
in Renick captivity, 91;
in Clark's campaign, 254;
during Revolution, 295, 299, 355;
arrival of peace news, 365;
military land-claims on, 366;
Logan's campaign on, 386;
treaty of Ft. Finney, 388;
Symmes's land-grant on, 390, 392;
in Harmar's campaign, 393-395;
in St. Clair's campaign, 400-405.
Michael, Lieut., on Wayne's campaign, 424.
Michillimackinac, 255.
_See_ Mackinaw.
Middle Island creek, foray on, 381, 398.
Miller, Jacob, killed by Indians (Delaware river), 102.
Miller, Jacob, killed by Indians (Ft. Coburn), 249.
Miller, Jacob, defends Ft. Rice, 361, 362.
Mills, Thomas, killed by Indians, 338, 339.
Minear, John, early settler, 126.
Mingo Bottom, Indian village at, 78;
in Moravian expedition, 320;
in Crawford's campaign, 328, 329.
Mingo Indians, on Upper Ohio, 45;
Decker's-creek massacre, 77-79;
New-river foray, 96-99;
claim Kentucky, 142;
massacre of Logan's family, 134, 138, 142, 148-150;
Logan's forays, 155-158;
Dunmore's war generally, 172, 179, 184, 185, 253;
during Revolution, 219, 262, 308, 336, 347.
Mingo Junction, O.
_See_ Mingo Bottom.
Missions among Kentucky and Tennessee Indians, 106.
_See_ Catholics and Moravians.
Missasago Indians, in St. Clair's campaign, 404.
Mississippi river, 255;
territorial claims in basin of, 5;
French on, 5-7, 63;
Spanish on, 7, 8, 130, 254;
Salling on, 49;
Holston on, 59;
Chickasaws on, 195;
in Tecumseh's conspiracy, 36;
Cornstalk's knowledge of, 211.
Mitchell, John, 122.
Moffett, Capt., ambuscaded, 97.
Mohican Indians, in King Philip's war, 32, 33.
Moluntha, Shawnee chief, 268.
Monday, ----, killed by Indians, 293.
Monongahela river, 73-75;
early Indians on, 45, 47;
French on, 65;
Braddock's defeat, 67-69, 72;
Grant's defeat, 71;
Gist's settlement, 74;
Pringle settlement, 117, 118, 122;
other early settlements, 77, 117. 123, 125, 190;
in Dunmore's war, 135, 141, 146, 150, 151, 161;
during Revolution, 221, 222, 237, 271, 309;
militia from, 320;
forays on, 381, 414, 419.
Monongalia county, W.Va., census (1830), 56, 63;
during Revolution, 311;
forays in, 344, 374, 398, 399.
Monroe county, W. Va., census (1830), 55, 56.
Montgomery, Col., companion of Clark, 254.
Montgomery county, Va., census (1830), 55, 56.
Montgomery, John, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81.
Monteur, ----, family massacred, 318.
Monticello, Va., 253.
Montour, John, Delaware chief, 179.
Mooney, James, adventure with Indians, 168;
companion of Boone, 143.
Moore, ----, attacked by Indians, 385.
Moore, Andrew, early settler, 52;
in Dunmore's war, 174.
Moore, James, Sr., killed by Indians, 373.
Moore, James, Jr., captured by Indians, 374.
Moore, Jane, burned by Indians, 374.
Moore, Mrs. John, burned by Indians, 373, 374.
Moore, Lieut., killed by Indians, 241.
Moore, Mary, captured by Indians, 374.
Moorefield, W. Va., founded, 124.
Moorehead, ----, Youghiogheny settler, 114.
Moravians, missionaries and Indians, 36, 412;
give information to Hand, 219;
visited by Brodhead, 301, 302;
villages sacked by whites, 313-327, 340;
historical sketch, 314.
Morgan county, W. Va., census (1830), 56.
Morgan, Daniel, 276.
Morgan, David, early settler, 123;
adventure with Indians, 276-279.
Morgan, George, Indian agent, 219, 224.
Morgan, Greenwood S., 279.
Morgan, Levi, adventures with Indians, 375, 376, 417, 418.
Morgan, Sarah and Stephen, adventure with Indians, 276-279.
Morgan, William, early settler, 126;
escapes from Indians, 240.
Morgantown, Pa., 75;
founded, 123;
foray near, 248, 249.
Morlin, Thomas, early peddler, 47, 48.
Morrow, William, in Dunmore's war, 169, 171.
Mound-building, by early Indians, 39-43.
Moundsville, W. Va., "big mound" at, 40;
settled, 125, 230.
Mount Braddock. Pa., settled, 123.
Muddy creek, 123;
first settled, 58;
Clendennin massacre, 93-95;
miscellaneous forays on, 159, 161, 172, 173, 293, 345.
Mulhollin, Polly. _See_ Mary Greenlee.
Munsee Indians, on Susquehanna, 46;
raided by Brodhead, 301;
during Revolution, 347.
Munseka, Shawnee chief, 266.
Murphey, John, killed by Indians, 238.
Murphy, Samuel, 183.
Muscle shoals, 59.
Muskingum river, early Indians on, 46;
Gist on, 79;
Bouquet's expedition, 108;
Indian atrocities on, 150, 396;
Wapatomica campaign, 153-155;
Moravian villages on, 219;
during Revolution, 300-305, 314, 320, 328;
land cession by Indians, 366;
Ohio Co.'s grant, 389;
Waterford founded, 392.
Nain Indians, threatened by Paxtons, 105.
Nanny's run, 127.
Natchez, Holston at, 59.
Narragansett Indians, war with Puritans, 31-33.
Narvaez, Pamphilio de, in Florida, 7.
Nashville, Tenn., 115.
Neal, Henry, killed by Indians, 411, 412.
Neal, James, slave stolen from, 400.
Neely, Alexander, companion of Boone, 143, 144.
Nelson, ----, early settler, 126.
Nelson county, Va., foray in, 405, 406.
Nelsonville, O., 183.
Nemacolin, Delaware Indian, 77.
Nemacolin's path. _See_ Braddock's road
Nequetank Indians, threatened by Paxtons, 105.
Newcomerstown, O., 314.
New Englanders, on Greenbrier, 57.
New France. _See_ French.
New Inverness, Ga., founded, 237.
New Martinsville, O., 417.
New Orleans, founded, 7;
Spanish at, 130.
New Philadelphia, O., 261, 314.
Newport, Christopher, attempts western exploration, 64.
New river, first settlements on, 59;
in Sandy-creek voyage, 82;
Delaware and Mingo foray, 96-99.
_See_ Great Kanawha.
New Schoenbrunn, Moravian village, 314, 325, 326.
New York, Delawares in. 136;
relinquishes Western land claim, 389.
Nicholas county, W. Va., 96;
census (1830), 56.
Nicholson, ----, interpreter, 184.
Nicholson, Thomas, in Dunmore's campaign, 153.
North Bend, O., founded, 392.
North Branch, 63.
North Carolina, Cherokees in, 46;
Boone in, 143, 144, 266;
Henderson family in, 191-193;
emigration from, 348, 384.
North river, early settlement on, 52.
Northwest Territory, early tribes in, 45;
cession of land claims in, 131;
ordinance of 1787, 389;
St. Clair's arrival, 391, 392;
first settlements in, 392, 393.
Norton, Thomas, _Journal_ of Sandy-creek voyage, 81, 82.
Nutter, John, early settler, 127.
O'Brien, Adam, 414.
Ochiltree, Alexander, killed by Indians, 245.
Oghkwaga, Delaware village, 136.
Ogle, Joseph, at seige of Wheeling, 221-224, 228;
in Foreman's defeat, 230.
Oglethorpe, James, attitude toward slavery, 10.
Ohio (state), Indian mounds in, 41, 42;
first settlements in, 392, 393.
Ohio Company, relations with French, 45;
open Ohio valley to settlement, 64, 65, 67, 74, 77, 147.
Ohio Company of Associates, settles Marietta, 389, 390.
Ohio county. W. Va., census (1830), 55, 56, 63;
during Revolution, 311.
Ohio river, 36, 40, 55, 78, 115, 117, 121, 123, 125;
early Indians on, 45-47;
Salling on, 49;
Holston on, 59;
as a war trail, 75;
first English occupation, 63, 64;
French and English rivalry for, 64-74, 95;
Decker captivity, 78, 79;
in Sandy-creek voyage, 83-85;
Renick captivity, 91;
Hannah Dennis's escape, 92, 93;
character of early settlers on, 130, 131;
in Dunmore's war, 134, 138, 145, 146, 148, 149, 151-153, 156, 162-165,
167-175, 179, 183;
in Henderson's purchase, 192, 193;
Shawnees on, 194, 195, 209, 211, 216, 219;
during Revolution, 219, 220, 227, 230, 254, 257, 264, 266, 267, 271,
273, 285, 286, 294, 295, 297-300, 305, 320, 335, 347, 355, 360, 363,
384, 389, 390, 399, 411, 415, 417;
after Revolution, 367, 372, 374, 380, 381, 383;
as a race boundary, 412.
Old Town creek, 168, 170, 172;
Shawnee village at, 85.
Oneco, chief of Mohicans, 32.
Orange county, Va., 55;
early settlement of, 55, 66.
Ordinance of 1787, 389.
Orme, Robert, with Braddock, 68.
Osage Indians, stature of, 29.
Ottawa Indians, early strength of, 46:
during Revolution, 347;
at Ft. McIntosh treaty, 366, 388.
Ottawa river, early French on, 5.
Ouisconsin river. _See_ Wisconsin river.
Owens, James, killed by Indians, 247.
Owens, John, Sr., killed by Indians, 290.
Owens, John, Jr., attacked by Indians, 290, 343, 344.
Owens, Owen, attacked by Indians, 290.
Ox, Susan, captured by Indians, 161.
Pack, ----, trapper, 96.
Paint creek, Boone's expedition to, 267, 268;
Shawnees on, 374;
Waggoner on, 410.
Parsons, James, early settler, 126.
Parsons, Samuel H., treaty commissioner, 388.
Patterson, Robert, founds Lexington, Ky., 274;
partner of Denman, 391;
at battle of Blue Licks, 353.
Patton, Elizabeth, marries John Preston, 51.
Patton, James, early settler of Catawba, 51, 52, 68.
Patton, John W., 127.
Pattonsburgh, Va., 51.
Paul, Audley, son of Hugh, 53;
at Ft. Redstone, 77, 78;
in Sandy-creek voyage, 81, 83, 85;
in James-river foray, 91;
in New-river foray, 97-99;
in Dunmore's war, 169.
Paul, Hugh, 53.
Paul, Polly, marries Gov. Matthews, 53.
Pauling, Henry, militia officer, 207.
Paull, James, at Redstone, 80.
Paxton boys, kill Canestoga Indians, 104, 105.
Paynter, Elias, killed by Indians, 341.
Pekillon, Delaware chief, 303, 304.
Pendleton county, W. Va., census (1830), 56;
Seybert massacre, 87-89.
Penn, William, 124.
Pennsylvania, boundary dispute with Virginia, 74;
Western settlements in, 74, 75, 123-125, 143;
fur trade of, 101;
Paxton boys, 104, 105;
"Black-boys" uprising, 109-116;
Findlay's adventures, 143;
_Records_, 58;
_Archives_, 323.
Pentecost, Dorsey, 323.
Peoria Indians, claim Kentucky, 142.
Perry, Thomas, killed by Indians, 89.
Perrysburgh, O., 372.
Peter, Captain, Indian chief, 135.
Petro, Leonard, captured by Indians, 232, 233.
Peyton, John L., _History of Augusta county_, 53, 246.
Philadelphia, 105, 109, 124.
Philip, chief of Narragansetts, 31, 32.
Phillips, Capt., ambuscaded, 97.
Phoebe's Falls, W. Va., settled, 52.
Pickaway plains, Indian treaty at, 183-186.
Pickering, Timothy, peace commissioner, 412.
Pike run, Indian foray on, 283.
Pindall, Rachel, chased by Indians, 344.
Pindall, Thomas, attacked by Indians, 344.
Piomingo, Chickasaw chief, 405.
Pipe, Delaware chief, 333.
Pipe, Wyandot chief, 316.
Pipe creek, massacre of Indians at, 134, 142, 148.
Piqua, Shawnee village, 273;
Clark attacks, 305-309.
Pitman, ----, trapper, 96.
Pittsburg, 117, 120;
French fort at, 45;
treaties at, 66;
Braddock's defeat, 68, 69, 106;
in Forbes's campaign, 69-73, 77, 79, 80;
Connolly at, 74; Dyer's escape, 87;
in Bouquet's expedition, 107-109, 173;
in Dunmore's war, 134, 141, 142, 145, 148, 150, 165, 167, 177-179,
181, 182;
"Blackboys" uprising, 109;
asked to aid Kentucky, 205;
during Revolution, 220, 221, 224, 230, 254, 256, 262, 283, 318,
321-323, 335, 357, 362;
arrival of peace news, 365;
Hand's administration, 210, 211, 214, 216, 219;
McIntosh's administration, 210, 237;
warned by Moravians, 315, 317;
Brodhead's expedition, 300, 301, 303, 304, 316.
Pittsylvania, proposed colony of, 145.
Pleasant creek, 118.
Pocahontas county, W. Va., census (1830), 56.
Poe, Adam, adventure with Indians, 362-364.
Poe, Andrew, adventure with Indians, 363, 364.
Point Pleasant, W. Va., battle of, 59, 60, 66, 143, 152, 165-178, 180,
182, 185-187, 189, 190, 208;
Ft. Randolph at, 173, 291;
surrender of Cornstalk at, 173, 209, 211-216;
during Revolution, 237, 241-243.
Pointer, Dick, fights Indians, 243.
Pollens, Henry, fur trader, 109.
Pompey (negro), friend of Indians, 268.
Pontiac, uprising of, 73, 141, 172.
Poole, William F., on Clark's campaign, 254.
Port Washington, O., 301, 314.
Portsmouth, O., old Shawnee town at, 92.
Post, Charles F., Moravian missionary, 301.
Potomac river, 55;
fur trade on, 77;
Seybert massacre, 87-89.
Pottawattomie Indians, early strength of, 46;
during Revolution, 347.
Powell, Richard, sons captured by Indians, 280, 281.
Powell's valley, 60;
Walden in, 60;
attack on Boones, 144, 145;
Henderson's grant, 193.
Power, Major, shot at, 366.
Powers, John, early settler, 126.
Powers, William, 122.
Presbyterians, 50, 54, 57, 168.
Presque Isle, 65.
Preston county, W. Va., 280;
census (1830), 56, 63.
Preston, James Patton, governor of Virginia, 51.
Preston, John, marries Elizabeth Patton, 51.
Preston, William, militia officer, 51;
settles on Holston, 59;
in Sandy-creek voyage, 81, 83;
surveyor, 145, 146;
in Dunmore's war, 152, 165;
_Journal_, 82;
_Register of Indian Depredations_, 57, 75, 87, 90.
Price, Maj., on Wayne's campaign, 425.
Price's settlement, Ky., 200.
Pricket, ----, killed by Indians, 245.
Pricket, Josiah, killed by Indians, 161.
Pricket's creek, 151.
Prince William county, Va., 71.
Pringle, Charity, 119.
Pringle, John and Samuel, adventures of, 117-122.
Prior, John, killed by Indians, 292.
Pritchet, John, killed by Indians, 243.
Province, John, early settler, 123.
Province, Mrs., buries Bald Eagle, 136.
Pryor, John, scouting adventure, 242, 243.
Purgatory creek, 89, 91.
Purgatory mountain, 89.
Putnam, Rufus, heads Marietta colonists, 389, 390;
peace commissioner, 412.
Quakers, 124, 240.
Quebec, founded by Champlain, 4, 5.
Raccoon creek, 299.
Radcliff, Daniel, killed by Indians, 367.
Radcliff, John, early settler, 121, 122.
Radcliff, Stephen, attacked by Indians, 311.
Radcliff, William, early settler, 121, 122.
Ralston, James, killed by Indians, 287.
Ranck, Geo. W., 274.
Randolph, Beverly, peace commissioner, 412.
Randolph county, W. Va., census (1830), 56, 63;
settled, 74.
Ray, James, adventures with Indians, 201.
Ray, William, killed by Indians, 201.
Read, John, finds Davisson, 283.
Red Hawk, Shawnee warrior, 209.
Red river, De Soto on, 8.
Redhawk, Delaware chief, 172.
Redstone (Brownsville, Pa.), first settled 77-80, 123, 216;
De Villiers at, 74;
Decker massacre, 77, 78;
in Dunmore's war, 134, 141, 150;
tory trials, 231, 232:
militia from, 271;
emigrants from, 390, 392;
road to Marietta, 399.
Reece, ----, attacked by Indians, 239.
Reece, Miss, wounded by Indian, 239.
Renick family, attacked by Indians, 89-91.
Reynolds, ----, at seige of Bryant's station, 350, 351, 353, 354.
Rice, Daniel, attacked by Indians, 361.
Rich mountain, 126.
Richards, Arnold and Paul, killed by Indians, 345.
Richards, Conrad, attacked by Indians, 251, 252.
Richmond, Va., 62.
Riffle, ----, early settler, 126.
Roanoke county, Va., 61; Salling in, 49.
Roanoke river, 70;
explored, 48;
in New-river foray, 96, 99;
settlements raided by Shawnees, 61, 81, 82.
Robertson, Dr., on origin of Indians, 25.
Robertson family, killed by Indians, 158.
Robertson, James, at Watauga treaty, 192.
Robinson, ----, explorer, 124;
killed by Indians, 161.
Robinson, Mrs. Edward, discovers Hull's body, 383.
Robinson, Maj., searches for Mrs. Cunningham, 370.
Robinson, William, captured by Indians, 156-158.
Rockbridge county, Va., Salling in, 48;
district of Augusta, 49;
first settled, 53;
census (1830), 56;
militia of, 66, 174, 211, 212;
massacre in, 172.
Rockcastle river, Boone on, 143, 192.
Rockford, Pa., 210.
Rockingham county, Va., census (1830), 56, 66.
Rogers, John, on Clark's campaign, 258, 259.
Rogers, Joseph, killed by Indians, 308.
Roney, Alexander, killed by Indians, 311, 312.
Roney, Mrs. Alexander, captured by Indians, 311, 312.
Roosevelt, Theodore, _Winning of the West_, 80, 130, 183, 184, 193,
261, 386.
Rooting creek, 217.
Ross, Tavenor, renegade, 168.
Rowell, Daniel, adventure with Indians, 411.
Royall, Ann, _Sketches_, 57, 95.
Ruddell, Isaac, arrival in Kentucky, 207;
defeated by Bird, 295-297, 350.
Rule, Henry, early settler, 122.
Runner, Elijah, murders Bald Eagle, 135.
Runyan, John, daughter killed by Indians, 419.
Rush run, foray on, 380, 381.
Russell county, Va., census (1830), 56.
Russell, William, treaty commissioner, 66;
in Dunmore's war, 152, 167, 170, 176.
Ryan, John, kills Indians, 135.
Ryswick, treaty of, 195.
St. Asaph's. _See_ Logan's station.
St. Clair, Arthur, arrives at Ft. Washington, 391, 392;
names Cincinnati, 391, 392;
reports on Harmar's campaign, 395;
campaign against Miamis, 400-405, 407, 408, 413;
resigns command, 412.
St. Clairsville, O., 338.
St. Joseph river, in Harmar's campaign, 393, 395.
St. Lawrence river, Champlain on, 5.
St. Louis, attacked by English, 254.
St. Mary's river, in Harmar's campaign, 393.
Salem, Va., Salling at, 49;
in Sandy-creek voyage, 82.
Salem, Moravian village, 301, 302, 314, 319, 322, 325, 327.
Salisbury, N. C., 191.
Salling, Henry, brother of John Peter, 48.
Salling, John Peter, explorations of, 47-49:
settles Augusta, 66.
Salt creek, 175.
Salt licks, in Kentucky, 48, 196, 199, 265, 266;
in West Virginia, 265, 361;
in Ohio, 267.
Salt river, foray on, 405.
Saluda Old Town, S. C., 59.
Sam (negro), at seige of Wheeling, 356, 357.
Sandusky, early Indians at, 46;
in Dunmore's war, 187;
McIntosh's expedition against, 252;
Moravians at, 316, 317, 320, 327;
Crawford's campaign, 327-339;
Irvine's expedition, 355;
Cozad at, 420.
"Sandy-creek voyage," against Shawnees, 81-86.
Sandy island, Iroquois defeat Shawnees at, 194, 195.
Sandy river, foray on, 373.
Sapoonie Indians, strength of, 46.
Sappington, John, murders Indians, 148, 149.
Sargent, Winthrop, expedition against Ft. Du Quesne, 68.
Savannah, Ga., 237.
Schoolcraft, Austin, killed by Indians, 290.
Schoolcraft, Henry A., _Indian Tribes_, 40.
Schoolcraft, John, family massacred, 284.
Schoolcraft, Leonard, captured by Indians, 282;
turns renegade, 377-379.
Schoolcraft, Matthias, killed by Indians, 310.
Schoolcraft, Michael, captured by Indians, 310.
Schoolcraft, Simon, attacked by Indians, 288, 289;
captured by Indians, 310.
Schoenbrunn, Moravian village, 314, 319, 328, 329.
Scioto Company, settles Gallipolis, 60.
Scioto river, Shawnees on, 46;
in Sandy-creek voyage, 82, 84;
Renick captivity, 91;
Hannah Dennis on, 92;
in Pontiac's war, 172;
Clendenning captivity, 173;
in Dunmore's war, 170, 175, 180, 182, 183, 185;
during Revolution, 329;
military land-claims on, 366;
Moore captivity, 374;
in Harmar's campaign, 393.
Scoppathus, Mingo chief, 172.
Scotch and Scotch-Irish, on the border, 49, 54, 101, 104, 168;
in Georgia, 237;
in Pensylvania, 143;
in Virginia, 191, 334:
in West Virginia, 373.
Scott, Andrew, at seige of Wheeling. 356.
Scott, Capt., killed by Indians, 395.
Scott, Charles, campaign against Miami and Wabash Indians, 406-408;
in Wayne's campaign, 426.
Scott county, Va., census (1830), 56.
Scott, David, daughters killed by Indians, 283.
Scott, Jacob, murders Bald Eagle, 135.
Scott, Molly, at seige of Wheeling, 356.
Seekonk, Mingo village, 185.
Seneca Indians, 194;
at Easton treaty, 58;
rob Findlay, 143.
_See_ Mingo Indians.
Senseman, Gottlob, Moravian missionary, 314, 317.
Severns, Ebenezer, on Bullitt's survey, 146.
Sevier, John, at Watauga treaty, 192.
Sewell, Stephen, settles on Greenbrier, 57.
Seybert, Capt., defeated by Indians, 87-89.
Shabosh, killed by whites, 322, 326.
Shakers, 106.
Shamokin, Cayuga village, 155.
Shane manuscripts, 221.
Shawnee Indians, on Upper Ohio, 45;
in Ohio, 46;
attack Roanoke, 61, 81;
Sandy-creek voyage, 82-86;
Seybert massacre, 87-89;
foray on James, 89-91;
villages on Scioto, 92;
Stroud massacre, 136, 137;
Findlay among, 143;
attack Boones, 145;
in Dunmore's war, 134, 142, 166, 167, 172, 175-186, 253;
murder of Cornstalk, 209-214;
Clendenning captivity, 173; Bouquet's expedition, 173;
in Kentucky, 194, 195, 201;
raided by Clark, 123, 254;
during Revolution, 219, 236, 265-268, 271, 273, 333, 334, 336, 347,
354, 355, 374;
raided by Logan, 386-388;
at Ft. Finney treaty, 388;
raided by Wayne, 428.
Shawnee springs, 201.
Shelby, Evans, settles on Holston, 59;
in Dunmore's war, 167, 168, 174.
Shelby, Isaac, in Dunmore's war, 169, 170, 174;
at Watauga treaty, 192.
Shenandoah county, Va., census (1830), 56;
militia of, 164.
Shenandoah valley, 66;
explored, 47;
early settlers in, 46, 50, 190;
Borden grant, 50-53; Fairfax survey, 334;
fur trade in, 76, 120;
Mrs. Cunningham in, 373.
Shepherd, David, early settler, 125;
militia officer, 221, 226, 228, 230;
in Brodhead's expedition, 300, 301;
at seige of Wheeling, 359;
manuscripts of, 221.
Shepherd, Moses, 124.
Shesheequon, Pa., Moravian village. 319.
Shikellemus, Cayuga chief, 155.
Shingiss, Delaware chief, 45, 190, 194, 237.
Shinn, Benjamin, attacked by Indians, 247.
Shinnston, W. Va., 343.
Shiver, John, captured by Indians, 282, 283.
Shores, Thomas, captured by Indians, 201.
Short creek, settled on, 125.
Silver creek, 196.
Simcoe, John G., governor of Canada, 412.
Simpson's creek, 156, 247, 343;
settled on, 118, 126;
foray on, 366.
Simpson, John, adventures of, 118, 119.
Sims, Bernard, killed by Indians, 291.
Sims, John, attacked by Indians, 291, 383.
Six Nations. _See_ Iroquois.
Skegg's creek, foray on, 385.
Skidmore, John, in Dunmore's war, 170.
Skillern, George, in Hand's expedition, 210, 211.
Slaughter, Col., in Dunmore's war, 167, 175;
commandant at Louisville, 291;
in Piqua campaign, 305, 307;
at Moravian massacre, 321.
Slavery, first importation of negroes, 9, 10.
Sleeth, Alexander and Thomas, early settlers, 121.
Slover, John, captured by Indians, 335-338;
_Narrative_, 335.
Small pox, feared by Indians, 291.
Smally, James, killed by Indians, 282.
Smith, ----, of St. Asaph's, 205.
Smith, Ballard, 94.
Smith, Benjamin, killed by Indians, 91.
Smith, James, imprisoned by French, 67;
captured by Indians, 79:
chief of "Black-boys," 105, 106, 109-115;
explores Kentucky, 115.
Smith, John, attempts western exploration, 64.
Smith, John, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81;
militia officer, 90.
Smith, Thomas, killed by Indians, 89, 90.
Smith, Mrs. Thomas, imprisoned by Indians, 90.
Smith, William H., _St. Clair Papers_, 404.
Snake, John and Thomas, Wyandot chiefs, 316, 317.
Snip, Wyandot chief, 316.
Snodgrass, James, killed by Indians, 374.
Snowy creek, massacre on, 280.
Snyder, Jacob, killed by Indians, 102.
Sodousky, James, on Bullitt's survey, 146.
South Branch (or Fork) of Potomac, 75;
Dunkard massacre on, 76, 77;
Indians defeated on, 97;
Seybert massacre, 87-89;
emigrants from, 118-120, 122, 124-126;
Indians massacred on, 135.
South Carolina, 46, 59, 160.
Spanish, territorial claims of, 5;
colonizing efforts, 7;
capture Salling, 48, 49;
in Kentucky conspiracy, 130, 254, 258;
attack on St. Louis, 254.
Speed, Thomas, _Wilderness Road_, 384.
Spottswood, Gov., crosses Blue ridge, 64.
Springfield, W. Va., 91.
Sprout run, Borden Manor on, 51.
Squissatego, Seneca brave, 58.
Stalnaker, ----, settles on New, 59.
Stalnaker, Adam, attacked by Indians, 343.
Stalnaker, Jacob, settles on Tygart, 126;
attacked by Indians, 343.
Stamford, Ky., 197.
Station Camp creek, Boone on, 143.
Staunton, Va., 91;
settlement near, 49, 50;
_Spectator_, 53.
Steele, John, at Point Pleasant, 174.
Stephen, Adam, in Forbes's campaign, 70;
in Sandy-creek voyage, 81;
in Dunmore's war, 164.
Steeth, John, chases Indians, 246.
Steubenville, O., 78, 320.
Stewart, John, killed by Indians, 234.
Stites, ----, makes Miami purchase, 390.
Stone Coal creek, origin of name, 121.
Stone, Uriah, explores Kentucky, 115.
Stoner, Michael, explores Kentucky, 152, 190.
Stone's river, origin of name, 115.
Stout, Benjamin, 126.
Strait, Jacob, killed by Indians, 375.
Stroud, Adam, killed by Indians, 136-138.
Stuart, Betsy, marries Woods, 54.
Stuart, Charles A., 53.
Stuart, David, marries Jane Lynn, 53.
Stuart, James, killed by Indians, 280.
Stuart, John, pioneer on Greenbrier, 53, 54, 57-59;
companion of Boone, 143, 144;
in Dunmore's war, 159-161, 169, 170, 174;
at murder of Cornstalk, 211, 212;
defends Greenbrier, 243-245;
_Memoir of Indian Wars_, 180.
Sullivan, John, campaign against New York Indians, 210.
Susquehanna river, 136;
Munsees on, 46;
forays on, 101-104.
Swan, John, early settler, 123, 125, 149;
militia officer, 226-228;
defends Wheeling, 360.
Swope, ----, trapper, 96.
Sycamore shoals, treaty at, 192.
Symmes, John Cleves, secures Miami
land-grant, 390-392.
Tanner, Edward, captured by Indians, 342.
Tate, ----, at Point Pleasant, 174.
Tate's creek, 196.
Tawas. _See_ Ottawas.
Taylor, Capt., killed by Indians, 423.
Taylor, Hugh Paul, _Sketches_, 51, 53, 85.
Tazewell county, Va., census (1830), 55, 56.
Tazewell Court House, Va., raided by Indians, 373, 374.
Tecumseh, conspiracy of, 35, 36;
in Waggoner massacre, 409-411.
Tegard, Abraham, early settler, 123.
Telford, Hugh, early settler, 52.
Tennessee, 75;
stone graves in, 43;
Salling in, 48, 49;
early missions in, 106;
Boone in, 144, 145.
Tennessee river, 253;
Salling on, 48, 49;
Holston on, 59;
explored by Smith, 115;
in Henderson's purchase, 193, 195.
Ten Mile creek, first settlement on, 190;
in Dunmore's war, 151;
forays on, 238-240, 381.
Terry, Cornet, killed by Indians, 423.
Thomas, Abraham, _Sketches_, 180.
Thomas, John, early settler, 122, 123;
killed by Indians, 309, 310, 343.
Thompson, ----, surveys on Licking, 146.
Thompson, Jethro, house burned by Indians, 383.
Thompson, John, Indian go-between, 263.
Thompson, William, assists "Blackboys." 112, 113.
Todd, John, defends Kentucky, 200;
killed at Blue Licks, 351, 353.
Todd, Levi, in Bowman's campaign, 271;
in Wabash campaign, 386.
Tomlinson, Benjamin, 149;
founds Moundsville, 230.
Tomlinson, Samuel, adventure with Indians, 222.
Tonty, Henri de, with La Salle, 6.
Trails, Warrior branch, 75, 399;
Nemacolin's path, 77;
Cumberland Gap, 143, 152, 192, 384;
Wilderness road, 384.
Transylvania Company, settles Kentucky, 190-196.
Treaties, Ryswick, 195;
Paris (1763), 7, 106, 139;
Lancaster, 195;
Easton, 58;
Ft. Stanwix, 45, 70, 195;
Lochaber, 195;
Bouquet's, 91, 108, 134, 141, 179;
Camp Charlotte, 145, 147, 173, 176-186, 195, 197;
Watauga, 153, 192, 195;
Paris (1782), 365, 384;
Au Glaize, 374, 376;
Ft. McIntosh, 97, 366, 388;
Ft. Finney, 388;
Greenville, 141, 147, 420, 430.
Trent, William, at Redstone, 77.
Trigg, Col., killed at Blue Licks, 353,
Triplett, William, killed by Indians, 411, 412.
Trueman, Maj., killed by Indians, 412.
Tugg river, origin of name, 85.
Turkey creek, 99.
Turkey run, 119, 121.
Turtle creek, scene of Braddock's defeat, 67.
Tuscarawas river, McIntosh's expedition, 256, 261;
Moravian missions on, 219, 301, 313-317, 320, 336.
Tuscarora Indians, legend of, 18.
Twightee Indians, strength of, 46.
Twitty, William, at Watauga treaty, 192;
killed by Indians, 196.
Tygart, David, settles in Tygart's valley, 74, 75.
Tygart's valley, first settled, 74, 126;
Pringles in, 117-122;
in Dunmore's war, 151;
during Revolution, 284, 286, 287, 311;
miscellaneous forays in, 232-235, 341, 343, 421, 422, 428.
Tyler county, W. Va., census (1830), 56, 63.
Unadilla river, Delawares on, 136.
Uniontown, Pa., 77.
Valley of Virginia, early Indians in, 46;
Salling's exploration, 48, 49;
McDowell's fight, 52;
first settled, 61, 190;
Mrs. Cunningham in, 373.
Valley river, 63;
Pringles on, 118, 119;
in Dunmore's war, 151;
during Revolution, 287;
forays on, 252, 311.
Van Meter, Jacob, early settler, 123.
Vause, ----, settles on New, 59.
Veech, James, _Monongahela of Old_, 79, 80.
Vernon, Maj., at Ft. Laurens, 265.
Vigo, M., assists Clark, 258.
Vincennes, Ind., in Clark's campaign, 253-255, 257-261, 386;
Hamtramck at, 394.
Virginia, Indian mounds, 40;
early tribes, 44-47;
Borden manor, 50-53;
Loyal Co., 49;
Fairfax grant, 50, 51;
characteristics of early settlers, 54;
Salling's operations, 47-49;
early explorations, 64;
Ohio Co., 64, 65;
Braddock's campaign, 65-69;
Forbes's campaign, 69-73;
boundary dispute with Pennsylvania, 74, 142;
Pontiac's war, 97;
New-river foray, 96-99;
militia of, 100, 101;
border settlements, 125;
military land warrants, 145;
Wapatomica campaign, 153-155;
Dunmore's attitude toward, 179;
relinquishes western land claim, 130, 389;
_Dinwiddie Papers_, 86;
_Calendar of State Papers_, 86.
Wabash Indians, raided by Hamtramck, 394;
by Scott, 407, 408;
agree to peace, 412.
Wabash river, in Clark's campaigns, 257-259, 385, 386;
arrival of peace news, 365.
Wachatomakah, Indian village, 336.
Waggoner, John, family massacred by Indians, 408-411.
Waggoner, Peter, captured by Indians, 409-411.
Walden's creek, origin of name, 60.
Walden, Elisha, killed by Indians, 59, 60.
Walholling river, 314, 317.
Walker, Felix, at Watauga treaty, 192;
wounded by Indians, 196.
Walker, Thomas, explores Kentucky, 81;
_Journal_, 59.
Walker, William, educated Wyandot, 96, 97.
Wallace, ----, killed by Indians, 319.
Walpole, ----, interest in Pittsylvania, 145.
Wapatomica, McDonald's expedition against, 138, 153-155;
Indian council at, 347.
Ward, Mrs., escapes from Indians, 422.
Warrior Branch, Indian trail, 75.
Wars, French and Indian, 65-74, 77-80, 100-106, 143, 190, 334, 387;
McDowell's fight, 66;
Sandy-creek voyage, 81-86;
Bouquet's campaign, 106-109;
Braddock's campaign, 143, 145, 147, 169;
Forbes's campaign, 145, 150, 190;
Pontiac's war, 73, 97, 141, 172;
Dunmore's war, 66, 78, 127, 134-190, 209, 253, 334;
Revolution, 66, 78, 86, 124, 145, 146, 177, 178, 182, 187-365, 382, 387;
Hand's campaign. 209-211;
Harmar's, 384, 393-395, 400, 408;
St. Clair's, 400-405, 407, 408, 413;
Wayne's, 412-428.
Warwick, ----, early settler, 126.
Warwick, Jacob, attacked by Indians, 286, 287.
Warwick, William, attacked by Indians, 287.
Washburn, Benjamin, attacked by Indians, 247.
Washburn, Charles, killed by Indians, 345.
Washburn, Isaac, killed by Indians, 241.
Washburn, James, tortured by Indians, 250, 251.
Washburn, Stephen, killed by Indians, 250.
Washington county, Ky., 106, 190.
Washington county. Pa., settled, 125;
militia of, 320, 327, 328.
Washington county, Va., census (1830), 56;
militia of, 165, 174, 268;
threatened by Bird, 299.
Washington, George, in French and Indian war, 45, 65, 67, 69, 71, 74, 77,
100, 101, 145, 334;
friendship for Andrew Lewis, 70;
advises Sandy-creek voyage, 81;
on Seybert massacre, 87;
in Revolutionary war, 106;
friend of Rufus Putman, 389;
_Tour to the Ohio_, 73.
Watauga river, treaty with Indians on, 153, 192.
Waterford. O., founded, 393.
Wayne, Anthony, general of army, 412;
campaign against Western Indians, 147, 412-428.
Webb, Jonas, early settler, 126.
Wells, Bazaleel, at Point Pleasant, 174.
Wells, Maj., on Shawnee campaign, 355.
Wellsburg, W. Va., 380.
Welsh, on the border, 49.
West, Alexander, 378;
chases Indians, 246, 311;
adventure with Indians, 287-290;
on Lowther's expedition, 376, 377;
sketch, 288.
West Augusta, district of, 63; first justice of peace, 127.
West, Charles, chases Indians, 246.
West, Edmund, Sr., attacked by Indians, 288;
killed by Indians, 377-379.
West, Edmund, Jr., family attacked by Indians, 378, 379.
West Fork river, origin of name, 122;
first settlements on, 126, 127;
in Dunmore's war, 151, 156;
during Revolution, 240, 311, 312, 343;
miscellaneous forays on, 217, 218, 250, 251, 366, 367, 376, 400, 410,
411, 414, 419, 422, 428.
West Newton, Pa., departure of Marietta pilgrims, 389.
West Virginia, character of early Indians in, 36;
mounds in, 40;
early tribes in, 44-47;
census (1830), 63;
first settlements in (prior to 1774), 117-133.
Westfall, ----, early settler, 126.
Westfall, O., 176.
Westmoreland county, Pa., 115.
Westmoreland county, Va., militia of, 210, 327, 328;
forays in, 301.
Wetzel county, W. Va., 279.
Wetzel, George, Indian fighter, 161.
Wetzel, Jacob, adventure with Indians, 161-163.
Wetzel, John, Indian fighter, 125, 161.
Wetzel, Lewis, Indian fighter, 125, 161-163, 338, 339;
sketch, 161.
Wetzel, Martin, Indian fighter, 161.
Wheat, Betsy, at seige of Wheeling, 225.
Wheeling, W. Va., 40;
founded, 124, 125;
in Dunmore's war, 134, 146, 148, 149, 152-154, 163, 165, 179;
first seige of, 219-228, 235;
second seige, 224, 356-360;
Foreman's defeat, 228-230;
during Revolution, 237, 299, 301, 319, 336, 338, 362;
McKee's foray, 316, 317.
Wheeling creek, in Dunmore's war, 151, 161.
White Eyes, Delaware chief, 150, 175, 176, 179, 180, 182, 183, 221, 302.
White, John, killed by Indians, 284.
White, William, murders Indians, 136, 137;
captured by Indians, 232, 233;
killed by Indians, 340.
Whiteman, ----, early settler, 126.
Whitley, Paul, early settler, 52;
with Braddock, 66.
Whitley, William, arrival in Kentucky, 197;
scout, 271;
attacks Indians, 385, 386;
_Narrative_, 203, 205.
Whitley, Mrs. William, adventure with Indians, 203.
Whittlesey, Charles, _Fugitive Essays_, 183.
Wilkinson, James, attacks Miamis, 407;
builds Ft. Recovery, 419.
Williams and Mary college, 145.
Williams, Isaac, explorer, 124.
Williams, John, of Transylvania Co., 191.
Williamsburg, Va., 47, 86, 87, 159, 178;
Salling at, 49;
John Lewis at, 50;
in Dunmore's war, 151, 154.
Williamson, David, expedition against Moravians, 314-318, 320-327;
in Crawford's campaign, 327, 328, 331.
Williamson, Lieut., at Ft. Pitt, 78.
Williamson, Peter, captured by Indians, 101-104.
Will's creek, Ohio Co.'s post at, 67, 74, 77.
Wilson, ----, killed at Point Pleasant, 171.
Wilson, Benjamin, 184, 186, 234, 235, 247, 284, 311.
Winchester, Va., 56, 68, 71, 81, 121;
fur trade at, 47, 48;
threatened by Indians, 101;
trial of White, 136;
during Revolution, 252.
Wingenund, Delaware chief, 333.
Winston's Meadows, 99.
Wisconsin, Indian mounds in, 42.
Wisconsin Historical Society, manuscripts in library of, 49, 75, 81, 87,
170, 193, 203, 205, 221, 259, 260;
_Collections_, 58.
Wisconsin river, explored by French, 6.
Wolf creek, 82, 392, 393, 396.
Wood, Abraham, discovers Great Kanawha, 64.
Wood county, W. Va., census (1830), 56, 63;
first sheriff of, 127.
Wood, Nicholas, killed by Indians, 375.
Woodfin, John, killed by Indians, 249.
Woodford, Col., 72.
Woods, Richard, 54.
Woodson, Obadiah, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81.
Wright, ----, killed by Indians, 344.
Wyalusing, Pa., Moravian village, 319.
Wyandot Indians, early strength of, 46;
in Kansas, 96, 97;
in Dunmore's war, 172;
at Foreman's defeat, 230;
during Revolution, 219, 262, 316, 317, 320, 327, 332, 347, 362-364;
at Ft. McIntosh treaty, 366, 388.
Wyllys, Maj., killed by Indians, 393, 394.
Wythe county, Va., census (1830), 55, 56.
Yadkin river, Boone on, 143, 144, 205.
Yellow creek, Logan massacre at, 134, 138, 148-150, 184.
Youghiogheny river, crossed by Braddock, 67;
early settlements on, 74, 77, 113, 114, 118, 334;
Marietta pilgrims on, 389.
Zane, Andrew, adventure with Indians, 222.
Zane, Ebenezer, 148;
settles Wheeling, 124, 125;
defends Wheeling, 225, 228, 230, 356-360;
in Brodhead's expedition, 300.
Zane, Elizabeth, at seige of Wheeling, 359.
Zane, Isaac, captured by Indians, 124;
daughter wounded, 418.
Zane, Jonathan, settles at Wheeling, 124;
in Dunmore's war, 153.
Zane, Noah, 125, 225.
Zane, Silas, settles at Wheeling, 124;
defends Wheeling, 356, 357.
Zanesville, O., 153.
Zeisberger, David, Moravian missionary, 301, 314, 315, 317.
The First American Frontier
An Arno Press/New York Times Collection
Agnew, Daniel.
A History of the Region of Pennsylvania North of the Allegheny River.
1887.
Alden, George H.
New Government West of the Alleghenies Before 1780. 1897.
Barrett, Jay Amos.
Evolution of the Ordinance of 1787. 1891.
Billon, Frederick.
Annals of St. Louis in its Early Days Under the French and Spanish
Dominations. 1886.
Billon, Frederick.
Annals of St. Louis in its Territorial Days, 1804-1821. 1888.
Littel, William.
Political Transactions in and Concerning Kentucky. 1926.
Bowles, William Augustus.
Authentic Memoirs of William Augustus Bowles. 1916.
Bradley, A. G.
The Fight with France for North America. 1900.
Brannan, John, ed.
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1812-1815. 1823.
Brown, John P.
Old Frontiers. 1938.
Brown, Samuel R.
The Western Gazetteer. 1817.
Cist, Charles.
Cincinnati Miscellany of Antiquities of the West and Pioneer History.
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Claiborne, Nathaniel Herbert.
Notes on the War in the South with Biographical Sketches of the Lives
of Montgomery, Jackson, Sevier, and Others. 1819.
Clark, Daniel.
Proofs of the Corruption of Gen. James Wilkinson. 1809.
Clark, George Rogers.
Colonel George Rogers Clark's Sketch of His Campaign in the Illinois
in 1778-9. 1869.
Collins, Lewis.
Historical Sketches of Kentucky. 1847.
Cruikshank, Ernest, ed,
Documents Relating to Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit.
1912.
Cruikshank, Ernest, ed,
The Documentary History of the Campaign on the Niagara Frontier,
1812-1814. (4 volumes). 1896-1909.
Cutler, Jervis.
A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indian Territory,
and Louisiana. 1812.
Cutler, Julia P.
The Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler. 1890.
Darlington, Mary C.
History of Col. Henry Bouquet and the Western Frontiers of Pennsylvania.
1920.
Darlington, Mary C.
Fort Pitt and Letters From the Frontier. 1892.
De Schweinitz, Edmund.
The Life and Times of David Zeisberger. 1870.
Dillon, John B.
History of Indiana. 1859.
Eaton, John Henry.
Life of Andrew Jackson. 1824.
English, William Hayden.
Conquest of the Country Northwest of the Ohio. (2 volumes in one).
1896.
Flint, Timothy.
Indian Wars of the West. 1833.
Forbes, John.
Writings of General John Forbes Relating to His Service in North
America. 1938.
Forman, Samuel S.
Narrative of a Journey Down the Ohio and Mississippi in 1789-90.
1888.
Haywood, John.
Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee to 1796. 1823.
Heckewelder, John.
History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations. 1876.
Heckewelder, John.
Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren. 1820.
Hildreth, Samuel P.
Pioneer History. 1848.
Houck, Louis.
The Boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase: A Historical Study. 1901.
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Simon Kenton. 1930.
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Selection of Some of the Most Interesting Narratives of Outrages. (2
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History of Alabama. (2 volumes in one). 1851.
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A Tour Through the Southern and Western Territories. 1792.
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Ramsey, James G. M.
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Ranck, George W.
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Robertson, James Rood, ed.
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History of Northampton, Lehigh, Monroe, Carbon and Schuykill Counties.
1845.
Safford, William H.
The Blennerhasset Papers. 1864.
St. Clair, Arthur.
A Narrative of the Manner in which the Campaign Against the Indians,
in the Year 1791 was Conducted. 1812.
Sargent, Winthrop, ed.
A History of an Expedition Against Fort DuQuesne in 1755. 1855.
Severance, Frank H.
An Old Frontier of France. (2 volumes in one). 1917.
Sipe, C. Hale.
Fort Ligonier and Its Times. 1932.
Stevens, Henry N.
Lewis Evans: His Map of the Middle British Colonies in America. 1920.
Timberlake, Henry.
The Memoirs of Lieut. Henry Timberlake. 1927.
Tome, Philip.
Pioneer Life: Or Thirty Years a Hunter. 1854.
Trent, William.
Journal of Captain William Trent From Logstown to Pickawillany. 1871.
Walton, Joseph S.
Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania. 1900.
Withers, Alexander Scott.
Chronicles of Border Warfare. 1895.
Chronicles of Border Warfare
Alexander Scott Withers
Arno Press & The New York Times
Reprint Edition 1971 by Arno Press Inc.
Reprinted from a copy in
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ISBN 0-405-02896-2
The First American Frontier
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Transcriber's Note
Corrections in text:
Page Correction
vii early period, indentifying very large the sources of (identifying)
xi whatever for his diligenee and labor in producing it (diligence)
8 adorned with spendid magnificence, who can feel surprised (splendid)
9 Yet, although the philanthopist must weep over (philanthropist)
10 Nothwithstanding those two great evils which have (Notwithstanding)
46 with an aggregate population ef 289,362. (population of)
51 visited Great Britian in 1737 (Britain)
101 Upen the earnest remonstrance and entreaty (Upon)
110 of the commanding officer a party of Higland soldiers (Highland)
112 they did not scruple to intercept the pussage of goods (passage)
113 from the entrace into the Fort, and three centinels on the (entrance)
120 hauch of the others. The low state of their little magazine (haunch)
126 bleeching in the sun, after their murder by the Indians, (bleaching)
160 house, had been dischaaged at them by Indian (discharged)
182 it would be more conconvenient (convenient)
203 draging his wounded body along (dragging)
211 place of rendezvous. This stock was nearly exhaused (exhausted)
216 naturally enough prompts to deeds of revangeful cruelty (revengeful)
309 was in vain. The tomahawk was uplifted, and stoke followed (stroke)
313 in the bloody deeds of their red brethern, yet that (brethren)
323 take upon themseves the entire responsibility (themselves)
345 A most schocking scene was exhibited some time before this (shocking)
345 purpose of washing. While thus engaged three guns (repeated word)
361 miles from its enterance into the Ohio, and was known (entrance)
375 Buffaloe, and as Levi Morgan was engaged in skining (skinning)
385 loss was severely felt thoughout the whole country. (throughout)
387 was the head chief with this three wives and children (his three)
393 if posssible, to a general engagement; and if this (possible)
417 a company which had been sta-stationed (printer's error)
421 assembled to witness the awful spectacle. The croud was (crowd)
Corrections in footnotes:
Introduction: Chapter 3, Footnote 3
consider the running of the guantlet (gauntlet)
Introduction: Chapter 3, Footnote 5
Kis faithful dog shall bear him company. (His)
Chapter 1, Footnote 13
Shehandoah, Frederick, 1772 767 19,750 4,922 (Shenandoah)
Chapter 1, Footnote 17
with his family to Culpeper coanty, which was (Culpeper county)