1756-1758.
First Settlers of the Valley--Sandy Creek Expedition--Indian
Irruption--Measures of Defence--Habits of Virginians--
Washington and Dinwiddie--Congress of Governors--Dinwiddie
succeeded by Blair--Davies' Patriotic Discourse.
THE inhabitants of tramontane Virginia are very imperfectly acquainted
with its history. This remark applies particularly to that section
commonly called the Valley of Virginia, which, lying along the Blue
Ridge, stretches from the Potomac to the Alleghany Mountains. Of this
many of the inhabitants know little more than what they see. They see a
country possessing salubrity and fertility, yielding plentifully, in
great variety, most of the necessaries of life, a country which has
advantages, conveniences, and blessings, in abundance, in profusion, it
may almost be said in superfluity. But they know not how it came into
the hands of the present occupants; they know not who were the first
settlers, whence they came, at what time, in what numbers, nor what
difficulties they had to encounter, nor what was the progress of
population. One who would become acquainted with these matters must
travel back a century or more; he must witness the early adventurers
leaving the abodes of civilization, and singly, or in families, or in
groups composed of several families, like pioneers on a forlorn hope,
entering the dark, dreary, trackless forest, which had been for ages the
nursery of wild beasts and the pathway of the Indian. After traversing
this inhospitable solitude for days or weeks, and having become weary of
their pilgrimage, they determined to separate, and each family taking
its own course in quest of a place where they may rest, they find a spot
such as choice, chance, or necessity points out; here they sit down;
this they call their home--a cheerless, houseless home. If they have a
tent, they stretch it, and in it they all nestle; otherwise the umbrage
of a wide-spreading oak, or mayhap the canopy of heaven, is their only
covering. In this newfound home, while they are not exempt from the
common frailties and ills of humanity, many peculiar to their present
condition thicken around them. Here they must endure excessive labor,
fatigue, and exposure to inclement seasons; here innumerable perils and
privations await them; here they are exposed to alarms from wild beasts
and from Indians. Sometimes driven from home, they take shelter in the
breaks and recesses of the mountains, where they continue for a time in
a state of anxious suspense; venturing at length to reconnoitre their
home, they perhaps find it a heap of ruins, the whole of their little
_peculium_ destroyed. This frequently happened. The inhabitants of the
country being few, and in most cases widely separated from each other,
each group, fully occupied with its own difficulties and distresses,
seldom could have the consolation of hoping for the advice, assistance,
or even sympathy of each other. Many of them, worn out by the hardships
inseparable from their new condition, found premature graves; many
hundreds, probably thousands, were massacred by the hands of the
Indians; and peace and tranquillity, if they came at all, came at a late
day to the few survivors.
"Tantae erat molis--condere gentem."
Here have been stated a few items of the first cost of this country, but
the half has not been told, nor can we calculate in money the worth of
the sufferings of these people, especially we cannot estimate in dollars
and cents the value of the lives that were lost.[489:A]
In the year 1756 took place the "Sandy Creek Expedition" against the
Shawnees on the Ohio River. With the exception of a few Cherokees, it
consisted exclusively of Virginia troops, under the conduct of Major
Andrew Lewis.[489:B] Although this expedition proved in the event
abortive, yet its incidents, as far as known, are interesting. Nor are
such abortive enterprises without their useful effects: they are the
schools of discipline, the rehearsals of future success. The rendezvous
from which the expedition started was Fort Frederick, on New River, in
what was then Augusta County. Under Major Andrew Lewis were Captains
William Preston, Peter Hogg, John Smith, Archibald Alexander, father of
Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander, Breckenridge, Woodson, and Overton. Their
companies appear to have been already guarding the frontier when called
upon for this new service. There were also the volunteer companies of
Captains Montgomery and Dunlap, and a party of Cherokees under Captain
Paris. A party of this tribe had come to the assistance of the
Virginians in the latter part of 1755, and they were ordered by Governor
Dinwiddie to join the Sandy Creek Expedition; but whether they all
actually joined it is not known. The war leaders of these savages were
old Outacite, the Round O, and the Yellow Bird. Captain David
Stewart,[490:A] of Augusta, seems to have acted as commissary to the
expedition. The whole force that marched from Fort Frederick amounted to
three hundred and forty. While waiting to procure horses and
pack-saddles, the soldiers were preached to by the pioneer Presbyterian
clergymen of the valley, Craig and Brown. Major Lewis marched on the
eighteenth of February, and passing by the Holston River and the head of
the Clinch, they reached the head of Sandy Creek on the twenty-eighth.
This stream was found exceedingly tortuous; on the twenty-ninth, they
crossed it sixty-six times in the distance of fifteen miles. Although
some bears, deer, and buffaloes were killed, yet their provisions began
to run low early in March, when they were reduced to half a pound of
flour per man, and no meat except what they could kill, which was very
little. There being no provender for the horses, they strayed away. The
march was fatiguing, the men having frequently to wade laboriously
across the deepening water of the river; they suffered with hunger, and
starvation began to stare them in the face. The Cherokees undertook to
make bark canoes to convey themselves down the creek, and Lewis ordered
a large canoe to be made to transport the ammunition and the remaining
flour. The men murmured, and many threatened to return home. Lewis
ordered a cask of butter to be divided among them. An advance party of
one hundred and thirty, with nearly all of the horses, proceeded down
the creek, Lewis with the rest remaining to complete the canoes. No game
was met with by the party proceeding down the stream, and the mountains
were found difficult to cross. Hunger and want increased, and the men
became almost mutinous. Captain Preston proposed to kill the horses for
food, but this offer was rejected. About this time some elks and
buffaloes were killed, and this relief rescued some of the men from the
jaws of starvation. The advance party had now, as they supposed, reached
the distance of fifteen miles below the forks of the Sandy. Captain
Preston, who commanded it, was greatly perplexed at the discontents
which prevailed, and which threatened the ruin of the expedition. The
men laid no little blame on the commissaries, who had furnished only
fifteen days' provision for what they supposed to be a march of three
hundred miles. Major Lewis preserved his equanimity, and remarked that
"he had often seen the like mutiny among soldiers." On the eleventh of
March ten men deserted; others preparing to follow them, were disarmed
and forcibly detained, but some of them soon escaped. They were pursued
and brought back. When Major Lewis rejoined the advance party, one of
his men brought in a little bear, which he took to Captain Preston's
tent, where the major lodged that night, "by which," says Preston, "I
had a good supper and breakfast--a rarity." Major Lewis addressed the
men, encouraging them to believe that they would soon reach the
hunting-ground and find game, and reminded them that the horses would
support them for some time. The men, nevertheless, appeared obstinately
bent upon returning home, for they said that if they went forward they
must either perish or eat horses--neither of which they were willing to
do. The major then, stepping off a few yards, called upon all those who
would serve their country and share his fate, to go with him. All the
officers and some twenty or thirty privates joined him; the rest marched
off. In this conjuncture, when deserted by his own people, Lewis found
old Outacite, the Cherokee chief, willing to stand by him. Outacite
remarked, that "the white men could not bear hunger like Indians." The
expedition was now, of necessity, abandoned when they had arrived near
the Ohio River, and all made the best of their way home.
It appears to have required two weeks for them to reach the nearest
settlements, and during this interval they endured great sufferings from
cold and hunger, and some who separated from the main body, and
undertook to support themselves on the way back by hunting, perished.
When the main body reached the Burning Spring, in what is now Logan
County, they cut some buffalo hides, which they had left there on the
way down, into tuggs or long thongs, and ate them, after exposing them
to the flame of the Burning Spring. Hence Tugg River, separating
Virginia from Kentucky, derives its name. During the last two or three
days, it is said that they ate the strings of their moccasins, belts of
their hunting-shirts, and shot-pouch flaps. The art of extracting
nutriment from such articles is now lost.
"The Sandy Creek Voyage," as it was sometimes styled, appears to have
been directed against the Shawnee town near the junction of the Kanawha
and the Ohio, and perhaps to erect a fort there. The conduct of the
expedition was left almost entirely to the discretion of Major
Lewis.[492:A] Washington predicted the failure of the expedition, on
account of the length of the march, and even if it reached the Ohio, "as
we are told that those Indians are removed up the river into the
neighborhood of Fort Du Quesne."[492:B]
Old Outacite, or the Man-killer, was in distinction among the Cherokee
chiefs, second only to Attacullaculla, or the Little Carpenter. Outacite
attained a venerable age, and continued to be a steadfast friend of the
whites. At the massacre committed near Fort Loudoun, by his
interposition he rescued many from destruction.
Early in April, 1756, another Indian irruption, led on by the French,
spread consternation in the tramontane country, and threatened to
exterminate the inhabitants. Washington, now aged twenty-four, gave it
as his opinion that "five hundred Indians have it more in their power to
annoy the inhabitants than ten times their number of regulars." While
the unhappy people were flying from the barbarous foe, Washington, in
view of the inadequate means of protection, wrote to Governor Dinwiddie:
"The supplicating tears of the women and moving petitions of the men
melt me into such deadly sorrow, that I solemnly declare, if I know my
own mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering
enemy, provided that would contribute to the people's ease." In this
sentence we find the key to his whole character and history.
The governor immediately gave orders for a re-enforcement of militia to
assist him. The "Virginia Gazette," however, cast discredit and blame on
Washington and the force under his command. Virginia continued to be too
parsimonious and too indifferent to the sufferings of her people beyond
the mountains. The woods appeared to be alive with French and Indians;
each day brought fresh disasters and alarms. Washington found no
language expressive enough to portray the miseries of the country.
Affording all the succor in his power, he called upon the governor for
arms, ammunition, and provisions, and gave it as his opinion that a
re-enforcement of Indian allies was indispensable, as Indians alone
could be effectually opposed to Indians. Winchester, incorporated in
1752, was now almost the only settlement west of the Blue Ridge that was
not almost entirely deserted, the few families that remained being
sheltered in forts. West of the North Mountain the country was
depopulated, save a few families on the South Branch of the Potomac and
on the Cacapehon. About the close of April the French and Indians
returned to Fort Du Quesne laden with plunder, prisoners, and scalps.
Governor Dinwiddie recommended to the board of trade an extensive cordon
of forts, to cover the entire frontier of the colonies from Crown Point
to the country of the Creek Indians. His project was to pay for these
forts and support their garrisons by a land and poll tax, levied on all
the colonies by an act of parliament. Washington advised that Virginia
should guard her frontier by additional forts about fifteen miles apart.
Fort Loudoun was erected at Winchester, the key of that region, under
his superintendence. It was a square with four bastions; the batteries
mounted twenty-four guns; a well was sunk, mostly through a bed of
limestone; the barracks were sufficient for four hundred and fifty men.
Vestiges of this fortification still remain. Winchester, after the
erection of Fort Loudoun, increased rapidly, owing to its being the
rendezvous of the Virginia troops: in 1759 it contained two hundred
houses.
It is remarkable that as late as the year 1756, when the colony was a
century and a half old, the Blue Ridge of mountains was virtually the
western boundary of Virginia, and great difficulty was found in
completing a single regiment for the protection of the inhabitants of
the border country from the cruel irruptions of the Indians. Yet at this
time the population of the colony was estimated at two hundred and
ninety-three thousand, of whom one hundred and seventy-three thousand
were white, and one hundred and twenty thousand black, and the militia
were computed at thirty-five thousand fit to bear arms.
Dinwiddie wrote to Fox, (father of Charles James,) one of the
secretaries of state: "We dare not venture to part with any of our white
men any distance, as we must have a watchful eye over our negro slaves,
who are upwards of one hundred thousand." Some estimated them at one
hundred and fifty thousand, equal in number to the whites, but the
smaller estimate is probably more correct. The increase of the blacks
was rapid, and many lamented that the mother country should suffer such
multitudes to be brought from Africa to gratify the African Company,
"and overrun a dutiful colony." As to the question whether enslaving the
negroes is consistent with Christianity, the Rev. Peter Fontaine
remarks: "Like Adam, we are all apt to shift off the blame from
ourselves and lay it upon others; how justly, in our case, you may
judge. The negroes are enslaved by the negroes themselves before they
are purchased by the masters of the ships who bring them here. It is, to
be sure, at our choice whether we buy them or not; so this, then, is our
crime, folly, or whatever you will please to call it. But our assembly,
foreseeing the ill consequences of importing such numbers among us, hath
often attempted to lay a duty upon them which would amount to a
prohibition, such as ten or twenty pounds a head; but no governor dare
pass such a law, having instructions to the contrary from the board of
trade at home. By this means they are forced upon us whether we will or
will not. This plainly shows the African Company hath the advantage of
the colonies, and may do as it pleases with the ministry." "To live in
Virginia without slaves is morally impossible," and it was a hard task
for the planter to perform his duty toward them; for, on the one hand,
if they were not compelled to work hard, he would endanger his temporal
ruin; on the other hand, was the danger of not being able, in a better
world, to render a good account of his humane stewardship of
them.[495:A]
A long interval of tranquillity had enervated the planters of Virginia:
luxury had introduced effeminate manners and dissolute habits. "To eat
and drink delicately and freely; to feast, and dance, and riot; to
pamper cocks and horses; to observe the anxious, important, interesting
event, which of two horses can run fastest, or which of two cocks can
flutter and spur most dexterously; these are the grand affairs that
almost engross the attention of some of our great men. And little
low-lived sinners imitate them to the utmost of their power. The
low-born sinner can leave a needy family to starve at home, and add one
to the rabble at a horse-race or a cock-fight. He can get drunk and turn
himself into a beast with the lowest as well as his betters with more
delicate liquors." Burk, the historian of Virginia, who was by no means
a rigid censor, noticing the manners of the Virginians during the half
century preceding the Revolution, says: "The character of the people for
hospitality and expense was now decided, and the wealth of the land
proprietors, particularly on the banks of the rivers, enabled them to
indulge their passions even to profusion and excess. Drinking parties
were then fashionable, in which the strongest head or stomach gained the
victory. The moments that could be spared from the bottle were devoted
to cards. Cock-fighting was also fashionable."[495:B] On the same pages
he adds: "I find, in 1747, a main of cocks advertised to be fought
between Gloucester and James River. The cocks on one side were called
'_Bacon's Thunderbolts_,' after the celebrated rebel of 1676."
The pay of the soldiers in 1756 was but eight pence a day, of which two
pence was reserved for supplying them with clothes. The meagre pay, and
the practice of impressing vagrants into the military service, increased
much the difficulty of recruiting and of enforcing obedience and
subordination. Even Indians calling themselves friendly did not scruple
to insult and annoy the inhabitants of the country through which they
passed. One hundred and twenty Cherokees, passing through Lunenburg
County, insulted people of all ranks, and a party of Catawbas behaved so
outrageously at Williamsburg that it was necessary to call out the
militia.
Although Governor Dinwiddie was an able man, his zeal in military
affairs sometimes outstripped his knowledge, and Washington was at times
distracted by inconsistent and impracticable orders, and harassed by
undeserved complaints. It was indeed alleged by some, that if he could
have withstood the strong interest arrayed in favor of Washington, the
governor would rather have given the command to Colonel Innes, although
far less competent, and an inhabitant of another colony, North Carolina.
Dinwiddie's partiality to Innes was attributed, by those unfriendly to
the governor, to national prejudice, for they were both natives of
Scotland.[496:A] Yet it appears by Dinwiddie's letters that he urgently
pressed the rank of colonel on Washington.[496:B] Washington, in
his letters to Speaker Robinson, complains heavily of the governor's
line of conduct, and Robinson's replies were such as would widen the
breach.[496:C] The tenor of the governor's correspondence with
Washington, in 1757, became so ungracious, peremptory, and even
offensive, that he could not but attribute the change in his conduct
toward him to some secret detraction, and he gave utterance to a noble
burst of eloquent self-defence. Dinwiddie's position was indeed trying,
his measures being thwarted by a rather disaffected legislature and an
arrogant aristocracy, and the censures thrown upon him, coming to us
through a discolored medium of prejudice, ought to be taken with much
allowance. However this may be, harsh and rather overbearing treatment
from a British governor, together with the invidious distinctions drawn
between colonial and British officers in regard to rank, naturally
tended to abate Washington's loyalty, and thus gradually to fit him for
the great part which he was destined to perform in the war of
Independence.
Lord Loudoun, the newly-appointed governor of Virginia, and
commander-in-chief of the colonies, now arrived in America, and called
a conference of governors and military officers to meet him at
Philadelphia. Washington, by the rather ungracious and reluctant leave
of Dinwiddie, attended the conference. Yet Dinwiddie, in his letters to
Loudoun, said of him: "He is a very deserving gentleman, and has from
the beginning commanded the forces of this Dominion. He is much beloved,
has gone through many hardships in the service, has great merit, and can
raise more men here than any one." He therefore urged his promotion to
the British establishment.[497:A] Washington had previously transmitted
to the incompetent Loudoun an elaborate statement of the posture of
affairs in Virginia, exhibiting the insufficiency of the militia and the
necessity of an offensive system of operations. But Loudoun determined
to direct his main efforts against Canada, and to leave only twelve
hundred men in the middle and southern provinces. Instead of receiving
aid, Virginia was required to send four hundred men to South Carolina.
The Virginia Regiment was now reduced to a thousand men. Colonel
Washington, nevertheless, insisted that a favorable conjuncture was
presented for capturing Fort Du Quesne, since the French, when attacked
in Canada, would be unable to re-enforce that remote post. This wise
advice, although approved by Dinwiddie, was unheeded; and the campaign
of the North proved inglorious, that of the South ineffectual. Toward
the close of the year, Washington, owing to multiplied cares, vexations,
and consequent ill health, relinquished his post, and retired to Mount
Vernon, where he remained for several months.
In January, 1758, Robert Dinwiddie, after an arduous and disturbed
administration of five years, worn out with vexation and age, sailed
from Virginia not much regretted, except by his particular friends. A
scholar, a wit, and an amiable companion, in private life he deservedly
won esteem. The charge alleged against him of avarice and extortion in
the exaction of illegal fees, appears to have originated in political
prejudice, and that of failing to account for sums of money transmitted
by the British government, rests on the unsupported assertions of those
who were inimical to him. His place was filled for a short time by John
Blair, president of the council.
The Rev. Samuel Davies, by invitation, preached to the militia of
Hanover County, in Virginia, at a general muster, on the 8th of May,
1758, with a view to the raising a company for Captain Samuel Meredith.
In this discourse Davies said: "Need I inform you what barbarities and
depredations a mongrel race of Indian savages and French Papists have
perpetrated upon our frontiers? How many deserted or demolished houses
and plantations? How wide an extent of country abandoned? How many poor
families obliged to fly in consternation and leave their all behind
them? What breaches and separations between the nearest relations? What
painful ruptures of heart from heart? What shocking dispersions of those
once united by the strongest and most endearing ties? Some lie dead,
mangled with savage wounds, consumed to ashes with outrageous flames, or
torn and devoured by the beasts of the wilderness, while their bones lie
whitening in the sun, and serve as tragical memorials of the fatal spot
where they fell. Others have been dragged away captives, and made the
slaves of imperious and cruel savages: others have made their escape,
and live to lament their butchered or captivated friends and relations.
In short, our frontiers have been drenched with the blood of our
fellow-subjects through the length of a thousand miles, and new wounds
are still opening. We, in these inland parts of the country are as yet
unmolested, through the unmerited mercy of Heaven. But let us only
glance a thought to the western extremities of our body politic, and
what melancholy scenes open to our view! Now perhaps while I am
speaking, now while you are secure and unmolested, our fellow-subjects
there may be feeling the calamities I am now describing. Now, perhaps,
the savage shouts and whoops of Indians, and the screams and groans of
some butchered family, may be mingling their horrors and circulating
their tremendous echoes through the wilderness of rocks and
mountains."[499:A] There appears to be some resemblance between this
closing sentence and the following, in Fisher Ames' speech on the
western posts: "I can fancy that I listen to the yells of savage
vengeance and the shrieks of torture. Already they seem to sigh in the
western wind; already they mingle with every echo from the
mountains."[499:B]
FOOTNOTES:
[489:A] Memoir of Battle of Point Pleasant, by Samuel L. Campbell, M.D.,
of Rockbridge County, Va.
[489:B] Washington's Writings, ii. 125; Va. Hist. Reg.
[490:A] Father of the late Judge Archibald Stewart, of Augusta County,
and grandfather of the Honorable A. H. H. Stewart, Secretary of the
Interior under President Taylor.
[492:A] Lyman C. Draper, in Va. Hist. Register, 61; Howe's Hist.
Collections of Va., 352.
[492:B] Washington's Writings, ii. 125, 135.
[495:A] Huguenot Family, 348, 351.
[495:B] Burk's Hist. of Va., iii. 402.
[496:A] Bancroft, iv. 223.
[496:B] Sparks' Writings of Washington, ii. 262.
[496:C] Washington's Writings, ii. 217, in note.
[497:A] Bancroft, iv. 236.
[499:A] Davies' Sermons, iii. 68.
[499:B] These eloquent words may have been suggested by those of Davies.