1780.
Logan--Leslie's Invasion--Removal of Convention Troops.
IN the fall of 1779 Logan, the Indian chief, had again resumed his
onslaughts on the banks of the Holston. In June, 1780, when Captain
Bird, of Detroit, long the headquarters of British and Indian barbarity,
invaded Kentucky, Logan joined in the bloody raid. He was now about
fifty-five years of age. Not long after this inroad, Logan, at an Indian
council held at Detroit, while phrenzied by liquor, prostrated his wife
by a sudden blow, and she fell apparently dead. Supposing that he had
killed her, he fled to escape the penalty of blood. While travelling
alone on horseback he was all at once overtaken, in the wilderness
between Detroit and Sandusky, by a troop of Indians, with their squaws
and children, in the midst of whom he recognized his relative
Tod-hah-dohs. Imagining that the avenger was at hand, Logan frantically
exclaimed that the whole party should fall by his weapons. Tod-hah-dohs
perceiving the danger, and observing that Logan was well armed, felt the
necessity of prompt action; and while Logan was leaping from his horse
to execute his threat, Tod-hah-dohs levelled a shot-gun within a few
feet of him and killed him on the spot. Tod-hah-dohs, or the Searcher,
originally from Conestoga, and probably a son of Logan's sister who
lived there, was better known as Captain Logan. He left children, (two
of whom have been seen by Mr. Lyman C. Draper;) so that in spite of
Logan's speech some of his blood, at least collaterally, still runs in
human veins. Logan's wife recovered from the blow given her by her
husband, and returned to her own people.[706:A]
On the 2d of October, 1780, Major Andre was executed as a spy.
Beverley Robinson, a son of the Honorable John Robinson, of Virginia,
president of the colony, removed to New York, and married Susanna,
daughter of Frederick Philipse, Esq., who owned a vast landed estate on
the Hudson. When the Revolution commenced, Beverley Robinson desired to
remain in retirement, being opposed to the measures of the ministry, and
to the separation of the colonies from the mother country. The
importunity of friends induced him to enter the military service of the
crown, and he became colonel of the Loyal American Regiment. He was
implicated in Arnold's treason, and accompanied Andre in the Vulture.
Andre, when captured, was taken to Colonel Robinson's house, which had
been confiscated, and then occupied by Washington. Robinson was sent by
Sir Henry Clinton as a witness in behalf of Andre.
Prince William Henry, afterwards William the Fourth, was a guest of
Colonel Robinson, in New York, during the revolutionary war. Several of
his descendants, and those of Captain Roger Morris, have attained
distinction. Among them Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson, son of Colonel
Beverley Robinson, was an officer of rank under Wellington, and saw hard
service in the Peninsular war, and was dangerously wounded at the siege
of St. Sebastians. In the war of 1812 he led the British in the attack
on Plattsburg, under Prevost.[707:A]
On the twentieth of October, a British fleet, in accordance with
intelligence which had been communicated by spies and deserters, made
its appearance in the Chesapeake. General Leslie was at the head of the
troops aboard. Having landed, they began to fortify Portsmouth. Their
highest post was Suffolk, and they occupied the line between Nansemond
River and the Dismal Swamp. A person of suspicious appearance,
endeavoring to pass through the country from Portsmouth toward North
Carolina, was apprehended; and upon its being proposed to search him he
readily consented, but at the same time he was observed to put his hand
into his pocket and carry something toward his mouth, as if it were a
quid of tobacco. Upon examination it proved to be a letter, written on
silk-paper, and rolled up in gold-beaters' skin, and nicely tied at
each end, so as to be no larger than a goose-quill. The letter was as
follows:--
"To LORD CORNWALLIS:--
"MY LORD,--I have been here near a week, establishing a post.
I wrote to you to Charleston, and by another messenger by
land. I cannot hear with certainty where you are. I wait your
orders. The bearer is to be handsomely rewarded if he brings
me any note or mark from your lordship.
A. L.
"Portsmouth, Virginia, November 4, 1780."
It was a source of mortification to Governor Jefferson and other
patriots that the State was unable to defend herself for want of arms.
In compliance with the call of the executive, General Nelson made an
effort to collect the militia of the lower counties, and to secure at
least the pass at the Great Bridge; but his exertions were ineffectual,
as the alarmed inhabitants made it their first business to secure their
families and property from danger. General Lawson, who had at this time
raised a corps of five hundred volunteers to march to the aid of South
Carolina, was called on to aid in defending his own State, and General
Stevens was preparing to march with a detachment of the Southern army to
her aid when[708:A] Leslie sailed for South Carolina to re-enforce
Cornwallis. Leslie during his stay had abstained entirely from
depredation and violence. Many negroes who had gone over to him were
left behind, either from choice or from want of ship-room. The chief
injury resulting from this invasion was the loss of cattle collected for
the use of the Southern army. Another consequence of it was the removal
of the troops of convention from the neighborhood of Charlottesville.
They marched early in October, and crossing the Blue Ridge proceeded
along the valley to Winchester, where they were quartered in barracks.
Some of the men occupied a church, and about sixty were confined in
jail, probably to prevent desertion. The troops were thence removed to
Fredericktown, Maryland, and afterwards to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The
German troops of convention remained longer in Albemarle: they were
removed early in 1781, and quartered at Winchester, and the Warm
Springs, in Berkley.
The assembly of Virginia was preparing, in the winter of this year, to
weather, as well as possible, the storm which was gathering against her;
but without Northern assistance she was hardly able to cope with the
enemy. She wanted clothes, arms, ammunition, tents, and other warlike
stores. Ten millions of paper dollars were issued from necessity, but it
was evident that it would be as transient, as a dream at the present,
and pernicious in its consequences; yet without it no resistance could
be made to the enemy.
FOOTNOTES:
[706:A] Brantz Mayer's Discourse on Logan and Cresap, 66.
[707:A] Sabine's Loyalists, 562.
[708:A] November fifteenth.