University of Virginia Library

In regard to the early settlement of the tract of Virginia west of New River, it is
said, that in 1754, six families only were residing on it—two on Back creek, in (now)
Pulaski county; two on Cripple creek, in Wythe county; one at the Town house, now
in Smyth county; and Burke's family, in Burke's Garden, Tazewell county. On the
breaking out of the French war, the Indians in alliance with the French made an irruption
into this valley, and massacred Burke and his family. The other families, finding
their situation too perilous to be maintained, returned to the eastern side of New River.
The renewal of the attempt to settle this part of the country was not made until after the
close of that war. A small fort, called Black's Fort, was erected when the country
around Abingdon was settled, at a point about 100 yards south of that village, on the
western bank of a small creek. It was one of those rude structures which the pioneers
were accustomed to make for defence against the Indians, consisting of a few log cabins
surrounded by a stockade, to which they always fled whenever Indian signs appeared.

Southwestern Virginia, at that day, had ceased to be the permanent residence of the
aborigines, but was the thoroughfare through which those tribes inhabiting the Rockcastle
hills, in the wilderness of Kentucky, passed to the old settlements of Virginia.
About two and a half miles northwest of the village, an old gentleman, by the name of
Cummings—familiarly known as Parson Cummings—resided. It frequently happened,
during times of excitement, when the whole population had repaired to the fort, that
provisions grew scarce, and it became necessary for some of the most fearless and athletic
to go out to the clearings and bring in supplies. On one occasion, several started
with a wagon to the clearing of Parson Cummings, and among the rest, the parson accompanied
them. About half a mile from the fort, upon what is called Piper's hill,
the company was surprised by a party of Indians, and one of their number killed. The
others, unprepared for such a reception, took to the bushes. The parson being somewhat
portly, and wearing one of those large powdered wigs deemed an essential accompaniment
of the gown in those days, rendered him conspicuous, and, of course, an object

of more particular pursuit. Accordingly, in his precipitate retreat, he was closely followed
by an active savage, with upraised tomahawk. The parson, in dodging under
the undergrowth, left the aforesaid wig suspended upon a bramble, seeing which, the Indian,
taking it for the parson's head, made a bound or two and grasped it, but, on finding
the head was not there, with a violent gesture, and all the lineaments of disappointment
drawn upon his face, he threw it upon the ground, exclaiming, "d—d lie!"
and doggedly gave up the chase. The parson, in the mean time, was concealed in the
bushes, within a few feet of the spot. The man who was killed was buried at a place
since comprising the village burial-place, and the spot where his ashes repose, is marked
with a rude, unhewn stone, with the inscription, "William Creswell, July 4, 1776."

As an evidence of the superstition even now occasionally existing among the lower
class of the country, there resided, in 1838, in the hills, a few miles from Abingdon, a
man by the name of Marsh, who was deemed by his neighbors not only honest and industrious,
but possessed of as much intelligence as most people in the lower walks of
life. This man was severely afflicted with scrofula, and imagined his disease to be the
effects of a spell, or pow-wow, practised upon him by a conjurer, or wizard, in the
neighborhood, by the name of Yates. This impression taking firm hold of Marsh's
mind, he was thoroughly convinced that Yates could, if he chose, remove the malady.
The latter, being termed an Indian doctor, was sent for, and administered his nostrums.
The patient, growing worse, determined to try another remedy, which was to take the
life of Yates. To accomplish this, he sketched a rude likeness of Yates upon a tree,
and shot at it repeatedly with bullets containing a portion of silver. Yates, contrary to
his expectations, still survived. Marsh then determined to draw a head upon the original,
and, accordingly, charged an old musket with two balls, an admixture of silver
and lead, watched an opportunity, and shot his victim as he was quietly passing along
the road, both balls entering the back of the neck. Yates, however, survived, and
Marsh was sent to the penitentiary.

About one hundred years ago—viz., in 1738—the counties of Frederick and Augusta
were formed out of Orange. These two western counties then embraced within their
jurisdiction the whole colony of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge. With the exception
of the few first settlers of Augusta and Frederick, it was all a howling and savage wilderness.
. . . As late as the year 1756, eighteen years after Frederick and Augusta
were formed into counties, the Blue Ridge was regarded, as Judge Marshall says, as the
northwestern frontier of Virginia, and she found an immense difficulty in completing a
single regiment to protect the inhabitants from the horrors of the scalping-knife, and the
still greater horrors of being led into captivity by those who added terrors to death by the
manner of inflicting it. Carlisle in Pennsylvania, Frederick in Maryland, and Winchester
in Virginia, were then frontier posts.

This division of the territory west of the Blue Ridge into counties, continued for 31
years, up to the year 1769, when the county of Botetourt was formed out of Augusta.
Botetourt then embraced all southwestern Virginia, south and west of Augusta. Three
years afterwards—viz., in 1772—the county of Fincastle was formed out of Botetourt.
The county of Fincastle then embraced all SW. Va. south and west of the Botetourt
line, which was near New River. In 1776, four years afterwards, the county of Fincastle
was divided into three counties, and called Kentucky, Washington, and Montgomery
counties, and the name of Fincastle became extinct.

Washington county, during the whole of the revolution and up to 1786, embraced
within its limits all southwestern Va., SW. of the Montgomery line. It included parts of
Grayson, Wythe, and Tazewell, all of Smyth, Scott, Russell, and Lee, with its present
limits.

The act establishing the county of Washington passed in October, 1776, but it was
not to go into operation until January, 1777. It received its military and civil organization
on the 28th of January, 1777. It is the oldest county of Washington in the U.
S., being the first that was called after the father of his country. The act establishing

the county passed in the first year of the commonwealth, and the county was organized
the first month of the new year.

The following are the first records made, in which the county received its civil and
military organization:

The same records exhibit the following as the military organization of the county in
this the first year of the commonwealth, and morning of the American revolution:—
Arthur Campbell, county lieutenant or colonel-commandant; Evan Shelby, colonel;
William Campbell, lieutenant-colonel; William Edminston and Daniel Smith, majors;
Captains, John Campbell, Joseph Martin, John Shelby, Sen., James Montgomery, Robert
Buchanan, Aaron Lewis, John Duncan, Gilbert Christian, James Shelby, James Dysart,
Thomas Masten, John Kinkead, John Anderson, William Bowen, George Adams, Robert
Craig, Andrew Colvill, and James Robertson. Some time after this organization, Col.
Evan Shelby resigned his commission, and William Campbell was appointed in his
place.

Among the records illustrating the times, is this:

The Cherokee Indians were defeated in this action, and massacre prevented upon the
frontier settlements. the savages were led on, it is said, by a bold chieftain called
"Dragon Canoe." He led his men, in some places, within thirty or forty paces of the
opposing party; and although he fought with the courage and skill of a Tecumseh or
Oceola, he was completely beaten in his own mode of warfare. Both parties fought behind
trees, with rifles, and both were girded with tomahawks, as weapons of self-defence
with the white, when in close personal conflict with his savage foe, and of massacre on
the part of the Indian, when his wounded enemy had fallen into his power. There was
no American officer in this well-fought action, of a higher rank than captain. Three
of that grade commanded volunteer companies from Washington county, Va., viz.:
John Campbell, James Shelby, and James Thompson. William Cocke commanded a
company from Tennessee, then the territory of North Carolina. There were other
captains out of Va., whose names are unknown to the writer.

The condition of the country is further disclosed by these annexed extracts:

Without flour, and without salt, these brave pioneers of a new county, cheerful and
gay, social and kind to each other, and linked together like a band of brothers, thought
of nothing but the sublime objects of the American revolution—the great cause of American
liberty. Avarice had not won its way to their patriotic souls. They fought for
freedom, and with their own weapons and war-steeds they volunteered and marched in
every direction, at their own expense, in which the cries of suffering humanity reached
them. These gallant Highlanders volunteered on the expedition against the Shawnees
at Pt. Pleasant, against the Cherokees at Long Island, and against the British at King's
Mountain and Guilford; against the Cherokees, under Col. Christian, and afterwards
under Col. Arthur Campbell in 1781. Col. Campbell, on this expedition, commanded
700 mounted riflemen. History gives him the credit of having first made the experiment

of attacking Indians with mounted riflemen, a mode of fighting on this occasion proving
completely successful.[2] He destroyed in this expedition 14 Indian towns, and burnt
50,000 bushels of corn. The cruel necessity also devolved upon him of destroying several
scattered settlements, and a large quantity of provisions, after supplying his own
army for their return.

Mr. Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, in a letter dated the 17th of Feb., 1781, to
the Continental Congress, enclosing the account of this expedition, remarks:

A few days after the return of the army across the Dan, Gen. Greene received a communication
from Col. Arthur Campbell, announcing the fortunate result of the expedition,
and stating that the Indians were desirous of submitting, and negotiating a treaty
with the proper authorities. It being at that early day doubtful in whom such a power
rested, Gen. Greene deemed the necessity of the case sanctioned him in nominating
commissioners for that purpose. On the 20th of February, 1781, he issued a commission
to Wm. Christian, Wm. Preston, Arthur Campbell, and Joseph Martin, of Virginia, and
to Robert Sevier, Evan Shelby, Joseph Williams, and John Sevier, of North Carolina,
to enter into a treaty for restoring peace, and establish the limits between the two states
and the Indian tribes; but with the wary precaution of limiting their powers by the
laws of those states, and the duration of the commission by the will of Congress or the

commander-in-chief. Under this commission was concluded that treaty which took
place the ensuing year.

During the summer of 1780, the militia of southwestern Virginia were kept constantly
on the alert, in consequence of the movements of the British army in South Carolina.
In August and September, 150 men from Washington county were in service
on New River, about the lead mines, and over the mountains in North Carolina, under
Col. Campbell, to prevent and suppress insurrections among the tories in those quarters.
In the fall of this year the regiment of Col. William Campbell was in the battle of King's
Mountain, and behaved with great bravery. The signal defeat which the enemy experienced
on that occasion crushed the hopes of the tories, and did much towards giving a
favorable turn to the tide of war in the southern states.[3]

Arthur Campbell was born in 1742, in Augusta county. When about fifteen years
old he volunteered as a militiaman, to perform a tour of duty in protecting the frontier
settlements against the incursions of the Indians, and was stationed in a fort which had
been erected about that period, near where the road leading from Staunton to the Warm
Springs at this time crosses the stream called the Cow Pasture. While engaged in this
service, a party of men from the fort, of which he was one, went some distance to a
plum thicket, in quest of plums. The Indians, lying in ambush, fired upon them, and
one of their balls grazed the knee of Arthur, then in one of the plum-trees. He sprang
to the ground, and the shock, together with the injury from the wound, although slight,
caused him to fall, and he was captured ere he could recover himself. The others
made their escape without injury.

This youth, a mere stripling, was loaded with Indian packs, and made to carry them
for seven days. The Indians, who were of one of the tribes in the vicinity of Lakes
Erie and Michigan, immediately set out for their country. He was soon exhausted,
unable to travel, and was treated with great severity. The aged chief in command interfered,
took him from the others, and protected him from further injury; and when
the party reached the Indian towns, this chief adopted him, and he remained in his
family during his captivity.

The young man now turned his attention to studying the Indian character, learning
their language and customs; and soon acquiring the confidence of his chief, became his
companion in all his hunting excursions, in which they rambled over the whole country
now forming Michigan, and the northern portions of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. In
1759, some portion of the British army was marched towards the upper lakes and the
country bordering on Lake Erie, with a view of bringing the Indian tribes to submission.
In what particular direction the force marched, the writer hereof has not now the
means of ascertaining. It was moving towards the borders of Lake Erie when runners
and traders made known to the Indians that such a force was marching towards their
country. Campbell knew that although they were several hundred miles distant, the
Indians would watch his every movement with the greatest suspicion; he, however,
formed the bold resolution of escaping to them. To accomplish it required skill and
cool determination, and the result showed he possessed both in a high degree. A hunting
excursion was soon projected, in which he joined; and after several days march in
an opposite direction somewhat from the army, the party left their camp one morning,
each separating for the day's hunt. Campbell took what he judged to be the proper
course, and in two weeks reached the British army. In this journey of several hundred
miles, partly through an unknown country, great peril was encountered in avoiding
Indian hunting parties; but he escaped all, furnishing himself meat with his rifle. On
reaching the outposts, he requested to be conducted to the commander. The officer was
deeply interested in his narrative, and being struck with the intelligence of the young

man, engaged him to pilot the army. In this he rendered them important service, and
soon after returned home.

During his three years of captivity, his friends had not heard of his destiny, and time
in some measure had healed the wounds inflicted by his supposed horrible fate. In
their imaginations his name had long been numbered with the dead, and to sooth the
feelings of his pious parents, it had been ceased to be mentioned in the midst of a numerous
family of brothers and sisters. A letter is unexpectedly received from him, dated
at Pittsburg, announcing his safety, and that in a few days he would have the pleasure
of meeting them at the parental hearth. The parents and children are overwhelmed
with joy at the prospect of once beholding and embracing their long-lost son and brother.
The eldest son starts immediately to meet him, and they meet in the road alone. The
captive boy has grown a tall youth, with the erect, manly step, and lofty air of the red
man. He reaches home, the neighbors flock to see him. He has acquired the taciturnity
of the Indian, and the thousand inquisitive interrogatories annoy him. Soon as he becomes
settled, instead of devoting his leisure to social amusements, he is acquiring a
knowledge from books that places him above his cotemporaries, and to the astonishment
of all, writes an elegant epistle to the governor of the state, detailing his captivity,
escape, and services rendered to the army as a guide; upon which the government then
allows him a thousand acres, near Louisville, Kentucky.

About four years before the commencement of the revolution, David Campbell (his
father) and family, (Arthur and one sister having emigrated two years previous,) moved,
and settled at a place called "the Royal Oak," on Holston River, then a wilderness and
an Indian hunting-ground. Arthur was soon appointed a major in the Fincastle county
militia, and in the spring of 1776 was elected to the Virginia assembly, and was a member
of the convention forming the constitution. In this convention he took a decided
stand against an established church, and although not a public speaker, influenced some
of the first members of the convention. While a member of the Assembly, he became
intimately acquainted with Edmund Pendleton, Richard Henry Lee, and George Mason,
and afterwards with Jefferson and Madison, with all of whom he corresponded. Previous
to this, he married the third sister of Gen. William Campbell, a lady of beauty, sprightliness,
and intelligence. When Washington county was formed, he was appointed
county lieutenant, or colonel-commandant. At this period there was a general military
spirit, and no officers resigned their commissions. Col. Campbell retained command of
this regiment (the 70th) for nearly thirty years; and there were in his corps several
captains with heads perfectly white with age. Before Col. Campbell reached the command
of a regiment, he was engaged in and commanded several military expeditions, as
well as after. The public documents at Richmond giving authentic accounts of public
affairs, were destroyed (it is supposed) by Arnold, and therefore previous to the date of
his colonelship, little can be learned about his public services. The crowning act of his
life, his brilliant services against the Cherokees, are elsewhere detailed.

Col. Campbell resided on the farm he first settled after coming to Holston, about
thirty-five years. He then removed to Yellow Creek, Knox county, Kentucky, where
he died of a cancer in the face, in the 74th year of his age. Col. Campbell was tall, of
a dignified air, a man of extensive reading, and fine conversational talents. With the
mass of society he was unpopular, although respected, owing mainly to his not relaxing
in his manner to suit it. His temper being hasty and overbearing, occasioned violent
quarrels and bitter enemies. He was a zealous whig, and in the gloomiest hour had
not a doubt of an auspicious result to the contest.

Col. Arthur Campbell had two sons, who died in the army during the late war. Capt.
James Campbell died at Mobile, and Col. John B. Campbell fell at Chippewa, where
he commanded the right wing of the army under Gen. Winfield Scott. He was a gallant
and a humane officer, and in the winter of 1813, commanded an expedition against
the Indians on the Wabash, and had a bloody battle with them at Mississinewa, and
finally destroyed their towns.

Gen. William Campbell, the subject of this memoir, was a native of Augusta, in the
state of Virginia, of the true Caledonian race by the maternal line, as well as that by the
father. Being an only son, he received a liberal education under the best teachers of
those times. He had an ardent mind, very susceptible of literary improvement, and
acquired early in life a correct knowledge of the English language, of ancient and modern
history, and of several branches of the mathematics. Nature had formed him for a
commander in military capacity. His personal appearance was grave and masculine,
being something about six feet high, and well proportioned; in conversation rather

reserved and thoughtful; in his written communications expressive and elegant. His
patriotism was not of a timid cast. He never balanced between his military duty and
prudential maxims. When his ire was excited, he showed in his countenance the fury
of an Achilles. The trusty Andreferrara, the sword he wore on the day of battle, was
once the property of his grandfather from Scotland, and he had an arm and a spirit
that could wield it with effect. In the year 1775, he was of the first regular troops
raised in Virginia, being honored with a captain's commission in the first regiment.
Here he acquired a practical knowledge of tactics and the discipline of an army. In
the latter part of the year 1776, he resigned his commission on account of the Indian
war breaking out, by which his family and friends were exposed to immediate danger.
Soon after he was promoted to be lieut.-colonel of the militia of Washington county, and
the next year, on the resignation of Evan Shelby, sen., to that of colonel of the regiment.
In this rank he remained until after the battle of King's Mountain, and of Guilford,
when he was appointed by a vote of the legislature of Virginia, to rank as a brigadier-general,
and was ordered to join the Marquis Lafayette, to oppose the invasion of the
enemy in 1781. After the defeat of Ferguson, the British general, Cornwallis, imbibed
a personal resentment, and had the temerity to threaten if Gen. Campbell fell into his
hands, he would have instantly been put to death for his rigor against the tories. This,
instead of intimidating, had the contrary effect, and in turn the American general resolved,
if the fortune of war should place Cornwallis in his power, he should meet the
fate of Ferguson. This soon after, at the battle of Guilford, had nearly been the case,
for had all the militia behaved with the same firmness and courage as on the wing
where Gen. Campbell commanded, the British army must have met with a total defeat.
On forming the army in Virginia, under the Marquis Lafayette, in 1781, Gen. Campbell
became a favorite of that gallant nobleman, who gave him the command of the
brigade of light infantry and riflemen. A few weeks before the siege of Yorktown, he
took sick of a complaint in his breast, which obliged him to retire from the army to a
friend's house in the country, and there, after a short sickness, to end his days in the
thirty-sixth year of his age, much lamented by the friends of liberty who knew him.
Of his military character we have given a short sketch. His moral sentiments and
social demeanor in civil life were exemplary. Although an only son, and an heir to
a considerable property, he never gave way to the fashionable follies of young men
of fortune. He well knew that vice, at any time of life, or in any shape, darkens the
understanding, perverts the will, and thus injures social order in every grade of society.
He kept a strict guard on his own passions, and was by some deemed too severe in
punishing the deviations of others. His military career was short but brilliant. Warren
and Montgomery acted on a conspicuous stage, and deserved the eulogiums so
often repeated. Campbell undertook a no less arduous task, with an inferior number
of undisciplined militia. He marched in a few days near two hundred miles, over vast
mountains, in search of the enemy, who were commanded by an experienced officer, of
known bravery and military skill, and who had chosen his field for battle. It was
[King's Mountain] rather a fortification than an open space for combatants to meet
upon. The assault of the Americans was impetuous and irresistible, and the event was
victory to a wish. This victory resulted in the retreat of the main British army a considerable
distance, and their relinquishment of the scheme of invading Virginia that
year. It also reanimated all the friends of liberty in the southern states, and was the
prelude of adverse events to the enemy, which, in the course of the next campaign,
terminated in their final overthrow.[4]

Judge Peter Johnson, who resided in this vicinity in the latter part of his life, was
originally intended for the church. At the breaking out of the revolution he clandestinely
left his father's house, and joined the legion of Lee. Proving a most vigilant and
prudent soldier, he was promoted to a lieutenancy. At the siege of Augusta, a ditch
of the besiegers was occupied by Lieut. Johnson and 24 men. Early in the night information
was received that a party of 40 British soldiers and Indians were approaching.
Johnson immediately ordered his men, who had their muskets loaded, to sit on their

hams on the reverse of the ditch. In a few minutes the enemy were heard stealthily
advancing. When they were within a few yards, he gave the order, and his men suddenly
rising took deliberate aim and poured in upon them a deadly fire. They were
completely routed, and instead of surprising Johnson were themselves surprised. His
intrepidity and coolness on this occasion saved his detachment from being cut off.

While his brother officers were spending their time in dissipation, Johnson was pursuing
his studies. After the war he acquired distinction at the bar, was elected speaker
of the House of Representatives, and finally received the appointment of judge. He
left a numerous family, some of whom are now residing in this county.