 | [51] CHAPTER II. 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 |  |
[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 attacted 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
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
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
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
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
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 in 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,
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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.
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 1669, 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.
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.
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 brigadiergeneral.—L.
C. D.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Congress had given to Gen. Stephens, and some others (whose
senior Lewis had been in former services) commissions as Major Generals.
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.
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.
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 Bœuf, 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.
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.
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.
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 Bœuf. 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.
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.
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.
| [51] CHAPTER II. 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 | |