University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER I

MILITARY ACTIVITIES—DUNMORE'S WAR—
INDIAN TROUBLES

After Lord Dunmore abandoned Williamsburg on June 6,
1775, his authority was at first narrowed down to the compass
of the man-of-war Fowey, in which he took refuge. When
the Fowey was relieved by the frigates Mercury and Mars, he
transferred his authority to the decks of those vessels. At
first he had only the sailors and mariners of those two frigates
under his control, but he was afterwards re-enforced from St.
Augustine in Florida by about 160 men of the Fourteenth
Regiment of the line. He made Gosport, a village on the
Elizabeth River opposite Norfolk, his headquarters, and left
undisturbed, he finally gathered about him a small and motley
company of recruits, mostly Scotch clerks and runaway negroes.

These were re-enforced from time to time until he had
about 800 men in his service, and his fleet consisted of the two
ships of war, the Otter and the King Fisher (the Mercury
and the Mars having left the colony), three merchantmen, one
of which was the William, on which Dunmore made his residence,
and a number of armed barges and tenders.

But how to maintain these forces became the question with
him, and the county committees along the Chesapeake, by
their rigid enforcement of the Continental Association, soon reduced
him to the condition of a blockade. He was compelled,
therefore, to send out foraging parties, and the first open violence
occurred through the predatory proceedings of a certain
Captain Squires of the Sloop-of-war Otter, who, in the month
of August, cruised in Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay,

plundering plantations and carrying off slaves. On September
2, 1775, while engaged in this kind of work, one of his tenders
was driven on shore near Hampton by a storm. The incensed
inhabitants appropriated the guns and supplies and burned
the tender, but did not injure or detain the crew. Thereupon
Lord Dunmore sent several times and demanded the return
of the stores, which was refused. In the meantime, James
Innis, usher in the College and captain of the Williamsburg
Volunteers, was sent down from Williamsburg with 100 men
to defend the town. Later the town was defended by a company
of regulars under Col. George Nicholas.

In the latter part of October, Squires appeared near Hampton
with several tenders, he in one himself, as the depth of the
water would not permit his taking one of the sloops of war.
One of the tenders going too near the town and not suspecting
any deadly work, was suddenly fired upon from one of the
windows of a house, and two of her men were killed and two
were wounded. This was the first bloodshed. Indications
pointing to a renewal of the attack next day, Col. Woodford
was sent down with Captain John Green's company of riflemen
from Culpeper, and he arrived just in time to take part in
the repulse of the second attempt upon the town. Hostilities
at Norfolk were begun by Dunmore in the latter part of September,
1775. Hitherto, he had contented himself with remaining
on his ship in the harbor, where his presence caused some
irritation. Now one morning he landed some grenadiers and
mariners and surprised a printing establishment owned by
John Holt, who in his paper had been abusing Capt. Squires
and would not desist when requested. The Norfolk militia
made no fight, and Norfolk was greatly blamed by the authorities
in Williamsburg, where some 1300 or 1400 volunteers had
collected.[1]

Loyalists complained in their letters that the provincials
were breathing threatenings against the town, and in anticipation

of its destruction a third of the people left, some who
were royalists for England and some who were revolutionists
for the interior.

The shedding of blood at Hampton determined Dunmore to
more active hostilities, and hearing that some provincial troops
had taken a stand at Great Bridge, on the south branch of
the Elizabeth River, twelve miles due south of the town, he embarked
his little corps consisting of about 150 grenadiers and
twenty or thirty loyalists from Norfolk and moved by water
up to within 4 miles of the bridge, only to find no one there.
He, therefore, turned east along the edge of a large forest to
Kempsville, where he had learned some 200 or 300 of the local
militia were encamped.

On his approach the militiamen fired a volley and wounded
a man, whereupon the regulars charged and soon put the Virginians
to flight. The British pursued them for a mile, killed
a few, drove others into a creek where they were drowned,
and took some prisoners, including Col. Joseph Hutchins,
the commander. Greatly elated, Dunmore, on Nov. 14, 1776,
issued his proclamation (dated a week before) declaring martial
law and proclaiming freedom to the negroes, occupied the
Great Bridge, which secured the greatest part of two counties
to supply him with provisions, and ordered a regiment to be
raised, called the "Queen's Own Loyal Regiment," consisting
of a Lieutenant-Colonel, Commandant, Major and ten companies.
Of this regiment he commissioned Jacob Ellegood,
of Princess Anne County, as the Lieutenant-Colonel, and John
Saunders, of the same county, as Major.

It is curious to see how history repeats itself. Dunmore's
offer of freedom to the slaves was a war measure and contemplated
the same result as Lincoln did in 1861, viz.: the
breaking up of the opposing army by the menace of massacre
and of destruction at home. Thus Dunmore wrote[2] on November
30, to General Howe in New York: "I immediately upon
this (the victory at Kempsville) issued the enclosed proclamation,

which has had a wonderful effect, as there are no less
than 300 who have taken and signed the enclosed oath. The
blacks are also flocking from all quarters, which I hope will
oblige the rebels to disperse, to take care of their families
and property."

For some short time after these proceedings Dunmore
continued on the tide of prosperity. He kept the Virginians
in hot water by sending his tenders up the James River and
to other parts of the country, and by this means captured
over four score pieces of ordnance and a number of his active
enemies. But retribution overtook him very soon. The Committee
of Safety was provoked at last into taking adequate
measures to drive Dunmore from his position at Norfolk.
Edmund Pendleton, the chairman, was practically the directing
head of this body, and as such was the most powerful man
in Virginia during the latter part of 1775.

Ever since June recruits from different counties had been
gathering in Williamsburg. The convention which assembled
July 17 found the governor not only absent from his post, but
threatening war upon the colony. In a purely defensive spirit,
ordinances were passed embodying three regiments of one
thousand men each, and, in addition, five companies, aggregating
425 men, to be posted along the western borders to
guard against any attack of the Indians. Patrick Henry was
made commander-in-chief and colonel of the first regiment;
Thomas Nelson, Jr., colonel of the second; and William Woodford,
colonel of the third; but Nelson declined the appointment,
and the number of regiments was reduced to two, and
Williamsburg was made the rendezvous of the troops.

The call of the convention brought to Williamsburg a large
body of volunteers, more than were necessary to fill the two
regiments. The men came together in various uniforms, or
without uniforms, and mostly armed with their own fowling
pieces. The company from Culpeper county were dressed in
green hunting shirts, with the words of Patrick Henry, "Liberty
or Death" in large white letters on their breasts, bucktails

in their hats, and scalping knives and tomahawks in their belts.
Their flag displayed the significant device of a coiled rattlesnake
with the motto "Don't tread on me."

Patrick Henry arrived September 23, 1775, and chose for
his encampment the field back of William and Mary College,
and having formed the men in two regiments, the officers commenced
drilling them in company and regiment tactics. The
Committee had appointed William Christian lieutenant-colonel
and Francis Eppes major to the first regiment, and Charles
Scott lieutenant-colonel and Alexander Spotswood major to
the second regiment.

With these forces at hand to maintain its authority, the
Committee of Safety decided to send troops against Dunmore,
and on October 24, 1775, the second regiment, commanded
by Woodford and the Culpeper battalion of minute men,
commanded by Capt. John Green, were selected for the purpose.

In making this selection the Committee slighted Col.
Henry, who was not only colonel of the First Regiment, but
commanding officer of the Virginia forces. Pendleton, the
chairman, had opposed Henry at many times, beginning with
the Stamp Act; and mingled with this political antagonism
there was a genuine doubt of Henry's ability as a soldier, a
doubt in which Washington himself shared. Woodford, on
the other hand, was a fellow countryman and an intimate friend
of Pendleton, and had some military experience which Henry
did not have.

Early in November, Col. Woodford marched with so much
of his regiment as he was able to provide with arms, numbering
with the minute men about 700 soldiers, and being prevented
by some of Dunmore's ships from crossing with all
his troops the river at Jamestown, crossed the major part of
them higher up at Sandy Point. Here he learned through a
messenger from Capt. Willis Riddick, commanding the militia
at Suffolk, of a design of Lord Dunmore to attack that place
and destroy the provisions collected there. This call reached

General William Woodford

him on the night of November 20, and early next morning he
detached Lt. Col. Charles Scott to make a forced march with
215 men to the help of the place, he himself following as
promptly as possible with the rest of the troops, now including
a detachment of the first regiment. He reached Suffolk
in time to relieve it from the threatened attack, and continuing
his march found the forces of Lord Dunmore entrenched at
the Great Bridge. Here on December 9 his Lordship, deceived
as to Woodford's strength by a servant of Major Marshall,
who had feigned desertion, gave battle with some 200 regulars
and 300 negroes and Tories.

The British grenadiers bravely charged across the Bridge
and were mowed down by the unerring bullets of the "Shirt
Men," as the British called the Virginians. More than half
the regulars were killed, and seventeen covered with wounds
were taken prisoners. Every officer was either killed or
wounded. On the side of the Virginians not a man was lost
and only one received a slight wound. The fight was a Bunker
Hill on a smaller scale, with results far more favourable to the
Americans.[3]

Lord Dunmore fell back to Norfolk, and Col. Robert Howe
having joined Woodford with a regiment of North Carolina
troops, his Lordship deemed it most expedient to retire to his
ships, leaving the negroes he had induced to take up arms to
shift for themselves. How our ancestors looked upon Dunmore's
attempt to rouse the negroes is shown by their actions
at this time. No death punishment was visited upon either
Tory or slave, but such Tories as were captured in actual arms
were sent to various places of confinement, each coupled with
a pair of handcuffs to a black fellow soldier.

The "Victorious Rebels," now numbering about 1275 men[4]

entered Norfolk on December 14, 1775, about 10 o'clock at
night, and the next morning Col. Howe assumed chief command,
by virtue of the precedence in time of his commission.
A proclamation was issued offering pardon to all persons who
would take the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth.

It is surprising that even after these events the character of
a real war was not recognized by either side, the defensive attitude
being still kept up by the Americans. Captain James
Barron, of Hampton, cut off the supplies to Dunmore's fleet
at Norfolk by arming and equipping a fast pilot boat which
put a stop to his foraging expeditions. In this condition of
things the arrival of the frigate Liverpool, mounting 28 guns,
and a brig laden with arms and ammunition and 400 men
brought things to a crisis. On December 24, Henry Bellew,
captain of the Liverpool, sent in a flag of truce to make known
his want of fresh provisions, and asking to be furnished therewith,
as had been customary upon the arrival of one of his majesty's
ships. Howe and Woodford did not want to provoke
Bellew, and so, while refusing a general supply, complimented
Bellew with fresh provisions for his own table. This naturally
increased the irritation of the British soldiers, and on the first
of January, 1776, they opened up a heavy cannonade against
the town from the Liverpool, the Otter, the King Fisher, and
the Dunmore, and under its cover several parties of mariners
and sailors were landed and set fire to the houses on the
wharves.

The fires begun by balls or landing parties spread with
great rapidity, chiefly through the agency of provincial troops.
The destruction caused by the ships was confined to the
water's edge, but the provincial troops involved the whole
place in the catastrophe. On January 2, when the firing had
ceased, the riflemen continued the work of destruction, and it
was not till the 3rd day that Woodford interfered and put a
stop to the rapine, but by that time more than two-thirds of
Norfolk was in ashes. In February, 1776, the remainder was
destroyed by order of the Convention. Norfolk had an ill

reputation on account of its Tory population, and Howe gave
expression to the general idea of the army that its destruction
would be beneficial to the public. It was a place the enemy
could reach at any time, inhabited by a population wholly given
up to trade and without devotion to the American cause. Nevertheless,
the blame of its destruction was put upon the British,
and not without some justification, as the British took the
initiative, which the Americans would not have done.

Any way viewed, however, it was a melancholy event. Norfolk
was the richest and most flourishing town in the colony. In
two years, from 1773 to 1775, the rents of the houses increased
from £8,000 to £10,000 a year. Its population exceeded 6,000
and many of the merchants were possessed of affluent fortunes.
The actual loss has been estimated at more than £300,000
sterling and the mass of distress attendant upon so
many people being driven from their homes was beyond calculation.[5]

The bombardment of Norfolk was a very foolish act of
Lord Dunmore, since he deprived his sovereign of an open
seaport and a center of British influence. When the fleet, which
he had urged and prayed for, at last arrived, Norfolk, instead
of presenting a useful and convenience base for operations,
was a mere heap of ruins, and held out few inducements for
occupation.

From this time till 1st of June, 1776, Dunmore continued
on his fleet before Norfolk. Occasional brushes occurred
between the Virginia troops and landing parties from the
ships. Early in February the Virginia troops abandoned Norfolk,
after sending away the few people still living there, burning
all the remaining houses, and demolishing Dunmore's entrenchments.
Detachments were quartered at Kempsville,
Great Bridge and Suffolk, points more accessible than Norfolk,
and easier to provision. Shortly afterwards the frigate
Roebuck arrived with some re-enforcements and enabled Dunmore

to take possession of the village of Portsmouth, across
the Elizabeth River from Norfolk. Portsmouth now became
his base from which he sent out along the Chesapeake Bay tenders
and ships, which took a number of American vessels
as prizes and occasionally made raids on the plantations along
the rivers.[6]

But Dunmore did not have his whole way in these expeditions.
A tender was attacked in the Rappahannock by sailboats
manned by people in the neighborhood and escaped
with difficulty. James Barron intercepted a boat dispatched
by Lord Dunmore to Maryland to convey to Governor Eden
of that state letters addressed to him by the British secretary
of state. These letters imported a valuable warning, for they
gave information of an intended attack on the Southern States
by a heavy armament of ships and men, about to sail at the
time of writing.[7]

In the meantime things were not going on very smoothly
in military and official circles at Williamsburg. While Woodford
was by his victory at Great Bridge the hero of the hour,
Henry was compelled to remain at Williamsburg with duties
that amounted to little more than posting his men at different
points liable to attack on the James and York Rivers. What
increased the awkwardness of his situation was Woodford's
refusal to report to him directly and his decision to report
directly to the Committee of Safety. On Henry's appeal to
that body it attempted to compromise matters by passing a
resolution directing Woodford to report to Col. Henry at all
proper times, but to receive orders from the Convention or
Committee when either was sitting, otherwise from Col. Henry.
This resolution seems to have been accepted by Colonel Henry
as a settlement of the matter, though not satisfactory to him;
and as Colonel Woodford was now acting under Col. Howe,
of North Carolina, who was immediately under the Convention
or Committee, the resolution did not make much of a concession.

Col. Henry was kept inactive at Williamsburg and Howe
and Woodford were at the head of all the active services performed.
When the Convention determined to offer six regiments
to the continental establishment, while the first and
second Virginia were included with their colonels in the six,
Congress passed Henry over to appoint Robert Howe and
Andrew Lewis brigadier-generals. Wounded by this distrust,
proceedings largely from jealousy no doubt, Henry resigned
his commission and retired to private life. His action
produced a commotion in camp and all the troops put on mourning,
and in an address delivered to him the troops applauded
the "spirited resentment" which he had manifested to the
"most glaring indignity."

By his resignation, Henry was deprived of the opportunity
of proving his military capacity, but most of the officers
of the American army were technically ignorant, and, as Dr.
Eckenrode aptly says,[8] there seems no reason why a man "so
audacious, determined and masterful as Patrick Henry should
not have been a successful brigade commander. Politics and
war have much in common." It is doubtful, however, whether
his resignation was not a fortunate event. By leaving the
army he played a great part in founding the Commonwealth
of Virginia, and if his enemies calculated by their opposition
upon destroying him, they soon found out that he was more influential
out of the army than in it.

In March, Charles Lee, Major-General in the Continental
service, was appointed by Congress to take command of the
situation in the South. He laid a strong hand upon the
Tories in Portsmouth and Princess Anne County. From the
former, which was Dunmore's base, he removed all the inhabitants
and demolished the houses of the leading merchants,
Andrew Sproule, Neill Jameson, John Goodrich and others,
and at his advice the Convention of Virginia ordered all persons
in Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties to retire into
the interior at least 30 miles from the enemy, but subsequently

limited their resolution to the immediate neighborhood on the
protest of the friends of government in those counties. On
May 20, Lee fought a skirmish from the shore at Norfolk with
the ships, and a few days later Dunmore, finding his position
in the Elizabeth River no longer tenable, sailed away with
his whole flotilla of 103 sail, and entrenched himself at
Gwynn's Island, in Chesapeake Bay.

While General Lee was busy at Charleston in repelling
the attack of Sir Peter Parker, Brigadier-General Andrew
Lewis and Col. Adam Stephen undertook to settle matters with
Dunmore. Fire rafts, row-galleys, and floating batteries were
constructed, and Capt. Barron dealt Dunmore a severe blow
by capturing 218 Highlanders who had put into Chesapeake
Bay with the hope of finding employment with Dunmore. On
July 8, General Lewis reached the camp before Gwynn's Island,
and opened a cannonade on Dunmore's fleet, stationed
within easy range. The Dunmore and Otter were so severely
injured that they slipped their cables and hauled off, followed
by all the rest of the motley shipping. On the next morning,
some of Lewis' soldiers effecting a landing on the island,
a panic seized Dunmore's men, so that they precipitately evacuated
the place, leaving behind many valuable stores. By
the smallpox and other malignant disorders which had raged
on board the ships during their stay at Norfolk and Gwynn's
Island, and by the destructive effect of hostile shots, more than
500 men were destroyed, and the island was covered with dying
men and recent graves.

The news of the defeat of Sir Henry Clinton and Sir Peter
Parker at Charleston spread through Virginia about the same
time as did the news of the discomfiture of Lord Dunmore at
Gwynn's Island. On Saturday, July 13, 1776, Col. Landon Carter,
from his seat on the Rappahannock, wrote[9] in his Diary:
"The report from our Courthouse is that Gen. Lee has beat
Clinton in South Carolina a prodigious battle, drove the army
all away and killed General Clinton, that our Gloster batteries

and forces drove Dunmore and all his fleet from Gwynn's Island,
sunk six ships, took two and disabled the men-of-war
so much they were obliged to go away." "14, Sunday, July,
1776. This night at 9 all Tappahannock illuminated, and as
low down as at Clements' house, where Ritchie lives."

Driven from Gwynn's Island, Dunmore tried to land on
St. George's Island in Maryland, but was prevented from doing
so by the militia. He plundered and burned several plantation
houses along the Potomac and again attacked St.
George's Island with no better fortune. Not being able to
find a safe place for further operations, he dropped down the
bay with all his fleet and, dispatching the remnant of his followers
to Florida and the West Indies, sailed to New York,
from which place after a short sojourn he sailed to England.
In 1786 he was appointed governor of Bermuda, and in 1809 he
died.

Apparently no language has been thought by American
historians too harsh in depicting the character of Lord Dunmore.
He has been denounced as a robber, plunderer, and
instigator of a servile massacre, and in this character he has
come down to our own day. But it is probably time to reconsider
this verdict. Dunmore, as a matter of fact, did not approve
the action of the government in England in continuing to
lay taxes on America, and eagerly tried to effect an accommodation
between the Colony and the Mother Country. It should
also be remembered in his favor that when some prominent
Americans, like Benjamin Franklin, tried to divest Virginia
of her western territory, Dunmore boldly stood up against
the authorities in England in behalf of the colony and for a
year or more was very much liked for his affable and agreeable
manner in his intercourse with the people. After he returned
to England, his home and his pocketbook were open to the
Virginia loyalists—Randolph, Grymes, Brockenbrough, Beverley,
Wormeley, Corbin, Hubard, and others—who were execrated
like himself, but who for the sake of their convictions
abandoned everything they had to the malice of their enemies.

With the adoption of a state constitution on June 29, 1776,
the direction of matters passed from the Conservatives, led by
Edmund Pendleton, chairman of the Committee of Safety, to
the Progressives, led by Patrick Henry, who represented the
real spirit of revolutionary Virginia. He was triumphantly
vindicated from the slights of the Committee of Safety by his
election over Thomas Nelson, Sr., who had long held the office
of Secretary of State, and was now supported in his opposition
by Pendleton and the other Conservatives.[10] Nevertheless, such
was the spirit of conciliation apparent at all times in Virginia,
and such was the respect had for Pendleton that he
was elected Speaker in October of the new house of delegates.
This was illustrative of Mr. Jefferson's statement in his autobiography:—"Unanimity
was maintained in Virginia by the
bolder spirits slackening their pace on different measures that
the less ardent might keep up, and they on their part differing
nothing in principle, quickened their gait, so that by the harmony
of the bold with the cautious we advanced with our
constituents in undivided mass, and with fewer examples of
separation in Virginia than perhaps existed in any other
part of the Union."

This balance of parties appears to have been kept up all
through the Revolution. At the succeeding session, Jefferson
of the Progressives, nominated for speaker George Wythe,
who had started as a Conservative but was now a marked Progressive.
He was elected. Wythe, however, was succeeded
by Benjamin Harrison, a Conservative, who defeated Jefferson
for the speakership by fifty-one to twenty-three votes.
During the absence of Harrison, at the March session in 1781,
Richard Henry Lee, who had been a Progressive but was now

Benjamin Harrison

rather conservative in his views, occupied the chair. In 1783,
John Tyler, a Progressive, who had already served two years
as speaker, was nominated for re-election by Patrick Henry,
and by a vote of 61 to 20, defeated R. H. Lee, who was nominated
by the Conservative, John Page. Then, in 1785, John
Tyler suffered defeat at the hands of Benjamin Harrison, of
the Conservative wing. There was this sort of alternation
in the gubernatorial office as well. Henry served for three
years and was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson, another Progressive,
who served for two. He was succeeded by a Conservative,
General Thomas Nelson, Jr., who served for about five
months, and he by Benjamin Harrison, another Conservative,
who served three years.

Throughout the Revolution the military activities of the
State were varied and important. After Dunmore's war there
was no invasion of the State during Patrick Henry's administration,
except towards its close, but military operations on
the frontiers were continuous.

The first few days after Henry's election saw Dunmore
driven from Gwynn's Island, and on July 22 Henry and his
council ordered Col. Charles Lewis, with his battalion of minute
men, to march against the Cherokees, and on August 1,
upon hearing of their depredations in the Clinch Valley increased
the force and made Col. William Christian commander.
The rising of these savages was part of the plan concocted
by the British government early in 1776 to crush the Southern
States. While Sir Peter Parker and his fleet, conveying
a strong force under Sir Henry Clinton, were to attack the
seaboard, and the Highlanders of North Carolina were to
take up arms, all the Western Indians were to be employed
by John Stuart, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Southern
District of America, in an attack on the frontier settlements.
When Parker appeared before Charleston, the Indians,
true to their engagement, upon being informed of the
arrival of the ships, took the warpath and invaded the frontier
from Georgia to the head of the Holston in Virginia.

Col. Christian appointed the Great Island in the Holston,
or Heaton's Station, as the place of rendezvous for his troops
and marched thence with an army composed of 1600 Virginians
and three or four hundred North Carolinians. He
found the Indians massed on the other side of the French
Broad—3000 strong, and the conditions gave promise of a
severe battle. But the Indians did not hazard an engagement
and when Col. Christian crossed the river near what is now
known as Buckingham's Island, he found, to his surprise, that
the Indians had suddenly determined to retreat to the fastnesses
of their mountains.

To punish their unprovoked attack upon the settlements
Colonel Christian destroyed several of their towns and laid
waste their corn fields, sparing those Indians only who had
been peacefully inclined. Forces sent out by Georgia, South
Carolina and North Carolina met with similar success and
the Indians were glad enough to sue for peace. Their request
was granted by Col. Christian and a convention was entered
into, but not to take effect till a treaty should be made by representatives
from the whole tribe, who were invited to meet commissioners
from Virginia in May following, at Heaton's Station.
After this Col. Christian marched his troops back to
this point, where most of them were disbanded, and the remainder
were put into winter quarters in a new fort erected and
called "Fort Patrick Henry," which was believed to be within
the bounds of Virginia.

On May 23, 1777, Col. William Christian, Col. William
Preston and Major Evan Shelby, who had been appointed
commissioners to treat with the Cherokees, arranged the terms
of a treaty by which a new line was run between the white people
of Virginia and the Cherokees, which was to be west of that
run by Donelson. It commenced at the Great Island in the
Holston and ran thence in a straight line to "a high point on
Cumberland mountain, between three and five miles below or
westward of the great gap which leads to the settlements of
Kentucky."[11]

One of the chiefs called "Dragging Canoe," would not accede
to the treaty and with 400 other Indians preserved a hostile
attitude, causing Governor Henry and his council to issue
orders for the destruction of their towns. Three hundred militia
were ordered to that service from the neighborhood of Fort
Pitt, but on the advice of George Morgan, Superintendent of
Indian Affairs, and Col. John Neville, the expedition was abandoned
for fear of starting up a general Indian war.

Although there were no attacks from the sea, during Governor
Henry's term, there were frequent reports of the movements
of the British Navy which caused apprehension. In
August, 1777, the British fleet appeared off the Virginia Coast
with Howe's army aboard. Sixty-four companies of militia
were immediately called out and placed under the command of
General Thomas Nelson, Jr. Among the troops that took the
field was a company comprised of the students at William and
Mary College, commanded by Rev. James Madison, President
of the College. Granville Smith was first lieutenant. While
the destination of the fleet was in doubt, the Governor took
every precaution to protect the coast and ordered the arrest
and removal from the threatened portions of the state, of all
persons suspected of disaffection to the American cause. This
was approved by the next Assembly, but was considered such
a stretch of authority that a special act was passed to indemnify
the Governor and Council therefor.

Hostilities in the Southwest was succeeded by hostilities
in the West and Northwest. While a fugitive on board the
Fowey, in 1775 Lord Dunmore had concocted a scheme with
Major John Connolly, by which, with the consent of General
Gage in Boston, he was by liberal presents to unite the Ohio
Indians and the loyalists in the section about Fort Pitt in an
expedition to Alexandria, where he was to be met by Lord Dunmore
and his Ships of War. The capture of Connolly at
Hagerstown in Maryland ruined the plan, and for two years
afterwards the frontier in that direction was the scene of a

contest between British and Virginia agents for enlisting the
friendship and assistance of the Indians.

At last, however, in the Spring of 1777, Hamilton, the
governor of Detroit so far prevailed as to induce the Indians
to make a general attack on the settlements. Two hundred
warriors entered Kentucky and besieged the forts at Harrodsburg,
Boonesborough and at Logan's Statue. They withdrew
from the first two places and were driven from the last by Col.
John Bowman, with two companies of 100 men from Virginia.

Governor Henry was not indifferent to the dangers. Apprehending
an attack he sent warnings to the different county
lieutenants to hold their militia in readiness and magazines
were drected to be erected in Ohio, Yohogania and Monongalia
Counties, and ammunition was forwarded.

In June, 1777, the Council gave Col. John Todd 250 men
for the defense of the Kentucky settlements against the
western and northwestern Indians, and four or five companies
were raised in the counties of Augusta, Botetourt
and Greenbrier for the protection of the settlements east
of the Ohio. When these companies arrived at Fort Randolph,
situated where the famous battle of Point Pleasant
was fought, they found Cornstalk and Elinipsico, his
son, there. Provoked at the murder of one of their
companions by the Indians concealed in the weeds on the
banks of the river, the company of Capt. Hall from
Rockbridge shot both the Indian chiefs. Cornstalk had been
faithful to the stipulations of the treaty with Dunmore, and
having done all he could to dissuade his own tribe from confederating
with the western tribes against the Americans, had
visited the camp to inform the Americans of the condition of
affairs. But Capt. Hall's men were in no mood to discriminate,
and Cornstalk and his son fell victims to unreasoning
anger.

A few days after this outrage, General Hand, who had
been appointed by Congress to embody a large force of militia
and attack the Indians, arrived at the fort without supplies

and having failed to raise any force in Pennsylvania. The Virginians,
having been enlisted as a part of his force, being thus
left with neither provisions nor support, had to abandon the
expedition and return to their homes.[12]

Governor Henry was very indignant at the murder of
Cornstalk and his son, but he did not allow his feelings to delay
the steps required to protect the settlers from the certain
wrath of the Indians. He threw 50 men into Fort Randolph,
which in May, 1778, was besieged by a force of more than 200
Indians. The place was successfully defended, and the Indians
abandoning the attack upon the Fort, made a raid into Greenbrier
County and penetrated to the vicinity of Lewisburg.
They were repulsed by a force led by Capt. John Stuart and
Col. Samuel Lewis and driven from the county. Higher up
the savages broke into the beautiful Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania
and perpetrated the brutal massacre, which has become
celebrated in prose and verse.

Upon the failure of General Hand to organize the expedition,
General McIntosh, of Georgia, an experienced Indian
fighter, was put by Congress in command of the proposed attack
upon the Indians. Governor Henry aided General McIntosh
by placing the militia of the counties nearest to Pittsburg
at his disposal. He prepared to attack Detroit, but this
was laid aside on the advice of Governor Henry in favor of
an attack on the hostile tribes nearest our frontiers, but little
result was had from General McIntosh's movements. A fort,
called Fort Laurens, was planted on the Tuscarawas River
and garrisoned by 150 Virginians under Col. John Gibson.
During the next year Fort Laurens was abandoned and the
plans of Congress proved fruitless, though not because of
any lack of aid from Governor Henry.