University of Virginia Library

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

ENGLAND AND FRANCE—CLAIMS OF THE TWO NATIONS TO THE OHIO
VALLEY.

As has been seen, France had taken possession of that part of the continent
lying far away towards the Arctic Circle, and had planted settlements
along the St. Lawrence; her discoverers, Jolliette and Marquette,
had explored the country from the extreme north-east to the Gulf of
Mexico, and upon these discoveries she based her claim to all that part
of the continent drained by the Mississippi river and its tributaries. And
when the English crossed the rocky barrier and began to penetrate into
the Ohio Valley, she viewed these encroachments upon her soil with a
jealous eye, and at once determined to oppose them at all hazards.
France rested her claim to the Ohio and Kanawha valleys upon the
recognized law of nations that "The discovery of the mouth of the river
should entitle the nation making the discovery to the country drained by
that river and its tributaries." The claim thus set up by France and
resisted by Great Britain is exactly the same as that upon which the
United States subsequently based their claims to the Territory of Oregon.
England claimed that aside from her title by purchase, she held, under
the discovery of John and Sebastian Cabot (1498), the entire region
lying between the 38th and 64th parallels of north latitude, a zone extending
across the continent from ocean to ocean. She also set up
another claim—priority of discovery, a claim utterly absurd and entirely
untenable.

France, convinced of the justness of her claims, after addressing an
appeal to the nations of the world, determined not to yield before the
threatening attitude of her powerful rival, and immediately set about
adopting the most effective measures for maintaining her claim to the
great Valley of the West, and accordingly began the erection of a cordon
of forts extending from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, the
most important of which were those at Fontinac, Niagara, Detroit, Green
Bay, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, Natchez and Biloxi. In the year 1720 she
erected Fort Chatres, in what is now Illinois. It was constructed by an
engineer of the Vauben school, and was one of the strongest fortifications
ever erected on the continent of North America.

In 1748 the British parliament passed laws authorizing the formation
of many new settlements and issued many land grants, in which the
interests of British commerce were consulted, rather than the articles of

the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Prominent among these movements was
the organization of the Ohio Company, the settlement of the Upper Ohio,
and several others of an aggressive character, the most important of
which was the sending of a regiment of British soldiers into the Ohio
Valley, where they took post at the mouth of the Monongahela.

When the French authorities heard of this movement on the part of
the English, the home government authorized the governor-general of
Canada to remonstrate against the aggressive invasion of French territory,
and a summons was accordingly addressed to the English commander.
The following is an extract:

(See De Hass, page 61.)

In the year 1749, as a preliminary step in taking formal possession of
the Ohio and its tributaries, the Marquis de la Galisoniere, governor-general
of Canada, determined to place along the "Oyo," or La Belle
Riviere, a number of leaden plates suitably inscribed, asserting the claims
of France to the lands on both sides of the river, even to the source of
its tributaries. The command of the expedition whose duty it was to
deposit those plates was given to Captain Bienville de Celeron, and consisted
of eight subaltern officers, six cadets, an armorer, twenty soldiers,
one hundred and eighty Canadians, and fifty-five Indians—two hundred
and seventy in all. The expedition left Montreal on the 15th of June,
1749, and on the 29th reached the La Belle Riviere at the junction of
the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers, where the first plate was buried.
The expedition then descended the river, depositing plates at the mouths
of the principal tributaries, and on the 18th of August reached the
mouth of the Chinodashichetha (Great Kanawha), and on the point between
the two rivers the fifth plate was buried. It was found in 1846
by a son of Mr. John Beale, of Mason county, West Virginia, afterwards
of Kentucky, and removed from the spot in which it had remained
for a period of ninety-seven years. The following is a translation of the
inscription on the plate. We have compared it with that made recently

by Professor O. S. Marshall, from the original copy-plate now preserved
in the archives of the Departement de la Marine, in Paris, and find them
to agree in every particular.

TRANSLATION.

"In the year 1749, reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, Celeron,
commandant of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Marquis de la
Galisoniere, commandant-general of New France, to re-establish tranquillity
in some Indian villages of these cantons, have buried this plate at
the mouth of the river Chinodashichetha, the 18th of August, near the
river Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possessions,
which we have taken of the said river Ohio, and of all those
which fall into it, and of all the land on both sides, as far as to the sources
of said rivers, the same as were enjoyed, or ought to have been enjoyed,
by the preceding kings of France, and that they have maintained
it by their arms and treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht
and Aix-la-Chapelle."

From the mouth of the Great Kanawha the voyage was continued
down the Ohio, and on the 30th day of August the expedition reached
the mouth of the Riviere a la Roche (Great Miami), and the voyage on
the Ohio ended. The following is an extract from Celeron's journal,
now deposited in the archives at Paris, as translated by Marshall:
"Buried on the point formed by the intersection of the right bank of
the Ohio with the left bank of the Rock river, the sixth and last plate,
August 31, 1749." This plate has never been found. After journeying
up the Miami some distance, the detachment began its homeward march,
and reached Montreal on the 10th day of November.

In the same year George II., who regarded the British possessions as
personal property, granted to a corporation known as "The Ohio Company,"
a title to five hundred thousand acres of land, to be located in
the Ohio Valley. The company was composed of twelve gentlemen, all
residents of Virginia and Maryland, except a Mr. Hanbury, of London.
This land was to be located partly south of the Ohio, between the Monongahela
and Great Kanawha rivers, and partly north of the Ohio. In
1750 Christopher Gist was sent out by the company for the purpose of
exploring and locating these tracts of land in the west. He traversed
the country beyond the Ohio, and returned by way of the Kanawha,
making thorough exploration of the country east of that river. This
was the first exploration made by the English in the Kanawha Valley,
and Gist the first Englishman who reached the mouth of the Kanawha.
His journal is now in the library of the Historical Society of Massachusetts.
Thus it will be seen that the two great rival powers beyond the
Atlantic were each determined to hold possession of the great valley,

and it became evident that the final struggle for territorial supremacy
in America was near at hand. The English, acting upon the principle
of action that "They should take who have the power," and the French
upon nearly a similar one, that "They should keep who can," were both
resting from an eight years' war, under the truce secured by the treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle, while their commissioners were trying to outwit
each other in the matter of the disputed lands in the west. (Smollett's
George II., chapter 8.) But the calm was similar to that which precedes
the storm. The cloud of war which had for a time disappeared
from Europe was now hanging over the wilds of North America. Here
was to be heard the clash of arms, the "Forward, march," the daily
reveille, the battle cry, the strains of martial music—sounds so strange
beneath the dark shades of an American forest. The storm burst with
all its fury, and continued to rage for six long years—years characterized
by acts of the most savage cruelty known to the annals of warfare;
years in which the two leading nations of the world employed against
each other the ruthless savages, whose bloodthirsty dispositions incited
them to deeds too horrible to contemplate—deeds the record of which
will ever remain as the darkest blots upon the pages of the history of
these nations.

But the struggle ended, and the world knows the result. The dominion
and power of France have disappeared, and no traces of her lost
sovereignty exist save in the few names she has left on the prominent
streams and landmarks of the country, and in the leaden plates
which, inscribed in her language, still lie buried on the banks of the
beautiful river. Her temporary occupation of the country, the voyages
of her navigators, and the discoveries of her discoverers, live only on the
pages of history and in her archives, where she has carefully preserved
them. Thus the Ohio Valley, together with all of South-western Virginia,
passed from under the dominion of France to that of the Island
Empire. But another title to the valley was yet to be abrogated, that
of the original owners—the Indians, who, for perhaps a thousand years,
had roamed over its hills and vales in pursuit of game; who had made
it their principal thoroughfare in their missions of blood and rapine ever
since the Anglo-Saxon set foot on these shores and had began his march
in pursuit of the empire star. This title was yet to cost the lives of
many hundreds of those sturdy pioneers who had braved the perils of
the wilderness. Over its entire extent was to be heard the frightful
war-whoop of the savage, and night was to be made lurid by the flames
of burning homes. Then, to record an account of these scenes will next
be our province.

INDIAN WARS ON THE WESTERN FRONTIER.

In presenting an outline of the annals of the settlement of the western
frontier, we must remember that a dreary uniformity of incident marks
all the story of the primitive settlements in every part of our country,
from Plymouth to Jamestown, and from the northern lakes to the Mexican
gulf, and that to enter into a narration of individual efforts and
sufferings, and less important triumphs and defeats, would only render
our chronicles a confused mass of rencounters of the rifle and tomahawk,
of burnings, murders, captivities and reprisals, which confound by their
number and weary by their monotony and resemblance. A few more
prominent events only can be selected as samples of the many others.
A few names only, from the long catalogue of pioneers, can be mentioned.
The memory of the hundreds necessarily omitted lives where they
would have wished it to live—in the winter evening's recital, in the
rustic mountain ballad, and in the rude but interesting tradition of
border warfare.

The first white woman who saw the Kanawha river was

MRS. HANNAH DENNIS.

In the summer of 1761 a war party of Shawnee Indians penetrated the
settlements on James river, murdered many of the settlers and carried a
number of others into captivity, among the latter Mrs. Dennis. She,
with about twenty others, was carried to the towns north of the Ohio,
and upon arriving there the captives were separated by their captors,
and it was decided Mrs. Dennis should live at the Chillicothe towns,
where she remained more than two years, during which time she learned
their language, painted herself, and in many respects conformed to their
manners and customs. She devoted herself to the sick, and was highly
esteemed by the Indians as one skilled in the art of curing disease.
Having discovered that they were very superstitious and believed in
necromancy, she professed witchcraft and affected to be a prophetess.
Notwithstanding this, Mrs. Dennis was always determined to effect her
escape when a favorable opportunity should present itself, and having
so long remained with them, apparently well satisfied, they ceased to
entertain any suspicions of such a design. In June, 1763, she left the
Chillicothe towns, ostensibly to procure herbs for medicinal, purposes, but
really to make her escape. As she did not return that night her intention
was suspected, and early next morning several warriors were sent in
pursuit of her. In order to leave as little trail as possible, she had
crossed the Scioto river three times, and was just getting over the fourth
time, forty miles below the towns, when she was discovered by her
pursuers. They fired at her across the river without effect, but in
endeavoring to make rapid flight she cut one of her feet upon a sharp
stone.

MEDAL OR FRONTLET PRESENTED TO THE INDIAN
"QUEEN OF PAMUNKEY,"

By the Colony of Virginia, about 1676, and worn by her.

The Indians then rushed across the river to overtake her, but she
eluded them by crawling into the hollow of a large fallen sycamore.
They searched around for her for some time, frequently stepping on the
log which concealed her, and encamped near it that night. On the
next day they went on to the Ohio river, but finding no trace of her
they returned home

Mrs. Dennis remained at that place three days, waiting for her wound
to heal, and then set off for home. She reached the Ohio river, opposite
the present site of the town of Mount Pleasant, and crossed that
river on a drift log, then began her journey up the Kanawha to the
settlements in the Greenbrier country, which she knew to be nearest
her. She traveled only during the night, for fear of discovery, and at
last, having subsisted on roots, herbs, green grapes, wild cherries and
river muscles for several days, and exhausted by fatigue and hunger,
she sat down by the side of Greenbrier river with no expectation of proceeding
further. In this situation she was found by Thomas Athol and
three others, from Clendenin's settlement, which she had passed without
knowing it. She had been then more than twenty days on her disconsolate
journey, alone, on foot, but till then cheered with the hope of again being
with her friends. She was taken back to Clendenin's, where they kindly
ministered to her until she became so far invigorated as to travel on horseback
with an escort to Fort Young, on Jackson's river, and from there
was carried to her relatives on the James river. (The above we subjoin
from the very interesting work of Withers.)

MURDER OF THE CLENDENIN FAMILY.

Shortly after Mrs. Dennis had gone from Clendenin's, a party of
Shawnees penetrated into the Greenbrier country, led on by the distinguished
warrior Cornstalk, and in two short days suceeeded in destroying
every settlement in that section of the State. After having murdered
the inhabitants at Muddy creek, they passed over into the Levels and
attacked the house of Archibald Clendenin, in which from fifty to one
hundred persons had taken refuge. Of the whole number of men at
Clendenin's but one escaped. He, being at some distance from the
house, heard the screams of the women and children, and fled to Jackson's
river, where he gave the alarm in time to save the settlers from
destruction. The scene in and about the house was one that beggars
description; men, women and children lying in a confused mass, weltering
in each other's blood, while the shrieks and groans of the dying rent
the air. One colored woman, who was endeavoring to escape, killed her
own child, which was following her, crying, lest her whereabouts might
be discovered by its cries. Stuart says in his Memoir that Mrs. Clendenin

did not fail to abuse the Indians with terms of reproach, calling
them cowards, etc., although the tomahawk was drawn over her head,
accompanied with threats of instant death, and the scalp of her murdered
husband was lashed about her face. The prisoners were all taken to
Muddy creek, and a party of Indians retained them there until the return
of others from Carr's creek, when the whole were started off together
to spend a hopeless captivity beyond the Ohio.

On the day they started from the foot of Keeney's Knob, going over
the mountain, Mrs. Clendenin gave her infant child to a woman, who
was also a prisoner, to carry, and as the prisoners were marching in the
center and the Indians in front and rear, she stepped aside into a thicket
until all had passed by. The cries of the child soon made the Indians
inquire for the mother, who was missing, and one of them said he
would soon bring the cow to the calf, and taking the child from the
woman he dashed its brains out against a tree, and then threw the body
down in the path, where it was trampled to pieces by the horses. Mrs.
Clendenin remained until nightfall, and then returned to her own house,
a distance of more than ten miles, where she found the mangled remains
of her husband lying in the yard, which she covered over with
rails, after which she went into a corn-field and remained until morning,
when she resumed her flight, and, after many toils and privations,
reached the settlements on Jackson's river. It has been supposed that
the Indians perpetrating these dreadful outrages were in pursuit of Mrs.
Dennis, and, if it be true, how dearly were others made to pay the price
of her deliverance!

OTHER INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.

In October, 1764, a party of Mingo and Delaware Indians crossed the
Ohio, and, ascending the Big Sandy, crossed over on New river, where
they separated into two parties and directed their steps toward different
settlements—one party going toward Roanoke and (Catawba), and the
other in the direction of Jackson's river. They had not long passed
when their trail was discovered by three men, named Swope, Pack and
Pitman, who were then engaged in trapping on New river. These men
followed the trail until they came to the place where the Indians divided,
and judging from the routes taken that the Roanoke and Jackson's river
settlements were the objects of their vengeance, they determined to apprise
the inhabitants of these places of their danger. Swope and Pack
started for Roanoke, and Pitman for Jackson's river, but before they could
accomplish their object the Indians had reached the settlements on the
latter river and on the Catawba. The party whose destination was Jackson's
river traveled down Dunlap's creek and crossed the James river a
short distance above Fort Young in the night and unnoticed, and going
down this river to the residence of William Carpenter, at which place was

a stockade fort, commanded by a Mr. Brown. They met Carpenter just
above the house and killed him, then immediately proceeded to the
house and made prisoners of a son of Mr. Carpenter and two sons of Mr.
Brown (all children) and one woman. The others belonging to the
house were in the field at work, and thus escaped a terrible fate. The
Indians then despoiled the house, and, taking some horses, commenced a
precipitate retreat, fearing discovery and pursuit.

When Carpenter was shot, the report of the gun was heard by those
at work in the field, and Brown carried the alarm to Fort Young. In
consequence of the weakness of this fort a messenger was dispatched to
Fort Dinwiddie with the intelligence. Captain Paul, commandant there,
immediately began the pursuit with about twenty of his men, and passing
out of the head of Dunlap's creek descended Indian creek and New
river to Piney creek, without making any discovery. On Indian creek
they met Pitman, almost exhausted, who had been running all the day
and night previous for the purpose of apprising the garrison at Fort
Young of the approach of the Indians. Pitman joined in the pursuit,
which was continued down the Kanawha river until it was ascertained
that the Indians had crossed the Ohio.

As Captain Paul and his party were returning they accidentally met
with the other party of Indians, which had been to Catawba and committed
some depredations and murders there. They were discovered
about midnight, encamped on the north bank of New river, opposite an
island at the mouth of Indian creek. Excepting some few who were
watching the prisoners whom they had taken on the Catawba, they were
lying around a small fire, wrapped in skins and blankets. Paul's men,
not being aware that there were prisoners among them, fired into their
midst, killed three of the Indians and wounded several others, one of
whom ran into New river and drowned himself to preserve his scalp.
The rest of the party fled hastily down the river and escaped.

In an instant Captain Paul and his men rushed forward to secure the
wounded and prevent further escapes. To show the deadening effect
that scenes of murder and bloodshed has on the human intellect, we
here introduce the reply of a prisoner, rescued at this time. She was a
Mrs. Catharine Gunn, an English lady, who had known Captain Paul
years before. Recognizing his voice, she called him by name, just as
one of his men was in the act of tomahawking her. She made no resistance,
and when asked the reason, replied: "I had as soon be murdered
as not. My husband is murdered, my children are slain, my
parents are dead. I have not a relative living in America. Every
thing dear here to me is gone. I have no wishes, no hopes, no fears. I
would not have risen to my feet to save my life." (See De Hass.) Such
were some of the horrible realities experienced by the early settlers of
South-western Virginia.

CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES.

But now, 1764, the inhabitants of the western frontier were to enjoy
a brief respite from savage barbarity, the first since the Anglo-Saxon
had dared to venture west of the mountains. In that year the British
government, anxious to secure an amicable adjustment of the difficulties
growing out of the French and Indian war, resorted to various modes
for effecting so desirable an object. Hoping to conciliate by fair words
and fine promises, one of the first movements was to issue, through
Colonel Boquet, a proclamation in which the desires for peace on the
part of the government were made known. Thirty Indian tribes signified
a willingness to treat for peace. General Bradstreet, accompanied
by Sir William Johnson, repaired to Niagara for the purpose of opening
negotiations with the northern tribes, while Colonel Boquet was sent to
the Muskingum to treat with the Ohio Indians, and there, on the 9th
of November, 1764, he concluded a treaty of peace with the Delawares
and Shawnees, and received from them two hundred and six prisoners,
ninety of whom had been carried away from the frontier of Virginia.

THE WESTERN FRONTIER IN 1772.

Eight years had passed away since the close of the French and Indian
war. During this time the savages had remained faithful to the terms
of Boquet's treaty, and emigration was fast pouring over the mountains;
the cabin of the pioneer dotted the wilderness along the western declivities
of the Alleghanies. The great object of the western emigrant has
ever been to obtain land, and wherever that object could be accomplished,
there arose the log cabin, and there was the home of the pioneer.

The result of the last war had forever settled the title of Virginia to
all that portion of country lying between the Blue Ridge and the Ohio
river, and she now freely granted portions of it to any or all who would
undertake to found a home in the then "far west." From her eastern
part, from Pennsylvania, and from Maryland, came the conquerors of
the wilderness, either a single family, or in companies of a dozen or more,
and from Southern Pennsylvania to the Big Sandy river settlements were
being made.

As early as 1754, the first settlement in North-western Virginia was
made. In that year David Tygart and a man named Files brought
their families across the mountains and located themselves—Tygart in
the beautiful valley which still bears his name, and Files near where
Beverly, the county seat of Randolph, now stands. These were the
first settlements in that part of Virginia, and the family of Files was
to be the first in the long list of those who were to fall victims to

savage cruelty. The Tygart family escaped and returned east of the
mountains.

In the above year, Christopher Gist, the agent and surveyor of the
Ohio Land Company, and who was the first to make surveys west of the
Ohio river, settled upon a tract of land in what is now Fayette county,
Pennsylvania, but was then supposed to be in Virginia. His was the
first actual settlement on the waters of the Upper Ohio, and his presence
there soon induced several other families to come out and settle around
him.

In 1758 Thomas Decker and several others located at the mouth of
Decker's creek, but early the next spring they were all murdered by a
party of Mingo and Delaware Indians, who were determined that their
hunting-grounds should not become the home of the invaders with
whom they had disputed possession for more than a hundred years.

The next attempt at settlement was made in 1768 by a number of
persons on Buckhannon, a tributary of Tygart Valley river. Among them
were Samuel Pringle, John Pringle, John and Benjamin Cutnight, Henry
Rule, John Hacker, and John and William Ratcliff.

In 1770 many emigrants reached the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.
In that year Captain Cresap erected a cabin at the mouth of what is
now Dunlap's creek. Captain Parsons settled on the Horse Shoe bottom,
on Cheat river, and many other enterprising men, whose names
were to be rendered prominent by their posterity, "took up" large
tracts of these fertile lands. Among them were Cunningham, Butler,
Minear, Goff, Fink, etc.

SETTLEMENT OF WHEELING.

In this year, too, the foundation of "Virginia's Metropolis of the West"
was laid. The Zanes made the first settlement on the banks of "La
Belle Riviere" (Ohio) below Fort Pitt, at the mouth of Wheeling creek,
and Joseph Tomlinson made the second at the mouth of Grave creek
shortly after. They were soon joined by Bonnett, Wetzel, Messer,
George Leffler, Benjamin Biggs, Joshua Baker, Zachariah Sprigg,
Andrew Swearengen, David Shepherd, the McCollochs, Mitchells, Van
Meters, Millers, Kellers, etc., etc. These were the men who founded
Wheeling, and whose means and determined bravery went far towards
breaking the power of the savage and thus opening the country to civilization.

In 1772, settlements were made on Elk river, and in the vicinity of
Clarksburg, and at other points in South-western Virginia. Among
these pioneers were the Hickmans, the Powers, Andersons, Webbs,
Nutters, Collrials, Beards, Davisons, and a host of others prominent in
pioneer history.

These were the principal settlements made in Western Virginia prior
to the year 1773; but tidings of this fertile land had already reached
the far east, and hundreds prepared to find homes in the exhaustless
domain that stretched out before them.

But through all these years a jealous eye was watching the march of
the Anglo-Saxon in his conquest of the wilderness. It was the Indian
who saw in it all the extinction of his own race; his immediate ancestors
had been forced to leave the shores of the Chesapeake, and the banks of
the James and Potomac, and to take refuge west of the mountains, in
the very country which he now saw passing into the possession of his
enemies. He resolved to defend it against the encroachments of his
conquerors east of the mountains, and only awaited an opportunity to
commence his favorite work of murder. That opportunity, through the
indiscretion of the English, soon presented itself.

ENGLISH FOLLY—DUNMORE'S WAR.

The treaty which had continued inviolate since 1765, was now to be
broken on the part of the English. In the early part of 1774 several
Indians were murdered on the South Branch of the Potomac, by one
Nicholas Harpold and his associates. About the same time Bald Eagle,
an Indian chief of considerable notoriety, not only among his own tribe,
but along the whole western frontier, was in the habit of hunting with
the English, and on one of his visits was murdered by Jacob Scott,
William Hacker and Elijah Runner, who, reckless of consequences,
committed the act simply to gratify their thirst for Indian blood.

There was at this time an Indian town on the banks of the Little
Kanawha river, not far from the present site of the town of Elizabeth,
in Wirt county, West Virginia. It was called Bulltown, and was
inhabited by five families of friendly Indians, who were in intercourse
with the settlers on Buckhannon, frequently visiting and hunting
with them. There was likewise a German family named Strowd
residing on Gauley river, near its junction with the Great Kanawha.
In the summer of this year, when Mr. Strowd was absent from home,
his family were all murdered, his house plundered, and his cattle driven
off. The trail left by the perpetrators of this outrage led in the direction
of Bulltown; this led to the supposition that its inhabitants were
the authors of these murders, and several parties resolved to avenge the
crime upon them. A party of five men expressed a determination to
proceed forthwith in search of the supposed murderers. They were
absent several days, and, upon their return, denied having seen an
Indian in their absence. Future developments, however, proved that
they had murdered every inhabitant—man, woman and child—at Bulltown,
and had thrown their bodies in the river that their acts might

never be known. Here, then, was a sufficient cause to justify retaliation,
and forthwith there broke out a savage war along the entire western
frontier.

To meet this general uprising of the confederated tribes of the Northwest,
who had now determined to annihilate the inhabitants of the whole
western frontier, Virginia, ever ready with her treasure and the services
of her people, responded to the call of his excellency, Governor Dunmore,
and forthwith three thousand soldiers, chiefly from the counties of
Augusta, Botetourt, Frederick and Shenandoah, enrolled their names
and shouldered their rifles in defense of the defenseless frontier.

These troops were divided into two bodies, called the Northern and
Southern divisions. The Northern division was led by Governor Dunmore
in person, and the command of the Southern was given to General
Andrew Lewis. His command rendezvoused at Camp Union (afterward
Fort Savannah), now Lewisburg, in Greenbrier county, and by the first
of September General Lewis only awaited the arrival of Colonel Christian
and others from Lord Dunmore to begin his march against the
Indian towns north of the Ohio. In a few days a messenger arrived
with orders from Dunmore, who was then at the head of the Northern
division, at Williamsburg, to meet him on the 2d of October at the
mouth of the Great Kanawha. On the 11th the tents were struck, and
the army commenced its line of march through an unknown and trackless
wilderness.

Captain Matthew Arbuckle, who had traversed the Kanawha Valley in
1764, acted as guide and conducted the expedition to the Ohio river,
which was reached after a dreary march of nineteen days. Some days
after the march began several of the command were attacked with smallpox,
and were left where the city of Charleston now stands. Among
the number was Alexander Clendenin, brother of Captain William Clendenin,
and father of Andrew Clendenin, Esq., now of Mason county.
When General Lewis reached the mouth of the Kanawha, he was greatly
disappointed in not meeting Governor Dunmore, and still more so at not
hearing from him. In the absence of orders it was determined to go
into camp, and accordingly the tents were pitched upon the triangular
point of land between the right bank of the Kanawha and the left bank
of the Ohio, accessible only from the rear. This place was called by the
Indians, "Tu, enda, wie," signifying in the Wyandotte language, "The
junction of two rivers." The ground thus occupied by the Virginia army
is the same upon which the town of Point Pleasant has since been built.
Little did that band of sturdy Virginians think that ere they left that
place they were to fight the most fiercely-contested battle ever fought
with the Indians in Virginia, if not on the continent. It was not until
Sunday, October 9th, that a messenger reached General Lewis, informing

SCENE ON THE GREAT KANAWHA.

him that the plan of the campaign had been changed, and ordering him to
march direct to the Indian towns on the Scioto, at which place the Northern
division would join him.

THE BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT.

Accordingly arrangements were made preparatory to leaving on the
following morning (Monday, 10th); but early on that morning two soldiers,
named Robertson and Hickman, went up the Ohio in quest of deer,
and after having gone a short distance they discovered a large body of
Indians, just arising from their encampment. The soldiers were fired
upon and Hickman was killed, but Robertson escaped and ran into camp,
hallooing, as he ran, that he had seen a "body of Indians covering four
acres of ground." This force consisted of the flower of the confederated
tribes, who had abandoned their towns on the Pickaway plains to meet
the Virginia troops and give them battle before the two corps could be
united. Within an hour after the presence of the Indians had been discovered,
a general engagement took place, extending from the bank of the
Ohio to that of the Kanawha, and distant a half a mile from the point.

General Lewis, who had witnessed a similar scene at Braddock's defeat,
acted with steadiness and decision in this great emergency. He arranged
his forces promptly and advanced to meet the enemy. Colonel
Charles Lewis (brother of the General), with three hundred men, formed
the right line, met the Indians at sunrise, and sustained the first attack.
He fell, mortally wounded, in the first fire, and was carried to the rear,
where he shortly after expired. His troops, receiving almost the entire
weight of the charge, were broken and gave way. Colonel Flemming,
commanding the left wing, advanced along the bank of the Ohio, and in
a few moments fell in with the right wing of the Indian line, which
rested upon the river. The effect of the first shock was to stagger the
left wing as it had done the right, and its commander was severely
wounded at an early stage of the conflict. But his men succeeded in
reaching a piece of timber land and maintained their position until the
reserve under Colonel Field reached the ground. It will be seen by examining
Lewis' plan of the engagement, and also the ground on which
the battle was fought, that an advance on his part and a retreat on the
part of his opponents necessarily weakened their lines by constantly increasing
their length, and if it extended from river to river, he would
be forced, eventually, to break his line or leave his flanks unprotected.
Writers upon the subject of Indian tactics inform us that it was the
great object of his generalship to preserve his flanks and overthrow those
of his enemy. They continued, therefore, contrary to their usual practice,
to dispute the ground with the pertinacity of veterans along the
whole line, retreating slowly from tree to tree until 1 o'clock P. M., when
they reached a strong position. Here both armies rested within rifle

range of each other until late in the evening, when General Lewis, seeing
the impracticability of dislodging the Indians by the most vigorous
attack, and sensible of the great danger which must arise to his army if
the contest were not decided before night, detached the three companies
commanded by Captains Isaac Shelby, George Mathews and John Stewart,
with orders to proceed up the Kanawha river, and under cover of
the banks of Crooked creek (a stream emptying into the Kanawha about
half a mile from the point) to attack the Indians in the rear. The
maneuver thus planned and executed had the desired effect, and gave to
the colonial army a complete victory. The Indians, finding themselves
suddenly encompassed between two armies, attacked in front and rear,
and doubtless believing that in the rear was the long expected reinforcement
under Colonel Christian, soon gave way, and about sundown commenced
a precipitate retreat across the Ohio, toward their towns on
the Scioto.

The desperate nature of this conflict may be inferred by the deep-seated
animosity of the parties toward each other, the high courage which both
possessed, and the consequences which hung upon the issue. The victory
was indeed most decisive, and many were the advantages obtained by it;
but they were dearly bought. One-half of the commissioned officers had
fallen, seventy-five men lay dead upon the field, and one hundred and forty
wounded. Among the slain were Colonels Lewis and Field; Captains
Buford, Morrow, Wood, Cundiff, Wilson and McClanahan, and Lieutenants
Allen, Goldsby and Dillon. The loss of the Indians could never be
ascertained, nor could the number engaged be known. Their army was
composed of warriors from the different nations north of the Ohio, and comprised
the flower of the Shawnee, Delaware, Mingo, Wyandotte and
Cayuga tribes, led on by their respective chiefs, at the head of whom was
Cornstalk, Sachem of the Shawnees, and King of the Northern Confederacy.
Never, perhaps, did men exhibit a more conclusive evidence of
bravery in making a charge and fortitude in withstanding a charge than
did these undisciplined soldiers of the forest on the field at Point Pleasant.
Such, too, was the heroic bravery displayed by those composing the Virginia
army on that occasion that high hopes were entertained of their future
distinction. Nor were these hopes disappointed, for in the various scenes
through which they subsequently passed, the pledge of after eminence then
given was fully redeemed, and the names of Shelby, Campbell, Lewis,
Mathews, Moore and others, their compatriots in arms on the bloody field
at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, have been inscribed in brilliant
characters upon the roll of fame. The following gentlemen, with others
of high reputation in private life, were officers in the battle of Point
Pleasant: General Isaac Shelby, the first Governor of Kentucky, and
Secretary of War during Monroe's administration; General William
Campbell and Colonel John Campbell, heroes of King's Mountain and

Long Island; General William Shelby, one of the most favored citizens of
Tennessee, often honored with confidence of that State; General Andrew
Moore, of Rockbridge county, the only man ever elected by Virginia to
a seat in the United States Senate from the country west of the Blue
Ridge; Colonel John Stewart, of Greenbrier; General Tate, of Washington
county, Virginia; Colonel William McKee, of Lincoln county,
Kentucky; Colonel John Steele, afterward a Governor of Mississippi
Territory; Colonel Charles Cameron, of Bath county, Virginia; General
Bazaleel Wells, of Ohio, General George Mathews, a distinguished officer
in the war of the Revolution, the hero of Brandywine, Germantown and
Guilford, a Governor of Georgia, and a Representative from that State in
the Congress of the United States; Captain William Clendenin, the first
Representative from Mason county in the Legislature of Virginia; General
Andrew Lewis, a Brigadier-General during the Revolution, twice wounded
at the siege of Fort Necessity, the commandant of the troops that drove
Lord Dunmore from Gwynn's Island in 1776, and announced his orders of
attack by putting the match to the first gun, an eighteen-pounder, himself.
Robertson, who gave the first alarm at Point Pleasant, afterward rose to
the rank of Brigadier-General in Tennessee.

The day after the battle Colonel Christian, at the head of three hundred
Fincastle troops, arrived at Point Pleasant and at once proceeded to bury
the dead. A fort was hastily erected and named Fort Randolph, in which
a garrison of one hundred men were left. The Virginia army, made
eager by success and maddened by the loss of so many brave officers,
crossed the Ohio and dashed away in pursuit of the beaten and disheartened
savages. Our next information of the Virginians is that a march of
eighty miles through an untrodden wilderness has been performed, and on
the 24th of October we find them encamped on Congo creek, in what is
now Pickaway township, Pickaway county, within striking distance of the
Indian towns, but there again compelled to await the movements of the
Tory governor, at the head of the left wing, who was then encamped further
north, at a point called Camp Charlotte, and from which place he
sent a messenger to General Lewis, forbidding his further advance into the
hostile country, as he (Dunmore) was now negotiating for peace with the
Indians. The peace was concluded, a junction of the two divisions was
formed, and the whole army returned by way of Fort Gower (at the
mouth of the Muskingum) to Virginia. Thus ended Dunmore's war.

To the student of history no truth is more patent than this—that the
battle at Point Pleasant was the first in the series of the Revolution, the
flames of which were then being kindled by the oppression of the mother
country, and the resistance of the same by the feeble but determined
colonies. It is a well-known fact that emissaries of Great Britain were
then inciting the Indians to hostilities against the frontier for the purpose
of distracting attention, and thus preventing the consummation of the
union which was then being formed to resist the tyranny of their armed

oppressors. It is also well known that Lord Dunmore was an enemy of
the colonists, by his rigid adherence to the royal cause and his efforts to
induce the Indians to co-operate with the English, and thus assist in reducing
Virginia to subjection. It has been asserted that he intentionally
delayed the progress of the left wing of the army that the right might be
destroyed at Point Pleasant. Then, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha
river, on the 19th day of October, 1774, there went whizzing through the
forest the first volley of a struggle for liberty which, in the grandeur and
importance of its results, stands without a parallel in the history of the
world. On that day the soil upon which Point Pleasant now stands, drank
the first blood shed in defense of American liberty, and it was there decided
that the decaying institutions of the Middle Ages should not prevail in
America, but that just laws and priceless liberty should be planted forever
in the domains of the New World.

Historians, becoming engrossed with the more stirring scenes of the
Revolution, have failed to consider this sanguinary battle in its true import
and bearing upon the destiny of our country, forgetting that the colonial
army returned home only to enlist in the patriot army, and on almost every
battle-field of the Revolution represented that little band who stood face to
face with the savage allies of Great Britain at Point Pleasant. But all
did not return. Many thus early paid the forfeit of their lives, but they
were not forgotten. Though no marble marks their place of rest, and no
historian has inscribed their names on the roll of the honored dead, yet
their memory lives in the rehearsal around the cabin fires of the mountains
of West Augusta, and in the rustic mountain ballads which were chanted
many years after the storm of the Revolution had spent its force and died
away.

LAST SURVIVOR OF THE BATTLE.

Belonging to General Lewis' army was a young man named Ellis
Hughes. He was a native of Virginia, and had been bred in the hot-bed
of Indian warfare. The Indians having murdered a young lady to whom
he was very much attached, and subsequently his father, he vowed revenge,
and the return of peace did not mitigate his hatred of the race. Shortly
after Wayne's treaty with the Indians in 1795, he forsook his native mountains,
and, in company with one John Ratliff, removed north of the Ohio,
where they became the first settlers in what is now Licking county in
that State.

Hughes died near Utica, that county, in March, 1845, at an advanced
age, in the hope of a happy future; claiming, and accredited by all who
knew him, to be the last survivor of the battle of Point Pleasant. He
was buried with military honors and other demonstrations of respect.