UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 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 
 
 WITH 
 
 REFLECTIONS, ANECDOTES, &c. 
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDER SCOTT WITHERS 
 
 EDITED AND ANNOTATED BY 
 
 REUBEN GOLD THWAITES 
 
 Secretary of the Wisconsion Historical Society, editor of "Wisconsin Historical Collec- 
 tions," and author of "The Colonies, 1492-1750," "Historic 
 Waterways," "Story of Wisconsin," etc. 
 
 With the addition of a Memoir of the Author, and several Illustrative Notes 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 I,YMAN COPEIvAND DRAPER 
 
 Author of "King's Mountain and Its Heroes," "Autograph Collections 
 of the Signers," etc. 
 
 SEVENTH IMPRESSION 
 
 THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY 
 GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A. 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 524* 8
 
 Copyright, 1895 
 BY REUBEN GOLD THWAITES 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 First Impression, 
 Second Impression, 
 Third Impression, 
 Fourth Impression, 
 Fifth Impression, 
 Sixth Impression, 
 Seventh Impression, 
 
 1895 
 1903 
 1908 
 1912 
 1915 
 1917 
 1920
 
 W77c 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Editor's Preface ,.., v 
 
 Memoir of the Author, by Lyman C. Draper viii 
 
 Original Title-page (photographic fac-simile) xiii 
 
 Original Copyright Notice xiv 
 
 v Original Advertisement xv 
 
 Original Table of Contents (with pagination revised) xvii 
 
 ^ Author's Text (with editorial notes) 1 
 
 Index, by the Editor 431 
 
 > (iii) 

 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 It is sixty-four years since the original edition of 
 Withers's Chronicles of Border Warfare was given to the 
 public. The author was a faithful recorder of local tra- 
 dition. Among his neighbors were sons and grandsons of 
 the earlier border heroes, and not a few actual participants 
 in the later wars. He had access, however, to few con- 
 temporary documents. He does not appear to have 
 searched for them, for there existed among the pioneer 
 historians of the West a respect for tradition as the prime 
 source of information, which does not now obtain ; to-day, 
 we desire first to see the documents of a period, and care 
 little for reminiscence, save when it fills a gap in or illu- 
 mines the formal record. The weakness of the traditional 
 method is well exemplified in Withers's work. His treat- 
 ment of many of the larger events on the border may now 
 be regarded as little else than a thread on which to hang 
 annotations; but in most of the local happenings which 
 are here recorded he will always, doubtless, remain a lead- 
 ing authority for his informants possessed full knowl- 
 edge of what occurred within their own horizon, although 
 having distorted notions regarding affairs beyond it. 
 
 The Chronicles had been about seven years upon the 
 market, when a New York youth, inspired by the pages 
 of Doddridge, Flint, and Withers, with a fervid love for 
 border history, entered upon the task of collecting doc- 
 uments and traditions with which to correct and amplify 
 the lurid story which these authors had outlined. In the 
 prosecution of this undertaking, Lyman C. Draper became 
 so absorbed with the passion of collecting that he found 
 little opportunity for literary effort, and in time his early 
 facility in this direction became dulled. He was the most 
 successful of collectors of materials for Western history, 
 and as such did a work which must earn for him the last- 
 ing gratitude of American historical students; but un- 
 
 (v)
 
 vi Editor s Preface. 
 
 fortunately he did little more than collect and investigate, 
 and the idea which to the last strongly possessed him, of 
 writing a series of biographies of trans- Alleghany pioneers, 
 was never realized. He died August 26, 1891, having ac- 
 complished wondrous deeds for the Wisconsin Historical 
 Society, of which he was practically the founder, and for 
 thirty-three years the main stay; in the broader domain of 
 historical scholarship, however, he had failed to reach his 
 goal. His great collection of manuscripts and notes, he 
 willed to his Society, which has had them carefully classi- 
 fied and conveniently bound a lasting treasure for histo- 
 rians of the West and Southwest, for the important frontier 
 period between about 1740 and 1816. 
 
 Dr. Draper had exhibited much ability as an editor, 
 in the first ten volumes of the Wisconsin Historical Collec- 
 tions. In 1890, the Robert Clarke Company engaged him, 
 as the best living authority on the details of Western border 
 history, to prepare and edit a new edition of Withers. He 
 set about the task with interest, and was engaged in the 
 active preparation of "copy" during his last months on 
 earth; indeed, his note upon page 123 of this edition is 
 thought to have been his final literary work. He had at 
 that time prepared notes for about one-fourth of the book, 
 and had written his "Memoir of the Author." 
 
 The matter here rested until the autumn of 1894, 
 when the publishers requested the present writer to take 
 up the work where his revered friend had left it, and see 
 the edition through the press. He has done this with 
 some reluctance, conscious that he approached the task 
 with a less intimate knowledge of the subject than his 
 predecessor; nevertheless he was unwilling that Dr. Dra- 
 per's notes on the early pages should be lost, and has 
 deemed it a labor of love to complete the undertaking upon 
 which the last thoughts of the latter fondly dwelt. 
 
 In the preparation of his own notes, the editor has 
 had the great advantage of free access to the Draper Man- 
 uscripts; without their help, it would have been impossi- 
 ble to throw further light on many of the episodes treated 
 by the author. The text of Withers has been preserved 
 intact, save that where errors have obviously been typo-
 
 Editor's Preface. vii 
 
 graphical, and not intended by the author, the editor has 
 corrected them perhaps in a dozen instances only, for the 
 original proof-reading appears to have been rather care- 
 fully done. The pagination of the original edition has in 
 this been indicated by brackets, as [54]. In the original, 
 the publisher's "Advertisement" and the " Table of Con- 
 tents" were bound in at the end of the work, see colla- 
 tion in Field's Indian Bibliography, but evidently this was 
 a make-shift of rustic binders in a hurry to get out the 
 long-delayed edition, and the editor has taken the liberty 
 to transfer them to theirproper place; also, while preserving- 
 typographical peculiarities therein, to change the pagina- 
 tion in the "Contents" to accord with the present edition. 
 In order clearly to indicate the authorship of notes, those 
 by Withers himself are unsigned; those by Dr. Draper 
 are signed " L. C. D."; and those by the present writer, 
 
 "R. G. T." 
 
 BEUBEN GOLD THWAITES. 
 
 Madison, Wis., 
 
 February, 1895.
 
 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 BY LYMAN COPELAND DRAPER. 
 
 In 1831, an interesting volume appeared from the press 
 of Joseph Israel, of Clarksburg, in North Western Vir- 
 ginia, prepared by Alexander Scott Withers, on the bor- 
 der wars of the West. It was well received at the time 
 of its publication, when works on that subject were few, 
 and read with avidity by the surviving remnant of the 
 participators in the times and events so graphically de- 
 scribed, and by their worthy descendants. 
 
 Historians and antiquarians also received it cordially, 
 universally according it high praise. Mann Butler, the 
 faithful historian of Kentucky, declared that it was " a 
 work to which the public was deeply indebted," composed, 
 as it was, with " so much care and interest." The late 
 Samuel G. Drake, the especial historian of the Red Man, 
 pronounced it "a work written with candor and judg- 
 ment." The late Thomas W. Field, the discriminating 
 writer on Indian Bibliography, says : " Of this scarce book, 
 very few copies are complete or in good condition. Hav- 
 ing been issued in a remote corner of North- Western Vir- 
 ginia, and designed principally for a local circulation, al- 
 most every copy was read by a country fireside until 
 scarcely legible. Most of the copies lack the table of con- 
 tents. The author took much pains to be authentic, and 
 his chronicles are considered by Western antiquarians, to 
 form the best collection of frontier life and Indian war- 
 fare, that has been printed." 
 
 Of such a work, now difficult to procure at any price, 
 a new edition is presented to the public. In 1845, the 
 writer of this notice visited the Virginia Valley, collecting 
 materials on the same general subject, going over much 
 the same field of investigation, and quite naturally, at that 
 early period, indentifyiug very large the sources of Mr. 
 Withers's information, thus making it possible to repro- 
 (viii)
 
 Memoir of the Author. ix 
 
 duce his work with new lights and explanations, such as 
 generally give pleasure and interest to the intelligent 
 reader of border history. 1 
 
 In 1829, a local antiquary, of Covington, a beautiful 
 little village nestling in a high mountain valley near the 
 head of James River, in Alleghany County, Virginia, 
 gathered from the aged pioneers still lingering on the 
 shores of time, the story of the primitive settlement and 
 border wars of the Virginia Valley. Hugh Paul Taylor, 
 for such was his name, was the precursor, in all that re- 
 gion, of the school of historic gleaners, and published in 
 the nearest village paper, The Fincastle Mirror, some twenty 
 miles away, a series of articles, over the signature of " Son of 
 Cornstalk," extending over a period of some forty stirring 
 years, from about 1740 to the close of the Revolutionary 
 War. These articles formed at least the chief authority 
 for several of the earlier chapters of Mr. Withers's work. 
 Mr. Taylor had scarcely molded his materials into shape, 
 and put them into print, when he was called hence at an 
 early age, without having an opportunity to revise and 
 publish the results of his labors under more favorable 
 auspices. 
 
 Soon after Mr. Taylor's publication, Judge Edwin S. 
 Duncan, of Peel Tree, in then Harrison, now Barbour 
 County, West Virginia, a gentleman of education, and well 
 fitted for such a work, residing in the heart of a region 
 rife with the story of Indian wars and hair-breadth es- 
 capes, made a collection of materials, probably including 
 Mr. Taylor's sketches, with a view to a similar work ; but 
 his professional pursuits and judicial services interposed 
 to preclude the faithful prosecution of the work, so he 
 turned over to Mr. Withers his historic gatherings, with 
 
 1 The venerable Mark L. Spotts, an intelligent and long-time resident 
 of Lewisburg, West Virginia, writes, in December, 1890: " I had an old 
 and particular friend, Mr. Thomas Matthews, of this place, who, many 
 years ago, conceived the idea of preparing and publishing a revised 
 edition of Withers's Border Warfare, and no doubt had collected many 
 facts looking to such a publication ; but the old man's health gave way, 
 he died, and his widow moved away, and what became of his notes, I 
 can not say perhaps destroyed." L. C. "D.
 
 x Memoir of the Author. 
 
 euch suggestions, especially upon the Indian race, as by 
 his studies aud reflections he was enabled to offer. 
 
 Other local gleaners in the field of Western history, par- 
 ticularly Noah Zane, of Wheeling, John Hacker, of the 
 Hackers Creek settlement, and others, freely furnished 
 their notes and statements for the work. Mr. Withers, 
 under these favorable circumstances, became quite well 
 equipped with materials regarding especially the first set- 
 tlement and Indian wars of the region now comprising 
 West Virginia ; and, to a considerable extent, the region 
 of Staunton and farther southwest, of the French aud In- 
 dian War period, together with Dunmore's War, and the 
 several campaigns from the western borders of Virginia 
 and Pennsylvania into the Ohio region, during the Revo- 
 lutionary War. 
 
 Alexander Scott Withers, for his good services in the 
 field of Western history, well deserves to have his name 
 and memory perpetuated as a public benefactor. Descend- 
 ing, on his father's side, from English ancestry, he was the 
 fourth child of nine, in the family of Enoch K. and Jennet 
 Chinn Withers, who resided at a fine Virginia homestead, 
 called Green Meadows, half a dozen miles from Warren - 
 ton, Fauquier county, Virginia, where the subject of this 
 sketch was born on the 12th of October, 1792 on the 
 third centennial anniversary of the discovery of America 
 by Columbus. His mother was the daughter of Thomas 
 Chinn and Jennet Scott the latter a native of Scotland, 
 and a first cousin of Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 Passing his early years in home and private schools, 
 he became from childhood a lover of books and knowl- 
 edge. He read Virgil at the early age of ten ; and, in 
 due time, entered Washington College, and thence en- 
 tered the law department of the venerable institution of 
 William and Mary, where Jefferson, Monroe, Wythe, and 
 other Virginia notables, received their education. 
 
 Procuring a license to practice, he was admitted to 
 the bar in Warrenton, where for two or three years he 
 practiced his profession. His father dying in 1813, he 
 abandoned his law practice, which he did not like, be- 
 cause he could not overcome his diflidence in public
 
 Memoir of the Author. xi 
 
 speaking; and, for quite a period, he had the manage- 
 ment of his mother's plantation. 
 
 In August, 1815, he was united in marriage with Miss 
 Melinda Fisher, a most estimable lady, a few months his 
 junior; and about 1827, having a growing family, he 
 looked to the Great West for his future home and field 
 of labor, and moved to West Virginia, first locating tem- 
 porarily in Bridgeport, in Harrison County, and subse- 
 quently settling near Clarksburg in. the same county, 
 where he devoted much time in collecting materials for 
 and writing his Chronicles of Border Warfare. 
 
 The publisher, Joseph Israel, who took a deep inter- 
 est in the work, as his "Advertisement" of it suggests, 
 must have realized ample recompense for the work, as he 
 had subscribers for the full edition issued ; yet, from some 
 cause, he failed pecuniarily, and Mr. Withers got nothing 
 whatever for his diligence and labor in producing it, save 
 two or three copies of the work itself. He used to sav, 
 that had he published the volume himself, he would have 
 made it much more complete, and better in everyway; 
 for he was hampered, limited, and hurried often correct- 
 ing proof of the early, while writing the later chapters. 
 Mr. Israel, the publisher, died several years ago. 
 
 After this worthy but uuremunerative labor, Mr. 
 Withers turned his attention to Missouri for a suitable 
 home for his old age. He was disappointed in his visit to 
 that new state, as the richer portions of the country, 
 where he would have located, were more or less unhealthy. 
 So he returned to West Virginia, and settled near Westou, 
 u fine, healthful region of hills and valleys, where he en- 
 gaged in agricultural pursuits, in which he always took a 
 deep interest. He also served several years as a magis- 
 trate, the only public position he ever filled. 
 
 The death of his wife in September, 1853, broke sadly 
 into his domestic enjoyments ; his family were now scat- 
 tered, and his home was henceforward made with his eld- 
 est daughter, Mrs. Jennet S. Tavenner, and her husband, 
 Thomas Tavenner, who in 1861 removed to a home ad- 
 joining Parkersburg, in West Virginia. Here our author 
 lived a retired, studious life, until his death, which oc-
 
 xii Memoir of the Author. 
 
 curred, after a few days' illness, January 23, 1865, in the 
 seventy-third year of his age. 
 
 Mr. Withers had no talent for the acquisition of 
 wealth; but he met with marked success in acquiring 
 knowledge. He was an admirer of ancient literature, and 
 to his last days read the Greek classics in the original. A 
 rare scholar, a lover of books, his tastes were eminently 
 domestic ; he was, from his nature, much secluded from the 
 busy world around him. Nearly six feet high, rather 
 portly and dignified, as is shown by his portrait, taken 
 when he was about sixty years of age he was kind and 
 obliging to all, and emphatically a true Virginia gentle- 
 man of the old school. His sympathies during the War 
 of Secession, were strongly in favor of the Union cause, 
 the happy termination of which he did not live to witness. 
 His son, Henry W. Withers, served with credit during 
 the war in the Union service in the Twelfth Virginia 
 Regiment. 
 
 Mr. Withers was blessed with two sons and three 
 daughters one of the sons has passed away ; the other, 
 Major Henry W. Withers, resides in Troy, Gilmer county, 
 West Virginia; Mrs. Tavenner still lives at Parkersburg; 
 Mrs. Mary T. Owen, at Galveston, Texas, and Mrs. Eliza- 
 beth Ann Thoruhill, in New Orleans.
 
 OF 
 
 9 
 
 OR 
 
 A UISTOUX 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SETTLEMENT BY THE WHITES, 
 
 OF SOUTH WESTERN VIRGINIA: 
 
 AXD 
 
 OF TH-& LVDUIJV WJ1RS J1WD MASSACRES, 
 
 hi THAT XECTIOBI OP TTIK STATE , 
 
 BY ALEXANDER S WITHERS. 
 
 CLARKSBHIVG, V.A. 
 PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH tSRAEL,
 
 \VESTEKX DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA, to wit : 
 
 Be it remembered, That on the twenty-sixth day of Janu- 
 ary, in the Fifty-fifth year of the Independence of the 
 United States of America, JOSEPH ISRAEL, of the said Dis- 
 trict, hath deposited in this Office, the title of a Book, the right 
 whereof he claims as Proprietor, in the words following, To wit: 
 
 "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; with reflections, anecdotes, 
 &c By ALEXANDER S. WITHERS, 1831," in conformity to the act of Cong- 
 ress of the United States, entitled "An act for the encouragement 
 of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the 
 Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men- 
 tioned; and also to an act, entitled "An act for the encouragement 
 of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the 
 Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during tho times therein 
 mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of De- 
 signing, Engraving and Etching historical and other prints." 
 
 JASPER YEATES DODDRIDGE, 
 Clerk of the Western District of Virginia. 
 (xiv)
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The " Chronicles of Border Warfare" are now completed and 
 presented to the public. Circumstances, over which the publisher 
 had no control, have operated to delay their appearance beyond the 
 anticipated period ; and an apprehension that such might be the 
 case, induced him, when issuing proposals for their publication, not 
 positively to name a time at which the work would be completed 
 and ready for delivery. 
 
 This delay, although unavoidable, has been the source of regret 
 to the publisher, and has added considerably to the expenditure 
 otherwise necessarily made, in attempting to rescue from oblivion 
 the many interesting incidents, now, for the first time recorded. 
 To preserve them from falling into the gulph of forgetfulness, was 
 the chief motive which the publisher had in view ; and should the 
 profits of the work be sufficient to defray the expenses, actually in- 
 curred in its preparation and completion, he will be abundantly 
 satisfied. That he will be thus far remunerated, is not for an in- 
 stant doubted, the subscription papers having attached to them, as 
 many names as there are copies published. 
 
 In regard to the manner of its execution, it does not perhaps 
 become him to speak. He was attentive to his duties, and watched 
 narrowly the press ; and if typographical errors are to be found, it 
 must be attributed to the great difficulty of preventing them, even 
 when the author is at hand to correct each proof sheet. They are 
 however, certainly few, and such as would be likely to escape ob- 
 servation. 
 
 JOSEPH ISRAEL, Publisher.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. General view of the discovery of North America, by 
 England, France and Spain 1 to 11. Aborigines of America Their 
 origin 12-27. Their persons and character Indian antiquities 
 28-43. 
 
 CHAPTEU 1. Of the country west of Blue ridge, difficulties attending 
 its first settlement; Indians in neighborhood their tribes and num- 
 bers. Various parties explore the Valley ; their adventures. Benja- 
 min Burden receives a grant of land; settles 100 families, their gen- 
 eral character, West of Blue ridge divided into two counties; its 
 present population, &c. Discovery of Greenbrier, explored by Martin 
 and Seal; by the Lewis's, Greenbrier Company, settlement of Muddy 
 Creek and Big Levels, of New river and Holstein ; of Gallipolis by 
 French. ...44.. ..62. 
 
 2nd. North Western Virginia, divisions and population. Import- 
 ance of Ohio river to the French, and the English; Ohio Company ; 
 "English traders made prisoners by French, attempt to establish 
 fort frustrated, French erect Fort du Quesne; War; Braddock'a ^de- 
 fea^L. Andrew Lewis, character and services; Grant's defeat, capture of 
 Tnrt_d Qy^sne and erection of Fort Pjt_t: TygarTatnTFiles settle on 
 East Fork of Monongaheia, file's tamily killed by Indians, Dunkards 
 visit the country, settle on Cheat, their fate; settlement under Decker 
 on the Monongaheia, destroyed by Indians, pursuit by Gibson, origin 
 of Long knives 63-80. 
 
 CHAP. 3rd. Expedition to the mouth of Big_J3ady, ordered back 
 by governor, their extreme sufferings: Dreadful catastrophe at Leyit's 
 Fort, Shawnees visit James river settlements, their depredations and 
 defeat, fortunate escape of Hannah Dennis, destruction at Muddy 
 creek and Big Levels, Mrs. Clendennin, Indians visit Jackson and Ca- 
 tawba rivers, discovered, pursued, overtaken and dispersed, Mrs. Gunn 
 81-99. 
 
 ('HAP. 4th. Indians commit depredations in Pennsylvania, burn 
 three prisoners, excesses of Paxton Boys, Black Boys ot great service 
 to frontier, engagement at Turtle creek, Tr 
 
 Indians, affair at Sidelong hill, Fort Bedford taken by Blackboys, 
 (3apt. "James Smith, his character and services 100-116. 
 
 CHAP. 5th. Deserters from Fort Pitt visit head of Monongaheia, The 
 Pringles, Settlements of Buckhannon, of Hacker's creek, Mononga- 
 heia and other places, Of Wheeling by Zane's, Their Character, Char- 
 acter of Win. Lowther, Objects and character of the first settlers 
 generally 117-133. 
 
 CHAP. 6th. War of 1774, Inquiry into its cause, Boone and others 
 visit Kentucky, Emigrants attacked by Indians, Surveyors begin 
 operations there, Affair at Captina, and opposite Yellow creek, Ex- 
 cesses of Indians, Preparations for [ii] war, Expedition against Wappa- 
 tomica, Incursion of Logan and others, Of Indians on West Fork... 
 134-158. 
 
 CHAP. 7th. Indians come on Big Kenhawa, Lewis and Jacob Whit- 
 sel taken prisoners, Their adventurous conduct, Plan of Dunmore's 
 
 (xvii)
 
 xviii Contents. 
 
 campaign, Battle at Point Pleasant, Dunmore enters Indian country 
 and makes peace, Reflections on the motives of Dunmore's conduct... 
 159-186. 
 
 CHAP. 8th. General view of the relative situation of Great Britain 
 and the colonies, British emissaries and American Tories stimulate 
 the Savages to war, Progress of settlements in Kentucky, Character 
 of Harrod, Boone and Logan, Attack on Harrod's fort, on Boone's 
 and on Logan's, Bowman arrives to its relief, Cornstock visits Point 
 Pleasant, Projected campaign against the Indians abortive. jCorn- 
 stock'a son visite him, Gilmore killed, Murder oF Uornstock. Of El- 
 linipsico and others, Character of Cornstock... 1^7-21 47 
 
 CHAP. 9. General alarm on the frontier, SavagAa nnmmit. Hop r o. 
 dations. Intelligence of contemplated invasion, Condition of Wheel- 
 ing, Indians seen near it, Two parties under captain Mason and cap- 
 tain Ogal decoyed within the Indian lines and cut to pieces, Girty 
 demands the surrender of Wheeling, Col. Zane's reply, Indians at- 
 tacks the fort and retire, Arrival of col. Swearingen with a reinforce- 
 ment, of captain Foreman, Ambuscade at Grave creek narrows, con- 
 spiracy of Tories discovered and defeated, Petro and White taken 
 prisoners, Irruption intoTygarts Valley, Murder at Conoly's and at 
 Stewarts. ..215-235. 
 
 CHAP. 10. Measures of defence. Fort M'Intosh erected, exposed 
 situation, commencement of hostilities. Attack on Harbert's block- 
 house, Murder at Morgan's on Cheat, Of Lowther and Hughes, In- 
 dians appear before Fort at the point, Decoy Lieut. Moore into an am- 
 buscade, a larger army visits Fort, stratagem to draw out the gar- 
 rison, Prudence and precaution of capt. M'Kee. Fort closely be- 
 sieged, Siege raised, Heroic adventure of Prior and Hammond to 
 save Greenbrier, Attack on Donnelly's Fort, Dick Pointer, Affair at 
 West's Fort, Successful artifice of Hustead, Affair at Cobern's fort, 
 at Strader's, Murder of Stephen Washburn, captivity, <&c. of James, 
 Projected invasion of Indian country, Col. Clarke takes Kaskaskias 
 and other towns, Fort Lawrens erected by Gen. M'Intosh and gar- 
 risoned.. .236-256. 
 
 CHAP. 11. Gov. Hamilton marches to St. Vincent critical situa- 
 tion of col. Clarke, his daring expedition against Hamilton, condition 
 of Fort Lawren's, Successful stratagem of Indians there, Gen. M'In- 
 tosh arrives with an army, Fort evacuated, Transactions in Ken- 
 tucky, captivity of Boone, his escape and expedition against Paint 
 creek town, Indian [iii] army under Du Quesne appear before Boone's 
 fort, politic conduct of Boone, Fort assaulted, Assailants repulsed, 
 Expedition against Chilicothe towns under Bowman, Its failure, Ken- 
 tucky increases rapidly in population. ..257-274. 
 
 CHAP. 12. Hacker's creek settlement breaks up Alarm of Indians 
 near Pricket's fort, Stephen and Sarah Morgan sent to farm, Dream 
 and anxiety of their father, His fearful encounter with two Indians, 
 Kills both, Heroism of Mrs. Bozarth, Murders on Snow creek, cap- 
 tivity of Leonard Schoolcraft, Indians surprize Martin's fort, destruc- 
 tion there,, Irruptions into Tygart's valley, Indians attack the house 
 of Samuel Cottrail, Murder of John Schoolcrafts family, Projected 
 campaign of British and Indians, Indians again in Tygart's Valley, 
 mischief there, West's fort invested, Hazardous adventure of Jesse 
 Hughs to obtain assistance, Skirmish between whites and savages, 
 coolness and intrepidity of Jerry Curl, Austin Schoolcraft killed and 
 his niece taken prisoner, Murder of Owens and Judkins, of Sims. 
 Small Pox terrifies Indians, Transactions in Greenbrier, Murder of 
 Baker and others, last outrage in that country. ..275.. 293.
 
 Contents. xix 
 
 CHAP. 13. Operations of combined army of British and Indians, 
 Surrender of Huddle's Station, Outrages of savages there, Col. Byrd 
 enabled to restrain them, Martin's station surrenders, Byrd returns 
 to the Indian towns, Escape of Hinkstone, Invasion of North West- 
 ern Virginia, Plan of campaign, Indians discovered near Wheeling, 
 Take prisoners, Alarmed for their own safety, kill their prisoners and 
 retire, Expedition under Col. Broadhead, against the Munsies, against 
 Coshocton, excesses of the whites there, Expedition under Gen. 
 Clarke against Chilicothe and Piqua, Battle at Piqua, Indian depre- 
 dations in Virginia, murder of capt. Thomas and family, of School- 
 craft, Manear, and others, Destruction of Leading creek settlement, 
 aggressors overtaken by a party under Col. Lowther, Affair of Indian 
 creek, murder of Mrs. Furrenash, Williamson's first expedition against 
 Moravian Indians, Prisoners taken sent to Fort Pitt, Set at liberty, 
 Their settlements broken up by Wyandotts...294..317. 
 
 CHAP. 14. The murder of Monteur and his family, others taken 
 prisoners, Second expedition of Williamson against Moravians, its suc- 
 cess and the savage conduct of the whites, Expedition under Craw 
 ford, his defeat Is taken prisoner and burned ; captivity and escapa 
 of Doctor Knight, of Slover ; Death of Mills Signal achievement of 
 Lewis Whitsel 318...339. 
 
 CHAP. 15. Murder of White, Dorman and wife taken prisoners; 
 Inhabitants on Buckhannon evacuate the fort, attacked by Indians 
 on their way to the Valley; Whites visiting [iv] Buckhannon settle* 
 ment discovered and watched by Indians conduct of George Jackson 
 to obtain aid, Stalnaker killed, Indians cross Alleghany miss Gregg 
 killed by Dorman, murder of mrs. Pindall, of Charles Washburn, of 
 Arnold and Richards Daring conduct of Elias Hughes murder of 
 Corbly's family... Grand council of Indians at Chillicothe, Its deter- 
 minations; Indian army enters Kentucky ; Affair at Bryants station; 
 Battle of Blue Licks Expedition under Gen. Clarke, Attack on Wheel- 
 ing, Attempt to demolish the fort with a wooden cannon, Signal ex- 
 ploit of Elizabeth Zane, Noble conduct of Francis Duke, Indians 
 withdraw, Attack on Eives [Rice's] Fort, Encounter of Poe with two 
 Indians. ..340-364. 
 
 CHAP. 16. Peace with G. Britain, War continued by Indians' 
 Operations in N. W. Virginia... murder of Daniel Radcliff, Attack on 
 Cunninghams upon Bingamon, murders there; murders in Tazewell. 
 of Davison, of Moore, mrs. Moore and seven children taken prison- 
 ers, their fate murder of Ice, &c. Levi Morgan encounters two In* 
 dians, Indians steal horses on West Fork, pursued and punished by 
 col. Lowther murder of the Wests on Hacker's creek, Remarkable 
 recovery of J. Hacker's daughter murder of the Johnsons on Ten- 
 mile creek, At Macks, Artifice of John Sims. ..365. ..383. 
 
 CHAP. 17. Rapid increase of population of Kentucky, opera- 
 tions there... Preparations of the general Government to carry on the 
 war in the Indian country, Settlement of Marietta, Of Cincinatti, 
 Fort Washington erected, Settlement of Duck creek, Big Bottom and 
 Wolf creeks... Harmar's campaign, murder of whites on Big Bottom, 
 murder of John Bush Affair at Hansucker's on Dunkard... murder of 
 Carpenter and others and escape of Jesse Hughes... campaign under 
 Gen. St. Clair... Attack at Merrill's, Heroic conduct of mrs. Merrill, 
 Signal success of expedition under Gen. Scott... 384-407. 
 
 CHAP. 18. Indians visit Hacker's creek... murder of the Waggon- 
 ers and captivity of others murder of Neal and Triplet, major Tru- 
 man and col. Hardin killed, Greater preparations made by General 
 Government, John and Henry Johnson, Attack on the hunting camp
 
 ix Contents. 
 
 of Isaac Zane, Noble conduct of Zane...Treatmp"t ^f T ndia.n prjsr>n. 
 era, Fort Recovery erected, Escape of Joseph Cox. ..murder of miss 
 "TTuhyan and attack on Carder's, Indians kill and make prisoners the 
 Cozads, Affair at Joseph Kanaan's, Progress of army under Gen. 
 Wayne, Indians attack and defeat detachment under M'Mahon, bat- 
 tle of Au Glaize and victory of General Wayne, Affair at Bozarth's on 
 Buckhannon... Treaty of Greenville 408. ..430.
 
 [3] INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 It is highly probable that the continent of America 
 was known to the Ancient Carthaginians, and that it was 
 the great island Atalantis, of which mention is made by 
 Plato, who represents it as larger than Asia and Africa. 
 The Carthaginians were a maritime people, and it is 
 known that they extended their \discoveries beyond the 
 narrow sphere which had hitherto limited the enterprise 
 of the mariner. And although Plato represents Atalantis 
 as having been swallowed by an earthquake, and all 
 knowledge of the new continent, if any such ever existed, 
 was entirely lost, still it is by no means improbable, that 
 it had been visited by some of the inhabitants of the old 
 world, prior to its discovery by Columbus in 1492. The 
 manner of this discovery is well known, as is also the fact 
 that Americo Vespucci, a Florentine, under the authority 
 of Emmanuel king of Portugal, in sailing as far as Brazil 
 discovered the main land and gave name to America. 
 
 These discoveries gave additional excitement to the 
 adventurous spirit which distinguished those times, and 
 the flattering reports made of the country which they had 
 visited, inspired the different nations of Europe, with the 
 desire of reaping the rich harvest, which the enlightened 
 and enterprising mind of Columbus, had unfolded to their 
 view. Accordingly, as early as March 1496, (less than two 
 years after the discovery by Columbus) a commission was 
 granted by Henry VII king of England, to John Cabot 
 and his three sons, empowering them to sail under the 
 English banner in quest of new discoveries, and in the 
 event of their success to take possession, in the name of 
 
 cn
 
 2 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 the king of England, of the countries thus discovered and 
 not inhabited by Christian people. 
 
 The expedition contemplated in this commission was 
 never carried into effect. But in May 1498 Cabot with his 
 son Sebastian, embarked on a voyage to attain the desired 
 object, and succeeded in his design so far as to effect a dis- 
 covery of [4] North America, and although he sailed along 
 the coast from Labrador to Virginia, yet it does not now 
 appear that he made any attempt either at settlement or 
 conquest. 
 
 This is said to have been the first discovery ever made 
 of that portion of our continent which extends from the 
 Gulph of Mexico to the North pole ; and to this discovery 
 the English trace their title to that part of it, subsequently 
 reduced into possession by them. 1 
 
 As many of the evils endured by the inhabitants of the 
 western part of Virginia, resulted from a contest between 
 England and France, as to the validity of their respective 
 claims to portions of the newly discovered country, it 
 may not be amiss to take a general view of the dis- 
 coveries and settlements effected by each of those powers. 
 
 After the expedition of Cabot, no attempt on the part 
 of England, to acquire territory in America, seems to have 
 been made until the year 1558. In this year letters patent 
 were issued by Queen Elizabeth, empowering Sir Hum- 
 phrey Gilbert to " discover and take possession of such re- 
 mote, heathen, and barbarous lands, as were not actually 
 possessed by any Christian prince or people" Two expedi- 
 tions, conducted by this gentleman terminated unfavor- 
 ably. Nothing was done by him towards the accomplish- 
 ment of the objects in view, more than the taking pos- 
 session of the island of New Poundland in the name of the 
 English Queen. 
 
 In 1584 a similar patent was granted to Sir Walter 
 
 1 The author errs somewhat in his review of the voyages of the 
 Cabots. In 1497, John set out to reach Asia by way of the north-west, 
 and sighted Cape Breton, for which the generous king gave him 10 
 and blessed him with " great honours." In 1408, Sebastian's voyage was 
 intended to supplement his father's; his exploration of the coast ex- 
 tended down to the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 3 
 
 Raleigh, under whose auspices was discovered the country 
 south of Virginia. In April of that year he dispatched 
 two vessels under the command of Amidas and Barlow, 
 for the purpose of visiting, and obtaining such a knowl- 
 edge of the country which he proposed to colonize, as 
 would facilitate the attainment of his object. In their 
 voyage they approached the North American continent 
 towards the Gulph of Florida, and sailing northwardly 
 touched at an island situate on the inlet into Pamlico 
 sound, in the state of North Carolina. To this island they 
 gave the name of Wocoken, and proceeding from thence 
 reached Roanoke near the mouth of Albemarle sound. 
 After having remained here some weeks, and obtained 
 from the natives the best information which they could 
 impart concerning the country, Amidas and Barlow re- 
 turned to England. 
 
 In the succeeding year Sir Walter had fitted out a 
 squadron of seven ships, the command of which he gave 
 to Sir Richard [5] Grenville. On board of this squadron 
 were passengers, arms, ammunition and provisions for a 
 settlement. He touched at the islands of Wocoken and 
 Roanoke, which had been visited by Amidas and Barlow, 
 and leaving a colony of one hundred and eight per- 
 sons in the island of Roanoke, he returned to England. 
 These colonists, after having remained about twelve 
 months and explored the adjacent country, became so dis- 
 couraged and exhausted by fatigue and famine, that they 
 abandoned the country. Sir Richard Grenville returning 
 shortly afterwards to America, and not being able to find 
 them, and at a loss to conjecture their fate, left in the 
 island another small party of settlers and again set sail 
 for England. 
 
 The flattering description which was given of the 
 country, by those who had visited it, so pleased Queen 
 Elizabeth, that she gave to it the name of Virginia, as a 
 memorial that it had been discovered in the reign of a Vir- 
 gin Queen. 
 
 Other inefficient attempts were afterwards made to 
 colonize North America during the reign of Elizabeth, but 
 it was not 'till the year 1607, that a colony was perma-
 
 4 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 nently planted there. In December of the preceding year 
 a small vessel and two barks, under the command of cap- 
 tain Newport, and having on board one hundred and five 
 men, destined to remain, left England. In April they 
 were driven by a storm into Chesapeak bay, and after a 
 fruitless attempt to land at Cape Henry, sailed up the 
 Powhatan (since called James) River, and on the 13th of 
 May 1607, debarked on the north side of the river at a 
 place to which they gave the name of Jamestown. From 
 this period the country continued in the occupancy of 
 the whites, and remained subject to the crown of Great 
 Britain until the war of the revolution. 
 
 A new charter which was issued in 1609 grants to 
 "the treasurer and company of the adventurers, of the 
 city of London for the first colony of Virginia, in absolute 
 property the lands extending from Point Comfort along 
 the sea coast two hundred miles to the northward, and 
 from the same point, along the sea coast two hundred 
 miles to the southward, and up into the land throughout 
 from sea to sea, west and north-west ; and also all islands 
 lying within one hundred miles of the coast of both seas 
 of the precinct aforesaid." Conflicting charters, granted 
 to other corporations, afterwards narrowed her limits ; 
 that she has been since reduced to her present compara- 
 tively small extent of territory, is attributable exclusively 
 [6] to the almost suicidal liberality of Virginia herself. 
 
 On the part of France, voyages for the discovery and 
 colonization of North America were nearly contempo- 
 raneous with those made by England for like objects. As 
 early as the year 1540, a commission was issued by Francis 
 1st for the establishment of Canada. 1 In 1608, a French 
 fleet, under the command of Admiral Champlaine, arrived 
 
 1 This refers to the explorations of Jacques Cartier. But as early aa 
 1534 Cartier sailed up the estuary of the St. Lawrence "until land could 
 be seen on either side ;" the following year he ascended the river as 
 far as the La Chine rapids, and wintered upon the island mountain there 
 which he named Mont Real. It was in 1541 that he made his third 
 voyage, and built a fort at Quebec. The author's reference, a few lines 
 below, to a " Spanish sailor " in the St. Lawrence, is the result of con- 
 fusion over Cartier's first voyages ; Cortereal was at Newfoundland for 
 the Portuguese in 1500 ; and Gomez for Spain in 1525. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 5 
 
 in the St. Lawrence and founded the city of Quebec. So 
 successful were her attempts to colonize that province, 
 that, notwithstanding its proximity to the English colo- 
 nies, and the fact that a Spanish sailor had previously en- 
 tered the St. Lawrence and established a port at the mouth 
 of Grand river neither of those powers seriously con- 
 tested the right of France to its possession. Yet it was 
 frequently the theatre of war ; and as early as 1629 was 
 subdued by England. By the treaty of St. Germains in 
 1632 it was restored to France, as was also the then prov- 
 ince of Acadie, now known as Nova Scotia. There is no 
 doubt but that this latter province was, by priority of 
 settlement, the property of France, but its principal town 
 having been repeatedly reduced to possession by the Eng- 
 lish, it was ceded to them by the treaty of Utrecht in 
 1713. 
 
 To the country bordering the Mississippi river, and its 
 tributary streams, a claim was made by England, France 
 and Spain. The claim of England (based on the discovery 
 by the Cabots of the eastern shore of the United States,) 
 included all the country between the parallels of latitude 
 within which the Atlantic shore was explored, extending 
 westwardly to the Pacific ocean a zone athwart the con- 
 tinent between the thirtieth and forty-eighth degrees of 
 North latitude. 
 
 [From the facility with which the French gained the 
 good will and friendly alliance of the Natives in Canada, 
 by intermarrying with, and assimilating themselves to the 
 habits and inclinations of, these children of the forest, an 
 intimacy arose which induced the Indians to impart freely 
 to the French their knowledge of the interior country. 
 Among other things information was communicated to 
 them, of the fact that farther on there was a river of great 
 size and immense length, which pursued a course opposite 
 to that of the St. Lawrence, and emptied itself into an 
 unknown sea.J^It was conjectured that it must necessarily 
 flow either into the Gulph of Mexico, or the South Sea ; 
 and in 1673 Marquette and Joliet, French missionaries, 
 together with five other men, commenced -a journey
 
 6 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 [7] from Quebec to ascertain the fact and examine the 
 country bordering its shores. 
 
 From lake Michigan they proceeded up the Fox river 
 nearly to its source; thence to Ouisconsin ; down it to the 
 Mississippi, in which river they sailed as far as to about 
 the thirty-third degree of north latitude. From this point 
 they returned through the Illinois country to Canada. 
 
 At the period of this discovery M. de La Salle, a 
 Frenchman of enterprise, courage and talents but without 
 fortune, was commandant of fort Frontignac. Pleased 
 with the description given by Marquette and Joliet, of the 
 country which they had visited, he formed the determina- 
 tion of examining it himself, and for this purpose left Can- 
 ada in the close of the summer of 1679, in company with 
 father Louis Hennepin and some others. 1 On the Illinois 
 he erected fort Crevecoeur, where he remained during the 
 winter, and instructing father Hennepin, in his absence to 
 ascend the Mississippi to its sources, returned to Canada. 
 M. de La Salle subsequently visited this country, and estab- 
 lishing the villages of Cahokia and Kaskaskia, left them 
 under the command of M. de Tonti, and going back to 
 Canada, proceeded from thence to France to procure the 
 co-operation of the Ministry in effecting a settlement of 
 the valley of the Mississippi. He succeeded in impressing 
 on the minds of the French Ministry, the great benefits 
 which would result from its colonization, and was the first 
 to suggest the propriety of connecting the settlements on 
 the Mississippi with those in Canada by a cordon of forts; 
 a measure which was subsequently attempted to be carried 
 into effect. 
 
 With the aid afforded him by the government of 
 France, he was enabled to prepare an expedition to accom- 
 plish his object, and sailing in 1684 for the mouth of the 
 Mississippi, steered too far westward and landed in the 
 province of Texas, and on the banks of the river Guada- 
 loupe. Every exertion which a brave and prudent man 
 
 1 The author wrote at too early a date to have the benefit of Park- 
 man's researches. La Salle had probably discovered the Ohio River 
 four years before the voyage of Joliet and Marquette. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 7 
 
 could make to effect the security of his little colony, and 
 conduct them to the settlement in Illinois, was fruitlessly 
 made by him. In reward for all his toil and care he was 
 basely assassinated ; the remnant of the party whom he 
 was conducting through the wilderness, finally reached the 
 Arkansas, where was a settlement of French emigrants 
 from Canada. The colonists left by him at the bay of St. 
 Bernard were mostly murdered by the natives, the remain- 
 der were carried away by the Spaniards in 1689. 
 [8] Other attempts made by the French to colonize the 
 Mississippi near the Gulph of Mexico, were for some time 
 unavailing. In an expedition for that purpose, conducted 
 by M. Ibberville, a suit of armor on which was inscribed 
 Ferdinand de Soto, was found in the possession of some 
 Indians. In the year 1717 the spot, on which New Orleans 
 now stands, was selected as the centre of the settlements, 
 then first made in Louisiana, and the country continued in 
 the possession of France until 1763. By the treaty of Paris 
 in that year, she ceded to Great Britain, together with 
 Canada her possessions east of the Mississippi, excepting 
 only the island of New Orleans this and her territory on 
 the west bank of that river were transferred to Spain. 
 
 The title of Spain to the valley of the Mississippi, if 
 made to depend on priority of discovery, would perhaps, 
 to say the least, be as good as that of either of the other 
 powers. Ferdinand de Soto, governor of Cuba, was most 
 probably the first white man who saw that majestic 
 stream. 
 
 The Spaniards had early visited and given name to 
 Florida. In 1528 Pamphilo de Narvaez obtained a grant 
 of it, and fitting out an armament, proceeded with four or 
 five hundred men to explore and settle the country. He 
 marched to the Indian village of Appalachas, when he was 
 attacked and defeated by the natives. The most of those 
 who escaped death from the hands of the savages, perished 
 in a storm, by which they were overtaken on their voyage 
 home. Narvaez himself perished in the wreck, and was 
 succeeded in his attempt at colonization by de Soto. 
 
 Ferdinand de Soto, then governor of Cuba, was a man 
 of chivalrous and enterprising spirit, and of cool, deliber-
 
 8 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 ate courage. In his expedition to Florida, although at- 
 tacked by the Indians, immediately on his landiug, yet, 
 rather seeking than shunning danger, he penetrated the 
 interior, and crossing the Mississippi, sickened and died on 
 Red river. So frequent and signal had been the victories 
 which he had obtained over the Indians, that his name 
 alone had become an object of terror to them ; and his fol- 
 lowers, at once to preserve his remains from violation, and 
 prevent the natives from acquiring a knowledge of his 
 death, enclosed his body in a hollow tree, sunk it in the 
 Red river and returned to Florida. 
 
 Thus, it is said, were different parts of this continent 
 discovered; and by virtue of the settlements thus effected, 
 by [9] those three great powers of Europe, the greater por- 
 tion of it was claimed as belonging to them respectively, in 
 utter disregard of the rights of the Aborigines. And 
 while the historian records the colonization of America as 
 an event tending to meliorate the condition of Europe, and 
 as having extended the blessings of civil and religious lib- 
 erty, humanity must drop the tear of regret, that it has 
 likewise forced the natives of the new, and the inhabitants 
 of a portion of the old world, to drink so deeply from the 
 cup of bitterness. 
 
 The cruelties which have been exercised on the Abo- 
 rigines of America, the wrong and outrage heaped on 
 them from the days of Montezuma and Guatimozin, to the 
 present period, while they excite sympathy for their suf- 
 ferings, should extenuate, if not justify the bloody deeds, 
 which revenge prompted the untutored savages to com- 
 mit. Driven as they were from the lands of which they 
 were the rightful proprietors Yielding to encroachment 
 after encroachment 'till forced to apprehend their utter 
 annihilation Witnessing the destruction of their villages, 
 the prostration of their towns and the sacking of cities 
 adorned with spendid magnificence, who can feel surprised 
 at any attempt which they might make to rid the country 
 of its invaders. Who, but must applaud the spirit which 
 prompted them, when they beheld their prince a captive, 
 the blood of their nobles staining the earth with its crim- 
 son dye, and the Gods of their adoration scoffed and de-
 
 Of Border Warfare. 9 
 
 rided, to aim at the destruction of their oppressors. 
 When Mexico, " with her tiara of proud towers," became 
 the theatre in which foreigners were to revel in rapine and 
 in murder, who can be astonished that the valley of 
 Otumba resounded with the cry of " Victory or Death ? " 
 And yet, resistance on their part, served but as a pretext 
 for a war of extermination ; waged too, with a ferocity, 
 from the recollection of which the human mind involun- 
 tarily revolts, and with a success which has forever blotted 
 from the book of national existence, once powerful and 
 happy tribes. 
 
 But they did not suffer alone. As if to fill the cup of 
 oppression to the brim, another portion of the human 
 family were reduced to abject bondage, and made the un- 
 willing cultivators of those lands, of which the Indians 
 had been dispossessed. Soon after the settlement of North 
 America was commenced, the negroes of Africa became 
 an article of commerce, and from subsequent importations 
 and natural [10] increase have become so numerous as to 
 excite the liveliest apprehensions in the bosom of every 
 friend to this country. Heretofore they have had consid- 
 erable influence on the affairs of our government; and 
 recently the diversity of interest, occasioned in Virginia, 
 by the possession of large numbers of them in the 
 country east of the blue ridge of mountains, seemed 
 for a while to threaten the integrity of the state. Happily 
 this is now passing away, but how far they may effect the 
 future destines of America, the most prophetic ken cannot 
 foresee. Yet, although the philanthopist must weep over 
 their unfortunate situation, and the patriot shudder 
 in anticipation of a calamity which it may defy human 
 wisdom to avert; still it would be unfair to charge the ex- 
 istence of slavery among us to the policy of the United 
 States, or to brand their present owners as the instruments 
 of an evil which they cannot remove. And while others 
 boast that they are free from this dark spot, let them re- 
 member, that but for them our national escutcheon might 
 have been as pure and unsullied as their own. 1 
 
 1 It is said, that Georgia, at an early period of her colonial exist-
 
 10 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 We are indebted to the Dutch for their introduction 
 into Virginia, and to the ships of other than slave holding 
 communities, for their subsequent unhallowed transporta- 
 tion to our shores. Yet those who were mainly instru- 
 mental in forging the chains of bondage, have since ren- 
 dered the condition of the negro slave more intolerable 
 by fomenting discontent among them, and by " scattering 
 fire brands and torches," which are often not to be extin- 
 guished but in blood. 
 
 Notwithstanding those two great evils which have 
 resulted from the discovery and colonization of America, 
 yet to these the world is indebted for the enjoyment of 
 many and great blessings. They enlarged the theatre of 
 agricultural enterprise, and thus added to the facilities of 
 procuring the necessaries of life. They encouraged the 
 industry of Europeans, by a dependence on them for al- 
 most every species of manufacture, and thus added con- 
 siderably to their population, wealth and happiness ; while 
 the extensive tracts of fertile land, covering the face of 
 this country and inviting to its bosom the enterprising [11] 
 foreigner, has removed a far off any apprehension of the 
 ill effects arising from a too dense population. 
 
 In a moral and political point of view much good has 
 likewise resulted from the settlement of America. Relig- 
 ion, freed from the fetters which enthralled her in Europe, 
 has shed her benign influence on every portion of our coun- 
 try. Divorced from an adulterous alliance with state, she 
 has here stalked forth in the simplicity of her founder; 
 and with " healing on her wings, spread the glad tidings 
 of salvation to all men." It is true that religious intoler- 
 ance and blind bigotry, for some time clouded our horizon, 
 but they were soon dissipated ; and when the sun arose 
 which ushered in the dawn of our national existence scarce 
 a speck could be seen to dim its lustre. Here too was 
 
 ence, endeavored by legislative enactment to prevent the importation 
 of slaves into her territory, but that the King of England invariably 
 negatived those laws, and ultimately Oglethorpe was dismissed from 
 office, for persevering in the endeavor to accomplish so desirable an ob- 
 ject. It is an historical fact that slaves were not permitted to be taken 
 into Georgia, for some time after a colony was established there.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 11 
 
 reared the standard of civil liberty, and an example set, 
 which may teach to the nations of the old world, that as 
 people are really the source of power, government should 
 be confided to them. Already have the beneficial effects 
 of this example been manifested, and the present condition 
 of Europe clearly shows, that the lamp of liberty, which 
 was lighted here, has burned with a brilliancy so steady as 
 to have reflected its light across the Atlantic. "Whether it 
 will be there permitted to shine, is somewhat problemati- 
 cal. But should a " holy alliance of legitimates " extin- 
 guish it, it will be but for a season. Kings, Emperors and 
 Priests cannot succeed much longer in staying the march 
 of freedom. The people are sensibly alive to the oppres- 
 sion of their rulers they have groaned beneath the bur- 
 den 'till it has become too intolerable to be borne ; and 
 they are now speaking in a voice which will make tyrants 
 tremble on their throne.
 
 12 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 [12] INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 When America was first visited by Europeans, it was 
 found that its inhabitants were altogether ignorant of the 
 country from which their ancestors had migrated, and of 
 the period at which they had been transplanted to the new 
 world. And although there were among them traditions 
 seeming to cast a light upon these subjects, yet when thor- 
 oughly investigated, they tended rather to bewilder than 
 lead to any certain conclusion. The origin of the natives 
 has ever since been a matter of curious speculation with 
 the learned; conjecture has succeeded conjecture, hypoth- 
 esis has yielded to hypothesis, as wave recedes before wave, 
 still it remains involved in a labyrinth of inexplicable dif- 
 ficulties, from which the most ingenious mind will perhaps 
 never be able to free it. 
 
 In this respect the situation of the aborigines of Amer- 
 ica does not differ from that of the inhabitants of other 
 portions of the globe. An impenetrable cloud hangs over 
 the early history of other nations, and defies the researches 
 of the learned in any attempt to trace them to their origin. 
 The attempt has nevertheless been repeatedly made ; and 
 philosophers, arguing from a real or supposed' conformity 
 of one people to another, have vainly imagined that they 
 had attained to certainty on these subjects. And while 
 one has in this manner, undertaken to prove China to have 
 been an Egyptian colony, another, pursuing the same course 
 of reasoning, has, by way of ridicule, shewn how easily a 
 learned man of Tobolski or Pekin might as satisfactorily 
 prove France to have been a Trojan, a Greek or even an 
 Arabian colony; thus making manifest the utter futility 
 of endeavoring to arrive at certainty in this way. 1 
 
 1 " If a learned man of Tobolski or Pekin were to read some of our 
 books, be might in this way demonstrate, that the French are descended
 
 Of Border Warfare. 13 
 
 [13] Nor is this to be at all wondered at, when we reflect 
 on the barbarous state of those nations in their infancy, 
 the imperfection of traditionary accounts of what had 
 transpired centuries before, and in many instances the en- 
 tire absence of a written language, by which, either to per- 
 petuate events, or enable the philosopher by analogy of 
 .language to ascertain their affinity with other nations. 
 Conjectural then as must be every disquisition as to the 
 manner in which this continent was first peopled, still 
 however, as many men eminent for learning and piety 
 have devoted much labor and time to the investigation of 
 the subject, it may afford satisfaction to the curious to see 
 some of those speculations recorded. Discordant as they 
 are 'in many respects, there is nevertheless one fact as to 
 the truth of which they are nearly all agreed ; Mr. Jeffer- 
 son is perhaps the only one, of those who have written on 
 the subject, who seems to discredit the assertion that 
 
 from the Trojans. The most ancient writings, he might say, and those 
 in most esteem in France, are romances : these were written in a pure 
 language, derived from the ancient Romans, who were famous for never 
 advancing a falsehood. Now upwards of twenty of these authentic 
 books, affirm that Francis, the founder of the monarchy of the Franks, 
 was son to Hector. The name of Hector has ever since been preserved 
 by this nation ; and even in the present century one of the greatest gen- 
 erals was called Hector de Villars. 
 
 " The neighboring nations (he would continue,) are so unanimous in 
 acknowledging this truth, that Ariosto, one of the most learned of the 
 Italians, owns in his Orlando, that Charlemagne's knights fought for 
 Hector's helmet. Lastly, there is one proof which admits of no reply ; 
 namely, that the ancient Franks to perpetuate the memory of the 
 Trojans, their ancestors, built a new city called Troye, in the province 
 of Champagne; and these modern Trojans have always retained so 
 strong an aversion to their enemies, the Greeks, that there is not at 
 present four persons in the whole province of Champagne, who will 
 learn their language ; nay, they would never admit any Jesuits among 
 them ; probably because they had heard it said, that some of that body 
 used formerly to explain Homer in their public schools." 
 
 Proceeding in this manner, M. de Voltaire shows how easily this 
 hypothesis might be overturned; and while one might thus demon- 
 strate that the Parisians are descended from the Greeks, other profound 
 antiquarians might in like manner prove them to be of Egyptian, or 
 even of Arabian extraction ; and although the learned world might 
 much puzzle themselves to decide the question, yet would it remain un- 
 decided and in uncertainty . Preface to the Life of Peter the Great.
 
 14 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 America was peopled by emigrants from the .old world. 
 How well the conjecture, that the eastern inhabitants of 
 Asia were descendants of the Indians of America can be 
 supported by any knowledge which is possessed of the 
 different languages spoken by the Aborigines, will be for 
 others to determine. " Neque confirmare argumentis, 
 neque refellere, in animo est; ex ingenio suo, quisque 
 demat vel addat fidem." 
 
 Among those who have given to the world their opin- 
 ions on the origin of the natives of America, is Father 
 Jos. Acosta, a Jesuit who was for some time engaged as a 
 missionary among them. From the fact that no ancient 
 author has made mention of the [14] compass, he discredits 
 the supposition that the first inhabitants of this coun- 
 try found their way here by sea. His conclusion is that 
 they must have found a passage by the North of Asia and 
 Europe which he supposes to join each other; or by those 
 regions which lie southward of the straits of Magellan. 
 
 Gregorio Garcia, who was likewise a missionary 
 among the Mexicans and Peruvians, from the traditions 
 of those nations, and from the variety of characters, cus- 
 toms, languages and religion, observable in the new world, 
 has formed the opinion that it was peopled by several dif- 
 ferent nations. 
 
 John de Laet, a Flemish writer, maintains that Amer- 
 ica received its first inhabitants from Scythia or Tartary, 
 and soon after the dispersion of Noah's grand-sons. The 
 resemblance of the northern Indians, in feature, complex- 
 ion and manner of living, to the Scythians, Tartars, and 
 Samojedes, being greater than to any other nations. 
 
 Emanuel de Moraez, in his history of Brazil, says 
 that this continent was wholly peopled by the Carthagi- 
 nians and Israelites. In confirmation of this opinion, he 
 mentions the discoveries which the Carthaginians are 
 known to have made beyond the coast of Africa. The 
 progress of these discoveries being stopped by the Senate 
 of Carthage, those who happened to be in the newly dis- 
 covered countries, cut off from all communication with 
 their countrymen, and being destitute of many of the 
 necessaries of life, easily fell into a state of barbarism.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 15 
 
 George de Huron, a Dutch writer on this subject, con- 
 sidering the short space of time which elapsed between the 
 creation of the world and the deluge, maintains that 
 America could not have been peopled before the flood. 
 He likewise supposes that its first inhabitants were located 
 in the north; and that the primitive colonies extended 
 themselves over the whole extent of the continent, by 
 means of the Isthmus of Panama. It is his opinion that 
 the first founders of these Indian colonies were Scythians ; 
 that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians subsequently got 
 to America across the Atlantic, and the Chinese across the 
 Pacific ocean, and that other nations might have landed 
 there by one of these means, or been thrown on the coast 
 by tempest: since through the whole extent of 'the conti- 
 nent, both in its northern and southern parts there are 
 evident marks of a mixture of the northern nations with 
 those who have come from other places. 
 
 [15] He also supposes that another migration of the 
 Phoenicians took place during a three years voyage made 
 by the Tyrian fleet in the service of king Solomon. He 
 asserts, on the authority of Josephus, that the port at which 
 this embarkation was made, lay in the Mediterranean. The 
 fleet, he adds, went in quest of Elephants' teeth and Pea- 
 cocks, to the western coast of Africa, which is Tarshish, 
 then for gold to Ophir, which is Haite or the Island of 
 Hispaniola. In the latter opinion he is supported by Co- 
 lumbus, who, when he discovered that Island, thought he 
 could trace the furnaces in which the gold had been re- 
 fined. 
 
 Monsieur Charlevoix, who travelled through North 
 America, is of opinion that it received its first inhabitants 
 from Tartary and Hyrcania. In support of this impression 
 he says that some of the animals which are to be found 
 here, must have come from those countries : a fact which 
 would go to prove that the two hemispheres join to the 
 northward of Asia. And in order to strengthen this con- 
 jecture, he relates the following story, which he says was 
 told to him by Father Grollon, a French Jesuit, as matter 
 of fact. 
 
 Father Grollon said, that after having labored some
 
 16 Wither s's Chronicles 
 
 time in the missions of New France, he passed over to 
 China. One day as he was travelling in Tartary he met a 
 Huron woman whom he had known in Canada. He asked 
 her by what adventure she had been carried into a country 
 so very remote from her own ; she replied that having been 
 taken in war, she was conducted from nation to nation, 
 until she reached the place where she then was. 
 
 Monsieur Charlevoix narrates another circumstance of 
 a similar kind. He says that he had been assured, another 
 Jesuit had met with a Floridian woman in China. She 
 also had been made captive by certain Indians, who gave 
 her to those of a more distant country, and by these again 
 she was given to those of another nation, 'till having been 
 successively passed from country to country, and after hav- 
 ing travelled through regions extremely cold, she at length 
 found herself in Tartary. Here she had married a Tartar, 
 who had attended the conquerors in China, and with whom 
 she then was. 
 
 Arguing from these facts and from the similarity of 
 several kinds of wild beasts which are found in America, 
 with those of Hyrcania and Tartary, he arrives at what he 
 deems, a [16] rational conclusion, that more than one na- 
 tion in America had Scythian or Tartarian extraction. 
 
 Charlevoix possessed a good opportunity of becoming 
 acquainted with the character and habits of the American 
 Indians. His theory however has been controverted by 
 some, possessing equal advantages of observation. Mr. 
 Adair, an intelligent gentleman who resided among the 
 nations during the space of forty years, and who became 
 well acquainted with their manners, customs, religion, tra- 
 ditions and language, has given to them a very different 
 origin. But perfect soever as may have been his knowl- 
 edge of their manners, customs, religion and traditions, 
 yet it must be admitted that any inquiry into these, with 
 a view to discover their origin, would most probably prove 
 fallacious. A knowledge of the primitive language, alone 
 can cast much light on the subject. Whether this knowl- 
 edge can ever be attained, is, to say the least, very ques- 
 tionable Being an unwritten language, and subject to 
 change for so many centuries, it can scarcely be supposed
 
 Of Border Warfare. II 
 
 now to bear much, if any affinity, to what it was in its 
 purity. 
 
 Mr. Adair says, that from the most exact observation 
 he could make during the long time which he traded 
 among the Indians, he was forced to believe them lineally 
 descended from the Israelites, either when they were a 
 maritime power, or soon after the general captivity ; most 
 probably the latter. 
 
 He thinks that had the nine tribes and a half, which 
 were carried off by Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, and 
 which settled in Media, remained there long, they would, 
 by intermarrying with the nations of that country, from a 
 natural fickleness and proneness to idolatry, and from the 
 force of example, have adopted and bowed before the Gods 
 of the Medes and Assyrians ; and have carried them along 
 with them. But he affirms that there is not the least trace 
 of this idolatry to be discovered among the Indians : and 
 hence he argues that those of the ten tribes who were the 
 forefathers of the natives, soon advanced eastward from 
 Assyria and reached their settlements in the new conti- 
 nent, before the destruction of the first Temple. 
 
 In support of the position that the American Indians 
 are thus descended, Mr. Adair adduces among others the 
 following arguments : 
 
 1st, Their division into tribes. 
 
 "As each nation has its particular symbol, so each tribe 
 has [17] the badge from which it is denominated. The 
 Sachem is a necessary party in conveyances and treaties, 
 to which he affixes the mark of his tribe. If we go from 
 nation to nation among them, we shall not find one, who 
 does not distinguish himself by his respective family. 
 The genealogical names which they assume, are derived 
 either from the names of those animals whereof the cher- 
 ubim is said in revelation to be compounded ; or from such 
 creatures as are most similar to them. The Indians bear 
 no religious respect to the animals from which they derive 
 their names ; on the contrary they kill them whenever an 
 opportunity serves. 
 
 " When we consider that these savages have been up- 
 wards of twenty centuries without the aid of letters to 
 2
 
 18 Withers' 's Chronicles 
 
 carry down their traditions, it can not be reasonably ex- 
 pected, that they should still retain the identical names of 
 their primogenial tribes : their main customs correspond- 
 ing with those of the Israelites, sufficiently clear the sub- 
 ject. Moreover they call some of their tribes by the 
 names of the cherubinical figures, which were carried on 
 the four principal standards of Israel." 
 
 2nd, Their worship of Jehovah. 
 
 " By a strict, permanent, divine precept, the Hebrew 
 nation was ordered to worship at Jerusalem, Jehovah the 
 true and living God, who by the Indians is styled ' Yohe- 
 wah.' The seventy-two interpreters have translated this 
 word so as to signify, Sir, Lord, Master, applying to mere 
 earthly potentates, without the least signification or rela- 
 tion to that great and awful name, which describes the 
 divine presence." 
 
 3rd, Their notions of a theocracy. 
 
 "Agreeably to the theocracy or divine government of 
 Israel, the Indians think the deity to be the immediate 
 head of the state. All the nations of Indians have a great 
 deal of religious pride, and an inexpressible contempt for 
 the white people. In their war orations they used to call 
 us the accursed people, but flatter themselves with the name 
 of the beloved people, because their supposed ancestors 
 were, as they affirm, under the immediate government of 
 the Deity, who was present with them in a peculiar man- 
 ner, and directed them by Prophets, while the rest of the 
 world were aliens to the covenant. 1 When the old Archi- 
 
 1 In a small work entitled "Ancient History of the Six Nations," 
 written by David Cusick, an educated Indian of the Tuscarora village, 
 frequent mention is made of the actual presence among them, of 
 Tarenyawagua, or Holder of the Heavens, who guided and directed 
 them when present, and left rules for their government, during his 
 absence. Several miracles performed by him are particularly men- 
 tioned. It likewise speaks of the occasional visits of Angels or ' agents 
 of the Superior power' as they are called by Cusick ; and tells of a vis- 
 itor who came among the Tuscaroras long anterior to the discovery of 
 America by Columbus. " He appeared to be a very old man, taught 
 them many things, and informed them that the people beyond the great 
 water had killed their Maker, but that he rose again. The old man died 
 among them and they buried him soon after some person went to the 
 grave and found that he had risen ; he was never heard of afterwards."
 
 Of Border Warfare. 19 
 
 magus, or any of their Magi, is [18] persuading the people at 
 their religious solemnities, to a strict observance of the old 
 beloved or divine speech, he always calls them the beloved or 
 holy people, agreeably to the Hebrew epithet, Ammi, (my 
 people) during the theocracy of Israel. It is this opinion, 
 that God has chosen them out of the rest of mankind, as 
 his peculiar people, which inspires the white Jew, and the 
 red American, with that steady hatred against all the 
 world except themselves, and renders them hated and de- 
 spised by all." 
 
 bth, Their language and dialects. 
 
 " The Indian language and dialects appear to have the 
 very idiom and genius of the Hebrew. Their words and 
 sentences are expressive, concise, emphatical, sonorous 
 and bold ; and often both the letters and signification are 
 synonymous with the Hebrew language." Of these Mr. 
 Adair cites a number of examples. 
 
 6th, Their manner of counting time. 
 
 " The Indians count time after the manner of the He- 
 brews. They divide the year into spring, summer, autumn 
 and winter. They number their year from any of these 
 four periods, for they have no name for a year ; and they 
 subdivide these and count the year by lunar months, like 
 the Israelites who counted time by moons, as their name 
 sufficiently testifies. 
 
 " The number and regular periods of the religious feasts 
 among the Indians, is a good historical proof that they 
 counted time by and observed a weekly Sabbath, long 
 after their arrival in America. They began the year at 
 the appearance of the first new moon of the vernal equi- 
 nox, according to the ecclesiastical year of Moses. 'Till 
 the seventy years captivity [19] commenced, the Israelites 
 had only numeral names for their months, except Abib 
 and Ethanim ; the former signifying a green ear of corn, 
 the latter robust or valiant; by the first name the Indian? 
 as an explicative, term their passover, which the trading 
 people call the green corn dance" 
 
 7th, Their prophets or high priests. 
 
 "In conformity to, or after the manner of the Jews, the 
 Indians have their prophets, high priests, and others of a
 
 20 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 religious order. As the Jews have a Sanctum Sanctorum, 
 so have all the Indian nations. There they deposit their con- 
 secrated vessels none of the laity daring to approach that 
 sacred place. The Indian tradition says, that their fore- 
 fathers were possessed of an extraordinary divine spirit by 
 which they foretold future events ; and that this was trans- 
 mitted to their offspring, provided they obeyed the sacred 
 laws annexed to it. 1 [20] Ishtoallo is the name of all their 
 
 1 In confirmation of this tradition among the Indians, the following 
 somewhat singular circumstance related by Mr. Carver, may with pro- 
 priety be adduced : 
 
 While at Grand Portage, from the number of those who were 
 there and the fact that the traders did not arrive as soon as was ex- 
 pected, there was a great scarcity of provisions, and much consequent 
 anxiety as to the period of their arrival. One day, Mr. Carver says, 
 that while expressing their wishes for the event, and looking anxiously 
 to ascertain if they could be seen on the Lake, the chief Priest of the 
 Kilistines told them that he would endeavor in a conference with the 
 GREAT SPIRIT, to learn at what time the traders would arrive : and the 
 following evening was fixed upon for the spiritual conference. 
 
 When every preparation had been made, the king conducted Mr. 
 Carver to a spacious tent, the covering of which was so drawn up as to 
 render visible to those without, every thing which passed within. Mr. 
 Carver being seated beside the king within the tent, observed in the 
 centre a place of an oblong shape, composed of stakes stuck at intervals in 
 the ground, forming something like a coffin, and large enough to contain 
 the body of a man. The sticks were far enough from each other to ad- 
 mit a distinct view by the spectators, of what ever passed within them ; 
 while the tent was perfectly illuminated. 
 
 When the Priest entered, a large Elk-skin being spread on the 
 ground, he divested himself of all his clothing, except that around his 
 middle, and laying down on the skin enveloped himself (save only his 
 head) in it. The skin was then bound round with about forty yards 
 of cord, and in that situation he was placed within the ballustrade of 
 sticks. 
 
 In a few seconds he was heard to mutter, but his voice, gradually 
 assuming a higher tone, was at length extended to its utmost pitch, 
 and sometimes praying, he worked himself into such an agitation as 
 to produce a foaming at the mouth. To this succeeded a speechless 
 state of exhaustion, of short duration; when suddenly springing on 
 his feet, and shaking off the skin, as easily as if the bands with 
 which it had been lashed around him, were burned asunder, he ad- 
 dressed the company in a firm and audible voice : " My Brothers, 
 said he, the Great Spirit has deigned to hold a talk with his servant. 
 He has not indeed told me when the traders will be here ; but to- 
 morrow when the sun reaches the highest point in the heavens, a canoe
 
 Of Border Warfare. 21 
 
 priestly order and their pontifical office descends by in- 
 heritance to the eldest. There are traces of agreement, 
 though chiefly lost, in their pontifical dress. Before the 
 Indian Archimagus officiates in making the supposed 
 holy fire for the yearly atonement of sin, the Sagan 
 clothes him with a white ephod, which is a waistcoat with- 
 out sleeves. In resemblance of the Urim and Thummim 
 the American Archimagus wears a breastplate made of a 
 white conch-shell, with two holes bored in the middle of it, 
 through which he puts the ends of an otter-skin strap ; 
 and fastens a buck-horn white button to the outside of 
 each ; as if in imitation of the precious stones of the 
 Urim." 
 
 In remarking upon this statement of Mr. Adair, Faber, 
 a learned divine of the church of England, has said, that 
 Ishtoallo (the name according to Adair of the Indian 
 priests) is most probably a corruption of Ish-da-Eloah, a man 
 of God, (the term used by the Shunemitish woman in 
 speaking of Elisha ;) and that Sagan is the very name by 
 which the Hebrews called the deputy of the High Priest, 
 who supplied his office and who performed the functions of 
 it in the absence of the high priest, or when any accident 
 had disabled him from officiating in person. 
 
 8th, Their festivals, fasts and religious rites. 
 
 " The ceremonies of the Indians in their religious wor- 
 ship, [21] are more after the Mosaic institution, than of 
 Pagan imitation. This could not be the fact if a majority 
 of the old nations were of heathenish descent. They are 
 utter strangers to all the gestures practiced by Pagans in 
 their religious rites. They have likewise an appellative, 
 which with them is the mysterious, essential name of 
 God ; the tetragrammaton, which they never use in common 
 
 will arrive, the people in that canoe will inform us when the traders 
 will arrive." 
 
 Mr. Carver adds that on the next day at noon a canoe was descried 
 on the lake at the distance of about three miles, completely verifying 
 the prediction of the High Priest, in point of time. From the people 
 on board this canoe they learned that the traders would be at the por- 
 tage on the second day thereafter, at which time they actually did 
 arrive.
 
 22 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 speech. They are very particular of the time and place, 
 when and where they mention it, and this is always done 
 in a very solemn manner. It is known that the Jews had 
 so great and sacred regard for the four lettered, divine 
 name, as scarcely ever to mention it, except when the High 
 Priest went into the sanctuary for the expiation of sins." 
 
 Mr. Adair likewise says that the American Indians, 
 like the Hebrews, have an ark in which are kept various 
 holy vessels, and which is never suffered to rest on the bare 
 ground. " On hilly ground, where stones are plenty, they 
 always place it on them, but on level land it is made to 
 rest on short legs. They have also a faith, in the power 
 and holiness of their ark, as strong as the Israelites had in 
 theirs. It is too sacred and dangerous to be touched by 
 any one, except the chieftain and his waiter. The leader 
 virtually acts the part of a priest of war protempore, in 
 imitation of the Israelites fighting under the divine mili- 
 tary banner." 
 
 Among their other religious rites the Indians, accord- 
 ing to Adair, cut out the sinewy part of the thigh ; in 
 commemoration, as he says, of the Angel wrestling with 
 Jacob. 
 
 12th, Their abstinence from unclean things. 
 
 " Eagles of every kind are esteemed by the Indians to 
 be unclean food ; as also ravens, crows, bats, buzzards and 
 every species of owl. They believe that swallowing gnats, 
 flies and the like, always breed sickness. To this that di- 
 vine sarcasm alludes ' swallowing a camel and straining at 
 a gnat.' " Their purifications for their Priests, and for hav- 
 ing touched a dead body or other unclean thing, according 
 to Mr. Adair, are quite Levitical. He acknowledges how- 
 ever, that they have no traces of circumcision ; but he 
 supposes that they lost this rite in their wanderings, as it 
 ceased among the Hebrews, during the forty years in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 15A, Their cities of refuge. 
 
 " The Israelites had cities of refuge for those who 
 killed persons unawares. According to the same particu- 
 lar divine [22] law of mercy, each of the Indian nations has 
 a house or town of refuge, which is a sure asylum to protect
 
 Of Border Warfare. 23 
 
 a man-slayer, or the unfortunate captive, if they can but 
 once enter into it. In almost every nation they have 
 peaceable towns, called ancient holy, or white towns. 
 These seem to have been towns of refuge ; for it is not in 
 the memory of man, that ever human blood was shed in 
 them, although they often force persons from thence and 
 put them to death elsewhere." 
 
 ~L6th, Their purifications and ceremonies preparatory. 
 
 " Before the Indians go to war they have many pre- 
 paratory ceremonies of purification and fasting like what 
 is recorded of the Israelites." 
 
 21s, Their raising seed to a deceased brother. 
 
 ' The surviving brother, by the Mosaic law, was to 
 raise seed to a deceased brother, who left a widow child- 
 less. The Indian custom looks the very same way ; but 
 in this as in their law of blood, the eldest brother can re- 
 deem/' 
 
 With these and many arguments of a like kind, has 
 Mr. Adair endeavored to support the conjecture, that the 
 American Indians are lineally descended from the Israel- 
 ites; and gravely asks of those who may dissent from his 
 opinion of their origin and descent, to inform him how 
 they came here, and by what means they formed the long 
 chain of rites and customs so similar to those of the He- 
 brews, and dissimilar to the rites and customs of the pagan 
 world. 
 
 Major Carver, a provincial officer who sojourned some 
 time with the Indians and visited twelve different nations 
 of them, instead of observing the great similarity, men- 
 tioned by Adair as existing between the natives and He- 
 brews, thought he could trace features of resemblance be- 
 tween them and the Chinese and Tartars ; and has under- 
 taken to shew how they might have got here. He says, 
 
 "Although it is not ascertained certainly, that the con- 
 tinents of Asia and America join each other, yet it is proven 
 that the sea which is supposed to divide them, is full of 
 islands the distance from which to either continent, is com- 
 paratively trifling. From these islands a communication 
 with the main land could be more readily effected than 
 from any other point." " It is very evident that the man-
 
 24 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 ners and customs of the American Indians, resemble that 
 of the Tartars; and I have no doubt that in some future 
 era, it will be reduced to a certainty that in some of the 
 wars between the Chinese and Tartars, a part [23] of the 
 inhabitants of the northern provinces were driven from 
 their country and took refuge in some of these islands, 
 and from thence found their way to America. At differ- 
 ent periods each nation might prove victorious, and the 
 conquered by turns fly before the conquerors ; and hence 
 might arise the similitude of the Indians to all these peo- 
 ple, and that animosity which exists among so many of 
 their tribes." 
 
 After remarking on the similarity which exists be- 
 tween the Chinese and Indians, in the singular custom of 
 shaving or plucking out the hair leaving only a small spot 
 on the crown of the head ; and the resemblance in sound 
 and signification which many of the Chinese and Indian 
 words bear to each other, he proceeds, "After the most 
 critical inquiry and mature deliberation, I am of opinion 
 that America received its first inhabitants from the north- 
 east, by way of the islands mentioned as lying between 
 Asia and America. This might have been effected at dif- 
 ferent times and from different parts: from Tartary, 
 China, Japan or Kamschatka, the inhabitants of these 
 countries resembling each other, in color, feature and 
 shape." 
 
 Other writers on this subject, coinciding in opinion 
 with Carver, mention a tradition which the Indians in 
 Canada have, that foreign merchants clothed in silk 
 formerly visited them in great ships : these are supposed 
 to have been Chinese, the ruins of Chinese ships having 
 been found on the American coast. The names of many 
 of the American kings, are said to be Tartar ; and Tar- 
 tarax, who reigned formerly in Quivira, means the Tartar. 
 Manew, the founder of the Peruvian empire, most prob- 
 ably came from the Manchew Tartars. Montezuma, the 
 title of the emperors of Mexico, is of Japanese extrac- 
 tion ; for according to some authors it is likewise the ap- 
 pellation of the Japanese Monarch. The plant Ginseng, 
 4nce found in America, where the natives termed it
 
 Of Border Warfare. 25 
 
 Garentoguen, a word of the same import in their lan- 
 guage, with Ginseng in the Tartar, both meaning THE 
 
 THIGHS OF A MAN. 
 
 Dr. Robertson is decidedly of opinion, that the differ- 
 ent tribes of American Indians, excepting the Esquimaux, 
 are of Asiatic extraction. He refers to a tradition among 
 the Mexicans of the migration of their ancestors from a 
 remote country, situated to the north-west of Mexico, and 
 says they point out their various stations as they advanced 
 into the interior provinces, which is precisely the route 
 they must have held, if they had been emigrants from 
 Asia. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, in his notes on Virginia, says, that the 
 passage from Europe to America was always practicable, 
 even to the imperfect [24] navigation of the ancient times ; 
 and that, from recent discoveries, it is proven, that if Asia and 
 America be separated at all it is only by a narrow streight. 
 " Judging from the resemblance between the Indians of 
 America and the eastern inhaoitants of Asia, we should 
 say that the former are descendants of the latter, or the 
 latter of the former, except indeed the Esquimaux, who, 
 from the same circumstance of resemblance, and from 
 identity of language, must be derived from the Green- 
 landers. A knowledge of their several languages would 
 be the most certain evidence of their derivation which 
 could be produced. In fact it is the best proof of the 
 affinity of nations, which ever can be referred to." 
 
 After regretting that so many of the Indian tribes 
 have been suffered to perish, without our having collected 
 and preserved the general rudiments of their language, he 
 proceeds, 
 
 " Imperfect as is our knowledge of the tongues spoken 
 in America, it suffices to discover the following remark- 
 able fact. Arranging them under the radical ones to 
 which they may be palpably traced, and doing the same 
 by those of the red men of Asia, there will be found prob- 
 ably twenty in America, for one in Asia, of those radical 
 languages ; so called because if ever they were the same, 
 they have lost all resemblance to one another. A separa- 
 tion into dialects may be the work of a few agea only, but
 
 26 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 for two dialects to recede from one another, 'till they have 
 lost all vestiges of their common origin, must require an 
 immense course of time ; perhaps not less than many peo- 
 ple give to the age of the earth. A greater number of 
 those radical changes of language having taken place 
 among the red men of America proves them of greater an- 
 tiquity than those of Asia. 
 
 Indian traditions say, that " in ancient days the Great 
 Island appeared upon the big waters, the earth brought 
 forth trees, herbs and fruits: that there were in the world 
 a good and a bad spirit, the good spirit formed creeks and 
 rivers on the great island, and created numerous species 
 of animals to inhabit the forests, and fishes of all kinds to 
 inhabit the water. He also made two beings to whom he 
 gave living souls and named them Ea-gwe-howe, (real 
 people). Subsequently some of the people became giants 
 and committed outrages upon the others. After many 
 years a body of Ea-gwe-howe people encamped on the 
 bank of a majestic stream, which they named, Kanawaga 
 (St. Lawrence.) After a long time a number of foreign 
 people sailed from a part unknown, but unfortunately the 
 winds drove them off and they ultimately landed on the 
 southern part of the great island and many of the crew 
 perished. Those who survived, selected a place for resi- 
 dence, erected fortifications, became a numerous people 
 and extended their settlements." * 
 
 Thus various and discordant are the conjectures re- 
 specting the manner in which this continent was first 
 peopled. Although some [25] of them appear more 
 rational and others, yet are they at best but hypothetical 
 disquisitions on a subject which will not now admit of 
 certainty. All agree that America was inhabited long an- 
 terior to its discovery by Columbus, and by a race of hu- 
 man beings, who, however numerous they once were, are 
 fast hastening to extinction; some centuries hence and 
 they will be no more known. The few memorials, which 
 the ravages of time have suffered to remain of them, in 
 those portions of the country from which they have been 
 
 1 Indian traditions by Cusick.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 5i7 
 
 long expelled ; have destruction dealt them by the ruthless 
 hand of man. History may transmit to after ages, the 
 fact that they once were, and give their " local habitation 
 and their name." These will probably be received as the 
 tales of fiction, and posterity be at as much loss to deter- 
 mine, whether they ever had an existence, as we now are 
 to say from whence they sprang. 
 
 " I have stood upon Achilles' tomb 
 
 And heard Troy doubted. Time will doubt of Rome."
 
 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The aborigines of America, although divided into 
 many different tribes, inhabiting various climates, and with- 
 out a community of language, are yet assimilated to each 
 other in stature and complexion, more strikingly than are 
 the inhabitants of the different countries of Europe. The 
 manners and customs of one nation, are very much the 
 manners and customs of all ; and although there be pecu- 
 liarities observable among all, yet are they fewer and less 
 manifest than those which mark the nations of the old 
 world, and distinguish them so palpably from each other. 
 A traveller might have traversed the country, when occu- 
 pied exclusively by the natives, without remarking among 
 them, the diversity which exists in Europe; or being im- 
 pressed with the contrast which a visit across the Pyrennes 
 would exhibit, between the affability and vivacity of a 
 Frenchman at a theatre or in the Elysian fields, and the 
 hauteur and reserve of a Spaniard at their bloody circus, 
 when "bounds with one lashing spring the mighty brute." 
 
 [26] Nor is there much in savage life, calculated to 
 inspire the mind of civilized man, with pleasurable sensa- 
 tions. Many of the virtues practised by them, proceed 
 rather from necessity or ignorance than from any ethical 
 principle existing among them. The calm composure with 
 which they meet death and their stoical indifference to 
 bodily pain, are perhaps more attributable to recklessness 
 of life and physical insensibility, 1 than to fortitude or 
 magnanimity; consequently they do not much heighten 
 the zest of reflection, in contemplating their character. 
 The Christian and the philanthropist, with the benevolent 
 
 1 It is said that the nerves of an Indian do not shrink as much, nof 
 shew the same tendency to spasm, under the knife of the surgeon, as 
 the nerves of a white man in a similar situation.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 29 
 
 design of improving their morals and meliorating their 
 condition, may profitably study every peculiarity and trait 
 of character observable among them ; it will facilitate their 
 object and enable them the more readily to reclaim them 
 from a life of heathenish barbarity, and to extend to them 
 the high boons of civilization and Christianity. 
 
 It has been observed that the different tribes of natives 
 of North America, resemble each other very much in stat- 
 ure and complexion, in manners and customs ; a general 
 description of these will therefor be sufficient. 
 
 The stature of an Indian, is generally that of the me- 
 dial stature of the Anglo Americans ; the Osages are said 
 to form an exception to this rule, being somewhat taller. 
 They are almost universally straight and well proportioned; 
 their limbs are clean, but less muscular than those of the 
 whites, and their whole appearance strongly indicative of 
 effeminacy. In walking, they invariable place one foot di- 
 rectly before the other the toes never verging from a 
 right line with the heel. When traveling in companies, 
 their manner of marching is so peculiar as to have given 
 rise to the expression, " Indian file ;" and while proceeding 
 in this way, each carefully places his foot in the vestige of 
 the foremost of the party, so as to leave the impression 
 of the footsteps of but one. They have likewise in their 
 gait and carriage something so entirely different from the 
 gait and carriage of the whites, as to enable a person to 
 pronounce on one at a considerable distance. The hair of 
 an Indian is also strikingly different from that of the 
 whites. It is always black and straight, hangs loose and 
 looks as if it were [27] oiled. There is a considerable re- 
 semblance in appearance, between it and the glossy black 
 mane of a thoroughbred horse ; though its texture is finer. 
 
 In the squaws there exist, the same delicacy of pro- 
 portion, the same effeminacy of person, the same slender- 
 ness of hand and foot, which characterise the female of 
 refined society; in despite too of the fact, that every 
 laborious duty and every species of drudgery, are imposed 
 on them from childhood. Their faces are broad, and be- 
 tween the eyes they are exceedingly wide; their cheek 
 bones are high and the eyes black in both sexes the noses
 
 30 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 9 
 
 of the women inclining generally to the flat nose of the 
 African ; while those of the men are more frequently aqui- 
 line than otherwise. 
 
 Instances of decrepitude and deformity, are rarely 
 known to exist among them : this is probably owing to 
 the manner in which they are tended and nursed in infancy. 
 It is not necessary that the mother should, as has been 
 supposed, be guilty of the unnatural crime of murdering 
 her decrepid or deformed offspring the hardships they 
 encounter are too great to be endured by infants not pos- 
 sessed of natural vigor, and they sink beneath them. 
 
 Their countenances are for the most inflexible, stern 
 and immovable. The passions which agitate or distract 
 the mind, never alter its expression, nor do the highest 
 ecstacies of which their nature is susceptible, ever relax its 
 rigidity. "With the same imperturbability of feature, they 
 encounter death from the hand of an enemy, and receive 
 the greetings of a friend. 
 
 In their intercourse with others, they seem alike in- 
 sensible to emotions of pleasure and of pain ; and rarely 
 give vent to feelings of either. The most ludicrous scenes 
 scarcely ever cause them to laugh, or the most interesting 
 recitals draw from them more than their peculiar monosyl- 
 labic expression of admiration. 
 
 In conversation they are modest and unassuming ; in- 
 deed taciturnity is as much a distinguishing trait of Indian 
 character, as it ever was of the Roman. In their councils 
 and public meetings, they never manifest an impatience to 
 be heard, or a restlessness under observations, either grat- 
 ing to personal feeling or opposite to their individual ideas 
 of propriety : on the contrary they are still, silent and at- 
 tentive; and each is heard with the respect due to his 
 years, his wisdom, his experience, or the fame which his 
 exploits may have acquired him. [28] A loud ana garru- 
 lous Indian is received by the others with contempt, and a 
 cowardly disposition invariably attributed to him 
 
 " Bold at the council board, 
 
 But in the field he shuns the sword," 
 
 is as much and truly an apothegm with them as with us.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 31 
 
 Their taciturnity and irrisibility however, are confined 
 to their sober hours. When indulging their insatiate thirst 
 for spirit, they are boisterous and rude, and by their ob- 
 streperous laughter, their demoniacal shrieks and turbu- 
 lent vociferations, produce an appalling discord, such as 
 might well be expected to proceed from a company of in- 
 fernal spirits at their fiendish revels ; and exhibit a strik- 
 ing contrast to the low, monotonous tones used by them 
 at other times. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the Indians are the most 
 lazy, indolent race of human beings. No attempt which 
 has ever been made to convert them into slaves, has 
 availed much. The rigid discipline of a Spanish master, 
 has failed to overcome that inertness, from which an In- 
 dian is roused only by war and the chase Engaged in 
 these, he exhibits as much activity and perseverance, as 
 could be displayed by any one ; and to gratify his fondness 
 for them, will encounter toils and privations, from which 
 others would shrink. His very form indicates at once, an 
 aptitude for that species of exercise which war and hunting 
 call into action, and an unfitness for the laborious drudg- 
 ery of husbandry and many of the mechanic arts. Could 
 they have been converted into profitable slaves, it is more 
 than probable we should never have been told, that " the 
 hand of providence was visible in the surprising instances 
 of mortality among the Indians, to make room for the 
 whites." 
 
 In their moral character many things appear of a na- 
 ture, either so monstrous as to shock humanity, or so 
 absurd as to excite derision ; yet they have some redeem- 
 ing qualities which must elicit commendation. And while 
 we view with satisfaction those bright spots, shining more 
 brilliantly from the gloom which surrounds them, their 
 want of learning and the absence of every opportunity for 
 refinement, should plead in extenuation of their failings 
 and their vices. Some of the most flagrant of these, if 
 not encouraged, have at least been sanctioned by the 
 whites. In the war between the New England colonies 
 and the Narragan setts, it was the misfortune of the brave 
 Philip, after having witnessed the destruction of the
 
 32 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 [29] greater part of his nation, to be himself slain by a Mo- 
 hican. After his head had been taken off, Oneco, chief of 
 the Mohicans, then in alliance with the colonists, claimed 
 that he had a right to feast himself on the body of his 
 fallen adversary. The whites did not object to this, but 
 composedly looked on Oneco, broiling and eating the flesh 
 of Philip and yet cannibalism was one of their most sav- 
 age traits of character. 
 
 This was a general, if not an universal custom among 
 the Indians, when America became known to the whites. 
 Whether it has yet entirely ceased is really to be doubted : 
 some of those who have been long intimate with them, 
 affirm that it has not ; though it is far from being prev- 
 alent. 
 
 The Indians are now said to be irritable ; but when Eu- 
 ropeans first settled among them, they were not more iras- 
 cible than their new neighbors. In their anger however, 
 they differ very much from the whites. They are not talk- 
 ative and boisterous as these are, but silent, sullen and re- 
 vengeful. If an injury be done them, they never forget, 
 they never forgive it. Nothing can be more implacable 
 than their resentment no time can allay it no change 
 of circumstances unfix its purpose. Revenge is to them 
 as exhilarating, as the cool draught from the fountain, to 
 the parched and fevered lips of a dying man. 
 
 When taking vengeance of an enemy, there is no 
 cruelty which can be exercised, no species of torture, 
 which their ingenuity can devise, too severe to be inflicted. 
 To those who have excited a spirit of resentment in the 
 bosom of an Indian, the tomahawk and scalping knife 
 are instruments of mercy. Death by the faggot by 
 splinters of the most combustible wood, stuck in the flesh 
 and fired maiming and disemboweling, tortures on which 
 the soul sickens but to reflect, are frequently practiced. 
 To an enemy of their own color, they are perhaps more 
 cruel and severe, than to the whites. In requiting upon 
 him, every refinement of torture is put in requisition, to 
 draw forth a sigh or -a groan, or cause him to betray 
 some symptom of human sensibility. This they never 
 effect. An Indian neither shrinks from a knife, nor
 
 Of Border Warfare. 33 
 
 winces at the stake ; on the contrary he seems to exult 
 in his agony, and will mock his tormentors for the leniency 
 and mildness of their torture. 1 
 
 [30] Drinking and gambling are vices, to which the 
 Indians, as well as the whites, are much addicted. Such 
 is their fondness for spirit of any kind that they are rarely 
 known to be sober, when they have it in their power to 
 be otherwise. Neither a sense of honor or of shame has 
 been able to overcome their propensity for its use ; and 
 when drunk, the ties of race, of friendship and of kindred 
 are too weak, to bind their ferocious tempers. 
 
 In gambling they- manifest the same anxiety, which 
 we see displayed at the card table of the whites. The 
 great difference seems to be, that we depend too frequently 
 on sleight and dexterity; whereas while they are shaking 
 their gourd neck of half whited plumbstones, they only 
 use certain tricks of conjuration, which in their simplicity 
 they believe will ensure them success. To this method of 
 attaining an object, they have frequent recourse. Super- 
 stition is the concomitant of ignorance. The most en- 
 lightened, are rarely altogether exempt from its influ- 
 ence with the uninformed it is a master passion, swaying 
 and directing the mind in all its operations. 
 
 In their domestic economy, Indians are, in some re- 
 spects, like the rude of all countries. They manifest but 
 little respect for the female ; imposing on her not only the 
 
 1 A Narraganset, made prisoner by Maj. Talcott in 1679, begged to 
 be delivered to the Mohicans that he might be put to death in their 
 own way. The New Englanders complying with his request, prepa- 
 rations were made for the tragical event. " The Mohicans, formed a 
 circle, and admitting within it as many of the whites as chose to witness 
 their proceedings, placed the prisoner in the centre. One of the Mohicans, 
 who had lost a son in the late engagement, with a knife cut off the 
 PRISONER'S EARS ! then his NOSE ! and then the FINGERS off each hand ! 
 after the lapse of a few moments, his EYES WERE DUO OUT, AND THEIR 
 SOCKETS PILLED WITH HOT EMBERS ! ! All this time the prisoner instead 
 of bewailing his fate, seemed to surpass his tormentors in expressions of 
 joy. At length when exhausted with loss of blood and unable to stand, 
 his executioner closed the tragic scene by beating out his brains with a 
 tomahawk." Indian Wars, by Trumbull.. 
 
 3
 
 34 Withcrs's Chronicles 
 
 duties of the hut, but also the more laborious operations 
 of husbandry; and observing towards them the hauteur 
 and distance of superior beings. 
 
 There are few things, indeed, which mark with equal 
 precision, the state of civilization existing in any com- 
 munity, as the rank assigned in it to females. In the 
 rude and barbarous stages of society, they are invariably 
 regarded as inferior beings, [31] instruments of sensual 
 gratification, and unworthy the attention and respect of 
 men. As mankind advance to refinement, females grad- 
 ually attain an elevation of rank, and acquire an influence 
 in society, which smoothes the asperities of life and pro- 
 duces the highest polish, of which human nature is sus- 
 ceptible. 
 
 Among the Indians there is, however rude they may 
 be in other respects, a great respect always paid to fe- 
 male chastity. Instances in which it has been violated by 
 them, if to be found at all, are extremely few. However 
 much the passion of revenge may stimulate to acts of 
 cruelty, the propensities of nature never lead them to in- 
 fringe the virtue of women in their power. 
 
 The general character of the Indians, was more es- 
 timable, when they first became known to Europeans, than 
 it is at present. This has been ascribed to the introduc- 
 tion of ardent spirits among them other causes however, 
 have conspired to produce the result. 
 
 (The cupidity of those who were engaged in com- 
 merce with the natives, too frequently prompted them to 
 take every advantage, for self aggrandizement, which they 
 could obtain over the Indians. In the lucrative traffic car- 
 ried on with them, the influence of honesty was not pre- 
 dominant the real value of the commodity procured, was 
 never allowed ; while upon every article given in ex- 
 change, extortion alone affixed the price. These examples 
 could not fail to have a deteriorating effect upon their un- 
 tutored minds ; and we find them accordingly losing their 
 former regard for truth, honesty and fidelity ; and becom- 
 ing instead deceitful, dishonest and treacherous. Many 
 of their ancient virtues however, are still practised by 
 them/}
 
 Of Border Warfare. 35 
 
 The rights of hospitality are accorded to those who 
 go among them, with a liberality and sincerit} 7 which 
 would reflect credit on civilized man. And although it 
 has been justly said that they rarely forgive an enemy, 
 yet is it equally true that they never forsake their friends ; 
 to them they are always kind, generous and beneficent. 
 
 After the ceremony of introduction is over, 1 a captive 
 enemy, [32] who is adopted by them, is also treated with 
 the utmost humanity and attention. An Indian cheerfully 
 divides his last morsel with an adopted son or brother ; 
 and will readily risk life in his defence. Such indeed, is 
 the kindness which captives thus situated invariably re- 
 ceive, that they frequently regret the hour of their redemp- 
 tion, and refuse to leave their red brethren, to return and 
 mingle with the whites. 
 
 As members of a community, they are at all times 
 willing to devote their every faculty, for the good of the 
 whole. The honor and welfare of their respective tribes, 
 are primary considerations with them. To promote these, 
 they cheerfully encounter every privation, endure every 
 hardship, and face every danger. Their patriotism is of 
 the most pure and disinterested character ; and of those 
 who have made us feel so sensibly, the horrors of savage 
 warfare, many were actuated by motives which would re- 
 flect honor on the citizens of any country. The unfortu- 
 nate Tecumseh was a remarkable example of the most ar- 
 dent and patriotic devotion to his country. 
 
 Possessed of an acute and discerning mind, he wit- 
 nessed the extending influence of the whites, with painful 
 solicitude. Listening with melancholy rapture, to the tra- 
 ditionary accounts of the former greatness of his nation, 
 and viewing in anticipation the exile or extinction of his 
 race, his noble soul became fired with the hope that he 
 might retrieve the fallen fortune of his country, and restore 
 it to its pristine dignity and grandeur. His attachment 
 to his tribe impelled him to exertion and every nerve was 
 strained in its cause. 
 
 1 Indians consider the running of the guantlet, as but the ceremony 
 of an introduction ; and say that it is " like the shake hands and howde 
 do, of the whites."
 
 36 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 Determined if possible to achieve the independence of 
 his nation, and to rid her of those whom he considered 
 her oppressors, he formed the scheme of uniting in hos- 
 tility against the United States, all the tribes dwelling 
 east of the Mississippi river. In the prosecution of this 
 purpose, he travelled from Mackinaw to Georgia, 1 and with 
 wonderful adroitness practised on the different feelings of 
 his red brethren. Assuming at times the character of a 
 prophet, he wrought powerfully on their credulity and su- 
 perstition. Again, depending on the force of oratory, the 
 witchery of his eloquence drew many [33] to his standard. 
 But all was in vain His plans were entirely frustrated. 
 He had brought none of his auxiliaries into the field ; and 
 was totally unprepared for hostilities, when his brother, 
 the celebrated Shawanese prophet, by a premature attack 
 on the army under Gen. Harrison, at an inauspicious mo- 
 ment, precipitated him into a war with the United States. 
 
 Foiled by this means, Tecumseh joined the standard 
 of Great Britain in the war of 1812 ; and as a Brigadier 
 General in her army, lost his life, bravely supporting the 
 cause which he had espoused. He deserved a better fate ; 
 and but for prejudice which is so apt to dim the eye and 
 distort the object, Tecumseh would, most probably, be 
 deemed a martyr for his country, and associated in the 
 mind with the heroes of Marathon and Thermopylae. 
 
 To contemplate the Indian character, in a religious 
 point of view, is less gratifying than to consider it in re- 
 gard to the lesser morals. At the period of the settlement 
 of "Western Virginia, excepting the Moravians, and a few 
 others who had been induced by the zeal and exertions of 
 Roman catholic missionaries to wear the cross, the Indiana 
 north west of the Ohio river, were truly heathens. They 
 believed indeed in a First Cause, and worshiped the Good 
 Spirit; but they were ignorant of the great truths of 
 Christianity, and their devotions were but superstitious 
 acts of blind reverence. In this situation they remain 
 
 1 While performing this tour, Tecumseh carried a RED STICK, the 
 acceptance of which was considered a joining of his party Hence those 
 Indians who were hostile to the United States, were denominated RED 
 STICKS.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 37 
 
 generally at the present day, notwithstanding the many 
 laudable endeavors which have been made to christianize 
 them. 
 
 Perhaps there was never a tribe in America, but be- 
 lieved in the existence of a Deity ; yet were their ideas 
 of the nature and attributes of God, not only obscure, but 
 preposterous and absurd. They believe also in the exist- 
 ence of many inferior deities, whom they suppose to be 
 employed as assistants in managing the affairs of the world, 
 and in inspecting the actions of men. Eagles and Owls are 
 thought by some to have been placed here as observers of 
 the actions of men ; and accordingly, when an eagle is seen 
 to soar about them by day, or an owl to perch near them 
 at night, they immediately offer sacrifice, that a good re- 
 port may be made of them to the Great Spirit. 
 
 They are likewise believers in the immortality of the 
 soul ; and have such an idea of a future state of existence, 
 as accords with their character and condition here. 
 Strangers to [34] intellectual pleasures, they suppose that 
 their happiness hereafter will consist of mere sensual 
 gratifications ; and that when they die, they will be trans- 
 lated to a delightful region, where the flowers never fade, 
 nor the leaves fall from the trees ; where the forests abound 
 in game, and the lakes in fish, and where they expect to 
 remain forever, enjoying all the pleasures which delighted 
 them here. 1 
 
 1 Pope has very finely expressed the leading articles of religion among 
 the Indians in the following lines. 
 
 Lo, the poor Indian ! whose untutor'd mind 
 Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind ; 
 His soul proud science never taught to stray 
 Far as the Solar Walk or Milky Way ; 
 Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n, 
 Behind the cloud-topt hill an humbler heav'n ; 
 Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd, 
 Some happier island in the wat'ry waste ; 
 Where slaves once more their native land behold, 
 No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. 
 To BE, contents his natural desire, 
 He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire : 
 But thinks admitted to that equal sky, 
 Kis faithful dog shall bear him company.
 
 38 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 In consequence of this belief, when an Indian dies, 
 and is buried, they place in the grave with him, his bow 
 and arrows and such weapons as they use in war, that he 
 may be enabled to procure game and overcome an enemy. 
 And it has been said, that they grieve more for the death 
 of an infant unable to provide for itself in the world of 
 spirits, than for one who had attained manhood and was 
 capable, of taking care of himself. An interesting in- 
 stance of this is given by Major Carver, and furnishes at 
 once, affecting evidence of their incongruous creed and of 
 their parental tenderness. Maj. Carver says: 
 
 " Whilst I remained with them, a couple whose tent 
 was near to mine, lost a son about four years old. The 
 parents were so inconsolable for its loss, and so much 
 affected by its death, that they pursued the usual testi- 
 monies of grief with such uncommon vigor, as through 
 the weight of sorrow and loss of blood, to occasion the 
 death of the father. The mother, who had been hitherto 
 absorbed in grief, no sooner beheld her husband expire, 
 than she dried up her tears, and appeared cheerful and re- 
 signed. 
 
 "As I knew not how to account for so extraordinary 
 a transition, I took an opportunity to ask her the reason 
 of it. She replied, that as the child was so young when 
 it died, and unable to support itself in the country of 
 spirits, both she and her husband had been apprehensive 
 that its situation would be far from pleasant ; but no sooner 
 did she behold its father depart for the same place, and 
 who not only loved the child with the tenderest affection, 
 but was a good hunter and [35] able to provide plentifully 
 for its support, than she ceased to mourn. She added that 
 she saw no reason to continue her tears, as the child was 
 now happy under the protection of a fond father ; and that 
 she had only one wish remaining to be gratified, and that 
 was a wish to be herself with them." 1 
 
 In relation to the Indian antiquities so frequently met 
 
 1 The author's summary of Indian character is for the most part ex- 
 cellent, and in accord with more recent conclusions. See Chap. I. of 
 The Colonies, in "Epochs of American History " (Longmans, 1892.) R. 
 G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 39 
 
 with in America, much doubt still exists. When and for 
 what purpose many of those vast mounds of earth, so 
 common in the western country, were heaped up, is mat- 
 ter of uncertainty. Mr. Jefferson has pronounced them to 
 be repositories of the dead ; and many of them certainly 
 were designed for that purpose ; perhaps all with which 
 he had become acquainted previous to the writing of his 
 notes of Virginia. Mr. Jefferson did not deem them 
 worthy the name of monuments. Since the country has 
 been better explored, many have been discovered justly 
 entitled to that appellation, some of which seem to have 
 been constructed for purposes other than inhumation. 1 
 These are frequently met with in the valley of the Missis- 
 sippi, and are said to extend into Mexico. The most cele- 
 brated works of this class, are believed to be those at Cir- 
 cleville in Ohio, which have so frequently been described, 
 and are justly considered memorials of the labor and per- 
 severance of those by whom they were erected. 
 
 There is a tradition among the Indians of the north, 
 which if true would furnish a very rational solution to the 
 question, "for what purpose were they constructed?" 
 According to this tradition about "two thousand two 
 hundred years, before Columbus discovered America, the 
 northern nations appointed a prince, and immediately after, 
 repaired to the south and visited the GOLDEN CITY, the cap- 
 ital of a vast empire. After a time the emperor of the 
 south built many forts throughout his dominions, and ex- 
 tending them northwardly almost penetrated the lake 
 Erie. This produced much excitement. The people of 
 the north, afraid that they would be deprived of the coun- 
 try on the south side of the great lakes, determined to 
 defend it against the infringement of any foreign people; 
 long and bloody wars ensued which lasted about one hun- 
 
 1 Gen. George Rogers Clark, an early and careful observer, scouted 
 the idea advanced by Noah Webster, in Carey's American Museum, 
 in 1789, that these extraordinary Western military defenses were the 
 work of De Soto. "As for his being the author of these fortifications," 
 says Clark, "it is quite out of the question; they are more numerous 
 than he had men, and many of them would have required fifty thou- 
 sand men for their occupancy." L. C. Dr
 
 40 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 dred years. The people of the north, being more skillful 
 in the use of bows and arrows, and capable of enduring 
 hardships which proved fatal to those of the south, gained 
 the conquest ; and all the towns and forts, which had been 
 erected by their> enemy, were totally destroyed and left in 
 a heap of ruins." * 
 
 The most considerable of those tumuli or sepulchral 
 mounds, which are found in Virginia, is that on the bot- 
 toms of Grave creek, near its entrance into the Ohio, about 
 twelve miles below "Wheeling, and is the only large one in 
 this section of the country. Its diameter at the base, is 
 said to be one hundred yards, its perpendicular height 
 about eighty feet, and the diameter at its summit, forty- 
 five feet. Trees, of all sizes and of various kinds, are 
 growing on its sides ; and fallen [36] and decayed timber, 
 is interspersed among them; a single white oak rises out 
 of a concavity in the centre of its summit. 2 
 
 Near tc Cahokia there is a group (of about two hun- 
 dred) of these mounds, of various dimensions. 3 The largest 
 of these is said to have a base of eight hundred yards cir- 
 cumference, and an altitude of ninety feet. These and the 
 one mentioned as being on Grave creek and many smaller 
 ones in various parts of the country, were no doubt places 
 of inhumation. 4 Many have been opened, and found to 
 contain human bones promiscuously thrown together. Mr. 
 
 1 Indian traditions, by Cusick. 
 
 3 This description, written by Withers in 1831, still holds good in 
 the main. The mound, which proves to have been a burial tumulus, is 
 now surrounded by the little city of Moundsville, \V. Va., and is kept 
 inclosed by the owner as one of the sights of the place. The writer 
 visited it in May, 1894. R. G. T. 
 
 * George Rogers Clark, who was repeatedly at Cahokia during the 
 period 1778-80, says : "We easily and evidently traced the town for 
 upwards of five miles in the beautiful plain below the present town of 
 Kahokia. There could be no deception here, because the remains of 
 ancient works were thick the whole were mounds, etc." Clark's MS. 
 statement; Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, IV., p. 135. L. C. D. 
 
 * This mound was used, at least in part, for burial purposes. Nearly 
 fifty years ago, when the writer of this note explored this remarkable 
 artificial elevation of eighty feet in height, he found in the excavation 
 numerous beads of shell or bone, or both, ornaments of the dead buried 
 there. L. C. D.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 41 
 
 Jefferson supposed the one examined by him, (the diame- 
 ter of whose base was only forty feet and height twelve) to 
 contain the bones of perhaps a thousand human beings, 
 of each sex and of every age. Others have been exam- 
 ined, in which were the skeletons of men of much greater 
 stature, than that of any of the Indians in America, at the 
 time of it's discovery, or of those with whom we have since 
 become acquainted. 
 
 It is a well known fact, that since the whites became 
 settled in the country, the Indians were in the habit of 
 collecting the bones of their dead and of depositing them 
 in one general cemetery; but the earth and stone used by 
 them, were taken from the adjacent land. This was not 
 invariably the case, with those ancient heaps of earth 
 found in the west. In regard to many of them, this sin- 
 gular circumstance is said to be a fact, that the earth, of 
 which they are composed, is of an altogether different na- 
 ture, from that around them ; and must, in some instances, 
 have been carried a considerable distance. The tellurine 
 structures at Circleville are of this sort ; and the material 
 of which they were constructed, is said to be distinctly 
 different, from the earth any where near to them. 
 
 The immensity of the size of these and many others, 
 would induce the supposition that they could not have 
 been raised by a race of people as indolent as the Indians 
 have been, ever since a knowledge was had of them. 
 Works, the construction of which would now require the 
 concentrated exertions of at least one thousand men, aided 
 by the mechanical inventions of later days, for several 
 months, could hardly have been erected by persons, so 
 subject to lassitude under labor as they are : unless indeed 
 their population was infinitely greater than we now con- 
 ceive it to have been. Admitting however, this density 
 of population to have existed, other circumstances would 
 corroborate the belief, that the country once had other in- 
 habitants, than the progenitors of those who have been 
 called, the aborigines of America : one of these circum- 
 stances is the uncommon size of many of the skeletons 
 found in the smaller mounds upon the hills. 
 
 If the fact be, as it is represented, that the larger
 
 42 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 tons are invariably found on elevated situations, remote 
 from the larger water courses, it would tend to show that 
 there was a diversity of habit, and admitting their cotem- 
 poraneous existence, perhaps no alliance or intercourse 
 between those, whose remains they are, and the persons 
 by whom those large mounds and fortifications were 
 erected, [37] these being found only on plains in the con- 
 tiguity of large streams or inland lakes ; and containing 
 only the bones of individuals of ordinary stature. 
 
 Another and stronger evidence that America was oc- 
 cupied by others than the ancestors of the present Indians, 
 is to be found in those antiquities, which demonstrate that 
 iron was once known here, and converted to some of the 
 uses ordinarily made of it. 
 
 In graduating a street in Cincinnati, there was found, 
 twenty-five feet below the surface of the earth, a small 
 horse shoe, in which were several nails. It is said to pre- 
 sent the appearance of such erosion as would result from 
 the oxidation of some centuries. It was smaller than 
 would be required for a common mule. 1 
 
 Many are the instances of pieces of timber found, 
 various depths below the surface of the earth, with the 
 marks of the axe palpably visible on them. 2 A sword too, 
 said to have been enclosed in the wood of the roots of a 
 tree not less than five hundred years old, is preserved in 
 Ohio as a curiosity. Many other instances might, if neces- 
 sary, be adduced to prove, that implements of iron were in 
 use in this country, prior to its occupation by the whites. 
 Now if a people once have the use of that metal, it is far 
 
 1 This proves nothing. A silver medal of John Quincy Adams's ad- 
 ministration, evidently presented to some Indian chief was, in 1894, 
 found in Wisconsin, twelve feet below the surface. Iron and silver tools 
 and ornaments, evidently made in Paris for the Indian trade, have been 
 found in Ohio and Wisconsin mounds. It is now sufficiently demon- 
 strated that the mound-builders were the ancestors of the aborigines 
 found in the country by the first white settlers, and that the mounds are 
 of various ages, ranging perhaps from three hundred to a thousand years. 
 Various Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology go into the matter with con- 
 vincing detail. R. G. T. 
 
 1 Jacob Wolf, in digging a well on Hacker's creek, found a piece of 
 timber which had been evidently cut off at one end, twelve or thirteen 
 feet in the ground marks of the axe were plainly distinguishable on it.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 43 
 
 from probable that it will ever after be lost to them : the 
 essential purposes to which it may be applied, would pre- 
 serve it to them. The Indians however, 'till taught by the 
 Europeans, had no knowledge of it. 
 
 Many of the antiquities discovered in other parts of the 
 country, show that the arts once nourished to an extent be- 
 yond what they have ever been known to do among the In- 
 dians. The body found in the saltpetre cave of Kentucky, 
 was wrapped in blankets made of linen and interwoven with 
 feathers of the wild turkey, tastefully arranged. It was much 
 smaller than persons of equal age at the present day, and 
 had yellowish hair. In Tennessee many walls of faced 
 stone, and even walled wells have been found in so many 
 places, at such depths and under such circumstances, 
 as to preclude the idea of their having been made by the 
 whites since the discovery by Columbus. 
 
 [38] In this state too, have been found burying grounds, 
 in which the skeletons seem all to have been those of pig- 
 mies : the graves, in which the bodies had been deposited, 
 were seldom three feet in length ; yet the teeth in the skulls 
 prove that they were the bodies of persons of mature age. 
 
 Upon the whole there cannot be much doubt, that 
 America was once inhabited by a people, not otherwise 
 allied to the Indians of the present day, than that they 
 were descendants of him, from whom has sprung the whole 
 human family.
 
 [39] CHRONICLES 
 
 BOEDEE WAEFAEE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 At the time when Virginia became known to the whites, 
 it was occupied by many different tribes of Indians, at- 
 tached to different nations. That portion of the state 
 lying north west of the Blue ridge, and extending to the 
 lakes was possessed by the Massawomees. These were a 
 powerful confederacy, rarely in amity with the tribes east 
 of that range of mountains; but generally harrassing 
 them by frequent hostile irruptions into their country. 
 Of their subsequent history, nothing is now known. 
 They are supposed by some to have been the ancestors of 
 the Six Nations. It is however more probable, that they 
 afterwards became incorporated with these, as did several 
 other tribes of Indians, who used a language so essentially 
 different from that spoken by the Six Nations, as to ren- 
 der the intervention of interpreters necessary between 
 them. 
 
 As settlements were extended from the sea shore, the 
 Massawomees gradually retired ; and when the white pop- 
 ulation reached the Blue ridge of mountains, the valley 
 between it and the Alleghany, was entirely uninhabited. 
 This delightful region of country was then only used as 
 a hunting ground, and as a highway for belligerant parties 
 of different nations, in their military expeditions against 
 each other. In consequence of the almost continued hos- 
 tilities between the northern and southern Indians, these 
 expeditions were very frequent, and tended somewhat to 
 retard the settlement of the valley, and render a residence 
 (44)
 
 Of Border Warfare. 45 
 
 in it, for some time, insecure and unpleasant. Between 
 the Alleghany mountains and the Ohio river, within the 
 present limits of Virginia, there were some villages inter- 
 spersed, inhabited by small numbers of Indians ; the most 
 [40] of whom retired north west of that river, as the tide 
 of emigration rolled towards it. Some however remained 
 in the interior, after settlements began to be made in their 
 vicinity. 
 
 North of the present boundary of Virginia, and par- 
 ticularly near the junction of the Alleghany and Monon- 
 gahela rivers, and in the circumjacent country the Indians 
 were more numerous, and their villages larger. In 1753, 
 when Gen. Washington visited the French posts on the 
 Ohio, the spot which had been selected by the Ohio com- 
 pany, as the site for a fort, was occupied by Shingess, king 
 of the Delawares ; and other parts of the proximate 
 country, were inhabited by Miugoes and Shawanees. 1 
 When the French were forced ~to~~aDandon th"e position^ 
 which they had taken at the forks of Ohio, the greater 
 part of the adjacent tribes removed farther west. So that 
 when improvements were begun to be made in the wilder- 
 ness of North Western Virginia, it had been almost en- 
 tirely deserted by the natives ; and excepting a few strag- 
 gling hunters and warriors, who occasionally traversed it 
 in quest of game, or of human beings on whom to wreak 
 their vengeance, almost its only tenants were beasts of 
 the forest. 
 
 In the country north west of the Ohio river, there 
 were many warlike tribes of Indians, strongly imbued with 
 feelings of rancorous hostility to the neighboring colonists. 
 Among the more powerful of these were the Delawares, 
 who resided on branches of Beaver Creek, Cayahoga, and 
 
 1 King Shingiss was a famous village chief, " a terror to the frontier 
 settlements of Pennsylvania." A brother, and later the successor of 
 King Beaver, his camp was at the mouth of Beaver Creek, which 
 empties into the Ohio twenty-six miles below "the forks" (site 
 of Pittsburg). Christopher Gist visited him November 24, 1750. In 
 1759, when Fort Pitt was built, Shingiss moved up Beaver Creek to 
 Kuskuskis on the Mahoning, and finally to the Muskingum. The land 
 about the mouth of Beaver Creek is called " Shingis Old Town " in the 
 Ft. Stanwix treaty, 1784. R. G. T.
 
 4ti Withers's Chronicles 
 
 Muskingum ; and whose towns contained about six hun- 
 dred inhabitants The Shascajaees, who to the number of 
 300, dwelt upon the Scioto and Muskingum The Chippe- 
 was, near Mackinaw, of 400 Cohiiniiewagos, of 300, and 
 who inhabited near Sandusky The Wya4ots, whose 
 villages were near fort St. Joseph, and embraced a popula- 
 tion of 250 The Twightees, near fort Miami, with a like 
 population The Miami s, on the river Miami, near the fort 
 of that name, reckoning 300 persons The Potioseatamies 
 of 300, and the Ottawas of 550, in their villages near to 
 forts St. Joseph ancTDetroit, 1 and of 250, in the towns 
 near Mackinaw. Besides these, there were in the same 
 district of country, others of less note, yet equally inimi- 
 cal to the whites ; and who contributed much to the an- 
 noyance [41] of the first settlers on the Ohio, and its trib- 
 utaries. 
 
 There were likewise the Munsies, dwelling on the 
 north branch of the Susquehanna, and on the Allegheny 
 river The Senecas, on the waters of the Susquehanna, 
 Ontario and the heads of the Allegheny The Cayugas, 
 on Cayuga lake, and the Sapoonies, who resided in the 
 neighborhood of the Munsies. In these tribes was an ag- 
 gregate population of 1,380 souls, and they likewise aided 
 in committing depredations on our frontiers. 
 
 Those who ventured to explore and occupy the south 
 western portion of Virginia, found also in its vicinity some 
 powerful and warlike tribes. The Cherokees possessed 
 what was then, the western part of North Carolina and 
 numbered 2,500 The Chicasaws, residing south of the 
 Cherokees, had a population of 750 and the Catawbas, 
 on the Catawba river in South Carolina with only 150 per- 
 sons. These latter were remarkably adventurous, enter- 
 prising and courageous ; and notwithstanding their re- 
 mote situation, and the paucity of their numbers, fre- 
 quently traversed the valley of Virginia, and even pene- 
 trated the country on the north branch of the Susque- 
 
 1 The numbers here set down and those given below, are as they 
 were ascertained hy Capt. Hutchins, who visited the most of the tribes 
 for purpose of learning their population in 1768.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 47 
 
 hanna, and between the Ohio river and lake Erie, to wage 
 war upon the Delawares. Their success in many of these 
 expeditions, is preserved in tne traditions of the Dela- 
 wares, who continue to regard them as having used in 
 these wars, a degree of cunning aud stratagem, to which 
 other tribes have never approached. 1 
 
 Such were the numbers and positions of many of the 
 proximate Indians about the time settlements were begun 
 to be [42] made on the Monongahela river and its branches. 
 Anterior to this period, adventurers had explored, and 
 established themselves, in various parts of the valley be- 
 tween the Blue ridge and the Alleghany mountain. That 
 section of it, which was included within the limits of the 
 Northern-Neck, was the first to become occupied by the 
 whites. The facilities afforded by the proprietor for ob- 
 taining land within his grant, the greater salubrity of 
 climate and fertility of soil near to the Blue ridge, caused 
 the tide of emigration to flow rapidly towards the upper 
 country, and roll even to the base of that mountain. Set- 
 tlements were soon after extended westwardly across the 
 Shenandoah, and early in the eighteenth century Win- 
 chester became a trading post, with sparse improvements 
 in its vicinity. 
 
 About this time Thomas Morlin, a pedlar trading 
 from Williamsburg to Winchester, resolved, in conjunc- 
 tion with John Sailing a weaver also from Williamsburg, 
 to prosecute an examination of the country, beyond the 
 
 1 A tradition among the Delawares says that formerly the Catawbas 
 came near one of their hunting camps and remaining in ambush at night 
 sent two or three of their party round the camp with Buffalo hoofs 
 fixed to their feet, to make artificial buffalo tracks and thus decoy the 
 hunters from their camp. In the morning the Delawares, discovering 
 the tracks and supposing them to have been made by buffaloes, fol- 
 lowed them some time ; when suddenly the Catawbas rose from their 
 covert, fired at and killed several of the hunters ; the others fled, col- 
 lected a party and went in pursuit of the Catawbas. These had brought 
 with them, rattle snake poison corked up in a piece of cane stalk ; into 
 which they dipped small reed splinters, which they set up along their 
 path. The Delawares in pursuit were much injured by those poisoned 
 splinters, and commenced retreating to their camp. The Catawbas dis- 
 covering this, turned upon their pursuers, and killed and scalped many 
 of them.
 
 48 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 limits which had hitherto bounded the exploratory excur- 
 sions of other adventurers. With this view, they travelleo 
 up the valley of the Shenandoah, and crossing James river 
 and some of its branches, proceeded as far as the Roanoke, 
 when Sailing was taken captive by a party of Cherokees. 
 Morlin was fortunate enough to elude their pursuit, and 
 effect a safe retreat to Winchester. 
 
 Upon the return of the party by whom Sailing had 
 been captivated, he was taken to Tennessee where he re- 
 mained for some years. When on a hunting expedition 
 to the Salt licks of Kentucky, in company with some 
 Cherokees to kill buffalo, they were surprised by a party 
 of Illinois Indians, with whom the Cherokees were then 
 at war, and by them Sailing was again taken prisoner. 
 He was then carried to Kaskaskia, when he was adopted 
 into the family of a squaw whose son had been killed in 
 the wars. 
 
 While with this nation of Indians, Sailing frequently 
 accompanied parties of them on hunting excursions, a con- 
 siderable distance to the south. On several occasions he 
 went with them below the mouth of the Arkansas, and 
 once to the Gulph of Mexico. In one of those expeditions 
 they met with a party of Spaniards, exploring the coun- 
 try and who needed an interpreter. For this purpose they 
 purchased Sailing of his Indian mother for three strands 
 of beads and a Calumet. Sailing attended them to the 
 post at Crevecceur; from which [43] place he was conveyed 
 to fort Frontignac : here he was redeemed by the Governor 
 of Canada, who sent him to the Dutch settlement in New 
 York, whence he made his way home after an absence of 
 six years. 1 
 
 1 John Peter Sailing, sometimes spoken of as Peter Adam Sailing, was, 
 if not of German birth, of German descent. With his brother Henry, 
 he early settled in the forks of James River and North Branch, in the 
 southern part of what is now Rockbridge county, Va. The details of 
 his early explorations in the West are involved in doubt, but that he 
 had such adventures there seems no good reason to doubt. It will be 
 noticed that Withers omits the date ; some writers have placed it at 
 about 1724, but the probable time was 1738-40. His descendants told 
 Draper (about 1850) that the family tradition was, that Sailing and a 
 son were employed by the governor of Virginia to explore the country
 
 Of Border Warfare. 49 
 
 The emigration from Great Britain to Virginia was then 
 very great, and at the period of Sailing's return to Will- 
 iamsburg, there were then many adventurers, who had but 
 recently arrived from Scotland and the north of England. 
 Among these adventurers were John Lewis l and John 
 
 to the southwest ; and when near the present Salem, Roanoke county, 
 they were captured by Cherokees and carried to the Ohio River one 
 account says by way of the Tennessee, another by the New (Great 
 Kanawha), their boat being made of buffalo skins. They appear by 
 this tradition to have escaped, and in descending the Mississippi to 
 have fallen into the hands of Spaniards. The son died, and the 
 father was sent in a vessel bound for Spain, there to be tried as a British 
 spy ; but the Spaniard being captured by an English vessel, our hero 
 was landed at Charleston, whence he reached his frontier home after 
 an absence of over three years. This story differs in many details from 
 the one in Kercheval's History of the Valley of Virginia, and also that in 
 Withers's text, above. Sailing kept a journal which was extant in 
 1745, for in the Wisconsin Historical Society's library is a diary kept 
 by Capt. John Buchanan, who notes that in that year he spent two days 
 in copying a part of it. In Du Pratz' History of Louisiana (London, 1774), 
 Sailing and one John Howard are said to have made this trip in 1742, 
 and the authority is said to be a Report of the Government of Virginia. 
 But Sailing must have returned home by 1742, for his name is in the 
 roll of Capt. John McDowell's militia company, and he was probably in 
 the fight with the Indians (Dec. 14) that year, in which McDowell lost 
 his life. In 1746, we found Sailing himself a militia captain in the 
 Rockbridge district of Augusta county. In September, 1747, he was 
 cited to appear at court martial for not turning out to muster and this 
 is the last record we have of him. Descendants, named Sallee, now live 
 iii Kentucky and Tennessee. R. G. T. 
 
 1 John Lewis, the father of Gen. Andrew Lewis, was probably of 
 Welsh descent, and born in 1678 in County Donegal, Ireland. About 
 1716 he married Margaret Lynn, of the famous Lynns of Loch Lynn, 
 Scotland. In a dispute over his tenancy (1729), he killed a man of high 
 station, some say, his Catholic landlord, and fled to Portugal, whence 
 in 1731, after strange adventures, he emigrated to America, and was 
 joined there by his family. Fearing to live near a sea-port he established 
 himself on the frontier, in the Valley of Virginia, two miles east of the 
 present site of Staunton. His house was of stone, built for defense, and 
 in 1754 it successfully stood an Indian siege. Lewis was colonel of the 
 Augusta county militia as early as 1743, presiding justice in 1745, and 
 high sheriff in 1748. In 1751, then 73 years of age, he assisted his son 
 Andrew, then agent of the Loyal Company, to explore and survey the lat- 
 ter's grant on Greenbrier River. It was because the old man became en- 
 tangled in the thicket of greenbriers, that he gave this name to the 
 Btream. He died at his old fort homestead, February 1, 1762, aged 84 
 4
 
 50 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 Mackey. Sailing's return excited a considerable and very 
 general interest, and drew around him many, particularly 
 of those who had but lately come to America, and to whom 
 the narrative of one, who had been nearly six years a 
 captive among the Indians, was highly gratifying. Lewis 
 and Mackey listened attentively to the description given 
 of the country in the valley, and pleased with its beauty 
 and fertility as represented by Sailing, they prevailed on 
 him to accompany them on a visit to examine it more 
 minutely, and if found correspondent with his description 
 to select in it situations for their future residence. 
 
 Lewis made choice of, and improved, a spot a few miles 
 below Staunton, on a creek which bears his name Mac- 
 key on the middle branch of the Shenandoah near Buffalo- 
 gap ; and Sailing in the forks of James river, below the 
 Natural Bridge, where some of his descendants still reside. 
 Thus was effected the first white settlement ever made on 
 the James river, west of the Blue ridge. 1 
 
 In the year 1736, Lewis, being in Williamsburg, met 
 with Benjamin Burden (who had then just come to the coun- 
 try as agent of Lord Fairfax, proprietor of the Northern 
 Neck,) and on whom he prevailed to accompany him home. 
 Burden remained at Lewis's the greater part of the sum- 
 mer, and on his return to Williamsburg, took with him a 
 buffalo calf, which while hunting with Samuel 2 and Andrew 
 Lewis (elder sons of John) they had caught and afterwards 
 tamed. He presented this calf to Gov. Gooch, who there- 
 upon entered on his journal, [44] an order, authorizing 
 Burden to locate conditionally, any quantity of land not 
 exceeding 500,000 acres on any of the waters of the Shen- 
 
 years. Some accounts state that he was a Presbyterian ; he was, how- 
 ever, an Episcopalian. R. G.T. 
 
 1 Lewis soon afterwards obtained leave from Governor Gooch to locate 
 100,000 acres of land in separate parcels on the waters of the Shenan- 
 doah and James rivers ; and when he would go out in search of good 
 land to locate, Mackey would accompany him to hunt buffalo. The 
 former amassed a large estate, while the latter lived and died in com- 
 parative poverty. 
 
 1 As Col. John Lewis had no son Samuel, probably Thomas Lewis, the 
 elder brother of Andrew, though near-sighted, may have engaged in 
 buffalo hunting. L. C. D.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 51 
 
 andoah, or of James river west of the Blue ridge. The 
 conditions of this grant were, that he should interfere 
 with no previous grants that he should settle 100 families, 
 in ten years, within its limits ; and should have 1000 acres 
 adjoining each cabin which he should cause to be built, 
 with liberty to purchase any greater quantity adjoining, at 
 the rate of fifty pounds per thousand acres. In order to 
 effect a compliance with one of these conditions, Burden 
 visited Great Britian in 1737 ; and on his return to Vir- 
 ginia brought with him upwards of one hundred families 
 of adventurers, to settle on his grant. 1 Amongst these 
 adventurers were, John Patton, son-in-law to Benjamin 
 Burden, who settled on Catawba, above Pattonsburg 2 
 
 1 Of the origin of Benjamin Borden, Sr. (the name was mispro- 
 nounced Burden, on the frontier), little is known. He was probably from 
 New Jersey, and early became a fur trader on the Virginia frontier ; later 
 he was in Lord Fairfax's employ as a land agent. As such, he visited 
 Governor Gooch and obtained from him several valuable tracts one of 
 them (October 3, 1 734), Borden Manor, on Sprout run, Frederick county ; 
 another, 100,000 acres at the head of the James, on condition of locating 
 thereon a hundred families. At the Bnd of two years he had erected 
 92 cabins with as many families, and a patent was granted him Novem- 
 ber 8, 1739, for 92,100 acres. He died in 1742, before further develop- 
 ment of his enterprise. His son Benjamin succeeded to his vast estate ) 
 but died of small-pox in 1753. In 1744, he married the widow of John 
 McDowell, mentioned on the next page, who had been killed in the 
 Indian fight of December 14, 1742. R. G. T. 
 
 2 The daughter of John Patton subsequently became the wife of 
 Col. W. Preston, and the mother of James Patton Preston, late a gov- 
 ernor of Virginia. 
 
 Comment by L. C. D. This note of Mr. Withers, derived from Taylor's 
 sketches (mentioned below), is erroneous both as to Patton and Preston. 
 Col. Patton's first name was not John, but James, as both the records and 
 his own autograph sufficiently attest. Neither did John Preston, nor his 
 son Col. Wm. Preston, marry Col. Patton's daughter, but John Preston 
 married his sister. Miss Elizabeth Patton, while crossing the Shannon 
 in a boat, met the handsome John Preston, then a young ship carpenter, 
 and an attachment grew out of their accidental meeting. But as Miss 
 Patton belonged to the upper class of society, there was a wide gulf be- 
 tween their conditions, and a runaway match was the only way out of 
 the difficulty. Gov. James Patton Preston was named after his grand- 
 uncle. James Patton was born in County Londonderry, Ireland, in 1692. 
 For many years he was a prosperous navigator, and crossed the Atlantic 
 twenty-five times with " redemptioners " for Virginia ; he was also an
 
 52 Withers 's Chronicles 
 
 Ephraim McDowell, who settled at Phoebe's falls John, 
 the son of Ephraim, 1 who settled at Fairfield, where Col. 
 James McDowell now lives Hugh Telford, who settled at 
 the Falling spring, in the forks of James river Paul 
 Whitley, who settled on Cedar creek, where the Red Mill 
 now is Archibald Alexander, who settled on the North 
 river, opposite Lexington Andrew Moore, who settled 
 adjoining Alexander Sampson Archer, who settled at 
 Gilmore's spring, east of the Bridge tavern, and Capt. 
 John Matthews, who married Betsy Archer, (the daughter 
 of Sampson) settled where Major Matthews lives, below 
 the Natural bridge. 
 
 Among others who came to Virginia at this time, 
 was an Irish girl named Polly Mulhollin. On her arrival 
 she was hired to James Bell to pay her passage ; and with 
 whom she remained during the period her servitude was 
 to continue. At its expiration she attired herself in the 
 habit of a man ; and with hunting shirt and mocasons, 
 went into Burden's grant, for the purpose of making im- 
 provements and acquiring a title to land. Here she erected 
 thirty cabins, by virtue of which she held one hundred 
 acres adjoining each. When Benjamin Burden the 
 younger, came on to make deeds to those who held cabin 
 rights, he was astonished to see so many in the name of 
 
 officer in the royal navy in the wars with the Netherlands. Having ob- 
 tained a grant of 120,000 acres above the Blue Ridge, he himself settled 
 in Virginia in 1735. A man of wealth, enterprise and influence, he was 
 a justice, sheriff, Indian treaty commissioner, and finally county lieu- 
 tenant of Augusta. In 1755, he was killed by Indians while conveying 
 ammunition to the borderers. 
 
 1 Capt. John McDowell was of Scotch descent, and born in Ulster, 
 Ireland, but in early manhood came to America, settling first in Penn- 
 sylvania, and then the Virginia Valley (autumn of 1737). He at once 
 became one of Benjamin Borden's surveyors, and for five years made 
 surveys on Borden's Manor. Becoming a captain in the Augusta militia, 
 he was ordered to go out against a party of Northern Indians who, on 
 the war-path against the Catawbas, had taken in the Virginia Valley on 
 their way, and annoyed and plundered the white settlers. The savages 
 were overtaken on the North Branch of James River, some fifteen 
 miles from McDowell's place, and an engagement ensued (Dec. 14, 1742), 
 in which McDowell and seven others lost their lives. The Indians 
 escaped with small losses. This was the first battle between whites and 
 Indians, in the Virginia Valley. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 53 
 
 Mulhollin, Investigation led to a discovery of the mys- 
 tery, to the great mirth of the other claimants. She re- 
 sumed her Christian name and feminine dress, and many of 
 [45] her respectable descendants still reside within' the limits 
 of Burden's grant. 1 
 
 When in 1752 Robert Dinwiddie came over as gov- 
 ernor of Virginia, he was accompanied by many adventur- 
 ers; among whom was John Stuart, 2 an intimate friend 
 of Dinwiddie, who had married the widow of John Paul 
 (son of Hugh, bishop of Nottingham.) John Paul, a par- 
 tizan of the house of Stuart, had perished in the siege of 
 Dalrymple castle in 1745, leaving three children John, 
 who became a Roman catholic priest and died on the east- 
 ern shore of Maryland Audley, who was for ten years an 
 officer in the British colonial forces, and Polly, who 
 married Geo* Matthews, afterwards governor of Georgia. 
 Mrs. Paul (formerly Jane Lynn, of the Lynns of Loch- 
 Lynn, a sister to the wife of John Lewis) had issue, by 
 
 1 This incident is well authenticated. See the deposition of Mrs. 
 Mary Greenlee, preserved in the famous Borden land suit, among the 
 court records of Augusta county, Va. Mrs. Greenlee was the sister of 
 Capt. John McDowell, and among the very earliest settlers of that part 
 of Augusta, now Rockbridge county. Mrs Greenlee's deposition is pub- 
 lished in full in Peyton's History of Augusta County, Va. (Staunton, Va., 
 1882), pp. 69-74. L. C. D. 
 
 * The late Charles A. Stuart, of Greenbrier, son of Col. John Stuart, 
 after the appearance of Hugh Paul Taylor's sketches over the signature 
 of " Son of Cornstalk," published in the Staunton Spectator of August 21, 
 1829, over the signature of " Son of Blue Jacket," a brief criticism, in the 
 nature of some corrections regarding his own family, to this effect : That 
 Mrs. Jane Paul was no relative of Mrs. Margaret Lewis, wife of Col. John 
 Lewis ; that her first husband, Mr. Paul not John, but probably Hugh 
 Paul was apparently from the north of Ireland their son Audley Paul 
 was born before the migration of the family to Pennsylvania ; Mr. Paul, 
 Sr., it is said, became the pastor of the Presbyterian congregation of Ches- 
 ter, in that province ; but as Chester was a Quaker settlement, it is 
 more likely that he located in some Presbyterian community in that re- 
 gion, and there must have died. Mrs. Paul, for her second husband, 
 married Col. David Stuart, also from Ireland, by whom she had John 
 Stuart and two daughters. Mrs. Stuart's grandchild, Charles A. Stuart, 
 resided many years in Augusta, representing that county in the State 
 senate, subsequently removed back to Greenbrier county, where he 
 died about 1850, at the age of about sixty-five years. He was a man oJ 
 sterling qualities. L. C. D.
 
 54 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 Stuart, John, since known as Col. Stuart of Greenbrier, 
 and Betsy, who became the wife of Col. Richard Woods 
 of Albemarle. 
 
 The greater part of those, who thus ventured " on the 
 untried being" of a wilderness life, were Scottish presby- 
 terian dissenters; a class of religionists, of all others per- 
 haps, the most remarkable for rigid morality. They 
 brought with them, their religious principles, and sectional 
 prepossessions ; and acting upon those principles acquired 
 for their infant colony a moral and devotional character 
 rarely possessed by similar establishments. While these 
 sectional prepossessions, imbibed by their descendants, 
 gave to their religious persuasions, an ascendency in that 
 section of country, which it still retains. 
 
 They were also men of industry and enterprise. Hunt- 
 ing, which too frequently occupies the time, of those who 
 make the forest their dwelling place, and abstracts the 
 attention from more important pursuits, was to them a 
 recreation not the business of life. To improve their 
 condition, by converting the woods into fertile plains, and 
 the wilderness into productive meadows, was their chief 
 object. In the attainment of this, they were eminently 
 successful. Their individual circumstances became pros- 
 perous, and the country flourishing. 
 
 The habits and manners of the primeval inhabitants 
 of any country, generally give to it a distinctive character, 
 which marks it through after ages. Notwithstanding the 
 influx of strangers, bringing with them prejudices and 
 prepossessions, at variance with those of the community 
 in which they come ; [46] yet such is the influence of ex- 
 ample, and such the facility with which the mind imbibes 
 the feelings and sentiments of those with whom it associ- 
 ates, that former habits are gradually lost and those 
 which prevail in society, imperceptibly adopted by its new 
 members. 
 
 In like manner, the moral and religious habits of those 
 who accompanied Burden to Virginia, were impressed on 
 the country which they settled, and entailed on it that 
 high character for industry, morality and piety, which it 
 st*ll possesses, in an eminent degree.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 
 
 55 
 
 At the time of the establishment of this settlement, all 
 that part of Virginia lying west of the Blue ridge mount- 
 ains, was included in the county of Orange. At the fall 
 session, of the colonial legislature, in 1738, the counties of 
 Frederick and Augusta were formed out of Orange The 
 country included within the boundaries of the Potomac 
 river, on the north, the Blue ridge, on the east, and a line, 
 to be run from the head spring of Hedgman, to the head 
 spring of Potomac, on the south and west, to be the county 
 of Frederick ; the remainder of the state west of the Blue 
 ridge, to the utmost limits of Virginia to constitute Au- 
 gusta. Within its limits were included, not only a con- 
 siderable portion of Virginia as she now is, but an extent 
 of territory out of which has been already carved four 
 states, possessing great natural advantages, and the ex- 
 treme fertility of whose soil, will enable them to support 
 perhaps a more dense population, than any other portion 
 of North America of equal dimensions. As the settlements 
 were extended, subdivisions were made, 'till what was once 
 Augusta county south east of the Ohio river, has been 
 chequered on the map of Virginia, into thirty-three coun- 
 ties with an aggregate population ef 289,362.* 
 
 1 The following table exhibits a list of the several counties west of the 
 Blue ridge the counties from which each was taken when estab- 
 lished their area in square miles population in 1830, and amount of 
 taxation for the same year. 
 
 Counties. \ 
 
 Augusta, 
 Alleghany, 
 
 Bath, 
 
 [47] Brooke, 
 
 Berkeley, 
 
 Botetourt, 
 
 Cabell, 
 
 Frederick, 
 
 Greenbrier, 
 
 Giles, 
 
 Gray son, 
 
 From what \ 
 
 taken. 
 Orange, 
 Bath, Botetourt and 
 
 Monroe, 
 Augusta, Botetourt 
 
 and Greenbrier, 
 Ohio, 
 Frederick, 
 Augusta, 
 Kanawha, 
 Orange, 
 
 Botet't & Montg'ry, 
 Montgomery, Monroe 
 
 and Tazewell, 
 Wythe, 
 
 When | Area, 
 formed. 
 1738 948 
 
 1822 521 
 
 | Popula- 
 tion 
 19,925 
 
 2,816 
 
 Taxa- 
 tion. 
 6,734 
 
 526 
 
 1791 
 
 795 
 
 4,068 
 
 865 
 
 1797 
 
 202 
 
 7,040 
 
 1,136 
 
 1772 
 
 308 
 
 10,528 
 
 3,356 
 
 1770 
 
 1057 
 
 16,354 
 
 3,809 
 
 1809 
 
 1033 
 
 5,884 
 
 629 
 
 1738 
 
 745 
 
 26,045 
 
 9,396 
 
 1778 
 
 1409 
 
 9,059 
 
 1,716 
 
 1806 
 
 935 
 
 5,300 
 
 541 
 
 1793 
 
 927 
 
 7,675 
 
 537
 
 56 
 
 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 [48] About the year 1749 there was in the county of 
 Frederick, a man subject to lunacy, and who, when labor- 
 ing under the influence of this disease, would ramble a 
 considerable distance into the neighboring wilderness. In 
 one of these wanderings he came on some of the waters 
 of Greenbrier river. Surprised to see them flowing in a 
 westwardly direction, on his return to Winchester he 
 made known the fact, and that the country abounded very 
 
 Counties. \ 
 
 Harrison, 
 
 Hampshire, 
 
 Hardy, 
 
 Jefferson, 
 
 Kanawha, 
 
 Lewis, 
 
 Logan, 
 
 Lee, 
 
 Monongalia, 
 Monroe, 
 Morgan, 
 
 Montgomery, 
 
 Mason, 
 
 Nicholas, 
 
 Ohio, 
 
 Preston, 
 
 Pendleton, 
 
 Pocahontas, 
 
 Randolph, 
 
 Russell, 
 
 Rockingham, 
 
 Rockbridge, 
 
 Scott, 
 
 Shehandoah, 
 
 Tyler, 
 
 Tazewell, 
 
 Washington, 
 
 Wythe, 
 
 Wood, 
 
 From what \ 
 
 taken. 
 
 Monongalia, 
 Augusta & Fred'k, 
 Hampshire, 
 Berkeley, 
 
 Greenb'r & M'tg'ry, 
 Harrison, 
 Giles, Kanawha, Ca- 
 
 bell & Tazewell, 
 Russell, 
 
 District of W. A'g'ta, 
 Greenbrier, 
 Berkeley and 
 
 Hampshire, 
 Fincastle, 
 Kanawha, 
 Kanawha, Greenbrier 
 
 and Randolph, 
 District of W. A'g'ta, 
 Monongalia, 
 Augusta, Hardy and 
 
 Rockingham, 
 Bath, Pendleton and 
 
 Randolph, 
 Harrison, 
 Washington, 
 Augusta, 
 
 Augusta & Botetourt, 
 Lee, Russell and 
 
 Washington, 
 Frederick, 
 Ohio, 
 
 Russell & Wythe, 
 Fincastle, 
 Montgomery, 
 Harrison, 
 
 When \ 
 
 Area. 
 
 | Popula- | 
 
 Taxa- 
 
 f ormed. 
 
 
 tion. 
 
 tion. 
 
 1784 
 
 1095 
 
 14,713 
 
 1,669 
 
 1754 
 
 989 
 
 11,279 
 
 2,402 
 
 1786 
 
 1156 
 
 5,700 
 
 2,633 
 
 1801 
 
 225 
 
 12,927 
 
 4,721 
 
 1789 
 
 2090 
 
 9,334 
 
 1,453 
 
 1816 
 
 1754 
 
 6,241 
 
 630 
 
 1824 
 
 2930 
 
 3,680 
 
 245 
 
 1793 
 
 512 
 
 9,461 
 
 789 
 
 1776 
 
 721 
 
 14,056 
 
 1,492 
 
 1799 
 
 614 
 
 7,798 
 
 1,158 
 
 1820 
 
 271 
 
 2,702 
 
 546 
 
 1777 
 
 1089 
 
 12,306 
 
 1,666 
 
 1804 
 
 904 
 
 6,534 
 
 915 
 
 1818 
 
 1431 
 
 3,338 
 
 373 
 
 1776 
 
 375 
 
 15,590 
 
 1,968 
 
 1818 
 
 601 
 
 5,144 
 
 441 
 
 1788 999 
 
 1821 794 
 
 1787 2061 
 
 1786 1370 
 
 1778 833 
 
 1778 680 
 
 6,271 
 
 2,542 
 
 5,000 
 
 6,717 
 
 20,663 
 
 14,244 
 
 1,120 
 
 405 
 
 644 
 
 739 
 
 5,056 
 
 3,276 
 
 1814 
 
 624 
 
 5,712 
 
 503 
 
 1772 
 
 767 
 
 19,750 
 
 4,922 
 
 1814 
 
 855 
 
 4,308 
 
 757 
 
 1799 
 
 1305 
 
 5,573 
 
 727 
 
 1777 
 
 1754 
 
 15,614 
 
 2,918 
 
 1790 
 
 1998 
 
 12,163 
 
 2,178 
 
 1799 
 
 1223 
 
 6,418 
 
 1,257 
 
 Total, 378,293 76,848
 
 Of Border Warfare. 57 
 
 much with different kinds of Game. In consequence of 
 this information two men, recently from New England, 
 visited the country and took up their residence on the 
 Greenbrier river. 
 
 Having erected a cabin and being engaged in making 
 some other improvements, an altercation arose, which 
 caused Stephen Suel, 1 one of them, to forsake the cabin 
 and abide for some time in a hollow tree not far from the 
 improvement, which was still occupied by his old com- 
 panion. They were thus situated in 1751, when John 
 Lewis, of Augusta and his son Andrew were exploring 
 the country ; to whom Suel made known the cause of their 
 living apart, and the great pleasure which he experienced* 
 now in their morning salutations, when issuing from their 
 respective habitations ; whereas when they slept under the 
 same roof, none of those kindly greetings passed between 
 them. Suel however did not long remain in the vicinity 
 of Martin, the other of the two adventurers ; he moved 
 forty miles west of his first improvement, and soon after 
 fell a prey to Indian ferocity. Martin is said to have re- 
 turned to the settlements. 
 
 There was no other attempt made by the whites, to 
 improve the Greenbrier country for several years. Lewis 
 and his son thoroughly examined it ; and when permission 
 
 1 Little and Big Sewell mountains, dividing Fayette and Greenbrier 
 counties, seem to perpetuate the name and memory of this early and 
 adventurous pioneer. Col. John Stuart states, that SewelPs final settle- 
 ment was forty miles west of his primitive one, and on a creek bear- 
 ing his name originating in Sewell mountain, and flowing into Gauley. 
 Col. Preston, in his Register, gives September, 1756, as the date of Stephen 
 Sewell's death by the Indians, and Jackson's River as the locality. 
 
 Mrs. Anne Royall, in SketcJies of the History, Life and Manners of the 
 United States, (l$rew Haven, 1826), p. 60, who visited the Greenbrier 
 country in 1824, gives the name of Carver as Sewell's companion. 
 " These two men," says Mrs. Royall, " lived in a cave for several years, 
 but at length they disagreed on the score of religion, and occupied dif- 
 ferent camps. They took care, however, not to stay far from each other, 
 their camps being in sight. Sewell used to relate that he and his friend 
 used to sit up all night without sleep, with their guns cocked, ready to 
 fire at each other. 'And what could that be for ? ' ' Why, because we 
 couldn't agree.' ' Only two of you, and could you not agree what did 
 you quarrel about?' 'Why, about re-la-gin.' One of them, it seems, 
 was a Presbyterian, and the other an Episcopalian." L. C. D.
 
 58 Withers's Chronicles % 
 
 was given to the Greenbrier company (of which John 
 Lewis was a member) to locate 100,000 acres, on the waters 
 of this river, they became agents to make the surveys and 
 locations. The war between France and England in 1754 
 checked their proceedings; and when they, on the restora- 
 tion of peace, would have resumed them, they were inter- 
 dicted by a royal proclamation, issued in 1761, command- 
 ing all those who had made settlements on the western 
 waters to remove from them ; and those who were engaged 
 in making surveys to desist. Sound policy requiring, that 
 a good understanding should be maintained with the In- 
 dians (who claimed the country) to prevent a further co- 
 operation on their part with France. 1 
 
 Previous to the issuing of this proclamation, some 
 families had moved to Greenbrier and made two settle- 
 ments the one on Muddy creek, the other in the Big- 
 Levels. These, disregarding the command of his royal 
 majesty and rather regardless of their own safety, re- 
 mained until they were destroyed by the Indians, in 1763. 2 
 From this time 'till 1769 Greenbrier was altogether unin- 
 habited. Capt. John Stuart and a few other young men, 
 then began to settle and improve the country ; and al- 
 
 1 An error as to date. King George's proclamation was dated Oct. 
 7, 1763. For full text, see Wisconsin Historical Collections, XL, pp. 46 et 
 seq. K. G. T. 
 
 * Thomas King, one of the ablest of the Iroquois chiefs, related an 
 incident at an Indian conference held at Easton, Pa., Oct. 18, 1758, 
 which may explain why the Indians evinced so much hostility against 
 the Greenbrier settlements. "About three years ago," said Chief King, 
 " eight Seneca warriors were returning from war, with seven prisoners 
 and scalps with them ; and, at a place called Greenbrier, they met with 
 a party of soldiers, not less than one hundred and fifty, who kindly 
 invited them to come to a certain store, saying they would supply them 
 with provisions. Accordingly they travelled two days with them, in a 
 friendly manner, and when they came to the house, they took their 
 arms from the Senecas. The head men cried out, ' here is death ; de- 
 fend yourselves as well as you can,' which they did, and two of them 
 were killed on the spot, and one, a young boy, was taken prisoner. 
 This gave great offense ; and the more so, as it was upon the warrior's 
 road, and we were in perfect peace with our brethren. It provoked us 
 to such a degree that we could not get over it. He wished the boy re- 
 turned, if alive ; and told his name, Squissatego." See Hazard's Penna. 
 Register, V., p. 373; and Penna. Records, VIII., pp. 197-98. L. C. D.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 59 
 
 though attempts were subsequently made by the Indians 
 to exterminate them, yet they ever after continued in pos- 
 session of it. 
 
 [49] In the year 1756 settlements were also made on New 
 river and on Holstein. 1 Among the daring adventurers 
 who effected them, were Evan Shelby, "William Campbell, 
 William Preston and Daniel Boone, all of whom became 
 distinguished characters in subsequent history. Thomas 
 "Walden, 2 who was afterwards killed on Clinch river and 
 
 1 There were settlers on both New and Holston rivers prior to 1756 
 Vause, Stalnacker and others on New River ; and Stephen Holston, at 
 least, on the river bearing his name, which was known as such anterior 
 to April, 1748, when Dr. Walker, in his Journal of 1750, refers to it by 
 that designation. But William Campbell did not settle on Holston un- 
 til 1767; Wm. Preston settled in 1769; Evan Shelby and family in 1771; 
 and, while Daniel Boone passed through that country as early, it is be- 
 lieved, as 1760, he never " settled " there. 
 
 A further notice of Stephen Holston, or Holstein, seems fitting in 
 this connection. He was of an adventurous turn, and prior to 1748 had, 
 during a hunt, discovered the river named after him. It was after this 
 discovery that he settled on the Little Saluda, near Saluda Old Town, in 
 South Carolina, where, in the summer of 1753, a party of Cherokees re- 
 turning from a visit to Gov. Glen, at Charleston, behaved so rudely to 
 Mrs. Holston, in her husband's absence, as to frighten her and her do- 
 mestics away, fleeing several miles to the nearest settlement, when the 
 house was robbed of utensils and corn, and two valuable horses were 
 also taken. Holston and some of his neighbors settled on Holston's 
 River, in what subsequently became Botetourt county : soon after this, 
 they constructed canoes, and passed down the Holston into the Tennes- 
 see River, through the Muscle Shoals, and down the Ohio and Missis- 
 sippi as far as Natchez. Returning from this notable adventure, his 
 name became fixed to the noble stream which he discovered, and upon 
 which he made the primitive settlement. His location on Holston was 
 at the head spring of the Middle Fork ; his log cabin was on the hill 
 side some thirty rods from the spring. In 1774, one Davis occupied the 
 place, and related that Holston had left several years before that date. 
 On the breaking out of the Indian war in 1754, he seems to have retired 
 with his family to Culpeper county, which was then not exempt from 
 Indian forays ; and Holston, about 1757, was captured by the Indians. 
 But in due time he returned to the Holston country, served in the bat- 
 tle of Point Pleasant in 1774, on Christian's campaign against the Cher- 
 okees in 1776, and was reported in service in 1776 or 1777. As we hear 
 no more of him, he probably did not long survive after this period. 
 L. C. D. 
 
 2 The first name of Walden was not Thomas Elisha Walden was 
 his proper name. He was a son-in-law of William Blevins, and both
 
 60 Withers' a Chronicles 
 
 from whom the mountain dividing Clinch and Powel 
 rivers derived its name, was likewise one of them. The 
 lands taken up by them, were held as " corn rights " each 
 acquiring a title to an hundred acres of the adjoining land, 
 for every acre planted in corn. 
 
 Nearly cotemporaneous with these establishments, was 
 that at Galliopolis, on the north western bank of the Ohio, 
 and below Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Keu- 
 liawa. This was made by a party of French Jesuits, by 
 whom the Indians were incited to make incursions, and 
 commit the most enormous barbarities on the then front- 
 iers. 1 This place and the mouth of Great Sandy were the 
 chief points of rendezvous for the Ohio Indians. From 
 
 Walden and Blevins lived, in 1774, at the " Round-About" on Smith's 
 River, two miles east of what is now Martinsville, Henry county, Vir- 
 ginia. He was then ahout forty years of age nearly six feet in height, 
 a rough frontiersman, and a noted hunter. He and several others, in 
 1761, penetrated into Powell's Valley, naminp Walden's Mountain and 
 Walden's Creek, and proceeded on through Cumberland Gap to Cum- 
 berland River, and a few miles beyond to the Laurel Mountain, where 
 meeting a party of Indians, they returned. In subsequent years, Wal- 
 den settled on Holston, about eighteen miles above Knoxville, where 
 he was residing in 1796 ; a few years later, he removed to Powell's Val- 
 ley, but soon after migrated to Missouri, where he lived hunting up to 
 extreme old age. Save what is related from Haywood's Hist, of Tennes- 
 see about the trip of 1761, this information was communicated to the 
 writer in 1849, by Maj. John Redd, of Henry county, Va., who person- 
 ally knew the old hunter very well. L. C. D. 
 
 1 A curious misconception, this. Some of the founders of Marietta 
 acquired in 1788 a large tract west and north of their own, and as a pri- 
 vate speculation organized the Scioto Company. Joel Barlow, the poet, 
 was sent to Paris to negotiate the sale of the lands. To the " Society of 
 the Scioto," formed by him there, he sold three million acres, and France 
 was deluged with rose-colored immigration pamphlets written by Bar- 
 low. In Febiuary, 1790, six hundred Frenchmen chiefly professional 
 men and small artisans from the large towns, with not an agriculturist 
 among them arrived in Alexandria, Va., en route for the Scioto. They 
 found that the Society, not having paid for its lands, had forfeited 
 its rights, and deeds granted to the intending settlers were void. 
 Five hundred finally went west, and founded Gallipolis. Poor, not 
 knowing how to work the soil, and simple folk with no notions of 
 independence, they suffered from famine, Indians, and yellow fever. 
 They finally repurchased their lands, and upon the cessation of the bor- 
 der war gained some strength ; but Gallipolis was never more than a 
 weakling until Americans and Germans came in and put it on its feet. 
 R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 61 
 
 the former of these places they would ascend the Kenhawa 
 and Greenbrier rivers, and from thence crossing the mount- 
 ains enten into Augusta; or after having ascended the 
 Kenhawa, go up the New river, from which they would 
 pass over to the James and Roanoke. From the mouth 
 of Great Sandy they would ascend that river, and by the 
 way of Bluestone fall over on the Roanoke and New river. 
 From those two points, expeditions were frequently made 
 by the Indians, which brought desolation and death into 
 the infant settlements of the south west, and retarded their 
 growth very much. In the spring of 1757 nearly the whole 
 Roanoke settlement was destroyed by a party of Shaw- 
 auees, who had thus made their way to it. 
 
 That portion of the valley of Virginia in which estab- 
 lishments were thus begun to be made, was at that time 
 one continued forest; overspreading a limestone soil of 
 great fertility ; and intersected by rivers affording exten- 
 sive bottoms of the most productive alluvial laud. Indeed 
 few rivers of equal size, are bordered with as wide and 
 fertile levels of this formation of earth, as those which 
 water that section of country : the Roanoke particularly 
 affords large bodies of it, capable of producing in great 
 abundance hemp, tobacco and the different kinds of grain 
 usually grown. In the country generally, every species of 
 vegetable, to which the climate was congenial, grew with 
 great luxuriancy; while the calcareous nature of the soil, 
 adapted it finely to the production of that kind of grain, to 
 which European emigrants were mostly used. 
 
 The natural advantages of the country were highly 
 improved by the persevering industry of its inhabitants. 
 Its forests, felled by untiring labor, were quickly reduced 
 to profitable cultivation, and the weeds which spontane- 
 ously sprang from the earth, were soon succeeded by the 
 various grasses calculated to furnish the most nutritious 
 food, for the lowing herds with which their farmers were 
 early stocked; these yielded a present profit, and laid the 
 sure foundation [50] of future wealth. Some of the most 
 extensive and successful graziers of Virginia, now inhabit 
 that country ; and reap the rich reward of their manage-
 
 62 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 ment and industry, in the improved and more contiguous 
 market of Richmond. 
 
 In the infancy of these establishments, their only 
 market was at Williamsburg. Thither the early settlers 
 packed their butter and poultry, and received in exchange 
 salt, iron, and some of the luxuries of life ; their beef and 
 other stock was taken to the same place. In the process 
 of time, as the country east of the Blue ridge became 
 more improved, other markets were opened to them ; and 
 the facilities of communication were gradually increased. 
 Their successors have already derived great advantage 
 from those improvements ; and the present generation will 
 not only witness their farther extension, but most prob- 
 ably see the country first tenanted by Lewis and his co- 
 temporaries, a great thoroughfare for the produce of sev- 
 eral of the western states a link of communication 
 between the Chesapeak bay and the Gulph of Mexico.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 63 
 
 [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 Pennsyl- 
 vania 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, af- 
 ford but few bottoms ; and these of too narrow and con- 
 tracted 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 ac- 
 quainted 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 Missis- 
 sippi, be connected witn those in the south. To preserve 
 this communication uninterrupted, to acquire influence
 
 64 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 over the neighboring Indians and to prevent the occupancy 
 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 pos- 
 sess 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 Vir- 
 ginia, (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 al- 
 lowed them, out of the most valuable lands. The com- 
 
 1 This is misleading. The author has told us, in the preceding 
 chapter, of several attempts of English coast colonists to make trans- 
 montane 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 him- 
 self 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 dis- 
 covered 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 Gov- 
 ernor 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.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 65 
 
 pany endeavored to complete their survey with all possi- 
 ble secrecy, and by inducing the Indians to believe their 
 object to be purely commercial, to allay any apprehen- 
 sions, which might otherwise arise, of an attempt to gain 
 possession of the country. 
 
 The attempt to accomplish their purpose of terri- 
 torial aggrandizement, with secrecy, was fruitless and un- 
 availing. 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 actu- 
 ally 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 Gen- 
 eral Washington as a suitable position for the erection 
 of fortifications. 1 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 immedi- 
 ately 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 import- 
 ance, may yet be interesting to some ; and which have 
 escaped the pen of the historian. 
 
 In Braddock's army there were two regiments of vol- 
 unteer militia from Virginia. 3 One of these was com- 
 
 1 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, per- 
 formed by Gen. Washington. 
 
 1 Only five companies of the first Virginia regiment served on Brad- 
 
 5
 
 66 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 manded by Col. Russel of Fairfax ; the other by Col. Fry, 
 and was from Shenandoah and James rivers. In this 
 latter regiment there was a company from Culpep- 
 per, commanded by Capt. Grant, (afterwards known as 
 a considerable laud holder in Kentucky) and of which 
 John Field (who was killed in the battle at Point Pleas- 
 ant) was a lieutenant. There was likewise in this regi- 
 ment, a company of riflemen, from Augusta, commanded 
 by Capt. Samuel Lewis, (the eldest son of John Lewis, 
 who, with Mackey and Sailing, had been foremost in 
 settling that country) who was afterwards known as Col. 
 Samuel Lewis of Rockiugham. 1 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 compatri- 
 ots in arms, were the five sons of Capt. John Matthews, 
 (who had accompanied Burden to Virginia) Elihu Bark- 
 ley, John McDowell, 2 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 moun- 
 tain, its movements were constantly watched by Indian 
 
 dock'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 re- 
 gion 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 Revolu- 
 tionary War, retiring at its close with the brevet rank of brigadier- 
 general. L. C. D. 
 
 1 It has already been stated that Col. John Lewis's eldest son was 
 Thomas, not Samuel. L. C. D. 
 
 * Capt. John McDowell was killed in an engagement with the In- 
 dians, in December, 1742, and of course could not have served under 
 either Andrew or Charles Lewis. L. C. D.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 67 
 
 spies, from Fort du Quesne ; and as it approached nearer 
 the point of destination, runners were regularly des- 
 patched, 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. 1 
 
 [54] At the place where the English crossed the Mo- 
 nongahela 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 con- 
 siderable ravine, formed by the flowing of a small rivu- 
 let 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 al- 
 most 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. 2 
 
 1 James Smith, afterwards Col. Smith of Bourbon county in Ken- 
 tucky, 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." Washing- 
 ton 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 de- 
 feat, 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 
 Youghiogbeny and proceeding in a devious course struck the head of 
 Turtle Creek, which was followed nearly to its mouth, whence a south- 
 ern course was taken to avoid the steep hills. Reaching the Mononga- 
 hela 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,
 
 68 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 The companies, commanded by Capt. Grant and Lewis, 1 
 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 con- 
 stant and most deadly fire. Before General Braddock re- 
 ceived 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 col- 
 umn was wheeled, Grant's and Lewis' companies had pro- 
 ceeded so far in advance, that a large body of the enemy 
 rushed down from both sides of the ravine, and intercepted 
 
 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-crader, were the chief participants in this af- 
 fair, on the French side. R. G. T. 
 
 1 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 pro- 
 tect 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 : / 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 him- 
 self 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 In- 
 dians." L. C. D.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 69 
 
 them. A most deadly contest ensued. Those who inter- 
 cepted 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 inevita- 
 ble 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. Al- 
 most the only loss the enemy sustained was in this con- 
 flict. 
 
 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 dis- 
 tress on the frontier settlements of Virginia. The incur- 
 sions of the Indians became more frequent and were ex- 
 tended so far, that apprehensions existed of an irruption 
 into the country east of the Blue ridge. 1 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 dur- 
 ing 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 pub- 
 lic service. 2 
 
 1 The MS. Journal of Col. Charles Lewis, in possession of the Wis- 
 consin Historical Society, covering the period from October 10 to Decem- 
 ber 27, 1755, is an unconsciously eloquent picture of the hardships of 
 life on the Virginia frontier, at this time. R. G. T. 
 
 J After the capitulation of Fort Necessity, and while some of the 
 soldiers of each army were intermixed, an Irishman, exasperated with
 
 70 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 Gen. Lewis was in person upwards of six feet high, 
 finely proportioned, of uncommon strength and great 
 activity. His countenance was stern and rather forbid- 
 ding 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 com- 
 missioners 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 ap- 
 pointment 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 ! and a shattered constitution, 
 he was induced to express an intention of resigning, Gen. 
 Washington wrote him, entreating that he would not do 
 so, and assuring him that justice should be done, as re- 
 garded 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 de- 
 tachment 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 con- 
 
 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. 
 
 1 Congress had given to Gen. Stephens, and some others (whose 
 senior Lewis had been in former services) commissions as Major Gen- 
 erals.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 71 
 
 quest, and was unwilling that the provincial troops should 
 divide with his Highland regulars the glory of the achiev- 
 ment 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 dis- 
 covered by the retreating fire, that Grant was in an un- 
 pleasant 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 be- 
 came enclosed within the Indian lines and suffered dread- 
 fully. 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. 1 Out of one 
 
 1 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 pro- 
 visions for the westward, he was attacked and defeated by a strong party 
 of French and Indians, losing thirty-five of his party killed and prison- 
 ers and all his wagons. In 1760, he was appointed a surveyor of a dis- 
 trict bordering on the Ohio, and had much to do in early Kentucky ex- 
 ploration and surveys, making an early location and survey at the Falls 
 of Ohio in 1773. In September, 1775, he was appointed adjutant-gen- 
 eral of all the Virginia forces; and on the 9th of December following,
 
 72 Withers 's Chronicles 
 
 hundred and sixty-six men, sixty-two were killed on the 
 spot and two were wounded. 
 
 Major Lewis was himself made prisoner ; and al- 
 though 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 him- 
 self 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 be- 
 tween 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 in- 
 stance of the French commandant there, to fortify Fort 
 du Quesne against an attack by Forbes the hunting sea- 
 son had arrived and many of them were anxious to return 
 to their town. The question which attracted their atten- 
 tion most seriously was, whether Gen. Forbes would then 
 retreat or advance. As Grant had been most signally de- 
 feated, 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 
 
 he aided Colonel Woodford in defeating Capt. Fordyce and party at the 
 Great Bridge. In March, 1776, Congress appointed him deputy adju- 
 tant-general of the Southern Department with the rank of lieutenant- 
 colonel, and advanced him in May following to the full rank of col- 
 onel. He died while yet in service, in 1778. L. C. D.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 73 
 
 witness the result. This however they refused to do, 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 recon- 
 noitre 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 how- 
 ever posted at fort Ligonier. Between this vanguard and 
 the detachment from Du Quesne there was a partial en- 
 gagement, which resulted in the loss of some of the Mary- 
 land 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. 1 The 
 
 1 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 Monon- 
 gahela, 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 In- 
 dians 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
 
 74 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 country around began immediately to be settled, and sev- 
 eral 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 up- 
 per branch of the Monongahela river. 1 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 enormi- 
 ties, 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 Monon- 
 gahela, and after examining the country, selected posi- 
 tions 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, Ty- 
 gart's- valley river. 
 
 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. 
 
 1 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 north- 
 west 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 Boeuf, calls it " Gist's new settlement," but the own- 
 er'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 ex- 
 pulsiqn from the region of all English-speaking settlers. The French 
 commander, De Villiers, reports that he " burnt down all the settle- 
 ments" on the Monongahela (from Redstone down), and in the vicinity 
 of Gist's. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 75 
 
 The difficulty of procuring bread stuffs for their fami- 
 lies, their contiguity to an Indian village, and the fact that 
 an Indian war path passed near their dwellings, soon de- 
 termined them to retrace their steps. 1 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. 2 Young Files being not far from the house and hear- 
 ing 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 suf- 
 ficient for their use, and some culinary vegetables : their 
 guns supplied them with an abundance of meat, of a flavor 
 
 1 This trail was a continuation of the famous " Warrior Branch,' 
 which coming up from Tennessee passed through Kentucky and South- 
 ern 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. 
 
 2 In Col. Preston's MS. Register of Indian Depredations, in the Wis- 
 consin Historical Society's library, it is stated that Robert Foyle, wife 
 and five children, were killed on the Monongahela in 1754. Gov. Din- 
 widdie, in his speech to the Virginia house of burgesses ih 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.
 
 76 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 as delicious as the refined palate of a modern epicure could 
 well wish. Their clothes were made chiefly of the skins 
 of animals, and were easily procured: and although calcu- 
 lated 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 am- 
 munition, 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 Pleas- 
 ant, 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 inhabit- 
 ants. 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 discov- 
 ery 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
 
 Of Border Warfare. 77 
 
 had been dried, were there, and the ruthless hand of deso- 
 lation 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 mur- 
 dered. 
 
 There was at this time at Brownsville a fort, then known 
 as Redstone fort, under the command of Capt. Paul. 1 One 
 
 1 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 di- 
 rected to blaze a pack-horse trail over the Laurel Hills to the Monon- 
 gahela. He employed as his guide an Indian named Nemacolin, whose 
 camp \\ us at the mouth of Dunlap Creek (site of the present Browns- 
 ville, 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 ex- 
 plorers' horses. Washington traveled this path in 1753, when he went 
 to warn the French at Fort Le Boeuf. 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 Eoad from Cumberland to 
 Brownsville, via IFniontown, differs in direction but little from Nemaco- 
 lin'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 (Browns- 
 ville). 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 pan- 
 handle 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 ad- 
 vance 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 fea- 
 tures of Forbes's campaign against Fort Duquesne, erected Fort Burd at 
 the mouth of Dunlap's, which was a better site. This fort was gar-
 
 78 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 of Decker's party escaped from the Indians who destroyed 
 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 in- 
 formation to Capt. John Gibson, then stationed at Fort 
 Pitt. Leaving the fort under the command of Lieut. "Will- 
 iamson, 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 op- 
 portunity of committing depredations. 1 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 afire, 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 sol- 
 dier 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 Mus- 
 kingum. 
 
 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 
 
 risoned as late as the Dunmore War (1774), but was probably abandoned 
 soon after the Revolutionary War. The name " Redstone Old Fort " be- 
 came attached to the place, because within the present limits of Browns- 
 ville were found by the earliest comers, and can still be traced, ex- 
 tensive earthworks of the mound-building era. R. G. T. 
 
 1 Cross Creek empties into the Ohio through Mingo Bottom (site of 
 Mingo Junction, O.). On this bottom was, for many years, a consider- 
 able Mingo village. R. G T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 79 
 
 Eagle's head with a long knife. Several of the white per- 
 sons were then sacrificed to appease the manes of Kis- 
 kepila; 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 Vir- 
 ginia militia generally ; and to this day they are known 
 among the north western Indians as the "Long knives" or 
 "Big knife nation" l 
 
 1 This statement, that Capt. Audley Paul commanded at Redstone, 
 and of his attempting to intercept a foraging Indian party, can not possi- 
 bly be true. There was no fort, and consequently no garrison, at Red- 
 stone 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 com- 
 manded 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 appella- 
 tion 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 
 forte at Redstone. James Veech, in Monongahela of Old, says, "We know
 
 80 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 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 Vir- 
 ginia, by any means secure. It was consequently not at- 
 tempted 'till some years after the restoration of peace in 
 1765. 
 
 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.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 81 
 
 [62] CHAPTER III. 
 
 The destruction of the Roanoke settlement in the 
 spring of 1757, by a party of Shawanees, gave rise to the 
 campaign, which was called by the old settlers the " Sandy 
 creek voyage." To avenge this outrage, Governor Din- 
 widdie ordered out a company of regulars (taken chiefly 
 from the garrison at Fort Dinwiddie, on Jackson's river) 
 under the command of Capt. Audley Paul ; a company of 
 minute-men from Boutetourt, under the command of Capt. 
 William Preston ; and two companies from Augusta, un- 
 der Captains John Alexander 1 and William Hogg. In 
 Capt. Alexander's company, John M'Nutt, afterwards 
 governor of Nova Scotia, was a subaltern. The whole 
 were placed under the command of Andrew Lewis. 2 
 
 1 Father of Dr. Archibald Alexander, sometime president of Hamp- 
 den Sydney College in Virginia, and afterwards a professor at Princeton 
 in New Jersey. 
 
 Comment by L. C. D. He was the grandfather of Dr. Alexander. 
 
 * The attacks on the Roanoke settlement, mentioned by Withers, oc- 
 curred in June and July, 1755 (not the spring of 1757, as he states); that 
 on Greenbrier, in September following; and the expedition against the 
 Shawnees did not take place in 1757, but in February and March, 1756. 
 Diaries and other documents in the Wisconsin Historical Society's library 
 prove this. Dr. Draper estimated that Lewis's force was about 263 whites 
 and 130 Cherokees 418 in all. The several companies were officered 
 by Peter Hogg, John Smith, William Preston, -Archibald Alexander, 
 Robert Breckenridge, Obadiah Woodson, John Montgomery, and one 
 Dunlap. Two of Dr. Thomas Walker's companions in his Kentucky 
 exploration of 1750, were in the expedition Henry Lawless and Colby 
 Chew. Governor Dinwiddie had stipulated in his note to Washington, 
 in December, 1755, that either Col. Adam Stephen or Maj. Andrew 
 Lewis was to command. Washington having selected the latter, dis- 
 spatched him from Winchester about the middle of January, 1756, with 
 orders to hurry on the expedition. To the mismanagement of the 
 guides is attributed much of the blame for its failure. The interesting 
 Journals of Capt. William Preston and Lieut. Thomas Norton are in 
 the possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society. R. G. T. 
 6
 
 82 Withers' s Chronicles, 
 
 Beside the chastisement of the Indians, the expedition 
 had for its object, the establishment of a military post at 
 the mouth of the Great Sandy. This would have enabled 
 them, not only to maintain a constant watch over maraud- 
 ing parties of Indians from that quarter ; but to check the 
 communication between them and the post at Galliopolis ; 
 and thus counteract the influence which the French there 
 had obtained over them. 1 
 
 The different companies detailed upon the Shawanee 
 expedition, were required to rendezvous on the lioanoke, 
 near to the present town of Salem in Bottetourt, where 
 Col. Lewis was then posted. The company commanded 
 by Capt. Hogg failed to attend at the appointed time; 
 and Col. Lewis after delaying a week for its arrival, 
 marched forward, expecting to be speedily overtaken by it. 
 
 To avoid an early discovery by the Indians, which 
 would have been the consequence of their taking the more 
 public route by the Great Kenhawa ; and that they might 
 fall upon the Indians towns in the valley of the Scioto, 
 without being interrupted or seen by the French at Galli- 
 opolis, they took the route by the way of New river and 
 Sandy. Crossing New river below the Horse-shoe, they 
 descended it to the mouth of "Wolf creek ; and ascending 
 this to its source, passed over to the head of Bluestone 
 river; where they delayed another week awaiting the ar- 
 rival of Capt. Hogg and his company. 2 They then 
 marched to the head of the north fork of Sandy, and con- 
 tinued down it to the great Burning Spring, where they 
 
 1 But Gallipolis was not settled until 1790, as has been previously 
 shown. Withers confounds the modern French town of Gallipolis, 
 whose residents were the sad victims of Indian outrages rather than the 
 abettors of them, with the old Shawnee town just below the mouth 
 of the Scioto (site of Alexandria. O.). This fur-trading center was a 
 village of log huts built by the French for the accommodation of their 
 Shawnee allies, and was a center of frontier disturbances. R. G. T. 
 
 2 Preston's Journal does not lay much stress on Hogg's delay. Nor- 
 ton's Journal, speaking of Hogg, says, " common soldiers were by him 
 scarcely treated with humanity," and he seems to have regularly over- 
 ruled and disobeyed Lewis. There was much rancor in camp, and Nor- 
 ton writes of the Cherokee allies, "The conduct and concord that was 
 kept up among the Indians might shame us for they were in general 
 quite unanimous and brotherly." R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 83 
 
 also remained a day. Here the salt and provisions, which 
 had been conveyed [63] on pack horses, were entirely ex- 
 hausted. Two buffaloes, killed just above the spring, were 
 also eaten while the army continued here; and their hides 
 were hung upon a beech tree. After this their subsist- 
 ence was procured exclusively by hunting. 
 
 The army then resumed their march ; and in a few 
 days after, it was overtaken by a runner with the intelli- 
 gence that Capt. Hogg and his company were only a 
 day's march in the rear. Col. Lewis again halted; and 
 the day after he was overtaken by Hogg, he was like- 
 wise overtaken by an express from Francis Fauquier 1 
 with orders for the army to return home ; and for the dis- 
 banding of all the troops except Capt. Paul's regulars, 2 
 who were to return to Fort Dinwiddie. 
 
 This was one of the first of Gov. Fauquier's official acts ; 
 and it was far from endearing him to the inhabitants west 
 of the Blue ridge. They had the utmost confidence in 
 'the courage and good conduct of Col. Lewis, and of the 
 officers and men under his command they did not for an 
 instant doubt the success of the expedition, and looked 
 forward with much satisfaction, to their consequent ex- 
 emption in a great degree, from future attacks from the 
 Indians. It was not therefore without considerable re- 
 gret, that they heard of their countermanding orders. 
 
 Nor were they received by Lewis and his men with 
 very different feelings. They had endured much during 
 their march, from the inclemency of the weather ; more 
 from the want of provisions They had borne these hard- 
 ships without repining ; anticipating a chastisement of the 
 Indians, and the deriving of an abundant supply of pro- 
 visions from their conquered towns They had arrived 
 within ten miles of the Ohio river, and could not witness 
 the blasting of their expectations, without murmuring. 
 A council of war was held disappointment and indigna- 
 
 1 This expedition was sent out under the auspices of Gov. Dinwid- 
 die Fauquier did not become governor until 1758. No countermand- 
 ing orders were sent. L. C. D. 
 
 2 Audley Paul was first lieutenant in Preston's company. L. C. D.
 
 84 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 tion were expressed in every feature. A majority of the 
 officers were in favor of proceeding to the Ohio river, un- 
 der the expectation that they might fall in with some 
 of the enemy they marched to the river and encamped 
 two nights on its banks. Discovering nothing of an 
 enemy, they then turned to retrace their steps through 
 pathless mountains, a distance of three hundred miles, in 
 the midst of winter and without provisions. 
 
 The reasons assigned by the friends of Gov. Fauquier, 
 for the issuing of those orders were, that the force detailed 
 by Gov. Dinwiddie, was not sufficient to render secure 
 an establishment at the contemplated point near the In- 
 dian towns on the Scioto within a few days journey of 
 several thousand warriors on the Miami in the vicinity 
 of the hostile post at Galliopolis and so remote from the 
 settled part of Virginia, that they could not be furnished 
 with assistance, and supplied with provisions and military 
 stores, without incurring an expenditure, both of blood 
 and money, beyond what the colony could spare, for the 
 accomplishment of that object. 
 
 Had Capt. Hogg with his company, been at the place 
 of rendezvousat the appointed time, the countermanding or- 
 ders of the governor [64] could not have reached the army, 
 until it had penetrated the enemy's country. What might 
 have been its fate, it is impossible to say the bravery of 
 the troops their familiar acquaintance with the Indian 
 mode of warfare their confidence in the officers and the 
 experience of many of them, seemed to give every assur- 
 ance of success While the unfortunate result of many 
 subsequent expeditions of a similar nature, would induce 
 the opinion that the governor's apprehensions were per- 
 haps prudent and well founded. That the army would 
 soon have had to encounter the enemy, there can be no 
 doubt ; for although not an Indian had been seen, yet it 
 seems probable from after circumstances, that it had been 
 discovered and watched by them previous to its return. 
 
 On the second night of their march homeward, while 
 encamped at the Great falls, some of Hogg's men went 
 out on the hills to hunt turkeys, and fell in with a party 
 of' Indians, painted as for war. As soon as they saw that
 
 Of Border Warfare. 85 
 
 they were discovered, they fired, and two of Hogg's men 
 were killed the fire was returned and a Shawanee warrior 
 Nvas wounded and taken prisoner. The remaining Indians, 
 yelling their war whoop, fled down the river. 
 
 Many of the whites, thinking that so small a party of 
 Indians would not have pursued the army alone, were of 
 opinion that it was only an advanced scout of a large body 
 of the enemy, who were following them : the wounded In- 
 dian refused to give any information of their number or 
 object. A council of war was convoked ; and much diver- 
 sity of opinion prevailed at the board. It was proposed 
 by Capt. Paul to cross the Ohio river, invade the towns on 
 the Scioto, and burn them, or perish in the attempt. 1 The 
 proposition was supported by Lieut. M'Nutt, but over- 
 ruled; and the officers, deeming it right to act in con- 
 formity with the governor's orders, determined on pur- 
 suing their way home. Orders were then given that no 
 more guns should be fired, and no fires kindled in camp, 
 as their safe return depended very much on silence and 
 secrecy. 
 
 An obedience to this order, produced a very consider- 
 able degree of suffering, as well from extreme cold as from 
 hunger. The pack horses, which were no longer service- 
 able (having no provisions to transport) and some of which 
 had given out for want of provender, were killed and 
 eaten. When the army arrived at the Burning spring, 
 the buffalo hides, which had been left there on their way 
 down, were cut into tuggs, or long thongs, and eaten by 
 the troops, after having been exposed to the heat produced 
 by the flame from the spring. Hence they called it Tugg 
 river a name by which it is still known. After this the 
 army subsisted for a while on beachnuts ; but a deep snow 
 
 1 Withers, deriving his information from Taylor's sketches, was mis- 
 led as to any intention of establishing a fort at the month of the 
 Kanawha ; and also as to Paul's, or any one else's proposition to cross 
 the Ohio, and invade the Shawnee towns. The only aim was, to reach 
 the Upper Shawnee town. L. C. D. 
 
 Comment by R. G. T. " Upper Shawnee town " was an Indian vil- 
 lage at the mouth of Old Town Creek, emptying into the Ohio from the 
 north, 39 miles above the mouth of the Great Kanawha.
 
 86 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 falling these could no longer be obtained, and the re- 
 strictions were removed. 
 
 About thirty men then detached themselves from the 
 main body, to hunt their way home. Several of them 
 were known to have perished from cold and hunger 
 others were lost and never afterwards [65] heard of; as 
 they had separated into small parties, the more certainly 
 to find game on which to live. The main body of the 
 army was conducted home by Col. Lewis, after much suf- 
 fering the strings of their mocasons, the belts of their 
 hunting shirts, and the flaps of their shot pouches, hav- 
 ing been all the food which they had eaten for some days. 1 
 
 A journal of this campaign was kept by Lieut. M'Nutt, 
 a gentleman of liberal education and fine mind. On his re- 
 turn to Williamsburg he presented it to Governor Fauquier 
 by whom it was deposited in the executive archives. In 
 this journal Col. Lewis was censured for not having pro- 
 ceeded directly to the Scioto towns ; and for imposing on 
 the army the restrictions, as to fire and shooting, which 
 have been mentioned. This produced an altercation be- 
 tween Lewis and M'Nutt, which was terminated by a per- 
 sonal encounter. 2 
 
 During the continuance of this war, many depreda- 
 tions were committed by hostile Indians, along the whole 
 extent of the Virginia frontier. Individuals, leaving the 
 forts on any occasion, scarcely ever returned; but were, 
 almost always, intercepted by Indians, who were constantly 
 prowling along the border settlements, for purposes of 
 
 1 If such a journal ever existed, it passed into the hands of Gov. 
 Dinwiddie, or possibly to Gov. Fauquier ; but no reference to it is found 
 among the Dinwiddie Papers, as published by the Virginia Historical So- 
 ciety ; nor in the Calendar of State Papers, published by the State of Vir- 
 ginia. It is to be remarked, however, that few of the records of that 
 period have been preserved by that State. L. C. D. 
 
 s Shortly after, M'Nutt was appointed governor of Nova Scotia, where 
 he remained until the commencement of the American revolution. In 
 this, contest he adhered to the cause of liberty, and joined his country- 
 men in arms under Gen. Gates at Saratoga. He was afterwards known 
 as a meritorious officer in the brigade of Baron de Kalb, in the south 
 he died in 1811, and was buried in the Falling Spring church yard, in 
 the forks of James river.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 87 
 
 rapine and murder. The particulars of occurrences of this 
 kind, and indeed of many of a more important character, 
 no longer exist in the memory of man they died with 
 them who were contemporaneous with the happening of 
 them. 1 On one occasion however, such was the extent of 
 savage duplicity, and such, and so full of horror, the 
 catastrophe resulting from misplaced confidence, that the 
 events which marked it, still live in the recollection of the 
 descendants of some of those, who suffered on the theatre 
 of treachery and blood. 
 
 On the south fork of the South Branch of Potomac, in, 
 what is now, the county of Pendleton, was the fort of 
 Capt. Sivert. 2 In this fort, the inhabitants of what was 
 
 1 Preston's MS. Register of the persons of Augusta county, Va., 
 killed, wounded, captured by the Indians, and of those who escaped, from 
 1754 to May, 1758, is in the Wisconsin Historical Society's library. It is 
 to be regretted that Col. Preston, whose opportunities were so good, did 
 not continue the Register till the end of the Indian wars. It is a most 
 valuable document as far as it goes, and supplies many dates and facts 
 hitherto involved in doubt and obscurity. L. C. D. 
 
 J Seybert's Fort was situated on the South Fork, twelve miles north- 
 east of Franklin, in Pendleton County. At the time of this invasion, 
 there was a fort located on the South Branch, garrisoned by Capt. 
 James Dunlap and a company of rangers from Augusta county. Pres- 
 ton's Register states, that on the 27th of April, 1758, the fort at which 
 Capt. Dunlap was stationed, was attacked and captured, the captain 
 and twenty-two others killed ; and, the next day, the same party, no 
 doubt, attacked Seybert's Fort, killing Capt. Seybert and sixteen others, 
 while twenty-four others were missing. Washington, at the time, placed 
 the number as "about sixty persons killed and missing." 
 
 A gazette account, published at Williamsburg, May 5th ensuing, 
 says : " The Indians lately took and burnt two forts, where were stationed 
 one of our ranging companies, forty of whom were killed and scalped, 
 and Lieut. Dunlap and nineteen missing." 
 
 Kercheval's History of the Valley gives some further particulars : That 
 Seybert's Fort was taken by surprise ; that ten of the thirty persons 
 occupying it, were bound, taken outside ; the others were placed on a 
 log and tomahawked. James Dyer, aJad of fourteen, was spared, taken 
 first to Logstown, and then to Chillicothe, and retained a year and ten 
 months, when as one of an Indian party he visited Fort Pitt, and man- 
 aged to evade his associates while there, and finally reached the settle- 
 ments in Pennsylvania, and two years later returned to the South Fork. 
 It is added by the same historian, as another tradition, that after the 
 fort had been invested two days, and two of the Indians had been killed, 
 the garrison agreed to surrender on condition of their lives being spared,
 
 88 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 then called the " Upper Tract," all sought shelter from 
 the tempest of savage ferocity ; and at the time the 
 Indians appeared before [66] it, there were contained 
 within its walls between thirty and forty persons of both 
 sexes and of different ages. Among them was Mr. Dyer, 
 (the father of Col. Dyer now of Pendleton) and his family. 
 On the morning of the fatal day, Col. Dyer and his sister 
 left the fort for the accomplishment of some object, and 
 although no Indians had been seen there for some time, 
 yet did they not proceed far, before they came in view of 
 a party of forty or fifty Shawanees, going directly towards 
 the fort. Alarmed for their own safety, as well as for the 
 safety of their friends, the brother and sister endeavored 
 by a hasty flight to reach the gate and gain admittance into 
 the garrison ; but before they could effect this, they were 
 overtaken and made captives. 
 
 The Indians rushed immediately to the fort and com- 
 menced a furious assault on it. Capt. Sivert prevailed, 
 (not without much opposition,) on the besieged, to forbear 
 firing 'till he should endeavor to negotiate with, and buy 
 off the enemy. With this view, and under the protection 
 of a flag he went out, and soon succeeded in making the 
 wished for arrangement. When he returned, the gates 
 were thrown open, and the enemy admitted. 
 
 No sooner had the money and other articles, stipulated 
 
 which was solemnly promised. That when the gate was opened, the 
 Indians rushed in with demoniac yells, the whites fled, but were re- 
 taken, except one person ; the massacre then took place, and ten were 
 carried off into captivity. 
 
 Still another tradition preserved by Kercheval, says the noted Del- 
 aware chief, Killbuck, led the Indians. Seybert's son, a lad of fifteen, 
 exhibited great bravery in the defense of the fort. Killbuck called out 
 to Capt. Seybert, in English, to surrender, and their lives should be 
 spared ; when young Seybert at this instant, aimed his loaded gun at 
 the chief, and the father seized it, and took it from him, saying they 
 could not successfully defend the place, and to save their lives should 
 surrender, confiding in Killbuck's assurances. Capt. Seybert was among 
 the first of those sacrificed. Young Seybert was among the prisoners, 
 and told the chief how near he came to killing him. " You young 
 rascal," laughingly replied Killbuck, " if you had killed me, you would 
 have saved the fort, for had I fallen, my warriors would have immedi- 
 ately fled, and given up the siege in despair." L. C. D.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 89 
 
 to be given, been handed over to the Indians, than a most 
 bloody tragedy was begun to be acted. Arranging the 
 inmates of the fort, in two rows, with a space of about 
 ten feet between them, two Indians were selected ; who 
 taking each his station at the head of a row, with their 
 tomahawks most cruelly murdered almost every white 
 person in the fort ; some few, whom caprice or some other 
 cause, induced them to spare, were carried into captivity, 
 such articles as could be well carried away were taken 
 off' by the Indians ; the remainder was consumed, with the 
 fort, by fire. 
 
 The course pursued by Capt. Sivert, has been supposed 
 to have been dictated by timidity and an ill founded ap- 
 prehension of danger from the attack. It is certain that 
 strong opposition was made to it by many; and it has 
 been said that his own sou raised his rifle to shoot him, 
 when he ordered the gates to be thrown open ; and was 
 only prevented from executing his purpose, by the inter 
 ference of some near to him. Capt. Sivert was also sup- 
 ported by many, in the plan which he proposed to rid the 
 fort of its assailants : it was known to be weak, and 
 incapable of withstanding a vigorous onset; and [67] its 
 garrison was illy supplied with the munitions of war. 
 Experience might have taught them, however, the futility 
 of any measure of security, founded in a reliance on In- 
 dian faith, in time of hostility; and in deep and bitter 
 anguish, they were made to feel its realization in the pres- 
 ent instance. 
 
 In the summer of 1761, about sixty Shawanee war- 
 riors penetrated the settlements on James river. To avoid 
 the fort at the mouth of Looney's creek, on this river, 
 they passed through Bowen's gap in Purgatory mount- 
 ain, in the night; and ascending Purgatory creek, killed 
 Thomas Perry, Joseph Dennis and his child and made 
 prisoner his wife, Hannah Dennis. They then proceeded 
 to the house of Robert Renix, where they captured Mrs. 
 Renix, (a daughter of Sampson Archer) and her five chil- 
 dren, William, Robert, Thomas, Joshua and Betsy Mr. 
 Renix not being at home. They then went to the house 
 of Thomas Smith, where Renix was ; and shot and scalped
 
 90 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 him and Smith ; and took with them, Mrs. Smith and Sally 
 Jew, a white servant girl. 1 
 
 William and Audley Maxwell, and George Matthews, 
 (afterwards governor of Georgia,) were then going to 
 Smith's house; and hearing the report of the guns, sup- 
 posed that there was a shooting match. But when they 
 rode to the front of the house and saw the dead bodies of 
 Smith and Renix lying in the yard, they discovered their 
 mistake; and contemplating for a moment the awful spec- 
 tacle, wheeled to ride back. At this instant several guns 
 were fired at them ; fortunately without doing any execu- 
 tion, except the cutting off the club of Mr. Matthews' cue. 
 The door of the house was then suddenly opened ; the 
 Indians rushed out and raising the war cry, several of 
 them fired Audley Maxwell was slightly wounded in 
 the arm. 
 
 It appeared afterwards, that the Indians had seen 
 Matthews and the Maxwells coming; and that some of 
 them had crowded into the house, while the others with 
 the prisoners went to the north side of it, and concealed 
 themselves behind some fallen timber. Mrs. Renix, after 
 she was restored to her friends in 1766, stated that she 
 was sitting tied, in the midst of four Indians, who laying 
 their guns on a log, took deliberate aim at Matthews ; the 
 others firing at the Maxwells The sudden wheeling of 
 their horses no doubt saved the lives of all three. 
 
 The Indians then divided, and twenty of them taking 
 the [68] prisoners, the plunder and some horses which 
 they had stolen, set off by the way of Jackson's river, for 
 
 1 The name is Renick. Robert Renick, who was killed on the occa- 
 sion referred to, was a man of character and influence in his day. His 
 name appears on Capt. John Smith's company roll of Augusta militia as 
 early as 1742 ; and four years later, he was lieutenant of a mounted 
 company of Augusta militia. Instead of 1761, the captivity of the Ren- 
 ick family occurred July 25, 1757, as shown by the Preston Register, 
 which states that Renick and another were killed on that day Mrs. 
 Renick and seven children, and a Mrs. Dennis, captured ; and the same 
 day, at Craig's Creek, one man was killed and two wounded. The 
 Renick traditions state that Mrs. Renick had only five children when 
 taken ; and one born after reaching the Indian towns ; and corrects 
 some other statements not properly related in Withers's narrative of 
 the affair. L. C. D.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 91 
 
 the Ohio ; the remainder started towards Cedar creek, 
 with the ostensible view of committing farther depreda- 
 tions. But Matthews and the Maxwells had sounded the 
 alarm, and the whole settlement were soon collected at 
 Paul's stockade fort, at the Big spring near to Springfield. 
 Here the women and children were left to be defended by 
 Audley Maxwell and five other men ; while the others, 
 forming a party of twenty-two, with George Matthews at 
 their head, set out in quest of the enemy. 
 
 The Indians were soon overtaken, and after a severe 
 engagement, were forced to give ground. Matthews and 
 his party followed in pursuit, as far as Purgatory creek ; 
 but the night being very dark in consequence of a con- 
 tinued rain, the fugitives effected an escape ; and overtak- 
 ing their comrades with the prisoners and plunder, on 
 the next evening, at the forks of the James and Cow- 
 pasture rivers, proceeded to Ohio without further moles- 
 tation. 
 
 When Matthews and his men, on the morning suc- 
 ceeding the engagement, returned to the field of battle, 
 they found nine Indians dead ; whom they buried on the 
 spot. Benjamin Smith, Thomas Maury and the father of 
 Sally Jew, were the only persons of Matthews' party, 
 who were killed these, together with those who had been 
 murdered on the preceding day, were buried near the fork 
 of a branch, in (what is now) the meadow of Thomas 
 Cross sr. 
 
 In Boquet's treaty with the Ohio Indians, it was stip- 
 ulated that the whites detained by them in captivity were 
 to be brought in and redeemed. In compliance with this 
 stipulation, Mrs. Renix was brought to Staunton in 1767 
 and ransomed, together with two* of her sons, William, 
 the late Col. Renix of Greenbrier, and Robert, also of 
 Greenbrier Betsy, her daughter, had died on the Miami. 
 Thomas returned in 1783, but soon after removed and set- 
 tled, on the Scioto, near Chilicothe. Joshua never came 
 back ; he took an Indian wife and became a Chief among 
 the Miamies he amassed a considerable fortune and died 
 near Detroit in 1810. 
 
 Hannah Dennis was separated from the other captives,
 
 92 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 and allotted to live at the Chilicothe towns. 1 She learned 
 their language ; painted herself as they do ; and in many 
 respects conformed to their manners and customs. She 
 was attentive to sick persons and was highly esteemed by 
 the Indians, as [69] one well skilled in the art of curing 
 diseases. Finding them very superstitious and believers 
 in necromancy ; she professed witchcraft, and affected to 
 be a prophetess. In this manner she conducted herself, 
 'till she became so great a favorite with them, that they 
 gave her full liberty and honored her as a queen. Not- 
 withstanding this, Mrs. Dennis was always determined to 
 effect her escape, when a favorable opportunity should 
 occur; and having remained so long with them, appar- 
 ently well satisfied, they ceased to entertain any suspicions 
 of such a design. 
 
 In June 1763, she left the Chilicothe towns, ostensibly 
 to procure herbs for medicinal purposes, (as she had be- 
 fore frequently done,) but really to attempt an escape. As 
 she. did not return that night, her intention became sus- 
 pected ; and in the morning, some 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 40 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 a rapid flight, she had one of her feet severely cut 
 by a sharp stone. 
 
 The Indians then rushed across the river to overtake 
 and catch her, but she eluded them by crawling into the 
 hollow limb, of a large fallen sycamore. They searched 
 around for her 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 find- 
 ing no trace of her, they returned home. 
 
 Mrs. Dennis remained at that place three days, doc- 
 
 1 In 1763-65, the great Shawnee village just below the mouth of th 
 Scioto (site of Alexandria, O.), was destroyed by floods. Some of the 
 tribesmen rebuilt their town on a higher bottom just above the mouth 
 (site of Portsmouth, O.), while others ascended the Scioto and built 
 successively Old and New Chillicothe. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 93 
 
 toring her wound, and then set off for home. She crossed 
 the Ohio river, at the mouth of Great Kenhawa, on a log 
 of driftwood, travelling only during the night, for fear of 
 discovery She subsisted on roots, herbs, green grapes, 
 wild cherries and river muscles and entirely exhausted 
 by fatigue and hunger, sat down by the side of Green- 
 brier river, with no expectation of ever proceeding farther. 
 In this situation she was found by Thomas Athol and 
 three others from Clendennin's settlement, which she had 
 passed without knowing it. She had been then upwards 
 of 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 Clendennin's, where they 
 kindly [70] ministered to her, 'till she became so far invig- 
 orated, as to travel on horseback with an escort, to Fort 
 Young on Jackson's river; from whence she was carried 
 home to her relations. 
 
 In the course of a few days after Hannah Dennis had 
 gone from Clendennins, a party of about sixty warriors 
 came to the settlement on Muddy creek, in the county of 
 Greeubrier. That region of country then contained no 
 inhabitants, but those on Muddy creek, and in the Levels ; 
 and these are believed to have consisted of at least one 
 hundred souls. The Indians came apparently as friends, 
 and the French war having been terminated by the treaty 
 of the preceding spring, the whites did not for an in- 
 stant doubt their sincerity. They were entertained in 
 small parties at different houses, and every civility and act 
 of kindness, which the new settlers could proffer, were ex- 
 tended to them. In a moment of the most perfect confi- 
 dence in the innocense of their intentions, the Indians 
 rose on them and tomahawked and scalped all, save a few 
 women and children of whom they made prisoners. 
 
 After the perpetration of this most barbarous and 
 bloody outrage, the Indians (excepting some few who took 
 charge of the prisoners) proceeded to the settlement in 
 the Levels. Here, as at Muddy creek, they disguised 
 their horrid purpose, and wearing the mask of friendship,
 
 94 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 were kindly received at the house of Mr. Clendennin.^ 
 This gentleman had just returned from a successful hunt, 
 and brought home three fine elks these and the novelty 
 of being with friendly Indians, soon drew the whole set- 
 tlement to his house. Here too the Indians were well 
 entertained and feasted on the fruit of Clendetmin's hunt, 
 and every other article of provision which was there, and 
 could minister to their gratification. An old woman, who 
 was of the party, having a very sore leg and having un- 
 derstood that Indians could perform a cure of any ulcer, 
 shewed it to one near her; and asked if he could heal it 
 The inhuman monster raised his tomahawk and buried 
 it in her head. This seemed to be the signal of a general 
 massacre and promptly was it obeyed nearly every man of 
 the settlement was killed and the women and children 
 taken captive. 
 
 While this tragedy was acting, a negro woman, who 
 was [71] endeavoring to escape, was followed by her cry- 
 ing child. To save it from savage butchery, she turned 
 round and murdered it herself. 
 
 Mrs. Clendennin, driven to despair by the cruel and 
 unprovoked murder of her husband and friends, and the 
 spoilation and destruction of all their property, boldly 
 charged the Indians with perfidy and treachery ; and al- 
 leged that cowards only could act with such duplicity. 
 The bloody scalp of her husband was thrown in her face 
 the tomahawk was raised over her head ; but she did 
 not cease to revile them. In going over Keeny's knot on 
 the next day, the prisoners being in the centre, and the 
 Indians in the front and rear, she gave her infant child to 
 one of the women to hold for a while. She then stepped 
 into the thicket unperceived, and made her escape. The 
 crying of the infant soon lead to a discovery of her flight 
 one of the Indians observed that he could " bring the 
 cow to her calf," and taking the child by the heels, beat 
 out its brains against a tree. 
 
 Mrs. Clendennin returned that night to her home, a 
 distance of ten miles; and covering the body of her hus- 
 
 Where Ballard Smith now resides.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 95 
 
 baud with rails and trash, retired' into an adjoining corn 
 field, lest she might be pursued and again taken prisoner. 
 While in the corn field, her mind was much agitated by 
 contending emotions ; and the prospect of effecting an es- 
 cape to the settlements, seemed to her dreary and hopeless. 
 In a moment of despondency, she thought she beheld a 
 man, with the aspect of a murderer, standing near her ; 
 and she became overwhelmed with fear. It was but the 
 creature of a sickly and terrified imagination ; and when 
 her mind regained its proper tone, she resumed her flight 
 and reached the settlement in safety. 1 
 
 These melancholy events occurring so immediately 
 after the escape of Hannah Dennis ; and the unwillingness 
 of the Indians that she should be separated from them, 
 has induced the supposition that the party committing 
 those dreadful outrages were in pursuit of her. If such 
 were the fact, dearly were others made to pay the penalty 
 of her deliverance. 
 
 This and other incidents, similar in their result, satis- 
 fied the whites that although the war had been terminated 
 on the part of the French ; yet it was likely to be contin- 
 ued with all its horrors, by their savage allies. This was 
 then, and has since been, attributed to the smothered hos- 
 tility of the French in [72] Canada and on the Ohio river; 
 and to the influence which they had acquired over the 
 Indians. This may have had its bearing on the event; 
 but from the known jealousy entertained by the Indians, 
 of the English Colonists ; their apprehensions that they 
 would be dispossessed of the country, which they then held 
 (England claiming jurisdiction over it by virtue of the 
 treaty of Paris ;) and their dissatisfaction at the terms on 
 which France had negotiated a peace, were in themselves 
 sufficient to induce hostilities on the part of the Indians. 
 Charity would incline to the belief that the continuance 
 of the war was rightly attributable to these causes the 
 other reason assigned for it, supposing the existence of a 
 
 1 Further particulars of this captivity are in Royall's Sketches of His- 
 tory, Life, and Manners in U. S. (New Haven, 1826), pp. 60-66. R. G. T.
 
 96 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 depravity, so deep and damning, as almost to stagger cre- 
 dulity itself. 
 
 In October, 1764, about fifty Delaware and Mingo 
 warriors ascended the Great Sandy and came over on New 
 river, where they separated ; and forming two parties, di- 
 rected their steps toward different settlements one party 
 going toward Roanoke and Catawba the other in the di- 
 rection of Jackson's river. They had not long passed, 
 when their trail was discovered by three men, (Swope, 
 Pack and Pitman) who were trapping on New river. 
 These men followed the trail till they came to where the 
 Indian party had divided; and judging from the routes 
 which had been taken, that their object was to visit the 
 Roanoke and Jackson's river settlements, they determined 
 on apprizing the inhabitants of their danger. Swope and 
 Pack set out 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 
 Catawba. 
 
 The Party which came to Jackson's river, travelled 
 down Dunlap's creek and crossed James river, above Fort 
 Young, in the night and unnoticed; and going down this 
 river to William Carpenter's, where was a stockade fort 
 under the care of a Mr. Brown, they met Carpenter just 
 above his house and killed him. They immediately pro- 
 ceeded to the house, and made prisoners of a son of Mr. 
 Carpenter, two sons of Mr. Brown 1 [73] (all small children) 
 
 1 Carpenter's son (since Doctor Carpenter of Nicholas) came home 
 about fifteen years afterwards Brown's youngest son, (the late Col. 
 Samuel Brown of Greenbrier) was brought home in 1769 the elder son 
 never returned. He took an Indian wife, became wealthy and lived at 
 Brown's town in Michigan. He acted a conspicuous part in the late war 
 and died in 1815. 
 
 Comment by L. C. D. Adam Brown, who was captured as mentioned 
 in the above text and note, was thought by his last surviving son, Adam 
 Brown, Jr., whom I visited in Kansas in 1868, to have been about six years 
 old when taken ; and he died, he thought, about 1817, at about seventy- 
 five years of age. But these dates, and his probable age, do not agree ; he 
 was either older when taken, or not so old at his death. The mother 
 was killed when the sons were captured, and the father and some others 
 of the family escaped. The late William Walker, an educated Wyandott,
 
 Of Border Warfare. 97 
 
 and one woman the others belonging to the house, were 
 in the field at work. The Indians then dispoiled the house 
 and taking off some horses, commenced a precipitate re- 
 treat 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 weak- 
 ness of this fort, a messenger was despatched to Fort 
 Dinwiddie, with the intelligence. Capt. Paul (who still 
 commanded there,) immediately commenced a pursuit with 
 twenty of his men ; and passing out at the head of Dun- 
 lap's creek, descended Indian creek and New river to Piney 
 creek ; without making any discovery of the enemy. On 
 Indian creek they met Pitman, who had been running all 
 the day and night before, to apprise the garrison at Fort 
 Young of the approach of the Indians. Pitman joined in 
 pursuit of the party who had killed Carpenter ; but they, 
 apprehending that they would be followed, had escaped to 
 Ohio, by the way of Greenbrier and Kenhawa rivers. 1 
 
 As Capt. Paul and his men were returning, they acci- 
 dently met with the other party of Indians, who had been 
 
 and at one time territorial governor of Kansas, stated to me, that the 
 Wyandotts never made chiefs of white captives, but that they often at- 
 tained, by their merits, considerable consequence. It is, however, certain 
 that Abraham Kuhn, a white prisoner, grew up among the Wyandotts, 
 and, according to Heckewelder, became a war chief among them, and 
 signed the treaty at Big Beaver in 1785 ; and Adam Brown himself signed 
 the treaties of 1805 and 1808, and doubtless would have signed later ones 
 had he not sided with the British Wyandotts, and retired to Canada, 
 near Maiden, where he died. 
 
 1 It is highly probable that this foray took place in 1763. During 
 this year, as features of the Pontiac uprising, bloody forays were made 
 on the more advanced settlements on Jackson, Greenbrier, and Calf Pas- 
 ture rivers, and several severe contests ensued between whites and 
 Indians. Captains Moffett and Phillips, with sixty rangers, were am- 
 buscaded with the loss of fifteen men. Col. Charles Lewis pursued the 
 savages with 150 volunteers raised in a single night, and on October 3rd 
 surprised them at the head of the South Fork of the Potomac, killing 
 twenty-one, with no white losses. The spoils of this victory, beside the 
 " five horses with all their trappings," sold for 250. This was the most 
 notable of the several skirmishes which took place on the Virginia fron- 
 tier, that year. R. G. T. 
 
 7
 
 98 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 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 three prisoners, (whom they had taken on Ca- 
 tawba, and who were sitting in the midst of them,) they 
 were lying around a small fire, wrapped in skins and blan- 
 kets. Paul's men not knowing that there were captives 
 among them, fired in the midst, killed three Indians, and 
 wounded several others, one of whom drowned himself to 
 preserve his scalp the rest of the party fled hastily down 
 the river and escaped. 
 
 In an instant after the firing, Capt. Paul and his men 
 rushed forward to secure the wounded and prevent further 
 escapes. One of the foremost of his party seeing, as he 
 supposed, a squaw sitting composedly awaiting the result, 
 raised his tomahawk and just as it was descending, Capt. 
 Paul threw himself between the assailant and his victim ; 
 and receiving the blow on his arm, exclaimed, " It is a 
 shame to hurt a woman, even a squaw." Recognising the 
 voice of Paul, the woman named him. She was Mrs. 
 Catharine Gunn, an English lady, who had come to the 
 country some years before; and who, previously to her 
 marriage, had lived in the family of Capt. Paul's father-in- 
 law, where she became acquainted with that gentleman 
 She had been taken captive by the Indians, on the Cataw- 
 ba, a few days before, when her husband and two only chil- 
 dren were killed by them. When questioned why she had 
 not cried out, or otherwise made known that she was a 
 white prisoner, she replied, " I had as soon be killed as not 
 my husband is murdered my children are slain my 
 parents are dead. I have not a relation in America every 
 thing dear to me here is gone I have no wishes no hopes 
 no fears 1 would not have risen to my feet to save my 
 life." 
 
 [74] When Capt. Paul came on the enemy's camp, he 
 silently posted his men in an advantageous situation for 
 doing execution, and made arrangements for a simultane- 
 ous fire. To render this the more deadly and efficient, 
 they dropped on one knee, and were preparing to take de-
 
 Of Border Warfare. 99 
 
 liberate aim, when one of them (John M'Collum) called 
 to his comrades, " Pull steady and send them all to hell." 
 This ill timed expression of anxious caution, gave the 
 enemy a moment's warning of their danger ; and is the 
 reason why greater execution was not done. 
 
 The Indians had left all their guns, blankets and 
 plunder these together with the three white captives, 
 were taken by Capt. Paul to Fort Dinwiddie. 1 
 
 1 Perhaps this affair is that related by Capt. William Christian, in 
 a letter dated Roanoke, Oct. 19th, 1763, as published in the gazettes of 
 that day there are, at least, some suggestive similarities: "Being 
 joined by Capt. Hickenbotham, with twenty-five of the Amherst militia, 
 we marched on Tuesday last, to Winston's Meadows, where our scouts 
 informed us, that they had discovered a party of Indians about three 
 miles off. Night coming on, prevented our meeting them ; and next 
 day, being rainy, made it difficult to follow their tracks. As they were 
 on their return, Capt. Hickenbotham marched to join Capt. Ingles down 
 New River. I, with nineteen men and my ensign, took a different 
 route in quest of them. We marched next day on their tracks until 
 two hours before sunset, when we heard some guns, and soon afterwards 
 discovered three large fires, which appeared to be on the bank of Turkey 
 Creek, where it empties into New river. Upon this we immediately ad- 
 vanced, and found they were on an island. Being within gun-shot, we 
 fired on them, and loading again, forded the creek. The Indians, after 
 killing Jacob Kimberlain, a prisoner they had with them, made but a 
 slight resistence, and ran off. We found one Indian killed on the spot, 
 and, at a little distance, four blankets shot through, and very bloody. 
 We took all their bundles, four guns, eight tomahawks, and two mares. 
 They had several other horses, which being frightened by the firing, 
 ran off and were lost. The party consisted of upwards of twenty In- 
 dians. By the tracks of blood, we imagined several of them were 
 wounded." This affair occurred Oct. 12th. L. C. D.
 
 100 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 [75J CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Daring the continuance of the French war, and of 
 that with the Indians which immediately succeeded it, the 
 entire frontier from New York to Georgia was exposed to 
 the merciless fury of the savages, ' n no instance were the 
 measures of defence adopted by the different colonies, ade- 
 quate to their object. From some unaccountable fatuity 
 in those who had the direction of this matter, a defensive 
 war, which alone could have checked aggression and pre- 
 vented the effusion of blood, was delayed 'till the whole 
 population, of the country west of the Blue ridge, had re- 
 tired east of those mountains; or were cooped up in forts. 
 
 The chief means of defence employed, were the 
 militia of the adjoining counties, and the establishment of 
 a line of forts and block-houses, dispersed along a con- 
 siderable extent of country, and occupied by detachments 
 of British colonial troops, or by militiamen. All these 
 were utterly incompetent to effect security ; partly from 
 the circumstances of the case, and somewhat from the en- 
 tire want of discipline, and the absence of that subordina- 
 tion which is absolutely necessary to render an army 
 effective. 
 
 So great and apparent were the insubordination and 
 remissness of duty, on the part of the various garrisons, 
 that Gen. Washington, declared them " utterly inefficient 
 and useless ; " and the inhabitants themselves, could place 
 no reliance whatever on them, for protection. In a par- 
 ticular instance, such were the inattention and carelessness 
 of the garrison that several children playing under the 
 walls of the fort, were run down and caught by the In- 
 dians, who were not discovered 'till they arrived at the 
 very gate. 1 
 
 In Virginia the error of confiding on the militia, soon 
 
 1 At Dickenson's fort in 1755.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 101 
 
 became apparent. 1 Upen the earnest remonstrance and en- 
 treaty of General Washington, the colonial legislature 
 substituted a force of regulars, 2 [76] which at once effected 
 the partial security of her frontier, and gave confidence to 
 the inhabitants. 
 
 In Pennsylvania, from the pacific disposition of her 
 rulers and their abhorrence of war of any kind, her border 
 settlements suffered most severely. The whole extent of 
 her frontier was desolated by the Indians, and irruptions 
 were frequently made by them into the interior. The es- 
 tablishments, which had been made in the Conococheague 
 valley, were altogether broken up and scenes of the great- 
 est barbarity, on one side, and of the utmost suffering on 
 the other, were constantly exhibiting. A few instances 
 of this suffering and of that barbarity, may not be im- 
 properly adduced here. They will serve to illustrate the 
 condition of those who were within reach of the savage 
 enemy ; and perhaps, to palliate the enormities practiced 
 on the Christian Indians. 
 
 In the fall of 1754 about forty or fifty Indians entered 
 that province, and dividing themselves into two parties, 
 sought the unprotected settlements, for purposes of mur- 
 der and devastation : the smaller party went about the 
 forks of Delaware the other directing their steps along 
 the Susquehanua. On the 2nd of October, twelve of the 
 former appeared before the house of Peter Williamson, (a 
 Scotchman, with no family but his wife,) who had made 
 considerable improvement near the Delaware river. Mrs. 
 Williamson being from home, he sat up later than usual, 
 and about 11 o'clock was astounded at the savage war 
 whoop, resounding from various directions, near to the 
 house. Going to the window, he perceived several Indians 
 standing in the yard, one of whom, in broken English, 
 promised that if he would come out and surrender he 
 
 1 When the Indians were most troublesome, and threatening even 
 the destruction of Winchester, Lord Fairfax who was commandant of 
 the militia of Frederick and Hampshire, ordered them out. Three days 
 active exertion on his part, brought only 20 in the field. 
 
 2 Rather rangers, who seem to have been enlisted to serve a year, 
 and were re-engaged when necessary. L. C. D.
 
 102 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 should not be killed; threatening at the same time that 
 if he did not, they would burn him up in his house. Un- 
 able to offer an effectual resistance, and preferring the 
 chance of safety by surrendering, to the certainty of a 
 horrid death if he attempted an opposition, he yielded 
 himself up a prisoner. 
 
 So soon as he was in their power they plundered the 
 house of such articles as they could conveniently take with 
 them, and set fire to it, and to the barn, in which was a 
 quantity of wheat, some horses and other cattle. After 
 inflicting some severe tortures on Williamson, and forcing 
 him to carry a heavy weight of the plunder, which they 
 had taken from him, they went to a neighboring house, 
 occupied by Jacob Snyder, his wife, five children and a 
 servant. The piercing cries, and [77] agonizing shrieks 
 of these poor creatures, made no impression on the sav- 
 ages. The father, mother, and children were tomahawked 
 and scalped, and their bodies consumed by fire together 
 with the house. The servant was spared that he might 
 aid in carrying their plunder; but manifesting deep dis- 
 tress at his situation as prisoner, he was tomahawked be- 
 fore they proceeded far. 
 
 Before they could accomplish farther mischief a fall 
 of snow, making them apprehensive that they would be 
 pursued by the united force of the settlement, induced 
 them to return to Alamingo taking Williamson with 
 them. 
 
 On their way back, they met with the party of 
 Indians, which had separated from them, as they ap- 
 proached the settlements. These had been lower down 
 on the Susquehanna, and had succeeded in making greater 
 havoc, and committing more depredations, than it had 
 fallen to the lot of those who had taken Williamson, to 
 commit. They had with them three prisoners and twenty 
 scalps. According to the account of their transactions as 
 detailed by the prisoners, they had on one day killed and 
 scalped John Lewis, his wife and three children, and in a 
 few days after had murdered, with almost every circum- 
 stance of cruelty, Jacob Miller, his wife and six children, 
 and George Folke, his wife and nine children, cutting up
 
 Of Border Warfare. 103 
 
 the bodies of the latter family and giving them piece-meal 
 to the hogs in the pen. Wherever they had been, de- 
 struction marked their course. In every instance the 
 houses, barns and grain stacks were consumed by fire ; 
 and the stock killed. 
 
 The three prisoners who had been brought in by the 
 last party, endeavored soon after to effect an escape ; but 
 their ignorance of the country, and the persevering ac- 
 tivity and vigilance of the Indians, prevented the accom- 
 plishment of their attempt. They were overtaken, and 
 brought back ; and then commenced a series of cruelties, 
 tortures and death, sufficient to shock the sensibilities of 
 the most obdurate heart, if unaccustomed to the perpetra- 
 tion of such enormities. 
 
 Two of them were tied to trees, around which large 
 fires were kindled, and they suffered to remain for some 
 time, in the gradual but horrible state of being scorched 
 to death. After the Indians had enjoyed awhile the 
 writhings of agony and the tears of anguish, which were 
 drawn from these suffering victims, one, stepping within 
 the circle, ripped open their bodies and threw their bowels 
 into the flames. Others, to emulate [78] this most shock- 
 ing deed, approached, and with knives, burning sticks, 
 and heated irons, continued to lacerate, pierce and tear 
 the flesh from their breasts, arms and legs, 'till death 
 closed the scene of horrors and rendered its victims in- 
 sensible to its pains. 
 
 The third was reserved a few hours, that he might be 
 sacrificed under circumstances of peculiar enormity. A 
 hole being dug in the ground of a depth sufficient to en- 
 able him to stand upright, with his head only exposed, 
 his arms were pinioned to his body, he placed in it, and 
 the loose earth thrown in and rammed closely around him. 
 He was then scalped and permitted to remain in that sit- 
 uation for several hours. A fire was next kindled near 
 his head. In vain did the poor suffering victim of hellish 
 barbarity exclaim, that his brains were boiling in his 
 head ; and entreat the mercy of instant death. Deaf to 
 his cries, and inexorable to his entreaties, they continued
 
 104 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 the fire 'till his eye balls burst and gushed from their sock- 
 ets, and death put a period to his sufferings. 
 
 Of all these horrid spectacles, Williamson was an un- 
 willing spectator ; and supposing that he was reserved for 
 some still more cruel and barbarous fate, determined on 
 escaping. This he was soon enabled to do ; and returned 
 to the settlements. 1 
 
 The frequent infliction of such enormities as these 
 upon the helpless and unoffending women and children, 
 as well as upon those who were more able to resist and 
 better qualified to endure them ; together with the desola- 
 tion of herds, the devastation of crops, and the conflagration 
 of houses which invariably characterized those incursions, 
 engendered a general feeling of resentment, that sought 
 in some instances, to wreak itself on those who were 
 guiltless of any participation in those bloody deeds. That 
 vindictive spirit led to the perpetration of offences against 
 humanity, not less atrocious than those which they were 
 intended to requite ; and which obliterated every discrim- 
 inative feature between the perpetrators of them, and 
 their savage enemies. 
 
 The Canestoga Indians, to the number of forty, lived 
 in a village, in the vicinity of Lancaster ; they were in 
 amity with the whites, and had been in peace and quiet 
 for a considerable length of time. An association of men, 
 denominated the " Paxton boys," broke into their little 
 town and murdered all who were found at home four- 
 teen men, women and children fell a prey to the savage 
 brutality of those sons of civilization [79]. The safety of 
 the others was sought to be effected, by confining them in 
 the jail at Lancaster. It was in vain. The walls of a 
 prison could afford no protection, from the relentless fury 
 of these exasperated men. The jail doors were broken 
 
 1 Peter Williamson had singular adventures. When a boy he was 
 kidnapped at Aberdeen, and sent to America, for which he afterwards 
 recovered damages. It is said that he passed a considerable period 
 among the Cherokees. He instituted the first penny post at Edinburgh, 
 for which, when the government assumed it, he received a pension. 
 His Memoirs, and French and Indian Cruelty xamplified, were works of 
 interest. He died in Edinburgh in 1 799. L. C. D.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 105 
 
 open, and its wretched inmates cruelly murdered. And, 
 as if their deaths could not satiate their infuriate murder- 
 ers, their bodies were brutally mangled, the hands and 
 feet lopped off, and scalps torn from the bleeding heads 
 of innocent infants. 
 
 A similar fate impended the Christian Indians of 
 Nequetank and Nam ; and was only averted, by the timely 
 interposition of the government of Pennsylvania. They 
 were removed to Philadelphia, where they remained from 
 November 1763 'till after the close of the war in December 
 1764 ; during which time the Paxton boys twice assembled 
 in the neighborhood of the city, for the purpose of assault- 
 ing tne barracks and murdering the Indians, but were 
 deterred by the military preparations made to oppose 
 them; and ultimately, but reluctantly, desisted. 
 
 Had the feelings excited in the minds of these mis- 
 guided men, by the cruelties of the Indians, been properly 
 directed, it would have produced a quite different result. 
 If, instead of avenging the outrages of others, upon those 
 who were no otherwise guilty than in the complexion of their 
 skin, they had directed their exertions to the repressing 
 of invasion, and the punishment of its authors, much good 
 might have been achieved ; and they, instead of being 
 stigmatized as murderers of the innocent, would have 
 been hailed as benefactors of the border settlements. As- 
 sociations of this kind were formed in that province, and 
 contributed no little to lessen the frequency of Indian 
 massacres, and to prevent the effusion of blood, and the 
 destruction of property. At the time the Paxton boys 
 were meditating and endeavoring to effect the destruction 
 of the peaceable Christian Indians, another company, formed 
 by voluntary league, was actively engaged in checking 
 the intrusions, of those who were enemies, and in punish- 
 ing their aggressions. A company of riflemen, called the 
 Black boys (from the fact of their painting themselves red 
 and black, after the Indian fashion,) under the command of 
 Capt. James Smith, contributed to preserve the Cono- 
 cocheague valley, during the years 1763 and 1764, from 
 the devastation [80] which had overspread it early after 
 the commencement of Braddock's war.
 
 106 Withers' & Chronicles 
 
 Capt. Smith had been captured by the Indians in the 
 spring of 1755, and remained with them until the spring of 
 1759, when he left them at Montreal, and after some time 
 arrived at home in Pennsylvania. He was in Fort du Quesne, 
 when the Indians and French went out to surprise Gen. 
 Braddock; and witnessed the burnings and other dread- 
 ful tortures inflicted upon those who were so unfortunate 
 as to have been made prisoners ; and the orgies and de- 
 moniacal revels with which the victory was celebrated. He 
 was subsequently adopted into a family, by which he was 
 kindly treated; and became well acquainted with their 
 manner of warfare, and the various arts practised by them, 
 to ensure success in their predatory incursions, and after- 
 wards to elude pursuit. He became satisfied from ob- 
 servation, that to combat Indians successfully, they must 
 be encountered in their own way ; and he accordingly 
 instructed his men in the Indian mode of warfare, dressed 
 them after the Indian fashion, and fought after the Indian 
 manner.- 1 
 
 An instance of the good effect resulting from prac- 
 ticing the arts and stratagems of the Indians, occurred 
 during this war; and to its success the garrison of Fort 
 Pitt were indebted for their preservation. 
 
 After the ratification of the treaty of peace which had 
 been concluded between England and France, war con- 
 
 1 Col. James Smith was born in Franklin county, Pa., in 1737 ; was 
 captured by Indians in 1755, remaining in captivity until his escape 
 in 1759. He served as ensign in 1763, and lieutenant under Bouquet 
 in 1764; he was a leader, for several years, of the Black Boys a sort of 
 regulators of the traders who, the Black Boys thought, supplied the In- 
 dians with the munitions of war. As the troubles with the mother 
 country began, Smith was selected for frontier service, and held civil and 
 military positions captain in the Pennsylvania line ; then in 1777 as 
 major under Washington ; in 1778, he was promoted to the rank of 
 colonel of militia, and led an expedition against the Indian town on 
 French Creek. In 1788, he removed to Kentucky ; served in the early 
 Kentucky conventions, preparatory to State organization, and also in 
 the legislature. He did missionary work in Kentucky and Tennessee, 
 and preached among the Indians. He wrote a valuable account of his 
 Indian captivity, republished a few years since by Robert Clarke & 
 Co., Cincinnati, and a treatise on Indian warfare, besides two contro- 
 versial pamphlets against the Shakers. He died in Washington count'- 
 Ky., in 1812, aged about seventy-five years. L. C. D.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 107 
 
 tinued to be waged by the Indians on the whole western 
 frontier. A large body of them had collected and marched 
 to Fort Pitt, with a view to its reduction by famine. It 
 had been invested for some time and the garrison being 
 too weak to sally out and give battle to the, besiegers, 
 Capt. Ecuyer dispatched messengers with the intelligence 
 of his situation and a request for aid and provisions : 
 these were either compelled to return or be killed, as the 
 country for some distance east of Fort Pitt was in the 
 possession of the savages. 1 
 
 At length a quantity of provisions were ordered by 
 Gov. Amherst for the relief of the fort, and forwarded 
 under a strong guard commanded by Colonel Boquet. 
 The Indians were soon apprized of this and determined 
 on intercepting the provisions, and if practicable, to pre- 
 vent their reaching the place of their destination. With 
 this object in view, a considerable force was detached, to 
 watch the motions of Col. Boquet and [81] upon a fa- 
 vorable opportunity to give him battle. In a narrow defile 
 on Turtle creek an attack was made by the Indians, and 
 a severe engagement ensued. Both armies fought with 
 the most obstinate bravery, from one o'clock 'till night, 
 and in the morning it was resumed, and continued with 
 unabated fury for several hours. At length Col. Boquet, 
 having placed four companies of infantry and grenadiers 
 in ambush, ordered a retreat. So soon as this was com- 
 menced, the Indians, confident of victory, pressed forward 
 with considerable impetuosity, and fell into the ambus- 
 cade. This decided the contest the Indians were repulsed 
 with great slaughter and dispersed. 
 
 The loss of the British, in killed and wounded, ex- 
 ceeded one hundred. That they were not entirely cut off, 
 was attributable to the stratagem of the retreat (a favorite 
 one of the Indians ;) the success of which not only saved 
 
 1 Captain Simeon Ecuyer, like Bouquet, was a native of Switzerland ; 
 he did good service on the frontiers, especially in the gallant defense of 
 Fort Pitt in 1763. He became disgusted with the bad conduct of his 
 Boldiers, especially the grenadiers, and begged leave to resign. " For 
 God's sake," he implored Bouquet, "let me go, and raise cabbages." 
 L. C. D.
 
 108 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 the detachment under Col. Boquet, but likewise preserved 
 Fort Pitt, from falling into the hands of the savage foe. 
 
 The loss sustained by the enemy, must have equaled 
 that of the British; several of their most distinguished 
 chiefs and warriors, were of the number of the slain : and 
 so decisive was the victory obtained over them, that in the 
 succeeding campaign against the Indians on the Mus- 
 kingum, Boquet found not much difficulty in bringing 
 them to terms. A cessation of hostilities was agreed to, 
 upon condition that they would give up all the whites 
 then detained by them in captivity. Upwards of three 
 hundred prisoners were then redeemed; but the season 
 being far advanced and the others scattered in different 
 parts of the country, it was stipulated, that they should 
 be brought into Fort Pitt early in the ensuing spring ; and 
 as a security that they would comply with this condition 
 of the armistice, six of their chiefs were delivered up as 
 hostages these however succeeded in making their escape 
 before the army arrived at Fort Pitt. 1 
 
 The ill success which had attended the combined op- 
 erations of the Indians, during this war, the difficulty of 
 procuring ammunition to support it, and the fact that it 
 had begun to be carried into their own country, disposed 
 them to make peace. A treaty was accordingly concluded 
 with them by Sir William Johnson in 1765. Previous to 
 this however, some few depredations were committed by 
 
 1 Henry Bouquet was born at Rolle, in the canton of Berne, Switzer- 
 land, in 1721, and at the age of seventeen he entered into the service of 
 the states general of Holland ; subsequently engaged under the banner 
 of Sardinia, and distinguished himself at the battle of Cony. In 1748, he 
 was a lieutenant-colonel in the Swiss guards, in the service of Holland. 
 At length, in 1756, he entered the English army, serving in the Royal 
 Americans, and co-operated with Gen. Forbes on the campaign against 
 Fort Du Quesne, repulsing an attack of French and Indians on Loyal 
 Hanna. He afterwards served in Canada, and was sent for the relief of 
 Fort Pitt, when beleagured in 1763. While marching on this service/ 
 he signally defeated the Indians at Bushy Run, after a two days' en- 
 gagement, in August of that year, and relieved Fort Pitt. In 1764, he 
 led an expedition against the Ohio Indians, compelling them to sue for 
 peace. He died at Pensacola, September 2, 1765, of a prevailing fever. 
 in the prime of life, at the age of forty-four years. He had attained the 
 rank of general. L. C. D.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 109 
 
 the Indians, in contravention of the agreement made with 
 them by Col. Boquet; and which induced a belief that 
 the want of clothes and ammunition, [82] was the real 
 cause of 'their partial forbearance. It was therefore of 
 great consequence, to prevent their obtaining a supply of 
 these necessaries, until there could be some stronger as- 
 surance, than hacjflbeen given, of their pacific disposition. 
 
 Notwithstanding the prevalence of this impression, 
 and the fact, that a royal proclamation had been issued, for- 
 bidding any person trading with the Indians, yet in March 
 1765 a number of wagons, laden with goods and warlike 
 stores for the Indians, was sent from Philadelphia to 
 Henry Pollens of Conococheague, to be thence transported 
 on pack horses to Fort Pitt. This very much alarmed the 
 country; and many individuals remonstrated against the 
 propriety of supplying the Indians at that particular junct- 
 ure; alleging the well known fact, that they were then 
 destitute of ammunition and clothing, and that to furnish 
 them with those articles, would be to aid in bringing on 
 another frontier war, and to lend themselves to the com- 
 mission of those horrid murders, by which those wars 
 were always distinguished. Remonstrance was fruitless. 
 The gainful traffick which could be then carried on with 
 the Indians, banished every other consideration ; and sev- 
 enty horses, packed with goods, were directed on to Fort 
 Pitt. 
 
 In this situation of things, Capt. James Smith, (who 
 had been with Boquet during the campaign of 1764, and 
 was well convinced that a supply at that time of clothing 
 and ammunition, would be the signal for the recommence- 
 ment of hostilities) collected ten of his " Black boys," 
 painted and dressed as Indians ; and waylaid the caravan, 
 near a place called the " Side long Hill." He disposed his 
 men in pairs, behind trees along the road, at intervals of 
 about 60 yards, with orders for the second not to fire 'till 
 the first had reloaded, so that a regular, slow fire might be 
 maintained at once, from front to rear. 
 
 As soon as the cavalcade approached, the firing com- 
 menced, and the pack horses beginning to fall by the side 
 of their conductors, excited the fear of the latter, and in-
 
 110 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 duced them to cry out " Geiitlemen what would you have 
 us to do." Captain Smith replied, " collect all your loads 
 to the front, deposit them in one place; take your private 
 property and retire." These things were accordingly 
 done ; and the goods left (consisting of blankets, shirts, 
 beads, vermillion, powder, lead, tomahawks, scalping 
 knives, &c.) were immediately burnec^ or otherwise de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 [83] The traders then went to Fort London, and ob- 
 taining of the commanding officer a party of Higland 
 soldiers, proceeded in quest of the Robbers (as they termed 
 them ;) some of whom were taken and carried into the Fort. 
 Capt. Smith then raised about 300 riflemen, and marching 
 to Fort London, occupied a position on an eminence near 
 it. He had not been long there before he had more than 
 twice as many of the garrison, prisoners in his camp, as 
 there were of his men in the guard house. Under a flag 
 of truce proceeding from the Fort, a convention for the ex- 
 change of prisoners was entered into between Capt. Grant, 
 the commander of the garrison, and Capt. Smith, and the 
 latter with his men, immediately returned to their homes. 1 
 
 1 The following song was soon after composed by Mr. George Camp- 
 bell (an Irish gentleman who had been educated in Dublin,) and was 
 frequently sung in the neighborhood to the tune of the Black Joke, 
 Ye patriot souls who love to sing, 
 What serves your country and your king, 
 
 In wealth, peace, and royal estate ; 
 Attention give whilst I rehearse, 
 A modern fact, in jingling verse, 
 How party interest strove what it cou'd, 
 To profit itself by public blood, 
 But justly met its merited fate. 
 
 Let all those Indian traders claim, 
 Their just reward, in glorious fame, 
 
 For vile, base and treacherous ends, 
 To Pollins in the spring they sent 
 Much warlike stores, with an intent, 
 To carry them to our barbarous foes, 
 Expecting that nobody dare oppose 
 
 A present to their Indian friends. 
 
 Astonished at the wild design 
 Frontier inhabitants combin'd,
 
 Of Border Warfare. Ill 
 
 Occurrences such as this, were afterwards of too fre- 
 quent [84] recurrence. The people had been taught by 
 experience, that the fort afforded very little, if any pro- 
 tection to those who were not confined within its walls 
 they were jealous of the easy, and yet secure life led by 
 the garrison, and apprehensive of the worst consequences 
 
 .- 
 
 With brave souls to stop their career, 
 Although some men apostatized 
 Who first the grand attempt advis'd, 
 The bold frontiers they bravely stood, 
 To act for their king, and their country's good 
 
 In joint league, and strangers to fear. 
 
 On March the fifth, in sixty-five, 
 Their Indian presents did arrive, 
 
 In long pomp and cavalcade, 
 Near Sidelong-hill, where in disguise, 
 Some patriots did their train surprise, 
 And quick as lightning tumbled their loads 
 And kindled them bonfires in the woods; 
 
 And mostly burnt their whole brigade. 
 
 At Loudon when they heard the news, 
 They scarcely knew which way to choose, 
 
 For blind rage and discontent ; 
 At length some soldiers they sent out, 
 With guides for to conduct the route, 
 And seized some men that were travelling there 
 And hurried them into Loudon, where 
 
 They laid them fast with one consent. 
 
 But men of resolution thought 
 
 Too much to see their neighbors caught 
 
 For no crime but false surmise ; 
 Forthwith they join'd a warlike band, 
 And march'd to Loudon out of hand, 
 And kept the jailors pris'ners there, 
 Until our friends enlarged were, 
 
 Without fraud or any disguise. 
 
 Let mankind censure or commend, 
 This rash performance in the end, 
 
 Then both sides will find their account. 
 'Tis true no law can justify 
 To burn our neighbors property, 
 But when this property is design'd 
 To serve the enemies of mankind, 
 
 Its high treason in the amount.
 
 112 Wit hers's . Chronicles 
 
 from the intercourse of traders with the Indians. Under 
 those feelings, they did not scruple to intercept the pussage 
 of goods to the trading posts, and commit similar outrages 
 to those above described, if there were any interference 
 on the part of the neighboring forts. On one occasion, 
 Capt. Grant was himself taken prisoner, and [85] detained 
 'till restitution was made the inhabitants of some guns, 
 which had been taken from them, by soldiers from the 
 garrison ; and in 1769, a quantity of powder, lead and 
 other articles was taken from some traders passing through 
 Bedford county, and destroyed. Several persons, sup- 
 posed to have been of the party who committed this out- 
 rage, were apprehended, and laid in irons in the guard 
 house at Fort Bedford. 
 
 Capt. Smith, although in no wise engaged in this trans- 
 action, nor yet approving it, was nevertheless so indignant 
 that an offence against the civil authorities, should be at- 
 tempted to be punished by a military tribunal, that he re- 
 solved on effecting their release. To accomplish this, he 
 collected eighteen of his ' Black boys," in whom he knew 
 he could confide ; and marched along the main road in the 
 direction of Fort Bedford. On his way to that place, he 
 did not attempt to conceal his object, but freely told to 
 every one who enquired, that he was going to take Fort 
 Bedford. On the evening of the second day of their march, 
 they arrived at the crossings of Juniata, (14 miles from 
 Bedford) and erected tents as if they intended encamping 
 there all night. 
 
 Previous to this, Capt. Smith had communicated his 
 intention to Mr. "William Thompson (who lived in Bedford 
 and on whom he could rely,) and prevailed on him to ob- 
 tain what information he could as to the effect produced in 
 the garrison by the preparations which he was making for 
 its attack; and acquaint him with it. That he might be 
 enabled to do this with greater certainty, a place and hour 
 were appointed at which Capt. Smith would meet him. 
 
 About 11 o'clock at night the march was resumed, 
 and moving briskly they arrived near to Bedford, where 
 they met Thompson ; who communicated to them the fact, 
 that the garrison had been apprized of their object that in
 
 Of Border Warfare. 113 
 
 consequence of having heard from them on the preceding 
 evening, at the Crossings of Juuiata, it was not expected 
 they would arrive before mid-day, that their number 
 was known, and the enterprise ridiculed. Thompson then 
 returned to Bedford, and the party moved silently under 
 covert of the banks of the river, 'till they approached near 
 to the Fort, where they lay concealed, awaiting the open- 
 ing of the gate. About day light Thompson apprised them 
 that the guard had thrown open the gate, and were taking 
 their morning's dram ; that the arms were stacked not far 
 from the entrace into the Fort, and three centinels on the 
 wall. 
 
 Upon hearing these things, Capt. Smith with his men 
 rushed rapidly to the Fort, and the morning being misty, 
 were not discovered 'till they had reached the gate. At 
 that instant the centinels fired their guns and gave the 
 alarm ; but Capt. Smith and his men took possession of the 
 arms, and raised a loud shout, before the soldiers of the 
 garrison could learn the cause of the alarm, or get to the 
 scene of action. 
 
 [86] Having thus obtained possession of the Fort, 
 Capt. Smith had the prisoners released from the guard- 
 house, and compelling a blacksmith to knock off their 
 irons, left the Fort with them and returned to Conoco- 
 cheaque. " This, Capt. Smith says, was the first British 
 fort in America, taken by what they called American 
 rebels." 
 
 Some time after this, an attempt was made to appre- 
 hend Capt. Smith, as he was proceeding to survey and lo- 
 cate land on the Youghogany river. In the encounter which 
 succeeded, a man (by the name of Johnson) was killed ; 
 and the murder being charged on Smith, he was confined 
 for a time in Bedford jail; but fearing a release, the civil 
 authority sent him privately through the wilderness to Car- 
 lisle, to await a trial for the alledged offence. On hearing 
 this, upwards of three hundred persons (among whom 
 were his old " Black boys,") proceeded to Carlisle to effect 
 a rescue ; and were only prevented the accomplishment of 
 their object, by the solicitation of Smith himself. He 
 8
 
 114 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 knew his iiinocence, and preferred awaiting a trial ; and 
 bow willing soever he might have been to oppose any 
 encroachments of the military, he held in just abhorrence, 
 an opposition to the civil authority of his country. He 
 was put on his trial and acquitted. 1 
 
 1 The following extract from the Pennsylvania Gazette of November 
 2d, 1769, details the circumstances of this transaction. 
 
 "James Smith, his brother and brother in law, were going out to 
 survey and improve their land, on the waters of the Youghogany. Ex- 
 pecting to be gone some time, they took with them their arms, and 
 horses loaded with necessaries ; and as Smith's brother in law was an 
 artist in surveying, he had also with him the instruments for that busi- 
 ness. Travelling on their way and within nine miles of Bedford, they 
 overtook and joined in company with one Johnson and Moorhead, who 
 had likewise horses packed with liquor and seed wheat their inten- 
 tions being also to make improvements on their lands. Arrived at the 
 parting of the road near Bedford, they separated, one party going 
 through town for the purpose of having a horse shod ; these were ap- 
 prehended and put under confinement. James Smith, Johnson and 
 Moorhead taking the other road, met John Holmes of Bedford, to whom 
 Smith spoke in a friendly manner but received no answer. Smith and 
 his companions proceeded to where the two roads again united ; and 
 waited there the arrival of the others. 
 
 "At this time a number of men came riding up, and asked Smith his 
 name. On his telling them who he was, they immediately presented 
 their pistols, and commanded him to surrenderor he was a dead man. 
 Smith stepped back and asking if they were highwaymen, charged them 
 to keep off; when immediately Robert George (one of the assailants) 
 snapped a pistol at Smith's head ; and that (as George acknowledged 
 under oath ) before Smith had offered to [87] shoot. Smith then presented 
 his gun at another of the assailants, who was holding Johnson with one 
 hand, while with the other he held a pistol, which he was preparing to 
 discharge. Two shots were fired, one by Smith's gun, the other by the 
 pistol, so quick as to be just distinguishable, and Johnson fell. Smith 
 was then taken and carried to Bedford, where John Holmes (who had 
 met him on the road, and hastened to Bedford with the intelligence) 
 held an inquest over the dead body of Johnson. One of the assailants 
 being the only witness examined, it was found that "Johnson had 
 been murdered by Smith," who was thereupon committed for trial. 
 But jealousy arising in the breasts of many, that the inquest was not so 
 fair as it should have been, William Deny, (the coroner of Bedford 
 county) thought proper to re-examine the matter ; and summoning a 
 jury of unexceptionable men, out of three townships men whose can- 
 dour, probity, and honesty are unquestionable, and having raised the 
 corpse, held a solemn inquest over it for three days. 
 
 " In the course of their scrutiny, they found the shirt of Johnson, 
 around the bullet hole, blackened by the powder of the charge with
 
 Of Border Warfare. 115 
 
 [87] Events such as those which have been narrated, 
 serve to shew the state of things which existed at that day; 
 and to point out the evils necessarily resulting, from an 
 absence of municipal regulations. Man, in every station 
 and condition of life/fequires the controlling hand of civil 
 power, to confine him in his proper sphere, and to check 
 every advance of invasion, on the rights of others. Unre- 
 strained liberty speedily degenerates into licentiousness. 
 Without the necessary curbs and restraints of law, men 
 would relapse into a state of nature ; [88] and although 
 the obligations of justice (the basis of society) be natural 
 obligations ; yet such are the depravity and corruption of 
 human nature, that without some superintending and co- 
 ercive power, they would be wholly disregarded ; and hu- 
 
 which he had been killed. One of the assailants being examined, swore 
 to the respective spots of ground on which they stood at the time of 
 firing, which being measured, was found to be 23 feet distance from each 
 other. The experiment was then made of shooting at the shirt an 
 equal distance both with and against the wind, to ascertain if the pow- 
 der produced the stain ; but it did not. Upon the whole the jury, after 
 the most accurate examination and mature deliberation, brought in 
 their verdict that one of the assailants must necessarily have done the 
 murder." 
 
 Captain Smith was a brave and enterprising man. In 1766, he, in 
 company with Joshua Horton, Uriah Stone, William Baker and James 
 Smith, by the way of Holstein, explored the country south of Kentucky 
 at a time when it was entirely uninhabited ; and the country between 
 the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, to their entrance into the Ohio. 
 Stone's river, a branch of the Cumberland and emptying into it not far 
 above Nashville, was named by them in this expedition. 
 
 After his acquittal from the charge of having murdered Johnson, 
 he was elected and served as one of the board of commissioners, for 
 regulating taxes and laying the county levy, in the county of Bedford. 
 [88] He was for several years a delegate from the county of Westmoreland, 
 to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania ; and in the war of the revo- 
 lution was an officer of merit and distinction. In 1781 he removed to 
 Kentucky and settled in Bourbon county not far from Paris ; was a 
 member of the convention which set at Danville, to confer about a 
 separation from the state of Virginia, in 1788, from which time until 
 1799, with the exception of two years, he was either a delegate of the 
 convention or of the General Assembly of Kentucky. 
 
 Comment by L. C. D. It would seem from Col. Smith's own state- 
 ment, that his removal to, and settlement in, Bourbon county, Ky., was 
 in 1788.
 
 116 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 man society, would become the field of oppression and 
 outrage instead of a theatre for the interchange of good 
 offices. Civil institutions and judicial establishments; the 
 comminations of punishment and the denunciations of law, 
 are barely sufficient to repress the evil propensities of man. 
 Left to themselves, they spurn all natural restrictions, and 
 riot in the unrestrained indulgence of every passion.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 117 
 
 [89] CHAPTER V. 
 
 The comparative security and quiet, which succeeded 
 the treaty of 1765, contributed to advance the prosperity 
 of the Virginia frontiers. The necessity of congregating 
 in forts and blockhouses, no longer existing, each family 
 enjoyed the felicities of its own fireside, undisturbed by 
 fearful apprehensions of danger from the prowling savage, 
 and free from the bustle and confusion consequent on being 
 crowded together. No longer forced to cultivate their lit- 
 tle fields in common, and by the united exertions of a whole 
 neighborhood, with tomahawks suspended from their belts 
 and rifles attached to their plow beams, their original spirit 
 of enterprise was revived : and while a certainty of reaping 
 in unmolested safety, the harvest for which they had toiled, 
 gave to industry, a stimulus which increased their pros- 
 perity, it also excited others to come and reside among 
 them a considerable addition to their population, and a 
 rapid extension of settlements, were the necessary conse- 
 quence. 
 
 It was during the continuation of this exemption from 
 Indian aggression, that several establishments were made 
 on the Monongahela and its branches, and on the Ohio 
 river. These were nearly cotemporaneous; the first how- 
 ever, in order of time, was that made on the Buchannon 
 a fork of the Tygart's valley river, and was induced by a 
 flattering account of the country as given by two brothers; 
 who had spent some years in various parts of it, under 
 rather unpleasant circumstances. 
 
 Among the soldiers who garrisoned Fort Pitt, were 
 William Childers, John and Samuel Pringle and Joseph 
 Linsey. In 1761, these four men deserted from the fort, 
 and ascended the Monongahela as far as to the mouth of 
 George's creek (the site afterwards selected by Albert 
 Gallatin, for the town of Geneva.) Here they remained 
 awhile ; but not liking the [90] situation crossed over to the
 
 118 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 head of the Youghogany ; and encamping in the glades, 
 continued there about twelve months. 
 
 In one of their hunting rambles, Samuel Pringle came 
 on a path, which he supposed would lead to the inhabited 
 part of Virginia. On his return he mentioned the discov- 
 ery and his supposition, to his comrades, and they re- 
 solved on tracing it. This they accordingly did, and it 
 conducted them to Loony's creek, then the most remote 
 western settlement. While among the inhabitants on 
 Loony's creek, they were recognized and some of the 
 party apprehended as deserters. John and Samuel Pringle 
 succeeded in making an escape to their camp in the 
 glades, where they remained 'till some time in the year 
 1764. 
 
 During this year, and while in the employ of John 
 Simpson (a trapper, who had come there in quest of furs,) 
 they determined on removing farther west. Simpson was 
 induced to this, by the prospect of enjoying the woods 
 free from the intrusion of other hunters (the glades hav- 
 ing begun to be a common hunting ground for the inhab- 
 itants of the South Branch ;) while a regard for their per- 
 sonal safety, caused the Pringles to avoid a situation, in 
 which they might be exposed to the observation of other 
 men. 
 
 In journeying through the wilderness, and after hav- 
 ing crossed Cheat river at the Horse shoe, a quarrel arose 
 between Simpson and one of the Pringles ; and notwith- 
 standing that peace and harmony were so necessary to 
 their mutual safety and comfort ; yet each so far indulged 
 the angry passions which had been excited, as at length 
 to produce a separation. 
 
 Simpson crossed over the Valley river, near the mouth 
 of Pleasant creek, and passing on to the head of another 
 water course, gave to it the name of Simpson's creek. 
 Thence he went westwardly, and fell over on a stream 
 which he called Elk: at the mouth of this he erected 
 a camp, and continued to reside for more than twelve 
 months. During this time he neither saw the Pringles 
 nor any other human being ; and at the expiration of it 
 went to the South Branch, where he disposed of his furs and
 
 Of Border Warfare. 119 
 
 skins and then returned to, and continued at, his encamp- 
 ment at the mouth of Elk, until permanent settlements 
 were made in its vicinity. 
 
 The Pringles kept up the Valley river 'till they ob- 
 served a large right hand fork, (now Buchannon), 1 which 
 they ascended [91] some miles ; and at the mouth of a 
 small branch (afterward called Turkey run) they took up 
 their abode in the cavity of a large Sycamore tree. 2 The 
 stump of this is still to be seen, and is an object of no 
 little veneration with the immediate descendants of the 
 first settlers. 
 
 The situation of these men, during a residence here of 
 several years, although rendered somewhat necessary by 
 their previous conduct, could not have been very enviable. 
 Deserters from the army, a constant fear of discovery 
 filled their minds with inquietude. In the vicinity of a 
 savage foe, the tomahawk and scalping knife were ever 
 present to their imaginations. Remote from civilized 
 man, their solitude was hourly interrupted by the fright- 
 ful shrieks of the panther, or the hideous bowlings of the 
 wolf. And though the herds of Buffalo, Elk and Deer, 
 which gamboled sportively around, enabled them easily to 
 supply their larder ; yet the want of salt, of bread, and of 
 every species of kitchen vegetable, must have abated their 
 
 1 Now spelled Buckhannon. R. G. T. 
 
 * Sycamores, which attain gigantic proportions, are given to rotting 
 in the lower portions of the trunk, and chambers eight feet in diameter 
 are not uncommon. In the course of a canoe voyage down the Ohio, in 
 the summer of 1894, I frequently saw such cavities, with the openings 
 stopped by pickets or rails, utilized by small bottom farmers as hog- 
 pens, chicken-coops, and calf stalls. 
 
 L. V. McWhorter, of Berlin, W. Va., who has kindly sent me sev- 
 eral MS. notes on Withers's Chronicles (all of which will be duly cred- 
 ited where used in this edition), writes: "The aged sycamore now 
 (1894) occupying the site, is the third generation the grand-child of 
 that which housed the Pringles. It stands on the farm of Webster Dix, 
 who assures me that it shall not be destroyed. A tradition held by his 
 descendants has it, that when John Pringle went back to the South 
 Branch for ammunition, Charity, the wife of Samuel, who was left be- 
 hind, started immediately for the wilderness home of her husband, and 
 found him by the path which John had blazed for his own return." R. 
 G. T.
 
 120 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 relish for the, otherwise, delicious loin of the one, and 
 hauch of the others. The low state of their little maga- 
 zine too, while it limited their hunting, to the bare pro- 
 curation of articles of subsistence, caused them, from a 
 fear of discovery, to shrink at the idea of being driven to 
 the settlements, for a supply of ammunition. And not 
 until they were actually reduced to two loads of powder, 
 could they be induced to venture again into the vicinity of 
 their fellow men. In the latter part of the year 1767, 
 John left his brother, and intending to make for a trad- 
 ing post on the Sbenandoah, appointed the period of his 
 return. 
 
 Samuel Pringle, in the absence of John, suffered a 
 good deal. The stock of provisions left him became en- 
 tirely exhausted one of his loads of powder, was ex- 
 pended in a fruitless attempt to shoot a buck his brother 
 had already delayed his return several days longer than 
 was intended, and he was apprehensive that he had been 
 recognized, taken to Fort Pitt and would probably never 
 get back. With his remaining load of powder, however 
 he was fortunate enough to kill a fine buffalo ; and John 
 soon after returned with the news of peace, both with the 
 Indians and French. The two brothers agreed to leave 
 their retirement. 
 
 Their wilderness habitation was not left without some 
 regret. Every object around, had become more or less en- 
 deared to them. The tree, in whose hollow they had been 
 so [92] frequently sheltered from storm and tempest, was 
 regarded by them with so great reverence, that they re- 
 solved, so soon as they could prevail on a few others to 
 accompany them, again to return to this asylum of their 
 exile. 
 
 In a population such as then composed the chief part 
 of the South Branch settlement, this was no difficult mat- 
 ter. All of them were used to the frontier manner of liv- 
 ing; the most of them had gone thither to acquire land; 
 many had failed entirely in this object, while others were 
 obliged to occupy poor and broken situations off the river; 
 the fertile bottoms having been previously located. Add 
 to this the passion for hunting (which was a ruling one
 
 Of Border Warfare. 121 
 
 with many,) and the comparative scarcity of game in their 
 neighborhood, and it need not excite surprise that the 
 proposition of the Pringles to form a settlement, in such a 
 country as they represented that on Buchannon to be, was 
 eagerly embraced by many. 
 
 In the fall of the ensuing year (1768) Samuel Pringle, 
 and several others who wished first to examine for them- 
 selves, visited the country which had been so long occu- 
 pied by the Pringles alone. Being pleased with it, they, 
 in the following spring, with a few others, repaired thither, 
 with the view of cultivating as much corn, as would serve 
 their families the first year after their emigration. And 
 having examined the country, for the purpose of selecting 
 the most desirable situations ; some of them proceeded to 
 improve the spots of their choice. John Jackson (who 
 was accompanied by his sons, George and Edward) set- 
 tled at the mouth of Turkey run, where his daughter, 
 Mrs. Davis, now lives John Hacker l higher up on the 
 Buchannon river, where Bush's fort was afterwards estab- 
 lished, and Nicholas Heavener now lives Alexander and 
 Thomas Sleeth, near to Jackson's, on what is now known 
 as the Forenash plantation. The others of the party 
 (William Hacker, Thomas and Jesse Hughes, John and 
 William RadclifF and John Brown) appear to have em- 
 ployed their time exclusively in hunting; neither of them 
 making any improvement of land for his own benefit. 
 Yet were they of very considerable service to the new set- 
 tlement. Those who had commenced clearing land, were 
 supplied by them with abundance of meat, while in their 
 hunting excursions through the country, a better knowl- 
 edge of it was obtained, than could have been acquired, 
 had they been engaged in making improvements. 
 
 [93] In one of these expeditions they discovered, and 
 gave name to Stone coal creek ; which flowing westward!}', 
 induced the supposition that it discharged itself directly 
 into the Ohio. Descending this creek, to ascertain the 
 
 1 This early and meritorious pioneer was born near Winchester, 
 Va., Jan. 1, 1743, figured prominently in the Indian wars of his region, 
 and served on Col. G. R. Clark's Illinois campaign of 1778; he died at 
 his home on Hacker's Creek, April 20, 1821, in his 82d year. L. C. D.
 
 122 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 fact, they came to its confluence with a river, which they 
 then called, and has since been known as, the West Fork. 
 After having gone some distance down the river, they re- 
 turned by a different route to the settlement, better pleased 
 with the land on it and some of its tributaries, than with 
 that on Buchannon. 
 
 Soon after this, other emigrants arrived under the 
 guidance of Samuel Pringle. Among them were, John 
 and Benjamin Outright, who settled on Buchannon, where 
 John Outright the younger, now lives ; and Henry Rule 
 who improved just above the mouth of Fink's run. Be- 
 fore the arrival of Samuel Pringle, John Hacker had be- 
 gun to improve the spot which Pringle had chosen for 
 himself. To prevent any unpleasant result, Hacker agreed 
 that if Pringle would clear as much land, on a creek which 
 had been recently discovered by the hunters, as he had on 
 Buchannon, they could then exchange places. Complying 
 with this condition Pringle took possession of the farm on 
 Buchannon, and Hacker of the land improved by Pringle 
 on the creek, which was hence called Hacker's creek. 1 
 John and William Radcliff, then likewise settled on this 
 stream the former on the farm, where the Rev. John 
 Mitchel now lives ; the latter at the place now owned by 
 William Powers Esq. These comprise all the improve- 
 ments which were made on the upper branches of the 
 Monongahela in the years 1769 and 1770. 
 
 At the close of the working season of 1769 some of 
 these adventurers, went to their families on the South 
 Branch ; and when they returned to gather their crops in 
 the fall, found them entirely destroyed. In their absence 
 the buffaloes, no longer awed by the presence of man, had 
 trespassed on their enclosures, and eaten their corn to the 
 ground this delayed the removal of their families 'till the 
 winter of 1770. 
 
 Soon after the happening of this event, other settle- 
 ments were made on the upper branches of the Monon- 
 gahela river. Capt. James Booth .and John Thomas es- 
 tablished themselves on what has been since called Booth's 
 
 1 Its Indian name signified " Muddy Water." R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 123 
 
 creek The former at the place now owned by Jesse Mar- 
 tin; and the latter where William Martin at present re- 
 sides, and which is perhaps the [94] most valuable landed 
 estate in North "Western Virginia, off the Ohio river. 
 
 Previous however to the actual settlement of the 
 country above the forks of the Monongahela, some few 
 families (in 1767) had established themselves in the vicinity 
 of Fort Redstone, now Brownsville, in Pennsylvania. 1 At 
 the head of these were Abraham Tegard, James Craw- 
 ford, John Province, and John Harden. The latter of 
 these gentlemen afterwards removed to Kentucky and be- 
 came distinguished in the early history of that state, as 
 well for the many excellencies of his private and public 
 life, as for the untimely and perfidious manner of his 
 death. 
 
 In the succeeding year Jacob Yanmeter, John Swan, 
 Thomas Hughes and some others settled on the west side 
 of the Monongahela, near the mouth of Muddy creek, 
 where Carmichaelstown now stands. 2 
 
 In this year too, the place which had been occupied 
 for a while by Thomas Decker and his unfortunate asso- 
 ciates, and where Morgantown is now situated, was settled 
 by a party of emigrants ; one of which was David Morgan, 
 who became so conspicuous for personal prowess, and for 
 the daring, yet deliberate courage displayed by him, dur- 
 ing the subsequent hostilities with the Indians. 
 
 1 We have already seen (p. 74, note), that Gist settled at Mount 
 Braddock, Fayette county, in 1753, and that eleven families joined him 
 in January, 1754. There is a tradition that settlers were in the district 
 even before Gist. It has been shown that the Gist settlements, and 
 others in the lower Monongahela, were burned by the French in July, 
 1754. The English borderers fled upon the outbreak of disturbances, 
 and did not return until about 1760-61, when confidence had been re- 
 stored. R. G. T. 
 
 * Both Van Meter and Swan afterwards served under Col. G. R. 
 Clark at least, on the Kaskaskia campaign ; Swan commanded a com- 
 pany on Clark's Shawnee campaign of 1780, and Van Meter on that 
 of 1782. The latter moved to Kentucky in 1780; settled in Hardin 
 county, Ky., Nov. 16th, 1798, in his seventy-sixth year. L. C. D. 
 
 Comment by R. G. T. This note, written by Dr. Draper a few days 
 before his death (Aug. 26, 1891), was probably his last stroke of literary 
 work.
 
 124 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 In 1769, Col. Ebenezer Zane, his brothers Silas and 
 Jonathan, with some others from the south Branch, visited 
 the Ohio river for the purpose of commencing improve- 
 ments ; * [95] and severally proceeded to select positions 
 for their future residence. Col. Zane chose for his, an 
 eminence above the mouth of Wheeling creek, near 
 to the Ohio, and opposite a beautiful and considerable 
 island in that river. The spot thus selected by him, is 
 now occupied by his son Noah Zane, Esq. and is nearly 
 the centre of the present flourishing town of Wheeling. 
 Silas Zane commenced improving on Wheeling creek 
 where Col. Moses Shephard now lives, and Jonathan re- 
 sided with his brother Ebenezer. Several of those who 
 
 1 These gentlemen were descendants of a Mr. Zane who accompanied 
 William Penn, to his province of Pennsylvania, and from whom, one of 
 the principal streets in Philadelphia, derived its name. Their father 
 was possessed of a bold and daring spirit of adventure, which was dis- 
 played on many occasions, in the earlier part of his life. Having ren- 
 dered himself obnoxious to the Society of Friends (of which he was a 
 member,) by marrying without the pale of that society, he moved to 
 Virginia and settled on the South Branch, where the town of Moorfield 
 has been since erected. One of his sons (Isaac) was taken by the In- 
 dians, when he was only nine years old, and carried in captivity, to 
 Mad river, in Ohio. Here he continued 'till habit reconciled him to his 
 situation, when he married a squaw, became a chief and spent the re- 
 mainder of his life with them. He was never known to wage war 
 against the whites; but was, on several occasions, of infinite service, 
 by apprising them of meditated attacks of the Indians. His descend- 
 ants still reside in Ohio. 
 
 The brothers, Ebenezer, Silas and Jonathan, who settled Wheeling, 
 [95] were also men of enterprise, tempered with prudence, and directed 
 by sound judgment. Ready at all times, to resist and punish the aggres- 
 sion of the Indians, they were scrupulously careful not to provoke them 
 by acts of wanton outrage, such as were then, too frequently committed 
 along the frontier. Col. Ebenezer Zane had been among the first, to 
 explore the country from the South Branch, through the Alleghany 
 glades, and west of them. He was accompanied in that excursion by 
 Isaac Williams, two gentlemen of the name of Robinson and some 
 others; but setting off rather late in the season, and the weather being 
 very severe, they were compelled to return, without having penetrated 
 to the Ohio river. On their way home, such was the extremity of cold, 
 that one of the Robinsons died of its effects. Williams was much frost 
 bitten, and the whole patrty suffered exceedingly. To the bravery and 
 good conduct of those three brothers, the Wheeling settlement was 
 mainly indebted for its security and preservation, during the war of the 
 revolution.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 125 
 
 accompanied the adventurers, likewise remained with 
 Colonel Zane, in the capacity of laborers. 
 
 After having made those preparations which were im- 
 mediately requisite for the reception of their respective 
 families, they returned to their former homes. In the en- 
 suing year they finally left the South Branch, and accom- 
 panied by Col. David Shephard, (the father of Col. Moses 
 Shepherd,) John Wetzel (the father of Lewis) and the 
 McCulloughs men whose names are identified with the 
 early history of that country repaired again to the 
 wilderness, and took up their permanent abode in it. 
 
 Soon after this, other settlements were made at differ- 
 ent points, both above and below Wheeling; and the 
 country on Buffalo, Short, and Grave creeks, 1 and on the 
 Ohio river, became the abode of civilized man. Among 
 those who were first to occupy above Wheeling, were 
 George Lefler, John Doddridge, Benjamin Biggs, Daniel 
 Greathouse, Joshua Baker and Andrew Swearingen.* 
 
 [96] The settlement thus made constituting a kind of 
 advance guard, through which an Indian enemy would 
 have to penetrate, before they could reach the interior, 
 others were less reluctant to occupy the country between 
 them and the Alleghany mountains. Accordingly various 
 establishments were soon made in it by adventurers from 
 different parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia; 
 and those places in which settlements had been previously 
 effected, received considerable accessions to their popula- 
 tion. 
 
 In 1772, that comparatively beautiful region of coun- 
 try, lying on the east fork of the Monongahela river, be- 
 
 1 Joseph Tomlinson surveyed a claim at the mouth of Grave Creek, 
 about 1770, but did not settle there until 1772. His cabin was the 
 nucleus of the present Moundsville, W. Va. R. G. T. 
 
 2 John Doddridge settled in Washington county, Pa., on the Ohio 
 River a few miles east of the Pennsylvania- Virginia state line, in 1773 ; 
 his son, Joseph Doddridge, was the author of Notes on the Settlements and 
 Indian Wars of the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1763-83, 
 a valuable antiquarian work. The names of Greathouse and Baker 
 became execrable through their connection with the massacre of Chief 
 Logan's family, in 1774. Leffler and Biggs attained prominence in bor- 
 der warfare. R. G. T.
 
 126 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 tween the Alleghany mountains, on its south eastern, and 
 the Laurel Hill, or as it is there called the Rich mountain, 
 on its north western side, and which had received the de- 
 nomination of Tygart's valley, again attracted the atten- 
 tion of emigrants. In the course of that year, the greater 
 part of this valley was located, by persons said to have 
 been enticed thither by the description given of it, by 
 some hunters from Greenbrier who had previously ex- 
 plored it. Game, though a principal, was not however 
 their sole object. They possessed themselves at once of 
 nearly all the level land lying between those mountains 
 a plain of 25 or 30 miles in length and varying from three 
 fourths to two miles in width, and of fine soil. Among 
 those who were first to occupy that section of country, we 
 find the names of Hadden, Connelly, Whiteman, Warwick, 
 Nelson, Stalnaker, Riffle and Westfall : the latter of these 
 found and interred the bones of Files' family, which had 
 lain, bleeching in the sun, after their murder by the In- 
 dians, in 1754. 
 
 Cheat river too, on which no attempt at settlement 
 had been made, but by the unfortunate Eckarly's, became 
 an object of attention, The Horse Shoe bottom was lo- 
 cated by Capt. James Parsons, of the South Branch ; and 
 in his neighborhood settled Robert Cunningham, Henry 
 Fink, John Goff and John Minear. Robert Butler, Will- 
 iam Morgan and some others settled on the Dunkard 
 bottom. 
 
 In this year too, settlements were made on Simpson's 
 creek, the West Fork river and on Elk creek. Those who 
 made the former, were John Powers, who purchased Simp- 
 son's right (a tomahawk improvement) * to the land on 
 which Benjamin [97] Stout now resides; and James Ander- 
 son and Jonas Webb who located themselves farther up 
 the creek. 
 
 1 "At an early period of our settlements, there was an inferior kind of 
 land title, denominated a tomahawk right. This was made by [97] dead- 
 ening a few trees near a spring, and marking on one or more of them, 
 the initials of the name of the person, by whom the improvement was 
 made. Rights, acquired in this way, were frequently bought and sold." 
 Doddridge's Notes on Western Virginia.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 127 
 
 On Elk, and in the vicinity of Clarksburg there set- 
 tled Thomas Nutter, near to the Forge-mills Samuel Cot- 
 trial, on the east side of the creek and nearly opposite to 
 Clarksburg Sotha Hickman, on the west side of the same 
 creek, and above Cottrial Samuel Beard at the mouth of 
 Nanny's run Andrew Cottrial above Beard, and at the 
 farm now owned by John W. Patton Daniel Davisson, 
 where Clarksburg is now situated, and Obadiah Davisson 
 and John Nutter on the West Fork ; the former near to 
 the old Salt works, and the latter at the place now owned 
 by Adam Hickman, jr. 
 
 There was likewise, at this time, a considerable acces- 
 sion to the settlements on Buchannon and Hacker's creek. 
 So great was the increase of population in this latter 
 neighborhood, that the crops of the preceding season did 
 not afford more than one third of the breadstuff, which 
 would be ordinarily consumed in the same time, by an 
 equal number of persons. Such indeed was the state of suf- 
 fering among the inhabitants, consequent on this scarcity, 
 that the year 1773 is called in the traditionary legends of 
 that day, the starving year; and such were the exertions 
 of William Lowther to mitigate that suffering, and so 
 great the success with which they were crowned, that his 
 name has been transmitted to their descendants, hallowed 
 by the blessings of those, whose wants he contributed so 
 largely to relieve. 1 
 
 1 William Lowther was the son of Robert, and came with his father 
 to the Hacker creek settlement in 1772. He soon became one of the 
 most conspicuous men in that section of country ; while his private 
 virtues and public actions endeared him to every individual of the com- 
 munity. During the war of 1774 and subsequently, he was the most 
 active and efficient defender of that vicinity, against the insidious at- 
 tacks of the savage foe ; and there were very few if any scouting parties 
 proceeding from thence, by which the Indians were killed or otherwise 
 much annoyed, but those which were commanded by him. 
 
 He was the first justice of the peace in the district of West Augusta 
 the first sheriff in the county of Harrison and Wood, and [98] once a dele- 
 gate to the General Assembly of the States. His military merits carried 
 him through the subordinate grades to the rank of Colonel. Despising 
 the pomp and pageantry of office, he accepted it for the good of the 
 community, and was truly an effective man. Esteemed, beloved by all, 
 he might have exerted his influence, over others, to the advancement
 
 128 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 [98] These were the principal settlements begun in North 
 Western Virginia, prior to the year 1774. Few and scat- 
 tered as they were, no sooner was it known that they were 
 commenced, than hundreds flocked to them from different 
 parts; and sought there the gratifications of their respec- 
 tive predilections. That spirit of adventurous emigration, 
 which has since peopled, with such unprecedented rapid- 
 ity, the south western and western states, and which was 
 then beginning to develope itself, overcame the fond at- 
 tachments of youth, and impelled its possessors, to the 
 dreary wilderness. Former homes, encircled by the com- 
 forts of civilization, endeared by the grateful recollections 
 of by-gone days, and not unfrequently, consecrated as the 
 spots where their tenants had first inhaled the vital fluid, 
 were readily exchanged for "the variety of untried being, 
 the new scenes and changes," which were to be passed^ 
 before the trees of the forest could be supplanted, by the 
 fruits of the field, or society be reared in the solitude of 
 the desert. With a capability to sustain fatigue, not to be 
 subdued by toil; and with a cheerfulness, not easily to be 
 depressed; a patience which could mock at suffering and 
 a daring which nothing could daunt, every difficulty which 
 intervened, every obstacle which was interposed between 
 them and the accomplishment of the objects of their pur- 
 suit, was surmounted or removed ; and in a comparatively 
 brief space of time, they rose to the enjoyment of many 
 of those gratifications, which are experienced in earlier 
 and more populous settlements. That their morals should, 
 for a while, have suffered deterioration, and their manners 
 and habits, instead of [99] approximating those of refined 
 society, should have become perhaps, more barbarous and 
 uncouth, was the inevitable consequence of their situation, 
 
 of his individual interest; but he sought the advancement of the gen- 
 eral weal, not a personal or family aggrandizement. His example might 
 teach others, that offices were created for the public good, not for pri- 
 vate emolument. If aspirants for office at the present day, were to re- 
 gard its perquisites less, and their fitness for the discharge of its duties 
 more, the country would enjoy a greater portion of happiness and pros- 
 perity, and a sure foundation for the permanence of these be laid, in 
 the more disinterested character of her counsellors, and their conse- 
 quently, increased devotion to her interests:
 
 Of Border Warfare. 129 
 
 and the certain result of circumstances, which they could 
 not control. When that situation was changed, and these 
 circumstances ceased to exist, a rapid progress was made 
 in the advancement of many sections of the country, to 
 the refinements of civilized society. 
 
 The infantile state of all countries exhibits, in a 
 greater or less degree, a prevalence of barbarism. The 
 planting of colonies, or the formation of establishments in 
 new countries, is ever attended with circumstances unpro- 
 pitious to refinement. The force with which these circum- 
 stances act, will be increased or diminished in proportion 
 to the remoteness or proximity of those new establish- 
 ments, to older societies, in which the arts and sciences 
 are cultivated ; and to the facility of communication be- 
 tween them. Man is, at all times, the creature of circum- 
 stances. Cut off from an intercourse with his fellow men, 
 and divested of the conveniences of life, he will readily 
 relapse into a state of nature. Placed in contiguity wi.th 
 the barbarous and the vicious; his manners will become 
 rude, his morals perverted. Brought into collision with 
 the sanguinary and revengeful ; and his own conduct will 
 eventually be distinguished, by bloody and vindictive 
 deeds. 
 
 Such was really the situation of those who made the 
 first establishments in North Western Virginia. And 
 when it is considered, that they were, mostly, men from 
 the humble walks of life; comparatively illiterate and un- 
 refined ; without civil or religious institutions, and with 
 a love of liberty, bordering on its extreme ; their more 
 enlightened descendants can not but feel surprise, that 
 their dereliction from propriety had not been greater ; 
 their virtue less. 
 
 The objects, for the attainment of which they volun- 
 tarily placed themselves in this situation, and tempted the 
 dangers inseparable from a residence in the contiguity of 
 Indians, jealous of territorial encroachment, were almost 
 as various as their individual character. Generally speak- 
 ing, they were men in indigent circumstances, unable to 
 purchase land in the neigborhoods from which they came, 
 9
 
 130 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 and unwilling longer to remain the tenants of others. 
 These were induced to [100] emigrate, with the laudable 
 ambition of acquiring homes, from which they would not 
 be liable to expulsion, at the whim and caprice of some 
 haughty lordling. Upon the attainment of this object, 
 they were generally content ; and made but feeble exertions 
 to acquire more land, than that to which they obtained 
 title, by virtue of their settlements. Some few, however, 
 availed themselves of the right of pre-emption, and be- 
 coming possessed of the more desirable portions of the 
 country, added considerably to their individual wealth. 
 
 Those who settled on the Ohio, were of a more enter- 
 prising and ambitious spirit, and looked more to the ad- 
 vancement of their condition in a pecuniary point of view. 
 The fertile bottoms of that river, and the facility with which, 
 by means of it, their surplus produce might be transported to 
 a ready market, 1 were considerations which influenced many. 
 Others, again, looking forward to the time when the Indians 
 would be divested of the country north west of the Ohio river, 
 and it be open to location in the same manner its south east- 
 ern shores were, selected this as a situation, from which 
 they might more readily obtain possession of the fertile 
 
 1 The Spaniards at New Orleans, from the first settlement of the 
 country west of the Alleghany Mountains, sought to attach it to the 
 province of Louisiana. Knowing the powerful efficacy of gold, in pro- 
 ducing such results, they dispensed it with a liberal hand, to such as 
 made New Orleans their market. The attachment of the first settlers, 
 to the free institutions of our country, baffled every attempt to detach 
 them from it. 
 
 Comment by R. O. T. The Spanish conspiracy was, in the main, 
 " baffled " by the prompt action of our general government. George 
 Rogers Clark and several other leading Kentuckians were quite willing to 
 be " detached," for a consideration. The fact is, that at first the sense 
 of national patriotism was weak, west of the Alleghanies; the eighteenth 
 century had closed before efforts at separation from the East were com- 
 monly regarded as treason. The interests of the Western people ap- 
 parently were centered in the south-flowing Mississippi ; they seemed to 
 have at the time little in common with the East. So long as Spain held 
 the mouth of the river, many Western leaders thought it not improper 
 that the West should ally itself with that power ; when our government 
 finally purchased the Spanish claim, the Western men had no further 
 complaint. See Roosevelt's treatment of the Spanish conspiracy, in his 
 Winning of the West, III., ch. iii. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 131 
 
 land, with which its ample plains were known to abound. 
 In anticipation of this period, there were some who em- 
 braced every opportunity, afforded by intervals of peace 
 with the Indians, to explore that country and select in it 
 what they deemed, its most valuable parts. Around these 
 they would generally mark trees, or otherwise define 
 boundaries, by which they could be afterwards identified. 
 The cession by Virginia to the United States, of the North 
 Western Territory, and the manner in which its lands were 
 subsequently brought into market, prevented the realiza- 
 tion of those flattering, and apparently, well founded ex- 
 pectations. 
 
 There were also, in every settlement, individuals, who 
 had been drawn to them solely by their love of hunting, 
 and an attachment to the wild, unshackled scenes of a 
 wilderness life. These were perhaps, totally regardless of 
 all the inconveniencies, [101] resulting from their new sit- 
 uation ; except that of being occasionally pent up in forts ; 
 and thus debarred the enjoyment of their favorite pastimes. 
 
 Although hunting was not the object of most of the 
 old settlers, yet it was for a good part of the year, the 
 chief employment of their time. And of all those, who 
 thus made their abode in the dense forest, and tempted ag- 
 gression from the neighboring Indians, none were so well 
 qualified to resist this aggression, and to retaliate upon 
 its authors, as those who were mostly engaged in this 
 pursuit. Of all their avocations, this " mimickry of war" 
 best fitted them to thwart the savages in their purpose, 
 and to mitigate the horrors of their peculiar mode of war- 
 fare. Those arts which enabled them, unperceived to ap- 
 proach the watchful deer in his lair, enabled them like- 
 wise to circumvent the Indian in his ambush ; and if not 
 always punish, yet frequently defeat him in his object. 
 Add to this the perfect knowledge which 4 they acquired 
 of the woods, and the ease and certainty with which 
 they consequently, when occasion required, could make 
 their way to any point of the settlements and apprize the 
 inhabitants of approaching danger ; and it will be readily 
 admitted that the more expert and successful the hunts- 
 man, the more skillful and effective the warrior.
 
 132 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 But various soever, as may have been their objects in 
 emigrating, no sooner had they come together, than there 
 existed in each settlement, a perfect unison of feeling. 
 Similitude of situation and community of danger, operat- 
 ing as a magic charm, stifled in their birth those little 
 bickerings, which are so apt to disturb the quiet of so- 
 ciety. Ambition of preferment and the pride of place, 
 too often lets and hindrances to social intercourse, were 
 unknown among them. Equality of condition rendered 
 them strangers alike, to the baneful distinctions created by 
 wealth and other adventitious circumstances ; and to envy, 
 which gives additional virus to their venom. A sense of 
 mutual dependence for their common security linked 
 them in amity; and conducting their several purposes in 
 harmonious concert, together they toiled and together suf- 
 fered. 
 
 Not all the " pomp and pride and pageantry " of life, 
 could vie with the Arcadian scenes which -encircled the 
 rude cottages of those men. Their hnmble dwellings were 
 the abode of virtues, rarely found in the " cloud capt towers 
 and [102] gorgeous palaces" of splendid ambition. And 
 when peace reigned around them, neither the gaudy trap- 
 pings of wealth, nor the insignia of office, nor the slaked 
 thirst for distinction, could have added to the happiness 
 which they enjoyed. 
 
 In their intercourse with others they were kind, 
 beneficent and disinterested; extending to all, the most 
 generous hospitality which their circumstances could af- 
 ford. That selfishness, which prompts to liberality for the 
 sake of remuneration, and proffers the civilities of life 
 with an eye to individual interest, was unknown to them. 
 They were kind for kindness sake ; and sought no other 
 recompense, than the never failing concomitant of good 
 deeds the reward of an approving conscience. 
 
 It is usual for men in the decline of life, to contrast 
 the scenes which are then being exhibited, with those 
 through which they passed in the days of youth ; and not 
 unfrequently, to moralize on the decay of those virtues, 
 which enhance the enjoyment of life and give to pleasure 
 its highest relish. The mind is then apt to revert to
 
 Of Border Warfare. 133 
 
 earlier times, and to dwell with satisfaction on the man- 
 ners and customs which prevailed in the hey-day of youth. 
 Every change which may have been wrought in them is 
 deemed a deteriorating innovation, and the sentence of 
 their condemnation unhesitatingly pronounced. This is 
 not always, the result of impartial and discriminating 
 judgment. It is perhaps, more frequently founded in 
 prepossession; and based on the prejudices of education 
 and habit. 
 
 On the other hand those who are just entering on the 
 vestibule of life, are prone to give preference to the habits 
 of the present generation ; viewing, too often, with con- 
 temptuous derision, those of the past. Mankind certainly 
 advance in intelligence and refinement; but virtue and 
 happiness do not at all times keep pace with this progress. 
 " To inform the understanding," is not always " to correct 
 and enlarge the heart ;" nor do the blandishments of life 
 invariably add to the sum of moral excellence ; they are 
 often " as dead sea fruit that tempts the eye, but turns to 
 ashes on the lips." While a rough exterior as frequently 
 covers a temper of the utmost benignity, happy in itself 
 and giving happiness to all around. 
 
 Such were the pioneers of this country; and the 
 greater part of mankind might now derive advantage from 
 the [103] contemplation of " their humble virtues, hospita- 
 ble homes and spirits patient, noble, proud and free their 
 self respect, grafted on innocent thoughts ; their days of 
 health and nights of sleep their toils, by danger digni- 
 fied, yet guiltless their hopes of cheerful old age and 
 a quiet grave, with cross and garland over its green turf, 
 and their grand children's love for epitaph."
 
 134 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 [104] CHAPTER VI. 
 
 In the year 1774, the peace, which had subsisted with 
 but little violation since the treaty of 1765, received an in- 
 terruption, which checked for a while the emigration to 
 the North "Western frontier; and involved its infant settle- 
 ments in a war with the Indians. This result has been at- 
 tributed to various causes. Some have asserted that it 
 had its origin in the murder of some Indians on the Ohio 
 river both above and below Wheeling, in the spring of 
 that year. Others suppose it to have been produced by 
 the instigation of British emissaries, and the influence of 
 Canadian traders. 
 
 That it was not caused by the murders at Captina, 
 and opposite the mouth of Yellow creek, 1 is fairly infer- 
 rible from the fact, that several Indians had been pre- 
 viously murdered by the whites in a period of the most 
 profound tranquillity, without having led to a similar is- 
 
 1 Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, represents this as happen- 
 ing at Grave creek, which empties into the Ohio from the south eastern, 
 or Virginia side of this river, twelve miles below Wheeling. Those who 
 lived near at the time and are supposed to have had the best oppor- 
 tunity of ascertaining the fact, say that it happened near the mouth of 
 Captina, a creek sixteen miles below Wheeling, and on the Ohio side. 
 
 Comment by R. G. T. What is called the " Captina affair " happened 
 April 27th, at Pipe Creek, emptying into the Ohio from the west, four- 
 teen miles below Wheeling, and six above Captina Creek. Two friendly 
 Shawnees were killed here by a party commanded by Michael Cresap, 
 of Redstone, who at the time was in the neighborhood of Wheeling, 
 surveying and clearing farms for new settlers. Cresap and his men, 
 among whom was George Rogers Clark, then a young surveyor who had 
 a claim at the mouth of Fish Creek, thereupon started out to destroy 
 Chief Logan's camp, at Baker's Bottom, opposite the mouth of Yellow 
 Creek, fifty-three miles up the Ohio, and forty miles west of Pittsburg 
 by land ; but as Logan was a well-known friend of the whites, they be- 
 came ashamed of their project, and marched on across country to Fort 
 Redstone. Meanwhile, as will be seen in due course, others were pre- 
 paring to destroy Logan's band, and on April 30th occurred that infa- 
 mous massacre which Logan wrongly believed to be Cresap's work.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 135 
 
 sue ; or even given rise to any act of retaliation, on the 
 part of the friends or countrymen of those, who had been 
 thus murdered. 
 
 At different periods of time, between the peace of 
 1765, and the renewal of hostilities in 1774, three Indians 
 were unprovokedly killed by John Ryan, on the Ohio, 
 Monongahela and Cheat rivers. The first who suffered 
 from the unrestrained licentiousness of this man, was an 
 Indian of distinction in his tribe, and known by the name 
 of Capt. Peter ; the other two were private warriors. And 
 but that Governor Dunmore, from the representations 
 made to him, was induced [105] to offer a reward for his 
 apprehension, which caused him to leave the country, 
 Ryan would probably have continued to murder every 
 Indian, with whom he should chance to meet, wandering 
 through the settlements. 
 
 Several Indians were likewise killed on the South 
 Branch, while on a friendly visit to that country, in the 
 interval of peace. This deed is said to have been done 
 by Henry Judah, Nicholas Harpold and their associates ; 
 and when Judah was arrested for the offence, so great was 
 the excitement among those who had suffered from sav- 
 age enmity, that he was rescued from confinement by 
 upwards of two hundred men, collected for that especial 
 purpose. 
 
 The Bald Eagle was an Indian of notoriety, not only 
 among his own nation, but also with the inhabitants of 
 the North "Western frontier; with whom he was in the 
 habit of associating and hunting. In one of his visits 
 among them, he was discovered alone, by Jacob Scott, 
 William Hacker and Elijah Runner, who, reckless of the 
 consequences, murdered him, solely to gratify a most wan- 
 ton thirst for Indian blood. After the commission of this 
 most outrageous enormity, they seated him in the stern 
 of a canoe, and with a piece of journey-cake thrust into 
 his mouth, set him afloat in the Monongahela. In this 
 situation he was seen descending the river, by several, who 
 supposed him to be as usual, returning from a friendly 
 hunt with the whites in the upper settlements, and who 
 expressed some astonishment that he did not stop to see
 
 136 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 them. The canoe floating near to the shore, below the 
 mouth of George's creek, was observed by a Mrs. Prov- 
 ince, who had it brought to the bank, and the friendly, 
 but unfortunate old Indian decently buried. 
 
 Not long after the murder of the Bald Eagle, another 
 outrage of a similar nature was committed on a peaceable 
 Indian, by William White ; and for which he was appre- 
 hended and taken to Winchester for trial. But the fury 
 of the populace did not suffer him to remain there await- 
 ing that event. The prison doors were forced, the irons 
 knocked off him and he again set at liberty. 
 
 But a still more atrocious act is said to have been soon 
 after perpetrated. Until then the murders committed, 
 were only on such as were found within the limits of white 
 settlements, and on men & warriors. In 1772, there is 
 every reason to believe, that women and children like- 
 wise became victims to the exasperated feelings of our 
 [106] own citizens ; and this too, while quietly enjoying 
 the comforts of their own huts, in their own village. 
 
 There was at that time an Indian town on the Little 
 Kenhawa, (called Bulltown) inhabited by five families, who 
 were in habits of social and friendly intercourse with the 
 whites on Buchannon and on Hacker's creek ; frequently 
 visiting and hunting with them. 1 There was likewise re- 
 siding on Gauley river, the family of a German by the 
 name of Stroud. 2 In the summer of that year, Mr. Stroud 
 
 1 Capt. Bull was a Delaware chief whose original village of Oghkwaga 
 was on Unadilla River, an eastern branch of the Susquehanna, in what 
 is now Boone county, N. Y. He had been the prime mover in an at- 
 tempt to interest the Delawares in Pontiac's conspiracy (1763). In 
 March, 1764, a strong party of whites and friendly Indians were sent 
 out to capture him, by Sir William Johnson, English Indian superin- 
 tendent in New York. After a sharp struggle, Bull and a number of 
 his adherents were captured and conveyed in irons to New York City, 
 where they were imprisoned for a time, but finally discharged. The 
 Delaware towns on the Unadilla having been burned, Bull and five 
 families of his relatives settled what the whites called Bulltown, on 
 the Little Kanawha. This was at a salt spring about a mile and a 
 quarter below the present Bulltown P. O., Braxton county, Va. Capt. 
 Bull and his people were inoffensive, and very friendly to their white 
 neighbors, as our author says. R. G. T. 
 
 1 Adam Stroud lived on Elk River, a few miles south of Indian
 
 Of Border Warfare. 137 
 
 being from home, his family were all murdered, his house 
 plundered, and his cattle driven off. The trail made by 
 these leading in the direction of Bulltown, induced the 
 supposition that the Indians of that village had been the 
 authors of the outrage, and caused several to resolve on 
 avenging it upon them. 
 
 A party of five men, (two of whom were "William 
 White and William Hacker, 1 who had been concerned in 
 previous murders) expressed a determination to proceed 
 immediately to Bulltown. The remonstrance of the set- 
 tlement generally, could not operate to effect a change in 
 that determination. They went; and on their return, cir- 
 cumstances justified the belief that the pre-apprehension 
 of those who knew the temper and feelings of White and 
 Hacker, had been well founded; and that there had been 
 some fighting between them and the Indians. And not- 
 withstanding that they denied ever having seen an Indian 
 in their absence, yet it was the prevailing opinion, that 
 they had destroyed all the men, women and children at 
 Bulltown, and threw their bodies into the river. Indeed, 
 
 Bulltown. The massacre of his family his wife and seven children 
 occurred in June, 1772. Shawnees were the murderers, and not Bull's 
 people. K. G. T. 
 
 1 Mr. McWhorter writes me that two others were Jesse Hughes and 
 John Outright (corruption of Cartwright?), both of them settlers on 
 Hacker's Creek. Hughes was a noted border scout, but a man of 
 fierce, unbridled passions, and so confirmed an Indian hater that 
 no tribesman, however peaceful his record, was safe in his presence. 
 Some of the most cruel acts on the frontier are by tradition at- 
 tributed to this man. The massacre of the Bulltown Indians was 
 accompanied by atrocities as repulsive as any reported by captives 
 in Indian camps ; of these there had long been traditions, but details 
 were not fully known until revealed by Outright upon his death-bed 
 in 1852, when he had reached the age of 105 years. Want of space 
 alone prevents me from giving Mr. McWhorter's narrative of Hughes's 
 long and bloody career. " Hughes died," he says, " in Jackson county, 
 W. Va., at a date unknown to me, but in very old age. While he was 
 a great scout aud Indian trader, he never headed an expedition of note. 
 This no doubt was because of his fierce temperament, and bad reputa- 
 tion among his own countrymen." In studying the annals of the bor- 
 der, we must not fail to note that here and there were many savage- 
 hearted men among the white settlers, whose deeds were quite as atro- 
 cious as any attributed to the red-skins. Current histories of Indian 
 warfare seldom recognize this fact. R. G. T.
 
 138 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 one of the party is said to have, inadvertently, used ex- 
 pressions, confirmatory of this opinion ; and to have then 
 justified the deed, by saying that the clothes and other 
 things known to have belonged to Stroud's family, were 
 found in the possession of the Indians. The village was 
 soon after visited, and found to be entirely desolated, and 
 nothing being ever after heard of its former inhabitants, 
 there can remain no doubt but that the murder of Stroud's 
 family, was requited on them. 
 
 Here then was a fit time for the Indians to commence 
 a system of retaliation and war, if they were disposed to 
 engage in hostilities, for offences of this kind alone. Yet 
 no such event was the consequence of the killing of the 
 Bulltown Indians, or of those other murders which pre- 
 ceded that outrage ; and it may be hence rationally con- 
 cluded, that the murders on the Ohio river did not lead to 
 such an event. If however, a doubt should still remain, 
 that doubt is surely removed by the declaration of Logan 
 himself. It was his family that was killed opposite Yel- 
 low creek, about the last of April ; and in the following 
 July (after the expedition against the Wappatomica towns, 
 under Col. McDonald) he says, " the Indiens are not angry 
 on account of those murders, but only myself." The fact 
 is, that hostilities had commenced before the happening 
 of the affair at Captina, or that near Yellow creek ; and 
 these, instead of having produced that event, were the 
 consequence of the previous hostile movements of the In- 
 dians. 
 
 1 107] Those who lived more immediately in the neigh- 
 borhood of the scene of action at that time, were generally 
 of opinion, that the Indians were urged to war by the in- 
 stigation of emissaries from Great Britain, and of the 
 Canadian traders; and, independently of any knowledge 
 which they may have had of the conduct of these, cir- 
 cumstances of a general nature would seem to justify that 
 opinion. 
 
 Tfro' relative situation of the American colonies and 
 the mother country, is matter of general history, and too 
 well known to require being repeated here. It is equally 
 well known too, that from the first establishment of a
 
 Of Border Warfare. 139 
 
 colony in Canada, the Canadians obtained an influence 
 over the Natives, greater than the Anglo-Americans were 
 ever able to acquire ; and that this influence was frequently 
 exercised by them, to the great annoyance, and manifest 
 injury of the latter. France and England have been long 
 considered as natural enemies ; and the inhabitants of their 
 respective plantations in America, entertained strong feel- 
 ings of jealousy towards each other. When by the treaty 
 of Paris, the French possessions in North America (which 
 had not been ceded to Spain,) were transferred to Great 
 Britain, those feelings were not subdued. The Canadians 
 still regarded themselves as a different people. Their na- 
 tional prejudices were too great to be extinguished by an 
 union under the same prince. Under the influence of 
 these prejudices, and the apprehension, that the lucrative 
 commerce of the natives might, by the competition of the 
 English traders, be diverted from its accustomed channels, 
 they may have exerted themselves to excite the Indians to 
 war ; but that alone would hardly have produced this re- 
 sult. There is in man an inherent partiality for self, which 
 leads him to search for the causes of any evil, elsewhere 
 than in his own conduct ; and under the operation of this 
 propensity to assign the burden of wrong to be borne by 
 others, the Jesuits from Canada and Louisiana were cen- 
 sured for the continuation of the war on the part of the 
 Indians, after it had been terminated with their allies by 
 the treaty of 1763. Zet that event was, no doubt, justly 
 attributable to the erection of forts, and the location of 
 land, in the district of country claimed by the natives, in 
 the province of Pennsylvania. And in like manner, the 
 origin of the war of 1774 may fairly be charged to the en- 
 croachments which were then being blade on the Indian 
 territory. To be convinced of this, it is necessary to ad- 
 vert to the promptitude of resistance on the part of the 
 Natives, by which those encroachments were invariably 
 met ; and to recur to events happening in other sections 
 of the country. Events, perhaps no otherwise connected 
 with the history of North Western Virginia, than as they 
 are believed to have been the proximate causes of an hos- 
 tility, eventuating in the effusion of much of its blood;
 
 140 Wit hers 1 s Chronicles 
 
 and pregnant with other circumstances, having an im- 
 portant bearing on its prosperity and advancement. 
 
 In the whole history of America, from the time when 
 it first [108] became apparent that the occupancy of the 
 country was the object of the whites, up to the present 
 period, is there perhaps to be found a solitary instance, in 
 which an attempt, made by the English to effect a settle- 
 ment in a wilderness claimed by the Natives, was not suc- 
 ceeded by immediate acts of hostility on the part of the 
 latter. Every advance of the kind was regarded by them, 
 as tending to effect their expulsion from a country, which 
 they had long considered as their own, and as leading, 
 most probably, to their entire extinction as a people. This 
 excited in them feelings of the most dire resentment; 
 stimulating to deeds of cruelty and murder, at once to 
 repel the encroachment and to punish its authors. Expe- 
 rience of the utter futility of those means to accomplish 
 these purposes, has never availed to repress their use, or 
 to produce an acquiesence in the wrong. Even attempts 
 to extend jurisdiction over a country, the right of soil in 
 which was never denied them, have ever given rise to the 
 most lively apprehensions of their fatal consequences, and 
 prompted to the employment of means to thwart that aim. 
 An Indian sees no difference between the right of empire 
 and the right of domain ; and just as little can he discrim- 
 inate between the right of property, acquired by the actual 
 cultivation of the earth, and that which arises from its ap- 
 propriation to other uses. 
 
 Among themselves they have lines of demarkation, 
 which distinguish the territory of one nation from that of 
 another; and these are of such binding authority, that a 
 transgression of them by neighboring Indians, leads inva- 
 riably to war. In treaties of purchase, and other conven- 
 tional arrangements, made with them by the whites, the 
 validity of their rights to land, have been repeatedly 
 recognized ; and an infraction of those rights by the 
 Anglo-Americans, encounters opposition at its threshold. 
 The history of every attempt to settle a wilderness, to 
 which the Indian title was not previously extinguished.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 141 
 
 has consequently been a history of plunder, conflagration 
 and massacre. 
 
 That the extension of white settlements into the In- 
 dian country, was the cause of the war of 1774, will be 
 abundantly manifested by a recurrence to the early history 
 of Kentucky; and a brief review of the circumstances con- 
 nected with the first attempts to explore and make estab- 
 lishments in it. For several reasons, these circumstances 
 merit a passing notice in this place. Redstone and Fort 
 Pitt (now Brownsville and Pittsburgh) were for some time, 
 the principal points of embarkation for emigrants to that 
 country; many of whom were from the establishments 
 which had been then not long made, on the Monongahela. 
 The Indians, regarding the settlements in North Western 
 Virginia as the line from which swarmed the adventurers 
 to Kentucky, directed their operations to prevent the suc- 
 cess of these adventurers, as well against the inhabitants 
 of the upper country, as against them. While at the same 
 time, in the efforts which were made to compel the Indians 
 to desist from farther opposition, the North Western Vir- 
 ginians frequently combined [109] their forces, and acted 
 in conjunction, the more certainly to accomplish that ob- 
 ject. In truth the war, which was then commenced, and 
 carried on with but little intermission up to the treaty of 
 Fort Greenville in 1795 was a war in which they were 
 equally interested, having for its aim the indiscriminate 
 destruction of the inhabitants of both those sections of 
 country, as the means of preventing the farther extension 
 of settlements by the whites. 1 
 
 1 Lord Dunmore's War (1774) was a natural outgrowth of the 
 strained relations which had long existed between the savages and the 
 white colonists in their midst. As our author has made clear, minor 
 hostilities had broken out here and there ever since the Pontiac upris- 
 ing, but there had been no general campaign since Bouquet's treaty in 
 1764. Affairs had come to that pass by the early spring of 1774, that 
 diplomacy was no longer possible, and an Indian war was inevitable. 
 It was merely a question of detail, as to how and when. The immediate 
 cause of precipitation not the cause of the war, for that lay deeper 
 was the territorial dispute over the Ft. Pitt region, between Virginia 
 and Pennsylvania. Dunmore, as royal governor of Virginia, had sev- 
 eral reasons for bringing matters to a head he was largely interested
 
 142 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 When Kentucky was first begun to be explored, it is 
 said not to have been claimed in individual property by 
 any nation of Indians. Its extensive forests, grassy 
 plains and thick cane brakes, abounding with every variety 
 of game common to such latitudes, were used as common 
 hunting grounds, and considered by them, as open for all 
 who chose to resort to them. The Cherokees, the Chick- 
 asaws, the Cataubas, and the Chicamaugas, from the south 
 east; and the Illinois, the Peorias, the Delawares, the 
 Mingoes and Shawanees from the west, claimed and 
 exercised equal rights and privileges within its limits. 
 When the tribes of those different nations would however 
 meet there, frequent collisions would arise between them ; 
 and so deadly were the conflicts ensuing upon these, that, 
 in conjunction with the gloom of its dense forests, they 
 acquired for it the impressive appellation of " the dark 
 and bloody ground." But frequent and deadly as may 
 have been those conflicts, they sprang from some other 
 cause, than a claim to exclusive property in it. 
 
 In the summer of 1769, Daniel Boone, in company 
 with John Finley (who had previously hunted through 
 the country) and a few other men, entered Kentucky, and 
 travelled over much of its surface, without meeting with 
 
 in land speculations under Virginia patents that would be vitiated if 
 Pennsylvania, now becoming aggressive, should succeed in planting her 
 official machinery at Ft. Pitt, which was garrisoned by Virginia ; again, 
 his colonists were in a revolutionary frame of mind, and he favored a 
 distraction in the shape of a popular Indian war; finally, it seemed as 
 though a successful raid by Virginia militia would clinch Virginia's hold 
 on the country and the treaty of peace that must follow would widen 
 the area of provincial lands and encourage Western settlements. April 
 25, 1774, he issued a proclamation in which, after reference to Penn- 
 sylvania's claims, it was asserted that Ft. Pitt was " in danger of some 
 annoyance from the Indians," and he called on his local military com- 
 mandant, the fire-eating Dr. John Connolly, " to embody a sufficient 
 number of men to repel any insult." Connolly, evidently as part of 
 a preconcerted plan, at once (April 26) issued a circular letter to the ex- 
 cited borderers, which was well calculated to arouse them, being in ef- 
 fect a declaration of war against the Indians. The very next day 
 occurred the Pipe Creek affair, then came the Logan tragedy at Baker's 
 Bottom, three days later, and at once the war was on at full-head. 
 B. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 143 
 
 an Indian, until the December following. 1 At this time 
 Booiie and John Steward (one of his companions,) while 
 on a hunting excursion, were discovered by a party of 
 Indians, who succeeded in making them prisoners. After 
 
 1 Of John Findlay (so he signed his name), " the precursor and 
 pilot of Daniel Boone to Kentucky," but little is known and less has 
 been published. Apparently he was a native of the north of Ireland. 
 In early life he emigrated to the neighborhood of Carlisle, Cumberland 
 county, Pa., a district almost wholly settled by Scotch-Irish Protestants. 
 In February, 1752, we find him a trader among the Shawnees ; the 
 following year, he was robbed and driven off. It is probable that he 
 served in the Pennsylvania frontier militia from the opening of the 
 French and Indian War (1754). Boone met him on the Braddock cam- 
 paign (1755), and they became fast friends. Findlay had already (1752) 
 been in Kentucky as far as the Falls of the Ohio, in the course of his ramb- 
 lings as a trader, and inspired Boone with an intense desire to seek this El 
 Dorado of the West. It was in 1767, when settled near the head of the Yad- 
 kin River, that Boone first tried to reach Kentucky by way of the Sandy, 
 but failed. In the winter of 1768-69, Findlay, now a peddler, with a horse 
 to carry his traps, appeared at Boone's cabin on the Yadkin, and the 
 two old comrades had a happy time rehearsing their various adventures 
 during the thirteen years of separation. An expedition to Kentucky 
 was agreed upon, and the party set out from Boone's cabin, May 1, 1769 ; 
 it was composed of Findlay, now advanced in years, Daniel Boone, the 
 latter's brother-in-law, John Stuart, and three Yadkin neighbors, Jo- 
 seph Holden, James Mooney, and William Cooley. The story of their 
 expedition through Cumberland Gap, and their long hunt, is now famil- 
 iar to readers of Western history. Their principal camp was probably on 
 Red Lick Fork of Station Camp Creek. In December, Stuart and Boone 
 were captured by Indians, but escaped early in January (1770), and on re- 
 joining their comrades on Rockcastle River found that Daniel's brother, 
 Squire, had arrived with fresh horses and traps from the North Carolina 
 home ; and with him was Alexander Neely, whom Squire had found on 
 New (Great Kanawha) River. Findlay, Holden, Mooney, and Cooley 
 now elected to return home, leaving the others to spend a longer period 
 in Kentucky ; Findlay took the left-hand road through the West Vir- 
 ginia settlements, to Pennsylvania, and the others, turning to the right, 
 wended their way to North Carolina through Cumberland Gap. Not 
 long after this, Stuart was killed by Indians, while alone in the woods, 
 and Neely, discouraged by his fate, returned home. The story, often 
 copied from Withers, that Neely was killed by a wolf, is erroneous. As 
 for Findlay, he appears to have again become an Indian trader in West- 
 ern Pennsylvania ; for late in 1771 he is reported to have been robbed 
 of $500 worth of goods, by a Seneca war party raiding the Youghiogheny 
 district. There is a tradition that not long after this he " was lost in the 
 wilds of the West." Holden and Cooley spent the rest of their days on 
 the Upper Yadkin. Mooney was killed at the battle of Point Pleasant 
 (1774). R. G. T.
 
 144 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 a detention of but few days, these men effected their es- 
 cape; & returning to their old camp, found that it had 
 been plundered, and their associates, either killed or taken 
 into captivity. They were shortly after joined by a brother 
 of Daniel Boone and another man, from North Carolina, 
 who were so fortunate in wandering through the wilder- 
 ness, as to discover the only, though temporary residence 
 of civilized man within several hundred miles. But the 
 Indians had become alarmed for the possession of that 
 country ; and fearing that if Boone and Steward should be 
 suffered to escape to the settlements, they might induce 
 others to attempt its permanent occupancy, they sought 
 with vigilance to discover and murder them. They suc- 
 ceeded in killing Steward ; but Daniel Boone and his 
 brother, then the only persons left (the man who came out 
 with the younger Boone having been killed by a wolf,) es- 
 caped from them, and soon after returned to North Caro- 
 lina. 
 
 The Indians were not disappointed in their expecta- 
 tions. The description given of the country by the 
 Boones, soon led others to attempt its settlement ; and in 
 1773, six families and about forty men, all under the 
 guidance of Daniel Boone, commenced their journey [110] 
 to Kentucky with a view of remaining there. Before 
 they proceeded far, they were attacked in the rear by a 
 party of Indians, who had been observing their move- 
 ments ; and who in the first fire killed six of the emi- 
 grants and dispersed their cattle. Notwithstanding that, 
 in the engagement which ensued upon this attack, the 
 assailants were repulsed, yet the adventurers were so 
 afflicted at the loss of their friends, and dispirited by such 
 serious and early opposition, that they abandoned their 
 purpose for a time, and returned to the inhabited parts of 
 Tennessee. 1 
 
 1 The Boones and five other families set out from their homes on the 
 Yadkin, Sept. 25, 1773. In Powell's Valley they were joined by forty 
 people under Boone's brother-in-law, William Bryan. While the main 
 party were slowly advancing through the valley, a small squad, under 
 Boone's oldest son, James, went on a side expedition for flour, cattle, 
 and other supplies. With these they had nearly caught up to the advance,
 
 Of Border Warfare. 145 
 
 The Indians elated with their success in defeating this 
 first attempt at the settlement of Kentucky, and supposing 
 that the route pursued by the party which they had driven 
 back, would be the pass for future adventurers, determined 
 on guarding it closely, and checking, if possible, every 
 similar enterprise. But while their attention was directed 
 to this point, others found their way into the country by 
 a different route and from a different direction. 
 
 The Virginia troops, who had served in the Canadian 
 war, had been promised a bounty in "Western lands. Many 
 of them being anxious to ascertain their value, and deem- 
 ing this a favorable period for the making of surveys, col- 
 lected at Fort Pitt in the fall of 1773 ; and descending the 
 Ohio river to its falls, at Louisville, proceeded from thence 
 to explore the country preparatory to a perfection of their 
 grants. 1 
 
 when, not knowing they were so near, they camped on the evening of 
 October 9 a few miles in the rear. Earl} 1 in the morning of the 10th, 
 a small band of Shawnees and Cherokees, who were nominally at peace 
 with the whites, fell upon and, after cruel tortures, slaughtered them. 
 In Dunmore's speech at Fort Pitt, this tragedy in Powell's Valley was 
 alluded to as one of the chief causes of the Indian war of 1774. At the 
 Camp Charlotte treaty (October, 1774), some of the plunder from this 
 massacre was delivered up by the savages. After the tragedy, the greater 
 part of the Kentucky caravan returned to their homes, but the Boones 
 spent the winter of 1773-74 at a settlement some forty miles distant, on 
 Clinch River. During the Dunmore War, Boone was active as an In- 
 dian fighter. R. G. T. 
 
 1 The leader of this party was Capt. Thomas Bullitt. He was born in 
 Fauquier county, Va., in 1730 ; was one of Washington's captains at the 
 Great Meadows (1754), and fought gallantly with Braddock (1755) and 
 Forbes (1758) ; in 1763, was made adjutant-general of Virginia; during 
 the early part of the Revolution he held the same office in the South- 
 ern Department of the United States, but resigned in 1776 because not 
 promoted ; he died in Fauquier county, in 1778. The project of Frank- 
 lin, Walpole, and others to found the Colony of Pittsylvania, with its 
 seat at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, greatly stimulated Western 
 land speculation, and there was a rush of those holding military land 
 warrants to locate claims. Lord Dunmore's agent at Fort Pitt, Dr. John 
 Connolly with whom his lordship was doubtless in partnership had 
 large interests of this character, and Bullitt went to the Falls of the 
 Ohio (1773) to survey lands for him. Bullitt had a surveyor's commission 
 from Williams and Mary College, but Col. William Preston, county sur- 
 10
 
 146 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 About the same time too, General Thompson of Penn- 
 sylvania, commenced an extensive course of surveys, of 
 the rich land on the North Fork of Licking ; and other 
 individuals following his example, in the ensuing winter 
 the country swarmed with land adventurers and survey- 
 ors. So sensible were they all, that these attempts to 
 appropriate those lands to their own use, would produce 
 acts of hostility, that they went prepared to resist those 
 acts ; and the first party who took up their abode in Ken- 
 tucky, no sooner selected a situation for their residence, 
 than they proceeded to erect a fort for their security. 1 
 The conduct of the Indians soon convinced them that 
 their apprehensions were not ill founded ; and many of 
 them, in consequence of the hostile movements which 
 were being made, and the robberies which were com- 
 mitted, ascended the Ohio river to Wheeling. 
 
 It is not known that any murders were done pre- 
 viously to this, and subsequently to the attack and repulse 
 of the emigrants who were led on by Boone in 1773. This 
 event happened on the tenth day of October ; and it was 
 in April the ensuing year, that the land adventurers re- 
 tired to Wheeling. In this interval of time, nothing 
 could, perhaps, be done by the Indians, but make prepara- 
 tion [111] for hostilities in the spring. Indeed it very 
 rarely happens, that the Indians engage in active war dur- 
 
 veyor for Fincastle county in which Kentucky was then included 
 declined to recognize any but his own deputies. Preston carried his 
 point, and the lands were re-surveyed the following year (1774) by his 
 deputies. Bullitt had laid off a town on this Connolly survey ; but the 
 Revolution soon broke out, Bullitt was otherwise engaged, Dunmore was 
 deposed, Connolly was imprisoned, and the scheme fell through. In 1778, 
 George Rogers Clark camped at the Falls on his way to the Illinois, and 
 the garrison he established there grew into the town of Louisville. 
 With Bullitt's surveying party in 1773, were James Douglas, James Har- 
 rod, James Sodousky, Isaac Kite, Abraham Haptonstall, Ebenezer 
 Severns, John Fitzpatrick, John Cowan, prominent names in later Ken- 
 tucky history, and possibly others. George Rogers Clark was probably 
 with the party during a part of its canoe voyage down the Ohio, but 
 seems to have gone no farther than Big Bone Creek. R. G. T. 
 
 1 This was done by a party of men from the Monongahela, under 
 the guidance of James Harrod ; by whom was built the first cabin for 
 human habitancy ever erected in Kentucky. This was on the present 
 site of Harrodsburg.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 147 
 
 ing the winter ; and there is, moreover, a strong presump- 
 tion, that they were for some time ignorant of the fact 
 that there were adventurers in the country; and conse- 
 quently, they knew of no object there, on which their hos- 
 tile intentions could operate. Be this as it may, it is cer- 
 tain that, from the movements of the Indians at the close 
 of the winter, the belief was general, that they were as- 
 suming a warlike attitude, and meditating a continuance 
 of hostilities. War was certainly begun on their part, 
 when Boone and his associates, were attacked and driven 
 back to the settlement ; and if it abated for a season, that 
 abatement was attributable to other causes, than a disposi- 
 tion to remain quiet and peaceable, while the country was 
 being occupied by the w hites. 
 
 If other evidence were wanting, to prove the fact that 
 the war of 1774 had its origin in a determination of the 
 Indians to repress the extension of white settlements, it 
 could be found in the circumstance, that although it was 
 terminated by the treaty with Lord Dunmore, yet it re- 
 vived as soon as attempts were again made to occupy 
 Kentucky, and was continued with increased ardour, 'till 
 the victory obtained over them by General Wayne. For, 
 notwithstanding that in the struggle for American liberty, 
 those Indians became the allies of Great Britain, yet when 
 independence was acknowledged, and the English forces 
 withdrawn from the colonies, hostilities were still carried 
 on by them ; and, as was then well understood, because of 
 the continued operation of those causes, which produced 
 the war of 1774. That the Canadian traders and British 
 emissaries, prompted, the Indians to aggression, and ex- 
 tended to them every aid which they could, to render that 
 aggression more effectually oppressive and overwhelming, 
 is readily admitted. Yet this would not have led to a 
 war, but for the encroachments which have been men- 
 tioned. French influence, united to the known jealousy 
 of the Natives, would have been unavailingly exerted to 
 array the Indians against Virginia, at the commencement 
 of Braddock's war, but for the proceedings of the Ohio 
 company, and the fact that the Pennsylvania traders rep- 
 resented the object of that association to be purely terri-
 
 148 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 torial. And equally fruitless would have been their en- 
 deavor to involve them in a contest [112] with Virginians 
 at a later period, but for a like manifestation of an inten- 
 tion to encroach on their domain. 
 
 In the latter end of April 1774, a party of land advent- 
 urers, who had fled from the dangers which threatened 
 them below, came in collision with some Indians, near the 
 mouth of Captina, sixteen miles below Wheeling. A slight 
 skirmish ensued, which terminated in the discomfiture of 
 the whites, notwithstanding they had only one man 
 wounded, and one or two of the enemy were killed. 
 About the same time, happened the affair opposite the 
 mouth of Yellow creek ; a stream emptying into the Ohio 
 river from the northwest, nearly midway between Pitts- 
 burg and Wheeling. 1 
 
 In consequence of advices received of the menacing 
 conduct of the Indians, Joshua Baker (who lived at this 
 place) was preparing, together with his neighbors, to re- 
 tire for safety, into some of the nearer forts, or to go to 
 the older and more populous settlements, remote from 
 danger. There was at that time a large party of Indians, 
 encamped on both sides of Yellow creek, at its entrance 
 into the river; and although in their intercourse at 
 Baker's, they had not manifested an intention of speedily 
 commencing depredations, yet he deemed his situation in 
 the immediate contiguity of them, as being far from se- 
 cure, and was on the eve of abandoning it, when a party 
 of whites, who had just collected at his house, n'red upon 
 and killed some Indians, who were likewise there. Among 
 them were the brother and daughter of the celebrated 
 chief, Logan. 2 
 
 1 These are the Pipe Creek and Baker's Bottom affairs, respectively 
 mentioned on pp. 134, 149, notes. Yellow Creek, opposite Baker's Bot- 
 tom, empties into the Ohio 51 miles below Pittsburg; Wheeling is 91 
 miles below Pittsburg, and Pipe Creek 104. R. G. T. 
 
 "There is some difficulty in fixing on the precise time when these 
 occurrences happened. Col. Ebenezer Zane says that they took place 
 in the latter part of April, and that the affair at Captina preceded the 
 one at Yellow creek a few days. John Sappington, who was of the party 
 at Baker's, and is said to be the one who killed Logan's brother, says, 
 the murders at that place occurred on the 24th of May, and that the
 
 Of Border Warfare. 149 
 
 In justification of this conduct it has been said, that 
 on the preceding evening a squaw came over from the en- 
 campment and informed Mrs. Baker that the Indians 
 meditated the murder of her family on the next day ; and 
 that before the firing [113] at Baker's, two canoes, con- 
 skirmish at Captina was on the day before (23rd May.) Col. Andrew 
 Swearingen, a presbyterian gentleman of much respectability, one of 
 the early settlers near the Ohio above Wheeling, and afterwards inti- 
 mate with those engaged at both places, says that the disturbance oppo- 
 site Yellow creek preceded the engagement [113] at Captina, and that the 
 latter, as was then generally understood, was caused by the conduct of 
 the Indians, who had been at Yellow creek and were descending the 
 river, exasperated at the murder of their friends at Baker's. Mr. Ben- 
 jamin Tomlinson, who was the brother-in-law of Baker and living with 
 him at the time, says that this circumstance happened in May, but is 
 silent as to the one at Captina. These gentlemen all agree in the fact 
 that Logan's people were murdered at Baker's. Indeed Logan himself 
 charges it as having been done there. The statement of Sappington, 
 that the murders were caused by the abusive epithets of Logan's 
 brother and his taking the hat and coat of Baker's brother in law is 
 confirmed by Col. Swearingen and others ; who also say that for some 
 days previous, the neighborhood generally had been engaged in prepar- 
 ing to leave the country, in consequence of the menacing conduct of 
 the Indians. 
 
 Comment by R. G. T. The date is now well established April 30. 
 Withers is altogether too lenient, in his treatment of the whites en- 
 gaged in this wretched massacre. Logan, encamped at the mouth of 
 Yellow River, on the Ohio side, was a peaceful, inoffensive Indian, 
 against whom no man harbored a suspicion ; he was made a victim of 
 race hatred, in a time of great popular excitement. Joshua Baker, who 
 was settled opposite him on Baker's Bottom, in Virginia, kept a low 
 grog-shop tavern, and had recently been warned not to sell more liquor 
 to Indians. Daniel Greathouse lived in the vicinity a cruel, blood- 
 thirsty fellow, who served Connolly as a local agent in fomenting hatred 
 of Indians. It will be remembered (p. 134, note) that Cresap's party were 
 intending to strike the camp of Logan, but that they abandoned the 
 project. In the meantime, probably without knowledge of Cresap's in- 
 tent, Greathouse had collected a party of 32 borderers to accomplish the 
 same end. Logan's camp seemed too strong for them to attack openly ; 
 so they secreted themselves in Baker's house, and when Logan's family, 
 men and women, came over to get their daily grog, and were quite 
 drunk, set upon them and slew and tomahawked nine or ten. The 
 chief, standing on the Ohio bank, heard the uproar and witnessed the 
 massacre ; he naturally supposed that the murderers were led by Cresap. 
 From a friend of the whites, Logan became their implacable enemy, 
 and during the ensuing war his forays were the bloodiest on the bor- 
 der. We shall hear of him and his famous speech, later on.
 
 150 Withers 's Chronicles 
 
 taining Indians painted and armed for war, were seen to 
 leave the opposite shore. Under these circumstances, an 
 apparently slight provocation, and one, which would not 
 perhaps have been, otherwise heeded, produced the fatal 
 result. As the canoes approached the shore, the party 
 from Baker's commenced firing on them, and notwith- 
 standing the opposition made by the Indians, forced them 
 to retire. 
 
 An interval of quiet succeeded the happening of these 
 events; but it was as the solemn stillness which precedes 
 the eruption of an earthquake, when a volcanic explosion 
 has given notice of its approach; rendered more awful 
 by the uncertainty where its desolating influence would 
 be felt. It was however, a stillness of but short duration. 
 The gathering storm .soon burst over the devoted heads 
 of those, who had neglected to seek a shelter from its 
 wrath. The traders in the Indian country were the first 
 victims sacrificed on the altar of savage ferocity ; and a 
 general massacre of all the whites found among them, 
 quickly followed. A young man, discovered near the falls 
 of Muskingum and within sight of White Eyes town, was 
 murdered, scalped ; literally cut to pieces, and the man- 
 gled members of his body, hung up on trees. White Eyes, 
 a chief of the friendly Delawares, hearing the scalp halloo, 
 went out with a party of his men ; and seeing what had 
 been done, collected the scattered limbs of the young man, 
 and buried them. On the next day, they were torn from 
 the ground, severed into smaller pieces, and thrown dis- 
 persedly at greater distances from each other. 
 
 [114] Apprized of impending danger, many of the 
 inhabitants on the frontiers of North Western Virginia, 
 retired into the interior, before any depredations were 
 committed, in the upper country ; some took refuge in 
 forts which had been previously built ; while others, col- 
 lecting together at particular houses, converted them into 
 temporary fortresses, answering well the purposes of pro- 
 tection, to those who sought shelter in them. Fort Red- 
 stone, which had been erected after the successful expedi- 
 tion of General Forbes ; and Fort Pitt, at the confluence of 
 the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, afforded an asylum
 
 Of Border Warfare. 151 
 
 to many. Several private forts were likewise established 
 in various parts of the country ; l and every thing which 
 individual exertion could effect, to ensure protection to the 
 border inhabitants, was done. 
 
 Nor did the colonial government of Virginia neglect 
 the security of her frontier citizens. When intelligence 
 of the hostile disposition of the Natives, reached Williams- 
 burg, the house of Burgesses was in session ; and measures 
 were immediately adopted, to prevent massacres, and to 
 restore tranquillity. That these objects might be the 
 more certainly accomplished, it was proposed by General 
 Andrew Lewis (then a delegate from Bottetourt,) to or- 
 ganize a force, sufficient to overcome all intermediate op- 
 position, and to carry the war into the enemy's country. 
 In accordance to this proposition, orders were issued by 
 Governor Dunmore for raising the requisite number of 
 troops, and for making other necessary preparations for 
 the contemplated campaign ; the plan of which was con- 
 certed by the Governor, Gen. Lewis and Colonel Charles 
 Lewis (then a delegate from Augusta.) But as some time 
 must necessarily have elapsed before the consummation of 
 the preparations which were being made ; and as much 
 individual suffering might result from the delays unavoid- 
 ably incident to the raising, equipping and [115] organizing 
 a large body of troops, it was deemed advisable to take 
 some previous and immediate step to prevent the invasion 
 of exposed and defenceless portions of the country. The 
 best plan for the accomplishment of this object was believed 
 to be, the sending of an advance army into the Indian 
 country, of sufficient strength to act offensively, before a 
 confederacy could be formed of the different tribes, and 
 their combined forces be brought into the field. A sense 
 
 1 It was then that "Westfall's and Casinoe's forts were erected in 
 Tygart's valley, Pricket's, on Pricket's creek, Jackson's on Ten Mile, 
 and Shepherd's on Wheeling creek, a few miles above its mouth. There 
 were also others established in various parts of the country and on the 
 Monongahela and Ohio rivers. Nutter's fort, near to Clarksburg, 
 afforded protection to the inhabitants on the West Fork, from its source, 
 to its confluence with the Valley river; and to those who lived on 
 Buchannon and on Hacker's creek, as well as to the residents of its im- 
 mediate vicinity.
 
 152 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 of the exposed situation of their towns in the presence of 
 an hostile army, requiring the entire strength of every 
 village for its defence, would, it was supposed, call home 
 those straggling parties of warriors, by which destruction 
 is so certainly dealt to the helpless and unprotected. In 
 conformity with this part of the plan of operations, four 
 hundred men, to be detailed from the militia west of the 
 mountains, were ordered to assemble at Wheeling as soon 
 as practicable. And in the mean time, lest the surveyors 
 and land adventurers, who were then in Kentucky, might 
 be discovered and fall a prey to the savages, Daniel Boone 
 was sent by the Governor to the falls of Ohio, to conduct 
 them home from thence, through the wilderness; the only 
 practicable road to safety, the Ohio river being so effectu- 
 ally guarded as to preclude the hope of escaping up it. 1 
 
 1 June 20, Col. William Preston, having charge of the defenses of 
 Fincastle county, authorized Capt. William Russell to employ two faith- 
 ful woodsmen to go to Kentucky and inform the several surveying parties 
 at work there, of their danger. June 26, Russell replied, " I have en- 
 gaged to start immediately on the occasion, two of the best hands I 
 could think of Daniel Boone and Michael Stoner; who have engaged 
 to reach the country as low as the Falls, and to return by way of Gas- 
 per's Lick on Cumberland, and through Cumberland Gap ; so that, by 
 the assiduity of these men, if it is not too late, I hope the gentlemen 
 will be apprized of the imminent danger they are daily in." 
 
 Boone and Stoner journeyed overland to Harrodsburg, where Col. 
 James Harrod and thirty men were making improvements and laying 
 out the town. The thrifty Boone secured a good lot, hastily built a 
 claim cabin, and proceeded on his tour. At Fontaine Blue, three miles 
 below Harrodsburg, the two scouts found another party of surveyors, 
 whom they warned ; and in going down the Kentucky River came across 
 Capt. John Floyd's surveying party, eight men, who had left Preston's 
 house for Kentucky, April 9, who agreed to meet, them farther down 
 the river. But circumstances prevented a reunion, and Floyd's band 
 penetrated through the wilderness on their own account, and had a 
 painful journey of sixteen days' duration before reaching Russell's Fort 
 on Clinch River. Meanwhile, Boone and Stoner descended to the mouth 
 of the Kentucky, and thence to the Falls of the Ohio, and found more 
 surveyors at Mann's Lick, four miles southeast. Indians were making 
 bloody forays through the district, and the scouts had frequent thrilling 
 adventures. Finally, after having been absent sixty-one days and trav- 
 elled 800 miles, they reached Russell's on the Clinch, in safety. Russell 
 was absent on the Point Pleasant campaign, and Boone set out with a 
 party of recruits to reinforce him, but was ordered back to defend the 
 Clinch settlements. He was busy at this task until the close of the war.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 153 
 
 Early in June, the troops destined to make an incur- 
 sion into the Indian country, assembled at Wheeling, and 
 being placed under the command of Colonel Angus Mc- 
 Donald, descended the Ohio to the mouth of Captina. 
 Debarking, at this place, from their boats and canoes, they 
 took up their march to Wappatomica, an Indian town 
 on the Muskingum. The country through which the army 
 had to pass, was one unbroken forest, presenting many ob- 
 stacles to its speedy advance, not the least of which was 
 the difficulty of proceeding directly to the point proposed. 1 
 To obviate this, however, they were accompanied by three 
 persons in the capacity of guides; 2 whose knowledge of 
 the woods, and familiarity with those natural indices, which 
 so unerringly mark the direction of the principal points, 
 enabled them to pursue the direct course. When they had 
 approached within six miles of the town, the [116] army 
 encountered an opposition from a party of fifty or sixty 
 Indians lying in ambush; and before these could be dis- 
 lodged, two whites were killed, and eight orten wounded ; 
 one Indian was killed, and several wounded. They then 
 proceeded to Wappatomica without further molestation.* 
 
 When the army arrived at the town, it was found to 
 be entirely deserted. Supposing that it would cross the 
 river, the Indians had retreated to the opposite bank, and 
 concealing themselves behind trees and fallen timber, were 
 awaiting that movement in joyful anticipation of a suc- 
 
 He was present at the Watauga treaty, March 17, 1775 ; later that year, he 
 led another band to Kentucky, and early in April built Fort Boone, on 
 Kentucky River, "a little below Big Lick," the nucleus of the Henderson 
 colony. R. G. T. 
 
 1 The party numbered about four hundred men. The line of march 
 was about ninety miles in length, as estimated by the zig-zag course 
 pursued. R. G. T. 
 
 2 They were Jonathan Zane, Thomas Nicholson and Tady Kelly. A 
 better woodsman than the first named of these three, perhaps never 
 lived. 
 
 3 Doddridge locates Wapatomica " about sixteen miles below the 
 present Coshocton." Butterfield (History of the Girtys) places it "just 
 below the present Zanesville, in Logan county, Ohio, not a great distance 
 from Mac-a-cheek." For localities of Indian towns on the Muskingum, 
 see map in St. John de Creve Coeur's Lettres d'un Cultivateur Americain 
 (Paris, 1787), III., p. 413. R. G. T.
 
 154 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 cessful surprise. Their own anxiety and the prudence 
 of the commanding officer, however, frustrated that ex- 
 pectation. Several were discovered peeping from their 
 covert, watching the motion of the army ; and Colonel 
 McDonald, suspecting their object, and apprehensive that 
 they would recross the river and attack him in the rear, 
 stationed videttes above and below, to detect any such 
 purpose, and to apprise him of the first movement to- 
 wards effecting it. Foiled by these prudent and precau- 
 tionary measures and seeing their town in possession of 
 the enemy, with no prospect of wresting it from them, 
 'till destruction would have done its work, the Indians 
 sued for peace ; and the commander of the expedition 
 consenting to negotiate with them, if he could be assured 
 of their sincerity, five chiefs were sent over as hostages, 
 and the army then crossed the river, with these in front. 
 
 When a negotiation was begun, the Indians asked, 
 that one of the hostages might be permitted to go and 
 convoke the other chiefs, whose presence, it was alleged, 
 would be necessary to the ratification of a peace. One 
 was accordingly released ; and not returning at the time 
 specified, another was then sent, who in like manner failed 
 to return. Colonel McDonald, suspecting some treachery, 
 marched forward to the next town, above Wappatomica, 
 where another slight engagement took place, in which 
 one Indian was killed and one white man wounded. It 
 was then ascertained, that the time which should have 
 been spent in collecting the other chiefs, preparatory to 
 negotiation, had been employed in removing their old 
 men, their women and children, together with what prop- 
 erty could be readily taken off, and for making prepara- 
 tions for a combined attack on the Virginia troops. To 
 punish this duplicity and to render peace really desirable, 
 Col. McDonald burned their towns and destroyed their 
 crops; [117] and being then in want of provisions, retraced 
 his steps to Wheeling, taking with him the three remain- 
 ing hostages, who were then sent on to Williamsburg. 1 
 
 1 John Hargus, a private in Capt. Cresap's company, while stationed 
 as a videttc below the main army, observed an Indian several times 
 raising his head above his blind, and looking over the river. Charging
 
 Of Border Warfare. 155 
 
 The inconvenience of supplying provisions to an army 
 in the wilderness, was a serious obstacle to the success of 
 expeditions undertaken against the Indians. The want 
 of roads, at that early period, which would admit of trans- 
 portation in wagons, rendered it necessary to resort to 
 pack horses; and such was at times the difficulty of pro- 
 curing these, that, not unfrequently, each soldier had to 
 be the bearer of his entire stock of subsistence for the 
 whole campaign. When this was exhausted, a degree 
 of suffering ensued, often attended with consequences 
 fatal to individuals, and destructive to the objects of the 
 expedition. In the present case, the army being without 
 provisions before they left the Indian towns, their only 
 sustenance consisted of weeds, an ear of corn each day, 
 and occasionally, a small quantity of venison : it being im- 
 practicable to hunt game in small parties, because of the 
 vigilance and success of the Indians, in watching and cut- 
 ting off detachments of this kind, before they could ac- 
 complish their purpose and regain the -main army. 
 
 No sooner had the troops retired from the Indian 
 country, than the savages, in small parties, invaded the 
 settlements in different directions, seeking opportunities 
 of gratifying their insatiable thirst for blood. And al- 
 though the precautions which had been taken, lessened the 
 frequency of their success, yet they did not always prevent 
 it. Persons leaving the forts on any occasion, were almost 
 always either murdered or carried into captivity, a lot 
 sometimes worse than death itself. 
 
 Perhaps the first of these incursions into North West- 
 ern Virginia, after the destruction of the towns on the 
 Muskingum, was that made by a party of eight Indians, 
 at the head of which was the Cayuga chief Logan. 1 This 
 
 his rifle with a second ball, he fired, and both bullets passed through 
 the neck of the Indian, who was found next day and scalped by 
 Hargus. 
 
 1 Logan was the son of Shikellemus, a celebrated chief of the Cayuga 
 nation, who dwelt at Shamokin, and always attached to the [118] English, 
 was of much service to them on many occasions. After the close of 
 Dunmore's war, Logan became gloomy and melancholy, drank freely 
 and manifested symptoms of mental derangement. He remained some 
 time at Detroit, and while there, his conduct and expressions evinced a
 
 156 Withers s Chronicles 
 
 very celebrated [118] Indian is represented as having 
 hitherto, observed towards the whites, a course of conduct 
 by no means in accordance with the malignity and stead- 
 fast implacability which influenced his red brethren gen- 
 erally ; but was, on the contrary, distinguished by a sense 
 of humanity, and a just abhorrence of those cruelties so fre- 
 quently inflicted on the innocent and unoffending, as well 
 as upon those who were really obnoxious to savage enmity. 
 Such indeed were the acts of beneficence which characterized 
 him, and so great his partiality for the English, that the 
 finger of his brethren would point to his cabin as the res- 
 idence of Logan, " the friend of white men." " In the 
 course of the French war, he remained at home, idle and 
 inactive;" opposed to the interference of his nation, "an 
 advocate for peace." When his family fell before the fury 
 of exasperated men, he felt himself impelled to avenge their 
 deaths ; and exchanging the pipe of peace, for the toma- 
 hawk of war, became active in seeking opportunities to 
 glut his vengeance. 1 With this object in view, at 
 the head of the party which has been mentioned, he 
 traversed the county from the Ohio to the West Fork, 
 before an opportunity was presented him of achieving any 
 mischief. Their distance from what was supposed would 
 be the theatre of war, had rendered the inhabitants of that 
 section of country, comparatively inattentive to their 
 safety. Relying on the expectation that the first blow 
 would be struck on the Ohio, and that they would have 
 sufficient notice of this to prepare for their own security, 
 before danger could reach them, many had continued to 
 perform the ordinary business of their farms. 
 
 On the 12th day of July, as William Robinson, Thomas 
 Hellen and Coleman Brown were pulling flax in a field op- 
 posite the mouth of Simpson's creek, Logan and his party 
 approached unperceived and fired at them. Brown fell 
 
 weariness of the world. Life he said had become a burden to him, 
 he knew no more what pleasure was, and thought it had been better 
 if he had never existed. In this disponding and disconsolate condition 
 he left Detroit, and on his way between that place and Miami, is said 
 to have been murdered. 
 
 1 See p. 149, note, for account of the massacre. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 157 
 
 instantly; his body perforated by several balls; and Hellen 
 and Robinson [119] unscathed, sought safety in flight. 
 Hellen being then an old man, was soon overtaken and 
 made captive; but Robinson, with the elasticity of youth, 
 ran a considerable distance before he was taken ; and but 
 for an untoward accident might have effected an escape. 
 Believing that he was outstripping his pursuers, and 
 anxious to ascertain the fact, he looked over his shoulder, 
 but before he discovered the Indian giving chase, he ran 
 with such violence against a tree, that he fell, stunned by 
 the shock and lay powerless and insensible. In this situ- 
 ation he was secured with a cord; and when he revived, 
 was taken back to the place where the Indians had Hellen 
 in confinement, and where lay the lifeless body of Brown. 
 They then set off to their towns, taking with them a horse 
 which belonged to Hellen. 
 
 When they had approached near enough to be dis- 
 tinctly heard, Logan (as is usual with them after a suc- 
 cessful scout,) gave the scalp halloo, and several warriors 
 came out to meet them, and conducted the prisoners into 
 the village. Here they passed through the accustomed 
 ceremony of running the guantlet ; but with far different 
 fortunes. Robinson, having been previously instructed by 
 Logan (who from the time he made him his prisoner, mani- 
 fested a kindly feeling towards him,) made his way, with 
 but little interruption, to the council house; but poor Hel- 
 len, from the decrepitude of age, and his ignorance of 
 the fact that it was a place of refuge, was sadly beaten 
 before he arrived at it ; and when he at length came near 
 enough, he was knocked down with a war club, before he 
 could enter. After he had fallen, they continued to beat 
 and strike him with such unmerciful severity, that he 
 would assuredly have fallen a victim to their barbarous 
 usage, but that Robinson (at some peril for the interference) 
 reached forth his hand and drew him within the sanctuary. 
 When he had however, recovered from the effects of the 
 violent beating which he had received, he was relieved 
 from the apprehension of farther suffering, by being 
 adopted into an Indian family. 
 
 A council was next convoked to resolve on the fate
 
 158 Withers 1 s Chronicles 
 
 of Robinson ; and then arose in his breast, feelings of the 
 most anxious inquietude. Logan assured him, that he 
 should not be killed; but the council appeared determined 
 that he should die, and he was tied to the stake. Logan 
 then addressed them, and with much vehemence, insisted 
 that Robinson too should be spared; and had the elo- 
 quence displayed on that occasion been less than Logan is 
 believed to have possessed, [120] it is by no means won- 
 derful that he appeared to Robinson (as he afterwards 
 said) the most powerful orator he ever heard. But com- 
 manding as his eloquence might have been, it seems not 
 to have prevailed with the council ; for Logan had to in- 
 terpose otherwise than by argument or entreaty, to succeed 
 in the attainment of his object. Enraged at the perti- 
 nacity with which the life of Robinson was sought to be 
 taken, and reckless of the consequences, he drew the tom- 
 ahawk from his belt, and severing the cords which bound 
 the devoted victim to the stake, led him in triumph, to 
 the cabin of an old squaw, by whom he was immediately 
 adopted. 
 
 After this, so long as Logan remained in the town 
 where Robinson was, he was kind and attentive to him ; 
 and when preparing to go again to war, got him to write 
 the letter which was afterwards found on Holstein at the 
 house of a Mr. Robertson, whose family were all mur- 
 dered by the Indians. Robinson remained with his adopted 
 mother, until he was redeemed under the treaty concluded 
 at the close of the Dunmore campaign.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 159 
 
 [121] CHAPTER VII. 
 
 When information of the hostile deportment of the 
 Indians was carried to Williamsburg, Col. Charles Lewis 
 sent a messenger with the intelligence to Capt. John 
 Stuart, and requesting of him, to apprize the inhabitants 
 on the Greenbrier river that an immediate war was an- 
 ticipated, and to send out scouts to watch the warrior's 
 paths beyond the settlements. The vigilance and activity 
 of Capt. Stuart, were exerted with some success, to pre- 
 vent the re-exhibition of those scenes which had been 
 previously witnessed on Muddy creek and in the Big 
 Levels : but they could not avail to repress them alto- 
 gether. 
 
 In the course of the preceding spring, some few indi- 
 viduals had begun to make improvements on the Kenhawa 
 river below the Great Falls ; and some land adventurers, 
 to examine and survey portions of the adjoining country. 
 To these men Capt. Stuart despatched an express, to in- 
 form them that apprehensions were entertained of im- 
 mediate irruptions being made upon the frontiers by the 
 Indians, and advising them to remove from the position 
 which they then occupied ; as from its exposed situation, 
 without great vigilance and alertness, they must necessarily 
 fall a prey to the savages. 
 
 When the express arrived at the cabin of Walter 
 Kelly, twelve miles below the falls, Capt. John Field of 
 Culpepper (who had been in active service during the 
 French war, and was then engaged in making surveys,) 
 was there with a young Scotchman and a negro woman. 
 Kelly with great prudence, directly sent his family to 
 Greenbrier, under the care of a younger brother. But 
 Capt. Field, considering the apprehension as groundless, 
 determined on remaining with Kelly, who from prudential 
 motives did not wish to subject himself to observation by
 
 160 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 mingling with others. 1 Left with no persons but the 
 Scotchman and negro, they were not long permitted to 
 doubt the reality of those dangers, of which they had been 
 forewarned by Capt Stuart. 
 
 [122] Very soon after Kelly's family had left the cabin, 
 and while yet within hearing of it, a party of Indians ap- 
 proached, unperceived, near to Kelly and Field, who were 
 engaged in drawing leather from a tan trough in the yard. 
 The first intimation which Field had of their approach 
 was the discharge of several guns and the fall of Kelly. 
 He then ran briskly towards the house to get possession 
 of a gun, but recollecting that it was unloaded, he changed 
 his course, and sprang into a cornfield which screened him 
 from the observation of the Indians; who, supposing that 
 he had taken shelter in the cabin, rushed immediately into 
 it. Here they found the Scotchman and the negro woman, 
 the latter of whom they killed; and making prisoner of 
 the young man, returned and scalped Kelly. 
 
 When Kelly's family reached the Greenbrier settle- 
 ment, they mentioned their fears for the fate of those 
 whom they had left on the Kenhawa, not doubting but 
 that the guns which they heard soon after leaving the 
 house, had been dischaaged at them by Indians. Capt. 
 Stuart, with a promptitude which must ever command ad- 
 miration, exerted himself effectually to raise a volunteer 
 corps, and proceed to the scene of action, with the view 
 of ascertaining whether the Indians had been there ; and 
 if they had, and he could meet with them, to endeavor to 
 punish them for the outrage, and thus prevent the repeti- 
 tion of similar deeds of violence. 
 
 They had not however gone far, before they were met 
 by Capt. Field, whose appearance of itself fully told the 
 tale of woe. He had ran upwards of eighty miles, naked 
 except his shirt, and without food ; his body nearly ex- 
 hausted by fatigue, anxiety and hunger, and his limbs 
 greviously lacerated with briers and brush. Captain 
 
 1 He is said to have committed some offence, in the upper part of 
 South Carolina, which rendered him obnoxious to the laws of that 
 colony, and to evade the punishment for which, he had fled to the 
 wilderness and taken up his abode in it.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 161 
 
 Stuart, fearing lest the success of the Indians might in- 
 duce them to push immediately for the settlements, 
 thought proper to return and prepare for that event. 
 
 In a few weeks after this another party of Indians 
 came to the settlement on Muddy creek, and as if a cer- 
 tain fatality attended the Kelly's, they alone fell victims 
 to the incursion. As the daughter of "Walter Kelly was 
 walking with her uncle (who had conducted the family 
 from the Kenhawa) some distance from the house, which 
 had been converted into a temporary fort, and in which 
 they lived, they were discovered and fired upon ; the latter 
 was killed and scalped, and the former being overtaken in 
 her flight, was carried into captivity. 
 
 After the murder of Brown, and the taking of Hellen 
 and Robinson, the inhabitants on the Monongahela and 
 its upper branches, alarmed for their safety, retired into 
 forts. But in the ensuing September, as Josiah Pricket 
 and Mrs. Susan Ox, who had left Pricket's fort for the 
 purpose of driving up their cows, were returning in the 
 evening they were way laid by a party of Indians, who 
 had been drawn to the path by the tinkling of the cow- 
 bell. Pricket was killed and scalped, and Mrs. Ox taken 
 prisoner. 
 
 [123] It was in the course of this season, that Lewis 
 Wetsel 1 first gave promise of that daring and discretion, 
 which were so full}* developed in his maturer years, and 
 which rendered him among the most fortunate and suc- 
 cessful of Indian combatants. When about fourteen years 
 old, he and his brother Jacob, (still younger) were discov- 
 
 1 Lewis Wetzel, the son of a German settler on Wheeling Creek, some 
 fourteen miles above its mouth, was born about 1764. He and his broth- 
 ers Martin, Jacob, John, and George became famous in border warfare 
 after the close of the Revolution ; the annals of the frontier abound in 
 tales of their hardy achievements. Martin and Lewis were the heroes 
 of most remarkable escapes from Indian captivity; John was also famous 
 as an Indian fighter ; and Jacob's name will ever be connected with the 
 exploits of that other great border scout, Simon Kenton. But of all the 
 brothers, Lewis achieved the widest celebrity, and two biographies of 
 him have been published: by Cecil B. Hartley (Phila., 1860), and by 
 R. C. V. Meyers (Phila., 1883). R. G. T. 
 11
 
 162 Withers 1 's Chronicles 
 
 ered some distance from the house, by a party of Indians, 
 who had been prowling through the settlements on the 
 Ohio river, with the expectation of fortunately meeting 
 with some opportunity of taking scalps or making prison- 
 ers. As the boys were at some distance from them, and in 
 a situation too open to admit of their being approached 
 without perceiving those who should advance towards 
 them, the Indians determined on shooting the larger one, 
 lest his greater activity might enable him to escape. A 
 shot was accordingly discharged at him, which, partially 
 taking effect and removing a portion of his breast bone, so 
 far deprived him of his wonted powers, that he was easily 
 overtaken ; and both he and his brother were made pris- 
 oners. The Indians immediately directed their steps 
 towards their towns, and having travelled about twenty 
 miles beyond the Ohio river, encamped at the Big Lick, 
 on the waters of McMahon's creek, on the second night 
 after they had set off. When they had finished eating, 
 the Indians laid down, without confining the boys as on 
 the preceding night, and soon fell to sleep. After making 
 some little movements to test the soundness of their repose, 
 Lewis whispered to his brother that he must get up and go 
 home with him ; and after some hesitation on the part of 
 Jacob, they arose and set off. Upon getting about 100 
 yards from the camp, Lewis stopped, and telling his 
 brother to await there, returned to the camp and brought 
 from thence a pair of mocasons for each of them. He then 
 observed, that he would again go back and get his father's 
 gun ; this he soon effected, and they then commenced their 
 journey home. The moon shining brightly, they were 
 easily able to distinguish the trail which they had made in 
 going out ; but had not however pursued it far, before they 
 heard the Indians coming in pursuit of them. So soon as 
 Lewis perceived by the sound of their voices that they 
 were approaching tolerably near to them, he led his brother 
 aside from the path, and squatting down, concealed them- 
 selves 'till their pursuers had passed them; when they 
 again commenced travelling and in the rear of the Indians. 
 Not overtaking the boys as soon aa was expected, those 
 who had been sent after them, began to retrace their steps.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 163 
 
 Expecting this, the boys were watchful of every noise or 
 object before them, and when they heard the Indians re- 
 turning, again secreted themselves in the bushes, and 
 escaped observation. They were then followed by two, of 
 the party who had made them prisoners, on horseback ; 
 but by practising the same stratagem, they eluded them 
 also ; and on the next day reached the Ohio river opposite 
 to Wheeling. Apprehensive that it would be dangerous 
 to apprize those on the opposite side of the river of their 
 situation, by hallooing, Lewis set himself to work as 
 silently, and yet as expeditiously [124] as possible, and with 
 the aid of his little brother, soon completed a raft on which 
 they safely crossed the Ohio ; and made their way home. 
 That persons, should, by going out from the forts, 
 when the Indians were so generally watching around them, 
 expose themselves to captivity or death, may at first appear 
 strange and astonishing. But when the mind reflects on 
 the tedious and irksome confinement, which they were 
 compelled to undergo; the absence of the comforts, and 
 frequently, of the necessaries of life, coupled with an 
 overweening attachment to the enjoyment of forest 
 scenes and forest pastimes, it will perhaps be matter 
 of greater astonishment that they did not more fre- 
 quently forego the security of a fortress, for the uncer- 
 tain enjoyment of those comforts and necessaries, and 
 the doubtful gratification of this attachment. Accus- 
 tomed as they had been " free to come and free to go," 
 they could not brook the restraint under which they 
 were placed; and rather than chafe and pine in unwilling 
 confinement, would put themselves at hazard, that they 
 might revel at large and wanton in the wilderness. De- 
 riving their sustenance chiefly from the woods, the strong 
 arm of necessity led many to tempt the perils which envi- 
 roned them ; while to the more chivalric and adventurous 
 " the danger's self were lure alone." The quiet and still- 
 ness which reigned around, even when the enemy werq 
 lurking nearest and in greater numbers, inspired many 
 too, with the delusive hope of exemption from risk, not 
 unfrequently the harbinger of fatal consequences. It 
 seemed indeed, impracticable at first to realize the exist-
 
 164 Withers s Chronicles 
 
 ence of a danger, which could not be perceived. And not 
 until taught by reiterated suffering did they properly ap- 
 preciate the perilous situation of those, who ventured 
 beyond the walls of their forts. But this state of things 
 was of short duration. The preparations, which were nec- 
 essary to be made for the projected campaign into the In- 
 dian country, were completed ; and to resist this threatened 
 invasion, required the concentrated exertions of all their 
 warriors. 
 
 The army destined for this expedition, was composed 
 of volunteers and militia, chiefly from the counties west 
 of the Blue ridge, and consisted of two divisions. The 
 northern division, comprehending the troops, collected in 
 Frederick, Dunmore, 1 and the adjacent counties, was to be 
 commanded by Lord Dunmore, in person; 2 and the south- 
 ern, comprising the different companies raised in Bote- 
 tourt, Augusta and the adjoining counties east of the Blue 
 ridge, was to be led on by Gen. Andrew Lewis. These 
 two divisions, proceeding by different routes, were to form 
 a junction at the mouth of the Big Kenhawa, and from 
 thence penetrate the country north west of the Ohio river, 
 as far as the season would admit of their going; and de- 
 stroy all the Indian towns and villages which they could 
 reach. 
 
 About the first of September, the troops placed under 
 the command [125] of Gen. Lewis rendezvoused at Camp 
 Union (now Lewisburg) and consisted of two regiments, 
 commanded by Col. William Fleming of Botetourt and 
 Col. Charles Lewis of Augusta, and containing about four 
 hundred men each. At Camp Union they were joined by 
 an independent volunteer company under Col. John Field 
 of Culpepper ; a company from Bedford under Capt. Bu- 
 
 1 Now Shenandoah. 
 
 * The northern wing was composed of men from Frederick, Berke- 
 ley, and Dunmore (afterwards Shenandoah) counties, and Col. Adam 
 Stephen was placed in command. With this wing went Lord Dunmore 
 and Major John Connolly. Counting the forces already in the field un- 
 der Maj. Angus McDonald and Capt. William Crawford, this levy num- 
 bered some twelve hundred men. Among them, as scouts, were George 
 Roger Clark, Simon Kenton, and Michael Cresap. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 165 
 
 ford and two from the Holstein settlement (now Wash- 
 ington county) under Capts. Evan Shelby and Harbert. 
 These three latter companies were part of the forces to 
 be led on by Col. Christian, who was likewise to join the 
 two main divisions of the army at Point Pleasant, so soon 
 as the other companies of his regiment could be assembled. 
 The force under Gen. Lewis, having been thus augmented 
 to eleven hundred men, commenced its march for the 
 mouth of Kenhawa on the llth of September 1774. 1 
 
 From Camp Union to the point proposed for the junc- 
 tion of the northern and southern divisions of the army, 
 a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, the intermedi- 
 ate country was a trackless forest, so rugged and moun- 
 tainous as to render the progress of the army, at once, 
 tedious and laborious. Under the guidance of Capt. Mat- 
 thew Arbuckle, they however, succeeded in reaching the 
 Ohio river after a march of nineteen days ; and fixed their 
 encampment on the point of land immediately between 
 that river and the Big Kenhawa. 2 The provisions and 
 ammunition, transported on packhorses, and the beeves in 
 droves, arrived soon after. 
 
 When the army was preparing to leave Camp Union, 
 there was for a while some reluctance manifested on the 
 
 1 Lewis was colonel of the militia of Botetourt county. Camp 
 Union (so called because several bodies of troops met there) was on the 
 Big Savannah or Great Levels of Greenbrier River ; the town of Lewis- 
 burg now occupies the site. 
 
 In Dunmore's letter to Andrew Lewis, dated July 12, he directed 
 him to raise a sufficient body of men, and proceeding to the mouth of the 
 Great Kanawha there erect a fort ; if he deemed best he was to cross 
 the Ohio, proceed directly to the Indian towns, and destroy their crops 
 and supplies ; in any event he was to keep communication open between 
 Fort Wheeling and Fort Dunmore (Pittsburg). It is evident that his 
 lordship then contemplated no separate expedition of his own, for he 
 talks of sending Major Angus McDonald's party and a new levy to Lewis's 
 assistance. But he changed his mind, and August 30 wrote to Lewis 
 directing that the latter meet him at the mouth of the Little Kanawha. 
 Lewis replied through Col. William Preston that it was now too late to 
 change his plans ; he should proceed at once with the levy just sum- 
 moned, to the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and there await further 
 orders. R. G. T. 
 
 2 This cape was called Point Pleasant, and is now occupied by the 
 West Virginia town of that name. R. G. T.
 
 166 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 part of Col. Field to submit to the commaud of Gen. Lewis. 
 This proceeded from the fact, that in a former military 
 service, he had been the senior of Gen. Lewis ; and from 
 the circumstance that the company led on by him were In- 
 dependent Volunteers, not raised in pursuance of the or- 
 ders of Governor Dunmore, but brought into the field by 
 his own exertions, after his escape from the Indians at 
 Kelly's. These circumstances induced him to separate 
 his men from the main body of the army on its march, and 
 to take a different way from the one pursued by it, de- 
 pending on his own knowledge of the country to lead 
 them a practicable route to the river. 1 
 
 While thus detached from the forces under Gen. 
 Lewis, two of his men (Clay and Coward) who were out 
 hunting and at some little distance from each other, came 
 near to where two Indians were concealed. Seeing Clay 
 only, and supposing him to be alone, one of them fired at 
 him ; and running up to scalp him as he fell, was himself 
 shot by Coward, who was then about 100 yards off. The 
 other Indian ran off unarmed, and made his escape. A 
 bundle of ropes found where Clay was killed, induced the 
 belief that it was the object of these Indians to steal 
 horses ; it is not however improbable, that they had been 
 observing the progress of the army, and endeavoring to 
 ascertain its numbers. Col. Field, fearing that he might 
 [126] encounter a party of the enemy in ambush, re- 
 doubled his vigilance 'till he again joined General Lewis ; 
 and the utmost concert and harmony then prevailed in the 
 whole army. 1 
 
 When the Southern division arrived at Point Pleas- 
 ant, Governor Dunmore with the forces under his com- 
 
 1 This is misleading. On September 6, Col. Charles Lewis, with his 
 Augusta troops, numbering about six hundred, were detached to proceed 
 to the mouth of the Elk, and there make canoes for transporting the 
 supplies to the mouth of the Great Kanawha. This body had in charge 
 a drove of 108 beef cattle, and 400 pack-horses laden with 54,000 Ibs. of 
 flour. Field's company soon followed this advance. R. G. T. 
 
 1 Saturday, the 10th, Clay and Coward were sent out to hunt deer 
 for Field's company, on the banks of the Little Meadow. Then occurred 
 the incident related by Withers. The Indian who escaped, hurried on 
 to the Shawnee towns and gave them their first notice of the approach of
 
 Of Border Warfare. 167 
 
 mand, had not reached there ; and unable to account for 
 his failure to form the preconcerted junction at that place, 
 it was deemed advisable to await that event; as by so 
 doing, a better opportunity would be afforded to Col. 
 Christian of coming up, with that portion of the army, 
 which was then with him. 1 Meanwhile General Lewis, to 
 learn the cause of the delay of the Northern division, de- 
 spatched runners by land, in the direction of Fort Pitt, to 
 obtain tidings of Lord Dunmore, and to communicate 
 them to him immediately. In their absence, however, ad- 
 vices were received from his Lordship, that he had deter- 
 mined on proceeding across the country, directly to the 
 Shawanee towns; and ordering General Lewis to cross the 
 river, march, forward and form a junction with him, near 
 to them. These advices were received on the 9th of Octo- 
 ber, and preparations were immediately begun to be made 
 for the transportation of the troops over the Ohio river. 2 
 
 the army. Alarmed at this incident, Field hurried and caught up with 
 the advance under Charles Lewis. The text reads as though he had 
 hastened back to Andrew Lewis, who had not yet left Camp Union. 
 R. G.T. 
 
 1 Col. Andrew Lewis marched out of Camp Union the 12th, with 
 about 450 men. These consisted of Fleming's Botetourt troops, three 
 companies of Fincastle men under Capts. Evan Shelby, William Her- 
 bert, and William Russell, the Bedford men under Thomas Buford, and 
 Dunmore men under Slaughter. They had with them 200 pack-horses 
 laden with flour, and the remainder of the beeves. Col. William 
 Christian, who arrived at Camp Union the day Andrew Lewis left, was 
 ordered, with the rest of the Fincastle men, to remain there, to guard 
 the residue of the provisions, and when the brigade of horses sent to 
 the mouth of the Elk had returned, to hurry every thing forward to 
 the mouth of the Great Kanawha. Five weeks were thus consumed 
 in transporting the troops and the supplies a distance of 160 miles 
 through the tangled forest, to Point Pleasant, where the main army, 
 upwards of 1,100 strong, had arrived, quite spent with exertions, on the 
 6th of October. 
 
 When Christian left Camp Union for the front, Anthony Bledsoe^ 
 with a company of Fincastle men, was detailed to remain behind with 
 the sick, while the base of supplies at the mouth of the Elk was placed 
 in charge of Slaughter. As will be seen, Christian arrived too late to 
 engage in the battle of Point Pleasant. R. G. T. 
 
 1 When Lewis arrived at Point Pleasant (October 6th), he found 
 awaiting him in a hollow tree dispatches from Dunmore, brought by 
 Simon Kenton and two companions, directing him to join his lordship
 
 168 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 Early on the morning of Monday the tenth of that 
 month, two soldiers 1 left the camp, and proceeded up the 
 Ohio river, in quest of deer. When they had progressed 
 about two miles, they unexpectedly came in sight of a 
 large number of Indians, rising from their encampment, 
 and who discovering the two hunters fired upon them and 
 killed one; the other escaped unhurt, and running briskly 
 to the camp, communicated the intelligence, " that he had 
 seen a body of the enemy, covering four acres of ground 
 as closely as they could stand by the side of each other." 
 The main part of the army was immediately ordered out 
 under Colonels Charles Lewis, 1 and William Fleming; and 
 having formed into two lines, [127] they proceeded about 
 four hundred yards, when they met the Indians, and the 
 action commenced. 
 
 at the mouth of the Big Hockhocking, where the governor's northern 
 wing, under Major Crawford, was building a stockade. But Lewis's 
 men were spent, and pens had to be built for the cattle, and shelter for 
 the stores, so no move was made. On Saturday, the 8th, came a further 
 message from the governor, who was still at the Big Hockhocking. 
 Lewis replied that he would join him there as soon as the troops, food 
 supply, and powder had all reached Point Pleasant. His men were 
 angry at Dunmore's interference, and argued with Lewis that it was 
 sixty miles by river and over half that by land, to Dunmore's camp, 
 whereas it was less than either to the hostile towns which they had 
 started out to attack ; and to turn aside from this purpose was to leave 
 open for the hostiles the back-door to the frontier settlements of Vir- 
 ginia. The 9th was Sunday, and these sturdy Scotch-Irish Presbyteri- 
 ans spent the day in religious exercises, listening to a stout sermon from 
 their chaplain. On the morrow, they were surprised by the Indians, as 
 the sequel relates. R. G. T. 
 
 1 James Mooney, of Russell's company, and Joseph Hughey, of 
 Shelby's. They were surprised at the mouth of Old Town Creek, three 
 miles distant. Hughey was killed by a shot fired by Tavenor Ross, a 
 white renegade in Cornstalk's party. R. G. T. 
 
 * Few officers were ever more, or more deservedly, endeared to 
 those under their command than Col. Charles Lewis. In the many 
 skirmishes, which it was his fortune to have, with the Indians he was 
 uncommonly successful ; and in the various scenes of life, thro' which 
 he passed, his conduct was invariably marked by the distinguishing 
 characteristicks of a mind, of no ordinary stamp. His early fall on this 
 bloody field, was severely felt during the whole engagement ; and to it 
 has been attributed the partial advantages gained by the Indian army 
 near the commencement of the action. When the [127] fatal ball struck 
 him, he fell at the root of a tree ; from whence he was carried to his
 
 Of Border Warfare. 169 
 
 At the first onset, Colonel Charles Lewis having fallen, 
 and Colonel Fleming being wounded, both lines gave way 
 and were retreating briskly towards the camp, when they 
 were met by a reinforcement under Colonel Field, 1 and 
 rallied. The engagement then became general, and was 
 sustained with the most obstinate fury on both sides. The 
 Indians perceiving that the " tug of war " had come, and 
 determined on affording the Colonial army no chance of 
 escape, if victory should declare for them, formed a line 
 extending across the point, from the Ohio to the Kenhawa, 
 and protected in front, by logs and fallen timber. In this 
 situation they maintained the contest with unabated vigor, 
 from sunrise 'till towards the close of evening; bravely 
 and successfully resisting every charge which was made 
 on them ; and withstanding the impetuosity of every onset, 
 with the most invincible firmness, until a fortunate move- 
 ment on the part of the Virginia troops, decided the day. 
 
 Some short distance above the entrance of the Kenhawa 
 river into Ohio, there is a stream, called Crooked creek, 
 emptying into the former of these, from the North east, 2 
 whose banks are tolerably high, and were then covered 
 with a thick and luxuriant growth of weeds. 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 be- 
 fore night, General Lewis detached the three companies 
 which were commanded by Captains Isaac Shelby, George 
 Matthews, and John Stuart, with orders to proceed up the 
 Kenhawa river, and Crooked creek under cover of the 
 banks and weeds, 'till they should [128] pass some dis- 
 tance beyond the enemy ; when they were to emerge from 
 
 tent, against his wish, by Capt. Wm. Morrow and a Mr. Bailey, of Cap- 
 tain Paul's company, and died in a few hours afterwards. In remem- 
 brance of his great worth, the legislature named the county of Lewis 
 after him. 
 
 1 An active, enterprising and meritorious officer, who had been in serv- 
 ice in Braddock's war, and profited by his experience of the Indian mode 
 of fighting. His death checked for a time the ardor of his troops, and 
 spread a gloom over the countenances of those, who had accompanied 
 him on this campaign. 
 
 2 A half-mile up the Big Kanawha. B. G. T.
 
 170 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 their covert, march downward towards the point and at- 
 tack the Indians in their rear. 1 The manoauvre thus 
 planned, was promptly executed, and gav a decided vic- 
 tory to the Colonial army. The Indians finding them- 
 selves suddenly and unexpectedly encompassed between 
 two armies, & not doubting but that in their rear, was the 
 looked for reinforcement under Colonel Christian, soon 
 gave way, and about sun down, commenced a precipitate 
 retreat across the Ohio, to their towns on the Scioto. 
 
 Some short time v after the battle had ended, Colonel 
 Christian arrived with the troops which he had collected 
 in the settlements on the Holstein, and relieved the anxiety 
 of many who were disposed to believe the retreat of the 
 
 1 From MS. journals and letters in possession of the Wisconsin His- 
 torical Society, it appears that the conduct of the battle was as follows : 
 Andrew Lewis, who as yet thought the enemy to be but a scouting 
 party, and not an army equal in size to his own, had the drums beat to 
 arms, for many of his men were asleep in their tents ; and while still 
 smoking his pipe, ordered a detachment from each of the Augusta com- 
 panies, to form 150 strong under Col. Charles Lewis, with John Dickin- 
 son, Benjamin Harrison, and John Skidmore as the captains. Another 
 party of like size was formed under Col. Fleming, with Captains Shelby, 
 Russell, Buford, and Philip Love. Lewis's party marched to the right, 
 near the foot of the hills skirting the east side of Crooked Creek. Flem- 
 ing's party marched to the left, 200 yards apart from the other. A quar- 
 ter of a mile from camp, and half a mile from the point of the cape, the 
 right-going party met the enemy lurking behind trees and fallen logs at 
 the base of the hill, and there Charles Lewis was mortally wounded. 
 Fleming marched to a pond three-quarters of a mile from camp, and fifty 
 rods inland from the Ohio this pond being one of the sources of 
 Crooked Creek. The hostile line was found to extend from this pond 
 along Crooked Creek, half way to its mouth. The Indians, under 
 Cornstalk, thought by rushes to drive the whites into the two rivers, 
 " like so many bullocks," as the chief later explained ; and indeed both 
 lines had frequently to fall back, but they were skillfully reinforced each 
 time, and by dusk the savages placed Old Town Creek between them and 
 the whites. This movement was hastened, a half hour before sunset, 
 by a movement which Withers confounds with the main tactics. Cap- 
 tains Matthews, Arbuckle, Shelby, and Stuart were sent with a detach- 
 ment up Crooked creek under cover of the bank, with a view to secur- 
 ing a ridge in the rear of the enemy, from which their line could be en. 
 fi laded. They were discovered in the act, but Cornstalk supposed that 
 this party was Christian's advance, and in alarm hurried his people to 
 the other side of Old Town Creek. The battle was, by dark, really a 
 drawn game; but Cornstalk had had enough, and fled during the 
 night. B. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 171 
 
 Indians to be only a feint; 1 and that an attack would be 
 again speedily majle by them, strengthened and reinforced 
 by those of the enemy who had been observed during the 
 engagement, on the opposite side of the Ohio and Kenhawa 
 rivers. But these had been most probably stationed there, 
 in anticipation of victory, to prevent the Virginia troops 
 from effecting a retreat across those rivers, (the only possible 
 chance of escape, had they been overpowered by the enemy 
 in their front ;) and the loss sustained by the Indians was 
 too great, and the prospect of a better fortune, too gloomy 
 and unpromising, for them to enter again into an engage- 
 ment. Dispirited by the bloody repulse with which they 
 had met, they hastened to their towns, better disposed to 
 purchase security from farther hostilities by negotiation, 
 than risk another battle with an army whose strength and 
 prowess, they had already tested ; and found superior to 
 their own. The victory indeed, was decisive, and many 
 advantages were obtained by it ; but they were not cheaply 
 bought. The Virginia army sustained, in this engage- 
 ment, a loss of seventy-five killed, and one hundred and 
 forty wounded. About one fifth of the entire number of 
 the troops. 
 
 Among the slain were Colonels Lewis and Field ; Cap- 
 tains Buford, Morrow, Wood, CundifF, Wilson, and Robert 
 McClannahan ; and Lieutenants Allen, Goldsby and Dil- 
 lon, with some other subalterns. The loss of the enemy 
 could not be ascertained. On the morning after the action, 
 Colonel Christian marched his men over the battle ground 
 and found twenty-one of the Indians lying dead ; and 
 twelve others [129] were afterwards discovered, where 
 they had been attempted to be concealed under some old 
 logs and brush. 2 
 
 1 During the day, a messenger had been dispatched to harry on 
 Christian, who with 250 men was convoying cattle and powder. In the 
 early evening, fifteen miles from Point Pleasant, this rear party was 
 found, toiling painfully over the wilderness trail. Christian at once left 
 his property in charge of a small party, and arrived in camp by mid- 
 night. R. G. T. 
 
 J Most of the killed and wounded, on both sides, were shot in the 
 head or breast, which indicates good marksmanship'. The Indians,
 
 172 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 From the great facility with which the Indians either 
 carry off or conceal their dead, it is always difficult to as- 
 certain the number of their slain ; and hence arises, in 
 some measure, the disparity between their known loss and 
 that sustained by their opponents in battle. Other reasons 
 for this disparity, are to be found in their peculiar mode 
 of warfare, and in the fact, that they rarely continue a 
 contest, when it has to be maintained with the loss of their 
 warriors. It would not be easy otherwise to account for 
 the circumstance, that even when signally vanquished, the 
 list of their slain does not, frequently, appear more than 
 half as great, as that of the victors. In this particular 
 instance, many of the dead were certainly thrown into 
 the river. 
 
 NOT could the number of the enemy engaged, be ever 
 ascertained. Their army is known to have been composed 
 of warriors from the different nations, north of the Ohio ; 
 and to have comprised the flower of the Shawanee, Dela- 
 ware, Mingo, Wyandotte and Cayuga tribes; led on by 
 men, whose names were not unknown to fame, 1 and at the 
 head of whom was Cornstalk, Sachem of the Shawanees, 
 and King of the Northern Confederacy. 2 
 
 though skillful marksmen, did not exhibit sufficient mechanical knowl- 
 edge to enable them properly to clean their guns, and thus were at some 
 disadvantage. 
 
 The statistician was at work in those days, as now, for we learn from 
 an old diary that at Old Town Creek were found by the white victors, 
 78 rafts with which the Indians had crossed the Ohio to the attack, the 
 night of October 9-10; and on the battlefield during the 10th and 12th, 
 were collected 23 guns, 27 tomahawks, 80 blankets, and great numbers 
 of war-clubs, shot-pouches, powder-horns, match-coats, deer-skins, " and 
 other articles," all of which were put up at auction by the careful com- 
 missary, and brought nearly 100 to the army chest. R. G. T. 
 
 1 Such were Redhawk, a Delaware chief, Scoppathus, a Mingo, 
 Ellinipsico, a Shawanee, and son to Cornstalk, Chiyawee, a Wyan- 
 dotte, and Logan, a Cayuga. 
 
 'The first recorded foray of Cornstalk was on October 10, 1759, against 
 the Gilmore family and others, on Carr's Creek, in what is now Rock- 
 bridge county, Va. "The Carr's Creek massacre " was long remembered 
 on the border as one of the most daring and cruel on record. He was 
 again heard of during the Pontiac conspiracy, in 1763, when he led a 
 large war-party from the Scioto towns against the Virginia frontier. 
 Both at Muddy Creek, and the Clendenning farm near Lewisburg, on the
 
 Of Bordex Warfare. 173 
 
 This distinguished chief and consummate warrior, 
 proved himself on that day, to be justly entitled to the 
 prominent station which he occupied. His plan of alter- 
 nate retreat & attack, was well conceived, and occasioned 
 the principal loss sustained by the writes. If at any time 
 his warriors were believed to waver, his voice could be 
 heard above the din of arms, exclaiming in his native 
 tongue, " Be strong! Be strong;" and when one near him, 
 by trepidation and reluctance to proceed to the charge, 
 evinced a dastardly disposition, fearing the example might 
 have a pernicious influence, with one blow of the toma- 
 hawk he severed his skull. It was perhaps a solitary in- 
 stance in which terror predominated. Never did men 
 exhibit a more conclusive evidence of bravery, in making 
 a charge, and fortitude in withstanding an onset, than did 
 these undisciplined soldiers of the forest, in the [130] field 
 at Point Pleasant. Such too was the good conduct of 
 those who composed the army of Virginia, on that occa- 
 sion ; and such the noble bravery of many, that high ex- 
 Levels of the Greenbrier, the marauders pretended to be friendly with 
 the settlers, and in an unguarded moment fell upon and slew them. 
 Other massacres, in connection with the same foray, were at Carr's 
 Creek, Keeney's Knob, and Jackson's River. The story of the captivity 
 of Mrs. Clendenning and her children, who were taken to the Shawnee 
 towns on the Scioto, is one of the most heartrendering in Western his- 
 tory. In 1764, Bouquet raided these towns, and Cornstalk was one of 
 the hostages sent to Fort Pitt in fulfillment of the terms of the treaty, 
 but later he effected his escape. Nothing more is heard of this warrior 
 until 1774, when he became famous as leader of the Indians at the bat- 
 tle of Point Pleasant. Cornstalk's intelligence was far above that of 
 the average Shawnee. He had, before the Dunmore War, strongly 
 counseled his people to observe the peace, as their only salvation ; but 
 when defeated in council, he with great valor led the tribesmen to war. 
 After the treaty of Fort Charlotte, he renewed his peace policy, and 
 was almost alone in refusing to join the Shawnee uprising in 1777. Late 
 in September, that year, he visited his white friends at Fort Randolph 
 (Point Pleasant), and was retained as one of several hostages for the tribe- 
 Infuriated at some murders in the vicinity, the private soldiers in the 
 fort turned upon the Indian prisoners and basely killed them, Cornstalk 
 among the number. Governor Patrick Henry and General Hand the 
 latter then organizing his futile expedition against the Shawnees 
 wished to punish the murderers; but in the prevalent state of public 
 opinion on the border, it was easy for them to escape prosecution. 
 R. G. T.
 
 174 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 pectatious were entertained of their future distinction. 
 Nor were those expectations disappointed. 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, Matthews, Fleming, Moore, 
 and others, their compatriots in arms on the memorable 
 tenth of October, 1774, have been inscribed in brilliant 
 characters on the roll of fame. 1 
 
 Having buried the dead, and made every arrangement 
 of which their situation admitted, for the comfort of the 
 wounded, entrenchments were thrown up, and the army 
 commenced its march to form a junction with the north- 
 ern division, under Lord Dunmore. Proceeding by the 
 way of the Salt Licks, General Lewis pressed forward 
 with astonishing rapidity (considering that the march was 
 through a trackless desert); but before he had gone far, an 
 express arrived from Dunmore, with orders to return im- 
 mediately to the mouth of the Big Kenhawa. Suspecting 
 the integrity of his Lordship's motives, and urged by the 
 advice of his officers generally, General [131] Lewis re- 
 fused to obey these orders ; and continued to advance 'till 
 he was met, (at Kilkenny creek, and in sight of an Indian 
 village, which its inhabitants had just fired and deserted,) 
 
 1 The following gentlemen, with others of high reputation in private 
 life, were officers in the battle at Point Pleasant. Gen. Isaac Shelby, 
 the first governor of Kentucky, and afterwards, secretary of war ; Gen. 
 William Campbell and Col. John Campbell, heroes of King's mountain 
 and Long Island ; Gen. Evan Shelby, one of the most favored citizens 
 of Tennessee, often honored with the confidence of that state; Col. 
 William Fleming, an active governor of Virginia during the revolution- 
 ary war ; Gen. Andrew Moore of Rockbridge, the only man ever elected 
 by Virginia, from the country west of the Blue ridge, to the senate of 
 the United States; Col. John Stuart, of Greenbrier; Gen. Tate, of 
 Washington county, Virginia ; Col. William McKee, of Lincoln county, 
 Kentucky ; Col. John Steele, since a governor of Mississippi territory ; 
 Col. Charles Cameron, of Bath ; Gen. Bazaleel Wells, of Ohio ; and 
 Gen. George Matthews, a distinguished officer in the war of the revolu- 
 tion, the hero of Brandywine, Germantown, and of Guilford ; a gov- 
 ernor of Georgia, and a senator from that state in the congress of the 
 United States. The salvation of the American army at Germantown, 
 is ascribed, in Johnston's life of Gen. Green, to the bravery and good 
 conduct of two regiments, one of which was commanded by General, 
 then Col. Matthews.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 175 
 
 by the Governor, (accompanied by White Eyes,) who in- 
 formed him, that he was negotiating a treaty of peace 
 which would supersede the necessity of the further move- 
 ment of the Southern division, and repeating the order for 
 its retreat. 
 
 The army under General Lewis had endured many 
 privations and suffered many hardships. They had en- 
 countered a savage enemy in great force, and purchased a 
 victory with the blood of their friends. When arrived 
 near to the goal of their anxious wishes, and with noth- 
 ing to prevent the accomplishment of the object of the 
 campaign ; they received those orders with evident cha- 
 grin ; and did not obey them without murmuring. Hav- 
 ing, at his own request, been introduced severally to the 
 officers of that division; complimenting them for their 
 gallantry and good conduct in the late engagement, and 
 assuring them of his high esteem, Lord Dunmore re- 
 turned to his camp ; and General Lewis commenced his 
 retreat. 1 
 
 1 In order to get a clearer view of the situation, a few more details 
 are essential here. For several days after the battle of Point Pleasant, 
 Lewis was busy in burying the dead, caring for the wounded, collecting 
 the scattered cattle, and building a store-house and small stockade fort. 
 Early on the morning of October 13th, messengers who had been sent 
 on to Dunmore, advising him of the battle, returned with orders to Lewis 
 to march at once with all his available force, against the Shawaee 
 towns, and when within twenty-five miles of Chillicothe to write to his 
 lordship. The next day, the last rear guard, with the remaining beeves, 
 arrived from the mouth of the Elk, and while work on the defenses at 
 the Point was hurried, preparations were made for the march. By 
 evening of the 17th, Lewis, with 1,150 men in good condition, had 
 crossed the Ohio and gone into camp on the north side. Each man 
 had ten days' supply of flour, a half pound of powder, and a pound and 
 a half of bullets ; while to each company was assigned a pack-horse for 
 the tents. Point Pleasant was left in command of Col. Fleming, who 
 had been severely wounded in the battle, Captains Dickinson, Lock- 
 ridge, Herbert, and Slaughter, and 278 men, few of whom were fit for 
 service. On the 18th, Lewis, with Captain Arbuckle as guide, advanced 
 towards the Shawnee towns, eighty miles distant in a straight line, and 
 probably a hundred and twenty-five by the circuitous Indian trails. 
 The army marched about eleven miles a day, frequently seeing hostile 
 parties but engaging none. Reaching the salt licks near the head of 
 the south branch of Salt Creek (in the present Lick township, Jackson 
 county, O.), they descended that valley to the Scioto, and thence to a
 
 176 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 If before the opening of this campaign, the belief was 
 prevalent, that to the conduct of emissaries from Great 
 Britain, because of the contest then waging between her 
 and her American colonies, the Indian depredations of 
 that year, were mainly attributable ; that belief had be- 
 come more general, and had received strong confirmation, 
 from the more portentous aspect which that contest had 
 assumed, prior to the battle at Point Pleasant. The de- 
 struction of the tea at Boston had taken place in the 
 March preceding. The Boston Port Bill, the signal for 
 actual conflict between the colonies and mother country, 
 had been received early in May. The house of Bur- 
 gesses in Virginia, being in session at the time, recom- 
 mended that the first of June, the day on which that 
 
 prairie on Kinnikinnick (not Kilkenny) Creek, where was the freshly- 
 deserted Indian village referred to above, by Withers. This was thir- 
 teen miles south of Chillicothe (now Westfall). Here they were met, 
 early on the 24th, by a messenger from his lordship, ordering them to 
 halt, as a treaty was nearly concluded at Camp Charlotte. But Lewis's 
 army had been fired on that morning, and the place was untenable for 
 a camp in a hostile country, so he concluded to seek better ground. A 
 few hours later another messenger came, again peremptorily ordering a 
 halt, as the Shawnees had practically come to terms. Lewis now con- 
 cluded to join the northern division in force, at Camp Charlotte, not 
 liking to have the two armies separated in the face of a treacherous 
 enemy ; but his guide mistook the trail, and took one leading directly 
 to the Grenadier Squaw's Town. Lewis camped that night on the 
 west bank of Congo Creek, two miles above its mouth, and five and a 
 quarter miles from Chillicothe, with the Indian town half- way between. 
 The Shawnees were now greatly alarmed and angered, and Dunmore 
 himself, accompanied by the Delaware chief White Eyes, a trader, John 
 Gibson, and fifty volunteers, rode over in hot haste that evening to stop 
 Lewis, and reprimand him. His lordship was mollified by Lewis's ex- 
 planations, but the latter's men, and indeed Dunmore's, were furious 
 over being stopped when within sight of their hated quarry, and tradi- 
 tion has it that it was necessary to treble the guards during the night 
 to prevent Dunmore and White Eyes from being killed. The following 
 morning (the 25th), his lordship met and courteously thanked Lewis's 
 officers for their valiant service ; but said that now the Shawnees had 
 acceded to his wishes, the further presence of the southern division 
 might engender bad blood. Thus dismissed, Lewis led his army 
 back to Point Pleasant, which was reached on the 28th. He left there 
 a garrison of fifty men under Captain Russell, and then by companies 
 the volunteers marched through the wilderness to their respective 
 homes, where they disbanded early in November. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 177 
 
 bill was to go into operation, be observed throughout 
 the colony " as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, 
 imploring the divine interposition to avert the heavy 
 calamity which threatened destruction to their civil 
 rights, and the evils of a civil war." In consequence 
 of this recommendation and its accompanying resolutions, 
 the Governor had dissolved the Assembly. The Legis- 
 lature of Massachusetts had likewise passed declaratory 
 resolutions, expressive of their sense of the state of pub- 
 lic affairs and the designs of Parliament; and which led 
 [132] to their dissolution also. The committee of corre- 
 spondence at Boston, had framed and promulgated an 
 agreement, which induced Governor Gage, to issue a 
 proclamation, denouncing it as " an unlawful, hostile and 
 traitorous combination, contrary to the allegiance due to 
 the King, destructive of the legal authority of Parliament, 
 and of the peace, good order, and safety of the com- 
 munity ;" and requiring of the magistrates, to apprehend 
 and bring to trial, all such as should be in any wise guilty 
 of them. A congress, composed of delegates from the 
 different colonies, and convened for the purpose " of unit- 
 ing and guiding the councils, and directing the efforts of 
 North America," had opened its session on the 4th of Sep- 
 tember. In fine, the various elements of that tempest, 
 which soon after overspread the thirteen united colonies, 
 had been already developed, and were rapidly concentrating, 
 before the orders for the retreat of the Southern division of 
 the army, were issued by Lord Dunmore. How far these 
 were dictated by a spirit of hostility to the cause of the 
 colonies, and of subservience to the interests of Great 
 Britain, in the approaching contest, may be inferred from 
 his conduct during the whole campaign ; and the course 
 pursued by him, on his return to the seat of government. 
 If indeed there existed (as has been supposed,) between 
 the Indians and the Governor from the time of his arrival 
 with the Northern Division of the army at Fort Pitt, a 
 secret and friendly understanding, looking to the almost 
 certain result of the commotions which were agitating 
 America, then was the battle at Point Pleasant, virtually 
 12
 
 178 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 the first in the series of those brilliant achievements 
 which burst the bonds of British tyranny ; and the blood 
 of Virginia, there nobly shed, was the first blood spilled 
 in the sacred cause of American liberty. 1 
 
 It has been already seen that Lord Dunmore failed to 
 form a junction with General Lewis, at the mouth of the 
 Great Kenhawa, agreeably to the plan for the campaign, 
 as concerted at Williamsburg by the commanding officer 
 of each division. No reason for changing the direction of 
 his march, appears to have been assigned by him ; and 
 others were left to infer his motives, altogether from cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 While at Fort Pitt Lord Dunmore was joined by the 
 notorious Simon Girty, 2 who accompanied him from thence 
 'till the close of the expedition. The subsequent conduct 
 of this man, his attachment to the side of Great Britain, 
 in her [133] attempts to fasten the yoke of slavery upon 
 the necks of the American people, his withdrawal from 
 the garrison at Fort Pitt while commissioners were there 
 for the purpose of concluding a treaty with the Indians, 
 as was stipulated in the agreement made with them by 
 Dunmore, the exerting of his influence over them, to 
 prevent the chiefs from attending there, and to win them 
 to the cause of England, his ultimate joining the savages 
 in the war which (very much from his instigation,) they 
 waged against the border settlements, soon after, the 
 horrid cruelties, and fiendish tortures inflicted on unfor- 
 
 1 This is not the view of students in our own day, coolly looking at 
 the affair from the distance of a hundred and twenty years. There now 
 seems no room to doubt that Dunmore was thoroughly in earnest, that 
 he prosecuted the war with vigor, and knew when to stop in order to 
 secure the best possible terms. Our author wrote at a time when many 
 heroes of Point Pleasant were still alive, and his neighbors; he re- 
 flected their views, and the passions of the day. That it was, in view of 
 the events then transpiring, the best policy to turn back the southern 
 army, after the great battle, and not insist too closely on following up 
 the advantage gained, seems now incontrovertible. R. G. T. 
 
 * Butterfield's History of the Girtys (Cincinnati, 1890) is a valuable con- 
 tribution to Western history. Simon, James, and George Girty were 
 notorious renegade whites, who aided the Indians against the b orderers 
 from 1778 to 1783; Simon and George were similarly active in the In- 
 dian war of 1790-95 R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 179 
 
 tunate white captives by his orders and connivance ; all 
 combined to form an exact counterpart to the subsequent 
 conduct of Lord Dunmore when exciting the negroes to 
 join the British standard ; plundering the property of 
 those who were attached to the cause of liberty, and ap- 
 plying the brand of conflagration to the most flourishing 
 town in Virginia. 
 
 At Wheeling, as they were descending the river, the 
 army delayed some days ; and while proceeding from 
 thence to form a junction with the division under general 
 Lewis, was joined, near the mouth of the Little Kenhawa, 
 by the noted John Connoly, of great fame as a tory. 
 
 Of this man, Lor^ Dunmore thence forward became 
 an intimate associate ; and while encamped at the mouth 
 of Hock Hocking seemed to make him his confidential 
 adviser. It was here too, only seventy miles distant from 
 the head quarters of General Lewis, that it was determined 
 to leave the boats and canoes and proceed by land to the 
 Chilicothe towns. 1 
 
 The messengers, despatched by Lord Dunmore to ap- 
 prize the lower army of this change of determination, were 
 Indian traders ; one of whom being asked, if he supposed 
 the Indians would venture to give battle to the superior 
 force of the whites, replied that they certainly would, and 
 
 1 Upon leaving Pittsburg, where the governor held a council with 
 several Delaware and Mingo chiefs, to whom he recited the outrages 
 perpetrated by the Shawnees since Bouquet's treaty of 1764 the north- 
 ern division divided into two wings. One, 700 strong, under Dunmore, 
 descended the river in boats ; the other 500 went across the " pan-han- 
 dle" by land, with the cattle, and both rendezvoused, September 30th, 
 at Wheeling, 91 miles below Pittsburg. Next day, Crawford resumed 
 his march along the south bank of the Ohio, to a point opposite the 
 mouth of Big Hockhocking, 107 miles farther down. Here the men, 
 the 200 bullocks, and the 50 pack-horses swam the Ohio, and just above 
 the Big Hockhocking (the site of the present Hockingport) erected 
 a blockhouse and stockade, which they called Fort Gower, in honor of 
 the English earl of that name. A part of the earthwork can still (1894) 
 be seen in the garden of a Hockingport residence. Dunmore's party, in 
 100 canoes and pirogues, arrived a few days later. While at Fort Gower, 
 he was joined by the Delaware chiefs, White Eyes and John Montour, 
 the former of whom was utilized as an agent to negotiate with the 
 Shawnees R. G. T.
 
 180 Witkers's Chronicles 
 
 that Lewis' division would soon see his prediction verified. 1 
 This was on the day previous to the engagement. On the 
 return of these men, on the evening of the same day, they 
 must have seen the Indian army which made the attack on 
 the next morning; and the belief was general on the day 
 of battle, that they had communicated to the Indians, the 
 present strength and expected reinforcement of the south- 
 ern division. It has also been said that on the evening of 
 the 10th of October, while [134] Dunmore, Connoly and 
 one or two others were walking together, his Lordship 
 remarked "by this time General Lewis has warm work." 2 
 
 The acquaintance formed by the Governor with Con- 
 noly, in the ensuing summer was further continued, and at 
 length ripened into one of the most iniquitous conspira- 
 cies, that ever disgraced civilized man. 
 
 In July, 1775, Counoly presented himself to Lord 
 Duumore with proposals, well calculated to gain the favor 
 of the exasperated Governor, and between them a plan 
 was soon formed, which seemed to promise the most cer- 
 tain success. Assurances of ample rewards from Lord 
 Dunmore, were transmitted to such officers of the militia 
 on the frontiers of Virginia, as were believed to be friendly 
 to the royal cause, on putting themselves under the com- 
 mand of Connoly; whose influence with the Indians, was 
 
 1 This was William McCulloch. R. G. T. 
 
 1 The authority for this is Stuart's Indian Wars, p. 56. Abraham 
 Thomas, in his Sketches, relates that the governor, placing his ear at the 
 surface of the river, said he thought he heard the firing of guus ; and 
 Thomas, then a young militiaman, was asked to do likewise, and re- 
 ported that it was the rattle of musketry. The distance across country 
 to Point Pleasant was but twenty-eight miles, but by the river windings 
 was sixty-six. These anecdotes have been related as proof that Dunmore 
 desired Lewis beaten. White Eyes had notified the governor that a con- 
 flict was expected, though he had reported a much smaller Indian army 
 than Lewis's ; hence his lordship had no fear of the result. Had he known 
 that the opposing forces were equal in number, and that the whites had 
 been surprised, he doubtless would have sent relief. Knowing the 
 Shawnee warriors were away from home, fighting Lewis, whom he 
 had reason to suppose was very well able to handle them, he determined 
 to advance inland to the deserted towns on the Soioto and destroy their 
 houses and crops. He was upon this errand when met and stopped by 
 the messengers of peace. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 181 
 
 to ensure their co-operation against the friends of America. 
 To perfect this scheme, it was necessary to communicate 
 with General Gage ; and about the middle of September, 
 Connoly, with despatches from Dunmore, set off for Bos- 
 ton, and in the course of a few weeks returned, with in- 
 structions from the Governor of Massachusetts, which de- 
 veloped their whole plan. Connoly was invested with the 
 rank of Colonel of a regiment, (to be raised among those 
 on the frontiers, who favored the cause of Great Britain,) 
 with which he was to proceed forthwith to Detroit, where 
 he was to receive a considerable reinforcement, and be sup- 
 plied with cannon, muskets and ammunition. He was 
 then to visit the different Indian nations, enlist them in 
 the projected enterprise, and rendezvous his whole force 
 at Fort Pitt. From thence he was to cross the Alleghany 
 mountain, and marching through Virginia join Lord Dun- 
 more, on the 20th of the ensuing April, at Alexandria. 
 
 This scheme, (the execution of which would at once, 
 have laid waste a considerable portion of Virginia, and 
 ultimately perhaps, nearly the whole state,) was frustrated 
 by the taking of Connoly, and all the particulars of it, 
 made known. This development, served to shew the vil- 
 lainous connexion existing between Dunmore and Connoly, 
 and to corroborate the suspicion of General Lewis and 
 many of his officers, that the conduct of the former, dur- 
 ing the campaign of 1774, was [135] dictated by any thing 
 else than the interest and well being of the colony of 
 Virginia. 
 
 This suspicion was farther strengthened by the readi- 
 ness with which Lord Dunmore embraced the overturea 
 of peace, and the terms on which a treaty was concluded 
 with them; while the encamping of his army, without en- 
 trenchments, in the heart of the Indian country, and in 
 the immediate adjacency of the combined forces of the 
 Indian nations of Ohio, would indicate, that there must 
 have been a friendly understanding between him and 
 them. To have relied solely on the bravery and good 
 conduct of his troops, would have been the height of im- 
 prudence. His army was less than that, which had been 
 scarcely delivered from the fury of a body of savages in-
 
 182 Withers s Chronicles 
 
 ferior in number, to the one with which he would have 
 had to contend ; and it would have been folly in him to 
 suppose, that he could achieve with a smaller force, what 
 required the utmost exertions of General Lewis and his 
 brave officers, to effect with a greater one. 1 
 
 When the Northern division of the army resumed its 
 march for Chilicothe, it left the greater part of its pro- 
 visions in a block house which had been erected during its 
 stay at the mouth of the Hockhocking, under the care of 
 Captain Froman with a small party of troops to garrison 
 it. On the third day after it left Fort Gore (the block 
 house at the mouth of Hockhocking) a white man by the 
 name of Elliott came to Governor Dunmore, with a re- 
 quest from the Indians that he would withdraw the army 
 from their country, and appoint commissioners to meet 
 their chiefs at Pittsburg to confer about the terms of a 
 treaty. To this request a reply was given, that the Gov- 
 ernor was well inclined to make peace, and was willing 
 that hostilities should cease ; but as he was then so near 
 their towns, and all the chiefs of the different nations 
 were at that time with the army, it would be more con- 
 convenient to negotiate then, than at a future period. He 
 then named a place at which he would encamp, and listen 
 to their proposals ; and immediately despatched a courier 
 to General Lewis with orders for his return. 2 
 
 1 The two wings of the white army had about the same strength 
 1100 under Duninore, and 1150 (after leaving Point Pleasant) under 
 Lewis. The fighting quality was also the same, in both. It is to be re- 
 membered that in the army under Dunmore there was very little dis- 
 content at the issue, and at the close of the campaign the men heartily 
 thanked his lordship for his valuable services in behalf of the people. 
 They did this, too, at a time when they knew from Eastern news re- 
 ceived in camp, that the Revolution was near at hand, and Dunmore 
 must soon be fighting against them in behalf of his royal master. 
 R. G. T. 
 
 * Dunmore had, through White Eyes, summoned the Shawnee chiefs 
 to treat with him at Fort Gower (not Gore), but they had declined to 
 come in. He then set out, October llth, to waste their towns on the 
 Scioto, as previously noted, leaving the fort in charge of Captain Kuy- 
 kendall (not Froman), with whom remained the disabled and the 
 beeves. Each man on the expedition carried flour for sixteen days. 
 Just after the Point Pleasant battle, Lewis had dispatched a messenger
 
 Of Border Warfare. 183 
 
 The Indian spies reporting that General Lewis had 
 disregarded these orders, and was still marching rapidly 
 towards their towns, the Indians became apprehensive of 
 the result; and one of their chiefs (the White Eves) 
 waited on Lord Dunmore in person, and complained that 
 the "Long Knives" [136] were coming upon them and 
 would destroy all their towns. Dunmore then, in com- 
 pany with White Eyes, visited the camp of General Lewis, 
 and prevailed with him, as we have seen, to return across 
 the Ohio. 
 
 In a few days after this, the Northern division of the 
 army approached within eight miles of Chilicothe, and en- 
 camped on the plain, at the place appointed for the chiefs 
 to meet without entrenchments or breast works, or any 
 protection, save the vigilance of the sentinels and the 
 bravery of the troops. 1 On the third day from the halting 
 of the army eight chiefs, with Cornstalk at their head, 
 came into camp ; and when the interpreters made known 
 who Cornstalk was, Lord Dunmore addressed them, and 
 from a written memorandum, recited the various infrac- 
 tions, on the part of the Indians, of former treaties, and 
 different murders, unprovokedly committed by them. To 
 all this Cornstalk replied, mixing a good deal of recrimi- 
 nation with the defence of his red brethren ; and when he 
 
 to his lordship with news of the affair ; Dunmore's messenger to Lewis, 
 with instructions to the latter to join him en route, crossed Lewis's ex- 
 press on the way. The messenger from Lewis found that his lordship 
 had marched up the Big Hockhocking valley for the Scioto, and hurried 
 after him. The governor was overtaken at the third camp out (west 
 of the present Nelsonville, Athens county, O.), and the good news 
 caused great joy among the soldiers. October 17th, Dunmore arrived 
 at what he styled Camp Charlotte (on the northern bank of Sippo 
 Creek, Pickaway county, eight miles east of Chillicothe, in view of 
 Pickaway Plains), and here the treaty of peace was concluded. R. G. T. 
 1 Doddridge's Notes says that the camp was surrounded by a breast- 
 work of fallen trees, and an entrenchment, and Roosevelt's Winning of 
 the West follows him. But Dr. Draper was distinctly told (in 1846-51) by 
 two survivors of the campaign, Samuel Murphy and John Grim, that 
 Withers's account is correct ; and this is confirmed in Whittlesey's Fugi- 
 tive Essays. In the center of the field, a building of poles was erected, 
 in which to hold the council ; around this, the army encamped. A large 
 white oak having been peeled, Dunmore wrote upon it in red chalk, 
 " Camp Charlotte,-" thus honoring the then English queen. R. G. T.
 
 184 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 had concluded, a time was specified when the chiefs of the 
 different nations should come in, and proceed to the nego- 
 tiation of a treaty. 
 
 Before the arrival of that period, Cornstalk came 
 alone to the camp, and acquainted the Governor that none 
 of the Mingoes would attend ; and that he was apprehen- 
 sive there could not a full council be convened. Duumore 
 then requested that he would convoke as many chiefs of 
 the other nations as he could, and bring them to the coun- 
 cil fire without delay, as he was anxious to close the war 
 at once ; and that if this could not be effected peaceably, 
 he should be forced to resume hostilities. Meantime two 
 interpreters were despatched to Logan, 1 by Lord Dunmore, 
 requesting his attendance ; but Logan replied, that " he 
 was a warrior, not a councillor, and would not come."* 
 
 On the night after the return of the interpreters to 
 camp [137] Charlotte (the name of Dunmore's encamp- 
 
 1 Logan was the Mingo chief, the massacre of whose family at Ba- 
 ker's Bottom, the previous April, has already been described. He had 
 just returned (October 21) from a foray on the Holston border, bringing 
 several scalps and three prisoners, when the trader Gibson and the 
 scout Simon Girty were sent to him by his lordship. R. G. T. 
 
 * Colonel Benjamin Wilson, Sen. (then an officer in Dunmore's 
 army, and whose narrative of the campaign furnished the facts which 
 are here detailed) says that he conversed freely with one of the inter- 
 preters (Nicholson) in regard to the mission to Logan, and that neither 
 from the interpreter, nor any other one during the campaign, did he 
 hear of the charge preferred in Logan's speech against Captain Cresap, 
 as being engaged in the affair at Yellow creek. Captain Cresap was an 
 officer in the division of the army under Lord Dunmore ; and it would 
 seem strange indeed, if Logan's speech had been made public, at camp 
 Charlotte, and neither he, (who was so materially interested in it, and 
 could at once have proved the falsehood of the allegation which it con- 
 tained,) nor Colonel Wilson, (who was present during the whole confer- 
 ence between Lord Dunmore and the Indian chiefs, and at the time 
 when the speeches were delivered sat immediately behind and close to 
 Dunmore,) should have heard nothing of it until years after. 
 
 Comment by R. G. T. Withers thus shortly disposes of the famous 
 speech by Logan, which schoolboys have been reciting for nearly a 
 hundred years as one of the best specimens extant, of Indian eloquence. 
 The evidence in regard to the speech, which was undoubtedly recited 
 to Gibson, and by him written out for Lord Dunmore's perusal, and 
 later " improved " by Jefferson, is clearly stated in Roosevelt's Winning 
 of the West, I., app. iii.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 185 
 
 ment,) Major William Crawford, with three hundred men, 
 left the main army about midnight, on an excursion 
 against a small Mingo village, not far off. Arriving there 
 before day, the detachment surrounded the town ; and on 
 the first coming out of the Indians from their huts, there 
 was some little firing on the part of the whites, by which 
 one squaw and a man were killed the others about 20 in 
 number were all made prisoners and taken to the camp; 
 where they remained until the conclusion of a treaty. 
 Every thing about the village, indicated an intention of 
 their speedily deserting it. 1 
 
 Shortly after Cornstalk and two other chiefs, made 
 their appearance at camp Charlotte, and entered into a ne- 
 gotiation which soon terminated in an agreement to for- 
 bear all farther hostilities against each other, to give up 
 the prisoners then held by them, and to attend at Pitts- 
 burgh, with as many of the Indian chiefs as could be pre- 
 vailed on to meet the commissioners from Virginia, in the 
 ensuing summer, where a treaty was to be concluded and 
 ratified Dunmore requiring hostages, to guarantee the 
 performance of those stipulations, on the part of the In- 
 dians. 
 
 If in the battle at Point Pleasant, Cornstalk mani- 
 fested the bravery and generalship of a mighty captain ; 
 in the negotiations at camp Charlotte, he displayed the 
 skill of a statesman, joined to powers of oratory, rarely, 
 if ever surpassed. With the most patriotic devotion to 
 his country, and in a strain of most commanding elo- 
 quence, he recapitulated the accumulated wrongs, which 
 had oppressed their fathers, and which were oppressing 
 them. Sketching in lively colours, the once happy and 
 powerful condition of the Indians, he placed in striking 
 
 1 The reason for the attack was, that the Mingoee were implacable, 
 and Dunmore had learned that instead of coming into the treaty they 
 purposed retreating to the Great Lakes with their prisoners and stolen 
 horses. This Mingo village was Seekonk (sometimes called the Hill Town), 
 30 or 40 miles up the Scioto. Crawford left Camp Charlotte the night 
 of the 25th, and surprised the town early in the morning of the 27th. 
 Six were killed, several wounded, and fourteen captured ; the rest 
 escaping into the forest. Crawford burned several Mingo towns in the 
 neighborhood. R. G. T.
 
 186 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 contrast, their present fallen fortunes and unhappy destiny. 
 Exclaiming against the perfidiousness of the whites, and 
 the dishonesty of the traders, he proposed as the basis of 
 a treaty, that no persons should be permitted to carry on a 
 commerce with the Natives, for individual profit; but that 
 [138] their white brother should send them such articles 
 as they needed, by the hands of honest men, who were 
 to exchange them at a fair price, for their skins and furs ; 
 and that no spirit of any kind should be sent among them, 
 as from the "fire water" of the whites, proceeded evil to 
 the Indians. 1 
 
 This truly great man, is said to have been opposed to 
 the war from its commencement ; and to have proposed 
 on the eve of the battle at Point Pleasant, to send in a 
 flag, and make overtures for peace ; but this proposal was 
 overruled by the general voice of the chiefs. When a 
 council was first held after the defeat of the Indians, Corn- 
 stalk, reminding them of their late ill success, and that 
 the Long Knives were still pressing on them, asked what 
 should be then done. But no one answered. Rising 
 again, he proposed that the women and children should 
 be all killed; and that the warriors should go out and 
 fight, until they too were slain. Still no one answered. 
 Then, said he, striking his tomahawk into the council 
 post, " I will go and make peace." This was done, and 
 the war of 1774 concluded. 
 
 1 In remarking on the appearance and manner of Cornstalk while 
 speaking, Colonel Wilson says, " When he arose, he was in no wise con- 
 fused or daunted, but spoke in a distinct, and audible voice, without 
 stammering or repetition, and with peculiar emphasis. His looks while 
 addressing Dunmore, were truly grand and majestic ; yet graceful and 
 attractive. I have heard the first orators in Virginia, Patrick Henry 
 and Richard Henry Lee, but never have I heard one whose powers of 
 delivery surpassed those of Cornstalk on that occasion."
 
 Of Border Warfare. 187 
 
 [139] CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Upon the close of the campaign of 1774, there suc- 
 ceeded a short period of perfect quiet, and of undisturbed 
 repose from savage invasion, along the borders of North 
 Western Virginia. The decisive battle of the 10th of 
 October, repressed incursion for a time, and taught those 
 implacable enemies of her citizens, their utter inability, 
 alone and unaided, to maintain a contest of arms, against 
 the superior power of Virginia. They saw that in any 
 future conflict with this colony, her belligerent operations 
 would no longer be confined to the mere purposes of de- 
 fence ; but that war would be waged in their own country, 
 and their own towns become the theatre of its action. Had 
 the leading objects of the Dunmore campaign, been fully 
 accomplished, had the contemplated junction of the dif- 
 ferent divisions of the army taken place ; had its com- 
 bined forces extended their march into the Indian terri- 
 tory, and effected the proposed reduction of the Chilicothe, 
 and other towns on the Scioto and Sandusky, it would 
 have been long indeed, before the frontier settlements, be- 
 came exposed to savage inroad. A failure to effect these 
 things however, left the Indians comparatively at liberty, 
 and prepared to renew invasion, and revive their cruel and 
 bloody deeds, whenever a savage thirst for vengeance 
 should incite them to action, and the prospect of achieving 
 them with impunity, be open before them. In the then 
 situation of our country, this prospect was soon presented 
 to them. 
 
 The contest between Great Britain and her American 
 colonies, which had been for some time carried on with in- 
 creasing warmth, was ripening rapidly into war. The 
 events of every day, more and more confirmed the belief, 
 that the " unconditional submission " of the colonies, was 
 the object of the parent state; and that to accomplish this, 
 she was [140] prepared to desolate the country by a civil
 
 188 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 war, and imbrue her hands in the blood of its citizens. 
 This state of things the Indians knew, would favor the 
 consummation of their hopes. Virginia, having to apply 
 her physical strength to the repulsion of other enemies, 
 could not be expected to extend her protecting aegis over 
 the remote and isolated settlements on her borders. These 
 would have to depend on themselves alone, for resistance 
 to ruthless irruption, and exemption from total annihila- 
 tion. The Indians well knew the weakness of those settle- 
 ments, and their consequent incapacity to vie in open con- 
 flict with the overwhelming force of their savage foes; and 
 their heriditary resentment to the whites prompted them 
 to take advantage of that weakness, to wreak this resent- 
 ment, and involve them once more in hostilities. 
 
 Other circumstances too, combined in their operation, 
 to produce this result. The plan of Lord Dunmore and 
 others, to induce the Indians to co-operate with the En- 
 glish in reducing Virginia to subjection, and defeated by 
 the detection and apprehension of Connoly, was soon after 
 resumed on a more extensive scale. British agents were 
 busily engaged from Canada to the Gulph of Mexico, in en- 
 deavoring by immediate presents and the promise of future 
 reward, to excite the savages to a war upon the western 
 frontiers. To accomplish this object, no means which were 
 likely to be of any avail, were neglected to be used. Grat- 
 ified resentment and the certainty of plunder, were held up 
 to view as present consequences of this measure ; and the 
 expulsion of the whites, and the repossession, by the Na- 
 tives, of the country from which their fathers had been 
 ejected, as its ultimate result. Less cogent motives might 
 have enlisted them on the side of Great Britain. These 
 were too strong to be resisted by them, and too powerful 
 to be counteracted by any course of conduct, which the 
 colonies could observe towards them ; and they became en- 
 snared by the delusive bait, and the insidious promises 
 which accompanied it. 
 
 There were in the colonies too, many persons, who 
 from principle or fear, were still attached to the cause of 
 Great Britain ; and who not only, did not sanction the op- 
 position of their country to the supremacy of Parliament,
 
 Of Border Warfare. 189 
 
 but were willing in any wise to lend their aid to the royal 
 cause. Some of those disaffected Americans, (as they were 
 at first denominated) who resided on the frontiers, foresee- 
 ing the [141] attachment of the Indians to the side of 
 Britain, and apprehensive that in their inroads, the friends 
 as well as the enemies of that country, might, from the 
 difficulty of discriminating, be exposed to savage fury ; and 
 at the same time, sensible that they had become obnoxious 
 to a majority of their neighbors, who were perhaps, too 
 much inclined to practice summary modes of punishment, 
 sought a refuge among the Indians, from those impending 
 evils. In some instances, these persons were under the 
 influence of the most rancorous and vindictive passions, 
 and when once with the savages, strove to infuse those 
 passions into their breasts, and stimulate them to the repe- 
 tition of those enormities, which had previously, so ter- 
 ribly annoyed the inhabitants of the different frontiers. 1 
 Thus wrought upon, their inculcated enmity to the Anglo- 
 Americans generally, roused them to action, and the dis- 
 sonant notes of the war song, resounded in their villages. 
 For a while indeed, they refrained from hostilities against 
 North Western Virginia. It was however, but to observe 
 the progress of passing events, that they might act against 
 the mountain borders, simultaneously with the British on 
 the Atlantic coast; as a premature movement on their 
 part, might, while Virginia was yet at liberty to bear 
 down upon them with concentrated forces, bring upon 
 their towns the destruction which had so appallingly 
 threatened them after the battle at Point Pleasant. 
 
 But though the inhabitants on the Virginia frontiers, 
 enjoyed a momentary respite from savage warfare; yet 
 were the Indians not wholly unemployed in deeds of ag- 
 gression. The first attempt to occupy Kentucky, had been 
 the signal of hostilities in 1774; and the renewed endeav- 
 ors to form establishments in it, in 1775, induced their 
 
 1 Chief among the fomenters of disorder were the renegades Simon 
 Girty, Matthew Elliott, and Alexander McKee. The dastardly deeds of 
 this trio are fully set forth in Butterfield's History of the Girtys, an im- 
 portant work to all students of the annals of the West during the Revo- 
 lutionary War. R. G. T.
 
 190 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 continuance, and brought on those who were engaged in 
 effecting them, all the horrors of savage warfare. 
 
 Upon the close of the campaign under Lord Dun- 
 more, Kentucky became more generally known. James 
 Harrod, with those who had associated themselves with 
 him in making a settlement in that country and aided in 
 the erection of the fort at Harrodsburg, joined the army 
 of General Lewis at Point Pleasant ; and when, after the 
 treaty of Camp Charlotte, the army was disbanded, many 
 of the soldiers and some of the officers, enticed by the 
 description given of it by Harrod, returned to south West- 
 ern Virginia, through that country. 1 The result of their 
 
 1 James Hatred's father emigrated from England to Virginia, about 
 1734, and was one of the first settlers on the Shenandoah, in the Valley 
 of Virginia. One of his sons, Samuel, accompanied Michael Stoner on 
 his famous Western hunting and exploring trip, in 1767 ; another, 
 William, born at the new family seat, at Big Cove, in what is now Bed- 
 ford County, Pa., served with distinction under George Rogers Clark. 
 James, born in 1742, was twelve years old when his father died, leaving 
 a large family on an exposed frontier, at the opening of the French and 
 Indian War. In November, 1755, a raid was made on the Big Cove set- 
 tlement, by the Delaware chief Shingiss (p. 45, note), but the Harrods 
 were among the few families who escaped unharmed to Fort Littleton. 
 When James was sixteen years of age he served with his brother Will- 
 iam on Forbes's campaign, and very likely saw further service during 
 that war. In 1772, when he had attained wide celebrity on the bor- 
 der as an adept in woodcraft, he helped William settle on Ten Mile 
 Creek, a tributary of the Monongahela; and in 1773 he and several 
 other explored Kentucky, returning home by way of Greenbrier River. 
 We have seen (p. 152, note) that he was surveying the site of Harrods- 
 burg in 1774, when warned by Boone and Stoner. Retiring with his 
 men to the Holston, he and they joined Col. Christian's regiment, but 
 arrived at Point Pleasant a few hours after the battle of October 10. 
 Returning to his abandoned Kentucky settlement March 18, 1775, a 
 fortnight before Boonesborough was founded, he was chosen a delegate 
 to the Transylvania convention, and became a man of great prominence 
 in the Kentucky colony. In 1779 he commanded a company on Bow- 
 man's campaign, and the year following was a captain on Clark's Indian 
 campaign ; declining a majorehip, he served as a private on Clark's 
 campaign of 1782. He was a member of the Kentucky convention (at 
 Danville) of December, 1784, and at one time represented Kentucky in 
 the Virginia legislature. In February, 1792, having made his will, he 
 set out from Washington, Ky., with two men, in search of a silver 
 mine reported to be at the Three Forks of the Kentucky. No more was 
 heard of him or his companions, and it is still the belief of the family
 
 Of Border Warfare. 191 
 
 
 
 examination of it, induced many to migrate thither im- 
 mediately ; and in 1775, families began to take up their 
 residence in it. 
 
 At that time, the only white persons residing in Ken- 
 tucky, were those at Harrod's fort ; and for a while, emi- 
 grants to that country [142] established themselves in its 
 immediate vicinity, that they might derive protection from 
 its walls, from the marauding irruptions of Indians. Two 
 other establishments were, however, soon made, and be- 
 came, as well as Harrod's, rallying points for land advent- 
 urers, and for many of those, whose enterprising spirits 
 led them, to make their home in that wilderness. The 
 first of these was that at Boonesborongh, and which was 
 made, under the superintendence of Daniel Boone. 
 
 The prospect of amassing great wealth, by the pur- 
 chase of a large body of land from the Indians, for a 
 comparatively trifling consideration, induced some gentle- 
 men in North Carolina, to form a company, and endeavor 
 by negotiation to effect such purpose. This association 
 was known under the title of Henderson and company ; 
 and its object was, the acquisition of a considerable por- 
 tion of Kentucky. 1 The first step, necessary towards the 
 
 that the latter murdered him. He was survived by his wife and a 
 daughter, and left a large landed estate. Harrod, although unlettered, 
 was a man of fine presence and many sterling qualities, and made a 
 strong impress on his generation. He is still remembered in Kentucky 
 as one of the worthiest pioneers of that state. R. G. T. 
 
 1 -The company successively called The Louisa Company, Hender- 
 son & Co., and The Transylvania Company was composed of Col. 
 Richard Henderson, Col. John Williams, Thomas Hart, Col. David 
 Hart, Capt. Nathaniel Hart, Col. John Luttsell, James Hogg, William 
 Johnston, and Leonard Henley Bullock. 
 
 Henderson's paternal great-grandfather was a Scottish immigrant, 
 and one of his grandmothers was Welsh. The family settled in Han- 
 over County, Va., where Richard, son of Samuel Henderson, was born 
 April 20, 1735. Samuel moved with his family to North Carolina, in 
 1745, and became sheriff of Granville County. Richard had the educa- 
 tion of a rural youth of good station, and became a lawyer. In 1767 he 
 was appointed one of the two associate justices of the superior court of 
 the colony, and served with great credit for six years, when the court 
 was abolished. During professional visits to Salisbury, Henderson heard 
 frequently chiefly through the brothers Hart of the exploits of Boone, 
 and the latter's glowing reports of the beauty and fertility of Kentucky.
 
 19'2 Withers' 's Chronicles 
 
 accomplishment of this object, was, to convene a council 
 of the Indians ; and as the territory sought to be acquired, 
 did not belong, in individual property to any one nation 
 
 Relying implicitly on Boone's statements, these four men energetically 
 resolved to settle the country. In the autumn of 1774, Henderson and 
 Nathaniel Hart visited the Cherokees to ascertain if they would sell 
 their claims to Kentucky, and receiving a favorable reply agreed to 
 meet the Indians in treaty council at the Sycamore Shoals, on Watauga 
 River. On their return home, they were accompanied by a wise old 
 Indian (Little Carpenter), and a young buck and his squaw, delegates 
 to see that proper goods were purchased for the proposed barter. These 
 goods were bought in December at Cross Creek, now Fayetteville, N. C., 
 and forwarded by wagons to Watauga. 
 
 Boone was then sent out to collect the Indians, and when the coun- 
 cil opened (March 14, 1775) had twelve hundred assembled at the Syca- 
 more Shoals half of them warriors. The council proceeded slowly, 
 with much characteristic vacillating on the part of the Indians ; but on 
 the third day (March 17) the deed of sale was signed to what came to 
 be known as "the great grant:" The tract from the mouth of the Ken- 
 tucky (or Louisa) River to the head spring of its most northerly fork ; 
 thence northeasterly to the top of Powell's Mountain ; thence westerly 
 and then northwesterly to the head spring of the most southerly 
 branch of the Cumberland; thence down that stream, including all its 
 waters, to the Ohio, and thence up the Ohio to the mouth of the Ken- 
 tucky. The Indians were conscious that they had sold what did not 
 belong to them ; and Dragging Canoe and other chiefs were outspoken in 
 their opinion that the whites would have difficulty in settling the tract. 
 The Indians were much dissatisfied with the division of the goods. 
 These " filled a house " and cost 10,000 sterling, yet when distributed 
 among so many greedy savages each had but a small share. One war- 
 rior, who received but a shirt for his portion, said he " could have shot 
 more game in one day on the land ceded, than would pay for so slight 
 a garment." 
 
 Governors Martin, of North Carolina, and Dunmore, of Virginia, 
 issued proclamations against the purchase, as contrary to the royal 
 proclamation of 1763. But those who were present at the treaty 
 among them such prominent borderers as Daniel Boone, James Robert- 
 son, John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, Felix Walker, the Bledsoes, Richard 
 Callaway, William Twitty, William Cocke, and Nathaniel Henderson- 
 were heedless of such proclamations, and eager to become settlers un- 
 der the company's liberal offer made to them on the spot : for each man 
 who assisted in the first settlement, and went out and raised a crop of 
 corn that year, a grant of 500 acres for 5 sterling, clear of all charges. 
 
 Boone, as the company's agent, started out at once (March 10) -with 
 twenty men, soon reinforced to thirty ; with their hatchets they blazed 
 a bridle path over Cumberland Gap, and across Cumberland, Laurel, 
 and Rockcastle rivers, to the banks of the Kentucky, where, after a 
 running fieht with the Indians, they arrived April 1, and founded
 
 Of Border Warfare. 193 
 
 of them, it was deemed advisable to convoke the chiefs of 
 the different nations south of the Ohio river. A time was 
 then appointed at which these were to assemble ; and it 
 became necessary to engage an agent, possessing the re- 
 quisite qualifications, to attend the council, on behalf of 
 Henderson and company, and to transact the business for 
 them. The fame of Daniel Boone which had reached 
 them, recommended him, as one eminently qualified to 
 discharge the duties devolving on an agent; and he was 
 employed in that capacity. At the appointed period, the 
 council was held, and a negotiation commenced, which re- 
 sulted in the transfer, to Henderson and company, of the 
 title of the southern Indians to the land lying south of the 
 Kentucky river, and north of the Tennessee. 1 
 
 Boonesborough. Henderson, at the head of thirty men conveying the 
 wagons and supplies, arrived at Boonesborough April 20 ; with him 
 were Luttsell and Nathaniel Hart. May 23, there met at Boonesbor- 
 ough the Legislature of Transylvania, in which sat eighteen delegates 
 from the little group of four frontier forts, all established at about this 
 time Harrodsburg, Boiling Springs, and St. Asaph's (or Logan's Sta- 
 tion), lying some thirty or more miles southwest of Boonesborough, the 
 capital of this little western colony. Withers does not mention this 
 first legislative assembly held in the Mississippi Valley. It is an inter- 
 esting and suggestive episode in American commonwealth-building, and 
 deserves careful study. Roosevelt gives it admirable treatment, in his 
 Winning of the West. The journal of the convention is given at length 
 in the appendix to the second edition of Butler's Kentucky; Hall's 
 Sketches of the West, L, pp. 264, 265; Louisville Literary News- Letter, June 
 6, 1840 ; and Hazard's U. S. Register, iii., pp. 25-28. Henderson's MS. 
 Journal is in the possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society, and has 
 never yet been published. 
 
 Virginia and North Carolina did not favor an independent gov- 
 ernment in Kentucky, and annulled the title of the Henderson com- 
 pany but Virginia (1795) granted the proprietors in recompense 200,- 
 000 acres on Powell's and Clinch rivers. 
 
 We hear little more of Richard Henderson, in pioneer history. In 
 1779, he was one of the North Carolina commissioners to extend the 
 western boundary between that State and Virginia. During the winter 
 of 1789-90 he was at the French Lick on Cumberland, where he opened 
 A land office. His last public service was in 1781, when a member of 
 the North Carolina house of commons. He died at his country seat in 
 Granville County, N. C., January 30, 1785, in his fiftieth year. Two of 
 his sons, Archibald and Leonard, attained eminence at the bar of their 
 native State. R. G. T. 
 
 1 Among Dr. Draper's manuscripts I find this succinct review of the 
 13
 
 194 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 Boone was then placed at the head of a party of en- 
 terprising men, sent to open a road from the Holstein set- 
 tlement, through the wilderness, to the Kentucky river, 
 
 aboriginal claims to Kentucky : " There is some reason to suppose that 
 the Catawbas may once have dwelt upon the Kentucky River ; that 
 stream, on some of the ancient maps published a hundred years ago, 
 was called the ' Cuttawa or Cawtaba River.' But that tribe of Indians, 
 so far as we know, never laid any claim to the territory. 
 
 " It would appear from the historical evidences extant, that the 
 Shawanoes were the earliest occupants of Kentucky of whom we have 
 any certain knowledge. Golden, the primitive historian of the Iroquois 
 Confederacy, informs us, that when the French commenced the first 
 settlement of Canada in 1603, the Five Nations, who then resided near 
 the present locality of Montreal, were at war with the powerful Adi- 
 rondacks, who at that time lived three hundred miles above the Three 
 Rivers, in Canada. The Iroquois found it difficult to withstand the 
 vigorous attacks of their enemies, whose superior hardihood was to be 
 attributed to their constant devotion to the chase, while the Iroquois 
 had been chiefly engaged in the more peaceful occupation of planting 
 corn. Compelled to give way before their haughty foes, the confeder- 
 ates had recourse to the exercise of arms, in order, if possible, to re- 
 trieve their martial character and prowess. To raise the spirits of their 
 people, the Iroquois leaders turned their warriors against the Satanas 
 or Shawanoes, 'who then,' says Golden, 'lived on the banks of the 
 lakes,' or, as other historians assert, in Western New York, and south 
 of Lake Erie, and soon subdued and drove them out of the country. 
 The Shawanoes then retired to the Ohio, along which and its tributa- 
 ries they planted numerous settlements. Some of them, however, when 
 driven from Western New York, seem to have located somewhere on 
 the Delaware, for De Laet, in 1624, speaks of Sawanoos residing on that 
 river. 
 
 " The Jesuit Relations of 1661-62, allude to their residence in the 
 West under the name of Ontouagannha or Chaouanons ; they seem to 
 have been the same as were called Tongorias, Erighecks, Erieehonons, 
 Eries, or Gats, by the early missionaries and historians ; and the same, 
 moreover, known in the traditions of the Senecas as Gah-kwahs, who 
 resided on Eighteen Mile Creek, a few miles southwest of Buffalo, in 
 Western New York, which the Senecas still call Gah-kwah-gig-a-ah 
 Creek, which means the place where the Gah-kwahs lived. In 1672, the 
 Shawanoes and their confederates in the Ohio Valley me.t with a disas- 
 trous overthrow by the Five Nations at Sandy Island, just below the 
 Falls of Ohio, where large numbers of human bones were still to be 
 seen at the first settlement of the country. The surviving Shawanoes 
 must then have retired still farther down the Ohio, and settled probably 
 in the western part of Kentucky ; and Marquette, in 1673, speaks of 
 their having twenty-three villages in one district, and fifteen in another, 
 all lying quite near each other. At length the Shawanoes departed 
 from Kentucky, and seem to have gone to the upper part of the Caro-
 
 Of Border Warfare. 195 
 
 and to take possession of the company's purchase. When 
 within fifteen miles of the termination of their journey, 
 they were attacked by a body of northern Indians, who 
 killed two of Boone's comrades, and wounded two others. 
 
 linas, and to the coast of Florida, and ever after proved a migratory 
 people. They were evidently ' subdued,' as Golden, Evans, and Pow- 
 nall inform us, and the decisive battle was fought at Sandy Island, where 
 a vital blow was given to the balance of power on the Ohio, which de- 
 cided finally the fall of Kentucky with its ancient inhabitants. 
 
 " It was this conquest that gave to the powerful Iroquois all the 
 title they ever acquired to Kentucky. At the peace of Ryswick, in 
 1697, their right to their western conquests was fully acknowledged ; 
 and at the treaty of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, in 1744, they ceded to 
 Virginia all their lands west of that colony. In 1752, the Shawanoes 
 and other western tribes, at Logstown on the Ohio, confirmed the Lan- 
 caster treaty, and sold their claim to the country south of the Ohio ; 
 and, at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1768, the Six Nations made a new 
 cession of their claim to Kentucky as low as the Cherokee or Tennessee 
 River. Up to this period, the Cherokees never so much as thought of 
 contesting with the Iroquois their claim to the Kentucky country ; for 
 some of the visiting Cherokees, while on their route to attend the Fort 
 Stanwix treaty, killed game for their subsistence, and on their arrival 
 at Fort Stanwix, tendered the skins to the Six Nations, saying, ' They 
 are yours, we killed them after passing the Big River,' the name by 
 which they had always designated the Tennessee. But probably dis- 
 covering that other Indian nations were driving a good business by 
 disposing of their distant land rights, the Cherokees managed to hatch 
 up some sort of claim, which they, in part, relinquished to Virginia, at 
 the treaty of Lochaber in 1770 ; and when Col. Donelson ran the line 
 the following year, the boundary was fixed, at the suggestion of the 
 Cherokee deputies, on the Kentucky River as the south-western line, as 
 they delighted, hey said, in natural landmarks. This considerably en- 
 larged the cession, for which they received an additional compensation. 
 
 "In 1772, the Shawanoes made no claim to Kentucky; and at the 
 treaty of Camp Charlotte, in October, 1774, they tacitly confirmed their 
 old sale of that country in 1752, by agreeing not even to hunt south of 
 the Ohio. Thus, then, we see that the Iroquois had twice ceded their 
 right to Kentucky as low as the Tennessee River, and twice received 
 their pay ; the Shawanoes had disposed of their claim, such as it was, 
 and received for it a valuable consideration ; and the Cherokees, find- 
 ing it profitable to lay claim to some valuable unoccupied region, sold 
 their newly assumed right to the country south and east of Kentucky 
 River. Their claim, if indeed it rises to the dignity of a claim, south 
 and west of the Kentucky, was fairly purchased by Henderson and 
 Company, and thus with the subsequent purchase by treaty, of the 
 Chickasaws, of the strip between the Tennessee and Mississippi, the 
 Indian title to the whole Kentucky country was fully and fairly ex- 
 tinguished." R. G. T.
 
 196 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 Two days after, they were again attacked by them, and 
 had two more of their party killed and three wounded. 1 
 From this time they experienced no farther molestation 
 until they had arrived within the limits of the purchase, 
 and erected a fort, at a lick near the southern bank of the 
 Kentucky river the site of the present town of Boones- 
 borough. Enfeebled by the loss sustained in the attacks 
 made on them by the Indians ; and worn down by the con- 
 tinued labor of opening a road through an almost imper- 
 vious wilderness, it was some time before they could so far 
 complete the fort, so as to render it secure against antici- 
 pated assaults of the savages, and justify a detachment be- 
 ing sent from the garrison, to escort the family of Boone 
 to his new situation. When it was thus far completed, an 
 office [143] was opened for the sale of the company's 
 land ; 2 and Boone and some others returned to Holstein, 
 and from thence, guarded the family of Boone, through 
 the wilderness, to the newly erected fort. Mrs. Boone 
 and her daughter, are believed to be the first white females 
 who ever stood on the banks of the Kentucky river. 3 
 
 1 The first attack occurred the morning of March 25, when the party 
 were encamped near the head of Taylor's Fork of Silver Creek. Capt. 
 Twitty and Felix Walker were severely wounded, and a negro servant 
 killed; Twitty subsequently died from his wound. The other attack 
 was on an outlying company, probably on Tate's Creek ; this occurred 
 the 27th, and " Thomas McDowell and Jeremiah McFeeters were," 
 Boone wrote to Henderson, " killed and sculped." R. G. T. 
 
 [143] * The purchase of Henderson and company, was subsequently 
 declared by the legislature of Virginia, to be null and void, so far as the 
 purchasers were concerned ; but effectual as to the extinguishment of 
 the Indian title, to the territory thus bought of them. To indemnify 
 the purchasers for any advancement of money or other things which 
 they had made to the Indians, the assembly granted to them 200,000 
 acres of land, lying at the mouth of Green river, and known generally 
 as Henderson's grant. 
 
 3 Boone set out from Boonesborough, June 13, 1775. He left the set- 
 tlement in a state approaching anarchy ; there were several good men in 
 the district, but the majority were shiftless wanderers who would brook no 
 exercise of authority. The buffalo were fast moving westward, and all game 
 was now getting scarce " hunt or starve '' was the motto of the hour. A 
 diarist (Capt. Floyd) estimated that there were then a total of 300 peo- 
 ple in all the Kentucky settlements not reckoning ''a great many land- 
 jobbers from towards Pittsburg, who go about on the north side of Ken- 
 tucky, in companies, and build forty or fifty cabins a piece on lands
 
 Of Border Warfare. 197 
 
 In 1775 Benjamin Logan, who had been with Lord 
 Dunmore at Camp Charlotte, visited Kentucky and se- 
 lected a spot for his future residence, near to the present 
 village of Stamford, erected thereon a fort ; and in the fol- 
 lowing year moved his family thither. 
 
 These were the only settlements then begun to be 
 made within the limits of the now state of Kentucky. As 
 the tide of emigration flowed into the country, those three 
 forts afforded an asylum, from the Indian hostility to which 
 the whites were incessantly subjected; and never perhaps 
 lived three men better qualified by nature and habit, to 
 resist that hostility, and preserve the settlers from cap- 
 tivity and death, than James Harrod, Daniel Boone, and 
 Benjamin Logan. Reared in the lap of danger, and early 
 inured to the hardships and sufferings of a wilderness life, 
 they were habitually acquainted with those arts which 
 were necessary to detect and defeat the one, and to lessen 
 and alleviate the others. Intrepid and fearless, yet cau- 
 tious and prudent, there was united in each of them, the 
 sly, circumventive powers of the Indian, with the bold de- 
 fiance, and open daring of the whites. Quick, almost to 
 intuition, in the perception of impending dangers, instant 
 in determining, and prompt in action ; to see, to resolve, 
 and to execute, were with them the work of the same mo- 
 ment. Rife in expedients, the most perplexing difficulties 
 rarely found them at a loss. Possessed of these qualities, 
 they were placed at the head of the little colonies planted 
 around them ; not by ambition, but by the universal voice 
 of the people ; from a deep and thorough conviction, that 
 they only were adequate to the exigencies of their situa- 
 
 where no surveying has yet been done." Among the best of the nu- 
 merous arrivals, were George Rogers Clark, Simon Kenton, Benjamin 
 Logan, and Whitley, who came to be very prominent characters in Ken- 
 tucky history. Boone, with his wife and daughters, and twenty-one 
 men, arrived at Boonesborough September 6 or 7. " My wife and 
 daughters,' writes Boone, " were the first women that ever stood on the 
 banks oi Kentucky river." Mrs. McGary, Mrs. Hogan, and Mrs. Den- 
 ton arrived at Harrodsburg the 8th of September, and were the first 
 white women in that settlement. With the arrival of these families, 
 and fresh fighting men, the Kentucky colony began to take on a per- 
 manent air, aud thenceforward there was better order. R. G. T.
 
 198 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 tiori. The conviction was not ill founded. Their intel- 
 lectual and physical resources were powerfully and con- 
 stantly exerted for the preservation and security of the 
 settlements ; and frequently, with astonishing success, un- 
 der the most inauspicious circumstances. Had they in- 
 deed, by nature, been supine and passive, their isolated 
 situation, and the constantly repeated attempts of the In- 
 dians, at their extermination, would have aroused them, as 
 it did others, to activity and energy, and brought their 
 every [144] nerve into action. For them, there were no 
 " weak, piping times of peace," no respite from danger. 
 The indefatigable vigilance and persevering hostility of 
 an unrelenting foe, required countervailing exertions on 
 their part; and kept alive the life, which they delighted to 
 live. 
 
 From the instant those establishments were made, and 
 emigrants placed themselves in their vicinity, the Savages 
 commenced their usual mode of warfare ; and marauding 
 parties were ever in readiness, to seize upon, those, whose 
 misfortune it was to become exposed to their vigilance. In 
 the prosecution of these hostilities, incidents of the most 
 lively and harrowing interest, though limited in their con- 
 sequences, were constantly recurring ; before a systematic 
 course of operations, was undertaken for the destruction 
 of the settlers. 
 
 The Indians, seeing that they had to contend with 
 persons, as well skilled in their peculiar mode of warfare, 
 as themselves, and as likely to detect them, while lying in 
 wait for an opportunity to strike the deadly blow, as they 
 were to strike it with impunity, they entirely changed 
 their plans of annoyance. Instead of longer endeavoring 
 to cut off the whites in detail, they brought into the coun- 
 try a force, sufficiently numerous and powerful to act sim- 
 ultaneously against all the settlements. The consequence 
 of this was, much individual suffering and several horrid 
 massacres. Husbandmen, toiling to secure the product of 
 the summer's labor, for their sustenance another season, 
 were frequently attacked, and murdered. Hunters, en- 
 gaged in procuring meat for immediate and pressing use,
 
 Of Border Warfare. 199 
 
 were obliged to practise the utmost wariness to evade the 
 ambushed Indian, and make sure their return to the fort. 
 Springs and other watering places, and the paths leading 
 to them, were constantly guarded by the savages ; who 
 would lie near them day and night, until forced to leave 
 their covert, in quest of food to satisfy their extreme 
 hunger ; and who, when this end was attained, would re- 
 turn to their hiding places, with renovated strength, and 
 increased watchfulness. The cattle belonging to the gar- 
 risons were either driven off, or killed, so that no supplies 
 could be derived from them. This state of things con- 
 tinued, without intermission, 'till the severity of winter 
 forced the Indians to depart for their towns ; and then suc- 
 ceeded, of necessity, a truce, which had become extremely 
 desirable to the different settlements. 
 
 When we reflect on the dangers, the difficulties, the 
 complicated distresses, to which the inhabitants were then 
 exposed, it is really matter of astonishment that they did 
 not abandon the country, and seek elsewhere an exemp- 
 tion from those evils. How women, with all the feminine 
 weakness of the sex, could be prevailed upon to remain 
 during the winter, and encounter with the returning 
 spring, the returning horrors of savage warfare, is truly 
 surprising. The frequent recurrence of danger, does in- 
 deed, produce a comparative insensibility and indifference 
 to it ; but it is difficult to conceive, [145] that familiarity 
 with the tragic scenes which were daily exhibited there, 
 could reconcile persons to a life of constant exposure 
 to them. Yet such was the fact; and not only did the 
 few, who were first to venture on them, continue in the 
 country, but others, equally adventurous, moved to it; en- 
 countering many hardships and braving every danger, to 
 aid in maintaining possession of the modern Canaan, and 
 to obtain a home in that land of milk and honey. If for 
 a while, they flattered themselves with the hope, that the 
 ravages which had been checked by winter, would not be 
 repeated on the return of spring, they were sadly disap- 
 pointed. Hostilities were resumed, as soon as the abate- 
 ment of cold, suffered the Indians to take the field ; and
 
 200 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 were carried on with renovated ardor, and on an enlarged 
 scale. 1 
 
 Feeling the hopelessness of extirpating the settle- 
 ments, so long as the forts remained to afford a safe retreat 
 to the inhabitants ; and having learned, by the experience of 
 the preceding season, that the whites were but little, if at 
 all, inferior to them in their own arts, and were competent 
 to combat them, in their own mode of warfare, the In- 
 dians resolved on bringing into the country a larger force, 
 and to direct their united energies to the demolition of the 
 different forts. To prevent any aid being afforded by the 
 other garrisons, while operations were leveled against one, 
 they resolved on detaching from their main body, such a 
 number of men as was deemed sufficient to keep watch 
 around the other forts, and awe their inmates from attempt- 
 ing to leave them, on any occasion. This was a course of 
 excellent policy. It was calculated not only to prevent the 
 marching of any auxiliary forces from one to the other of 
 the fortresses, but at the same time by preventing hunting 
 parties from ranging the woods, cut off the principal source, 
 from which their supplies were derived; and thus tended 
 to render their fall, the more certain and easy. 
 
 Accordingly in March 1777, they entered Kentucky 
 with a force of upwards of two hundred warriors ; and 
 sending some of their most expert and active men to 
 watch around Boone's and Logan's forts, marched with 
 
 1 In the winter of 1776-77, McClelland's Station and Logan's Station, 
 (indifferently styled Fort or Station) were abandoned because of Indian 
 attacks, and the settlers huddled into Boonesborough and Harrodsburg 
 although possibly Price's settlement, on the Cumberland, maintained a 
 separate existence throughout the winter. There were at this time not to 
 exceed a hundred and fifty white men in the country, available for 
 active militia duty. As during January and February, 1777, the Indians 
 were quiet, confidence was restored in some degree, and during the latter 
 month, Logan, with his own and some half dozen other families, left Har- 
 rodsburg and re-occupied Logan's Station. Thus far, each settlement had 
 chosen its own military leader, and discipline was practically unknown. 
 March 5, under order and commissions from Virginia, the militia of 
 Kentucky county were assembled and organized at Boonesborough, 
 Harrodsburg, and Logan's Station, with George Rogers Clark as major, 
 and Daniel Boone, James Harrod, John Todd, and Benjamin Logan as 
 captains. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 201 
 
 the chief part of their army to attack Harrodsburg. On 
 the 14th of March three persons (who were engaged in 
 clearing some land) not far from Harrod's fort, discovered 
 the Indians proceeding through the woods, and sought to 
 escape observation and convey the intelligence to the gar- 
 rison. But they too, were discovered and pursued ; and 
 one of them was killed, another taken prisoner, and the 
 third (James, afterwards Gen. Ray, then a mere youth) 
 reached Harrodsburg alone in safety. 1 Aware that the 
 place had become alarmed, and that they had then no 
 chance of operating on it, by surprise, they encamped near 
 to it on that evening ; and early on the morning of the 
 15th commenced a furious and animated attack. 
 
 Apprized of the near approach of the enemy, the gar- 
 rison had made every preparation for defense, of which 
 their situation admitted; and when the assailants rushed 
 to the assault, not intimidated by their horrible and un- 
 natural yells, nor yet dispirited by the [146] presence of a 
 force so far superior to their own, they received them with 
 a fire so steady and well directed, as forced them to recoil ; 
 leaving one of their slain on the field of attack. This 
 alone, argued a great discomfiture of the Indians; as it is 
 well known to be their invariable custom, to remove, if 
 practicable, those of their warriors who fall in battle. 
 Their subsequent movements, satisfied the inmates of the 
 fort, that there had been indeed a discomfiture ; and that 
 they had but little to apprehend from a renewed assault 
 on their little fortress. After reconnoitering for a while, 
 at a prudent distance from the garrison, the Indians kin- 
 dled their fires for the night; and in the following day, 
 leaving a small party for the purpose of annoyance, de- 
 camped with the main body of their army, and marched 
 
 1 This foray took place March 6 not the 14th, as in the text at 
 Shawnee Springs, four miles north-east of Harrodsburg. The whites 
 James Ray, William Ray, Thomas Shores, and William Coomes were 
 sugar-making, when attacked by about seventy Shawnees, under Black 
 Fish. William Ray was killed, and Shores taken prisoner. James Ray 
 outran his pursuers and gave the alarm. The unsuccessful attack on 
 the incomplete fort of Harrodsburg occurred early the following morn- 
 ing, the 7th. Other brief attacks on Harrodsburg, were on March 18 
 and 28. R. G. T.
 
 202 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 towards Boonesborough. 1 In consequence however, of a 
 severe spell of March weather, they were forced to remain 
 inactive for a time ; and did not make their appearance 
 there, until the middle of April. 
 
 In the assault on Boone's fort, the Indians soon be- 
 came satisfied that it was impregnable against them ; and 
 although their repulse was not as signal here, as it had 
 been at Harrodsburg, yet they soon withdrew from the 
 contest, and marched towards Logan's fort, having killed 
 one and wounded four, of the whites. 2 
 
 Several causes combined to render an attack on the 
 fort at Logan's station, an event of most fearful conse- 
 quence. 3 Its inmates had been but a short time in the 
 country, and were not provided with an ample supply 
 either of provisions or ammunition. They were few in 
 number ; and though of determined spirit and undaunted 
 fortitude, yet such was the disparity between thirteen and 
 two hundred the force of the garrison and the force of 
 the assailants, joined to their otherwise destitute situation, 
 that hope itself, could scarcely live in so perilous a situ- 
 ation. Had this been the first point, against which the 
 enemy levelled their operations when they arrived in the 
 country, it must have fallen before them. But by deferring 
 the attack on it, 'till they had been repulsed at the two 
 other forts, the garrison was allowed time ; and availing 
 themselves of it, to fortify their position more strongly, 
 the issue was truly, most fortunate, though unexpected. 
 
 On the night preceding the commencement of the at- 
 tack on the fort, the Indians had approached near to it 
 unperceived, and secreted themselves in a cane brake, 
 which had been suffered to remain around the cabins. 
 
 1 A small detachment from Black Fish's party made a dash on 
 workers in the Boonesborough fields, the day after the Harrodsburg 
 fight killing a negro, and wounding several whites. R. G. T. 
 
 * This assault on Boonesborough occurred the morning of Thursday, 
 April 24. The Indians numbered about one hundred. Boone was 
 wounded, and very nearly lost his life, in a sortie. The story of the 
 fight abounds with instances of heroism on the part of both women and 
 men. R. G. T. 
 
 s It occurred throughout Friday, May 30. The Indians are re- 
 ported to have numbered fifty-seven. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 203 
 
 Early in the morning the women, went out to milk, 
 guarded by most of the garrison ; and before they were 
 aware of impending danger, the concealed Indians opened 
 a general fire, which killed three of the men, and drove 
 the others, hastily within the fort. 1 A most affecting 
 spectacle was then presented to view, well calculated to 
 excite the sympathies of human nature, and arouse to 
 action a man possessed of the generous sensibility and no- 
 ble daring, which animated the bosom of Logan. 
 
 One of the men who had fallen on the first fire of 
 the Indians and had been supposed by his comrades to be 
 dead, was in truth though [147] badly wounded, yet still 
 alive ; and was observed feebly struggling to crawl to- 
 wards the fort. The fear of laceration and mangling from 
 the horrid scalping knife, and of tortures from more bar- 
 barous instruments, seemed to abate his exertions in drag- 
 ing his wounded body along, lest he should be discovered 
 and borne oft' by some infuriated and unfeeling savage. 
 It was doubtful too, whether his strength would endure 
 long enough to enable him to reach the gate, even if un- 
 molested by any apprehension of danger. The magnani- 
 mous arid intrepid Logan resolved on making an effort to 
 save hnh. He endeavored to raise volunteers, to accom- 
 pany him without the fort, and bring in their poor 
 wounded companion. It seemed as if courting the quick 
 embrace of death, and even his adventurous associates 
 for an instant, shrunk from the danger. At length a man 
 
 1 Those who went out early in the morning to milk the cows, were 
 Mrs. Ann Logan, Mrs. Whitley, and a negro woman. They were guarded 
 only by William Hudson, Burr Harrison, John Kennedy, and James 
 Craig. The women and Craig escaped into the fort unharmed ; Ken- 
 nedy, with four balls in his body, contrived also to escape ; Hudson 
 was killed outright, and Harrison fell wounded. He was supposed by 
 friend and foe to have been killed. The story of his final rescue by 
 Logan, is related by Withers below. As told to Dr. Draper, by Capt. 
 Benjamin Biggs, and as recorded in Whitley's MS. Narrative, in pos- 
 session of the Wisconsin Historical Society, the story in Withers is 
 substantially correct. It is said that Logan rolled a bag of wool before 
 him, and thus approached Harrison under cover ; then making a rush 
 towards the latter, he picked him up in his arms and dashed success- 
 fully into the fort. These accounts make no mention of Martin's inter- 
 vention. Harrison died of his wounds, June 13. R. G. T.
 
 204 Withers'* Chronicles 
 
 by the name of Martin, who plumed himself on rash and 
 daring deeds, consented to aid in the enterprise; and the 
 two proceeded towards the gate. Here the spirit of Mar- 
 tin forsook him, and he recoiled from the hazardous ad- 
 venture. Logan was then alone. He beheld the feeble, 
 but wary exertions of his unfortunate comrade, entirely 
 subside; and he could not hesitate. He rushed quickly 
 through the gate, caught the unhappy victim in his arms, 
 and bore him triumphantly into the fort, amid a shower 
 of bullets aimed at him ; and some of which buried them- 
 selves in the pallisades close by his head. A most noble 
 and disinterested achievement, and worthy of all com- 
 mendation. 1 
 
 [148] The siege being maintained by the Indians, the 
 animation of the garrison was nearly exhausted, in re- 
 pelling the frequent assaults made on the fort; and it was 
 apparent, that the enemy did not intend speedily to with- 
 draw their forces. Parties of Indians were frequently 
 detached from the main body, as well to obtain a supply 
 of provisions by hunting, as to intercept and cut off any 
 
 [147] ' Benjamin Logan was by birth a Virginian ; and at the age of 
 fourteen was left by the death of his father, to provide for his mother 
 and her other children, and with the other cares of a family upon his 
 infant hands. He discharged the duties thus devolving on him, with 
 the utmost fidelity ; and having provided amply for the support of his 
 mother, and placed the other members of her household in eligible 
 situations, he removed to the Holstein, married, purchased land, and 
 commenced making improvements. From thence he went to Kentucky, 
 where he spent the balance of his life, in the discharge of every social 
 and relative duty, with credit to himself and advantage to the com- 
 munity. He was a delegate to the Virginia legislature from the county 
 of Kentucky in 1780; was soon after commissioned county Lieutenant, 
 (then the highest military title in the militia of a county) and in the 
 various battles, as well as in the many skirmishes, which he fought with 
 the Indians, his conduct and bearing were such, as fully established for 
 him the reputation of a brave, skilful, prudent and meritorious officer. 
 In .private life, and in his intercourse with his fellow men, his whole 
 course was distinguished by the most uncompromising honor, and ex- 
 panded philanthrophy. The heroic adventure, by which he saved his 
 wounded comrade, from the tomahawk, the scalping knife, and from 
 fire, was but one of many such exploits, whereby he achieved good to 
 others, at the most imminent hazard of his own life.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 205 
 
 aid, which might be sent to St. Asaph's 1 from the other 
 forts. In this posture of affairs, it was impossible that the 
 garrison could long hold out, unless its military stores 
 could be replenished ; and to effect this, under existing 
 circumstances, appeared to be almost impossible. Har- 
 rodsburg and Boonesborough were not themselves amply 
 provided with stores ; and had it been otherwise, so closely 
 was the intermediate country between them and St. Asaph's, 
 guarded by the savages, that no communication could be 
 carried from one to the other of them. The settlement on 
 the Holstein was the nearest point, from which it could be 
 practicable to derive a supply of ammunition, and the 
 distance to that neighborhood, was considerable. 
 
 Logan knew the danger which must result to the gar- 
 rison, from being weakened as much as it must be, by 
 sending a portion of it on this hazardous enterprise ; but 
 he also knew, that the fort could not be preserved from 
 falling, unless its magazine was soon replenished. Prefer- 
 ing the doubtful prospect of succeeding in its relief, by 
 adopting the plan of sending to Holstein, he proposed the 
 measure to his companions, and they eagerly embraced it. 
 It remained then to select the party, which was to venture 
 on this high enterprise. Important as the presence of 
 Logan, was known to be, in the fort, yet as the lives of all 
 within, depended on the success of the expedition and as 
 to effect this, required the exercise of qualities rarely pos- 
 sessed in so great degree by any other individual, he was 
 unanimously chosen to conduct the enterprise. 
 
 Accompanied by four of the garrison, Logan, as slyly 
 as possible, slipped from the fort, and commenced his tedi- 
 ous journey. 2 To lessen the chance of coming in contact 
 
 [148] l This was the name given to the station of Logan. 
 
 * Whitley's MS. Narrative and Cowan's MS. Diary, in the Wisconsin 
 Historical Society's library, say that Logan left alone during the night 
 of June 6. Logan returned to his fort on the 23d, having travelled 
 almost incessantly, and brought news that relief would soon come. 
 Soon after Logan's expedition to the Holston, other messengers were 
 sent to the East, clamoring for help McGary and Hoggin to Fort Pitt, 
 and Smith to the Yadkin ; and twice Harrod vainly went forth to meet 
 expected troops. But the Continental army was hard pressed in those 
 days, and despite the rumor on the coast that Kentucky was in a sad 
 way, it was long before relief could be sent. R. G. T.
 
 206 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 with straggling bands of Indians, he avoided the pack 
 road which had been opened by Boone ; and pursuing an 
 untrodden route, reached the settlement in safety. The 
 requisite supplies were soon engaged ; and while they were 
 being prepared for transportation, Logan was actively en- 
 gaged in endeavoring to prevail on the inhabitants, to form 
 a company as expeditiously as possible and march to their 
 relief. With a faint promise of assistance, and with the 
 assurance that their situation should be immediately made 
 known to the executive authority of the state, he set off 
 on his return. Confiding the ammunition which he had 
 obtained, to the care of his companions, and prudently ad- 
 vising and instructing them in the course best to be pur- 
 sued, he left them, and hastened to make his way alone, 
 back to St. Asaph. In ten days after his departure from 
 the fort, he returned to it again ; and his [149] presence 
 contributed much to revive and encourage the garrison ; 
 'till then in almost utter despair of obtaining relief. In a 
 few days after, the party arrived with the ammunition, and 
 succeeded in entering the fort unperceived ; though it was 
 still surrounded by the Indians. With so much secrecy 
 and caution had the enterprise been conducted, that the 
 enemy never knew it had been undertaken, until it was 
 happily accomplished. 
 
 For some time after this the garrison continued in 
 high expectation of seeing the besiegers depart, despairing 
 of making any impression on the fort. But they were 
 mistaken in this expectation. Each returning day shewed 
 the continued investiture of the fort, and exhibited the 
 Indians as pertinaciously intent on its reduction by assault 
 or famine, as they were on the day of their arrival before 
 it. Weeks elapsed, and there was no appearance of the 
 succours which had been promised to Logan, when in the 
 settlement on Holstein. And although the besieged were 
 still successful in repelling every assault on the garrison, 
 yet their stock of provisions was almost entirely exhausted ; 
 and there was no chance of obtaining a farther supply, but 
 from the woods around them. To depend on the success 
 of hunting parties, to relieve their necessities and prevent 
 their actual starvation or surrender, seemed indeed, but a
 
 Of Border Warfare. 207 
 
 slender reed on which to rely ; and the gloom of despond- 
 ency overshadowed their hitherto sanguine countenances. 
 But as they were resigning themselves to despair, and yield- 
 ing up the last hope of being able to escape from savage fury 
 and savage vengeance, Colonel Bowman arrived to their re- 
 lief, and forced the Indians to raise the siege. It was not 
 however, without some loss on his part. A detachment 
 of his men, which had preceded the advance of the main 
 army, was unfortunately unable to reach the fort, undis- 
 covered by the besiegers ; who attacked and killed them 
 before they could enter the garrison. On the body of one 
 of these men, was left a proclamation, issued by the Gov- 
 ernor of Detroit promising protection and reward to those 
 who would renounce the cause of the American colonies, 
 and espouse that of Great Britain ; and denouncing those 
 who would not. When this proclamation was carried to 
 Logan, he carefully kept secret its contents, lest it might 
 produce an unfavorable effect on the minds of some of his 
 men ; worn down, exhausted, and discouraged as they then 
 were. 1 
 
 [150] After the arrival of Colonel Bowman in the 
 country, there was for a time, a good deal of skirmishing 
 between his forces, aided by individuals from the different 
 forts, and those Indians. In all of them, the superiority 
 of the whites in the use of the rifle, became apparent to 
 the savages ; and as the feat of Captain Gibson with the 
 sword, had previously acquired for the Virginians, the 
 appellation of the Long Knives, 2 the fatal certainty, with 
 which Bowman's men and the inhabitants of the various 
 settlements in Kentucky, then aimed their shots, might 
 have added to that title, the forcible epithet of sharp- 
 
 1 Bowman arrived at Boonesborough the first of August, with two 
 companies from Virginia, under Capts. Henry Pauling and John Dun- 
 kin the latter heing soon succeeded by Isaac Ruddell. The force num- 
 bered 100 men. August 25, while six of Bowman's men were on 
 their way to Logan's, they were attacked by Indians, two being killed 
 and one wounded. Before escaping, the Indians left on the body of 
 one of the men, several copies of a proclamation addressed to Clark and 
 Logan in person, by Lieut.-Gov. Henry Hamilton, at the head of the 
 British forces at Detroit, offering immunity to repentant rebels. R. G.T. 
 
 2 See pp. 79, 80, note, for origin of the term " Long Knives." R. G. T.
 
 208 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 shooters. They were as skilful and successful, too, in the 
 practice of those arts, by which one is enabled to steal un- 
 aware upon his enemy, as the Natives themselves ; and 
 were equally as sure to execute the purposes, for which 
 those arts were put in requisition, as these were. The 
 consequence was, that the Indians were not only more shy 
 in approaching the garrison, than they had been; but 
 they likewise became, more cautious and circumspect, in 
 their woods operations, than formerly. 
 
 The frequent success of Colonel Bowman's men, in 
 scouring the surrounding country, gave to the inhabitants 
 of all the settlements, an opportunity of cultivating their 
 little fields, and of laying in such a stock of provisions 
 and military stores, as would suffice in the hour of need ; 
 when that force should be withdrawn from the country, 
 and the Indians consequently be again enabled to overrun 
 it. All that the inhabitants, by reason of the paucity of 
 their numbers, could yet do, was to shut themselves iiv 
 forts, and preserve these from falling into the hands of the 
 enemy. When the term of those, who had so opportunely 
 came to their relief, expired, and they returned to their 
 homes, there were at Boonsborough only twenty-two, at 
 Harrodsburg sixty-five, and at St. Asaph's fifteen men. 
 Emigrants however, flocked to the country during the en- 
 suing season, in great numbers ; and their united strength 
 enabled them the better to resist aggression, and conduct 
 the various operations of husbandry and hunting then 
 the only occupations of the men. 
 
 While these things were transacting in Kentucky, 
 North Western Virginia enjoyed a repose undisturbed, 
 save by the conviction of the moral certainty, that it 
 would be again involved in all the horrors of savage war- 
 fare; and that too, at no distant period. The machina- 
 tions of British agents, to [151] produce this result, were 
 well known to be gaining advocates daily, among the sav- 
 ages ; and the hereditary resentments of these, were known 
 to be too deeply seated, for the victory of Point Pleasant 
 to have produced their eradication, and to have created in 
 their stead, a void, to become the future receptacle of 
 kindlier feelings, towards their Virginia neighbors. A
 
 Of Border Warfare. 209 
 
 coalition of the many tribes north west of the Ohio river, 
 had been some time forming, and the assent of the Shaw- 
 anees, alone, was wanting to its perfection. The distin- 
 guished Sachem at the head of that nation, was opposed 
 to an alliance with the British, and anxious to preserve a 
 friendly intercourse with the colonists. All his influence, 
 with all his energy, was exerted, to prevent his brethren 
 from again involving themselves, in a war with the whites. 
 But it was likely to be in vain. Many of his warriors had 
 fallen at the mouth of the Kenhawa, and his people had 
 suffered severely during the continuance of that war; they 
 were therefore, too intent on retaliation, to listen to the 
 sage counsel of their chief. In this posture of affairs, 
 Cornstalk, in the spring of 1777, visited the fort, which 
 had been erected at Point Pleasant after the campaign of 
 1774, in company with the Red Hawk, and another In- 
 dian. Captain Matthew Arbuckle was then commandant 
 of the garrison ; and when Cornstalk communicated to 
 him the hostile preparations of the Indians, that the 
 Shawanees alone were wanting to render a confederacy 
 'jomplete, that, as the " current set so strongly against 
 the colonies, even they would float with the stream in de- 
 spite of his endeavors to stem it," and that hostilities 
 would commence immediately, he deemed it prudent to 
 detain him and his companions as hostages, for the peace 
 and neutrality of the different tribes of Indians in Ohio. 
 He at the same time acquainted the newly organized gov- 
 ernment of Virginia, with the information which he had 
 received from Cornstalk, and the course which he had 
 taken with that chief, and the others who accompanied 
 him to the garrison. 
 
 Upon the receipt of this intelligence, it was resolved, 
 if volunteers could be had for this purpose, to march an 
 army into the Indian country and effectually accomplish 
 the objects, which had been proposed to be achieved in the 
 campaign of Lord Dunmore in 1774. The volunteers in 
 Augusta and Bottetourt, were to rendezvous as early as 
 possible, at the mouth of the Big Kenhawa, where they 
 would be joined by [152] other troops under General 
 14
 
 210 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 Hand, ' who would then assume the command of the whole 
 expedition. 
 
 In pursuance of this resolve, three or four companies 
 only, were raised in the counties of Bottetourt and Au- 
 gusta; and these immediately commenced their march, to 
 the place of general rendezvous, under the command of 
 Colonel George Skillern. In the Greenbrier country, great 
 exertions were made by the militia officers there, to obtain 
 volunteers, but with little effect. One company only was 
 formed, consisting of thirty men, and the officers, laying 
 aside all distinctions of rank, placed themselves in the line 
 as common soldiers, and proceeded to Point Pleasant with 
 the troops led on by Colonel Skillern. Upon their arrival 
 at that place, nothing had been heard of General Hand, 
 or of the forces which it was expected would accompany 
 him from Fort Pitt ; and the volunteers halted, to await 
 some intelligence from him. 
 
 1 Edward Hand was born in Ireland. He came to America in 1774 
 as a Burgeon's mate in the Eighth (Royal Irish) Regiment, and soon set- 
 tled in Pennsylvania as a physician. When the Revolution broke out 
 he joined a Pennsylvania regiment as lieutenant colonel, and served in 
 the siege of Boston. In April, 1777, he was appointed brigadier-general 
 in the Continental army, and the first of June assumed command of 
 Fort Pitt. Lieut.-Gov. Henry Hamilton, of Detroit, under orders from 
 London, was actively engaged in stirring up the Northwest Indians to 
 forays on the Virginia and Pennsylvania borders, thus harrying the 
 Americans in the rear. Hand, in whose charge was the frontier from 
 Kittanning to the Great Kanawha, determined on an aggressive policy, 
 and in February, 1778, undertook a campaign against the savages. An 
 open winter, with heavy rains, prevented the force of about 500 men 
 chiefly from Westmoreland county making satisfactory headway. Fi- 
 nally, the expedition was abandoned when it had proceeded no 
 farther than Mahoning Creek. From the fact that this first American 
 movement against the savages, during the Revolution, resulted only in 
 the capture of non-combatants, in the almost deserted villages, it was 
 long known as " the squaw campaign." Hand was a competent offi- 
 cer, but was much pestered, at Fort Pitt, with the machinations of 
 tories, who were numerous among the borderers. Succeeded at Fort 
 Pitt in 1778, by Brig.-Gen. Lachlan Mclntosh, Hand in turn succeeded 
 Stark in command at Albany. We find him, in 1779, actively engaged 
 on Sullivan's campaign against the New York Indians, and in 1780 he 
 became adjutant general. A member of congress in 1784r-85, he was in 
 1790 a member of the constitutional convention of Pennsylvania, and 
 died at Rockford, Lancaster County, Pa., September 3, 1802 R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 211 
 
 The provisions, for the support of the army in its pro- 
 jected invasion of the Indian country, were expected to be 
 brought down the river, from Fort Pitt ; and the troops 
 under Colonel Skillern had only taken with them, what 
 was deemed sufficient for their subsistence on their march 
 to the place of rendezvous. This stock was nearly ex- 
 haused, and the garrison was too illy supplied, to admit of 
 their drawing on its stores. While thus situated, and 
 anxiously awaiting the arrival of General Hand with his 
 army and provisions, the officers held frequent conversa- 
 tions with Cornstalk, who seemed to take pleasure in ac- 
 quainting them with the geography of the country west of 
 the Ohio river generally, and more particularly with that 
 section of it lying between the Mississippi and Missouri 
 rivers. One afternoon while he was engaged in delineat- 
 ing on the floor a map of that territory, with the various 
 water courses emptying into those two mighty streams, 
 and describing the face of the country, its soil and climate, 
 a voice was heard hallooing from the opposite shore of the 
 Ohio, which he immediately recognised to be that of his 
 son Ellinipsico, and who coming over at the instance of 
 Cornstalk, embraced him most affectionately. Uneasy at 
 the long absence of his father, and fearing that some un- 
 forseen evil might have befallen him, he had come to learn 
 some tidings of him here; knowing that it was the place, 
 to go to which he had left the nation. His visit was 
 prompted by feelings [153] which do honor to human na- 
 ture anxious solicitude for a father, but it was closed by 
 a most terrible catastrophe. 
 
 On the day after the arrival of Ellinipsico, and while 
 he was yet in the garrison, two men, from Captain Hall's 
 company of Rockbridge volunteers, crossed the Kenhawa 
 river on a hunting excursion. As they were returning to 
 the canoe for the purpose of recrossing to the Fort, after 
 the termination of' the hunt, Gilmore was espied by two 
 Indians, concealed near the bank, who fired at, killed and 
 scalped him. At that instant, Captains Arbuckle and 
 Stuart (the latter having accompanied the Greenbrier vol- 
 unteers as a private soldier) were standing on the point 
 opposite to where lay the canoe in which Hamilton and
 
 212 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 Gilraore had crossed the river; and expressed some aston- 
 ishment that the men should be so indiscreet as to be 
 shooting near to the encampment, contrary to commands. 
 They had scarcely time to express their disapprobation at 
 the supposed violation of orders, when Hamilton was seen 
 running down the bank of the river, and heard to exclaim, 
 that Gilmore was killed. A party of Captain Hall's men 
 immediately sprang into a canoe and went over to relieve 
 Hamilton from danger, and to bring the body of Gilmore 
 to the encampment. Before they relanded with the bloody 
 corpse of Gilmore, a cry arose, "let us go and kill the In- 
 dians in the fort;" and pale with rage they ascended the 
 bank, with captain Hall at their head, to execute their 
 horrid purpose. It was vain to remonstrate. To the in- 
 terference of Captains Arbuckle and Stuart to prevent the 
 fulfilling of this determination, they responded, by cocking 
 their guns, and threatening instant death to any one who 
 should dare to oppose them. 
 
 The interpreter's wife, (who had lately returned from 
 Indian captivity, and seemed to entertain a feeling of affec- 
 tion for Cornstalk and his companions) seeing their danger, 
 ran to their cabin to apprise them of it, and told them that 
 Ellinipsico was charged with having brought with him the 
 Indians who had killed Gilmore. This however he posi 
 tively denied, averring that he came alone, and with the 
 sole object of learning something of his father. In this 
 time Captain Hall and his men had arrived within hearing, 
 and Ellinipsico appeared much agitated. Cornstalk how- 
 ever, encouraged him to meet his fate composedly, saying, 
 " my son, the Great Spirit has seen fit that we should die 
 together, and has sent you here to that [154] end. It is 
 his will and let us submit; it. is all for the best;" and 
 turning to meet his murderers at the door, received seven 
 bullets in his body and fell without a groan. 
 
 Thus perished the mighty Cornstalk, Sachem of the 
 Shawanees, and king of the northern confederacy in 1774: 
 A chief remarkable for many great and good qualities. 
 He was disposed to be at all times the friend of white men ; 
 as he ever was, the advocate of honorable peace. But 
 when his country's wrongs " called aloud to battle," he be-
 
 Of Border Warfare. 213 
 
 came the thunderbolt of war; and made her oppressors feel 
 the weight of his uplifted arm. He sought not to pluck 
 the scalp from the head of the innocent, nor to war against 
 the unprotected and defenceless; choosing rather to en- 
 counter his enemies, girded for battle, and in open conflict. 
 His noble bearing, his generous and disinterested attach- 
 ment to the colonies, when the thunder of British cannon 
 was reverberating through the land his anxiety to pre- 
 serve the frontier of Virginia from desolation and death, 
 (the object of his visit to Point Pleasant) all conspired to 
 win for him the esteem and respect of others ; while the 
 untimely, and perfidious manner of his death, caused a 
 deep and lasting regret to pervade the bosoms, even of 
 those who were enemies to his nation ; and excited the 
 just indignation of all, towards his inhuman and barbarous 
 murderers. 
 
 When the father fell, Ellinipsico continued still and 
 passive ; not even raising himself from the seat, which he 
 had occupied before they received notice, that some infuri- 
 ated whites were loudly demanding their immolation. He 
 met death in that position, with the utmost composure 
 and calmness. The trepidation which first seized upon 
 him, was of but momentary duration, and was succeeded 
 by a most dignified sedateness and stoical apathy. It was 
 not so with the young Red Hawk. He endeavored to 
 conceal himself up the chimney of the cabin, in which 
 they were ; but without success. He was soon discovered 
 and killed. The remaining Indian was murdered by 
 piece-meal; and with almost all those circumstances of 
 cruelty and horror, which characterize the savage, in 
 wreaking vengeance upon an enemy. 
 
 Cornstalk is said to have had a presentiment of his 
 approaching fate. On the day preceding his death, a 
 council of officers was convoked, in consequence of the 
 continued absence of General Hand, and their entire ig- 
 norance of his [155] force or movements, to consult and 
 determine on what would be the course for them to pur- 
 sue under existing circumstances. Cornstalk was admit- 
 ted to the council ; and in the course of some remarks, 
 with which he addressed.it, said, "When I was young 1 and
 
 214 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 went to war, I often thought, each might be my last ad- 
 venture, and I should return no more. I still lived. Now 
 I am in the midst of you, and if you choose, may kill me. 
 I can die but once. It is alike to me, whether now or 
 hereafter." Little did those who were listening with de- 
 light to the eloquence of his address, and deriving knowl- 
 edge from his instruction, think to see him so quickly and 
 inhumanly, driven from the theatre of life. It was a fear- 
 ful deed ; and dearly was it expiated by others. The 
 Shawanees were a warlike people, and became hencefor- 
 ward the most deadly foe, to the inhabitants on the 
 frontiers. 
 
 In a few days after the perpetration of this diabolical 
 outrage upon all propriety, General Hand arrived from 
 Pittsburg without an army, and without provisions for 
 those who had been awaiting his coming. It was then 
 determined to abandon the expedition ; and the volunteers 
 returned to their homes. 1 
 
 1 See p. 172, note 2, for sketch of life and death of Cornstalk. 
 R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 215 
 
 [156] CHAPTER IX. 
 
 While Cornstalk was detained at Point Pleasant, as 
 surety for the peace and neutrality of the Shawanees, In- 
 dians, of the tribes already attached to the side of Great 
 Britain, were invading the more defenceless and unpro- 
 tected settlements. Emerging, as Virginia then was, from 
 a state of vassalage and subjection, to independence and 
 self-government contending in fearful inferiority of 
 strength and the munitions of war with a mighty and 
 warlike nation limited in resources, and wanting in 
 means, essential for supporting the unequal conflict, she 
 could not be expected to afibrd protection and security 
 from savage inroad, to a frontier so extensive as hers; and 
 still less was she able to spare from the contest which she 
 was waging with that colossal power, a force sufficient to 
 maintain a war in the Indian country and awe the savages 
 into quiet. It had not entered into the policy of this state 
 to enlist the tomahawk and scalping knife in her behalf; 
 or to make allies of savages, in a war with Christians and 
 civilized men. She sought by the force of reason and the 
 conviction of propriety, to prevail on them to observe 
 neutrality not to become her auxiliaries. "To send 
 forth the merciless cannibal, thirsting for blood, against 
 protestant brethren," was a refinement in war to which 
 she had not attained. That the enemy, with whom she 
 was struggling for liberty and life as a nation, with all the 
 lights of religion and philosophy to illumine her course, 
 should have made of them allies, and " let loose those hor- 
 rible hell-hounds of war against their countrymen in 
 America, endeared to them by every tie which should 
 sanctify human nature," was a most lamentable circum- 
 stance in its consequences, blighting and desolating the 
 fairest portions of the country, and covering the face of 
 [157] its border settlements, with the gloomy mantle of 
 sorrow and woe.
 
 216 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 There is in the Indian bosom an hereditary sense of 
 injury, which naturally enough prompts to deeds of re- 
 vangeful cruelty towards the whites, without the aid of ad- 
 ventitious stimulants. When these are superadded, they 
 become indeed, the most ruthless and infuriated enemy 
 "thirsting for blood," and causing it literally to flow, alike 
 from the hearts of helpless infancy and hoary age from 
 the timorous breast of weak woman, and the undaunted 
 bosom of the stout warrior. Leagued with Great Britain, 
 the Indians were enabled more fully and effectually, to 
 glut their vengeance on our citizens, and gratify their en 
 tailed resentment towards them. 
 
 In the commencement of Indian depredations on 
 North Western Virginia, during this war, the only places 
 of refuge for the inhabitants, besides private forts and 
 block-houses, were at Pittsburg, Redstone, Wheeling and 
 Point Pleasant. Garrisons had been maintained at Fort 
 Pitt and Redstone, ever after their establishment; and 
 fortresses were erected at the two latter places in 1774. 
 They all seemed to afford an asylum to many, when the 
 Indians were known to be in the country ; but none of 
 them had garrisons, strong enough to admit of detach- 
 ments being sent, to act offensively against the invaders. 
 All that they could effect, was the repulsion of assaults 
 made on them, and the expulsion from their immediate 
 neighborhoods, of small marauding parties of the savage 
 enemy. When Captain Arbuckle communicated to the 
 Governor the information derived from Cornstalk, that 
 extensive preparations were making by the Indians, for 
 war, and the probability of its early commencement, such 
 measures were immediately adopted, to prevent its success, 
 as the then situation of the country would justify. A 
 proclamation was issued, advising the inhabitants of the 
 frontier, to retire into the interior as soon as practicable ; 
 and that they might be enabled the better to protect them- 
 selves from savage fury, some ammunition was forwarded 
 to settlements on the Ohio river, remote from the state 
 forts, and more immediately exposed to danger from in- 
 cursion. General Hand too, then stationed at Fort Pitt, 
 sent an express to the different settlements, recommending
 
 Of Border Warfare. 217 
 
 that they should be immediately abandoned, and the indi- 
 viduals composing them, should forthwith seek shelter in 
 some contiguous fortress, or retire east of the [158] moun- 
 tain. All were apprized of the impending danger, and 
 that it was impracticable in the pressing condition of af- 
 fairs, for the newly organized government to extend to 
 them any effective protection. 
 
 Thus situated, the greater part of those who had taken 
 up their abode on the western waters, continued to reside 
 in the country. Others, deeming the means of defence 
 inadequate to security, and unwilling to encounter the 
 horrors of an Indian war, no better provided than they 
 were, pursued the advice of government, and withdrew 
 from the presence of danger. Those who remained, sen- 
 sible of dependence on their individual resources, com- 
 menced making preparations for the approaching crisis. 
 The positions which had been selected as places of security 
 and defence in the war of 1774, were fortified anew, and 
 other block-houses and forts were erected by their unaided 
 exertion, into which they would retire on the approach of 
 danger. Nor was it long before this state of things was 
 brought about. 
 
 In June 1777, 1 a party of Indians came to the house 
 of Charles Grigsby on Rooting creek, a branch of the 
 West Fork, and in the county of Harrison. Mr. Grigsby 
 being from home, the Indians plundered the house of 
 every thing considered valuable by them, and which they 
 could readily carry with them ; and destroying many 
 other articles, departed, taking with them Mrs. Grigsby 
 and her two children as prisoners. Returning home soon 
 after, seeing the desolation which had been done in his 
 short absence, and unable to find his wife and children, 
 Mr. Grigsby collected some of his neighbors and set out 
 in pursuit of those, by whom the mischief had been ef- 
 fected, hoping that he might overtake and reclaim from 
 them the partner of his bosom, and the pledges of her 
 affection. His hopes were of but momentary existence. 
 
 1 This " year of the three sevens," as it was called, was long known 
 as "the bloody year" of border history. R. G. T.
 
 218 Withers 1 s Chronicles 
 
 Following in the trail of the fugitives, when they had ar- 
 rived near to Loss creek, a distance of but six miles, they 
 found the body of Mrs. Grigsby and of her younger child, 
 where they had recently been killed and scalped. The 
 situation of this unfortunate woman (being near the hour 
 of confinement,) and the entire helplessness of the child, 
 were hindrances to a rapid retreat; and fearing pursuit, 
 the Indians thus inhumanly rid themselves of those in- 
 cumbrances to their flight and left them to accidental dis- 
 covery, or to become food for the beasts of the forest. 
 
 [159] Stimulated to more ardent exertions by the dis- 
 tressing scene just witnessed, the pursuers pushed forward, 
 with increased expectation of speedily overtaking and 
 punishing, the authors of this bloody deed ; leaving two 
 of their party to perform the sepulture of the unfortunate 
 mother, and her murdered infant. But before the whites 
 were aware of their nearness to the Indians, these had be- 
 come apprized of their approach, and separated, so as to 
 leave no trail by which they could be farther traced. They 
 had of course to give over the pursuit; and returned 
 home, to provide more effectually against the perpetration 
 of similar acts of atrocity and darkness. 
 
 A short time after this, two Indians came on the West 
 Fork, and concealed themselves near to Coon's fort, await- 
 ing an opportunity of effecting some mischief. While 
 thus lying in ambush, a daughter of Mr. Coon came out 
 for the purpose of lifting some hemp in a field near to the 
 fort, and by the side of the road. Being engaged in per- 
 forming this business, Thomas Cunningham and Enoch 
 James passing along, and seeing her, entered into con^- 
 versation with her, and after a while proceeded on their 
 road. But before they had gone far, alarmed by the re- 
 port of a gun, they looked back and saw an Indian ran 
 up to the girl, tomahawk and scalp her. The people of 
 the fort were quickly apprised of what had been done, 
 and immediately turned out in pursuit; but could not 
 trace the course taken by the savages. It afterwards ap- 
 peared that the Indians had been for some time waiting 
 for the girl to come near enough for them to catch and 
 make her prisoner, before she could alarm the fort, or get
 
 Of Border Warfare. 219 
 
 within reach of its guns ; but when one of them crossed 
 the fence for this purpose, she espied him and ran directly 
 towards the fort. Fearing that he would not be able to 
 overtake her, without approaching the fort so as to in- 
 volve himself in some danger, he shot her as she ran ; and 
 going up to her he tomahawked and scalped her. In en- 
 deavoring then to secure himself by flight, he was shot at 
 by James, but at so great distance as to prevent the doing 
 of execution. 
 
 In the neighborhood of Wheeling, some mischief of 
 this kind was done about the same time, and by Indians 
 who acted so warily, as to avoid being discovered and 
 punished. A man by the name of Thomas Ryan was 
 killed in a field some distance from the house, and a negro 
 fellow at work with him, [160] taken prisoner and carried 
 off. No invasion however, of that country, had been as 
 yet, of sufficient importance to induce the people to for- 
 sake their homes and go into the forts. Scouting parties 
 were constantly traversing the woods in every direction, 
 and so successfully did they observe every avenue to the 
 settlements, that the approach of Indians was generally 
 discovered and made known, before any evil resulted from 
 it. But in August the whole country bordering on the 
 Ohio, from Fort Pitt to Wheeling, became justly alarmed 
 for its fate ; and the most serious apprehensions for the 
 safety of its inhabitants, were excited in the bosoms of all. 
 Intelligence was conveyed to General Hand at Fort Pitt, 1 
 by some friendly Indians from the Moravian towns, that 
 a large army of the north western confederacy, had come 
 as far as those villages, and might soon be expected to 
 strike an awful blow on some part of the Ohio settlements. 
 The Indian force was represented as being so great, as to 
 preclude all idea of purchasing safety, by open conflict ; 
 
 1 General Hand was commandant, and George Morgan Indian agent, 
 at Fort Pitt. Runners from the Moravian towns on the Tuscarawas and 
 Muskingum rivers, in Ohio, frequently came into the fort during the 
 summer, with dispatches for either of these officials. The Delawares, 
 as a nation, were friendly throughout the year. The hostiles were 
 chiefly composed of Wyandots and Mingoes, but with them were a few 
 Shawnees and Delawares. R. G. T.
 
 220 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 and the inhabitants along the river, generally retired into 
 forts, as soon as they received information of their danger, 
 and made every preparation to repel an assault on them. 
 They did not however, remain long in suspense, as to the 
 point against which the enemy would direct its operations. 
 Wheeling Fort, although it had been erected by the 
 proper authorities of the government, and was supplied 
 with arms and ammunition from the public arsenal, was 
 not at this time garrisoned, as were the other state forts on 
 the Ohio, by a regular soldiery ; but was left to be de- 
 fended solely by the heroism and bravery of those, who 
 might seek shelter within its walls. 1 The settlement 
 around it was flourishing, and had grown with a rapidity 
 truly astonishing, when its situation, and the circumstances 
 of the border country generally, are taken into considera- 
 tion. A little village, of twenty-five or thirty houses, had 
 sprung up, where but a few years before, the foot of civil- 
 ized man had never trod ; and where the beasts of the 
 forest had lately ranged undisturbedly, were to be seen 
 lowing herds and bleating flocks, at once, the means of 
 sustenance, and the promise of future wealth to their 
 owners. In the enjoyment of this, comparatively, pros- 
 perous condition of things, the inhabitants little dreamed, 
 how quickly those smiling prospects were to be blighted, 
 their future hopes blasted, and they deprived of almost 
 every necessary of life. They [161] were not insensible to 
 the danger which in tinie of war was ever impending over 
 
 1 The first fort at Wheeling was built in the summer of 1774. by 
 order of Lord Dunmore, under direction of Majors William Crawford 
 and Angus McDonald. It stood upon the Ohio bank about a quarter of 
 a mile above the entrance of Wheeling Creek. Standing in open ground, 
 it was a parallelogram of square pickets pointed at top, with bastions 
 and sentry boxes at the angles, and enclosed over half an acre. It 
 ranked in strength and importance, next to Fort Pitt. Within the fort 
 were log barracks, an officers' house, a storehouse, a well, and cabins 
 for families. A steep hill rises not far inland ; between the fort and the 
 base of this hill the forest had been leveled, and a few log cabins were 
 nestled in the open. Such was Wheeling in 1777. At first the fort had 
 been called Fincastle, for the Ohio Valley settlements were then in 
 Fincastle County, Va.; but upon the opening of the Revolution the post, 
 now in Ohio County, was named Fort Henry, in honor of the first state 
 governor of Virginia. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 221 
 
 them; but relying on the vigilance of their scouts, to as- 
 certain and apprize them of its approach, and on the prox- 
 imity of a fort into which they could retire upon a minute's 
 warning, they did not shut themselves up within its walls, 
 until advised of the immediate necessity of doing so, from 
 the actual presence of the enemy. 
 
 On the night of the first of September, Captain Ogal, 
 who with a party of twelve men, had been for some days 
 engaged in watching the paths to the settlement and en- 
 deavoring to ascertain the approach of danger, 1 came into 
 Wheeling with the assurance that the enemy were not at 
 hand. In the course of that night, however, the Indian 
 army, consisting of three hundred and eighty-nine war- 
 riors, 2 came near to the village, and believing from the 
 lights in the fort, that the inhabitants were on their 
 guard, and that more might be effected by an ambuscade 
 in the morning, than by an immediate and direct attack, 
 posted themselves advantageously for that purpose. Two 
 lines were formed, at some distance from each, extending 
 from the river across the point to the creek, with a corn- 
 field to afford them concealment. In the centre between 
 these lines, near a road leading through the field to the 
 fort, and in a situation easily exposing them to observa- 
 tion, six Indians were stationed, for the purpose of decoy- 
 
 1 News came to Fort Pitt, early in August, that an Indian attack in 
 force, on Wheeling, might be expected at ^ny time. Says the Shane 
 MSS., " White Eyes came to Fort Pitt and told them the Indians were 
 going to take Wheeling home." August 2d, Gen. Hand wrote to David 
 Shepherd, lieutenant of Ohio County, warning him of the perilous situ- 
 ation, and ordering him to leave his own fort, six miles from Fort 
 Henry, and to rally at the latter all the militia between the Ohio and 
 Monongahela, the " pan-handle." Shepherd did this, and by the close 
 of the month Fort Henry was, as he said, "Indian proof." But the 
 non-arrival of the foe caused a relaxation of vigilance. Nine companies 
 were allowed to go home, and by the last day of August only two com- 
 panies remained in the fort, those of Capts. Joseph Ogle and Samuel 
 Mason. R. G. T. 
 
 1 Shepherd to Hand, Sept. 15, 1777: "By the best judges here 
 it is thought their numbers must have been not less than be- 
 tween two and three hundred." The Shepherd, Hand, Shane, and 
 Doddridge MSS., in the library of the Wisconsin Historical Society, 
 throw much light on this episode. R. G. T.
 
 222 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 ing within the lines, any force which might discover, and 
 come out to molest them. 
 
 Early in the morning of the second, two men, going 
 to a field for horses, passed the first line, and came near to 
 the Indians in the centre, before they were aware of dan- 
 ger. 1 Perceiving the six savages near them, they endeav- 
 ored to escape by flight. A single shot brought one of 
 them to the ground : the other was permitted to escape 
 that he might give the alarm. Captain Mason (who, with 
 Captain Ogal and his party, and a few other men had oc- 
 cupied the fort the preceding night) hearing that there 
 were but six of the enemy, marched with fourteen men, 
 to the place where they had been seen. He had not pro- 
 ceeded far from the fort, before he came in view of them ; 
 and leading his men briskly towards where they were, 
 soon found themselves enclosed by a body of Indians, 
 who 'till then had remained concealed. Seeing the im- 
 possibility of maintaining a conflict with them, he en- 
 deavored to retreat with his men, to the fort ; but in 
 [162] vain. They were intercepted by the Indians, and 
 nearly all literally, cut to pieces. 2 Captain Mason however, 
 and his sergeant succeeded in passing the front line, but 
 being observed by some of the enemy, were pursued, and 
 fired at, as they began to rise the hill. The sergeant was 
 so wounded by the ball aimed at him, that he fell, unable 
 again to get up ; but seeing his Captain pass near without 
 a gun and so crippled that he moved but slowly in advance 
 
 1 The Indians made their appearance on the night of August 31st 
 not September 1st, as in the text. The incident here related occurred 
 at about sunrise of September 1st. Andrew Zane, young John Boyd, 
 Samuel Tomlinson, and a negro, set out to hunt for the horses of Dr. 
 James McMechen, because the latter wished that day to return to the 
 older settlements, either on the Monongahela, or east of the mountains. 
 Boyd was killed, but his companions escaped Zane, by leaping from 
 a cliff, the height of which local tradition places at seventy feet. 
 R. G. T. 
 
 * De Hass, in his History of the Early Settlement and Indian Wars of 
 West Virginia, a conscientious work, which depends, however, too 
 closely on traditions, says (p. 225), " out of the fourteen, but two es- 
 caped." R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 223 
 
 of his pursuers, he handed him his, and calmly surrendered 
 himself to his fate. 
 
 Captain Mason had been twice wounded, and was 
 then so enfeebled by the loss of blood, and faint from 
 fatigue that he almost despaired of ever reaching the fort; 
 yet he pressed forward with all his powers. He was sensible 
 that the Indian was near him, and expecting every instant, 
 that the tomahawk would sever his skull, he for a while 
 forgot that his gun was yet charged. The recollection of 
 this, inspiring him with fresh hopes, he wheeled to fire at 
 his pursuer, but found him so close that he could not bring 
 his gun to bear on him. Having greatly the advantage of 
 ground, he thrust him back with his hand. The uplifted 
 tomahawk descended to the earth with force ; and before 
 the Indian could so far regain his footing as to hurl the 
 fatal weapon from his grasp, or rush forward to close in 
 deadly struggle with his antagonist, the ball from Captain 
 Mason's gun had done its errand, and the savage fell life- 
 less to the earth. Captain Mason was able to proceed only 
 a few paces farther; but concealing himself by the side of 
 a large fallen tree, he remained unobserved while the 
 Indians continued about the fort. 
 
 The shrieks of Captain Mason's men, and the dis- 
 charge of the guns, induced Capt. Ogal to advance with 
 his twelve scouts, to their relief. Being some distance in 
 the rear of his men, the Indians, in closing round them, 
 fortunately left him without the circle, and he concealed 
 himself amid some briers in the corner of the fence ; where 
 he lay until the next day. The same fate awaited his 
 men, which had befallen Capt. Mason's. Of the twenty 
 six who were led out by these two officers, only three es- 
 caped death, and two of these were badly wounded : a 
 striking evidence of the fact, that the ambuscade was 
 judiciously planned, and the expectations of its success, 
 well founded. 1 
 
 While these things were doing, the inhabitants of the 
 village were busily employed in removing to the fort and 
 
 1 Among the survivors was Ogle who, like Mason, hid himself in the 
 bushes until nightfall enabled him to return to the fort. R. G. T.
 
 224 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 preparing for it8 defense. A single glance at the situation 
 of the parties led on by Mason and Ogal, convinced them 
 of the overwhelming force of the [163] Indians, and the 
 impossibility of maintaining an open contest with them. 
 And so quick had been the happening of the events which 
 have been narrated, that the gates of the fort were scarcely 
 closed, before the Indian army appeared under its walls, 
 with a view to its reduction by storm. 1 But before the as- 
 sault was begun to be made, the attention of the garrison 
 was directed to a summons for its surrender, made by that 
 infamous renegado, Simon Girty. 2 
 
 This worse than savage wretch, appeared at the end 
 window of a house not far from the fort, and told them, 
 that he had come with a large s^rmy to escort to Detroit, 
 such of the Inhabitants along the frontier, as were willing 
 to accept the terms offered by Governor Hamilton, to 
 those who would renounce the cause of the colonies and 
 attach themselves to the interest of Great Britain ; calling 
 upon them to remember their fealty to their sovereign ; 
 assuring them of protection, if they would join his stand- 
 ard, and denouncing upon them, all the woes which spring 
 from the uncurbed indulgence of savage vengeance, if 
 they dared to resist, or fire one gun to the annoyance of 
 
 1 As a matter of fact, the Indians made no attack on the fort at this 
 time, being content with the success of their ambuscade. After throwing 
 up some rude earth-works and blinds, scalping the dead whites, killing 
 all the live stock within reach, and setting fire to the outlying cabins, 
 they retired across the Ohio in the night, and dispersed. Their loss was 
 one killed and nine wounded; the whites lost fifteen killed and five 
 wounded. The next day (September 2), the whites buried their dead, 
 and unavailingly scoured the CQuntry for Indians. 
 
 Tradition has made sad havoc with the records, in regard to this 
 first " siege " of Wheeling. Some of the deeds of heroism related below, 
 by Withers, were incidents of the second siege September 11, 1782, 
 seven years later; but most of them are purely mythical, or. belong 
 to other localities. Perhaps no events in Western history have been 
 so badly mutilated by tradition, as these two sieges. R. G. T. 
 
 a This statement of Withers, that Simon Girty was at the siege of 
 Wheeling, was long accepted as fact by Western historians. But it is 
 now established beyond doubt, that neither Simon nor his brothers 
 were present at that affair, being at the time in the employ of Indian 
 Agent Morgan, at Fort Pitt. For details of the evidence, consult But- 
 terfield's History of the Girtys, passim. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 225 
 
 his men. He then read to them, Gov. Hamilton's procla- 
 mation ; and told them, he could allow only fifteen min- 
 utes to consider of his proposition. It was enough. In 
 love with liberty, attached to their country, and without 
 faith in his proffered protection, they required but little 
 time to "deliberate, which of the two to choose, slavery 
 or death." Col. Zane replied to him, " that they had con- 
 sulted their wives and children, and that all were resolved 
 to perish, sooner than place themselves under the protec- 
 tion of a savage army with him at its head, or abjure the 
 cause of liberty and of the colonies." Girty then repre- 
 sented to them the great force of the Indians, the impos- 
 sibility that the fort could withstand the assault, the cer- 
 tainty of protection if they acceded to his propositions, 
 and the difficulty of restraining the assailants, if enraged 
 and roused to vengeance by opposition and resistance. A 
 shot discharged at him from the fort, caused him to with- 
 draw from the window and the Indians commenced the 
 assault. 
 
 There were then in the fort but thirty-three men, to 
 defend it against the attack of upwards of three hun- 
 dred and eighty Indians ; and bravely did they maintain 
 their situation against the superior force of the enemy, 
 and all that art and fury could effect to accomplish their 
 destruction. For twenty-three hours, all was life, and 
 energy, and activity within the walls. Every individual 
 had particular duties to perform; and promptly and faith- 
 fully were they discharged. The more expert of the 
 women, took stations by the side of the men ; and hand- 
 ling their guns with soldier like readiness, aided in the re- 
 pulse, with fearless intrepidity. 1 Some were engaged in 
 moulding bullets; others in loading and supplying the 
 [164] men with guns already charged ; while the less ro- 
 
 1 [163] The notes furnished the compiler, mention particularly a 
 Mrs. Glum and Betsy Wheat, as performing all the duties of soldiers 
 with firmness and alacrity. 
 
 Comment by R. G. T. Withers derived his information from tradi- 
 tional notes in the possession of Noah Zane, son of Ebenezer. 
 15
 
 226 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 bust were employed in cooking, and in furnishing to the 
 combatants, provisions and water, during the continuance 
 of the attack. It seemed indeed, as if each individual 
 were sensible, that the safety of all depended on his lone 
 exertions; and that the slightest relaxation of these, would 
 involve them all in one common ruin. 
 
 Finding that they could make no impression on the 
 fort, and fearing to remain longer before it, lest their re- 
 treat might be cut oft', by reinforcements from the sur- 
 rounding country, the assailants fired all the houses with- 
 out the walls; killed all the stock, which could be found . 
 
 7 > 
 
 and destroying every thing on which they could lay their 
 hands, retired about day light, and left the garrison in 
 possession of the fortress, but deprived of almost every 
 thing else. The alarm of the presence of Indians having 
 been given after day light, and the attack on the fort com- 
 mencing before sun rise, but little time was afforded them, 
 for securing their moveable property. The greater part 
 had taken with them nothing but their clothes, while 
 some had left their homes with their night apparel only. 
 Few were left the enjoyment of a bed, or the humble 
 gratification of the coarse repast of bread and milk. Their 
 distress was consequently great; and their situation for 
 some time, not much more enviable, than when pent 
 within the fort, and straining every nerve to repel its sav- 
 age assailants. 
 
 Before this, the Governor had sent to Col. Andrew 
 Swearingen, a quantity of ammunition for the defence of 
 those who remained in the country above Wheeling. By 
 his exertions, and under his superintendence, Boiling's and 
 Holliday's old forts were repaired, and the latter made 
 strong enough to serve as a magazine. In it was collected, 
 all the inhabitants from its neighborhood; and it was 
 generally regarded, as a strong position, and able, occa- 
 sionally, to detach part of its garrison, for the aid of other 
 portions of the country. Soon after the attack was begun 
 to be made on Wheeling, the alarm reached Shepherd's 
 fort, and a runner was despatched from thence to Holli- 
 day's fort with the intelligence, and the apprehension that 
 if speedy relief were not afforded, the garrison at Wheel-
 
 Of Border Warfare. 227 
 
 ing must fall. No expectation, of being able to collect a 
 force sufficient to cope with the assailants, was entertained. 
 All that was expected was, to throw succours into the 
 fort, and thus enable the garrison the more successfully to 
 repel assaults, and preserve it from the violence of the In- 
 dian onsets. For this purpose, Col. Swearingen left Holli- 
 day's with fourteen men, who nobly volunteered to accom- 
 pany him in this hazardous enterprise, to the regret of 
 those who remained, from an apprehension that thus 
 weakened, if Holliday's fort were attacked it must fall 
 easily into the hands of the enemy. These men got into 
 a large continental canoe, and plied their paddles industri- 
 ously, to arrive in time to be of service to the besieged. 
 But the night being dark, and a dense fog hanging over 
 the river, they toiled to great disadvantage, frequently 
 coming in contact with the banks; until [165] at length 
 it was thought advisable to cease rowing and float with 
 the current, lest they might, unknowingly, pass Wheel- 
 ing, and at the appearance of day be obliged to contend 
 with the force of the stream, to regain that point. Float- 
 ing slowly, they at length descried the light which pro- 
 ceeded from the burning of the houses at Wheeling, and 
 with all their exertion could not then attain their destina- 
 tion before the return of day. Could they have realized 
 their expectation of arriving before day, they might from 
 the river bank, in the darkness of the night, have gained 
 admission into the fort ; but being frustrated in this, they 
 landed some of the men near above Wheeling, to recon- 
 noiter and ascertain the situation of things: it being 
 doubtful to them, from the smoke and fog, whether the 
 fort and all, were not a heap of ruins. Col. Swearingen, 
 Cap. Bilderbock and William Boshears, volunteered for 
 this service, and proceeding cautiously soon reached the 
 fort. 
 
 When arrived there, it was still questionable whether 
 the Indians had abandoned the attack, or were only lying 
 concealed in the cornfield, in order to fall on any, who 
 might come out from the fort, under the impression that 
 danger was removed from them. Fearing that the latter 
 was the case, it was thought prudent, not to give the pre-
 
 228 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 concerted signal for the remainder of Col. Swearingen's 
 party to come on, lest it might excite the Indians to 
 greater vigilance and they intercept the men on their way 
 to the fort. To obviate the difficulty arising from this ap- 
 prehension, Col. Swearingen, Capt. Bilderbock and William 
 Boshears, taking a circuitous route to avoid passing near the 
 cornfield, returned to their companions, and escorted them 
 to Wheeling. It then remained to ascertain whether the 
 Indians had really withdrawn, or were only lying in am- 
 bush. A council, consisting of Col. Zane, Col. Shepherd, 
 Doctor McMahon and Col. Swearingen, being requested 
 to devise some expedient by which to be assured of the 
 fact, recommended that two of their most active and vigil- 
 ant men, should go out openly from the fort, and care- 
 lessly, but surely, examine the cornfield near to the 
 palisade. Upon their return, twenty others, under the 
 guidance of Col. Zane, marched round at some distance 
 from the field, and approaching it more nearly on their re- 
 turn, became assured that the Indians had indeed despaired 
 of success, and were withdrawn from the field. About 
 this time Major M'Cullough arrived with forty-five men, 
 and they all proceeded to view the battle ground. 
 
 Here was indeed a pitiable sight. Twenty-three of the 
 men who had accompanied Capts. Mason and Ogal in the 
 preceding morning, were lying dead; few of them had 
 been shot, but the greater part, most inhumanly and bar- 
 barously butchered with the tomahawk and scalping 
 knife. Upwards of three hundred head of cattle, horses, 
 and hogs, wantonly killed by the savages, were seen lying 
 about the field, and all the houses, with every thing which 
 they contained, and which could not be conveniently 
 taken oft' by the enemy, were but heaps of ashes. It was 
 long indeed, before the [166] inhabitants of that neigh- 
 borhood regained the comforts, of which that night's deso- 
 lation had deprived them. 
 
 Soon after the happening of these events a company 
 of militia under the command of Capt. Foreman, arrived 
 from east of the Alleghany, to afford protection to the 
 settlements around Wheeling, and occupy the fort at this 
 place. While stationed in it, it was known that parties of
 
 Of Border Warfare. 229 
 
 Indians were still lurking about, seeking opportunities of 
 doing mischief, and to prevent which, detachments were 
 frequently sent on scouting expeditions. On the 26th of 
 September, Capt. Foreman with forty five men, went 
 about twelve miles below Wheeling and encamped for the 
 night. He was ignorant of the practices of the Indians, 
 and seemed rather indisposed to take council of those, 
 who were conversant with them. After building fires for 
 the night, he remained with his men close around them, 
 contrary to the advice of one of the settlers, by the name 
 of Lynn, who had accompanied him as a spy. Lynn how- 
 ever, would not consent to remain there himself, but tak- 
 ing with him those of the frontiers men who were in com- 
 pany, retired some distance from the fires, and spent the 
 night. Before it was yet light, Lynn, being awake, 
 thought he heard such a noise, as would be probably pro- 
 duced by the launching of rafts on the river, above the 
 position occupied by Capt. Foreman. In the morning he 
 communicated his suspicion that an Indian force was near 
 them, and advised the Captain to return to Wheeling 
 along the hill sides and avoid the bottoms. His advice 
 was rejected; but Lynn, with the caution of one used to 
 such a condition of things, prudently kept on the hill side 
 with four others, while they, who belonged to the com- 
 mand of Capt. Foreman, continued along the level at the 
 base of the hill. 
 
 In marching along the Grave creek narrows, one of 
 the soldiers saw a parcel of Indian ornaments lying in the 
 path ; and picking them up, soon drew around him the 
 greater part of the company. While thus crowded together 
 inspecting the trinkets, a galling fire was opened on them 
 by a party of Indians who lay in ambush, and which threw 
 them into great confusion. The fire was continued with 
 deadly effect, for some minutes; and must eventually have 
 caused the loss of the whole party, but that Lynn, with 
 his few comrades rushed from the hill discharging their 
 guns, and shouting so boisterously, as induced the Indians 
 to believe that a reinforcement was at hand, and they pre- 
 cipitately retreated. 
 
 In this fatal ambuscade there were twenty-one of Cap-
 
 230 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 tain Foreman's party killed, and several much wounded ; 
 among the slain were the Captain and his two sons. 
 
 It appeared that the Indians had dropped their orna- 
 ments, purposely to attract the attention of the whites ; 
 while they themselves were lying concealed in two parties; 
 the one to the right of the path, in a sink-hole on the bot- 
 tom, and the other to the left, under covert of the river 
 hank. From these advantageous positions, they [167] fired 
 securely on our men ; while they were altogether exempt 
 from danger 'till the party in the sink hole was descried 
 by Lynn. His firing was not known to have taken effect; 
 but to his good conduct is justly attributable the saving 
 of the remnant of the detachment. The Indian force was 
 never ascertained. It was supposed to have been small ; 
 not exceeding twenty warriors. 
 
 On the ensuing day, the inhabitants of the neighbor- 
 hood of Wheeling under the direction and guidance of 
 Colonel Zane, proceeded to Grave Creek and buried those 
 who had fallen. 1 
 
 1 After the affair at Wheeling, September 1, the Indians returned 
 home. But soon thereafter, Half King, head chief of the Wyandots, set 
 out with forty of that tribe to again harry the Wheeling country. On 
 the morning of the 26th, Capts. William Foreman with twenty-four 
 men, Ogle with ten men, and William Linn with nine, started from 
 Fort Henry on a scout. Linn was ranking officer, although there was 
 little discipline. Foreman was a new arrival from Hampshire County, 
 enlisted to go on Hand's intended expedition. They intended crossing 
 the Ohio at Grave Creek, 12 miles below, and proceeding 8 miles farther 
 down to Captina. At Grave, however, they found that the Tomlinson 
 settlement (nucleus of the present Mound City, W. Va.) had been 
 abandoned, and sacked by Indians, and no canoes were to be had. 
 They camped for the night, and the next morning (the 27th) started to 
 return along the river bank, to Wheeling. Linn, apprehensive of In- 
 dians, marched along the hill crest, but Ogle and Foreman kept to the 
 trail along the bottom. At a point where the bottom narrows because of 
 the close approach of the hills to the river a defile then known as Me- 
 Mechen's (or McMahon's) Narrows they were set upon by Half King's 
 party, awaiting them in ambush. Foreman and twenty others were 
 killed, and one captured. The story about Linn's gallant attack on the 
 Indians from his vantage point on the hilltop, is without foundation. 
 His party helped to secrete a wounded man who escaped in the melee, 
 and then put off in hot haste for home. It was not until four days later, 
 when reinforcements had arrived from Fort Pitt, that Colonel Shepherd 
 ventured from the fort to bury the dead. In 1835, an inscribed stone 
 was set up at the Narrows, to commemorate the slain. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 231 
 
 At the time of the happening of those occurrences 
 the belief was general, that the army which had been led 
 to Wheeling by Girty, had been ordered on, for the pur- 
 pose of conducting the tories from the settlements to De- 
 troit; and that detachments from that army continued to 
 hover about the frontiers for some time, to effect that 
 object. There was then, unfortunately for the repose and 
 tranquility of many neighborhoods, a considerable number 
 of those misguided and deluded wretches, who, disaffected 
 to the cause of the colonies, were willing to advance the 
 interest of Britain, by the sacrifice of every social relation, 
 and the abandonment of every consideration, save that of 
 loyalty to the king. So far did their opposition, to those 
 who espoused the cause of American liberty, blunt every 
 finer and more noble feeling, that many of them were 
 willing to imbrue their hands in the blood of their neigh- 
 bors, in the most sly and secret manner, and in the hour 
 of midnight darkness, for no offence but attachment to 
 the independence of the colonies. A conspiracy for the 
 murder of the whigs and for accepting the terms, offered 
 by the Governor of Canada to those who would renounce 
 their allegiance to the United States and repair to Detroit, 
 by the relenting of one individual, was prevented being 
 carried into effect ; and many were consequently saved 
 from horrors, equalling, if not transcending in enormity, 
 the outrages of the savages themselves. Scenes of licen- 
 tiousness and fury, followed upon the discovery of the 
 plot. Exasperated at its heinousness, and under the influ- 
 ence of resentful feelings, the whigs retaliated upon the 
 tories, some of the evils which these had conspired to in- 
 flict upon them. In the then infuriated state of their 
 minds, and the little restraint at that time imposed on the 
 passions by the operation of the laws, it is really matter of 
 admiration that they did not proceed farther, and requite 
 upon those deluded wretches, the full measure of their 
 premeditated wrongs. The head only of this fiendish 
 league, lost his life; but many depredations were commit- 
 ted, on the property of its members. 
 
 A court, for the trial of the conspirants, was held at 
 Redstone Fort; and many of them were arraigned at its
 
 232 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 bar. But as their object had been defeated by its discov- 
 ery, and as no farther danger was apprehended from them, 
 they were released, after having been required to take the 
 oath of allegiance to the United States and to bear with the 
 injuries which had [168] been done their property. Those 
 who were suspected for the murder of the chief conspira- 
 tor, were likewise arraigned for that offence, but were ac- 
 quitted. 
 
 Hitherto the inhabitants of Tygart's Valley had es- 
 caped the ill effects of savage enmity ; Indian hostility not 
 having prompted an incursion into that country, since its 
 permanent settlement was effected previous to the war of 
 1774. This however had not the effect to lull them into 
 confident security. Ascribing their fortunate exemption 
 from irruptions of the enemy, to other causes than a 
 willingness on the part of the Indians, to leave them in 
 quiet and repose, they exercised the utmost vigilance to 
 discover their approach, and used every precaution to en- 
 sure them safety, if the enemy should appear among them. 
 Spies were regularly employed in watching the warriors 
 paths beyond the settlements, to detect their advance and 
 to apprize the inhabitants of it. 
 
 In September of this year (1777) Leonard Petro and 
 Wm. White, being engaged in watching the path leading 
 up the Little Kenhawa, killed an Elk late in the evening ; 
 and taking part of it with them, withdrew a short dis- 
 tance for the purpose of eating their suppers and spending^ 
 the night. About midnight, White, awaking from sleep, 
 discovered by the light of the moon, that there were sev- 
 eral Indians near, who had been drawn in quest of them 
 by the report of the gun in the evening. He saw at a 
 glance, the impossibility of escaping by flight; and pre- 
 ferring captivity to death, he whispered to Petro to lie 
 still, lest any movement of his, might lead to this result. 
 In a few minutes the Indians sprang on them; and White 
 raising himself as one lay hold on him, aimed a furious 
 blow, with his tomahawk, hoping to wound the Indian by 
 whom he was beset, and then make his escape. Missing 
 his aim he affected to have been ignorant of the fact that 
 he was encountered by Indians, professed great joy at
 
 Of Border Warfare. 233 
 
 meeting with them, and declared that he was then on his 
 way to their towns. They were not deceived by the arti- 
 fice ; for although he assumed an air of pleasantness and 
 gaity, calculated to win upon their confidence, yet the 
 woful countenance and rueful expression of poor Petro, 
 convinced them that "White's conduct was feigned, that he 
 might lull them into inattention, and they be enabled to 
 effect an escape. They were both tied for the night ; and 
 in the morning White being painted red, and Petro black, 
 they were forced to proceed to the Indian towns. When 
 approaching a [169] village, the whoop of success brought 
 several to meet them; and on their arrival at it, they found 
 that every preparation was made for their running the 
 gauntlet; in going through which ceremony both were 
 much bruised. White did not however remain long in 
 captivity. Eluding their vigilance, he took one of their 
 guns and began his flight homeward. Before he had 
 travelled far, he met an Indian on horseback, whom he 
 succeeded in shooting; and mounting the horse from 
 which he fell, his return to the Valley was much facili- 
 tated. Petro was never heard of afterwards. The paint- 
 ing of him black, had indicated their intention of killing 
 
 O ' O 
 
 him; and the escape of White probably hastened his 
 doom. 
 
 During this time, and after the return of White among 
 them, the inhabitants of Tygart's Valley practiced their 
 accustomed watchfulness 'till about the twentieth of No- 
 vember ; when there was a considerable fall of snow. This 
 circumstance induced them to believe, that the savages 
 would not attempt an irruption among them until the re- 
 turn of spring ; and they became consequently, inattentive 
 to their safety. 
 
 Generally, the settlements enjoyed perfect quiet from 
 the first appearance of winter, until the return of spring. In 
 this interval of time, the Indians are usually deterred from 
 penetrating into them, as well because of their great ex- 
 posure to discovery and observation in consequence of the 
 nakedness of the woods and the increased facility of pur- 
 suing their trail in the snows which then usually covered 
 the earth, as of the suffering produced by their lying in
 
 234 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 wait and travelling, in their partially unclothed condition, 
 in this season of intense cold. Instances of their being 
 troublesome during the winter were rare indeed ; and never 
 occurred, but under very peculiar circumstances : the in- 
 habitants, were therefore, not culpably remiss, when they 
 relaxed in their vigilance, and became exposed to savage 
 inroad. 
 
 A party of twenty Indians, designing to commit some 
 depredations during the fall, had nearly reached the upper 
 end of Tygart's Valley, when the snow, which had in- 
 spired the inhabitants with confidence in their security, 
 eommenced falling. Fearful of laying themselves open to 
 detection, if they ventured to proceed farther at that time, 
 and anxious to effect some mischief before they returned 
 home, they remained concealed about ten miles from the 
 settlements, until the snow disappeared. On the 15th of 
 December, they came to the [170] house of Darby Connoly, 
 at the upper extremity of the Valley, and killed him, his 
 wife and several of the children, and took three others 
 prisoners. Proceeding to the next house, killed John 
 Stewart, his wife and child, and took Miss Hamilton (sis- 
 ter-in-law to Stewart) into captivity. They then immedi- 
 ately changed their direction, and with great dispatch, 
 entered upon their journey home; with the captives and 
 plunder, taken at those two places. 
 
 In the course of the evening after these outrages were 
 committed, John Hadden passing by the House of Connoly 
 saw a tame elk belonging there, lying dead in the yard. 
 This, and the death-like silence which reigned around, ex- 
 cited his fears that all was not right ; and entering into 
 the house, he saw the awful desolation which had been 
 committed. Seeing that the work of blood had been but 
 recently done, he hastened to alarm the neighborhood, and 
 sent an express to Capt. Benjamin Wilson, living about 
 twenty miles lower in the Valley, with the melancholy in- 
 telligence. With great promptitude, Capt. Wilson went 
 through the settlement, exerting himself to procure as 
 many volunteers, as would justify going in pursuit of the 
 aggressors ; and so indefatigable was he in accomplishing 
 his purpose, that, on the day after the murders were per-
 
 Of Border Warfare. 235 
 
 petrated, lie appeared on the theatre of their exhibition 
 with thirty men, prepared to take the trail and push for- 
 ward in pursuit of the savages. For five days they fol- 
 lowed through cold and wet, without perceiving that they 
 had gained upon them. At this time many of the men 
 expressed a determination to return. They had suffered 
 much, travelled far, and yet saw no prospect of overtaking 
 the enemy. It is not wonderful that they became dispir- 
 ited. In order to expedite their progress, the numerous 
 water courses which lay across their path, swollen to an 
 unusual height and width, were passed without any prep- 
 aration to avoid getting wet ; the consequence was that 
 after wading one of them, they would have to travel with 
 icicles hanging from their clothes the greater part of a day, 
 before an opportunity could be allowed of drying them. 
 They suffered much too for the want of provisions. The 
 short time afforded for preparation, had not admitted of 
 their taking with them as much as they expected would 
 be required, as they had already been on the chase longer 
 than was anticipated. Under these circumstances it was 
 with great difficulty, Captain Wilson could prevail [171] 
 on them to continue the pursuit one day longer ; hoping 
 the Indians would have to halt, in order to hunt for food. 
 Not yet being sensible that they gained upon them, the 
 men positively refused going farther ; and they returned 
 to their several homes. 
 
 This was the last outrage committed by the savages 
 on North Western Virginia, in this year. And although 
 there was not as much mischief effected by them in this 
 season, as had been in others, yet the year 1777, has be- 
 come memorable in the annals of Border Warfare. The 
 murder of Cornstalk and his companions, the attack on 
 Wheeling Fort, the loss of lives and destruction of prop- 
 erty which then took place, together with the fatal ambus- 
 cade at Grave Creek Narrows, all conspired to render it a 
 period of much interest, and to impress its incidents deeply 
 on the minds of those who were actors in these scenes.
 
 236 ' Withers Chronicles 
 
 [172] CHAPTER X. 
 
 After the winter became so severe as to prevent the 
 Indians from penetrating the country and committing far- 
 ther aggression, the inhabitants became assured of safety, 
 and devoted much of their time to the erection of new 
 forts, the strengthening of those which had been formerly 
 established, and the making of other preparations, deemed 
 necessary to prevent the repetition of those distressing oc- 
 currences, which had spread gloom and sorrow over almost 
 every part of North Western Virginia. That the savages 
 would early renew their exertions to destroy the frontier 
 settlements, and harrass their citizens, could not for au 
 instant be doubted. Revenge for the murder of Cornstalk, 
 and the other chiefs killed in the fort by the whites, had 
 operated to unite the warlike nation of the Shawanees in 
 a league with the other Indians, against them ; and every 
 circumstance seemed to promise increased exertions on 
 their part, to accomplish their purposes of blood and 
 devastation. 
 
 Notwithstanding all which had been suffered during- 
 the preceding season; and all, which it was confidently 
 anticipated, would have to be undergone after the return 
 of spring, yet did the whole frontier increase in popula- 
 tion, and in capacity to defend itself against the encroach- 
 ments of a savage enemy, aided by British emissaries, and 
 led on by American tories. The accession to its strength, 
 caused by the number of emigrants, who came into the 
 different settlements, was indeed considerable ; yet it was 
 insufficient, to enable the inhabitants to purchase by offen- 
 sive operations, exemption from [173] invasion, or security 
 from the tomahawk and scalping knife. Assured of this, 
 Virginia extended to them farther assistance ; and a small 
 body of regular troops, under the command of General 
 Mclntosh, was appropriated to their defence.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 297 
 
 In the spring of 1778, General Mclntosh, 1 with the 
 regulars and some militiamen, attached to his command, 
 descended the Ohio river from Fort Pitt, to the mouth of 
 Big Beaver a creek discharging itself into that river from 
 the north-west. 2 This was a favorable position, at which 
 to station his troops to effect the partial security of the 
 frontier, by intercepting parties of Indians on their way to 
 the settlements on the opposite side of the river, and by 
 pursuing and punishing them while engaged, either in 
 committing havoc, or in retreating to their towns, after 
 the consummation of their horrid purposes. Fort Mcln- 
 tosh was accordingly erected here, and garrisoned; a six 
 pounder mounted for its defence. 
 
 From Wheeling to Point Pleasant, a distance of one 
 hundred and eighty-six miles, 3 there was then no obstacle 
 whatever, presented to the advance of Indian war parties, 
 into the settlements on the East and West Forks of the 
 Monongahela, and their branches. The consequences of 
 this exposure had been always severely felt ; and never 
 more so than after the establishment of Fort Mclntosh. 
 Every impediment to their invasion of one part of the 
 country, caused more frequent irruptions into others, 
 where no difficulties were interposed to check their prog- 
 ress, and brought heavier woes on them. This had been 
 already experienced, in the settlements on the upper 
 branches of the Monongahela, and as they were the last 
 
 1 Lachlan Mclntosh was born near Inverness, Scotland, March 17, 
 1725. With his father, and 100 others of the Clan Mclntosh, he emi- 
 grated to Georgia in 1736, in the train of Oglethorpe. The party 
 founded New Inverness, in Mclntosh County. Lachlan entered the 
 Colonial army at the opening of the Revolution, and rose to be briga- 
 dier-general. In a duel with Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, he killed the latter. General Mclntosh was at 
 the siege of Savannah in 1779, was a prisoner of war in 1780, a member 
 congress in 1784, and in 1785 a commissioner to treat with the Southern 
 Indians. He died at Savannah, February 20, 1806. R. G. T. 
 
 1 The distance below Pittsburg is 26 miles. See p. 45, note, for notice 
 of Shingiss Old Town, at this point. R. G. T. 
 
 3 The distance, according to the shore meanderings of the U. S. 
 Corps of Engineers, is 263 miles ; the mileage of the channel would be 
 somewhat greater. R. G. T.
 
 238 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 to feel the effects of savage enmity in 1777, so were they 
 first to become sacrificed to its fury in 1778. 
 
 Anticipating the commencement of hostilities at an 
 earlier period of the season, than usual, several families 
 retired into Harbert's block-house, on Ten Mile (a branch 
 of the West Fork,) in the month of February. And not- 
 withstanding the prudent caution manifested by them in 
 the step thus taken ; yet, the state of the weather lulling 
 them into false security, they did not afterwards exercise 
 the vigilance and provident care, which were necessary to 
 ensure their future safety. On the third of March, some 
 children, playing with a crippled crow, at a short distance 
 from the yard, espied a number of Indians proceeding to- 
 wards them ; and running briskly to the house, told " that 
 a number of red men were close by." [174] John Murphey 
 stepped to the door to see if danger had really approached, 
 when one of the Indians, turning the corner of the house, 
 fired at him. The ball took effect, and Murphey fell back 
 into the house. The Indian springing directly in, was 
 grappled by Harbert, and thrown on the floor. A shot 
 from without, wounded Harbert, yet he continued to main- 
 tain his advantage over the prostrate savage, striking him 
 as effectually as he could with his tomahawk, when an- 
 other gun was fired at him from without the house. The 
 ball passed through his head, and he fell lifeless. His an- 
 tagonist then slipped out at the door, sorely wounded in 
 the encounter. 
 
 Just after the first Indian had entered, an active 
 young warrior, holding in his hand a tomahawk with a 
 long spike at the end, also came in. Edward Cunning- 
 ham instantly drew up his gun to shoot him ; but it 
 flashed, and they closed in doubtful strife. Both were 
 active and athletic ; and sensible of the high prize for 
 which they were contending, each put forth his utmost 
 strength, and strained his every nerve, to gain the ascend- 
 e"ncy. For a while, the issue seemed doubtful. At length, 
 by great exertion, Cunningham wrenched the tomahawk 
 from the hand of the Indian, and buried the spike end to 
 the handle, in his back. Mrs. Cunningham closed the 
 contest. Seeing her husband struggling closely with the
 
 Of Border Warfare. 239 
 
 savage, she struck at him with an axe. The edge wound- 
 ing his face severely, he loosened his hold, and made his 
 way out of the house. 
 
 The third Indian, which had entered before the door 
 was closed, presented an appearance almost as frightful as 
 the object which he had in view. He wore a cap made 
 of the unshorn front of a buffalo, with the ears and horns 
 still attached to it, and which hanging loosely about his 
 head, gave to him a most hideous aspect. On entering 
 the room, this infernal monster, aimed a blow with his 
 tomahawk at a Miss lieece, which alighting on her head, 
 wounded her severely. The mother of this girl, seeing 
 the uplifted arm about to descend on her daughter, seized 
 the monster by the horns ; but his false head coming read- 
 ily off, she did not succeed in changing the direction of 
 the weapon. The father then caught hold of him ; but 
 far inferior in strength and agility, he was soon thrown 
 on the floor, and must have been killed, but for the timely 
 interference of Cunningham. Having [175] succeeded in 
 ridding the room of one Indian, he wheeled, and sunk a 
 tomahawk into the head of the other. 
 
 During all this time the door was kept by the women, 
 tho' not without great exertion. The Indians from with- 
 out endeavored several times to force it open and gain 
 admittance ; and would at one time have succeeded, but 
 that, as it was yielding to their effort to open it, the In- 
 dian, who had been wounded by Cunningham and his 
 wife, squeezing out at the aperture which had been made, 
 caused a momentary relaxation of the exertions of those 
 without, and enabled the women again to close it, and 
 prevent the entrance of others. These were not however, 
 unemployed. They were engaged in securing such of the 
 children in the yard, as were capable of being carried 
 away as prisoners, and in killing and scalping the others ; 
 and when they had effected this, despairing of being able 
 to do farther mischief, they retreated to their towns. 
 
 Of the whites in the house, one only was killed and 
 four were wounded ; and seven or eight children in the 
 yard, were killed or taken prisoners. One Indian was 
 killed, and two badly wounded. Had Reece engaged
 
 240 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 sooner in the conflict, the other two who had entered the 
 house, would no doubt have been likewise killed ; but be- 
 ing a quaker, he looked on, without participating in the 
 conflict, until his daughter was wounded. Having then 
 to contend singly, with superior prowess, he was indebted 
 for the preservation of his life, to the assistance of those 
 whom he refused to aid in pressing need. 
 
 On the eleventh of April, some Indians visited the 
 house of Wm. Morgan, at the Dunkard bottom of Cheat 
 river. They there killed a young man by the name of 
 Brain, Mrs. Morgan, (the mother of William) and her 
 grand daughter, and Mrs. Dillon and her two children ; 
 and took Mrs. Morgan (the wife) and her child prisoners. 
 When, on their way home, they came near to Pricket's 
 fort, they bound Mrs. Morgan to a bush, and went in 
 quest of a horse for her to ride, leaving her child with 
 her. She succeeded in untying with her teeth, the bands 
 which confined her, and wandered the balance of that day 
 and part of the next before she came in sight of the fort. 
 Here she was kindly treated and in a few days sent home. 
 Some men going out from Pricket's fort some short time 
 after, found at the spot where Mrs. Morgan had [176] been 
 left by the Indians, a fine mare stabbed to the heart. Ex- 
 asperated at the escape of Mrs. Morgan, they had no doubt 
 vented their rage on the animal which they had destined 
 to bear her weight. 
 
 In the last of April, a party of about twenty Indians 
 came to the neighborhoods of Hacker's creek and the 
 West Fork. At this time the inhabitants of those neigh- 
 borhoods had removed to West's fort, on the creek, and to 
 Richards' fort on the river ; and leaving the women and 
 children in them during the day, under the protection of a 
 few men, the others were in the habit of performing the 
 usual labors of their farms in companies, so as to preserve 
 them from attacks of the Indians. A company of men, 
 being thus engaged, the first week of May, in a field, now 
 owned by Minter Bailey, on Hacker's creek, and being a 
 good deal dispersed in various occupations, some fencing, 
 others clearing, and a few ploughing, they were unexpect- 
 edly fired upon by the Indians, and Thomas Hughes and
 
 Of Border Warfare. 241 
 
 Jonathan Lowther shot down : the others being incau- 
 tiously without arms fled for safety. Two of the company, 
 having the Indians rather between them and West's fort, 
 ran directly to Richards', as well for their own security as 
 to give the alarm there. But they had been already ap- 
 prized that the enemy was at hand. Isaac Washburn, who 
 had been to mill on Hacker's creek the day before, on his 
 return to Richards' fort and near to where Clement's mill 
 now stands, was shot from his horse, tomahawked and 
 scalped. The Ending of his body, thus cruelly mangled, 
 had given them the alarm, and they were already on their 
 guard, before the two men from Hacker's creek arrived 
 with the intelligence of what had been done there. The 
 Indians then left the neighborhood without effecting more 
 havoc; and the whites were too weak to go in pursuit, 
 and molest them. 
 
 The determination of the Shawanees to revenge the 
 death of their Sachem, had hitherto been productive of no 
 very serious consequences. A while after his murder, a 
 small band of them made their appearance near the fort 
 at Point Pleasant ; and Lieutenant Moore was dispatched 
 from the garrison, with some men, to drive them off. 
 Upon his advance, they commenced retreating; and" the 
 officer commanding the detachment, fearing they would 
 escape, ordered a quick pursuit. He did not proceed far 
 before he fell into an ambuscade. He and three of his 
 men were killed at the first [177] fire ; the rest of the 
 party saved themselves by a precipitate flight to the fort. 
 
 In the May following this transaction, a few Indians 
 again came in sight of the fort. But as the garrison had 
 been very much reduced by the removal of Captain Ar- 
 buckle's company, and the experience of the last season 
 had taught them prudence, Captain McKee forbore to 
 detach any of his men in pursuit of them. Disappointed, 
 in their expectations of enticing others to destruction, as 
 they had Lieutenant Moore in the winter, the Indians sud- 
 denly rose from their covert, and presented an unbroken 
 line, extending from the Ohio to the Kanawha river in 
 front of the fort. A demand for the surrender of the gar- 
 16
 
 242 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 rison, was then made ; and Captain McKee asked 'till the 
 next morning to consider of it. In the course of the night, 
 the men were busily employed in bringing water from the 
 river, expecting that the Indians would continue before 
 the fort for some time. 
 
 In the morning, Captain McKee sent his answer by 
 the grenadier squaw, (sister to Cornstalk, and who, not- 
 withstanding the murder of her brother and nephew, was 
 still attached to the whites, and was remaining at the fort 
 in the capacity of interpreter) 1 that he could not comply 
 with their demand. The Indians immediately began the 
 attack, and for one week kept the garrison closely besieged. 
 Finding however, that they made no impression on the 
 fort, they collected the cattle about it and instead of re- 
 turning towards their own country with the plunder, pro- 
 ceeded up the Kanawha river towards the Greenbrier 
 settlement. 
 
 Believing their object to be the destruction of that 
 settlement, and knowing from their great force that they 
 would certainly accomplish it, if the inhabitants were un- 
 advised of their approach, Captain McKee despatched two 
 men to Col. Andrew Donnelly's, (then the frontier 
 house,) with the intelligence. These men soon came in 
 view of the Indians ; but finding that they were advancing 
 in detached groups, and dispersed in hunting parties, 
 through the woods, they despaired of being able to pass 
 them, and returned to the fort. Captain McKee then 
 made an appeal to the chivalry of the garrison, and asked, 
 " who would risk his life to save the people of Greenbrier." 
 John Pryor and Philip Hammond, at once stepped for- 
 ward, and replied "WE WILL." They were then habited 
 after the Indian manner, and painted in Indian style by 
 the Grenadier Squaw, and departed on their hazardous, 
 but noble and generous undertaking. Travelling, night 
 and day, with great rapidity, they [178] passed the Indians 
 at Meadow river, and arrived, about sunset of that day 
 at Donnelly's fort, twenty miles farther on. 
 
 1 See p. 176, note, for notice of Grenadier Squaw's Town, near Chilli- 
 cothe. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 242 
 
 As soon as the intelligence of the approach of the In- 
 dians, was communicated by these men, Col. Donnelly had 
 the neighbors all advised of it ; and in the course of the 
 night, they collected at his house. He also dispatched a 
 messenger to Capt. John Stuart, to acquaint him with the 
 fact; and made every preparation to resist attack and en- 
 sure their safety, of which his situation admitted. Pryor 
 and Hammond told them how, by the precaution of Cap- 
 tain McKee, the garrison at Point Pleasant had been saved 
 from suffering by the want of water ; and advised them to 
 lay in a plentiful supply, of that necessary article. A hogs- 
 head was accordingly filled and rolled behind the door of 
 the kitchen, which adjoined the dwelling house. 
 
 Early next morning, John Pritchet (a servant to Col. 
 Donnelly) went out for some firewood, and while thus en- 
 gaged, was fired at and killed. The Indians then ran into 
 the yard, and endeavored to force open the kitchen door ; 
 but Hammond and Dick Pointer (a negro belonging to Col. 
 Donnelly) who were the only persons within, aided by the 
 hogshead of water, prevented their accomplishing this ob- 
 ject. They next proceeded to cut it in pieces, with their 
 tomahawks. Hammond seeing that they would soon suc- 
 ceed in this way, with the assistance of Dick, rolled the 
 hogshead to one side, and letting the door suddenly fly 
 open, killed the Indian at the threshold, and the others 
 who were near gave way. Dick then fired among them, 
 with a musket heavily charged with swan shot, and no 
 doubt with eiFect, as the yard was crowded with the en- 
 emy ; a war club with a swan shot in it, was afterwards 
 picked up near the door. 
 
 The men in the house, who were asleep at the com- 
 mencement of the attack, being awakened at the firing of 
 Hammond and Dick, now opened a galling fire upon the 
 Indians. Being chiefly up stairs they were enabled to do 
 greater execution, and fired with such effect that, about 
 one o'clock, the enemy retired a small distance from the 
 house. Before they retired however, some of them suc- 
 ceeded in getting under the floor, when they were aided 
 by the whites below in raising some of the puncheons of 
 which it was made. It was to their advantage to do this;
 
 244 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 arid well did they profit by it. Several of the Indians were 
 killed in this attempt to gain admittance, while only one 
 of the whites received a wound, which but slightly in- 
 jured his hand. 
 
 When intelligence was conveyed to Capt. Stuart of 
 the approach of so large a body of savages, Col. Samuel 
 Lewis was with him ; and they both exerted themselves to 
 save the settlement from destruction, by collecting the in- 
 habitants at a fort where Lewisburg now stands. Having 
 succeeded in this, they sent two men to Donnelly's to learn 
 whether the Indians had advanced that far. As they ap- 
 proached, the firing became distinctly audible, and they 
 returned [179] with the tidings. Capt. Stuart and Col. 
 Lewis proposed marching to the relief of Donnelly's fort, 
 with as many men as were willing to accompany them; 
 and in a brief space of time, commenced their march at 
 the head of sixty-six men. Pursuing the most direct route 
 without regarding the road, they approached the house on 
 the back side; and thus escaped an ambuscade of Indians 
 placed near the road to intercept and cut off" any assist- 
 ance which might be sent from the upper settlements. 
 
 Adjoining the yard, there was a field of well grown 
 rye, into which the relief from Lewisburg, entered about 
 two o'clock ; but as the Indians had withdrawn to a dis- 
 tance from the house, there was no firing heard. They 
 soon however, discovered the savages in the field, looking 
 intently towards Donnoly's ; and it was resolved to pass 
 them. Capt. Stuart and Charles Gatliff fired at them, and 
 the whole party rushed forward into the yard, amid a 
 heavy discharge of balls from the savage forces. The peo- 
 ple in the fort hearing the firing in the rear of the house, ' 
 soon presented themselves at the port holes, to resist, what 
 they supposed, was a fresh attack on them ; but quickly 
 discovering the real cause, they opened the gates, and all 
 the party led on by Stuart and Lewis, safely entered. 
 
 The Indians then resumed the attack, and maintained 
 a constant fire at the house, until near dark, when one 
 of them approached, and in broken English called out, " we 
 want peace." He was told to come in and he should have 
 it; but he declined the invitation to enter, and they all re-
 
 Of Border Warfare. 245 
 
 treated, dragging off those of their slain, who lay not too 
 near the fort. 
 
 Of the whites, four only were killed by the enemy. 
 Pritchet, before the attack commenced, James Burns and 
 Alexander Ochiltree, as they were coming to the house 
 .early in the morning, and James Graham while in the 
 fort. It was impossible to ascertain the entire loss of the 
 Indians. Seventeen lay dead in the yard ; and they were 
 known to carry off others of their slain. Perhaps the dis- 
 parity of the killed, equalled, if it did not exceed the dis- 
 parity of the number engaged. There were twenty-one 
 men at Donnoly's fort, before the arrival of the reinforce- 
 ment under Stuart and Lewis ; and the brunt of the bat- 
 tle was over before they came. The Indian force exceeded 
 two hundred men. 
 
 It was believed, that the invasion of the Greenbrier 
 country had been projected, some time before it actually 
 was made. During the preceding season, an Indian call- 
 ing himself John Hollis, had been very much through the 
 settlement ; and was known to take particular notice of 
 the different forts, which he entered under the garb of 
 friendship. He was with the Indians in the attack on 
 Donnoly's fort; and was recognized as one of those who 
 were left dead in the yard. 
 
 On the morning after the Indians departed, Capt. 
 Hamilton went in pursuit of them with seventy men ; but 
 following two days, without [180] perceiving that he gained 
 on them, he abandoned the chase and returned. 
 
 About the middle of June, three women went out 
 from West's fort, to gather greens in a field adjoining; 
 and while thus engaged were attacked by four Indians, 
 lying in wait. One gun only was fired, and the ball from 
 it, passed through the bonnet of Mrs. Hackor, who screamed 
 aloud and ran with the others towards the fort. An In- 
 dian, having in his hand a long staff, with a spear in one 
 end, pursuing closely after them, thrust it at Mrs. Free- 
 man with such violence that, entering her back just below 
 the shoulder, it came out at her left breast. With his 
 tomahawk, he cleft the upper part of her head, and carried 
 it off to save the scalp.
 
 246 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 The screams of the women alarmed the men in the 
 fort; and seizing their guns, they ran out, just as Mrs. 
 Freeman fell. Several guns were fired at the Indian while 
 he was getting her scalp, but with no effect. They served 
 however, to warn the men who went out, that danger was 
 at hand; and they quickly came in. 
 
 Jesse Hughs' and John Schoolcraft (who were out) 
 in making their way to the fort, came very near two In- 
 dians standing by the fence looking towards the men at 
 West's, so intently, that they did not perceive any one 
 near them. They however, were observed by Hughs and 
 Schoolcraft, who, avoiding them, made their way in, safely, 
 Hughs immediately took up his gun, and learning the fate 
 of Mrs. Freeman, went with some others to bring in the 
 corpse. While there, he proposed to go and shew them, 
 how near he had approached the Indians after the alarm 
 had been given, before he saw them. Charles and Alex- 
 ander West, Chas. Hughs, James Brown and John Steeth, 
 went with him. Before they had arrived at the place, one 
 of the Indians was heard to howl like a wolf; and the men 
 with Hughs moved on in the direction from which the 
 sound proceeded. Supposing that they were then near 
 the spot, Jesse Hughs howled in like manner, and being 
 instantly answered, they ran to a point of the hill and 
 looking over it, saw two Indians coming towards them. 
 Hughs fired and one of them fell. The other took to 
 flight. Being pursued by the whites, he sought shelter in 
 a thicket of brush ; and while they were proceeding to in- 
 tercept him at his coming out, he returned by the way he 
 had entered, and made his escape. The wounded Indian 
 likewise got off. When the whites were in pursuit of the 
 one who took to flight, they passed near to him who had 
 fallen, and one of the men was for stopping and finishing 
 him ; but Hughs called to him, " he is safe let us have 
 the other," and they all pressed forward. On their return, 
 however, he was gone; and although his free bleeding en- 
 abled them to pursue his track readily for a while, yet a 
 
 1 See p. 137, note, for notice of Jesse Hughes ; also, Peyton's History 
 Of Augusta County, p. 353. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 247 
 
 heavy shower of rain soon falling, all trace of him was 
 quickly lost and could not be afterwards regained. 
 
 On the 16th of June as Capt. James Booth and 
 Nathaniel Cochran, were at work in a field on Booth's 
 creek, they were fired at by [181] the Indians. Booth fell, 
 but Cochran, being very slightly wounded, took to flight. 
 He was however, overtaken, and carried into captivity to 
 their towus. From thence he was taken to Detroit, where 
 he remained some time ; and endeavoring to escape from 
 that place, unfortunately took a path which led him im- 
 mediately to the Maumee old towns. Here he was de- 
 tained a while, & then sent back to Detroit, where he was 
 exchanged, and from whence he made his way home, after 
 having had to endure much suffering and many hardships. 
 The loss of Booth was severely felt by the inhabitants in 
 that settlement. He was not only an active and enter- 
 prising man, but was endowed with superior talents, and 
 a better education than most of those who had settled 
 in the country ; and on these accounts was very much 
 missed. 
 
 In a few days after this transaction, Benjamin Shinn, 
 Wm. Grundy, and Benjamin Washburn, returning from a 
 lick on the head of Booth's creek, were fired on by the 
 Indians, when near to Baxter's run. Washburn and Shinn 
 escaped unhurt, but Grundy was killed : he was brother 
 to Felix Grundy of Tennessee, whose father was then re- 
 siding at Simpson's creek, at a farm afterwards owned by 
 Colonel Benjamin Wilson, senior. 
 
 This party of Indians continued for some days, to 
 prowl about the neighborhood, seeking opportunities of 
 committing murder on the inhabitants ; fortunately how- 
 ever, with but little success. James Owens, a youth of six- 
 teen years of age, was the only one whom they succeeded 
 in killing after the murder of Grundy. Going from Pow- 
 ers' fort on Simpson's creek, to Booth's creek, his saddle 
 girth gave way, and while he was down mending it, a ball 
 was discharged at him, which killed both him and the 
 horse. 
 
 Seeing that the whites, in that neighborhood, had all 
 retired to the fort; and being too weak, openly to attack
 
 248 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 it, they crossed over to Bartlett's run, and came to the 
 house of Gilbert Hustead, who was then alone, and en- 
 gaged in fixing his gun lock. Hearing a noise in the yard, 
 for which he was unable to account, he slipped to the door, 
 to ascertain from whence it proceeded. The Indians were 
 immediately round it, and there was no chance for his 
 escape. Walking out with an air of the utmost pleas- 
 antry, he held forth his hand to the one nearest him, and 
 asked them all to walk in. While in the house he affected 
 great cheerfulness, and by his tale [182] won their confi- 
 dence and friendship. He told them that he was a King's 
 man and unwilling to live among the rebels ; for which 
 reason, when others retired into the fort, he preferred 
 staying at his own house, anxiously hoping for the arrival 
 of some of the British Indians, to afford him an opportu- 
 nity of getting among English friends. Learning upon 
 enquiry, that they would be glad to have something to eat, 
 he asked one of them to shoot a fat hog which was in the 
 yard, that they might regale on it that night, and have 
 some on which to subsist while travelling to their towns. 
 In the morning, still farther to maintain the deception he 
 was practising, he broke his furniture to pieces, saying 
 "the rebels shall never have the good of you." He then 
 accompanied them to their towns, acting in the same, ap- 
 parently, contented and cheerful manner, 'till his sincerity 
 was believed by all, and he obtained leave to return for 
 his family. He succeeded in making his way home, where 
 he remained, sore at the destruction of his property, but 
 exulting in the success of his artifice. 
 
 While this party of Indians were thus engaged, on 
 Booth's creek and in the circumjacent country, a more 
 numerous body had invaded the settlements lower down, 
 and were employed in the work of destruction there. 
 They penetrated to Coburn's creek unperceived, and were 
 making their way (as was generally supposed) to a fort 
 not far from Morgantown, when they fell in with a party 
 of whites, returning from the labors of the cornfield, and 
 then about a mile from Coburn's fort. The Indians had 
 placed themselves on each side of the road leading to the 
 fort, and from their covert fired on the whites, before they
 
 Of Border Warfare. 249 
 
 were aware of danger. John Woodfin being on horse- 
 back, had his thigh broken by a ball ; which killed his 
 horse and enabled them to catch him easily. Jacob Mil- 
 ler was shot through the abdomen, and soon overtaken, 
 tomahawked and scalped. The others escaped to the fort. 
 
 Woodfin was afterwards found on a considerable emi- 
 nence overlooking the fort, tomahawked and scalped. 
 The Indians had, most probably, taken him there, that he 
 might point out to them the least impregnable part of the 
 fortress, and in other respects give them such informa- 
 tion, as would tend to ensure success to their meditated 
 attack on it ; but when they heard its strength and the 
 force with which it was garrisoned, despairing of being 
 able to reduce it, in a fit of disappointed fury, they mur- 
 dered him on the spot. 
 
 [183] They next made their appearance on Dunkard 
 creek, and near to Stradler's fort. Here, as on Coburn's 
 creek, they lay in ambush on the road side, awaiting the 
 return of the men who were engaged at work, in some of 
 the neighboring fields. Towards evening the men came 
 on, carrying with them some hogs which they had killed 
 for the use of the fort people, and on approaching where 
 the Indians lay concealed, were fired on and several fell. 
 Those who escaped injury from the first fire, returned the 
 shot, and a severe action ensued. But so many of the 
 whites had been killed before the savages exposed them- 
 selves to view, that the remainder were unable long to 
 sustain the unequal contest. Overpowered by numbers, 
 the few, who were still unhurt, fled precipitately to the 
 fort, leaving eighteen of their companions dead in the 
 road. These were scalped and mangled by the Indians in 
 a most shocking manner, and lay some time, before the 
 men in the fort, assured of the departure of the enemy, 
 went out and buried them. 
 
 Weakened by the severe loss sustained in this bloody 
 skirmish, had the Indians pushed forward to attack the 
 fort, in all human probability, it would have fallen before 
 them. There were at that day very few settlements which 
 could have maintained possession of a garrison for any 
 length of time, after having suffered so great a diminu-
 
 250 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 tion of the number of their inhabitants, against the on- 
 sets of one hundred savages, exercising their wonted 
 energy: and still less would they be able to leave their 
 strong holds, and cope with such superior force, in open 
 battle. Nor were the settlements, as yet, sufficiently con- 
 tiguous to each other, to admit of their acting in concert, 
 and combining their strength, to operate effectively against 
 their invaders. When alarmed by the approach of the 
 foe, all that they could generally do, was, retire to a fort, 
 and endeavor to defend it from assault. If the savages, 
 coming in numbers, succeeded in committing any outrage, 
 it usually went unpunished. Sensible of their want of 
 strength, the inhabitants rarely ventured in pursuit, to 
 harrass or molest the retiring foe. When, however, they 
 would hazard to hang on their retreat, the many precau- 
 tions which they were compelled to exercise, to prevent 
 falling into ambuscades and to escape the entangling arti- 
 fices of their wily enemies, frequently rendered their en- 
 terprises abortive, and their exertions inefficient. 
 
 [184] The frequent visits paid by the Indians to the 
 country on the West Fork, and the mischief which they 
 would effect at these times, led several of the inhabitants 
 to resolve on leaving a place so full of dangers, as soon as 
 they could make the necessary preparations. A family 
 of Washburns particularly, having several times very nar- 
 rowly escaped destruction, commenced making arrange- 
 ments and fitting up for their departure. But while two 
 of them were engaged in procuring pine knots, from which 
 to make wax for shoemaking, they were discovered, and 
 shot at by the Indians. Stephen fell dead, and James was 
 taken prisoner and carried to their towns. He was there 
 forced to undergo repeated and intense suffering before 
 death closed the scene of his miseries. 
 
 According to the account given by Nathaniel Cochran 
 on his return from captivity, Washburn was most severely 
 beaten, on the first evening of his arrival at their village, 
 while running the gauntlet; and although he succeeded in 
 getting into the council house, where Cochran was, yet 
 he was so disfigured and mutilated, that he could not be 
 recognised by his old acquaintance; and so stunned and
 
 Of Border Warfare. 251 
 
 stupified, that he remained nearly all night in a state of 
 insensibility. Being somewhat revived in the morning, 
 he walked to where Cochran sat by the fire, and being 
 asked if he were not James Washburn, replied with a 
 smile as if a period had been put to his sufferings by the 
 sympathetic tone in which the question was proposed 
 that he was. The gleam of hope which flashed over his 
 countenance, was transient and momentary. In a few 
 minutes he was again led forth, that the barbarities which 
 had been suspended by the interposition of night, might 
 be revived ; and he made to endure a repetition of their 
 cruelties. He was now feeble and too much exhausted to 
 save himself from the clubs and sticks, even of the aged 
 of both sexes. The old men and the old women, who fol- 
 lowed him, had strength and activity enough to keep pace 
 with his fleetest .progress, and inflict on him their severest 
 blows. Frequently he was beaten to the ground, and as 
 frequently, as if invigorated by the extremity of anguish, 
 he rose to his feet. Hobbling before his tormentors, with 
 no hope but in death, an old savage passed a knife across 
 his ham, which cutting the tendons, disabled him from 
 proceeding farther. Still they repeated their unmerciful 
 blows with all their energy. He was next scalped, though 
 alive, and struggling to regain his feet. [185] Even this 
 did not operate to suppress their cruelty. They continued 
 to beat him, until in the height of suffering he again ex- 
 hibited symptoms of life and exerted himself to move. 
 His head was then severed from his shoulders, attached 
 to a pole, and placed in the most public situation in the 
 village. 
 
 After the attack on the Washburns, there were but 
 two other outrages committed in the upper country dur- 
 ing that season. The cessation on the part of the savages, 
 of hostile incursions, induced an abandonment of the 
 forts, and the people returned to their several homes, and 
 respective occupations. But aggression was only sus- 
 pended for a time. In October, two Indians appeared 
 near the house of Conrad Richards, and finding in the 
 yard a little girl at play, with an infant in her arms, they 
 scalped her and rushed to the door. For some time they
 
 252 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 endeavored to force it open ; but it was BO securely fast- 
 ened within, that Richards was at liberty to use his gun 
 for its defence. A fortunate aim wounded one of the as- 
 sailants severely, and the other retreated, helping off his 
 companion. The girl who had been scalped in the yard, 
 as soon as she observed the Indians going away, ran, 
 with the infant still in her arms and uninjured, and en- 
 tered the house a spectacle of most heart-rending wretch- 
 edness. 
 
 Soon after, David Edwards, returning from Winches- 
 ter with salt, was shot near the Valley river, tomahawked 
 and scalped; in which situation he lay for some time be- 
 fore he was discovered. He was the last person who fell 
 a victim to savage vengeance, in North Western Virginia 
 in the year 1778. 
 
 The repeated irruptions of the Indians during the 
 summer of the year; ' and the frequent murders and great 
 devastation committed by them, induced Government to 
 undertake two expeditions into the Indian country. One 
 thousand men were placed under the command of General 
 Mclntosh, some time in the fall, and he received orders to 
 proceed forthwith against the Sandusky towns. Between 
 two and three hundred soldiers were likewise placed un- 
 der Colonel Clarke, to operate against the Canadian settle- 
 ments in Illinois. It was well known that the Governor 
 of those settlements was an indefatigable agent of British 
 cruelty, stimulating the savages to aggression, and paying 
 them well for scalps, torn alike from the heads of the 
 aged matron and the helpless infant. 2 [186] The settle- 
 ments in Kentucky, were constantly the theatre of outrage 
 and murder ; and to preserve these from entire destruc- 
 tion, it was necessary that a blow should be aimed, at the 
 
 1 These war parties largely emanated from the Detroit region. 
 Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, 
 writing to his superior, General Haldimand, September 16, 1778, men- 
 tions incidentally that he sent out small parties of Miamis and Chippe- 
 was, August 5, and September 5 and 9 ; these were but three of dozens 
 of such forays which he incited against the Virginia and Pennsylvania 
 borders, during that year. R. G. T. 
 
 1 This reference is to Lieut.-Governor Hamilton, whom George 
 Rogers Clark called " the hair-buying general." R^G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 253 
 
 hives from which the savages swarmed, and if possible, 
 that those holds, into which they would retire to reap the 
 rewards of their cruelties and receive the price of blood, 
 should be utterly broken up. The success of those two 
 expeditions could not fail to check savage encroachments, 
 and give quiet and security to the frontier ; and although 
 the armies destined to achieve it, were not altogether ade- 
 quate to the service required, yet the known activity and 
 enterprize of the commanding officers, joined to their 
 prudence and good conduct, and the bravery and indefat- 
 igable perseverance and hardiness of the troops, gave 
 promise of a happy result. 
 
 The success of the expedition under Colonel Clarke, 1 
 
 1 Gen. George Rogers Clark was born November 19, 1752, near 
 Monticello, Albemarle County, Va. At the age of twenty he was prac- 
 ticing his profession as a surveyor on the upper Ohio, and took up a 
 claim at the mouth of Fish Creek. In 1 774, he participated as a captain 
 in Dunmore's campaign against the Shawnees and Mingoes. Early in 
 1775, Clark went as a surveyor to Kentucky, where he acquired marked 
 popularity, and in 1776 was elected as " a delegate to the Virginia con- 
 vention, to urge upon the state authorities the claims of the colony for 
 government and defense." He secured the formation of the new 
 county of Kentucky, and a supply of ammunition for the defense of the 
 border. In 1777, Clark, now a major of militia, repelled the Indian 
 attacks on Harrodsburg, and proceeded on foot to Virginia to lay before 
 the state authorities his plan for capturing the Illinois country and re- 
 pressing the Indian forays from that quarter. His scheme being ap- 
 proved, he was made a lieutenant-colonel, and at once set out to raise 
 for the expedition a small force of hardy frontiersmen. He rendez- 
 voused and drilled his little army of a hundred and fifty on Corn Island 
 in the Ohio river, at the head of the Falls (or rapids), opposite the 
 present city of Louisville. June 24, 1778, he started in boats down 
 the Ohio, and landed near the deserted Fort Massac, which was on the 
 north bank, ten miles below the mouth of the Tennessee; thence 
 marching across country, much pressed for food, he reached Kaskaskia 
 in six days. The inhabitants there were surprised and coerced during 
 the night of July 4-5, without the firing of a gun. Cahokia and Vin- 
 cennes soon quietly succumbed to his influence. Lieut.-Governor Ham- 
 ilton, on hearing of this loss of the Illinois country and the partial 
 defection to the Americans of the tribes west and southwest of Lake 
 Michigan, at once set out to organize an army, chiefly composed of In- 
 dians, to retake the Illinois. He proceeded via the Wabash and 
 Maumee, with eight hundred men, and recaptured Vincennes, Decem- 
 ber 17. 
 
 The intelligence of this movement of Hamilton was not long in 
 reaching Clark at Kaskaskia, and he at once set out for Vincennes to
 
 254 Withers'* Chronicles 
 
 fully realized the most sanguine expectations of those, 
 who were acquainted with the adventurous and enterpris- 
 ing spirit of its commander; and was productive of essen- 
 tial benefit to the state, as well as of comparative security to 
 the border settlements. Descending the Ohio river, from 
 Fort Pitt to the Falls, he there landed his troops, and con- 
 cealing his boats, marched directly towards Kaskaskias. 
 Their provisions, which were carried on their backs, were 
 soon exhausted ; and for two days, the army subsisted en- 
 tirely on roots. This was the only circumstance, which 
 
 recapture it. The march thither was one of the most heroic in Ameri- 
 can military annals. Hamilton surrendered to him, February 25, and 
 was forwarded to Virginia as a prisoner. Early in 1780 he established 
 Fort Jefferson, just below the mouth of the Ohio, and later in the sea- 
 son aided in repelling a body of British and Indians who had come to 
 regain the Illinois country and attack the Spaniards at St. Louis. Leav- 
 ing Colonel Montgomery to pursue the enemy up the Mississippi, 
 Clark, with what force could be spared, hastened to Kentucky, where 
 he quickly raised a thousand men, and invaded and laid waste the 
 Shawnee villages, in retaliation for Capt. Henry Bird's invasion (see 
 p. 262, note). 
 
 Later, he was engaged in some minor forays, and was appointed a 
 brigadier-general; but his favorite scheme of an expedition to conquer 
 Detroit miscarried, owing to the poverty of Virginia and the activity of 
 the enemy under Brant, McKee, Girty, and other border leaders. In 
 1782 Clark led a thousand men in a successful campaign against the In- 
 dians on the Great Miami. This was his last important service, his 
 subsequent expeditions proving failures. His later years were spent in 
 poverty and seclusion, and his social habits became none of the best. 
 In 1793 he imprudently accepted a commission as major-general from 
 Genet, the French diplomatic agent, and essayed to raise a French revo- 
 lutionary legion in the West to overcome the Spanish settlements on the 
 Mississippi; upon Genet's recall, Clark's commission was canceled. 
 Later, he sought to secure employment under the Spanish (see p. 130, 
 note.) He died February 18, 1818, at Locust Grove, near Louisville, and 
 lies buried at Cave Hill, in the Louisville suburbs. In his article on 
 Clark, in Appleton's Cyclop, of Amer. Biog., i., pp. 626, 627, Dr. Draper 
 says: "Clark was tall and commanding, brave and full of resources, 
 possessing the affection and confidence of his men. All that rich 
 domain northwest of the Ohio was secured to the republic, at the peace 
 of 1783, in consequence of his prowess." Cf. William F. Poole, in 
 Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist. Amer., vi., pp. 710-742. While due credit 
 should be given to Clark for his daring and successful undertaking, we 
 must not forget that England's jealousy of Spain, and shrewd diplomacy 
 on the part of America's peace plenipotentiaries, were factors even more 
 potent in winning the Northwest for the United States. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 255 
 
 occurred during their march, calculated to damp the 
 ardor of the troops. No band of savage warriors, had 
 interposed to check their progress, no straggling Indian, 
 had discovered their approach. These fortunate omens 
 inspired them with flattering hopes; and they pushed for- 
 ward, with augmented energy. Arriving before Kaskaskias 
 in the night, they entered it, unseen and unheard, and 
 took possession of the town and fort, without opposition. 
 Relying on the thick and wide extended forests which in- 
 terposed between them and the American settlements, the 
 inhabitants had been lulled to repose by fancied security, 
 and were unconscious of danger until it had become too 
 late to be avoided. Not a single individual escaped, to 
 spread the alarm in the adjacent settlements. 
 
 But there still remained other towns, higher up the 
 Mississippi, which, if unconquered, would still afford 
 shelter to the savages and furnish them the means of an- 
 noyance and of ravage. Against these, Colonel Clarke 
 immediately directed [187] operations. Mounting a de- 
 tachment of men, on horses found at Kaskaskias, and 
 sending them forward, three other towns were reduced 
 with equal success. The obnoxious governor at Kaskas- 
 kias was sent directly to Virginia, with the written in- 
 structions which he had received from Quebec, Detroit 
 and Michillimacinac, for exciting the Indians to war, and 
 remunerating them for the blood which they might shed. 
 
 Although the country within which Colonel Clarke 
 had so successfully carried on operations, was considered 
 to be within the limits of Virginia; yet as it was occupied 
 by savages and those who were but little, if any, less hos- 
 tile than they; and being so remote from her settlements, 
 Virginia had as yet exercised no act of jurisdiction over 
 it. But as it now belonged to her, by conquest as well as 
 charter, the General Assembly created it into a distinct 
 county, to be called Illinois; a temporary government was 
 likewise established in it, and a regiment of infantry and 
 a troop of cavalry, ordered to be enlisted for its defence, 
 and placed under the command of its intrepid and enter- 
 prising conqueror. 
 
 The expedition directed under General Mclntosh, was
 
 256 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 not equally successful. The difficulty of raising, equip- 
 ping, and organizing, so large a force as was placed under 
 his command, at so great a distance from the populous 
 district of the state, caused the consumption of so much 
 time, that the season for carrying on effective operations 
 had well nigh passed before he was prepared to commence 
 his march. Anxious however, to achieve as much as could 
 then be effected for the security of the frontier, he pene- 
 trated the enemy's country, as far as Tuscarawa, when it 
 was resolved to build and garrison a fort, and delay farther 
 operations 'till the ensuing spring. Fort Laurens was ac- 
 cordingly erected on the banks of the Tuscarawa, a garri- 
 son of one hundred and fifty men, under the command of 
 ColonelJohn Gibson, left for its preservation, and the main 
 army returned to Fort Pitt.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 257 
 
 [188] CHAPTER XI. 
 
 No sooner had the adventurous advance of Col. Clarke, 
 and the success with which it was crowned, become known 
 at Detroit, than preparations were made to expel him 
 from Kaskaskias, or capture his little army, and thus rid 
 the country of this obstacle to the unmolested passage of 
 the savages, to the frontier of Virginia. An army of six 
 hundred men, principally Indians, led on by Hamilton, the 
 governor of Detroit a man at once bold and active, yet 
 blood-thirsty and cruel, and well known as a chief insti- 
 gator of the savages to war, and as a stay and prop of to- 
 ries left Detroit and proceeded towards the theatre of 
 Clarke's renown. With this force, he calculated on being 
 able to effect his purpose as regarded Col. Clarke and his 
 little band of bold and daring adventurers, and to spread 
 devastation and death along the frontier, from Kentucky 
 to Pennsylvania. Arriving at Fort St. Vincent, 1 on the 
 Wabash, about the middle of December, and deeming it 
 too late to advance towards Kaskaskias, he repaired its 
 battlements and converting it into a repository for war- 
 like implements of every description, he detached the 
 greater part of his force in marauding parties to operate 
 against .the settlements on the Ohio river, reserving for 
 the security of his head quarters only one company of 
 men. 
 
 "While these alarming preparations were being made, 
 Col. Clarke was actively engaged in acquiring an ascend- 
 ency over the neighboring tribes of Indians; and in en- 
 deavors to attach them to the cause of the United States, 
 from principle or fear. The aid which had been voted 
 him, fell far short of [189] the contemplated assistance, 
 and had not yet arrived ; but his genius and activity am- 
 ply compensated for the deficiency. In the heart of an 
 
 1 Called by the English, Fort Sackville. R. G. T. 
 17
 
 258 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 Indian country, remote from every succour, and in the 
 vicinity of powerful and hostile tribes, he yet not only 
 maintained his conquest and averted injury, but carried 
 terror and dismay into the very strongholds of the sav- 
 ages. Intelligence of the movement of Hamilton at length 
 reached him, and hostile parties of Indians soon hovered 
 around Kaskaskias. Undismayed by the tempest which 
 was gathering over him, he concentrated his forces, with- 
 drawing garrisons from the other towns to strengthen 
 this, and made every preparation to enable him to endure 
 a siege, and withstand the assault of a powerful army. 
 The idea of abandoning the country never occurred to 
 him. He did not despair of being able to maintain his 
 position, and he and his gallant band resolved that they 
 would do it, or perish in the attempt. In this fearful 
 juncture, all was activity and industry, when the arrival 
 of a Spanish merchant who had been at St. Vincents 
 brought information of the reduced state of Hamilton's 
 army. 1 Convinced that a crisis had now arrived, Clarke 
 resolved by one bold stroke to change the aspect of affairs, 
 and instead of farther preparing to resist attack, himself 
 to become the assailant. For this purpose, a galley, 
 mounting two four pounders and four swivels, and having 
 on board a company of men, was despatched, with orders 
 to the commanding officer, to ascend the Wabash and sta- 
 tion himself a few miles below St. Vincents, allowing no 
 one to pass him until the arrival of the main army. Gar- 
 risoning Kaskaskias, with militia, and embodying the in- 
 habitants for the protection of the other towns, Colonel 
 Clarke set forward on his march across the country, on 
 the 7th of February, 1779, at the head of one hundred 
 and thirty brave and intrepid men. 2 
 
 1 From Clark's Journal: "January 29. M. Vigo, a Spanish sub- 
 ject who had been at Post St. Vincents on his lawful business, arrived 
 and gave us intelligence that Governor Hamilton, with thirty regulars 
 and fifty volunteers and about 400 Indians, had arrived in November 
 and taken that post with Capt. Helms and such other Americans who 
 were there with arms, and disarmed the settlers and inhabitants."- 
 R. G. T. 
 
 1 Forty-six men, under Lieut. John Rogers, went with the artillery
 
 Of Border Warfare. 259 
 
 Such was the inclemency of the weather, and so many 
 and great the obstacles which interposed, that in despite 
 of the ardor, perseverance and energy of the troops, they 
 could yet advance very slowly towards the point of desti- 
 nation. They were five days in crossing the drowned 
 lands of the Wabash, and for five miles had to wade 
 through water and ice, frequently up to their breasts. 
 They overcame every difficulty and arrived before St. Vin- 
 cents on the evening of the twenty-third of February and 
 almost simultaneously with the galley. 
 
 Thus far fortune seemed to favor the expedition. The 
 army had not been discovered on its march, and the gar- 
 rison was totally ignorant of its approach. Much how- 
 ever yet remained to be done. They had arrived within 
 view of the enemy, but the battle was yet to be fought. 
 
 Sensible of the advantage to be derived from com- 
 mencing the attack, while the enemy was ignorant of his 
 approach, at seven o'clock he marched to the assault. The 
 inhabitants instead of offering opposition, received the 
 troops with gladness, and surrendering [190] the town, en- 
 gaged with alacrity in the siege of the fort. For eight- 
 een hours the garrison resisted the repeated onsets of the 
 assailants; but during the night succeeding the com- 
 mencement of the attack, Colonel Clarke had an entrench- 
 ment thrown up within rifle shot of the enemy's strongest 
 battery, and in the morning, from this position, poured 
 upon it such a well-directed shower of balls, that in fifteen 
 minutes he silenced two pieces of cannon without sustain- 
 ing any loss whatever. The advantages thus gained, in- 
 duced Hamilton to demand a parley, intimating an inten- 
 tion of surrendering. The terms were soon arranged. 
 The governor and garrison became prisoners of war, and 
 a considerable quantity of military stores fell into the 
 hands of the conqueror. 1 
 
 and stores, in a large galley or batteau, called the " Willing." The dis- 
 tance to Vincennes by land, was a hundred and fifty miles. R. G. T. 
 
 1 The originals of the correspondence between Clark and Hamilton 
 are, with much other MS. material relative to the movements of Clark, 
 111 possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Hamilton's letter, in 
 a neat, scholarly hand, ran : 
 
 " Lieutenant Governor Hamilton proposes to Colonel Clark a Truce
 
 260 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 During the continuance of the siege, Colonel Clarke 
 received information that a party of Indians which had 
 been detached by Hamilton to harrass the frontiers, was 
 returning and then near to St. Vincents with two prison- 
 ers. He immediately ordered a detachment of his men to 
 march out and give them battle nine Indians were taken 
 and the two prisoners released. 
 
 History records but few enterprises, which display as 
 strikingly the prominent features of military greatness, 
 and evince so much of the genius and daring which are 
 necessary to their successful termination, as this; while 
 the motives which led to its delineation, were such, as 
 must excite universal admiration. Bold and daring, yet 
 generous and disinterested, Colonel Clarke sought not his 
 individual advancement in the projection or execution of 
 this campaign. It was not to gratify the longings of am- 
 bition, or an inordinate love of fame, that prompted him 
 to penetrate the Indian country to the Kaskaskias, nor 
 that tempted him forth from thence, to war with the gar- 
 rison at St. Vincent. He was not one of 
 
 for three days, during which time he promises, there shall not be any 
 defensive work carried on in the Garrison, on Condition Colo! Clark 
 shall observe on his part a like cessation from any offensive Work 
 
 " He further proposes that whatever may pass between them two 
 and any persons (mutually agreed upon to be) present, shall remain se- 
 cret, till matters be finally concluded 
 
 " As he wishes that whatever the result of their conference may be 
 the honor and credit of each party may be considered, so he wishes to 
 confer with Colo! Clark as soon as may be 
 
 " As Colo! Clark makes a difficulty of coming into the Garrison, 
 U. G. Hamilton will speak with him before the Gate 
 
 HENRY HAMILTON. 
 
 " FebT 24* 1779 Fort Sackville ' 
 
 Clark's gruff reply, in rugged, but not unclerical chirography, was 
 as follows : 
 
 "Colonel Clark's Compliments to MF Hamilton and begs leave to 
 inform him that Co! Clark will not agree to any Other Terms than that 
 of M! Hamilton's Surrendering himself and Garrison, Prisoners at 
 Discretion 
 
 "If Mf Hamilton is Desirous of a Conferance with Co! Clark he 
 will meet him at the Church with Capt? Helms 
 
 " Feb? 24*, 1779. G. R. CLARK." R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 261 
 
 " Those worshippers of glory, 
 
 Who bathe the earth in blood, 
 And launch proud names for an after age, 
 Upon the crimson flood." 
 
 The distress and sufferings of the frontier of Vir- 
 ginia required that a period should speedily be put to them, 
 to preserve the country from ravage and its inhabitants 
 from butchery. Clarke had seen and participated in that 
 distress and those sufferings, and put in requisition every 
 faculty of his mind and all the energies of his body, to al- 
 leviate and prevent them. Providence smiled on his un- 
 dertaking, and his exertions were crowned with complete 
 success. The plan which had been concerted for the en- 
 suing campaign against the frontier of Virginia, threat- 
 ening to involve the whole country west of the Alleghany 
 mountains in destruction and death, was thus happily 
 frustrated; and he, who had been mainly instrumental in 
 impelling the savages to war, and in permitting, if not in- 
 stigating them to the commission of the most atrocious 
 barbarities, was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy. So 
 justly obnoxious had he [191] rendered himself by his 
 conduct, that a more than ordinary rigor was practised 
 upon him; and by the orders of the governor of Virginia, 
 the governor of Detroit was manacled with irons, and con- 
 fined in jail. 1 
 
 Far different was the termination of the enterprise 
 entrusted to the conduct of General Mclntosh. It has 
 been already seen that the approach of winter forced the 
 main army to retire to the settlements into winter quar- 
 ters, before they were able to accomplish any thing, but 
 the erection of Fort Laurens. 2 Colonel Gibson, the com- 
 mandant of the garrison, though a brave and enterprising 
 officer, was so situated, that the preservation of the fort, 
 
 1 Hamilton, in a letter of July 6, 1781, contained in the Haldimand 
 Papers, in the British Museum, gives what he calls " a brief account" of 
 his ill-starred expedition. See Roosevelt's Winning of the West, passim. 
 R. G. T. 
 
 * On the Tuscarawas River, about ten miles north of the present 
 New Philadelphia, O., and a mile south of what is now Bolivar, Tus- 
 carawas County. At the time Withers alludes to, it was garrisoned by 
 150 men under Col. John Gibson. R. G. T,
 
 262 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 was all which he could accomplish ; and this was no little 
 hazard of failure, from the very superior force of the 
 enemy, and the scarcity of provisions for the subsistance 
 of the garrison. So soon as the Indians became acquainted 
 with the existence of a fort so far in their country, they put 
 in practice those arts which enable them, so successfully to 
 annoy their enemies. 
 
 Early in January, a considerable body of savages ap- 
 proached Fort Laurens unperceived and before the garri- 
 son was apprised that an Indian knew of its erection. 1 In 
 the course of the night they succeeded in catching the 
 horses outside of the fort; and taking off their bells, car- 
 ried them into the woods, some distance off. They then 
 concealed themselves in the prairie grass, along a path 
 leading from the fort, and in the morning commenced 
 rattling the bells, at the farther extremity of the line of 
 ambushment, so as to induce the belief that the horses was 
 there to be found. The stratagem succeeded. Sixteen 
 men were sent out to bring in the horses. Allured by the 
 sound of the bells, they kept the path, along which the 
 Indians lay concealed, until they found themselves unex- 
 pectedly in the presence of an enemy, who opened upon 
 them a destructive fire from front and rear. Fourteen 
 were killed on the spot, and the remaining two were taken 
 prisoners. 
 
 1 Simon Girty and seventeen Indians, mostly Mingoes. Withers 
 confounds this raid with the more formidable siege in February and 
 March. In the January assault, Girty's band ambushed Capt. John 
 Clark, a sergeant, and fourteen men, returning to Fort Pitt from con- 
 voying provisions to Fort Laurens. Two whites were killed, four 
 wounded, and one taken prisoner. In February, came an attacking 
 party of a hundred and twenty Indians (mostly Wyandots and Min- 
 goes), led by Capt. Henry Bird, of the Eighth (or King's) Regiment; 
 with him were Simon Girty and ten soldiers. The enemy arrived Feb- 
 ruary 22, but remained in hiding. The next day Gibson sent out a 
 guard of eighteen men, despite warnings of the enemy's presence, to 
 assist the wagoner in collecting the horses of the fort. All the party 
 were killed and scalped, within sight of the fort, save two, who were 
 made prisoners. The fort was then openly invested until March L'O, 
 when the besiegers withdrew, torn with dissensions and short of sup- 
 plies. See Butterfield's Washington- Irvine Correspondence for further de- 
 tails. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 263 
 
 On the evening of the day on which this unfortunate 
 surprise took place, the Indian arm}", consisting of eight 
 hundred and forty-seven warriors, painted and equipped 
 for war, marched in single file through a prairie near the 
 fort and in full view of the garrison, and encamped on an 
 adjacent elevation on the opposite side of the river. From 
 this situation, frequent conversations were held by them 
 with the whites, in which they deprecated the longer con- 
 tinuance of hostilities, but yet protested against the en- 
 croachment made upon their territory by the whites, the 
 erection of a fort and the garrisoning soldiers within their 
 country, not only unpermitted by them, but for some time 
 before they knew anything of it. For these infringements 
 on their rights, they were determined on prosecuting the 
 war, and continued the investure of the fort, for six weeks. 
 In this time they became straitened for provisions, and 
 aware that without a fresh supply of them, they would be 
 forced to abandon the siege, they sent word to the com- 
 mander of the garrison, by a Delaware [192] Indian, calling 
 himself John Thompson, (who, though with the whites in 
 the fort, was permitted by both parties to go in and out, as 
 he choose) that they were desirous of peace, and were willing 
 to enter into a negotiation, if he would send them a bar- 
 rel of flour and some tobacco. Scarce as these articles had 
 actually become in the garrison, yet Col. Gibson complied 
 with their request, hoping that they might be induced to 
 make peace, or withdraw from the fort, and hopeless of 
 timely succours from the settlements. Upon the receipt of 
 those presents, the Indians raised the siege and marched 
 their army off, much to the relief of the garrison, although 
 they did not fulfil their promise of entering into a treaty. 
 
 During the time the Indians remained about the fort, 
 there was much sickness in the garrison ; and when they 
 were believed to have retired, the commandant detached 
 Col. Clarke, of the Pennsylvania line, 1 with a party of 
 fifteen men, to escort the invalids to Fort Mclutosh. They 
 proceeded but a small distance from the gate, where they 
 
 1 Not to be confounded with George Rogers Clark, of Kentucky. 
 R. G. T.
 
 264 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 were attacked by some Indians, who had been left con- 
 cealed near the fort, for the purpose of effecting farther 
 mischief. A skirmish ensued ; but overpowered by num- 
 bers and much galled by the first fire, Col. Clarke could 
 not maintain the conflict. With much difficulty, he and 
 three others reached the fort in safety: the rest of the 
 party were all killed. 
 
 Col. Gibson immediately marched out at the head of 
 the greater part of the garrison, but the Indians had re- 
 treated as soon as they succeeded in cutting off the de- 
 tachment under Col. Clarke, and prudence forbade to pro- 
 ceed in pursuit of them, as the main army was believed to 
 be yet in the neighborhood. The dead were however 
 brought in, and buried with the honors of war, in front of 
 the fort gate. 
 
 In a few days after this, Gen. Mclntosh arrived with 
 a considerable body of troops and a supply of provisions 
 for the garrison. "While the savages were continuing the 
 siege, a friendly Indian, had been despatched by Col. Gib- 
 son to acquaint Gen. Mclntosh with the situation at Fort 
 Laurens, and that without the speedy arrival of a rein- 
 forcement of men and an accession to their stock of pro- 
 visions, the garrison would have to surrender; or seek a 
 doubtful safety, by evacuating the fort and endeavoring to 
 regain the Ohio river, in the presence of an overwhelming 
 body of the enemy. With great promptitude the settlers 
 flocked to the standard of Gen. Mclntosh, and loading 
 pack horses, with abundance of provisions for the supply 
 of the garrison at Fort Laurens, commenced a rapid march 
 to their relief. Before their arrival, they had been re- 
 lieved from the most pressing danger, by the withdrawal 
 of the Indian army ; and were only suffering from the 
 want of flour and meat. A manifestation of the great joy 
 felt upon the arrival of Gen. Mclntosh, had well nigh de- 
 prived them of the benefit to be derived from the pro- 
 visions brought for them. "When the relief army ap- 
 proached the fort, a salute was fired by the garrison, 
 which, alarming the pack horses, caused them [193] to 
 break loose and scatter the greater part of the flour in
 
 
 Of Border Warfare. 265 
 
 every direction through the woods, so that it was impos- 
 sible to be again collected. 
 
 The remains of those, who had unfortunately fallen 
 into the ambuscade in January, and which had lain out 
 until then, were gathered together and buried; 1 and a 
 fresh detachment, under Major Vernon, being left to gar- 
 rison the fort, in the room of that which had been sta- 
 tioned there during winter, Gen. Mclntosh, withdrew from 
 the country and returned to Fort Mclntosh. In the ensu- 
 ing fall, Fort Laurens was entirely evacuated ; the garrison 
 having been almost reduced to starvation, and it being 
 found very difficult to supply them with provisions at so 
 great a distance from the settlements and in the heart of 
 the Indian country. 
 
 During the year 1778, Kentucky was the theatre of 
 many outrages. In January, a party of thirty men, among 
 whom was Daniel Booue, repaired to the " Lower Blue 
 Licks " for the purpose of making salt ; and on the 7th of 
 February, while Boone was alone in the woods, on a hunt 
 to supply the salt makers with meat, he was encountered 
 by a party of one hundred and two Indians and two Can- 
 adians, and made prisoner. The savages advanced to the 
 Licks, and made prisoners of twenty-seven of those en- 
 gaged in making salt. 2 Their object in this incursion, was 
 
 [193] l The bodies of these men were found to have been much de- 
 voured by the wolves, and bearing the appearance of having been 
 recently torn by them. With a view of taking revenge on these animals 
 for devouring their companions, the fatigue party sent to bury their re- 
 mains, after digging a grave sufficiently capacious to contain all, and 
 having deposited them in it, they covered the pit with slender sticks, 
 bark and rotten wood, too weak to bear the weight of a wolf, and placed 
 a piece of meat on the top and near the center of this covering, as a bait. 
 In the morning seven wolves were found in the pit, and killed and the 
 grave then filled up. 
 
 J Boone had left Boonesborough January 8, in charge of thirty men, 
 to make salt at the Lower Blue Licks, on Licking River. They carried 
 with them, on horses, several large boiling pans, given to the settlement 
 by the government of Virginia. So weak was the water there, that 840 
 gallons were necessary to make a bushel of salt, against ninety at the 
 Kanawha salines, and forty at Onondaga. While the salt-makers were 
 at work, two or three others of the party served as scouts and hunters; 
 generally, Boone was one of these. This day (Saturday, February 7) 
 Boone started out alone with his pack-horse for a supply of game, which
 
 266 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 the destruction of Boonesborough ; and had they con- 
 tinued their march thither, there is no doubt but that 
 place, weakened as it was by the loss of so many of its 
 men and not expecting an attack at that inclement season, 
 would have fallen into their hands; but elated with their 
 success, the Indians marched directly back with their 
 prisoners to Chillicothe. The extreme suffering of the 
 
 usually was plenty in the neighborhood of the salt licks ; Thomas 
 Brooks and Flanders Callaway, his fellow scouts, were taking another 
 circuit. Having killed a buffalo, Boone was on his way home in the 
 afternoon, with the choicest of the meat packed upon his horse. Snow 
 was falling fast, and he was ten miles from camp, when discovered by 
 four Indians, outlying members of a large party of Shawnees under 
 Munseka and Black Fish, who had taken the war-path to avenge the mur- 
 der of Cornstalk (see p. 172, note. 2). Benumbed by cold, and unabK* 
 easily to untie or cut the frozen thongs which bound on the pack, Boone 
 could not unload and mount the horse, and after a sharp skirmish 
 was captured, and led to the main Indian encampment, a few miles 
 away. Boone induced his fellow salt-makers to surrender peaceably the 
 following day (February 8); the number of prisoners was, including 
 Boone, twenty-seven two scouts and two salt-packers being absent. 
 After a ten days' "uncomfortable journey, in very severe weather," 
 says Boone, in which they " received as good treatment as prisoners 
 could expect from savages," the party arrived at Little Chillicothe, on 
 Little Miami so called in contradistinction to Old Chillicothe, on the 
 Scioto. Boone's strong, compact build caused the Indians to call him 
 Big Turtle, and under that name he was adopted as the son of Black 
 Fish, who took a fancy to him ; sixteen of his companions were also 
 adopted by other warriors. The ten who were not adopted were, with 
 Boone, taken on a trip to Detroit (starting March 10), guarded by forty 
 Indians under Black Fish. The ten were sold to Lieut. Governor Ham- 
 ilton and citizens of Detroit, for 20 each, the usual price for American 
 prisoners. Boone remained in Detroit until April 10, during which he 
 was treated with great courtesy by Hamilton, who offered Black Fish 
 100 for him, but the latter declined and took the great pioneer home 
 with him ; but Boone himself was given by Hamilton a horse and trap- 
 pings, with silver trinkets to give to the Indians. At Little Chillicothe, 
 Boone was kindly treated by Black Fish, and little by little hfs liberty 
 was extended. June 16, while the family were making salt on the 
 Scioto, preparatory to another expedition against Boonesborough, Boone 
 escaped on the horse given him by Hamilton. After many curious 
 adventures, in the course of which he swam the Ohio, he safely reached 
 Boonesborough, June 20, having traveled, he estimated, a hundred and 
 sixty miles in four days. Boone's wife and family, supposing him dead, 
 had returned to their old home in North Carolina, but Boone himself 
 remained to assist in the defense of Boonesborough against the impend- 
 ing attack, of which he had brought intelligence. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 267 
 
 prisoners, during this march, inspired the savages with 
 pity, and induced them to exercise an unusual lenity 
 towards their captives. In March, Boone was carried to 
 Detroit, where the Indians refused to liberate him, though 
 an hundred pounds were offered for his ransom, and from 
 which place he accompanied them back to Chillicothe in 
 the latter part of April. In the first of June, he went with 
 them to the Scioto salt springs, and on his return found 
 one hundred and fifty choice warriors of the Shawanee 
 nation, painting, arming, and otherwise equipping them- 
 selves to proceed again to the attack of Boonesborough. 
 
 [194] Hitherto Boone had enjoyed as much satisfac- 
 tion, as was consistent with his situation, and more than 
 would have been experienced by the most of men, in 
 captivity to the Indians ; but when he found such great 
 preparations making for an attack on the place which 
 contained all that he held most dear, his love of family, 
 his attachment to the village reared under his superin- 
 tending hand, and to its inhabitants protected by his fos- 
 tering care, determined him to attempt an immediate 
 escape. Early on the morning of the 16th of June, he 
 went forth as usual to hunt. He had secreted as much 
 food as would serve him for one meal, and with this 
 scanty supply, he resolved on finding his way home. On 
 the 20th, having travelled a distance of one hundred and 
 sixty miles, crossed the Ohio and other rivers, and with 
 no sustenance, save what he had taken with him from 
 Chillicothe, he arrived at Boonesborough. The fort was 
 quickly repaired, and every preparation made to enable it 
 to withstand a siege. 
 
 In a few days after, another, of those who had been 
 taken prisoners at the Blue Licks, escaped, and brought 
 intelligence that in consequence of the flight of Boone, 
 the Indians had agreed to postpone their meditated irrup- 
 tion, for three weeks. 1 This intelligence determined Boone 
 
 1 This was William Hancock, who had, like Boone, been adopted 
 into an Indian family. Not so expert a woodsman as Boone, he had 
 consumed twelve days in the journey from Chillicothe to Boonesbor- 
 ough, and suffered great hardships. He arrived at the fort July 17. In 
 consequence of Boone's escape, he reported, the Indians had postponed
 
 268 Withers 's Chronicles 
 
 to invade the Indian country, and at the head of only ten 
 men he went forth on an expedition against Paint creek 
 town. Near to this place, he met with a party of Indians 
 going to join the main array, then on its march to Boones- 
 borough, whom he attacked and dispersed without sus- 
 taining any loss on his part. The enemy had one killed 
 and two severely wounded in this skirmish ; and lost their 
 horses and baggage. On their return, they passed the In- 
 dian army on the 6th of August, and on the next day 
 entered Boonesborough. 1 
 
 On the 8th of August, the Indian army, consisting of 
 four hundred and fifty men, and commanded by Capt. Du 
 Quesne, eleven other Frenchmen, and their own chiefs, 
 appeared before the Fort and demanded its surrender. 2 
 In order to gain time, Boone requested two days' consid- 
 eration, and at the expiration of that period, returned for 
 answer, that the garrison had resolved on defending it, 
 while one individual remained alive within its walls. 
 
 Capt. Du Quesne then made known, that he was 
 charged by Gov. Hamilton, to make prisoners of the gar- 
 
 their intended attack for three weeks. The next day (July 18), Boone 
 wrote to Arthur Campbell, lieutenant of Washington County, Va. (the 
 Holston settlements, 200 miles away), that he expected the enemy in 
 twelve days, and that the fort was prepared for a siege of three or four 
 weeks ; but relief would then be of infinite service. R. G. T. 
 
 1 At the close of six weeks after Hancock's arrival, Boone had be- 
 come weary of waiting for the enemy, hence his expedition with nine- 
 teen men not ten, as in the text against the Shawnee town on Paint 
 Creek, during the last week of August. It was the 5th of September 
 when, undiscovered, he passed the Indian force encamped at Lower 
 Blue Licks, and the next day arrived at Boonesborough. R. G. T. 
 
 2 About 10 A. M. of Monday, September 7, Withers places it a 
 month, less a day, too early, the hostiles crossed the Kentucky a mile 
 and a half above Boonesborough, at a point since known as Black Fish's 
 Ford, and soon made their appearance marching single file, some of them 
 mounted, along the ridge south of the fort. They numbered about 400, 
 and displayed English and French flags. The strength of the force has 
 been variously estimated, from 330 Indians and 8 Frenchmen (Col. John 
 Bowman), to 444 Indians and 12 Frenchmen (Boone's Narrative, by 
 Filson). The English Indian department was represented' by Capt. 
 Isidore Chene, who had with him several other French-Canadians; 
 there was also a negro named Pompey, who had long lived with the In- 
 dians, and served them as interpreter ; the principal chiefs were, Black 
 Fish, Moluntha, Black Hoof, and Black Beard. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 269 
 
 rison, but not to treat them harshly ; and that if nine of 
 their principal men would come out, and negotiate a 
 treaty, based on a renunciation of allegiance to the United 
 States, and on a renewal of their fealty to the king, the 
 Indian army should be instantly withdrawn. Boone did 
 not confide in the sincerity of the Frenchman, but he de- 
 termined to gain the advantage of farther preparation for 
 resistance, by delaying the attack. He consented to nego- 
 tiate on the terms proposed ; but suspecting treachery, in- 
 sisted that the conference should be held near the fort 
 walls. The garrison were on the alert, while the negoti- 
 ation continued, and did not fail to remark that many of 
 the Indians, not [195] concerned in making the treaty, 
 were stalking about, under very suspicious circumstances. 
 The terms on which the savage army was to retire were at 
 length agreed upon, and the articles signed, when the 
 whites were told that it was an Indian custom, in ratifi- 
 cation of compacts, that two of their chiefs should shake 
 hands with one white man. Boone and his associates, 
 consenting to conform to this custom, not without suspi- 
 cion of a sinister design, were endeavored to be dragged 
 off as prisoners by the savages; but strong and active, 
 they bounded from their grasp, and entered the gate, amid 
 a heavy shower of balls one only of the nine, was slightly 
 wounded. The Indians then commenced a furious assault 
 on the fort, but were repulsed with some loss on their 
 part; and every renewed attempt to carry it by storm, 
 was in like manner, frustrated by the intrepidity and gal- 
 lantry of its inmates. 1 
 
 Disappointed in their expectation of succeeding in 
 this way, the savages next attempted to undermine the 
 fort, commencing at the water mark of the Kentucky 
 river, only sixty yards from the walls. This course was 
 no doubt dictated to them by their French commanders, 
 as they are ignorant of the practice of war, farther than 
 
 'The garrison numbered, old and young, white and black, sixty 
 persons capable of bearing arms ; only forty, however, were really ef- 
 fective. Women and children, dressed and armed as men, frequently ap- 
 peared upon the walls, to give an appearance of greater strength. 
 R. G. T.
 
 270 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 depends on the use of the gun, and tomahawk, and th 
 exercise of stratagem and cunning. The vigilance of the 
 besieged however, soon led to a discovery of the attempt 
 the water below, was colored by the clay thrown out 
 from the excavation, while above it retained its usual 
 transparency ; and here again they were foiled by the act- 
 ive exertion of the garrison. A countermine was begun 
 by them, the earth from which being thrown over the 
 wall, manifested the nature of their operations, and led 
 the enemy to raise the siege, and retire from the country. 1 
 
 In the various assaults made on the fort by this sav- 
 age army, two only, of the garrison, were killed, and four 
 wounded. The loss of the enemy, as usual, could not be 
 properly ascertained : thirty-seven were left dead on the 
 field, and many, were no doubt wounded. 2 
 
 So signally was the savage army repulsed, in their re- 
 peated attacks on Boonesborough, that they never after- 
 wards made any great effort to effect its reduction. The 
 heroism and intrepidity of Boone and his assistants ren- 
 dered it impregnable to their combined exertions to de- 
 molish it ; while the vigilance and caution of the inhabit- 
 ants, convinced them, that it would be fruitless and una- 
 vailing to devise plans for gaining admission into the fort, 
 by stratagem or wile. Still however, they kept up a wai of 
 ravage and murder, against such as were unfortunately 
 found defenceless and unprotected ; and levelled combined 
 operations against other and weaker positions. 
 
 [196] The success of the expedition under Col. Clarke, 
 though productive of many and great advantages to the 
 
 'This ruse of the Indians was discovered on Friday, the llth. The 
 garrison commenced its countermine immediately, and prosecuted the 
 work for several days. The rival parties could hear each other at work 
 underground. When the Indians had proceeded about forty yards, 
 two-thirds of the distance from the river bank, successive rainstorms 
 had so saturated the earth that sections of their tunnel caved in, and 
 this it was that frustrated their scheme. R. G. T. 
 
 [195] 2 When the Indians retired from before Boonesboro, one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five pounds weight of bullets were picked up by the 
 garrison, besides many that stuck in the logs of the fort. A conclu- 
 sive proof that the Indians were not idle, during the continuance of 
 the siege.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 271 
 
 frontier inhabitants, did not achieve for them, an unmo- 
 lested security. Their property was still liable to plunder, 
 and families newly arrived among them, to be murdered 
 or taken prisoners. Combined efforts were required, to 
 put a period to savage aggression ; and a meeting of the 
 settlers was held at Harrodsburg, to concert measures to 
 effect that object. Their consultation resulted in a deter- 
 mination, to carry the war into the enemy's country ; and 
 as the Shawanees had been most efficient in waging hos- 
 tilities, it was resolved to commence operations, against 
 their most considerable town. Two hundred volunteers 
 were accordingly raised, and when rendezvoused at Har- 
 rodsburg, were placed under the command of Col. Bow- 
 man, and proceeded against Chillicothe. 1 
 
 The expedition thus fitted out, arrived, by forced 
 marches, near to Chillicothe in the evening towards the 
 latter end of July, 1779 ; and on deliberation, it was agreed 
 to defer the attack 'till next morning. Before dawn the 
 army was drawn up and arranged in order of battle. The 
 right wing led on by Col. Bowman, was to assume a posi- 
 
 1 John Bowman, of Harrodsburgh, was lieutenant of Kentucky 
 County, and colonel of its militia. During the spring of 1779, there 
 was a general desire to raid the unsuspecting Sbawnees, in retaliation 
 for their invasions of Kentucky, and Bowman decided to command in 
 person this " first regular enterprise to attack, in force, the Indians be- 
 yond the Ohio, ever planned in Kentucky." The company of volun- 
 teers of the interior rendezvoused in May at Harrodsburgh, and under 
 Capts. Benjamin Logan and Silas Harlan marched to Lexington, where 
 they met the Boonesborough company under Capt. John Holder, and 
 another party under Capt. Levi Todd. At the mouth of the Licking 
 (site of Covington, Ky.), the general rendezvous agreed on, they found 
 a company from the Falls of the Ohio (site of Louisville), under Capt. 
 William Harrod. Also in the little army, which finally mustered 297 
 men, including officers, were frontiersmen from Redstone Old Fort, and 
 other settlements in the valleys of the Ohio and Monongahela. The 
 Redstone men were on their way home, when they heard of the expe- 
 dition, and joined it at the Licking; they had been on a visit to Big 
 Bone Lick, and had a canoe-load of relics therefrom, which they were 
 transporting up river. The force crossed the Ohio, May 28, just below the 
 mouth of the Licking ; 32 men remained behind in charge of the boats, 
 leaving 265 to set out for the Shawnee town of Little Chillicothe, on the 
 Little Miami, distant about sixty-five miles northeast. George Clark 
 and William Whitley were pilots, and George M. Bedinger adjutant and 
 quartermaster. R. G. T.
 
 272 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 tion on one side of the town, and the left, under Capt. 
 Logan, was to occupy the ground on the opposite side; 
 and at a given signal, both were to develope to the right 
 and left, so as to encircle and attack it in concert. 1 The 
 party, led on by Logan, repaired to the point assigned, and 
 was waiting in anxious, but vain expectation for the sig- 
 nal of attack to be given, when the attention of the Indians 
 was directed towards him by the barking of their dogs. 
 At this instant a gun was discharged by one of Bowman's 
 men, and the whole village alarmed. The squaws and 
 children were hurried into the woods, along a path not 
 yet occupied by the assailants, and the warriors collected 
 in a strong cabin. 2 Logan, being near enough to perceive 
 every movement of the enemy, ordered his men quietly to 
 occupy the deserted huts, as a momentary shelter from the 
 Indian fires, until Col. Bowman should march forward. 
 It was now light ; and the savages began a regular dis- 
 charge of shot at his men, as they advanced to the deserted 
 cabins. This determined him to move directly to the at- 
 tack of the cabin, in which the warriors were assembled ; 
 and ordering his men to tear off the doors and hold them 
 in front, as a shield, while advancing to the assault, he was 
 already marching on the foe, when he was overtaken by an 
 order from Col. Bowman, to retreat. 
 
 Confounded by this command, Capt. Logan was for a 
 time reluctant to obey it ; a retreat was however, directed ; 
 and each individual, sensible of his great exposure while 
 retiring from the towns, sought to escape from danger, in 
 the manner directed by his own judgment ; and fled to the 
 woods at his utmost speed. There they rallied, and resumed 
 
 1 Without having seen an Indian, the expedition arrived in eight of 
 Little Chillicothe, at dusk of May 29 Withers places the date two 
 months ahead of the actual time. Capt. Logan had charge of the left 
 wing, Harrod of the right, and Holder of the center. The white force 
 now numbered 263 two men having returned to the boats, disabled ; 
 the Indians numbered about 100 warriors and 200 squaws and children. 
 Black Fish was the principal village chief, and subordinate to him were 
 Black Hoof and Black Beard. R. G. T. 
 
 1 This was the council house, which was so stoutly defended that 
 the white assailants were glad to take refuge in a neighboring hut, from 
 which they escaped with difficulty. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 273 
 
 more of order, though still too much terrified to stand a 
 contest, when the Indians sallied out to give battle. In- 
 timidated by the apprehension of danger, which they had 
 not seen, [197] but supposed to be great from the retreat- 
 ing order of Col. Bowman, they continued to fly before 
 the savages, led on by their chief, the Black Fish. At 
 length they were brought to a halt, and opened a brisk, 
 though inefficient fire, upon their pursuers. Protected by 
 bushes, the Indians maintained their ground, 'till Capts. 
 Logan and Harrod, with some of the men under their 
 immediate command, mounted on pack horses, charged 
 them with great spirit, and dislodged them from their 
 covert. Exposed in turn to the fire of the whites, and see- 
 ing their chief fall, the savages took to flight, and Col. 
 Bowman continued his retreat homeward, free from farther 
 interruption. 1 
 
 In this illy conducted expedition, Col. Bowman had 
 nine of his men killed and one wounded. The Indian loss 
 was no doubt less: only two or three were known to be 
 killed. Had the commanding officer, instead of ordering 
 a retreat when Logan's men were rushing bravely to the 
 conflict, marched with the right wing of the army to their 
 aid, far different would have been the result. The enemy, 
 only thirty strong, could not long have held out, against 
 
 1 The chief cause of alarm, and the consequent disorder, was a false 
 report started among the whites, that Simon Girty and a hundred Shaw- 
 nees from the Indian village of Piqua, twelve miles distant, were march- 
 ing to the relief of Black Fish. Order was soon restored, and when, 
 fourteen miles out upon the homeward trail, Indians were discovered 
 upon their rear, the enemy were met with vigor, and thereafter the re- 
 treat was unhampered. The force reached the Ohio, just ahove the 
 mouth of the Little Miami, early on June 1. The "pack-horses " alluded 
 to by Withers, were 163 Indian ponies captured in the Chillicothe 
 woods ; the other plunder was considerable, being chiefly silver orna- 
 ments and clothing. After crossing the Ohio in boats the horses swim- 
 ming there was an auction of the booty, which was appraised at 
 32,000, continental money, each man getting goods or horses to the value 
 of about 110. The Indian loss was five killed at the town, and many 
 wounded; the whites had seven men killed. Little Chillicothe had 
 been for the most part destroyed by fire, and its crops destroyed. The 
 newspapers of the day regarded the expedition as an undoubted suc- 
 cess. E. G. T. 
 18
 
 274 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 the bravery and impetuosity of two hundred backwoods- 
 men, stimulated to exertion by repeated suffering, and 
 nerved by the reflection, that they were requiting it upon 
 its principal authors, Col. Bowman doubtless believed 
 that he was pursuing a proper course. The gallantry and 
 intrepidity, displayed by him on many occasions, forbid 
 the supposition that he was under the influence of any un- 
 military feeling, and prompted to that course by a disposi- 
 tion to shrink from ordinary dangers. His motives were 
 certainly pure, and his subsequent exertions to rally his 
 men and bring them to face the foe, were as great as could 
 have been made by any one ; but disheartened by the fear 
 of unreal danger, and in the trepidation of a flight, deemed 
 to be absolutely necessary for their safety, they could not 
 be readily brought to bear the brunt of battle. The efforts 
 of a few cool and collected individuals, drove back the 
 pursuers, and thus prevented an harrassed retreat. 
 
 Notwithstanding the frequent irruptions of the In- 
 dians, and the constant exposure of the settlers to suffer- 
 ing and danger, Kentucky increased rapidly in population. 
 From the influx of emigrants during the fall and winter 
 months, the number of its inhabitants were annually 
 doubled for some years; and new establishments were 
 made in various parts of the country. In April 1779, a 
 block house was erected on the present site of Lexington, 1 
 and several stations were selected in its vicinity, and in the 
 neighborhood of the present town of Danville. Settle- 
 ments were also made, in that year, on the waters of Bear 
 Grass, Green and Licking rivers, and parts of the country 
 began to be distinguished by their interior and frontier 
 situation. 
 
 1 George W. Ranck : "April 1. Robert Patterson, at the head of 
 twenty-five men, commenced a block house where Lexington now 
 stands. " R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 275 
 
 [198] CHAPTER XII. 
 
 In North Western Virginia, the frequent inroads of 
 small parties of savages in 1778, led to greater prepara- 
 tions for security, from renewed hostilities after the winter 
 should have passed away ; and many settlements received 
 a considerable accession to their strength, from the num- 
 ber of persons emigrating to them. In some neighbor- 
 hoods, the sufferings of the preceding season and the 
 inability of the inhabitants, from the paucity of their 
 numbers, to protect themselves from invasion, led to a 
 total abandonment of their homes. The settlement on 
 Hacker's creek was entirely broken up in the spring of 
 1779, some of its inhabitants forsaking the country and 
 retiring east of the mountains ; while the others went to 
 the fort on Buchannon, and to Nutter's fort, near Clarks- 
 burg, to aid in resisting the foe and in maintaining pos- 
 session of the country. When the campaign of that year 
 opened, the whole frontier was better prepared to protect 
 itself from invasion and to shield its occupants from the 
 wrath of the savage enemy, than it had ever been, since it 
 became the abode of white men. There were forts in 
 every settlement, into which the people could retire when 
 danger threatened, and which were capable of withstand- 
 ing the assaults of savages, however furious they might 
 be, if having to depend for success, on the use of small 
 arms only. It was fortunate for the country, that this was 
 their dependence. A few well directed shots even from 
 small cannon, would have demolished [199] their strong- 
 est fortress, and left them no hope from death, but cap- 
 tivity. 
 
 In the neighborhood of Pricket's fort, the inhabitants 
 were early alarmed, by circumstances which induced a be- 
 lief that the Indians were near, and they accordingly en- 
 tered that garrison. It was soon evident that their fears 
 were groundless, but as the season was fast approaching, 
 when the savages might be expected to commence depre-
 
 276 Wit hers 1 s Chronicles 
 
 dations, they determined on remaining in the fort, of a 
 night, and yet prosecute the business of their farms as 
 usual during the day. Among those who were at this 
 time in the fort, was David Morgan, (a relation of General 
 Daniel Morgan,) then upwards of sixty years of age. 
 Early in April, being himself unwell, he sent his two 
 children Stephen, a youth of sixteen, and Sarah, a girl 
 of fourteen to feed the cattle at his farm, about a mile 
 off.' The children, thinking to remain all day and spend 
 the time in preparing ground for water melons, unknown 
 to their father took with them some bread and meat. 
 Having fed the stock, Stephen set himself to work, and 
 while he was engaged in grubbing, his sister would re- 
 move the brush, and otherwise aid him in the labor of 
 clearing the ground; occasionally going to the house to 
 wet some linen which she had spread out to bleach. Mor- 
 gan, after the children had been gone some time, betook 
 himself to bed, and soon falling asleep, dreamed that he 
 saw Stephen and Sarah walking about the fort yard, 
 scalped. Aroused from slumber by the harrowing specta- 
 cle presented to his sleeping view, he enquired if the 
 children had returned, and upon learning they had not, he 
 set out to see what detained them, taking with him his 
 gun. As he approached the house, still impressed with 
 the horrible fear that he should find his dream realized, he 
 ascended an eminence, from which he could distinctly see 
 over his plantation, and descrying from thence the objects 
 of his anxious solicitude, he proceeded directly to them, 
 and seated himself on an. old log, near at hand. He had 
 been here but a few minutes, before he saw two Indians 
 come out from the house and make toward the children. 
 Fearing to alarm them too much, and thus deprive 
 them of the powe"r of exerting themselves ably to make 
 an escape, he apprized them in a careless manner, of 
 their danger, and told them to run towards the fort him- 
 self still maintaining his seat on the log. The Indians 
 then raised a hideous yell and ran in pursuit ; but the old 
 [200] gentleman shewing himself at that instant, caused 
 them to forbear the chase, and shelter themselves behind 
 trees. He then endeavored to effect an escape, l>y flight,
 
 Of Border Warfare. 'Ill 
 
 and the Indians followed after him. Age and consequent 
 infirmity, rendered him unable long to continue out of 
 their reach ; and aware that they were gaining considera- 
 bly on him, he wheeled to shoot. Both instantly sprang 
 behind trees, and Morgan seeking shelter in the same 
 manner, got behind a sugar, which was so small as to 
 leave part of his body exposed. Looking round, he saw a 
 large oak about twenty yards farther, and he made to it. 
 Just as he reached it, the foremost Indian sought security 
 behind the sugar sapling, which he had found insufficient 
 for his protection. The Indian, sensible that it would not 
 shelter him, threw himself down by the side of a log 
 which lay at the root of the sapling. But this did not af- 
 ford him sufficient cover, and Morgan, seeing him exposed 
 to a shot, fired at him. The ball took effect, and the sav- 
 age, rolling over on his back, stabbed himself twice in the 
 breast. 
 
 Having thus succeeded in killing one of his pursuers, 
 Morgan again took to flight, and the remaining Indian 
 after him. It was now that trees could afford him no 
 security His gun was unloaded, and his pursuer could 
 approach him safely. The unequal race was continued 
 about sixty yards, when looking over his shoulder, he saw 
 the savage within a few paces of him, and with his gun 
 raised. Morgan sprang to one side, and the ball whizzed 
 harmlessly by him. The odds was now not great, and 
 both advanced to closer combat, sensible of the prize for 
 which they had to contend, and each determined, to deal 
 death to his adversary. Morgan aimed a blow with his 
 gun ; but the Indian hurled a tomahawk at him, which 
 cutting the little finger of his left hand entirely off, and 
 injuring the one next it very much, knocked the gun out 
 of his grasp, and they closed. Being a good wrestler, 
 Morgan succeeded in throwing the Indian; but soon found 
 himself overturned, and the savage upon him,lfeeling for 
 his knife and sending forth a most horrifick yell, as is their 
 custom when they consider victory as secure. A woman's 
 apron, which he had taken from the house and fastened 
 round him above his knife, so hindered him in getting at 
 it quickly, that Morgan, getting one of his fingers in his
 
 278 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 mouth, deprived him of the use of that hand, and discon- 
 certed him very much by continuing to grind it between 
 his teeth. At length the [201] Indian got hold of his 
 knife, but so far towards the blade, that Morgan too got a 
 small hold on the extremity of the handle; and as the In- 
 dian drew it from the scabbard, Morgan, biting his finger 
 with all his might, and thus causing him somewhat to re- 
 lax his grasp, drew it through his hand, gashing it most 
 severely. 
 
 By this time both had gained their feet, and the In- 
 dian, sensible of the great advantage gained over him, 
 endeavored to disengage himself; but Morgan held fast to 
 the finger, until he succeeded in giving him a fatal stab, 
 and felt the almost lifeless body sinking in his arms. He 
 then loosened his hold and departed for the fort. 
 
 On his way he met with his daughter, who not being 
 able to keep pace with her brother, had followed his foot- 
 steps to the river bank where he had plunged in, and was 
 then making her way to the canoe. Assured thus far of 
 the safety of his children, he accompanied his daughter to 
 the fort, and then, in company with a party of the men, 
 returned to his farm, to see if there were any appearance 
 of other Indians being about there. On arriving at the 
 spot where the desperate struggle had been, the wounded 
 Indian was not to be seen ; but trailing him by the blood 
 which flowed profusely from his side, they found him con- 
 cealed in the branches of a fallen tree. He had taken the 
 knife from his body, bound up the wound with the apron, 
 and on their approaching him, accosted them familiarly, 
 with the salutation " How do do broder, how do broder." 
 Alas ! poor fellow ! their brotherhood extended no farther 
 than to the gratification of a vengeful feeling. He was 
 tomahawked and scalped; and, as if this would not fill 
 the measure of their vindictive passions, both he and his 
 companion were flayed, their skins tanned and converted 
 into saddle seats, shot pouches and belts A striking in- 
 stance of the barbarities, which a revengeful spirit will 
 lead its possessors to perpetrate. 1 
 
 1 L. V. McWhorter, of Berlin, W. Va., writes me: "A few years 
 ago, the descendants of David Morgan erected a monument on the spot
 
 Of Border Warfare. 279 
 
 The alarm which had caused the people in the neigh- 
 borhood of Pricket's fort, to move into it for safety, in- 
 duced two or three families on Dunkard creek to collect at 
 the house of Mr. Bozarth, thinking they would be more 
 exempt from danger when together, than if remaining at 
 their several homes. About the first of April, when only 
 Mr. Bozarth and two men were in the house, the children, 
 who had been out at play, came running into the yard, ex- 
 claiming that there were [202] " ugly red men coming" 
 Upon hearing this, one of the two men in the house, going 
 to the door to see if Indians really were approaching, re- 
 ceived a glancing shot on his breast, which caused him to 
 fall back. The Indian who had shot him, sprang in imme- 
 diately after, and grappling with the other white man, was 
 quickly thrown on the bed. His antagonist having no 
 weapon with which to do him any injury called to Mrs. 
 Bozarth for a knife. Not finding one at hand, she siezed 
 an axe, and at one blow, let out the brains of the prostrate 
 savage. At that instant a second Indian entering the 
 door, shot dead the man engaged with his companion on 
 the bed. Mrs. Bozarth turned on him, and with a well 
 directed blow, let out his entrails and caused him to bawl 
 out for help. Upon this, others of his party, who had 
 been engaged with the children in the yard, came to his 
 relief. The first who thrust his head in at the door, had 
 it cleft by the axe of Mrs. Bozarth and fell lifeless on the 
 ground. Another, catching hold of his wounded, bawling 
 companion, drew him out of the house, when Mrs. Bozarth, 
 with the aid of the white man who had been first shot and 
 was then somewhat recovered, succeeded in closing and 
 making fast the door. The children in the yard were all 
 killed, but the heroism and exertions of Mrs. Bozarth and 
 the wounded white man, enabled them to resist the re- 
 
 where fell one of the Indians. On the day of the unveiling of the 
 monument, there was on exhibition at the spot, a shot-pouch and sad- 
 dle skirt made from the skins of the Indians. Greenwood S. Morgan, a 
 great-grandson of the Indian slayer, informs me that the shot-pouch is 
 now in the possession of a distant relative, living in Wetzel County, W. 
 Va. The knife with which the Indian was killed, is owned by Morgan's 
 descendants in Marion County, W. Va." R. G. T.
 
 280 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 peated attempts of the Indians, to force open the door, 
 and to maintain possession of the house, until they were 
 relieved by a party from the neighboring settlement. 
 The time occupied in this bloody affair, from the first 
 alarm by the children to the shutting of the door, did not 
 exceed three minutes. And in this brief space, Mrs. Bo- 
 zarth, with infinite self possession, coolness and intrepidity, 
 succeeded in killing three Indians. 
 
 On the eleventh of the same month, five Indians came 
 to a house on Snowy creek, (in the, now, county of Pres- 
 ton,) in which lived James Brain and Richard Powell, and 
 remained in ambush during the night, close around it. In 
 the morning early, the appearance of some ten or twelve 
 men, issuing from the house with guns, for the purpose of 
 amusing themselves in shooting at a mark, deterred the In- 
 dians from making their meditated attack. The men seen 
 by them, were travellers, who had associated for mutual 
 security, and who, after partaking of a morning's repast, 
 resumed their journey, unknown to the savages ; when 
 Mr. Brain and the sons of Mr. Powell [203] went to their 
 day's work. Being engaged in carrying clap-boards for 
 covering a cabin, at some distance from the house, they 
 were soon heard by the Indians, who, despairing of suc- 
 ceeding in an attack on the house, changed their position, 
 & concealed themselves by the side of the path, along 
 which those engaged at work had to go. Mr. Brain and 
 one of his sons being at a little distance in front of them, 
 they fired and Brain fell. He was then tomahawked and 
 scalped, while another of the party followed and caught 
 the son as he was attempting to escape by flight. 
 
 Three other boys were then some distance behind and 
 out of sight, and hearing the report of the gun which 
 killed Brain, for an instant supposed that it proceeded 
 from the rifle of some hunter in quest of deer. They were 
 soon satisfied that this supposition was unfounded. Three 
 Indians came running towards them, bearing their guns in 
 one hand, and tomahawks in the other. One of the boys 
 stupefied by terror, and unable to stir from the spot, was 
 immediately made prisoner. Another, the son of Powell, 
 was also soon caught; but the third, finding himself out
 
 Of Border Warfare. 281 
 
 of sight of his pursuer, ran to one side and concealed him- 
 self in a bunch of alders, where he remained until the In- 
 dian passed the spot where he lay, when he arose, and 
 taking a different direction, ran with all his speed, and ef- 
 fected an escape. The little prisoners were then brought 
 together; and one of Mr. Powell's sons, being discovered 
 to have but one eye, was stripped naked, had a tomahawk 
 sunk into his head, a spear ran through his body, and the 
 scalp then removed from from his bleeding head. 
 
 The little Powell who had escaped from the savages, 
 being forced to go a direction opposite to the house, pro- 
 ceeded to a station about eight miles off, & communicated 
 intelligence of what had been done at Brain's. A party 
 of men equipped themselves and went immediately to the 
 scene of action ; but the Indians had hastened homeward, 
 as soon as they perpetrated their horrid cruelties. One 
 of their little captives, (Benjamin Brain) being asked by 
 them, " how many men were at the house," replied 
 " twelve." To the question, " how far from thence was 
 the nearest fort," he answered "two miles." Yet he well 
 knew that there was no fort, nearer than eight miles, and 
 that there was not a man at the house, Mr. Powell being 
 from home, and the twelve travellers having departed, be- 
 fore his father and he had gone out to [204] work. His 
 object was to save his mother and the other women and 
 children, from captivity or death, by inducing them to 
 believe that it would be extremely dangerous to venture 
 near the house. He succeeded in the attainment of his 
 object. Deterred by the prospect of being discovered, and 
 perhaps defeated by the superior force of the white men, 
 represented to be at Mr. Brain's, they departed in the 
 greatest hurry, taking with them their two little prisoners, 
 Benjamin and Isaac Brain. 
 
 So stilly had the whole affair been conducted (the re- 
 port of a gun being too commonly heard to excite any sus- 
 picion of what was doing,) and so expeditiously had the 
 little boy who escaped, and the men who accompanied 
 him back, moved in their course, that the first intimation 
 given Mrs. Brain of the fate of her husband, was given by 
 the men who came in pursuit.
 
 282 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 Soon after the happening of this affair, a party of In- 
 dians came into the Buchannon settlement, and made 
 prisoner Leonard Schoolcraft, a youth of about sixteen, 
 who had been sent from the fort on sonde business. When 
 arrived at their towns and arrangements being made for 
 his running the gauntlet, he was told that he might defend 
 himself against the blows of the young Indians who were 
 to pursue him to the council house. Being active and 
 athletic, he availed himself of this privilege, so as to save 
 himself from the beating which he would otherwise have 
 received, arid laying about him with well timed blows, fre- 
 quently knocked down those who came near to him 
 much to the amusement of the warriors, according to the 
 account given by others, who were then prisoners and 
 present. This was the last certain information which was 
 ever had concerning him. He was believed however, to 
 have been afterwards in his old neighborhood in the ca- 
 pacity of guide to the Indians, and aiding them, by his 
 knowledge of the country, in making successful incursions 
 into it. 
 
 In the month of June, at Martin's fort on Crooked 
 Run, another murderous scene was exhibited by the sav- 
 ages. The greater part of the men having gone forth 
 early to their farms, and those who remained, being unap- 
 prehensive of immediate danger, and consequently supine 
 and careless, the fort was necessarily, easily accessible, and 
 the vigilance of the savages who were lying hid around 
 it, discovering its exposed and [205] weakened situation, 
 seized the favorable moment to attack those who were 
 without. The women were engaged in milking the cows 
 outside the gate, and the men who had been left behind 
 were loitering around. The Indians rushed forward, and 
 killed and made prisoners of ten of them. James Stuart, 
 James Smally and Peter Grouse, were the only persons 
 who fell, and John Shiver and his wife, two sons of Stu- 
 art, two sons of Smally and a son of Grouse, were carried 
 into captivity. According to their statement upon their 
 return, there were thirteen Indians in the party which 
 surprised them, and emboldened by success, instead of re- 
 treating with their prisoners, remained at a little distance
 
 Of Border Warfare. 283 
 
 from the fort 'till night, when they put the captives .in a 
 waste house near, under custody of two of the savages, 
 while the remaining eleven, went to see if they could not 
 succeed in forcing an entrance at the gate. But the dis- 
 aster of the morning had taught the inhabitants the ne- 
 cessity of greater watchfulness. The dogs were shut out 
 at night, and the approach of the Indians exciting them 
 to bark freely, gave notice of impending danger, in time 
 for them to avert it. The attempt to take the fort being 
 thus frustrated, the savages returned to the house in which 
 the prisoners were confined, and moved off with them to 
 their towns. 
 
 In August, two daughters of Captain David Scott 
 living at the mouth of Pike run, going to the meadow with 
 dinner for the mowers, were taken by some Indians who 
 were watching the path. The younger was killed on the 
 spot ; but the latter being taken some distance farther, and 
 every search for her proving unavailing, her father fondly 
 hoped that she had been carried into captivity, and that 
 he might redeem her. For this purpose he visited Pitts- 
 burg and engaged the service of a friendly Indian to as- 
 certain where she was and endeavour to prevail on them 
 to ransom her. Before his return from Fort Pitt, some 
 of his neighbors directed to the spot by the buzzards hov- 
 ering over it, found her half eaten and mutilated body. 
 
 In September, Nathaniel Davisson and his brother, 
 being on a hunting expedition up Ten Mile, left their camp 
 early on the morning of the day on which they intended 
 to return home ; and naming an hour at which they would 
 be back, proceeded through the woods in different direc- 
 tions. At the appointed time, Josiah went to the camp, 
 and after waiting there in vain for the arrival of his 
 brother, and becoming uneasy lest [206] some unlucky 
 accident had befallen him, he set out in search of him. 
 Unable to see or hear anything of him he returned home, 
 and prevailed on several of his neighbors to aid in en- 
 deavouring to ascertain his fate. Their search was like- 
 wise unavailing ; but in the following March, he was found 
 by John Read, while hunting in that neighborhood. He 
 had been shot and scalped; and notwithstanding he had
 
 284 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 lain out nearly six months, yet he was but little torn by 
 wild beasts, and was easily recognized. 
 
 During this year too, Tygarts Valley, which had es- 
 caped being visited by the Indians in 1778 again heard 
 their harrowing yells ; and although but little mischief was 
 done by them while there, yet its inhabitants were awhile, 
 kept in fearful apprehension that greater ills would betide 
 them. In October of this year, a party of them lying in 
 ambush near the road, fired several shots at Lieut. John 
 White, riding by, but with no other effect than by wound- 
 ing the horse to cause him to throw his rider. This was 
 fatal to White. Being left on foot and on open ground, he 
 was soon shot, tomahawked and scalped. 
 
 As soon as this event was made known, Capt. Benja- 
 min "Wilson, with his wonted promptitude and energy, 
 raised a company of volunteers, and proceeding by forced 
 marches to the Indian crossing at the mouth of the Sandy 
 fork of Little Kenhawa, he remained there nearly three 
 days with a view to intercept the retreat of the savages. 
 They however, returned by another way and his scheme, 
 of cutting them off while crossing the river, consequently 
 failed. 
 
 Some time after this several families in the Buchan- 
 non settlement, left the fort and returned to their homes, 
 under the belief that the season had advanced too far, for 
 the Indians again to come among them. But they were 
 sorely disappointed. The men being all assembled at the 
 fort for the purpose of electing a Captain, some Indians 
 fell upon the family of John Schoolcraft, and killed the 
 women and eight children, two little boys only were 
 taken prisoners. A small girl, who had been scalped and 
 tomahawked 'till a portion of her brains was forced from 
 her head, was found the next day yet alive, and continued 
 to live for several days, the brains still oozing from the 
 fracture of her skull. 
 
 The last mischief that was done this fall, was perpe 
 trated at the house of Samuel Cottrail near to the present 
 town of Clarksburg. During the night considerable fear 
 was excited, both at Cottrial's and at Sotha Hickman's on 
 the opposite side of Elk creek, by the continued barking
 
 Of Border Warfare. 285 
 
 of the dogs, that Indians were lurking near, and in conse- 
 quence of this apprehension Cottrial, on going to bed, se- 
 cured well the doors and directed that no one should stir 
 out in the morning until it was ascertained that there was 
 no danger threatening. A while before day, Cottrial be- 
 ing fast asleep, Moses Coleman, who lived with him, got 
 up, shelled some corn, and giving a few ears to Cottrial's 
 nephew with directions to feed the pigs around [207] the 
 yard, went to the hand mill in an out house, and com- 
 menced grinding. The little boy, being squatted down 
 shelling the corn to the pigs, found himself suddenly 
 drawn on his back and an Indian standing over him, order- 
 ing him to lie there. The savage then turned toward the 
 house in which Coleman was, fired, and as Coleman fell 
 ran up to scalp him. Thinking this a favorable time for 
 him to reach the dwelling house, the little boy sprang to 
 his feet, and running to the door, it was opened and he 
 admitted. Scarcely was it closed after him, when one of 
 the Indians with his tomahawk endeavored to break it 
 open. Cottrail fired through the door at him, and he went 
 off. In order to see if others were about, and to have a 
 better opportunity of shooting with effect, Cottrail as- 
 cended the loft, and looking through a crevice saw them 
 hastening away through the field and at too great distance 
 for him to shoot with the expectation of injuring them. 
 Yet he continued to fire and halloo ; to give notice of 
 danger to those who lived near him. 
 
 The severity of the following winter put a momentary 
 stop to savage inroad, and gave to the inhabitants on the 
 frontier an interval of quiet and repose extremely desir- 
 able to them, after the dangers and confinement of the 
 preceding season. Hostilities were however, resumed upon 
 the first appearance of spring, and acts of murder and de- 
 vastation, which had, of necessity, been suspended for a 
 time, were begun to be committed, with a firm determina- 
 tion on the part of the savages, utterly to exterminate the 
 inhabitants of the western country. To effect this object, 
 an expedition was concerted between the British com- 
 mandant at Detroit and the Indian Chiefs north west of 
 the Ohio to be carried on by their united forces against
 
 Withers's Chronicles . 
 
 Kentucky, while an Indian army alone, was to penetrate 
 North Western Virginia, and spread desolation over its 
 surface. No means which could avail to ensure success 
 and which lay within their reach, were left unemployed. 
 The army destined to operate against Kentucky, was to 
 consist of six hundred Indians and Canadians, to be com- 
 manded by Gol. Byrd (a British officer) and furnished with 
 every implement of destruction, from the war club of the 
 savages, to the cannon of their allies. 1 Happily for North 
 Western Virginia, its situation exempted its inhabitants 
 from having to contend against these instruments of war; 
 the want of roads prevented the transportation of cannon 
 through the intermediate forests, and the difficulty and 
 labor of propelling them up the Ohio river, forbade the 
 attempt in that way. 
 
 While the troops were collecting for these expeditions, 
 and other preparations were making for carrying them on, 
 the settlements of North Western Virginia were not free 
 from invasion. Small parties of Indians would enter them 
 at unguarded moments, and kill and plunder, whenever 
 opportunities occurred of their being done with impunity, 
 and then retreat to their villages. Early in March (1780) 
 Thomas Lackey discovered some mocason tracks near the 
 upper extremity of Tygarts Valley, and thought he heard 
 a voice saying in [208] an under tone, " let him alone, he will 
 go and bring more." Alarmed by these circumstances, he 
 proceeded to Hadden's fort and told there what he had 
 seen, and what he believed, he had heard. Being so early 
 in the season and the weather yet far from mild, none 
 heeded his tale, and but few believed it. On the next day 
 however, as Jacob Warwick, William Warwick and some 
 others from Greenbrier were about leaving the fort on 
 theii return home, it was agreed that a company of men 
 should accompany them some distance on the road. Un- 
 apprehensive of danger, in spite of the warning of Lackey, 
 they were proceeding carelessly on their vvay, when they 
 were suddenly attacked by some Indians lying in ambush, 
 
 1 See p. 262, note, for account of Capt. Henry Bird's attack on Fort 
 Laurens. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 287 
 
 near to the place, where the mocasou tracks had beeii seen 
 on the preceding day. The men on horse back, all got 
 safely off; but those on foot were less fortunate. The In- 
 dians having occupied the pass both above and below, the 
 footmen had no chance of escape but in crossing the river 
 and ascending a steep bluff, on its opposite side. In at- 
 tempting this several lost their lives. John McLain was 
 killed about thirty yards from the brow of the hill. 
 James Ralston, when a little farther up it, and James 
 Crouch was wounded after having nearly reached its sum- 
 mit, yet he got safely off and returned to the fort on the 
 next day. John Nelson, after crossing over, endeavored 
 to escape down the river; but being there met by a stout 
 warrior, he too was killed, after a severe struggle. His 
 shattered gun breech, the uptorn earth, and the locks of 
 Indian hair in his yet clenched hands, showed that the 
 victory over him had not been easily won. 
 
 Soon after this, the family of John Gibson were sur- 
 prised at their sugar camp, on a branch of the Valley 
 river, and made prisoners. Mrs. Gibson, being incapable 
 of supporting the fatigue of walking so far and fast, was 
 tomahawked and scalped in the presence of her children. 
 
 West's fort on Hacker's creek, was also visited by the 
 savages, early in this year. 1 The frequent incursions of 
 
 1 Mr. McWhorter says that this fort stood on an eminence, where is 
 now the residence of Minor C. Hall. Upon the fort being abandoned by 
 the settlers, the Indians burned it. When the whites again returned to 
 their clearings, a new fort was erected, locally called Beech Fort, " be- 
 cause built entirely of beech logs beech trees standing very thick in 
 this locality." Beech Fort was not over 500 yards from the old West 
 Fort; it was " in a marshy flat, some 75 yards east of the house built by 
 the pioneer Henry McWhorter, and still extant as the residence of Ned 
 J. Jackson." In the same field where Beech Fort was, "Alexander West 
 discovered an Indian one evening ; he fired and wounded him in the 
 shoulder. The Indian made off, and fearing an ambuscade West would 
 not venture in pursuit. Two weeks later, he ventured to hunt for the 
 red man. Two miles distant, on what is now known as Life's Run, a 
 branch of Hacker's Creek, the dead savage was found in a cleft of rocks, 
 into which he had crawled and miserably perished. His shoulder was 
 badly crushed by West's bullet." 
 
 Henry McWhorter, born in Orange County, N. Y., November 13, 
 1760, was a soldier in the Revolution, from 1777 to the close. In 1784, 
 he settled about two miles from West's Fort; three years later, he
 
 288 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 the Indians into this settlement, in the year 1778, had 
 caused the inhabitants to desert their homes the next 
 year, and shelter themselves in places of greater security ; 
 but being unwilling to give up the improvements which 
 they had already made and commence anew in the woods, 
 some few families returned to it during the winter, & on 
 the approach of spring, moved into the fort. They had 
 not been long here, before the savages made their appear- 
 ance, and continued to invest the fort for some time. Too 
 weak to sally out and give them battle, and not knowing 
 when to expect relief, the inhabitants were almost reducer! 
 to despair, when Jesse Hughs resolved at his own hazard, 
 to try to obtain assistance to drive off the enemy. Leav- 
 ing the fort at night, he broke by their sentinels and ran 
 with speed to the Buchannon fort. Here he prevailed on a 
 party of the men to accompany him to West's, and relieve 
 those who had been so long confined there. They arrived 
 before day, and it was thought advisable to abandon the 
 place once more, and remove to Buchannon. On their 
 way, the [209] Indians used every artifice to separate the 
 party, so as to gain an advantageous opportunity of attack- 
 ing them ; but in vain. They exercised so much caution, 
 and kept so well together, that every stratagem was frus- 
 trated, arid they all reached the fort in safety. 
 
 Two days after this, as Jeremiah Curl, Henry Fink 
 and Edmund West, who were old men, and Alexan- 
 der West, 1 Peter Outright, and Simon Schoolcraft, were 
 returning to the fort with some of their neighbor's 
 property, they were fired at by the Indians who were 
 
 moved nearer to the fort, and there built the house of hewn logs, men- 
 tioned above, which " is to-day in a good state of preservation." Mc- 
 Whorter died February 4, 1848. R. G. T. 
 
 1 Alexander West was prominent as a frontier scout. Rev. J. M. 
 McWhorter, who saw him frequently, gives this description of him : "A 
 tall, spare-built man, very erect, strong, lithe, and active ; dark-skinned, 
 prominent Roman nose, black hair, very keen eyes; not handsome, 
 rather raw-boned, but with an air and mien that commanded the atten- 
 tion and respect of those with whom he associated. Never aggressive, 
 he lifted his arm against the Indians only in time of war." West died in 
 1834. His house of hewed logs is, with its large barn, still standing 
 and occupied by his relatives, about a mile east of the site of West's 
 Fort. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 289 
 
 lying concealed along a run bank. Curl was slightly 
 wounded under the chin, but disdaining to fly without 
 making a stand he called to his companions, "stand your 
 ground, for we are able to whip them" At this instant a 
 lusty warrior drew a tomahawk from his belt and rushed 
 towards him. Nothing daunted by the danger which 
 seemed to threaten him, Curl raised his gun ; but the pow- 
 der being damped by the blood from his wound, it did not 
 fire. He instantly picked up West's gun (which he had 
 been carrying to relieve "West of part of his burden) and 
 discharging it at his assailant, brought him to the ground. 
 The whites being by this time rid of their encum- 
 brances, the Indians retreated in two parties and pursued 
 different routes, not however without being pursued. 
 Alexander "West being swift of foot, soon came near 
 enough to fire, and brought down a second, but having 
 only wounded him, and seeing the Indians spring be- 
 hind trees, he could not advance to finish him ; nor could 
 he again shoot at him, the flint having fallen out when he 
 first fired. Jackson (who was hunting sheep not far off) 
 hearing the report of the guns, ran towards the spot, and 
 being in sight of the Indian when West shot, saw him 
 fall and afterwards recover and hobble off. Simon School- 
 craft, following after "West, came to him just after Jack- 
 son, with his gun cocked; and asking where the Indians 
 were, was advised by Jackson to get behind a tree, or 
 they would soon let him know where they were. In- 
 stantly the report of a gun was heard, and Schoolcraft let 
 fall his arm. The ball had passed through it, and striking 
 a steel tobacco box in his waistcoat pocket, did him no 
 farther injury. Cutright, when West fired at one of the 
 Indians, saw another of them drop behind a log, and 
 changing his position, espied him, where the log was a 
 little raised from the earth. With steady nerves, he drew 
 upon him. The moaning cry of the savage, as he sprang 
 from the ground and moved haltingly away, convinced 
 them that the shot had taken effect. The rest of the In- 
 dians continued behind trees, until they observed a rein- 
 forcement coming up to the aid of the whites, and they 
 19
 
 290 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 fled with the utmost precipitancy. Night soon coming 
 on, those who followed them, had to give over the pursuit. 
 
 A company of fifteen men went early next morning to 
 the battle ground, and taking the trail of the Indians and 
 pursuing it some distance, came to where they had some 
 horses (which they had stolen after the skirmish) hobbled 
 out on a fork of Hacker's creek. They [210] then found 
 the plunder which the savages had taken from neighbor- 
 ing houses, and supposing that their wounded warriors 
 were near, the whites commenced looking for them, when 
 a gun was fired at them by an Indian concealed in a laurel 
 thicket, which wounded John Outright. 1 The whites then 
 caught the stolen horses and returned with them and the 
 plunder to the fort. 
 
 For some time after this, there was nothing occurring 
 to indicate the presence of Indians in the Buchannon set- 
 tlement, and some of those who were in the fort, hoping 
 that they should not be again visited by them this season, 
 determined on returning to their homes. Austin School- 
 craft was one of these, and being engaged in removing 
 some of his property from the fort, as he and his niece 
 were passing through a swamp in their way to his house, 
 they were shot at by some Indians. Mr. Schoolcraft was 
 killed and his niece taken prisoner. 
 
 In June, John Owens, John Juggins and Owen Owens, 
 were attacked by some Indians, as they were going to their 
 cornfield on Booth's creek ; and the two former were killed 
 and scalped. Owen Owens being some distance behind 
 them, made his escape to the fort. John Owens the 
 younger, who had been to the pasture field for the plough 
 horses, heard the guns, but not suspecting any danger to 
 be near, rode forward towards the cornfield. As he was 
 proceeding along the path by a fence side, riding one and 
 leading another horse, he was fired at by several Indians, 
 some of whom afterwards rushed forward and caught at 
 the bridle reins; yet he escaped unhurt from them all. 
 
 1 L. V. McWhorter says: " The branch of Hacker's creek on which 
 John Outright was wounded, is now known as Laurel Lick, near Berlin, 
 W. Va." For notice of Outright, see p. 137, note. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 291 
 
 The savages likewise visited Cheat river, during the 
 spring, and coming to the house of John Sims, were dis- 
 covered by a negro woman, who ran immediately to the 
 door and alarmed the family. Bernard Sims (just recov- 
 ering from the small pox) taking down his gun, and going 
 to the door, was shot. The Indians, perceiving that he 
 was affected with a disease, of all others the most terrify- 
 ing to them, not only did not perform the accustomed 
 operation of scalping, but retreated with as much rapidity, 
 as if they had been pursued by an overwhelming force of 
 armed men, exclaiming as they ran "small pox, small 
 pox" 
 
 After the attack on Donnelly's fort in May 1778, the 
 Indians made no attempt to effect farther mischiefs in the 
 Greenbrier country, until this year. The fort at Point 
 Pleasant guarded the principal pass to the settlements on 
 the Kenhawa, in the Levels, and on Greenbrier river, and 
 the reception with which they had met at Col. Donnelly's, 
 convinced them that not much was to be gained by incur- 
 sions into that section of the frontiers. But as they were 
 now making great preparations for effectual operations 
 against the whole border country, a party of them was 
 despatched to this portion of it, at once for the purpose 
 of rapine and murder, and to ascertain the state of the 
 country and its capacity to resist invasion. 
 
 The party then sent into Greenbrier consisted of 
 twenty-two [211] warriors, and committed their first act 
 of atrocity near the house of Lawrence Drinnan, a few 
 miles above the Little Levels. Henry Baker and Richard 
 Hill, who were then staying there, going early in the 
 morning to the river to wash, were shot at by them: 
 Baker was killed, but Hill escaped back to the house. 
 When the Indians fired at Baker, he was near a fence be- 
 tween the river and Drinnan's and within gunshot of the 
 latter place. Fearing to cross the fence for the purpose of 
 scalping him, they prized it up, and with a pole fastening 
 a noose around his neck, drew him down the river bank 
 & scalped and left him there. 
 
 Apprehensive of an attack on the house, Mr. Drinnan 
 made such preparations as were in his power to repel
 
 292 Withers'* Chronicles 
 
 them, and despatched a servant to the Little Levels, with 
 the intelligence and to procure assistance. He presently 
 returned with twenty men, who remained there during the 
 night, but in the morning, seeing nothing to contradict 
 the belief that the Indians had departed, they buried 
 Baker, and set out on their return to the Levels, taking 
 with them all who were at Drinnan's and the most of his 
 property. Arrived at the fork of the road, a question 
 arose whether they should take the main route, leading 
 through a gap which was deemed a favorable situation for 
 an ambuscade, or continue on the farther but more open 
 and secure way. A majority preferred the latter; but two 
 young men, by the name of Bridger, separated from the 
 others, and travelling on the nearer path, were both killed 
 at the place, where it was feared danger might be lurking. 
 
 The Indians next proceeded to the house of Hugh 
 Mclver, where they succeeded in killing its owner, and in 
 making prisoner his wife ; and in going from thence, met 
 with John Prior, who with his wife and infant were on 
 their way to the country on the south side of the Big 
 Kenawha. Prior was shot through the breast, but anxious 
 for the fate of his wife and child, stood still, 'till one of 
 the Indians came up and laid hold on him. Notwith- 
 standing the severe wound which he had received, Prior 
 proved too strong for his opponent, and the other Indians 
 not interfering, forced him at length to disengage himself 
 from the struggle. Prior, then seeing that no violence 
 was offered to Mrs. Prior or the infant, walked off without 
 any attempt being made to stop, or otherwise molest him : 
 the Indians no doubt suffering him to depart under the 
 expectation that he would obtain assistance and endeavor 
 to regain his wife and child, and that an opportunity of 
 waylaying any party coming with this view, would be 
 [212] then afforded them. Prior returned to the settle- 
 ment, related the above incidents and died that night. 
 His wife and child were never after heard of, and it is 
 highly probable they were murdered on their way, as 
 being unable to travel as expeditiously as the Indians 
 wished. 
 
 They next went to a house, occupied by Thomas
 
 Of Border Warfare. 293 
 
 Drinnon and a Mr. Smith with their families, where they 
 made prisoners of Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Drinnon and a child ; 
 and going then towards their towns, killed, on their way, 
 an old gentleman hy the name of Monday and his wife. 
 This was the last outrage committed by the Indians in the 
 Greenbrier settlements. And although the war was car- 
 ried on by them against the frontier settlements, with en- 
 ergy for years after, yet did they not again attempt an 
 incursion into it. Its earlier days had been days of tribu- 
 lation and wo, and those who were foremost in occupying 
 and forming settlements in it, had to endure all that sav- 
 age fury could inflict. Their term of probation, was in- 
 deed of comparatively short duration, but their sufferings 
 for a time, were many and great. The scenes of murder 
 and blood, exhibited on Muddy creek and the Big Levels 
 in 1776, will not soon be effaced from the memory ; and 
 the lively interest excited in the bosoms of many, for the 
 fate of those who there treacherously perished, unabated 
 by time, still gleams in the countenance, when tradition 
 recounts the tale of their unhappy lot.
 
 294 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 [213] CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Early in June 1780, every necessary preparation hav- 
 ing been previously made, the Indian and Canadian forces 
 destined to invade Kentucky, moved from their pla<Je of 
 rendezvous, to fulfil the objects of the expedition. In 
 their general plan of the campaign, Louisville was the 
 point against which operations were first to be directed. 
 The hero of Kaskaskias and St. Vincent had been for 
 some time stationed there, with a small body of troops, to 
 intercept the passage of war parties into the interior, and 
 the force thus placed under his command, having been 
 considerably augmented by the arrival of one hundred and 
 fifty Virginia soldiers under Colonel Slaughter, that place 
 had assumed the appearence of a regular fortification, ca- 
 pable of withstanding a severe shock j 1 while detachments 
 from it gave promise of security to the settlements remote 
 from the river, as well by detecting and checking every 
 attempt at invasion, as by acting offensively against the 
 main Indian towns, from which hostile parties would sally, 
 spreading desolation along their path. The reduction of 
 this establishment, would at once give wider scope to sav- 
 age hostilities and gratify the wounded pride of the Cana- 
 dians. Stung by the boldness and success of Colonel 
 Clarke's adventure, and fearing the effect which it might 
 have on their Indian allies, they seemed determined to 
 achieve a victory over him, and strike a retributive blow 
 against the position which he then held. 
 
 [214] It is highly probable however, that the reputa- 
 
 1 Col. Reuben T. Durrett, in his Centenary of Louisville, p. 47, says that 
 Louisville at this time consisted of Clark's original block house, with 
 eighteen cabins, on Corn Island, at the head of the rapids; a small fort 
 at the foot of Third street, erected by Col. John Floyd in 1779 ; " a large 
 fort on the east side of a ravine that entered the Ohio at Twelfth street, 
 and a few rude log cabins scattered through the woods near the Twelfth 
 street fort, all occupied by one hundred inhabitants, who had cleared 
 and cultivated garden-spots around their humble cabins." R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 295 
 
 tion which, the gallant exploits of Colonel Clarke had ac- 
 quired for him, induced some doubts, in the minds of the 
 commanding officers, of the ultimate success of a move- 
 ment against that post. 1 They changed their destination ; 
 and when their army arrived in their boats at the Ohio, 
 instead of floating with its rapid current to the point pro- 
 posed, they chose to stem the stream ; and availing them- 
 selves of an uncommon swell of the waters, ascended the 
 river Licking to its forks, where they landed their men 
 and munitions of war. 2 
 
 Not far from the place of debarkation, there was a 
 station, 3 reared under the superintendence of Captain Rud- 
 dle, and occupied by several families and many adven- 
 turers. Thither Colonel Byrd, with his combined army 
 of Canadians and Indians then amounting to one thou- 
 sand men, directed his march; and arriving before it on 
 the 22d of June, gave the first notice, which the inhab- 
 itants had of the presence of an enemy, by a discharge of 
 his cannon. He then sent in a flag, demanding the imme- 
 diate surrender of the place. Knowing that it was im- 
 possible to defend the station against artillery, Captain 
 Ruddle consented to surrender it, provided the inhabitants 
 should be considered prisoners to the British, and not to 
 the Indians. To this proposition Colonel Byrd assented, 
 and the gates were thrown open. The savages instantly 
 rushed in, each laying his hands on the first person with 
 whom he chanced to meet. Parents and children, hus- 
 bands and wives, were thus torn from each other ; and the 
 
 1 The expedition was sent out by Maj. A. S. De Peyster, then British 
 commandant at Detroit. It was headed by Capt. Bird, with whom were 
 Simon, James, and George Girty. The force, as rendezvoused at De- 
 troit, consisted of 150 whites, and 100 Indians from the Upper Lakes ; 
 they carried two cannon. They were joined on the Miami by Capt. 
 McKee, deputy Indian agent, and a large party of Indians, making the 
 force of savages amount to 700. R. G. T. 
 
 2 The original destination was Louisville, but en route the Indian 
 chiefs compelled Bird to first proceed against the forts on the Licking. 
 R. G. T. 
 
 [214] 3 A station was a parallelogram of cabins, united by palisades 
 so as to present a continued wall on the outer side, the cabin doors open- 
 ing into a common square, on the inner side. They were the strong 
 holds of the early settlers.
 
 296 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 air was rent with sighs of wailing, and shrieks of agony. 
 In vain did Captain Ruddle exclaim, against the enormi- 
 ties which were perpetrated in contravention to the terms 
 of capitulation. To his remonstrances, Colonel Byrd re- 
 plied that he was unable to control them, and affirmed, 
 that he too was in their power. 
 
 That Colonel Byrd was really unable to check the 
 enormities of the savages, will be readily admitted, when 
 the great disparity of the Canadian and Indian troops, 
 and the lawless and uncontrolable temper of the latter, are 
 taken into consideration. That he had the inclination to 
 stop them, cannot be [215] doubted his subsequent con- 
 duct furnished the most convincing evidence, that the 
 power to effect it, was alone wanting in him. 1 
 
 After Ruddle's station had been completely sacked, 
 and the prisoners disposed of, the Indians clamoured to be 
 led against Martin's station, then only five miles distant. 
 Affected with the barbarities which he had just witnessed, 
 Colonel Byrd peremptorily refused, unless the chiefs would 
 guaranty that the prisoners, which might be there taken, 
 should be entirely at his disposal. For awhile the Indians 
 refused to accede to these terms, but finding Colonel Byrd, 
 inflexible in his determination, they at length consented, 
 that the prisoners should be his, provided the plunder were 
 allowed to them. Upon this agreement, they marched for- 
 ward. Martin's station, like Ruddle's, was incapable of 
 offering any available opposition. It was surrendered on 
 the first summons, and the prisoners and plunder divided, 
 in conformity with the compact between Colonel Byrd and 
 the savages. 
 
 The facility, with which these conquests were made, 
 excited the thirst of the Indians for more. Not satisfied 
 with the plundering of Ruddle's and Martin's stations, 
 their rapacity prompted them to insist on going against 
 Bryant's and Lexington. Prudence forbade it. The waters 
 
 1 There seems to be abundant evidence that Bird, a competent 
 officer, was humanely inclined; but he was quite in the power of his 
 savage allies, who would brook little control of their passions. The 
 number of prisoners taken at Isaac Ruddell's was nearly 300 ; about fifty 
 more were taken at Martin's. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 297 
 
 were rapidly subsiding, and the fall of the Licking river, 
 would have rendered it impracticable to convey their artil- 
 lery to the Ohio. Their success too, was somewhat doubt- 
 ful ; and it was even then difficult to procure provisions, 
 for the subsistence of the prisoners already taken. 1 Un- 
 der the influence of these considerations, Colonel Byrd 
 determined to return to the boats, and embarking on these 
 his artillery and the Canadian troops, descended the river; 
 while the Indians, with their plunder, and the prisoners 
 taken at Ruddle's, moved across the country. 
 
 Among those who were taken captive at Ruddle's 
 station, was a man of the name of Hinkstoue, remarkable 
 for activity and daring, and for uncommon tact and skill 
 as a woodsman. On the second night of their march, the 
 Indians encamped on the bank of the river, and in conse- 
 quence of a sudden shower of rain, postponed kindling 
 their fires until dark, when part of the savages engaged in 
 this business, while the remainder guarded the prisoners. 
 Hinkstone thought the darkness favorable to escape, and 
 inviting its attempt. He resolved on trying it, and spring- 
 ing suddenly from them, ran a small [216] distance and 
 concealed himself behind a large log, under the shade of a 
 wide spreading tree. The alarm was quickly given, and 
 the Indians, pursuing, searched for him in every direction. 
 It was fruitless and unavailing. Hid in thick obscurity, 
 no eye could distinguish his prostrate body. Perceiving 
 at length, by the subsiding of the noise without the camp, 
 that the Indians had abandoned the search, he resumed 
 his flight, with the stillness of death. The heavens af- 
 forded him no sign, by which he could direct his steps. 
 Not a star twinkled through the dark clouds which envel- 
 oped the earth, to point out his course. Still he moved 
 on, as he supposed, in the direction of Lexington. He had 
 
 1 The Indians had, contrary to Bird's expostulations, wantonly 
 slaughtered all the cattle at Ruddell's Station, and this it was that caused 
 the famine. With an abundance of food to sustain both prisoners and 
 warriors, Bird might readily have carried out his purpose of uprooting 
 nearly every settlement in Kentucky. There is nothing in his official 
 report of the expedition, to warrant the statement that high water had 
 any thing to do with the matter. R. G. T.
 
 29h Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 mistaken the way, and a short space of time, served to 
 convince him that he was in error. After wandering 
 about for two hours, he came in sight of the Indian fires 
 again. Perplexed by his devious ramble, he was more at 
 fault than ever. The sky was still all darkness, and he 
 had recourse to the trees in vain, to learn the points of 
 the compass by the feeling of the moss. He remembered 
 that at nightfall, the wind blew a gentle breeze from the 
 west; but it had now, become so stilled, that it no longer 
 made any impression on him. The hunter's expedient, to 
 ascertain the direction of the air, occurred to him. Ho 
 dipped his finger in water, and, knowing that evaporation 
 and coolness would be first felt on the side from which 
 the wind came, he raised it high in the air. It was 
 enough. Guided by this unerring indication, and acting 
 on the supposition that the current of air still flowed from 
 the point from which it had proceeded at night, he again 
 resumed his flight. After groping in the wilderness for 
 some time, faint and enfeebled, he sat down to rest his 
 wearied limbs, and sought their invigoration in refreshing 
 sleep. When he awoke, fresh dangers encircled him, but 
 he was better prepared to elude, or encounter them. 
 
 At the first dawn of day, his ears were assailed by the 
 tremulous bleating of the fawn, the hoarse gobbling of 
 the turkey, and the peculiar sounds of other wild animals. 
 Familiar with the deceptive artifices, practised to allure 
 game to the hunter, he was quickly alive to the fact, that 
 they were the imitative cries of savages in quest of pro- 
 visions. Sensible of his situation, he became vigilant to 
 discover the approach of danger, and active in avoiding it. 
 Several times however, with all his wariness, he found him- 
 self within a few paces of [217] some one of the Indians; 
 but fortunately escaping their observation, made good his 
 escape, and reached Lexington in safety, gave there the 
 harrowing intelligence of what had befallen the inhabit- 
 ants of Ruddle's and Martin's stations. 
 
 The Indians after the escape of Hinkstone, crossed 
 the Ohio river at the mouth of Licking, and, separating 
 into small parties, proceeded to their several villages. The 
 Canadian troops descended Licking to the Ohio, and this
 
 Of Border Warfare. 299 
 
 river to the mouth of the Great Miami, up which they as- 
 cended as far as it was navigable for their boats, and made 
 their way thence by land to Detroit. 
 
 The Indian army destined to operate against North 
 Western Virginia, was to enter the country in two divi- 
 sions of one hundred and fifty warriors each; the one 
 crossing the Ohio near below Wheeling, the other, at the 
 mouth of Racoon creek, about sixty miles farther up. 
 Both were, avoiding the stronger forts, to proceed directly 
 to Washington, then known as Catfishtown, between 
 which place and the Ohio, the whole country was to be 
 laid waste. 
 
 The division crossing below Wheeling, was soon discov- 
 ered by scouts, who giving the alarm, caused most of the 
 inhabitants of the more proximate settlements, to fly im- 
 mediately to that place, supposing that an attack was 
 meditated on it. The Indians however, proceeded on the 
 way to Washington making prisoners of many, who, 
 although apprized that an enemy was in the country, yet 
 feeling secure in their distance from what was expected to 
 be the theatre of operations, neglected to use the precau- 
 tion necessary to guard them against becoming captives 
 to the savages. From all the prisoners, they learned the 
 same thing, that the inhabitants had gone to Wheeling 
 with a view of concentrating the force of the settlements 
 to effect their repulsion. This intelligence alarmed them. 
 The chiefs held a council, in which it was determined, in- 
 stead of proceeding to Washington, to retrace their steps 
 across the Ohio, lest their retreat, if delayed 'till the whites 
 had an opportunity of organizing themselves for battle, 
 should be entirely cut off. Infuriate at the blasting of 
 their hopes of blood and spoil, they resolved to murder 
 all their male prisoners exhausting on their devoted 
 heads, the 'fury of disappointed expectation. Preparations 
 to carry this resolution into effect, were immediately begun 
 to be made. 
 
 The unfortunate victims to their savage wrath, were 
 led [218] forth from among their friends and their fam- 
 ilies, their hands were pinioned behind them, a rope 
 was fastened about the neck of each and that bound around
 
 300 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 a tree, so as to prevent any motion of the head. The tom- 
 ahawk and scalping knife were next drawn from their 
 belts, and the horrid purpose of these preparations, fully 
 consummated. 
 
 " Imagination's utmost stretch " can hardly fancy a 
 more heart-rending scene than was there exhibited. Par- 
 ents, in the bloom of life and glow of health, mercilessly 
 mangled to death, in the presence of children, whose sob- 
 bing cries served but to heighten the torments of the 
 dying. Husbands, cruelly lacerated, and by piece-meal 
 deprived of life, in view of the tender partners of their 
 bosoms, whose agonizing shrieks, increasing the anguish 
 of torture, sharpened the sting of death. It is indeed 
 
 -"A fearful thing, 
 
 To see the human soul, take wing, 
 In any shape, in any mood ;" 
 
 but that wives and children should be forced to behold the 
 last ebb of life, and to witness the struggle of the depart- 
 ing spirit of husbands and fathers, under such horrific 
 circumstances, is shocking to humanity, and appalling, 
 even in contemplation. 
 
 Barbarities such as these, had considerable influence 
 on the temper and disposition of the inhabitants of the 
 country. They gave birth to a vindictive feeling in many, 
 which led to the perpetration of similar enormities and 
 sunk civilized man, to the degraded level of the barbarian. 
 They served too, to arouse them to greater exertion, to 
 subdue the savage foe in justifiable warfare, and thus pre- 
 vent their unpleasant recurrence. 
 
 So soon as the Indian forces effected a precipitate re- 
 treat across the Ohio, preparations were begun to be made 
 for acting offensively against them. An expedition was 
 concerted, to be carried on against the towns at the forks 
 of the Muskingum ; and through the instrumentality of 
 Col's Zane and Shepard, Col. Broadhead, commander of 
 the forces at Fort Pitt, was prevailed upon to co-operate 
 in it. 1 Before however, it could be carried into effect, it 
 
 "<yOl. Daniel Brodhead was in command of the Eighth Pennsylvania 
 Regiment. He succeeded McJntosh at Fort Pitt, in April, 1779. B. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 301 
 
 was deemed advisable to proceed against the Mnnsie towns, 
 up the north branch of the Alleghany river ; the inhab- 
 itants of which, had been long engaged in active [219] hos- 
 tilities, and committed frequent depredations on the fron- 
 tiers of Pennsylvania. In the campaign against them, as 
 many of those, who resided in the settlements around 
 "Wheeling, as could be spared from the immediate defence 
 of their own neighborhoods, were consociated with the 
 Pennsylvania troops, and the regulars under Col. Broad- 
 head. It eventuated in the entire destruction of all their 
 corn, (upwards of 200 acres,) and in the cutting off a party 
 of forty warriors, on their way to the settlements in West- 
 moreland county. 
 
 Very soon after the return of the army, from the 
 Alleghany, the troops, with which it was intended to ope- 
 rate against the Indian villages up the Muskingum and 
 amounting to eight hundred, rendezvoused at Wheeling. 
 From thence, they proceeded directly for the place of des- 
 tination, under the command of Col. Broadhead. 1 
 
 When the army arrived near to Salem (a Moravian 
 town,) 2 many of the militia expressed a determination to 
 go forward and destroy it, but as the Indians residing 
 there, had ever been in amity with the whites, and were 
 not known to have ever participated in the murderous 
 deeds of their more savage red brethren, the officers ex- 
 erted themselves effectually, to repress that determination. 
 Col. Broadhead sent forward an express to the Rev'd Mr. 
 Heckewelder (the missionary of that place,) 3 acquainting 
 
 1 Brodhead set out from Fort Pitt, April 7, 1781, with 150 regulars; 
 at Wheeling he picked up David Shepherd, lieutenant of Ohio County, 
 Va., with 134 militia, including officers ; besides these were five friendly 
 Indians, eager for Delaware scalps. R. G. T. 
 
 2 Salem, established by Heckewelder for his Indian converts, was 
 on the west bank of the Tuscarawas, a mile and a half south-west of 
 the present Port Washington. R. G. T. 
 
 3 John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder was born at Bedford, Eng- 
 land, March 12, 1743. Coming to Pennsylvania in 1754, he was at first a 
 cooper, but later became an assistant to Charles Frederick Post, the 
 Moravian missionary. In 1771, he first became an evangelist to the In- 
 dians, on his own account, and spent fifteen years in Ohio, where he as- 
 sisted in the work of David Zeisberger. He was a man of learning, and 
 made important contributions to the study of American archaeology and.
 
 302 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 him with the object of the expedition, & requesting a small 
 supply of provisions, and that he would accompany the 
 messenger to camp. When Mr. Heckewelder came, the 
 commander enquired of him, if any Christian Indians were 
 engaged in hunting or other business, in the direction of 
 their march, stating, that if they were, they might be 
 exposed to danger, as it would be impracticable to dis- 
 tinguish between them and other Indians, and that he 
 should greatly regret the happening to them, of any un- 
 pleasant occurrence, through ignorance or mistake. On 
 hearing there were not, the army was ordered to resume 
 its march, and proceeded towards the forks of the river. 
 
 At White Eyes plain, near to the place of destination, 
 an Indian was discovered and made prisoner. Two others 
 were seen near there, and fired at; and notwithstand- 
 ing one of them was wounded, yet both succeeded in 
 effecting their escape. Apprehensive that they would 
 hasten to the Indian towns, and communicate the fact 
 that an army of whites was near at hand, Col. Broad- 
 head moved rapidly forward with the [220] troops, 
 notwithstanding a heavy fall of rain, to reach Cos- 
 hocton, (the nearest village,) 1 and take it by surprise. 
 His expectations were not disappointed. Approaching 
 the town, the right wing of the army was directed to oc- 
 cupy a position above it, on the river ; the left to assume 
 a stand below, while the centre marched directly upon it. 
 The Indian villages, ignorant of the fact that an enemy 
 was in their country, were all made prisoners without the 
 firing of a single gun. So rapid, and yet so secret, had 
 been the advance of the army, that every part of the town 
 was occupied by the troops, before the Indians knew of its 
 approach. 
 
 Successful as they thus far were, yet the expedition 
 accomplished but a portion of what had been, contempla- 
 ted. The other towns were situated on the opposite side 
 of the river, and this was so swollen by the excessive rains 
 
 ethnology. The last thirteen years of his life were spent in literary 
 work. He died at Bethlehem, Pa., January 21, 1823. R. G. T. 
 
 1 Called in some of the contemporary chronicles, Goschocking. R. 
 G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 303 
 
 which had fallen and continued yet to deluge the earth, 
 that it was impracticable to cross over to them ; and Col. 
 Broadhead, seeing the impossibility of achieving any 
 thing farther, commenced laying waste the crops about 
 Coshocton. This measure was not dictated by a spirit of 
 revenge, naturally enkindled by the exterminating war- 
 fare, waged against the whites by the savages, but was a 
 politic expedient, to prevent the accomplishment of their 
 horrid purposes and to lessen the frequency of their in- 
 cursions. When they fail to derive sustenance from their 
 crops of corn and other edible vegetables, the Indians are 
 forced to have recourse to hunting, to obtain provisions, 
 and consequently, to suspend their hostile operations for a 
 season. To produce this desirable result, was the object 
 sought to be obtained by the destruction which was made 
 of every article of subsistence, found here and at the Mun- 
 sie towns, and subsequently at other places. 
 
 It remained then to dispose of the prisoners. Sixteen 
 warriors, particularly obnoxious for their diabolical deeds, 
 were pointed out by Pekillon (a friendly Delaware chief 
 who accompanied the .army of Col. Broadhead) as fit sub- 
 jects of retributive justice; and taken into close custody. 
 A council of war was then held, to determine on their 
 fate, and which doomed them to death. They were taken 
 some distance from town, despatched with tomahawks and 
 spears, and then scalped. The other captives were com- 
 mitted to the care of the militia, to be conducted to Fort 
 Pitt. 
 
 On the morning after the taking of Coshocton, an In- 
 dian, [221] making his appearance on the opposite bank 
 of the river, called out for the " Big Captain." Col. 
 Broadhead demanded what he wished. I want peace re- 
 plied the savage. Then send over some of your chiefs, 
 said the Colonel. May be you kill, responded the Indian. 
 No, said Broadhead, they shall not be killed. One of their 
 chiefs, a fine looking fellow, then come over; and while 
 he and Col. Broadhead were engaged in conversation, a 
 militiaman came up, and with a tomahawk which he had 
 concealed in the bosom of his hunting shirt, struck him a
 
 304 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 severe blow on the hinder part of his head. The poor In- 
 dian fell, and immediately expired. 
 
 This savage like deed was the precursor of other, and 
 perhaps equally attrocious enormities. The army on its 
 return, had not proceeded more than half a mile from 
 Coshocton, when the militia guarding the prisoners, com- 
 menced murdering them. In a short space of time, a few 
 women and children alone remained alive. These were 
 taken to Fort Pitt, and after a while exchanged for an 
 equal number of white captives. 
 
 The putting to death the sixteen prisoners designated 
 by Pekillon, can be considered in no other light, than as a 
 punishment inflicted for their great offences ; and was 
 certainly right and proper. Not so with the deliberate 
 murder of the chief, engaged in negotiation with Col. 
 Broadhead. He had come over under the implied assur- 
 ance of the security, due to a messenger for peace, and 
 after a positive promise of protection had been given him 
 by the commander of the army. His death can, conse- 
 quently, only be considered as an unwarrantable murder; 
 provoked indeed, by the barbarous. and bloody conduct of 
 the savages. These, though they do not justify, should 
 certainly extenuate the offence. 
 
 The fact, that the enemy, with whom they were con- 
 tending, did not observe the rules of war, and was occa- 
 sionally, guilty of the crime, of putting their prisoners to 
 death, would certainly authorize the practice of greater 
 rigor, than should be exercised towards those who do not 
 commit such excesses. This extraordinary severity, of it- 
 self, tends to beget a greater regard for what is allowable 
 among civilized men, and to produce conformity with those 
 usages of war, which were suggested by humanity, and 
 are sanctioned by all. But the attainment of this object, 
 if it were the motive which prompted to the deed, can not 
 justify the murder of the prisoners, placed [222] under 
 the safe keeping of the militia. It evinced a total disre- 
 gard of the authority of their superior officer. He had 
 assured them they should only be detained as prisoners, 
 and remain free from farther molestation ; and nothing, 
 but the commission of some fresh offence, could sanction
 
 Of Border Warfare. 305 
 
 the enormity. But, however sober reflection may con- 
 demn those acts as outrages of propriety, yet so many and 
 so great, were the barbarous excesses committed by the 
 savages upon the whites in their power, that the minds of 
 those who were actors in those scenes, were deprived of 
 the faculty of discriminating between what was right or 
 wrong to be practised towards them. And if acts, savour- 
 ing of sheer revenge, were done by them, they should be 
 regarded as but the ebullitions of men, under the excite- 
 ment of great and damning wrongs, and which, in their 
 dispassionate moments, they would condemn, even in 
 themselves. 
 
 When, upon the arrival of Hinkston at Lexington, 
 the people became acquainted with the mischief which had 
 been wrought by the Canadian and Indian army, 1 every 
 bosom burned with a desire to avenge those outrages, and 
 to retort them on their authors. Runners were despatched 
 in every direction, with the intelligence, and the cry for 
 retribution, arose in all the settlements. In this state of 
 feeling, every eye was involuntarily turned towards Gen. 
 Clarke as the one who should lead them forth to battle ; 
 and every ear was opened, to receive his counsel. He ad- 
 vised a levy of four-fifths of the male inhabitants, capable 
 of bearing arms, and that they should speedily assemble 
 at the mouth of Licking, and proceed from thence to Chil- 
 icothe. He ordered the building of a number of trans- 
 port boats, and directed such other preparations to be 
 made, as would facilitate the expedition, and ensure suc- 
 cess to its object. When all was ready, the boats with the 
 provisions and stores on board, were ordered up the Ohio, 
 under the command of Col. Slaughter. 
 
 In ascending the river, such was the rapidity of the 
 current, that the boats were compelled to keep near to the 
 banks, and were worked up, in two divisions one near 
 each shore. While thus forcing their way slowly up the 
 
 1 Withers here reverts to the Bird invasion in the summer of 1780. 
 and the escape of Hinkstone from his British captors, related ante, pp. 
 295-98. Clark's retaliatory expedition was made during August, 1780. 
 R G.T. 
 
 20
 
 306 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 stream, one of the boats, being some distance in advance 
 of the others and close under the north western bank, was 
 fired into by a party of Indians. The fire was promptly 
 returned ; but before the other boats could draw nigh to 
 her aid, a number of those on [223] board of her, was 
 killed and wounded. As soon however, as they approached 
 and opened a fire upon the assailants, the savages with- 
 drew, and the boats proceeded to the place of rendezvous, 
 without farther interruption. 
 
 On the second of August, General Clarke took up the 
 line of march from the place where Cincinnati now stands, 
 at the head of nine hundred and seventy men. They pro- 
 ceeded without any delay, to the point of destination, 
 where they arrived on the sixth of the month. The town 
 was abandoned, and many of the houses were yet burning, 
 having been fired on the preceding day. There were how- 
 ever, several hundred acres of luxuriant corn growing 
 about it, every stalk of which was cut down and de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 The army then moved in the direction of the Piqua 
 Towns, twelve miles farther, and with a view to lay waste 
 every thing around it, and with the hope of meeting there 
 an enemy, with whom to engage in battle ; but before they 
 had got far, a heavy shower of rain, accompanied with 
 loud thunder and high winds, forced them to encamp. 
 Every care which could be taken to keep the guns dry, 
 was found to be of no avail, and General Clarke, with 
 prudent precaution, had them all fired and re-loaded 
 continuing to pursue this plan, to preserve them fit for 
 use, whenever occasion required, and keeping the troops 
 on the alert and prepared to repel any attack which might 
 be made on them during the night. 
 
 In the afternoon of the next day, they arrived in sight 
 of Piqua, and as they advanced upon the town, were at- 
 tacked by the Indians concealed in the high weeds which 
 grew around. Colonel Logan, with four hundred men, 
 was ordered to file off", march up the river to the east, 
 and occupy a position from which to intercept the sav- 
 ages, should they attempt to fly in that direction. Another 
 division of the army was in like manner posted on the
 
 Of Border Warfare. 307 
 
 opposite side of the river, while General Clarke with the 
 troops under Colonel Slaughter and those attached to 
 the artillery, was to advance directly upon the town. The 
 Indians seemed to comprehend every motion of the army, 
 and evinced the skill of tacticians in endeavoring to thwart 
 its purpose. To prevent being surrounded by the advance 
 of the detachment from the west, they made a powerful 
 effort to turn the left wing. Colonel Floyd extended his 
 line some distance west of the town, and the engagement 
 became general. Both armies fought with determined 
 [224] resolution, and the contest was warm and animated 
 for some time. The Indians, finding that their enemy was 
 gaining on them retired unperceived, through the prairie, 
 a few only remaining in the town. The piece of cannon 
 was then bro't to bear upon the houses, into which some 
 of the savages had retired to annoy the army as it inarched 
 upon the village. They were soon dislodged and fled. 
 
 On reaching the houses, a Frenchman was discovered 
 concealed in one of them. From him it was learned, that 
 the Indians had been apprized of the intention of Gen. 
 Clarke to march against Chilicothe and other towns in 
 its vicinity, by one of Col. Logan's men, who had deserted 
 from the army while at the mouth of Licking, and was 
 supposed to have fled to Carolina, as he took with him the 
 horse furnished him for the expedition. Instead of this 
 however, he went over to the enemy, and his treason, 
 
 " Like a deadly blight, 
 
 Came o'er the councils of the brave, 
 
 And damped them in their hour of might." 
 
 Thus forwarued of the danger which threatened them, 
 they were enabled in a considerable degree to avoid it, and 
 watching all the movements of the army, were on the eve 
 of attacking it silently, with tomahawks and knives, on 
 the night of its encamping between Chilicothe and Piqua. 
 The shooting of the guns, convincing them that they had 
 not been rendered useless by the rain, alone deterred them 
 from executing this determination. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the victory obtained by Gen. 
 Clarke, was complete and decided, yet the army under his
 
 308 Withcrs's Chronicles 
 
 command sustained a loss in killed and wounded, as 
 great as was occasioned to the enemy. This circum- 
 stance was attributable to the sudden and unexpected at- 
 tack made on it, by the Indians, while entirely concealed, 
 and partially sheltered. No men could have evinced more 
 dauntless intrepidity and determined fortitude than was 
 displayed by them, when fired upon by a hidden foe, and 
 their comrades were falling around them. When the 
 " combat thickened," such was their noble daring, that 
 Girty, (who had been made chief among the Mingoes,) re- 
 marking the desperation with which they exposed them- 
 selves to the hottest of the fire, drew off his three hundred 
 warriors; observing, that it was useless to fight with 
 fools and madmen. The loss in killed under the peculiar 
 [225] circumstances, attending the commencement of the 
 action, was less than would perhaps be expected to befall 
 an army similarly situated ; amounting in all to only 
 twenty men. 
 
 Here, as at Chilicothe, the crops of corn and every 
 article of subsistence on which the troops could lay their 
 hands, were entirely laid waste. At the two places, it was 
 estimated that not less than five hundred acres of that in- 
 dispensable article, were entirely destroyed. 1 
 
 An unfortunate circumstance, occurring towards the 
 close of the engagement, damped considerably the joy 
 which would otherwise have pervaded the army. A 
 nephew of Gen. Clarke, who had been taken, and for 
 some time detained, a prisoner \>y the savages, was at 
 Piqua during the action. While the battle continued, he 
 was too closely guarded to escape to the whites ; but upon 
 the dispersion of the savages which ensued upon the can- 
 nonading of the houses into which some of them had re- 
 treated, he was left more at liberty. Availing himself of 
 this change of situation, he sought to join his friends. He 
 was quickly discovered by some of them, and mistaken for 
 
 1 Butterfield, in History of the Girtys, p. 121, places the white loss at 
 seventeen killed, and " a number wounded ;" and the Indian loss at six 
 killed and three wounded. Clark's nephew, Joseph Rogers, was killed 
 on August 8, the day of the general engagement. Clark left Piqua, 
 the 10th, R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 309 
 
 an Indian. The mistake was fatal. He received a shot 
 discharged at him, and died in a few hours. 
 
 Notwithstanding the success of the expeditions com- 
 manded by Col. Broadhead and Gen. Clarke, and the de- 
 struction which took place on the Alleghany, at Coshocton, 
 Chilicothe and Piqua, yet the savages continued to commit 
 depredations on the frontiers of Virginia. The winter, as 
 usual, checked them for awhile, but the return of spring, 
 brought with it, the horrors which mark the progress of 
 an Indian enemy. In Kentucky and in North Western 
 Virginia, it is true that the inhabitants did not suffer much 
 by their hostilities in 1781, as in the preceding years; yet 
 were they not exempt from aggression. 
 
 Early in March a party of Indians invaded the settle- 
 ments on the upper branches of Monongahela river; and 
 on the night of the 5th of that month, came to the house 
 of Capt. John Thomas, near Booth's creek. Unapprehen- 
 sive of danger, with his wife and seven children around 
 him, and with thoughts devotedly turned upon the reali- 
 ties of another world, this gentleman was engaging in his 
 accustomed devotions when the savages approached his 
 door; and as he was repeating the first lines of the hymn, 
 " Go worship at Emanuel's feet," a gun was fired at him, 
 and he fell. The Indians [226] immediately forced open 
 the door, and, entering the house, commenced the dread- 
 ful work of death. Mrs. Thomas raised her hands and 
 implored their mercy for herself and her dear children. It 
 was in vain. The tomahawk was uplifted, and stoke fol- 
 lowed stroke in quick succession, till the mother and six 
 children lay weltering in blood, by the side of her husband 
 and their father a soul-chilling spectacle to any but heart- 
 less savages. When all were down, they proceeded to 
 scalp the fallen, and plundering the house of what they 
 could readily remove, threw the other things into the fire 
 and departed taking with them one little boy a prisoner. 
 
 Elizabeth Juggins, (the daughter of John Juggins who 
 had been murdered in that neighborhood, the preceding 
 year) was at the house of Capt. Thomas, when the Indians 
 came to it; but as soon as she heard the report of the gun 
 and saw Capt. Thomas fall, she threw herself under the
 
 310 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 bed, and escaped the observation of the savages. After 
 they had completed the work of blood and left the house, 
 fearing that they might be lingering near, she remained in 
 that situation until she observed the house to be in flames. 
 When she crawled forth from her asylum, Mrs. Thomas 
 was still alive, though unable to move ; and casting a pity- 
 ing glance towards her murdered infant, asked that it 
 might be handed to her. Upon seeing Miss Juggins 
 ubout to leave the house, she exclaimed, " Oh Betsy ! do 
 not leave us." Still anxious for her own safety, the girl 
 rushed out, and taking refuge for the night between two 
 logs, in the morning early spread the alarm. 
 
 When the scene of those enormities was visited, Mrs. 
 Thomas was found in the yard, much mangled by the 
 tomahawk and considerably torn by hogs she had, per- 
 haps in the struggle of death, thrown herself out at the 
 door. The house, together with Capt. Thomas and the 
 children, was a heap of ashes. 1 
 
 In April, Matthias, Simon and Michael Schoolcraft 
 left Buchaunon fort, and went to the head of Stone coal 
 creek for the purpose of catching pigeons. On their re- 
 turn, they were fired upon by Indians, and Matthias killed 
 the other two were taken captive. These were the last 
 of the Schoolcraft family, fifteen of them were killed or 
 taken prisoners in the space of a few years. Of those who 
 were carried into captivity, none ever returned. They 
 were believed to have consociated with the savages, and 
 from the report of others [227] who were prisoners to the 
 Indians, three of them used to accompany war parties, in 
 their incursions into the settlements. 
 
 In the same mouth, as some men were returning to 
 Cheat river from Clarksburg, (where they had been to ob- 
 
 1 I am informed by S. R. Harrison, of Clarksburg, W. Va., that the 
 bodies of the victims were buried about five rods from the house, and 
 " the graves are yet marked by the original rude stones." Mr. Harrison 
 continues, " This burial ground, and also where the house stood, had 
 never been disturbed until March, 1888 a hundred and seven years 
 after the massacre when the ground about the site of the house was 
 plowed ; many interesting relics were turned up, among them a com- 
 pass and sun-dial in a copper case. I myself found a number of relics 
 among the charred ruins of the house." R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 311 
 
 tain certificates of settlement-rights to their lands, from 
 the commissioners appointed to adjust land claims in the 
 counties of Ohio, Youghiogany and Monongalia) they, 
 after having crossed the Valley river, were encountered by 
 a large party of Indians, and John Manear, Daniel Cam- 
 eron and a Mr. Cooper were killed, the others effected 
 their escape with difficulty. 
 
 The savages then moved on towards Cheat, but meet- 
 ing with James Brown and Stephen Radcliff, and not being 
 able to kill or take them, they changed their course, and 
 passing over Leading creek, (in Tygarts Valley) nearly 
 destroyed the whole settlement. They there killed Alex- 
 ander Roney, Mrs. Dougherty, Mrs. Hornbeck and her 
 children, Mrs. Buffington and her children, and many 
 others ; and made prisoners, Mrs. Honey and her son, and 
 Daniel Dougherty. Jonathan Buffington and Benjamin 
 ITornbeck succeeded in making their escape and carried 
 the doleful tidings to Friend's and Wilson's forts. Col. 
 "Wilson immediately raised a company of men and pro- 
 ceeding to Leading creek, found the settlement without 
 inhabitants, and the houses nearly all burned. He then 
 pursued after the savages, but not coming up with them as 
 soon as was expected, the men became fearful of the con- 
 sequences which might result to their own families, by 
 reason of this abstraction of their defence, provided other 
 Indians were to attack them, and insisted on their return- 
 ing. On the second day of the pursuit, it was agreed that 
 a majority of the company should decide whether they 
 were to proceeded farther or not. Joseph Friend, Richard 
 Kettle, Alexander West and Col. Wilson, were the only 
 persons in favor of going on, and they consequently had 
 to return. 
 
 But though the pursuit was thus abandoned, yet did 
 not the savages get off with their wonted impunity. When 
 the land claimants, who had been the first to encounter 
 this party of Indians escaped from them, they fled back 
 to Clarksburg, and gave the alarm. This was quickly 
 communicated to the other settlements, and spies were 
 sent out, to watch for the enemy. By some of these, the 
 savages were discovered on the West Fork, near the mouth
 
 312 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 of Isaac's creek, and intelligence of it immediately carried 
 to the forts. Col. Lowther [228] collected a company of 
 men, and going in pursuit, came in view of their en- 
 campment, awhile before night, on a branch of Hughes' 
 river, ever since known as Indian creek. Jesse and Elias 
 Hughs active, intrepid and vigilant men were left to 
 watch the movements of the savages, while the remainder 
 retired a small distance to refresh themselves, and prepare 
 to attack them in the morning. 
 
 Before day Col. Lowther arranged his men in order 
 of attack, and when it became light, on the preconcerted 
 signal being given, a general fire was poured in upon them. 
 Five of the savages fell dead and the others fled leaving 
 at their fires, all their shot bags and plunder, and all their 
 guns, except one. Upon going to their camp, it was found 
 that one of the prisoners (a son of Alexander Rony who 
 had been killed in the Leading creek massacre) was among 
 the slain. Every care had been taken to guard against 
 such an occurrence, and he was the only one of the cap- 
 tives who sustained any injury from the fire of the whites. 1 
 
 In consequence of information received from the 
 prisoners who were retaken (that a larger party of In- 
 dians was expected hourly to come up,) Col. Lowther 
 
 [228] *As soon as the fire was opened upon the Indians, Mrs. Rony 
 (one of the prisoners) ran towards the whites rejoicing at the prospect 
 of deliverance, and exclaiming, " I ain Ellick Rony's wife, of the Valley, 
 I am Ellick Rony's wife, of the Valley, and a pretty little woman too, 
 if I was well dressed." The poor woman, ignorant of the fact that 
 her son was weltering in his own gore, and forgetting for an instant that 
 her husband had been so recently killed, seemed intent only on her own 
 deliverance from the savage captors. 
 
 Another of the captives, Daniel Dougherty, being tied down, and 
 unable to move, was discovered by the whites as they rushed towards 
 the camp. Fearing that he might be one of the enemy and do them 
 some injury if they advanced, one of the men, stopping, demanded who 
 he was. Benumbed with cold, and discomposed by the sudden firing 
 of the whites, he could not render his Irish dialect intelligible to them. 
 The white man raised his gun and directed it towards him, calling 
 aloud, that if he did not make known who he was, he should blow a 
 ball through him, let him be white man or Indian. Fear supplying him 
 with energy, Dougherty exclaimed, " Loord Jasus ! and am I too be 
 killed by white people at last !" He was heard by Col. Lowther and his 
 life saved.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 313 
 
 deemed it prudent not to go in pursuit of those who had 
 fled, and collecting the plunder which the savages had left, 
 catching the horses which [229] they had stolen, and hav- 
 ing buried young Rony, the party set out on its return 
 and marched home highly gratified at the success which 
 had crowned their exertions to punish their untiring foe. 
 
 Some short time after this, John Jackson and his son 
 George, returning to Buchannon fort, were fired at by 
 some Indians, but fortunately missed. George Jackson 
 having his gun in his hand, discharged it at a savage peep- 
 ing from behind a tree, without effect; and they then rode 
 off with the utmost speed. 
 
 At the usual period of leaving the forts and returning 
 to their farms, the inhabitants withdrew from Buchannon 
 and went to their respective homes. Soon after, a party 
 of savages came to the house of Charles Furrenash, and 
 made prisoners of Mrs, Furrenash and her four children, 
 and despoiled their dwelling. Mrs. Furrenash, being a 
 delicate and weakly woman, and unable to endure the 
 fatigue of travelling far on foot, was murdered on 
 Hughes' river. Three of the children were afterwards 
 redeemed and came back, the fourth was never more 
 heard of. In a few days after, the husband and father 
 returned from Winchester (where he had been for salt) 
 and instead of the welcome greeting of an affectionate 
 wife, and the pleasing prattle of his innocent children, was 
 saluted with the melancholy intelligence of their fate. It 
 was enough to make him curse the authors of the outrage, 
 and swear eternal enmity to the savage race. 
 
 The early period in spring at which irruptions were 
 frequently made by the savages upon the frontier, had in- 
 duced a belief, that if the Moravian Indians did not par- 
 ticipate in the bloody deeds of their red brethern, yet that 
 they afforded to them shelter and protection from the in- 
 clemency of winter, and thus enabled them, by their 
 greater proximity to the white settlements, to commence 
 depredations earlier than they otherwise could. The con- 
 sequence of this belief was, the engendering in the minds 
 of many, a spirit of hostility towards those Indians; occa- 
 sionally threatening a serious result to them. Reports
 
 314 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 too, were in circulation, proceeding from restored captives, 
 at war with the general pacific profession of the Moravi- 
 ans, and which, whether true or false, served to heighten 
 the acrimony of feeling towards them, until the militia of 
 a portion of the frontier came to the determination of 
 breaking up the villages on the Muskingum. 1 To [230] 
 carry this determination into effect, a body of troops, com- 
 manded by Col. David Williamson, set out for those towns, 
 
 1 The Moravian Indians were originally from the Susquehanna 
 River. They moved to the Tuscarawas River in 1772, under the mis- 
 sionaries Zeisberger and Heckewelder, who built two villages on the east- 
 ern bank of that river, on land set apart for them by the Delawares : Schon- 
 brunn, about three miles south-east of the present New Philadelphia, in 
 what is now Goshen township, Tuscarawas County, O., and Gnaden- 
 hiitten, lower down, in the outskirts of the present town of that name, 
 in Clay township. The principal Delaware town, at that time, was some 
 distance below, near the site of the present Newcoinerstown ; this was 
 later moved to what is now Coshocton, at the confluence of the Tusca- 
 rawas and Walholding, which unite to form the Muskingum. At this 
 time there was a Moravian village called Friedensstadt, on Beaver 
 River, in what is now Lawrence County, Pa. In 1776 a new village for 
 the accommodation of converts was established on the east bank of the 
 Muskingum, two and a half miles below Coshocton, and called Lich- 
 tenau ; William Edwards was the missionary in charge. In consequence 
 ot the disturbances on the border, Schonbrunn and Gnadenhutten were 
 deserted in 1777, and all the teachers returned to Pennsylvania save 
 Zeisberger and Edwards, who gathered the Indians together at Lich- 
 tenau ; but in the spring of 1778, Gnadenhutten was re-occupied, with 
 Edwards in charge. This was not for a long time, however, for in July 
 we find Zeisberger, Heckewelder, and Edwards in charge of the union 
 station at Lichtenau, the others being deserted. The spring of 1779 finds 
 Edwards again at the resuscitated Gnadenhutten, Zeisberger re-occupying 
 Schonbrunn with a small party, and Heckewelder at Lichtenau. Later 
 in the season Zeisberger began New 'Schonbrunn on the west bank of 
 the Tuscarawas, in what is now Goshen township, a quarter of a mile 
 from the present Lockport, and a mile and a quarter south of New 
 Philadelphia ; thither he removed his flock in December. In the spring 
 of 1780, Heckewelder abandoned Lichtenau, and took his converts to 
 the west bank of the Tuscarawas, where he established Salem, in the 
 present Salem township, a mile and a half north-west of Port Washing- 
 ton. In the autumn the Moravian villages were in general charge of 
 Zeisberger, who traveled from one to the other ; Gottlob Senseman being 
 in charge of New Schonbrunn, Edwards of Gnadenhutten, and Hecke- 
 welder of Salem. It will thus be seen that at the time of the massacre, 
 the Moravian villages were wholly in the valley of the Tuscarawas. 
 R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 315 
 
 in the latter part of the year 1781. Not deeming it nec- 
 essary to use the fire and sword, to accomplish the desired 
 object, Col. "Williamson resolved on endeavoring to prevail 
 on them to move farther off; and if he failed in this, to 
 make prisoners of them all, and take them to Fort Pitt. 
 Upon his arrival at their towns, they were found to be 
 nearly deserted, a few Indians only, remaining in them. 
 These were made prisoners and taken to Fort Pitt ; but 
 were soon liberated. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that at the time the whites 
 were planning the destruction of the Moravian villages, 
 because of their supposed co-operation with the hostile 
 savages, the inhabitants of those villages were suffering 
 severely from the ill treatment of those very savages, be- 
 cause of their supposed attachment to the whites. By the 
 one party, they were charged with affording to Indian war 
 parties, a resting place and shelter, and furnishing them 
 with provisions. By the other, they were accused of ap- 
 prizing the whites of meditated incursions into the coun- 
 try, and thus defeating their purpose, or lessening the 
 chance of success; and of being instrumental in prevent- 
 ing the Delawares from entering in the war which they 
 were waging. Both charges were probably, well founded, 
 and the Moravian Indians yet culpable in neither. 1 
 
 Their villages were situated nearly midway between 
 the frontier establishments of the whites, and the towns 
 of the belligerent Indians, and were consequently, con- 
 venient resting places for warriors proceeding to and from 
 the settlements. That they should have permitted war 
 parties after ravages to refresh themselves there, or even 
 have supplied them with provisions, does not argue a dis- 
 position to aid or encourage their hostile operations. It 
 was at any time in the power of those warring savages, to 
 
 1 Zeisberger and Heckewelder kept Brodhead continually informed, 
 by letters, of Jhe movements and councils of the hostiles. The posi- 
 tion of the missionaries was one of exceeding delicacy, but the volumi- 
 nous correspondence between them and Brodhead proves that the 
 former were steadfast friends of the American colonies, and did effective 
 service throughout the several years of disturbance on the frontier. 
 R. G. T.
 
 316 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 exact by force whatever was required of the Moravian In- 
 dians, and the inclination was not wanting, to do this or 
 other acts of still greater enormity. That the warriors 
 were the better enabled to make incursions into the set- 
 tlements, and effect their dreadful objects by reason of 
 those accommodations, can not be questioned ; the fault 
 however, lay not in any inimical feeling of the Christian 
 Indians towards the whites, but in their physical inability 
 to withhold whatever might be demanded of them. 
 
 And although they exerted themselves to prevail on 
 other [231] tribes to forbear from hostilities against the 
 whites, and apprised the latter of enterprizes projected 
 against them, yet did not these things proceed from an 
 unfriendly disposition towards their red brethren. They 
 were considerate and reflecting, and saw that the savages 
 must ultimately suffer, by engaging in a war against the 
 settlements; while their pacific and Christian principles, 
 influenced them to forewarn the whites of impending 
 danger, that it might be avoided, and the effusion of blood 
 be prevented. But pure and commendable as were, no 
 doubt, the motives which governed them, in their inter- 
 course with either party, yet they were so unfortunate as 
 to excite the enmity and incur the resentment of both, 
 and eventually were made to suffer, though in different 
 degrees, by both. 
 
 In the fall of 1781, the settlements of the Moravians 
 were almost entirely broken up by upwards of three hun- 
 dred warriors, and the missionaries, residing among them, 
 after having been robbed of almost every thing, were taken 
 prisoners and carried to Detroit. Here they were detained 
 until the governor became satisfied that they were guilt- 
 less of any offence meriting a longer confinement; when 
 they were released & permitted to return to their beloved 
 people. The Indians were left to shift for themselves in 
 the Sandusky plains where most of their horses and cattle 
 perished from famine. 1 
 
 1 Brodhead's successful expedition against the Coshocton Indians, 
 in April, 1781, led to preparations for a retaliatory foray. Headed by 
 the renegade Capt. Matthew Elliott, a party of about 250 Indians, 
 mostly Wyandots, with chiefs Half King, Pipe, Snip, John and Thomas
 
 Of Border Warfare. 317 
 
 Snake, and others assembled at Gnadenhiitten, for a talk with the 
 Moravian teachers, preparatory to an expedition against Wheeling. 
 They arrived August 17, and Zeisberger at once secretly sent a message 
 of warning to Ft. Pitt, which threw the frontier into alarm, and caused 
 the garrison at Wheeling to be fully prepared when the enemy ap- 
 peared. A boy whom the Wyandots captured outside of Wheeling told 
 them of Zeisberger's warning, and when the unsuccessful war party 
 returned to Gnadenhiitten (Sept. 2), vengeance was wreaked on the 
 Moravians. The town was sacked that day, and the missionaries were 
 kept as prisoners for several days. Finally they were released (Sept. 6), 
 on promise that they remove their converts from the line of the war- 
 paths. September 11, the Moravians and their teachers left Salem in a 
 body, with but few worldly goods, for most of their property had been 
 destroyed by the Wyandots. They proceeded down the Tuscarawas to 
 the mouth of the Walhonding, thence up the latter stream and Vernon 
 River, and across country to the Sandusky, where they arrived October 
 1, and erected a few huts on the east bank of the river, about two and 
 a-half miles above the present Upper Sandusky. Fourteen days later, 
 the missionaries were summoned to appear before the British com- 
 mandant at Detroit, Major De Peyster. Zeisberger, Heckewelder, Ed- 
 wards, and Senseman left for Detroit, October 25. De Peyster questioned 
 them closely, and finally released them with the statement that -he 
 would confer with them later, relative to their final abode. They 
 reached the Sandusky, on their return, November 22. Meanwhile, the 
 winter had set in early ; and in danger of starving, a party of the Mora- 
 vians had returned to the Tuscarawas to gather corn in the abandoned 
 fields ; while there, a party of border rangers took them prisoners and 
 carried them to Fort Pitt. Brig.-Gen. William Irvine, then in com- 
 mand, treated the poor converts kindly, and allowed them to go in 
 peace, many returning to their old villages on the Tuscarawas, to com- 
 plete their dismal harvesting. R. G. T.
 
 318 Withers s Chronicles 
 
 [232] CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The revengeful feelings which had been engendered, 
 by inevitable circumstances, towards the Moravian In- 
 dians, and which had given rise to the expedition of 1781, 
 under Col. Williamson, were yet more deeply radicated by 
 subsequent events. On the night after their liberation 
 from Fort Pitt, the family of a Mr. Monteur were all 
 killed or taken captive; and the outrage, occurring so im- 
 mediately after they were set at liberty and in the vicinity 
 of where they were, was very generally attributed to them. 
 An irruption was made too, in the fall of 1781, into the 
 settlement on Buffalo creek, and some murders committed 
 and prisoners taken. One of these, escaping from cap- 
 tivity and returning soon after, declared that the party 
 committing the aggression, was headed by a Moravian war- 
 rior. 
 
 These circumstances operated to confirm many in the 
 belief, that those Indians were secretly inimical to the 
 whites, and not only furnished the savages with provisions 
 and a temporary home, but likewise engaged personally in 
 the war of extermination, which they were waging against 
 the frontier. Events occurring towards the close of winter, 
 dispelled all doubt, from the minds of those who had 
 fondly cherished every suggestion which militated against 
 the professed, and generally accredited, neutrality and pa- 
 cific disposition of the Moravians. 
 
 On the 8th of February 1782, while Henry Fink and 
 his son John, were engaged in sledding rails, on their farm 
 in the Buchannon settlement, several guns were simultane- 
 ously discharged at them; and before John had time to 
 reply to his father's inquiry, whether he were hurt, another 
 gun was fired and he fell lifeless. Having unlinked the 
 chain which fastened the horse to the sled, the old man 
 [233] galloped briskly away. He reached his home in 
 safety, and immediately moved his family to the fort. On
 
 Of Border Warfare. 319 
 
 the next day the lifeless body of John, was brought into 
 the fort. The first shot had wounded his arm ; the ball 
 from the second passed through his heart, & he was after- 
 wards scalped. 
 
 Near the latter part of the same month, some Indians 
 invaded the country above Wheeling, and succeeded in 
 killing a Mr. Wallace, and his family, consisting of his wife 
 and five children, & in taking John Carpenter a prisoner. 
 The early period of the year at which those enormities 
 were perpetrated, the inclemency of the winter of 1781 2 V 
 and the distance of the towns of hostile Indians from the 
 theatre of these outrages, caused many to exclaim, "the 
 Moravians have certainly done this deed." The destruction 
 of their villages was immediately resolved, and prepara- 
 tions were made to carry this determination into effect. 
 
 There were then in the North Western wilderness, be- 
 tween three and four hundred of the Christian Indians, 
 and who, until removed by the Wyandots and whites in 
 1781, as before mentioned, had resided on the Mtiskingum 
 in the villages of the Guadenhutten, Salem and Shoenbrun. 
 The society of which they were members, had been estab- 
 lished in the province of Pennsylvania about the year 
 1752, and in a short time became distinguished for 
 the good order and deportment of its members, both as 
 men and as Christians. During the continuance of the 
 French war, they nobly withstood every allurement which 
 was practised to draw them within its vortex, tfnd ex- 
 pressed their strong disapprobation of war in general ; say- 
 ing, " that it must be displeasing to that Great Being, who 
 made men, not to destroy men, but to love and assist each 
 other." In 1769 emigrants from their villages of Frieden- 
 shutten, Wyalusing and Shesheequon in Pennsylvania, be- 
 gan to make an establishment in the North Western wilder- 
 ness, and in a few years, attained a considerable degree of 
 prosperity, their towns increased rapidly in population, 
 and themselves, under the teaching of pious and beneficent 
 missionaries, in civilization and Christianity. In the war 
 of 1774, their tranquil and happy hours were interrupted, 
 by reports of the ill intention of the whites along the
 
 320 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 frontier, towards them, and by frequent acts of annoyance, 
 committed by war parties of the savages. 
 
 This state of things continued with but little, if any, 
 intermission, occasionally assuming a more gloomy and 
 portentious aspect, until the final destruction of their 
 villages. In the spring of 1781, the principal war chief of 
 the Delawares apprised the missionaries and them, of the 
 danger which threatened them, as well from the whites as 
 the savages, and advised them to remove to some situation, 
 where they would be exempt from molestation by either. 
 Conscious of the rectitude of their conduct as regarded 
 both, and unwilling to forsake the comforts which their 
 industry had procured for them, and the fields rendered 
 productive by their labor, they disregarded the [234] 
 friendly monition, and continued in their villages, progress- 
 ing in the knowledge and love of the Redeemer of men, 
 and practising the virtues inculcated by his word. 
 
 This was their situation, at the time they were re- 
 moved to Sandusky, early in the fall of 1781. When their 
 missionaries and principal men were liberated by the gov- 
 ernor of Detroit, they obtained leave of the Wyandot 
 chiefs to return to the Muskingurn to get the corn which 
 had been left there, to prevent the actual starvation of 
 their families. About one hundred and fifty of them, 
 principally women and children went thither for this pur- 
 pose, and were thus engaged when the second expedition 
 under Col. Williamson proceeded against them. 
 
 In March 1782, between eighty and ninety men as- 
 sembled themselves for the purpose of effecting the de- 
 struction of the Moravian towns. 1 If they then had in 
 
 1 One hundred and eighty-six men, mounted, from the Monon- 
 gahela settlements. Early in March, 1782, they assembled under David 
 Williamson, colonel of one of the militia battalions of Washington 
 County, Pa., on the east bank of the Ohio, a few miles below Steuben- 
 ville. The water was high, the weather cold and stormy, and there 
 were no boats for crossing over to Mingo Bottom. Many turned back, 
 but about two hundred succeeded in crossing. The expedition was not 
 a " private " affair, but was regularly authorized by the military authority 
 of Washington County ; its destination was not the Moravian settle- 
 ments, but the hostile force, then supposed to be on the Tuscarawas 
 river. It seems to have generally been understood on the border that 
 the Moravian towns were now deserted. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 321 
 
 contemplation the achieving of any other injury to those 
 people, it was not promulgated in the settlements. They 
 avowed their object to be the destruction of the houses 
 and the laying waste the crops, in order to deprive the 
 hostile savages of the advantage of obtaining shelter and 
 provisions, so near to the frontier ; and the removal of the 
 Moravians to Fort Pitt, to preserve them from the personal 
 injury which, it was feared, would be inflicted on them by 
 the warriors. Being merely a private expedition, each of 
 the men took with him, his own arms, ammunition and 
 provisions ; and many of them, their horses. They took 
 up the line of march from the Mingo Bottom, and on the 
 second night thereafter, encamped within one mile of the 
 village of Gnadenhutten ; and in the morning proceeded 
 towards it, in the order of attack prescribed by a council 
 of the officers. 
 
 The village being built upon both sides of the river, 
 and the scouts having discovered and reported that it was 
 occupied on both sides, one-half the men were ordered to 
 cross over and bear down upon the town on the western 
 bank, while the other half would possess themselves of 
 that part of it which lay on the eastern shore. Upon the 
 arrival of the first division at the river, no boat or other 
 small craft was seen in which they could be transported 
 across ; and they were for a time, in some difficulty how 
 they should proceed. What appeared to be a canoe was 
 at length discovered on the opposite bank, and a young 
 man by the name of Slaughter, plunging in swam to it. It 
 proved to be a trough for containing sugar water, and 
 capable of bearing only two persons at a time. To obviate 
 the delay which must have resulted from this tedious 
 method of conveying themselves over, many of the men 
 unclothed themselves, and placing their garments, arms 
 and ammunition in the trough, swam by its sides, not- 
 withstanding that ice was floating in the current and the 
 water, consequently, cold and chilling. 
 
 When nearly half this division had thus reached the 
 western bank, two sentinels, who on the first landing had 
 been stationed a short distance in advance, discovered and 
 21
 
 322 Withers 1 s Chronicles 
 
 fired at, one of the Indians. [235] The shot of one broke 
 his arm, the other killed him. Directions were then sent 
 to the division which was to operate on the eastern side of 
 the river, to move directly to the attack, lest the firing 
 should alarm the inhabitants and they defeat the object 
 which seemed now to be had in view. The few who had 
 crossed without awaiting for the others, marched imme- 
 diately into the town on the western shore. 
 
 Arrived among the Indians, they offered no violence, 
 but on the contrary, professing peace and good will, as- 
 sured them, they had come for the purpose of escorting 
 them safely to Fort Pitt, that they might no longer be ex- 
 posed to molestation from the militia of the whites, or the 
 warriors of the savages. Sick of the sufferings which they 
 had so recently endured, and rejoicing at the prospect of 
 being delivered from farther annoyance they gave up their 
 arms, and with alacrity commenced making preparations 
 for the journey, providing food as well for the whites, as 
 for themselves. A party of whites and Indians was next 
 despatched to Salem, to bring in those who were there. 
 They then shut up the Moravians left at Gnadenhutten, in 
 two houses some distance apart, and had them well guarded, 
 When the others arrived from Salem, they were treated in 
 like manner, and shut up in the same houses with their 
 brethren of Gnadenhutten. 
 
 The division which was to move into the town on the 
 eastern side of the river, coming unexpectedly upon one 
 of the Indian women, she endeavored to conceal herself in 
 a bunch of bushes at the water edge, but being discovered, 
 by some of the men, was quickly killed. She was the 
 wife of Shabosh, who had been shot by the sentinels 
 of the other division. Others, alarmed at the appear- 
 ance of a party of armed men, and ignorant that a like 
 force was on the opposite side of the river, attempted to 
 escape thither. They did not live to effect their object. 
 Three were killed in the attempt; and the men then 
 crossed over, with such as they had made prisoners, to 
 join their comrades, in the western and main part of the 
 town. 
 
 A council of war was then held to determine on the
 
 Of Border Warfare. 323 
 
 fate of the prisoners. Col. Williamson having been much 
 censured for the lenity of his conduct towards those In- 
 dians in the expedition of the preceding year, the officers 
 were unwilling to take upon themseves the entire responsi- 
 bility of deciding upon their fate now, and agreed that it 
 should be left to the men. The line was soon formed, and 
 they were told it remained with them to say, whether the 
 Moravian prisoners should be taken to Fort Pitt or mur- 
 dered ; and Col. Williamson requested that those who were 
 inclined to mercy, should advance and form a second link, 
 that it might be seen on which side was the majority. 
 Alas ! it required no scrutiny to determine. Only sixteen, 
 or at most eighteen men, stepped forward to save the lives 
 of this unfortunate people, and their doom became sealed. 1 
 From the moment those ill fated beings were im- 
 mured in houses they seemed to anticipate the horrid des- 
 tiny which awaited them ; [236] and spent their time in 
 holy and heartfelt devotion, to prepare them for the awful 
 realities of another world. They sang, they prayed, they 
 exhorted each other to a firm reliance on the Saviour of 
 men, and soothed those in affliction with the comfortable 
 assurance, that although men might kill the body, they 
 had no power over the soul, and that they might again 
 meet in a better and happier world, " where the wicked 
 cease from troubling and the weary find rest." When 
 told that they were doomed to die, they all affectionately 
 embraced, and bedewing their bosoms with mutual tears, 
 reciprocally sought, and obtained forgiveness for any of- 
 fences which they might have given each other through 
 life. Thus at peace with God, and reconciled with one 
 another, they replied to those, who impatient for the 
 slaughter had asked if they were not yet prepared, " Yes ! 
 We have commended our souls to God, and are ready 
 to die." 
 
 1 Contemporary accounts speak of a council of war, held in the 
 evening, at which this question was decided. But a small majority 
 voted for the butchery ; Williamson himself was in the minority. Dor- 
 sey Pentecost, writing from Pittsburg, May 8, 1782 (see Perm. Arch., ix., 
 p. 540), says : " I have heard it intimated that about thirty or forty only 
 of the party gave their consent or assisted in the catastrophe. "R. Gr.T.
 
 "324 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 What must have been the obduracy of those, who 
 could remain inflexible in their doom of death, amid such 
 scenes as these? How ruthless & unrelenting their hearts, 
 who unmoved by the awful spectacle of so many fellow 
 creatures, preparing for the sudden and violent destruction 
 of life and asking of their God, mercy for themselves and 
 forgiveness for their enemies could yet thirst for blood, 
 and manifest impatience that its shedding was delayed for 
 an instant? Did not the possibility of that innocence, 
 which has been ever since so universally accorded to their 
 victims, once occur to them ; or were their minds so under 
 the influence of exasperation and resentment, that they 
 ceased to think of any thing, but the gratification of those 
 feelings? Had they been about to avenge the murder of 
 friends on its known authors, somewhat might have been 
 pardoned to retaliation and to vengeance; but involving 
 all in one common ruin, for the supposed offences of a few, 
 there can be no apology for their conduct, no excuse for 
 their crime. 
 
 It were well, if all memory of the tragedy at Gnad- 
 enhutten, were effaced from the mind ; but it yet lives in 
 the recollection of many and stands recorded on the pol- 
 luted page of history. Impartial truth requires, that it 
 should be here set down. 
 
 A few of the prisoners, supposed to have been act- 
 ively engaged in war, were the first to experience their 
 doom. They were tied and taken some distance from the 
 houses in which [237] they had been confined ; despatched 
 with spears and tomahawks, and scalped. The remainder 
 of both sexes, from the hoary head of decrepitude, incap- 
 able of wrong, to helpless infancy, pillowed on its mother's 
 breast, were cruelly & shockingly murdered; and the 
 different apartments of those houses of blood, exhibited 
 their bleeding bodies, mangled by the tomahawk, scalping 
 knife and spear, and disfigured by the war-club and the 
 mallet. 1 
 
 1 Lineback's Relation (Penn. Arch., ix., p. 525) says: " In the morn- 
 ing, the militia chose two houses, which they called the ' slaughter 
 houses,' and then brought the Indians two or three at a time, with ropes 
 about their necks, and dragged them into the slaughter houses where
 
 Of Border Warfare. 325 
 
 Thus perished ninety-six of the Moravian Indians. 
 Of these, sixty-two were grown persons, one-third of whom 
 were women; the remaining thirty-four were children. 1 
 Two youth alone, made their escape. One of them had 
 been knocked down and scalped, but was not killed. He 
 had the presence of mind to lie still among the dead, until 
 nightfall, when he crept silently forth and escaped. The 
 other, in the confusion of the shocking scene, slipped 
 through a trap door into the cellar, and passing out at a 
 small window, got off unnoticed and uninjured. 
 
 In the whole of this transaction the Moravians were 
 passive and unresisting. They confided in the assurances 
 of protection given them by the whites, and until pent up 
 in the houses, continued cheerful and happy. If when 
 convinced of the murderous intent of their visitors, they 
 had been disposed to violence and opposition, it would have 
 availed them nothing. They had surrendered their arms 
 (being requested to do so, as a guarantee for the security 
 of the whites,) and were no longer capable of offering any 
 effectual or available resistance, and while the dreadful 
 work of death was doing, "they were as lambs led to the 
 slaughter; & as sheep before the shearers are dumb, so 
 opened they not their mouths." There was but a solitary 
 exception to this passiveness, and it was well nigh termin- 
 ating in the escape of its author, and in the death of some 
 of the whites. 
 
 As two of the men were leading forth one of the sup- 
 posed warriors to death, a dispute arose between them, 
 who should have the scalp of this victim to their barbarity. 
 He was progressing after them with a silent dancing mo- 
 tion, and singing his death song. Seeing them occupied 
 so closely with each other, he became emboldened to try 
 an escape. Drawing a knife from its scabbard, he cut the 
 
 they knocked them down." This accords with Heckewelder's Narrative, 
 p. 320, which says they were knocked down with a cooper's mallet. 
 The victims included those converts living at Salem, who had peaceably 
 come in to Gnadenhiitten with their captors ; but those at New Schon- 
 brunn had taken the alarm and fled. R. G. T. 
 
 1 Later authorities put the total number at ninety twenty-nine 
 men, twenty-seven women, and thirty-four children. R. G. T.
 
 326 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 cord which bound him; and springing forward, aimed a 
 thrust at one of his conductors. The cutting of the rope 
 had, however, drawn it so [238] tightly that he who held 
 it became sensible that it was wrought upon in some way ; 
 and turning quickly round to ascertain the cause, scarcely 
 avoided the stab. The Indian then bounded from them, 
 and as he fled towards the woods, dexterously removed 
 the cord from his wrists. Several shots were discharged 
 at him without effect, when the firing was stopped, lest in 
 the hurry and confusion of the pursuit, some of their own 
 party might suffer from it. A young man, mounting his 
 horse, was soon by the side of the Indian, and springing 
 off, his life had well nigh been sacrificed by his rashness. 
 He was quickly thrown to the ground, and the uplifted 
 tomahawk about to descend on his head, when a timely 
 shot, directed with fatal precision, took effect on the In- 
 dian and saved him. 
 
 Had the Moravians been disposed for war, they could 
 easily have ensured their own safety, and dealt destruction 
 to the whites. If, when their town was entered by a party 
 of only sixteen, their thirty men, aided by the youths of 
 the village, armed and equipped as all were, had gone 
 forth in battle array, they could have soon cut off those 
 few; and by stationing some gunners on the bank of the 
 river, have prevented the landing of the others of the ex- 
 pedition. But their faith in the sincerity of the whites 
 their love of peace and abhorrence of war, forbade it; and 
 the confidence of those who first rushed into the town, in 
 these feelings and dispositions of the Indians, no doubt 
 prompted them to that act of temerity, while an un- 
 fordable stream was flowing between them and their only 
 support. 
 
 During the massacre at Gnadenhutten, a detachment 
 of the whites was ordered to Shoenbrun to secure the Mo- 
 ravians who were there. Fortunately however, two of the 
 inhabitants of this village had discovered the dead body 
 of Shabosh in time to warn their brethren of danger, and 
 they all moved rapidly off. When the detachment arrived, 
 nothing was left for them but plunder. This was secured, 
 and they returned to their comrades. Gnadenhutten was
 
 Of Border Warfare. 327 
 
 then pillaged of every article of value which could be easily 
 removed; its houses even those which contained the 
 dead bodies of the Moravians were burned to ashes, and 
 the men set out on their return to the settlements. 1 
 
 The expedition against the Moravian towns on the 
 Muskingum, was projected and carried on by inhabitants 
 of the [239] western counties of Pennsylvania, a district 
 of country which had long been the theatre of Indian 
 hostilities. Its result (strange as it may now appear) was 
 highly gratifying to many; and the ease with which so 
 much Indian blood had been made to flow, coupled with 
 an ardent desire to avenge the injuries which had been 
 done them by the savages, led to immediate preparations 
 for another, to be conducted on a more extensive scale, 
 and requiring the co-operation of more men. And al- 
 though the completion of the work of destruction, which 
 had been so successfully begun, of the Moravian Indians, 
 was the principal inducement of some, yet many attached 
 themselves to the expedition, from more noble and com- 
 mendable motives. 
 
 The residence of the Moravians ever since they were 
 removed to the plains of Sandusky, was in the immediate 
 vicinity of the Wyandot villages, and the warriors from 
 these had been particularly active and untiring in their 
 hostility to the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania. The 
 contemplated campaign against the Moravians, was viewed 
 by many as affording a fit opportunity to punish those 
 savages for their many aggressions, as it would require 
 that they should proceed but a short distance beyond the 
 point proposed, in order to arrive at their towns ; and they 
 accordingly engaged in it for that purpose. 
 
 Other causes too, conspired to fill the ranks and form 
 an army for the accomplishment of the contemplated ob- 
 jects. The commandants of the militia of Washington 
 and Westmoreland counties ''Cols. Williamson and Mar- 
 
 1 Salem, New Schonbrunn and Gnadenhiitten were all destroyed by 
 fire. The whites returned home the following day, with ninety-six 
 scalps ninety Moravians and six outlying Indians. It seems certain 
 that a few hostiles were with the Moravians at the time of the mas- 
 sacre. R. G. T.
 
 328 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 shall) 1 encouraged the inhabitants to volunteer on this 
 expedition, and made known, that every militia man who 
 accompanied it, finding his own horse and gun, and pro- 
 visions for a month, should be exempt from two tours of 
 militia duty ; and that all horses unavoidably lost in the 
 service, should be replaced from those taken in the Indian 
 country. From the operation of these different causes, an 
 army of nearly five hundred men was soon raised, who 
 being supplied with ammunition by the Lieutenant Col- 
 onel of Washington county, proceeded to the Old Mingo 
 towns, the place of general rendezvous where an election 
 was held to fill the oifice of commander of the expedition. 2 
 The candidates were Colonel Williamson and Colonel 
 Crawford; and the latter gentleman being chosen imme- 
 diately organized the troops, and prepared to march. 
 
 [240] On the 25th of May, the army left the Mingo 
 towns, and pursuing " Williamson's trail," arrived at the 
 upper Moravian town on the Muskingum (Shoenbrun,) 
 where (finding plenty of corn of the preceding year's crop, 
 yet on the stalk) they halted to refresh their horses. 
 While here, Captains Brenton and Bean, discovered and 
 fired upon two Indians; and the report of the guns being 
 heard in camp, the men, in despite of the exertions of their 
 officers, rushed towards the source of alarm, in the most 
 tumultuous and disorderly manner. Colonel Crawford, 
 used to the discipline of continental soldiers, saw in the 
 impetuosity and insubordination of the troops under his 
 command, enough to excite the liveliest apprehensions for 
 
 1 David Williamson, as previously seen, was a colonel of militia in 
 Washington County, Pa.; James Marshal, as county lieutenant of Wash- 
 ington, was his superior officer. R. G. T. 
 
 2 The place of rendezvous was Mingo Bottom (the present Mingo 
 Junction, O.), and the date May 20. It was the 24th before all were 
 present. The volunteers numbered 480, of whom two-thirds were from 
 Washington County; most of the others were from Fayette County, 
 Pa., and a few from Ohio County, Va. In the vote for commander, 
 William Crawford received 235, and Williamson 230. Four field majors 
 were elected to rank in the order named : Williamson, Thomas Gaddis, 
 John McClelland, and one Brinton. The standard modern authority 
 for the details of this expedition, is Butterfield's Crawford's Expedition 
 Against Sandusky (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1873). R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 329 
 
 the event of the expedition. He had volunteered to go on 
 the campaign, only in compliance with the general wish 
 of the troops that he should head them, and when chosen 
 commander in chief of the forces assembled at the Mingo 
 towns, he is said to have accepted the office with reluct- 
 ance, not only sensible of the impracticability of control- 
 ling men unused to restraint, but opposed to some of the 
 objects of the expedition, and the frequently expressed de- 
 termination of the troops, to spare no Indian whom acci- 
 dent or the fortune of war should place in their power. 
 
 From Shoeubrun the army proceeded as expeditiously 
 as was practicable to the site of the Moravian village, near 
 the Upper Sandusky ; but instead of meeting with this 
 oppressed and persecuted tribe, or having gained an op- 
 portunity of plundering their property, they saw nothing 
 which manifested that it had been the residence of man, 
 save a few desolate and deserted huts, the people, whom 
 it was their intention to destroy, had some time before, 
 most fortunately for themselves, moved to the Scioto. 
 
 Discontent and dissatisfaction ensued upon the disap- 
 pointment. The guides were ignorant of there being any 
 Indian towns nearer than those on Lower Sandusky, and 
 the men became impatient to return home. In this pos- 
 ture of affairs, a council of war, consisting of the field 
 officers and captains, was held, and it was resolved to move 
 forward, and if no enemy appeared that day, to retrace 
 their steps. Just after this determination was made 
 known, an express arrived, from a detachment of mounted 
 men, which had been sent forward to reconnoitre, with in- 
 formation that about three miles in advance a large body 
 of Indians had been discovered hastening [241] rapidly to 
 meet them. The fact was, that Indian spies had watched 
 and reported the progress of the expedition, ever after it 
 left the Mingo towns ; and when satisfied of its destina- 
 tion, every arrangement which they could make to defeat 
 its object, and involve the troops in the destruction to 
 which it was their purpose to consign others, was begun 
 by the savages. Having perfected these, they were march- 
 ing on to give battle to the whites. 
 
 Immediately upon the reception of this intelligence,
 
 330 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 the army moved forward, and meeting the reconnoitre! ng 
 party coming in, had proceeded but a short distance farther, 
 when they came in view of the Indians hastening to oc- 
 cupy a small body of woods, in the midst of an extensive 
 plain. The battle was then begun by a heavy tire from 
 both sides, and the savages prevented gaining possession 
 of the woods. A party of them having however, taken 
 post in them before the whites came up, continued much 
 to annoy the troops, until some of them, alighting from 
 their horses, bravely rushed forward and dislodged them. 
 The Indians then attempted to gain a small skirt of 
 wood on Colonel Crawford's right ; but the vigilance of 
 the commanding officer of the right wing, (Major Leet) 
 detected the movement, and the bravery of his men de- 
 feated it. The action now became general and severe and 
 was warmly contested until dark, when it ceased for a 
 time without having been productive of much advantage 
 to either side. During the night, both armies lay on their 
 arms; adopting the wise policy of kindling large fires 
 along the line of battle, and retreating some distance be- 
 hind them, to prevent being surprised by a night attack. 
 
 Early in the morning a few shots were fired, but at 
 too great distance for execution. The Indians were hourly 
 receiving reinforcements, and seemed busily engaged in 
 active preparations for a decisive conflict. The whites be- 
 came uneasy at their increasing strength ; and a council 
 of the officers deemed it expedient to retreat. As it would 
 be difficult to effect this in open day, in the presence of an 
 enemy of superior force, it was resolved to postpone it 
 until night, making in the mean time every arrangement 
 to ensure its success. The killed were buried, and fires 
 burned over the graves to prevent discovery, litters were 
 made for bearing the wounded, and the army was formed 
 into three lines with them in the centre. 
 
 [242] The day passed, without an attack being made 
 by the Indians. They were still seen to traverse the plains 
 in every direction, and in large bodies ; and not until the 
 troops were about forming the line of retreat, did they 
 seem to have any idea that such a movement was intended. 
 They then commenced firing a few shots, and in a little
 
 Of Border Warfare. 331 
 
 
 
 while it became apparent that they had occupied every 
 pass, leaving open only that which led to Sandusky. 
 Along this way, the guides conducted the main army, 
 until they had passed the Indian lines about a mile ; when 
 wheeling to the left, they marched round and gained the 
 trail of their outward march. Continuing in this they 
 proceeded to the settlements without any interruption. > 
 The savage warriors thinking it better to follow detached 
 parties than the main army. 
 
 The few shots which were fired by the Indians as the 
 whites were forming the line of retreat, were viewed by 
 many as evidence that their purpose had been discovered, 
 and that these were signal guns preceding a general at- 
 tack. Under these impressions, the men in front hurried 
 off and others following the example, at least one third of 
 the army were to be seen flying in detached parties, and 
 in different directions from that taken by the main body, 
 supposing that the attention of the Indians would be 
 wholly turned to this point. They were not permitted to 
 proceed far under this delusive supposition. Instead of 
 following the main army, the Indians pursued those small 
 parties with such activity, that not many of those compos- 
 ing them were able to escape; one company of forty men 
 under a Captain Williamson, 1 was the only party detached 
 from the principal body of the troops, fortunate enough 
 to get with the main army on its retreat. Late in the 
 night, they broke through the Indian lines under a heavy 
 fire and with some loss, and on the morning of the second 
 day of the retreat, again joined their comrades in the ex- 
 pedition, who had marched off in a body ; in compliance 
 with the orders of the commander-in-chief. 
 
 Colonel Crawford himself proceeded at the head of 
 the army for some short distance, when missing his son, his 
 son-in-law (Major Harrison) arrd two nephews, 2 he stopped 
 to enquire for them. Receiving no satisfactory informa- 
 tion respecting either of them, he was induced through 
 
 1 Col. David Williamson. R. G. T. 
 
 1 His ^son John, his son-in-law Major William Harrison, and one of 
 his nephews, not two, William Crawford. They were captured by 
 the Indians and killed. R. G. T.
 
 332 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 anxiety for their fate to continue still, until all had passed 
 on, when he resumed his flight, in company with doctor 
 Knight 1 and two [243] others. For their greater security, 
 they travelled some distance apart, but from the jaded and 
 exhausted condition of their horses could proceed but 
 slowly. One of the two men in company with the Colonel 
 and doctor Knight, would frequently fall some distance 
 behind the others, and as frequently call aloud for them 
 to wait for him. Near the Sandusky creek he hallooed to 
 them to halt, but the yell of a savage being heard near 
 him, they went on and never again was he heard of. 
 About day, Colonel Crawford's horse gave out and he 
 was forced to proceed on foot, as was also the other of 
 the two who had left the field with him and Knight. 
 They continued however to travel together, and soon over- 
 took Captain Biggs, endeavoring to secured the safety of 
 himself and Lieutenant Ashly, who had been so badly 
 wounded that he was unable to ride alone. A heavy fall 
 of rain induced them to halt, and stripping the bark from 
 some trees, they formed a tolerable shelter from the storm, 
 and remained there all night. In the morning they were 
 joined by another of the troops, when their company con- 
 sisted of six Colonel Crawford and Doctor Knight, who 
 kept about an hundred yards in front Captain Biggs and 
 Lieutenant Ashly, in the center; and the other two men 
 in the rear., They proceeded in this way about two miles, 
 when a party of Delawares suddenly sprang from their 
 hiding places into the road, and making prisoners of 
 Colonel Crawford and Doctor Knight, carried them to the 
 Indian camp near to where they then were. On the next 
 day the scalps of Captain Biggs and Lieutenant Ashly, 
 were brought in by another party of Indians who had been 
 likewise watching the road. From the encampment, they 
 were led, in company with nine other prisoners, to the old 
 Wyandot town, from which place they were told they 
 would be taken to the new town, not far off. Before set- 
 
 1 Dr. John Knight, surgeon to the expedition. He was captured, 
 and sentenced to death, but after thrilling adventures finally escaped. 
 R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 333 
 
 ting out from this place, Colonel Crawford and Doctor 
 Knight were painted black by Captain Pipe, a Delaware 
 chief, who told the former, that he intended to have him 
 shaved when he arrived among his friends, and the latter 
 that he was to be carried to the Shawnee town, to see 
 some of his old acquaintance. The nine prisoners were 
 then marched off in front of Colonel Crawford and Doctor 
 Knight, who were brought on by Pipe and Wingenim, 1 
 another of the Delaware chiefs. As they went on, they 
 passed the bodies of four of the captives, who had been 
 tomahawked and scalped on the way, and came [244] to 
 where the remaining five were, in time to see them suffer 
 the same fate from the hands of squaws and boys. The 
 head of one of them (John McKinley, formerly an officer 
 in one of the Virginia regiments) was cut off, and for some 
 time kicked about .on the ground. A while afterwards 
 they met Simon Girty and several Indians on horseback ; 
 when Col. Crawford was stripped naked, severely beaten 
 with clubs and sticks, and made to sit down near a post 
 which had been planted for the purpose, and around which 
 a fire of poles was burning briskly. His hands were then 
 pinioned behind him, and a rope attached to the band 
 around his wrist and fastened to the foot of a post about 
 fifteen feet high, allowing him liberty only to sit down, or 
 walk once or twice round it, and return the same way. 
 Apprehensive that he was doomed to be burned to death, 
 he asked Girty if it were possible that he had been spared 
 from the milder instruments of the tomahawk and scalp- 
 ing knife, only to suffer the more cruel death by fire. 
 " Yes, said Girty, composedly, you must be burned Colonel." 
 " It is dreadful, replied Crawford, but I will endeavor to 
 bear it patiently." Captain Pipe then addressed the sav- 
 ages in an animated speech, at the close of which, they 
 rent the air with hideous yells, and immediately discharged 
 a number of loads of powder at the naked body of their 
 victim. His ears were then cut off, and while the men 
 would apply the burning ends of the poles to his flesh, the 
 squaws threw coals and hot embers upon him, so that in a 
 
 1 Wingenund R. G. T.
 
 334 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 little time he had too, to walk on fire. In the midst of 
 these sufferings, he begged of the infamous Girty to shoot 
 him. That worse than savage monster, tauntingly re- 
 plied, "how can I? you see I have no gun," and laughed 
 heartily at the scene. 
 
 For three hours Colonel Crawford endured the most 
 excruciating agonies with the utmost fortitude, when faint 
 and almost exhausted, he commended his soul to God, and 
 laid down on his face. He was then scalped, and burning 
 coals being laid on his head and back, by one of the squaws, 
 he again arose and attempted to walk ; but strength failed 
 him and he sank into the welcome arms of death. His 
 body was then thrown into the fire and consumed to ashes. 1 
 
 Of the whole of this shocking scene, Doctor Knight 
 was [245] an unwilling spectator; and in the midst of it 
 was told by Girty, that it should be his fate too, when he 
 arrived at the Shawanee towns. These were about forty 
 miles distant; and he was committed to the care of a 
 young warrior to be taken there. On the first day they 
 travelled about twenty-five miles, and when they stopped 
 for the night, the Doctor was securely fastened. In vain 
 did he anxiously watch for an opportunity to endeavor to 
 
 [244] J Colonel Crawford was then about fifty years of age, and had 
 been an active warrior against the savages for a great while. During 
 [245] the French war, he distinguished himself by his bravery and good 
 conduct, and was much noticed by General Washington, who obtained for 
 him an ensigncy. At the commencement of the revolution, he raised 
 a regiment by his own exertions, and at the period of this unfortunate 
 expedition, bore the commission of Colonel in the Continental army. 
 He possessed a sound judgment, was a man of singular good nature and 
 great humanity, and remarkable for his hospitality. His melancholy 
 sufferings and death spread a gloom over the countenances of all who 
 knew him. His son, John Crawford, and his son-in-law, Major Harri- 
 son, were taken prisoners, carried to the Shawanee towns and murdered. 
 
 Comment by R. G. T. Crawford was born in 1732, in Orange County, 
 Va., of Scotch-Irish parentage. He made the friendship of Washington 
 while the latter was surveying for Lord Fairfax, in the Shenandoah 
 Valley, in 1749. Washington taught him his art, but in 1755 he 
 abandoned it for a military life, and thenceforward was a prominent 
 character on the frontier, often serving under Washington. From 1767 
 forward, his home was on the banks of the Youghiogheny, on Braddock's 
 Road. Crawford fought in Dunmore's War, and throughout the Revo- 
 lution did notable service on the Virginia border.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 335 
 
 release himself from the cords which bound him. The In- 
 dian was vigilant and slept none. About day light they 
 arose, and while the Indian was kindling a fire, the gnats 
 were so troublesome that he untied his prisoner, and set 
 him likewise to making a fire to relieve them from the an- 
 noyance. The doctor took a burning coal between two 
 sticks, and going behind the Indian towards the spot at 
 which he was directed to excite a smoke, turned suddenly 
 around, and struck the savage with all his force. The In- 
 dian fell forward, but quickly recovering and seeing his 
 gun in the hands of his assailant, ran off, howling hide- 
 ously. The anxiety of Doctor Knight, saved the life of 
 the savage. When he seized the gun, he drew back the 
 cock in such haste and with so much violence as to break 
 the main spring and render it useless to him ; but as the 
 Indian was ignorant of this circumstance, he continued 
 his flight and the doctor was then enabled to escape. After 
 a toilsome travel of twenty-one days, during which time 
 he subsisted altogether on wild gooseberries, young nettles, 
 a raw terrapin and two young birds, he arrived safely at 
 Fort Mclntosh meagre, emaciated and almost famished. 
 Another instance of great good-fortune occurred in the 
 person of John Slover, 1 who was also made prisoner after 
 having travelled more than half the distance from the fatal 
 scene of [246] action to Fort Pitt. "When only eight 
 years of age he had been taken by some Indians on New 
 river, and detained in captivity for twelve years. In this 
 time he became well acquainted with their manners and 
 customs, and attached to their mode of living so strongly, 
 that when ransomed by his friends, he left his Indian com- 
 panions with regret. He had become too, while with them, 
 familiar with the country north west of the Ohio, and an 
 excellent woodsman ; and in consequence of these attain- 
 ments was selected a principal guide to the army on its 
 outward march. When a retreat was prematurely began 
 to be made by detached parties, he was some distance from 
 
 1 John Slover, one of the guides to the expedition, was among the 
 best known scouts of his day, on the Upper Ohio. His published Narrative 
 is a prime source of information relative to the events of the campaign. 
 R. G. T.
 
 336 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 camp, and having to equip himself for flight, was left a 
 good way in the rear. It was not long however, before he 
 came up with a party, whose horses were unable to extri- 
 cate themselves from a deep morass, over which they had 
 attempted to pass. Slover's was soon placed in the same 
 unpleasant situation, and they all, alighting from them, 
 proceeded on foot. In this manner they traveled on until 
 they had nearly reached the Tuscarawa, when a party oj 
 savages from the way side, fired upon them. One of the 
 men was killed, Slover and two others made prisoners, & 
 the fifth escaped to Wheeling. 
 
 Those taken captive were carried first to Wacha- 
 tomakah (a small town of the Mingoes and Shawanees,) 
 from whence after having been severely beaten, they were 
 conducted to a larger town two miles farther. On their 
 arrival here, they had all to pass through the usual cere- 
 monies of running the gauntlet; and one of them who 
 had been stripped of his clothes and painted black, was 
 most severely beaten, mangled, and killed, and his body 
 cut in pieces and placed on poles outside the town. "Here 
 too, Slover saw the dead bodies of Col. McClelland, Major 
 Harrison and John Crawford ; and learned that they had 
 all been put to death but a little while before his arrival 
 there; and although he was spared for some time, yet 
 every thing which he saw acted towards other prisoners, 
 led him to fear that he was reserved for a more cruel fate, 
 whenever the whim of the instant should suggest its con- 
 summation. At length an express arrived from Detroit 
 with a speech for the warriors, which decided his doom. 
 Being decyphered from the belt of wampum which con- 
 tained it, the speech began by enquiring why they con- 
 tinued to take prisoners, and said, " Provisions are scarce 
 and when you send in [247] prisoners, we have them to 
 feed, and still some of them are getting off, and carrying 
 tidings of our affairs. When any of your people are taken 
 bv the rebels, they shew no mercy. Why then should 
 you? My children take no more prisoners of any sort, 
 men, women, or children." Two days after the arrival of 
 the express with this speech, a council of the different 
 tribes of Indians near, was held, and it was determined to 

 
 Of Border Warfare. 337 
 
 act in conformity with the advice of the Governor of De- 
 troit. Slover was then the only white prisoner at this 
 town ; and on the morning after the council was dissolved, 
 about forty warriors came to the house where he was, and 
 tying a rope around his neck, led him off to another vil- 
 lage, five miles distant. Here again he was severely beaten 
 with clubs & the pipe end of the tomahawk, & then tied to 
 a post, around which were piles of wood. These were 
 soon kindled, but a violent rain falling unexpectedly, ex- 
 tinguished the flames, before they had effected him. It 
 was then agreed to postpone his execution, until the next 
 day, and being again beaten and much wounded by their 
 blows, he was taken to a block house, his hands tied, the 
 rope about his neck fastened to a beam of the building^ 
 and three warriors left to guard him for the night. 
 
 If the feelings of Slover would have permitted him 
 to enjoy sleep, the conduct of the guard would have pre- 
 vented it. They delighted in keeping alive in his mind 
 the shocking idea of the suffering which he would have to 
 endure, & frequently asking him " how he would like to 
 eat fire," tormented him nearly all night. Awhile before 
 day however, they fell asleep, and Slover commenced un- 
 tying himself. Without much difficulty he loosened the 
 cord from his arms, but the ligature around his neck, of 
 undressed buffalo-hide, seemed to defy his exertions to re- 
 move it ; and while he was endeavoring to gnaw it in vain, 
 one of the sleeping Indians, rose up and going near to him, 
 eat and smoked his pipe for some time. Slover lay per- 
 fectly still, apprehensive that all chance of escape was now 
 lost to him. But no the Indian again composed himselt 
 to sleep, and the first effort afterwards made, to loose the 
 band from his neck by slipping it over his head, resulted 
 in leaving Slover entirely unbound. He then crept softly 
 from the house and leaping a fence, gained the cornfield. 
 Passing on, as he approached a tree, he espied a squaw with 
 several children lying at its root ; and fearing that some 
 of them might discover him and give the alarm of his 
 [248] escape, he changed his course. He soon after reached 
 a glade, in which were several horses, one of which he 
 22
 
 338 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 caught; and also found a piece of an old rug, which af- 
 forded him his only covering until he reached Wheeling. 
 This he was enabled to do in a few days, bejng perfectly 
 acquainted with the country. 
 
 The town, from which Slover escaped, was the one to 
 which Dr. Knight was to have been taken. The Indian 
 who had him in charge, came in while Slover was there, 
 and reported his escape magnifying the Doctor's stature 
 to gigantic size and attributing to him herculean strength. 
 "When Slover acquainted the warriors with the fact, that 
 Doctor Knight was diminutive and effeminate, they 
 laughed heartily at this Indian, and mocked at him for 
 suffering the escape. He however bore a mark which 
 showed that, weak afod enfeebled as he was, the Doctor 
 had not played booty when he aimed the blow at his con- 
 ductor. It had penetrated to the skull and made a gash 
 of full four inches length. 
 
 These are but few of the many incidents which no 
 doubt occurred, to individuals who endeavored to effect an 
 escape by detaching themselves from the main army. The 
 number of those, thus separated from the troops, who had 
 the good fortune to reach the settlements, was small in- 
 deed ; and of the many of them who fell into the hands 
 of the savages, Knight and Slover are believed to be the 
 only persons, who were so fortunate as to make an escape. 
 The precise loss sustained in the expedition, was never 
 ascertained, and is variously represented from ninety to 
 one hundred and twenty. 
 
 Among those of the troops who went out under Col. 
 Crawford, that came into Wheeling, was a man by the 
 name of Mills. 1 Having rode very fast, and kept his horse 
 almost continually travelling, he was forced to leave him, 
 near to the present town of St. Clairsville in Ohio. Not 
 liking the idea of loosing him altogether, upon his arrival 
 at Wheeling he prevailed on Lewis Wetsel 2 to go with 
 him to the place where his horse gave out, to see if they 
 could not find him. Apprehensive that the savages would 
 
 Thomas Mills. R. G. T. 
 
 'Lewis Wetzel, a noted Indian fighter. See p. 161, note. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 
 
 pursue the fugitives to the border of the settlements, 
 Wetsel advised Mills that their path would not be free 
 from dangers, and counselled him to " prepare for fight- 
 ing." 
 
 When they came near to the place where the horse had 
 been left, they met a party of about forty Indians going to- 
 wards [249] the Ohio river and who discovered Mills and 
 Wetsel as soon as these saw them. Upon the first fire 
 from the Indians Mills was wounded in the heel, and soon 
 overtaken and killed. Wetzel singled out his mark, shot, 
 and seeing an Indian fall, wheeled and ran. He was im- 
 mediately followed by four of the savages, who laid aside 
 their guns that they might, the more certainly overtake 
 him. Having by practice, acquired the art of loading his 
 gun as he ran, Wetsel was indifferent how near the savages 
 approached him, if he were out of reach of the rifles of 
 the others. Accordingly, keeping some distance ahead of 
 his pursuers whilst re-loading his gun, he relaxed his speed 
 until the foremost Indian had got within ten or twelve 
 steps of him. He then wheeled, shot him dead, and again 
 took to flight. He had now to exert his speed to keep in 
 advance of the savages 'till he should again load, & when 
 this was accomplished and he turned to fire, the second 
 Indian was near enough to catch hold of the gun, when as 
 Wetsel expressed it, " they had a severe wring." At length 
 he succeed in raising the muzzle to the breast of his an- 
 tagonist, and killed him also. 
 
 In this time both the pursuers and pursued had be- 
 come much jaded, and although Wetsel had consequently 
 a better opportunity of loading quickly, yet taught wari- 
 ness by the fate of their companions, the two remaining 
 savages would spring behind trees whenever he made a 
 movement like turning towards them. Taking advantage 
 of a more open piece of ground, he was enabled to fire on 
 one of them who had sought protection behind a sapling 
 too small to screen his body. The ball fractured his thigh, 
 and produced death. The other, instead of pressing upon 
 Wetsel, uttered a shrill yell, and exclaiming, " no catch 
 him, gun always loaded," returned to his party.
 
 340 Withers^ Chronicles 
 
 [250] CHAPTER XV. 
 
 While expeditions were carrying on by the whites, 
 against the Moravian and other Indians, the savages were 
 prosecuting their accustomed predatory and exterminating 
 war, against several of the settlements. Parties of Indi- 
 ans, leaving the towns to be defended by the united ex- 
 ertions of contiguous tribes, would still penetrate to the 
 abode of the whites, and with various success, strive to 
 avenge on them their real and fancied wrongs. 
 
 On the 8th of March as William White, Timothy 
 Dorman and his wife, were going to, and in site of Bu- 
 channon fort, some guns were discharged at them, and 
 White being shot through the hip soon fell from his horse, 
 and was tomahawked, scalped and lacerated in the most 
 frightful manner. 1 Dorman and his wife were taken 
 prisoners. The people in the fort heard the firing and 
 flew to arms ; but the river being between, the savages 
 cleared themselves, while the whites were crossing over. 
 
 After the killing of White (one of their most active 
 
 1 L. V. McWhorter informs me that White, who was a prominent 
 settler, was once with others on a hunting expedition, when they sur- 
 prised a small party of Indians. They killed several, but one active 
 young brave ran off, with White close at his heels. The Indian leaped 
 from a precipice, alighting in a quagmire in which he sank to his waist. 
 White, with tomahawk in hand, jumped after him. In the struggle 
 which ensued, White buried his weapon in the red man's skull. The 
 victim's father was among those who escaped, and for a long time Mc- 
 Whorter says " several years " he lurked about the settlements trailing 
 White. Finally, he succeeded in shooting his man, within sight of the 
 fort. Mrs. White was an eye-witness of the tragedy. McWhorter 
 claims that Withers is mistaken in saying that White was "tomahawked, 
 scalped and lacerated in the most frightful manner." The avenging In- 
 dian tried to get his scalp, but an attacking party from the fort were so 
 close upon him that ne fled before accomplishing his object. Mc- 
 Whorter reports another case, not mentioned in Withers. One Fink 
 was " killed by Indians in ambush, while letting down a pair of bars one 
 evening, just in front of where the Buckhannon court-house now 
 stands." R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 341 
 
 and vigilant warriors and spies) and the capture of Dor- 
 man, it was resolved to abandon the fort, and seek else- 
 where, security from the greater ills which it was found 
 would befall them if they remained. This apprehension 
 arose from the fact, that Dorman was then with the sav- 
 ages, and that to gratify his enmity to particular indi- 
 viduals in the settlement, he would unite with the Indians, 
 and from his knowledge of the [251] country, be enabled to 
 conduct them the more securely to blood and plunder. He 
 was a man of sanguinary and revengeful disposition, 
 prone to quarrelling, and had been known to say, that if 
 he caught particular individuals with whom he was at va- 
 riance, in the woods alone, he would murder them and at- 
 tribute it to the savages. He had led, when in England, a 
 most abandoned life, and after he was transported to this 
 country, was so reckless of reputation and devoid of shame 
 for his villainies, that he would often recount tales of theft 
 and robbery in which he had been a conspicuous actor. 
 The fearful apprehensions of increased and aggravated in- 
 juries after the taking of him prisoner, were well-founded ; 
 and subsequent events fully proved, that, but for the evac- 
 uation of the fort, and the removal of the inhabitants, all 
 would have fallen before the fury of savage warriors, with 
 this abandoned miscreant at their head. 
 
 While some of the inhabitants of that settlement 
 were engaged in moving their property to a fort in Ty- 
 gart's Valley (the others removing to Nutter's fort and 
 Clarksburg,) they were fired upon by a party of savages, 
 and two of them, Michael Hagle and Elias Paynter, fell. 
 The horse on which John Bush was riding, was shot 
 through,; yet Bush succeeded in extricating himself from 
 the falling animal, and escaped though closely pursued by 
 one of the savages. Several times the Indian following 
 him, would cry out to him, " Stop, and you shall not be 
 hurt If you do not, I will shoot you," and once Bush, 
 nearly exhausted, and in despair of getting off, actually 
 relaxed his pace for the purpose of yielding himself a 
 prisoner, when turning round he saw the savage stop also, 
 and commence loading his gun. This inspired Bush with 
 fear for the consequences, and renewing his flight he made
 
 342 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 his escape. Edward Tanner, a mere youth, was soon 
 taken prisoner, and as he was being carried to their towns, 
 met between twenty and thirty savages, headed by Timothy 
 Dorman, proceeding to attack Buchanuon fort. Learning 
 from him that the inhabitants were moving from it, and 
 that it would be abandoned in a few days, the Indians 
 pursued their journey with so much haste, that Dorman 
 had well nigh failed from fatigue. They arrived however, 
 too late, for the accomplishment of their bloody purpose; 
 the settlement was deserted, and the inhabitants safe 
 within the walls of other fortresses. 
 
 [252] A few days after the evacuation of the fort, some 
 of its former inmates went from Clarksburg to Buchannon 
 for grain which had been left there. When they came in 
 sight, they beheld a heap of ashes where the fort had 
 been ; and proceeding on, became convinced that the sav- 
 ages were yet lurking about. They however, continued 
 to go from farm to farm collecting the grain, but with the 
 utmost vigilance and caution, and at night went to an out 
 house, near where the fort had stood. Here they found a 
 paper, with the name of Timothy Dorman attached to it, 
 dated at the Indian towns, and containing information of 
 those who had been taken captive in that district of 
 country. 
 
 In the morning early, as some of the men went from 
 the house to the mill, they saw the savages crossing the 
 river, Dorman being with them. Thinking it best to im- 
 press them with a belief that they were able to encounter 
 them in open conflict, the men advanced towards them, 
 calling to their companions in the house, to come on. The 
 Indians fled hastily to the woods, and the whites, not so 
 rash as to pursue them, returned to the house, and secured 
 themselves in it, as well as they could. At night, Captain 
 George Jackson went privately forth from the house, and 
 at great hazzard of being discovered by the waylaying 
 savages, proceeded to Clarksburg, where he obtained such 
 a reinforcement as enabled him to return openly and es- 
 cort his former companions in danger, from the place of 
 its existence. 
 
 Disappointed in their hopes of involving the inhabit-
 
 Of Border Warfare. 343 
 
 ants of the Buchannon settlements in destruction, the sav- 
 ages went on to the Valley. Here, between Westfall's and 
 Wilson's forts, they came upon John Bush and his wife, 
 Jacob Stalnaker and his son Adam. The two latter being 
 on horse back and riding behind Bush and his wife, were 
 fired at, and Adam fell. The old gentleman, rode briskly 
 on, but some of the savages were before him and endeavored 
 to catch the reins of his bridle, and thus stop his flight. 
 He however, escaped them all. The horse from which 
 Adam Stalnaker had fallen, was caught by Bush, and both 
 he and Mrs. Bush got safely away on him. 
 
 The Indians then crossed the Alleghany mountains, 
 and coming to the house of Mrs. Gregg, (Dorman's former 
 master) made an attack on it. A daughter of that gen- 
 tleman, alone fell a victim to their thirst for blood. When 
 taken prisoner, [253] she refused to go with them, and 
 Dorman sunk his tomahawk into her head and then 
 scalped her. She however, lived several days and related 
 the circumstances above detailed. 
 
 After the murder of John Thomas and his family in 
 1781, the settlement on Booth's creek was forsaken, and 
 its inhabitants went to Simpson's creek, for greater secu- 
 rity. In the Spring John Owens procured the assistance 
 of some young men about Simpson's creek, and proceeded 
 to Booth's creek for the purpose of threshing some wheat 
 at his farm there. While on a stack throwing down 
 sheaves, several guns were fired at him by a party of twelve 
 Indians, concealed not far. off. Owens leapt from the 
 stack, and the men caught up their guns. They could 
 not, however, discover any one of the savages in their 
 covert and thought it best to retreat to Simpson's creek 
 and strengthen their force before they ventured in pursuit 
 of their enemy. They accordingly did so, and when they 
 came again to Booth's creek, the Indians had decamped, 
 taking with them the horses left at Owens'. The men 
 however found their trail and followed it until night. 
 Early next morning, crossing the West Fork at Shinns- 
 ton, they went on in pursuit and came within sight of 
 the Indian camp, and seeing some of the savages lying 
 near their fires, fired at them, but, as was believed without
 
 344 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 effect. The Indians again took to flight; and as they 
 were hastening on, one of them suddenly wheeled and 
 fired upon his pursuers. The ball passed through the 
 hunting-shirt of one of the men, & Benjamin Coplin 
 (then an active, enterprising young man) returning the 
 shot, an Indian was seen suddenly to spring into a laurel 
 thicket. Not supposing that Coplin's ball had taken effect, 
 they followed the other savages some distance farther, and 
 as they returned got the horses and plunder left at the 
 camp. Some time afterwards a gun was found in the 
 thicket, into which the Indian sprang, and it was then 
 believed that Coplin's shot had done execution. 
 
 In the same spring the Indians made their appearance 
 on Crooked run, in Monongalia county. Mr. Thomas 
 Pindall, having been one day at Harrison's fort, at a time 
 when a greater part of the neighbourhood had gone 
 thither for safety, prevailed on three young men, (Harri- 
 son, Crawford and Wright, to return and spend the night 
 with him.) Some time after they had been abed, the fe- 
 males waked Mr. Pindall, and telling him that they had 
 heard several times a noise very much [254] resembling 
 the whistling on a charger, insisted on going directly to 
 the fort. The men heard nothing, and being inclined to 
 believe that the fears of the females had given to the 
 blowing of the wind, that peculiar sound, insisted that 
 there was no danger and that it would be unpleasant to 
 turn out then, as the night was very dark. Hearing 
 nothing after this, for which they could not readily account, 
 the men rose in the morning unapprehensive of interrup- 
 tion; and the females, relieved of their fears of being mo- 
 lested by savages during the night, continued in bed. 
 Mr. Pindall walked forth to the woods to catch a horse, 
 and the young men went to the spring hard by, for the 
 the purpose of washing. While thus engaged three guns 
 were fired at them, and Crawford and Wright were killed. 
 Harrison fled and got safely to the fort. 
 
 The females alarmed at the report of the guns, sprang 
 out of bed and hastened towards the fort, pursued by the 
 Indians. Mrs. Pindall was overtaken and killed, but Ra- 
 chael Pindall, her sister-in-law, escaped safely to the fort.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 345 
 
 In June some Indians came into the neighborhood of 
 Clarksburg, and not meeting with an opportunity of kill- 
 ing or making prisoners any of the inhabitants without 
 the town, one of them, more venturous than the rest, 
 came so near as to shoot Charles Wash burn as he was 
 chopping a log of wood in the lot, and then running up, 
 with the axe, severed his skull, scalped him, and fled 
 safely away. Three of Washburn's brothers had been 
 previously murdered by the savages. 
 
 In August as Arnold and Paul Richards were return- 
 ing to Richard's fort, they were shot at by some Indians, 
 lying hid in a cornfield adjoining the fort, and both fell 
 from their horses. The Indians leaped over the fence im- 
 mediately and tomahawked and scalped them. 
 
 These two men were murdered in full view of the 
 fort, and the firing drew its inmates to the gate to ascer- 
 tain its cause. When they saw that the two Richards' were 
 down, they rightly judged that Indians had done the 
 deed ; and Elias Hughes, ever bold and daring, taking 
 down his gun, went out alone at the back gate, and entered 
 the cornfield, into which the savages had again retired, to 
 see if he could not avenge on one of them the murder of 
 his friends. Creeping softly along, he came in view of 
 them standing near the fence, reloading their guns, and 
 looking intently at the people at the fort gate. Taking 
 [255] a deliberate aim at one of them, he touched the 
 trigger. His gun flashed, and the Indians alarmed ran 
 speedily away. 
 
 A most schocking scene was exhibited some time be- 
 fore this, on Muddy creek in Pennsylvania. On the 10th 
 of May as the Reverend John Corbly, his wife and five 
 children were going to meeting, (Mr. Corbly being a short 
 distance behind) they were attacked by a party of sav- 
 ages waylaying the road. The shrieks of Mrs. Corbly 
 and the children, drew the husband and father to the fatal 
 spot. As he was approaching, his wife called to him, " to 
 fly/' He knew that it was impossible for him to contend 
 successfully against the fearful odds opposed to him, and 
 supposing that his family would be carried away as pris- 
 oners, and that he would be enabled either to recover
 
 346 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 them by raising a company and pursuing the savages, or 
 to ransom them, if conducted to the Indian towns, he com- 
 plied with her wish, and got safely off, though pursued by 
 one of the savages. But it was not their intention to 
 carry them into captivity. They delighted too much, to 
 look upon the lifeblood flowing from the heart ; and ac- 
 cordingly shed it most profusely. The infant in its 
 mother's arms was the first on whom their savage fury 
 fell, it was tomahawked and scalped. The mother then 
 received several severe blows, but not falling, was shot 
 through the body, by the savage who chased her husband ; 
 and then scalped. Into the brains of a little son, six years 
 old, their hatchets were sunk to the heft. Two little girls, 
 of two and four years of age, were tomahawked and 
 scalped. The eldest child, also a daughter, had attempted to 
 escape by concealing herself in a hollow log, a few rods from 
 the scene of action. From her hiding place, she beheld all 
 that was done, and when the bleeding scalp was torn from 
 the head of her last little sister, & she beheld the sav- 
 ages retiring from the desolation which they had wrought, 
 she crawled forth from concealment. It was too soon. 
 One of the savages yet lingered near, to feast to satiety on 
 the horrid spectacle. His eyes caught a glimpse of her as 
 she crept from the log, and his tomahawk and scalping 
 knife became red with her blood. 
 
 When Mr. Corbly returned, all his hopes vanished. 
 Which ever way he turned, the mangled body of some one 
 of his family was presented to his view. His soul sickened 
 at the contemplation of the scene, and he fainted and fell. 
 When he had revived, he was cheered with the hope that 
 some of [256] them might yet survive. Two of his 
 daughters had manifested symptoms of returning life, and 
 with care and attention were restored to him. 
 
 Thus far in the year 1782, the settlements only suffered 
 from the accustomed desultory warfare of the savages. No 
 numerous collection of Indians had crossed their border, 
 no powerful army of warriors, threatening destruction to 
 the forts, those asylums of their safety, had appeared 
 among them. But the scene was soon to change. 
 
 In August, there was a grand council convened at Chil-
 
 Of Border Warfare. 347 
 
 icothe, in which the Wyandots, the Shawanees, the Min- 
 goes, the Tawas, Pottowatomies, and various other tribes 
 were represented. 1 Girty and McKee disgraces to human 
 nature aided in their deliberations. The surrender of 
 Cornwallis, which had been studiously kept secret from 
 the Indians, was now known to them, and the war between 
 Great Britain and the United States, seemed to them to 
 be verging to a close. Should a peace ensue, they feared 
 that the concentrated strength of Virginia, would bear 
 down upon them and crush them at once. In anticipation 
 of this state of things, they had met to deliberate, what 
 course it best became them to pursue. Girty addressed 
 the council. He reminded them of the gradual encroach- 
 ments of the whites ; of the beauty of Kentucky and its 
 value to them as a hunting ground. He pointed out to 
 them the necessity of greater efforts to regain possession 
 of that country, and warned them that if they did not 
 combine their strength to change the present state of things, 
 the whites would soon leave them no hunting grounds; 
 and they would consequently, have no means of procuring 
 rum to cheer their hearts, or blankets to warm their 
 bodies. His advice was well received and they determined 
 to continue the war. 2 
 
 "When the council was adjourned, the warriors pro- 
 ceeded to execute its determinations. Two armies, the 
 one of six hundred, and the other three hundred and fifty 
 men, prepared to march, each to it assigned station The 
 larger was destined to operate against Kentucky, while 
 the smaller, was to press upon North Western Virginia; 
 and each was abundantly supplied with the munitions of 
 war. 3 Towards the last of August the warriors who were 
 
 1 The council was held at Wapatomica, in June. There were pres- 
 ent representatives of the Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandots, Delawares, 
 Shawnees, Munsees, and Cherokees. Simon Girty came with the Wy- 
 andots ; Captain McKee was then a trader at Wapatomica. R. G. T. 
 
 * See the alleged speech in Butterfield's History of the Girtys, pp. 190. 
 191. R. G. T. 
 
 3 The Kentucky party was under Capt. William Caldwell, who wrote, 
 " I crossed the Ohio with three hundred Indians and rangers." Capts. 
 McKee and Elliott, and the three Girtys were with the expedition.
 
 348 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 to act in Kentucky, appeared before Bryant's station, south 
 of Licking river, and placed themselves under covert 
 during night, 1 and in advantageous [257] situations for 
 firing upon the station, so soon as its doors should be 
 thrown open. 
 
 There were at that time but few inhabitants occupying 
 that station. "William Bryant, its founder, and one in 
 whose judgment, skill and courage, many confidently re- 
 posed for security from savage enormity, had been un- 
 fortunately discovered by some Indians near the mouth of 
 Cane run, and killed. His death caused most of those 
 who had come to that place from North Carolina, to for- 
 sake the station, and return to their own country. Emi- 
 grants from Virginia, arriving some short time before, and 
 among whom was Robert Johnson, (the father of Richard 
 M. Johnson) to a certain extent supplied this desertion ; 
 yet it was in respect to numbers so far inferior to the sav- 
 age forces, that the most resolute shuddered in apprehen- 
 sion of the result. 
 
 The station too, was at that time, careless and inat- 
 tentive to its own defence ; not anticipating the appear- 
 ance of a savage army before its gates. Indeed had the 
 Indians delayed their attack a few hours, it would have 
 been in almost an entirely defenceless condition ; as the 
 men were on that morning to have left it, for the purpose 
 of aiding in the defence of another station, which was 
 then understood to be assailed by an army of Indians. 
 Fortunately however, for the inhabitants, as soon as the 
 doors of some of the cabins were opened in the morning, 
 the savages commenced the fire, and thus admonished 
 them of danger, while it was not yet too late to provide 
 against it. 
 
 The Indians in the attack on Bryant's station prac- 
 tised their usual stratagem, to ensure their success. It was 
 begun on the south-east angle of the station, by one hun- 
 dred warriors, while the remaining five hundred were 
 
 Caldwell crossed the river early in July, not far below the mouth of 
 Limestone creek site of the present Maysville, Ky. R. G. T. 
 1 They arrived on the night of August 15. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 349 
 
 concealed in the woods on the opposite side, ready to take 
 advantage of its unprotected situation when, as they an- 
 ticipated, the garrison would concentrate its strength, to 
 resist the assault on the south-east. But their purpose 
 was fully comprehended by the garrison, and instead of 
 returning the fire of the one hundred, they secretly sent 
 an express to Lexington for assistance, and commenced 
 repairing the pallisades, and putting themselves in the best 
 possible condition to withstand the fury of the assailants. 
 Aware that the Indians were posted near the spring, and 
 believing that they would not fire unless some of the men 
 should be seen going thither, the women [258] were sent 
 to bring in water for the use of the garrison. The event 
 justified their expectations The concealed Indians, still 
 farther to strengthen the belief, that their whole force were 
 engaged in the attack on the south-east, forbore to fire, 
 or otherwise contradict the impression which they had 
 studiously sought to make on the minds of its inmates. 
 
 When a sufficiency of water had been provided, and 
 the station placed in a condition of defence, thirteen men 
 were sent out in the direction from which the assault was 
 made. They were fired upon by the assailing party of one 
 hundred, but without receiving any injury; and retired 
 again within the pallisades. Instantly the savages rushed 
 to the assault of, what they deemed, the unprotected side 
 of the station, little doubting their success. A steady, well 
 directed fire, put them quickly to flight. Some of the 
 more desperate and daring however, approached near 
 enough to fire the houses, some of which were consumed ; 
 but a favorable wind drove the flames from the mass of 
 the buildings and the station escaped conflagration. 
 
 Disappointed of the expected success of their first 
 stratagem, the assailants withdrew a short distance, and 
 concealed themselves under the bank of the creek, to await 
 the arrival of the assistance, which was generally sent to 
 a besieged fort or station, arranging themselves in am- 
 bush ment to intercept its approach. 
 
 When the express from Bryant's station reached Lex- 
 ington, the male inhabitants had left there to aid in the 
 defence of Holder's station, which was reported to be at-
 
 350 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 tacked. Following on their route, they overtook them at 
 Boonesborough, and sixteen mounted, and thirty footmen 
 were immediately detached to aid the inhabitants of Bry- 
 ant's station. When this reinforcement came near, the 
 firing had entirely ceased, no enemy was visible, and they 
 approached in the confidence that all was well. A sudden 
 discharge of shot from the savages in ambush, dispelled that 
 hope. The horsemen however, passed safely by. The cloud 
 of dust produced by the galloping of their horses, obscured 
 the view and hindered the otherwise deadly aim of the In- 
 dians. The footmen were less fortunate. Two of them 
 were killed, and four wounded ; and but for the luxuriant 
 growth of corn in the field through which they passed, 
 nearly all must have fallen, before the overwhelming force 
 of the enemy. 
 
 [259] Thus reinforced, the garrison did not for an in- 
 stant doubt of safety ; while the savages became hopeless 
 of success by force of arms, and resorted to another ex- 
 pedient to gain possession of the station. In the twilight 
 of evening, Simon Girty covertly drew near, and mount- 
 ing on a stump from which he could be distinctly heard, 
 demanded the surrender of the place. He told the garri- 
 son, that a reinforcement, with cannon, would arrive that 
 night, and that this demand was suggested by his humanity, 
 as the station must ultimately fall, and he could assure 
 them of protection if they surrendered, but could not if 
 the Indians succeeded by storm ; and then demanded, if 
 " they knew who was addressing them." A young man 
 by the name of Reynolds, (fearing the effect which the 
 threat of cannon might have upon the garrison, as the fate 
 of Ruddle's and Martin's stations was yet fresh in their 
 recollections,) replied, that he " knew him well, and held 
 him in such contempt, that he had named a worthless dog 
 which he had SIMON GIRTY; that his reinforcements and 
 threats, were not heeded by the garrison, who expected to 
 receive before morning such an auxiliary force as would en- 
 able them to give a good account of the cowardly wretches 
 that followed him, whom he held in such contempt 
 that he had prepared a number of switches with which to
 
 Of Border Warfare. 351 
 
 drive them out of the country if they remained there 
 'till day." 1 
 
 Affecting to deplore their obstinacy, Girty retired, 
 and during the night, the main body of the Indian army 
 marched off, leaving a few warriors to keep up an occa- 
 sional firing and the semblance of a siege. 2 
 
 Shortly after the retreat of the savages, one hundred 
 and sixty men, from Lexington, Harrodsburg and Boones- 
 borough, assembled at Bryant's station, and determined 
 to pursue them. 3 Prudence should have prevailed with 
 them to await the arrival of Colonel Logan, who was 
 known to be collecting additional forces from the other 
 station ; but brave and fearless, well equipped, and bnrn- 
 ing with ardent desire to chastise their savage invaders, 
 they rather indiscreetly chose to march on, unaided, 
 sooner than risk suffering the enemy to retire, by delay- 
 ing for other troops. But the Indians had no wish to 
 retire, to avoid the whites. The trail left by them, to the 
 experienced eye of Daniel Boone, furnished convincing 
 evidence, that they were only solicitous to conceal their 
 numbers, in reality to tempt pursuit. 
 
 [260] When the troops arrived at the Lower Blue 
 Licks, they saw the only Indians, which had met their 
 eye on the route. These were slowly ascending the ridge 
 on the opposite side of the river. The party was halted, 
 and Boone consulted as to what course it would be best 
 to pursue. He was of opinion that the savage force 
 was much greater, than most had been led to believe by 
 the appearance of the trail, and anticipating pursuit, were 
 then in ambush in the ravines ; and he advised that the 
 force be divided into two equal parts, the one, marching 
 up the river, to cross it at the mouth of Elk creek, above 
 
 J The above incident is mentioned in none of the contemporary 
 chronicles, and is probably fiction. R. G. T. 
 
 J The attack was begun early in the morning of the 16th, and con- 
 tinued with more or less vigor until about 10 A. M. of the 17th. Cald- 
 well then withdrew his force " in a leisurely manner." The attacking 
 party lost five killed and two wounded, all Indians ; the garrison lost 
 four killed and three wounded. R. G. T. 
 
 3 A hundred and eighty-two, under Col. John Todd. Pursuit was 
 commenced on the 18th. R. G. T.
 
 352 Withers'* Chronicles 
 
 the upper ravine, while the other party should take a po- 
 sition below for the purpose of co-operating whenever oc- 
 casion might require; but that neither party should by 
 any means cross the river, until spies were sent out to 
 learn the position and strength of the enemy. 1 The offi- 
 cers generally were inclined to follow the counsel of Boone, 
 but Major McGary, remarkable for impetuosity, exclaim- 
 ing, "Let all who are not cowards, follow me," spurred 
 his horse into the river. The whole party caught the con- 
 tagious rashness, all rushed across the river. There was 
 no order, no arrangement no unity or concert. None 
 " paused in their march of terror," lest " we should hover 
 o'er the path," but each, following his own counsel, moved 
 madly towards the sheltered ravines and wooded ground, 
 where Boone had predicted the savages lay hid. The 
 event justified the prediction, and showed the wisdom of 
 his counsel. 
 
 At the head of a chosen band of warriors, Girty * ad- 
 vanced with fierceness upon the whites, from the advan- 
 tageous position which he covertly occupied, and " mad- 
 ness, despair and death succeed, the conflict's gathering 
 wrath." The Indians had greatly the advantage in num- 
 bers, as well as position, and the disorderly front of the 
 whites, gave them still greater superiority. The bravery 
 of the troops fora while withstood the onset, and the con- 
 test was fierce and sanguinary 'till their right wing being 
 turned, a retreat became inevitable. All pressed towards 
 the ford, but a division of the savage army, foreseeing this, 
 had been placed so as to interpose between them and it ; 
 and they were driven to a point on the river, where it 
 could only be crossed by swimming. Here was indeed a 
 scene of blood and carnage. Many were killed on the 
 
 *The battle occurred at 8 A. M. of August 19, a short distance north 
 of the Lower Blue Licks, on the Licking river, in what is now Nicholas 
 County. R. G. T. 
 
 2 The tendency among early Western chroniclers has been greatly 
 to magnify the importance of Simon Girty. He was merely an inter- 
 preter on this, as on most other expeditions. Caldwell was in command. 
 The British force now consisted of 200 Indians and 30 rangers. Some 
 of the Indians had already left for their villages. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 353 
 
 bank; others in swimming over, and some were toma- 
 hawked in the edge of the water. Some of those who had 
 been foremost in getting across the river, wheeled and 
 opened a steady fire upon the pursuers. Others, animated 
 by the example, as soon as they reached the bank dis- 
 charged their guns upon the savages, and checking them 
 for a while enabled many to escape death. But for this 
 stand, the footmen would have been much harrassed, and 
 very many of them entirely cut off. As it was, the loss in 
 slain was great. Of one hundred and seventy-six (the 
 number of whites,) sixty-one were killed, and eight taken 
 prisoners. Cols. Todd and Trigg, Majors Harland and 
 Bulger, Capts. Gordon, McBride, and a son of Daniel 
 Boone, were among those who fell. The loss of the sav- 
 ages was never known ; they [261] were left in possession 
 of the battle ground, and at leisure to conceal or carry off 
 their dead, and when it was next visited by the whites, 
 none were found. 1 
 
 A most noble and generous act, performed by one of 
 the whites, deserves to be forever remembered. While 
 they were flying before the closely pursuing savages, 
 Reynolds (who at Bryant's station bad so cavalierly re- 
 plied to Girty's demand of its surrender) seeing Col. Rob- 
 ert Patterson, unhorsed and considerably disabled by his 
 wounds, painfully struggling to reach the river, sprang 
 from his saddle, and assisting him to occupy the relin- 
 quished seat, enabled that veteran officer to escape, and 
 fell himself into the hands of the savages. He was not 
 long however, detained a prisoner by them. He was taken 
 by a party of only three Indians; and two whites passing 
 hurriedly on towards the river, just after, two of his cap- 
 tors hastened in pursuit of them, and he was left guarded 
 by only one. Reynolds was cool and collected, and only 
 
 1 The British rangers lost one of their number by death ; of their 
 Indian allies, ten were killed and fourteen wounded. Of the Kentuck- 
 ians, about seventy were killed, several badly wounded, and seven made 
 prisoners. Caldwell continued his leisurely retreat to Upper Sandusky, 
 which he reached September 24, the Indians meanwhile dispersing to 
 their several homes. R. G. T. 
 23
 
 354 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 awaited the semblance of an opportunity, to attempt an 
 escape. Presently the savage in whose custody he was, 
 stooped to tie his moccason. Suddenly he sprang to one 
 side, and being fleet of foot, got safely off. 
 
 The battle of the Blue Licks was fought on the 19th 
 of August. On the next day Col. Logan, with three hun- 
 dred men, met the remnant of the troops retreating to 
 Bryant's station ; and learning the fatal result of the con- 
 test, hurried on to the scene of action to bury the dead, 
 and avenge their fall if the enemy should be found yet 
 hovering near. On his arrival not a savage was to be seen. 
 Flushed with victory, and exulting in their revenge, they 
 had retired to their towns, to feast the eyes of their breth- 
 ren, with the scalps of the slain. The field of battle pre- 
 sented a miserable spectacle. All was stillness, where so 
 lately had arisen the shout of the impetuous, but intrepid 
 whites, and the whoop and yell of the savages, as they 
 closed in deadly conflict ; not a sound was to be heard but 
 the hoarse cry of the vulture, flapping her wings and 
 mounting into the air, alarmed at the intrusion of man. 
 Those countenances, which had so lately beamed with 
 daring and defiance, were unmeaning and inexpressive, 
 and what with the effect produced on the dead bodies, by 
 the excessive heat and the mangling and disfiguration of 
 the tomahawk and scalping knife, scarcely one could be 
 distinguished from another. Friends tortured themselves 
 in vain, to find friends, in the huge mass of slain, fathers 
 to recognize their sons. The mournful gratification of 
 bending over the lifeless bodies of dear relations and gaz- 
 ing with intense anxiety on their pallid features, was de- 
 nied them. Undistinguished, though not unmarked, all 
 were alike consigned to the silent grave, amid sighs of 
 sorrow and denunciations of revenge. 
 
 An expedition against the Indian towns was immedi- 
 ately resolved upon, and in September, Gen. Clarke 
 marched towards them, at the head of nearly one thousand 
 men. Being discovered on their route and the intelligence 
 soon spreading that an army from [262] Kentucky was 
 penetrating the country, the savages deserted their villages 
 and fled; and the expedition was thus hindered of its
 
 Of Border Warfare. 355 
 
 purpose of chastising them. The towns however were 
 burned, and in a skirmish with a party of Indians, five of 
 them were killed, and seven made prisoners, with the loss 
 of only one man. 1 < 
 
 The Indian forces which were to operate against North 
 Western Virginia, for some time delayed their purpose, 
 and did not set out on their march, until a while before the 
 
 1 Gen. George Rogers Clark gave this official report of his expedition 
 against the Shawnees, in a letter dated Lincoln, November 27, 1782: 
 " We left the Ohio the 4th instant, with 1050 men, surprised the princi- 
 pal Shawanese Town in the evening of the 10th, and immediately 
 detached strong parties to different quarters; and in a few hours 
 afterwards two thirds of th towns were laid in ashes, and every 
 thing they were possessed of destroyed, except such as were most 
 useful to tne troops, the enemy not having time to secrete any part 
 oi their property. The British trading post at the head of the Miami 
 and Carrying Place to the waters of the Lakes, shared the same by a 
 party of 150 horse, commanded by Col. Logan, and property to a great 
 amount was also destroyed: the quantity of provisions burnt far sur- 
 passed any idea we had of their stores. The loss of the enemy was ten 
 scalps, seven prisoners, and two whites retaken ; ours, one killed and one 
 wounded. 
 
 " After laying part of four days in their towns, and finding all 
 attempts to bring them to a general action fruitless, we retired, as the 
 season was far advanced and the weather threatening. I could not learn 
 by the prisoners that they had the least idea of General Irvin's design 
 of penetrating into their country. Should he have given them another 
 stroke at Sandusky, it will more than double the advantages already 
 gained. 
 
 " We might probably have got many more scalps and prisoners- 
 could we have known in time whether or not we were discovered, which 
 we took for granted until getting within three miles when some circum, 
 stances occurred that gave us reason to think otherwise, though uncer- 
 tain. Col. Floyd, with 300 men, was ordered to advance and bring on 
 an, action or attack the town, Major Wells with a party of horse being 
 previously detached by a different route as a party of observation : al- 
 though Col. Floyd's motion was so quick as to get to the town but a few 
 minutes later than those who discovered his approach, the inhabitants 
 had sufficient notice to effect their escape to the woods by the alarm 
 cry being given, and which was repeated by all that heard it; of course 
 our party only fell in with the rear of the enemy. 
 
 " I must beg leave to recommend the militia of Kentucky whose 
 behaviour on the occasion does them honour, particularly their desire 
 of saving prisoners." 
 
 The document is here given as found in Almon's Remembrancer, 
 xvi., pp. 93, 94; but it has of course been edited, after the fashion of 
 that day, for Clark's original letters abound in misspellings. R. G. T.
 
 3<>6 Withers'* Chronicles 
 
 return of those who had been sent into Kentucky. On 
 their way, a question arose among them against what 
 part of the country they should direct their movements 
 and their division on this subject, rising by degrees 'till 
 it assumed a serious aspect, led many of the chiefs to de- 
 termine on abandoning the expedition ; but a runner ar- 
 riving with intelligence of the great success which had 
 crowned the exertion of the army in Kentucky, they 
 changed that determination, and proceeded hastily towards 
 Wheeling. 
 
 In the first of September, John Lynn (a celebrated 
 spy and the same who had been with Capt. Foreman at 
 the time of the fatal ambuscade at Grave creek) being en- 
 gaged in watching the warriors paths, northwest of the 
 Ohio, discovered the Indians marching with great expe- 
 dition for Wheeling, and hastening to warn the inhabit- 
 ants of the danger which was threatening them, swam the 
 river, and reached the village, but a little while before the 
 savage army made its appearance. The fort was at this 
 time without any regular garrison, and depended for de- 
 fence exclusively, on the exertions of those who sought 
 security within its walls. The brief space of time which 
 elapsed between the alarm by Lynn, and the arrival of 
 the Indians, permitted only those who were immediately 
 present to retire into it, and when the attack was begun 
 to be made, there were not within its paliisades, twenty 
 effective men to oppose the assault. The dwelling house 
 of Col. Ebenezer Zane, standing about forty yards from 
 the fort, contained the military stores which had been 
 furnished by the government of Virginia; and as it was 
 admirably situated as an out post from which to annoy the 
 savages in their onsets, he resolved on maintaining pos 
 session of it, as well to aid in the defence of the fort, a^ 
 for the preservation of the ammunition. Andrew Scott, 
 George Green, Mrs. Zane, Molly Scott and Miss McCul- 
 lough, were all who remained with him. The kitchen 
 (adjoining) was occupied by Sam (a negro belonging to 
 Col. Zaiie) and Kate, his wife. Col. Silas Zane commanded 
 in the fort. 
 
 When the savage army approached, the British colors
 
 Of Border Warfare. 357 
 
 were waving over them ; and before a shot was discharged 
 at the fort, they demanded the surrender of the garrison. 
 No answer was deigned to this demand, but the firing of 
 several shot (by order of Silas Zane) at the standard 
 which they bore ; and the savages rushed to the assault. 
 A well directed and brisk fire opened upon them from 
 Col. Zane's house and the fort, soon drove them back. 
 Again they rushed forward; and again were they repulsed. 
 The number of [263] arms in the house and fort, and the 
 great exertions of the women in moulding bullets, loading 
 guns and handing them to the men, enabled them to fire 
 so briskly, yet so effectively, as to cause the savages to 
 recoil from every charge. The darkness of night soon 
 suspended their attacks, and afforded a temporary repose 
 to the besieged. Yet were the assailants not wholly in- 
 active. Having suffered severely by the galling fire poured 
 upon them from the house, they determined on reducing 
 it to ashes. For this purpose, when all was quietness and 
 silence, a savage, with a fire brand in his hand crawled to 
 the kitchen, and raising himself from the ground, waving 
 the torch to and fro to rekindle its flame, and about to ap- 
 ply it to the building, received a shot which forced him to 
 let fall the engine of destruction and hobble howling away. 
 The vigilance of Sam had detected him, in time to thwart 
 his purpose. 
 
 On the return of light, the savages were seen yet en- 
 vironing the fort, and although for some time they delayed 
 to renew their suspended assault, yet it was evident they 
 had not given over its contemplated reduction. They 
 were engaged in making such preparations, as they were 
 confident would ensure success to their exertions. 
 
 Soon after the firing of the preceding day had sub- 
 sided, a small boat, proceeding from Fort Pitt to the Falls 
 of Ohio with cannon balls for the use of the troops there, 
 put to shore at Wheeling ; and the man who had charge of 
 her, although discovered and slightly wounded by the 
 savages, reached the postern and was admitted to the fort. 
 The boat of course fell into the hands of the enemy, and 
 they resolved on using the balls aboard, for the demolition 
 of the fortress. To this end they procured a log, with
 
 358 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 a cavity as nearly corresponding with the size of the ball, 
 as they could; and binding it closely with some chains 
 taken from a shop hard by, charged it heavily, and point- 
 ing it towards the fort, in imagination beheld its walls 
 tumbling into ruin, and the garrison bleeding under the 
 strokes and gashes of their tomahawks and scalping knives. 
 All things being ready, the match was applied. A dread- 
 ful explosion ensued. Their cannon burst; its slivers 
 flew in every direction ; and instead of being the cause of 
 ruin to the fort, was the source of injury only to them- 
 selves. Several were killed, many wounded, and all, dis- 
 mayed by the event. Recovering from the shock, they 
 presently returned with redoubled animation to the charge. 
 Furious from disappointment, exasperated with the unfor- 
 seen yet fatal result, they pressed to the assault with the 
 blindness of phrensy. Still they were received with a fire 
 so constant and deadly, that they were again forced to re- 
 tire ; and most opportunely for the garrison. 
 
 When Lynn gave the alarm that an Indian army 
 was approaching, the fort having been for some time un- 
 occupied by a garrison, and Col. Zane's house being used 
 as a magazine, those who retired into the fortress had to 
 take with them a supply of ammunition for its defence. 
 The supply of powder, deemed ample at the time, by reason 
 of the long continuance of the savages, and the repeated 
 [264] endeavors made by them, to storm the fort was now 
 almost entirely exhausted, a few loads only, remaining. 
 In this emergency, it became necessary to replenish their 
 stock, from the abundance of that article in Col. Zane's 
 house. During the continuance of the last assault, ap- 
 prized of its security, and aware of the danger which 
 would inevitably ensue, should the savages after -being 
 again driven backj return to the assault before a fresh sup- 
 ply could be obtained, it was proposed that one of their 
 fleetest men should endeavor to reach the house, obtain a 
 keg and return with it to the fort. It was an enterprise 
 full of danger; but many of the chivalric spirits, then 
 pent up within the fortress, were willing to encounter 
 them all. 
 
 Among those who volunteered to go on this emprise,
 
 Of Border Warfare. 359 
 
 was Elizabeth, the younger sister of Colonel Zane. She 
 was then young active and athletic ; with precipitancy to 
 dare danger, and fortitude to sustain her in the midst of it. 
 Disdaining to weigh the hazard of her own life, against 
 the risk of that of others, when told that a man would en- 
 counter less danger by reason of his greater fleetness, she 
 replied " and should he fall, his loss will be more severely 
 felt. You have not one man to spare; a woman will not 
 be missed in the defence of the fort." Her services were 
 accepted. Divesting herself of some of her garments, as 
 tending to impede her progress, she stood prepared for the 
 hazzardous adventure; and when the gate was opened, 
 she bounded forth with the buoyancy of hope, and in the 
 confidence of success. Wrapt in amazement, the Indians 
 beheld her spring forward; and only exclaiming, "a squaw, 
 a squaw," no attempt was made to interrupt her progress. 
 Arrived at the door, she proclaimed her embassy. Col. 
 Zane fastened a table cloth around her waist, and empty- 
 ing into it a keg of powder, again she ventured forth. 
 The Indians were no longer passive. Ball after ball passed 
 whizzing and innocuous by. She reached the gate and 
 entered the fort in safety. 1 
 
 Another instance of heroic daring, deserves to be re- 
 corded [265] here. When intelligence of the investiture 
 of Wheeling by the savages, reached Shepherd's fort, a 
 party was immediately detached from it, to try and gain 
 admission into the besieged fortress, and aid in its defence. 
 Upon arriving in view, it was found that the attempt 
 would be hopeless and unavailing, and the detachment 
 consequently prepared to return. Francis Duke, (son-in- 
 law to Colonel Shepherd) was unwilling to turn his back 
 on a people, straitened as he knew the besieged must be, 
 and declared his intention of endeavori'ng to reach the 
 fort, thut^he might contribute to its defence. It was use- 
 less to disuade him from the attempt ; he knew its danger, 
 
 1 [264] This heroine had but recently returned from Philadelphia, 
 where she had received her education, and was totally unused to such 
 scenes as were daily exhibiting on the frontier. She afterwards be- 
 came the wife of Mr. McGlanlin; and he dying, she married a Mr. 
 Clarke, and is yet living in Ohio.
 
 360 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 but he also knew their weakness, and putting spurs to his 
 horse, rode briskly forward, calling aloud, " open the gate, 
 open the gate." He was seen from the fort, and the gate 
 was loosed for his admission ; but he did not live to reach 
 it. Pierced by the bullets of the savages, he fell, to the 
 regret of all. Such noble daring, deserved a better fate. 
 
 During that night and the next day, the Indians still 
 maintained the seige, and made frequent attempts to take 
 the fort by storm ; but they were invareiably repulsed by 
 the deadly fire of the garrison and the few brave men in 
 Colonel Zane's house. On the third night, despairing of 
 success, they resolved on raising the siege; and leaving 
 one hundred chosen warriors to scour and lay waste the 
 country, the remainder of their army retreated across the 
 Ohio, and encamped at the Indian Spring, five miles from 
 the river. Their loss in the various assaults upon the fort, 
 could not be ascertained; but was doubtless very consider- 
 able. Of the garrison, none were killed and only two 
 wounded, the heroic Francis Duke was the only white 
 who fell during the siege. The gallantry displayed by all, 
 both men and women, in the defence of the fort, can not 
 be too highly commended ; but to the caution and good con- 
 duct of those few brave individuals who occupied Colonel 
 Zane's house, its preservation has been mainly attributed. 
 
 In the evening preceding the departure of the savages 
 from before Wheeling, two white men, who had been 
 among them for several years, and then held commands in 
 the army, deserted from them, and on the next morning 
 early were taken prisoners by Colonel Swearingen, who, 
 with ninety-five men, was on his way to aid in the defence 
 of Wheeling fort, and the chastisement of its assailants. 
 Learning from them [266] the determination of the savages 
 to withdraw from Wheeling, and detach a portion of their 
 force to operate in the country, he despatched runners in 
 every direction to alarm the country and apprize the in- 
 habitants of danger. 1 The intelligence was received by 
 
 1 See p. 224, note 1 , for reference to confusion between the two 
 sieges of Wheeling, and the over-statement of early border historians. 
 R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 361 
 
 Jacob Miller when some distance from home, but appre- 
 hensive that the meditated blow would be aimed at the 
 fort where he resided, he hastened thither, and arrived in 
 time to aid in preparing for its defence. 
 
 The place against which the savages directed their 
 operations, was situated on Buffaloe creek, twelve or fifteen 
 miles from its enterance into the Ohio, and was known as 
 Rice's fort. Until Miller's return there were in it only five 
 men ; the others having gone to Hagerstown to exchange 
 their peltries, for salt, iron and ammunition. They im- 
 mediately set about making preparations to withstand an 
 assault; and in a little while, seeing the savages approach- 
 ing from every direction, forsook the cabins and repaired 
 to the blockhouse. The Indians perceived that they were 
 discovered, and thinking to take the station by storm, 
 shouted forth the war whoop and rushed to the assault. 
 They were answered by the fire of the six brave and skilful 
 riflemen in tbe house, and forced to take refuge behind 
 trees and fallen timber. Still they continued the firing; 
 occasionally calling on the whites to "give up, give up. In- 
 dian too many. Indian too big. Give up. Indian no kill." 
 The men had more faith in the efficacy of their guns to pur- 
 chase their safety, than in the preferred mercy of the sav- 
 ages ; and instead of complying with their demand, called 
 on them, " as cowards skulking behind logs to leave their 
 coverts, and shew but their yellow hides, and they would 
 make holes in them." 
 
 The firing was kept up by the savages from their pro- 
 tected situation, until night, and whenever even a remote 
 prospect of galling them was presented to the whites, they 
 did not fail to avail themselves of it. The Indian shots in 
 the evening > were directed principally against the stock as 
 it came up as usual to the station, and the field was strewed 
 with its dead carcases. About ten o'clock of the night 
 they fired a large barn (thirty or forty yards from the 
 blockhouse) filled with grain and hay, and the flames from 
 which seemed for awhile to endanger the fort; but being 
 situated on higher ground, and the current of air flowing 
 in a contrary direction, it escaped conflagration. Collect- 
 ing on the side of the fort opposite [267] to the fire, the
 
 362 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 Indians took advantage of the light it afforded them to 
 renew the attack; and kept it up until about two o'clock, 
 when they departed. Their ascertained loss was four war- 
 riors, three of whom were killed by the first firing of 
 the whites, the other about sundown. George Fole- 
 baura was the only white who suffered. Early in the at- 
 tack, he was shot in the forehead, through a port-hole, and 
 instantly expired; leaving Jacob Miller, George Leffler, 
 Peter Fullenwieder, Daniel Rice and Jacob Leffler, junior, 
 sole defenders of the fort; and bravely and effectually did 
 they preserve it, from the furious assaults of one hundred 
 chosen savage warriors. 
 
 Soon after the Indians left Rice's fort, they moved 
 across the hills in different directions and in detached 
 parties. One of these observing four men proceeding to- 
 wards the fort which they had lately left, waylaid the 
 path and killed two of them on the first fire. The re- 
 maining two fled hastily ; and one of them swift of foot, 
 soon made his escape. The other, closely pursued by one 
 of the savages, and in danger of being overtaken, wheeled 
 to fire. His gun snapped, and he again took to flight. 
 Yet more closely pressed by his pursuer, he once more at- 
 tempted to shoot. Again his gun snapped, and the savage 
 being now near enough, hurled a tomahawk at his head. 
 It missed its object and both strained every nerve for the 
 chase. The Indian gained rapidly upon him ; and reach- 
 ing forth his arm, caught hold of the end of his belt. It 
 had been tied in a bow-knot, and came loose. Sensible 
 that the race must soon terminate to his disadvantage un- 
 less he could kill his pursuer, the white man once more 
 tried his gun. It fired; and the savage fell dead at his 
 feet. 
 
 Some time in the summer of this year, a party of Wy- 
 andots, consisting of seven warriors, (five of whom were, 
 one of the most distinguished chiefs of that nation and his 
 four brothers) came into one of the intermediate settle- 
 ments between Fort Pitt and Wheeling, killed an old man 
 whom they found alone, robbed his cabin, and commenced 
 retreating with the plunder. They were soon discovered 
 by spies ; and eight men, two of whom were Adam and
 
 Of Border Warfare. 363 
 
 Andrew Poe, (brothers, remarkable for uncommon size, 
 great activity, and undaunted bravery) went in pursuit of 
 them. Coming on their trail not far from the Ohio, Adam 
 Poe, fearing an ambuscade, left his companions [268] to 
 follow it, while he moved across to the river under cover 
 of the high weeds and bushes, with the view to attack 
 them in the rear should he find them situated as he ex- 
 pected. Presently he espied an Indian raft at the water's 
 edge, but seeing nothing of the savages, moved cautiously 
 down the bank ; and when near the foot, discovered the 
 large Wyandot chief and a small Indian standing near 
 and looking intently towards the party of whites, then 
 some distance lower down the bottom. Poe raised his 
 gun, and aiming surely at the chief, pulled trigger. It 
 missed fire, and the snap betrayed his presence. Too near 
 to retreat, he sprang forward ; and seizing the large Indian 
 by the breast, and at the same instant encircling his arms 
 around the neck of the smaller one, threw them both to 
 the ground. Extricating himself from the grasp of Poe, 
 the small savage raised his tomahawk ; but as he aimed 
 the blow, a vigorous and well directed kick, staggered 
 him back, and he let fall the hatchet. Recovering quickly, 
 he aimed several blows in defiance and exultation, the 
 vigilance of Poe distinguished the real from the feigned 
 stroke, and suddenly throwing up his arm, averted it from 
 his head, but received a wound in his wrist. By a violent 
 effort, he freed himself from the grip of the chief, and 
 snatching up a gun, shot his companion through the 
 breast, as he advanced the third time with the tomahawk. 
 In this time the large chief had regained his feet ; and 
 seizing Poe by the shoulder and leg threw him to the 
 ground. Poe however, soon got up, and engaged with 
 the savage in a close struggle, which terminated in the fall 
 of both into the water. Now it became the object of each 
 to drown his antagonist, and the efforts to accomplish this 
 %vere continued for some time with alternate success; 
 first one and then the other, being under water. At length, 
 catching hold of the long tuft of hair which had been 
 suffered to grow on the head of the chief, Poe held him 
 under water, until he supposed him dead ; but relaxing
 
 364 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 his hold too soon, the gigantic savage was again on his 
 feet and ready for another grapple. In this both were 
 carried beyond their depth, and had to swim for safety. 
 Both sought the shore, and each, with all his might, 
 strained every nerve to reach it first that he might end 
 the conflict with one of the guns lying on the beach. The 
 Indian was the more expert swimmer, and Poe, out- 
 stripped by him, turned and swam farther into the river, 
 in the hope of avoiding being [269] shot by diving. 
 Fortunately his antagonist laid hold on the gun which had 
 been discharged at the little Indian, and he was enabled 
 to get some distance into the river. 
 
 At this juncture, two others of the whites came up ; 
 and one of them mistaking Poe for a wounded savage at- 
 tempting to escape, shot and wounded him in the shoulder. 
 He then turned to make for shore, and seeing his brother 
 Andrew on the bank, called to him to " shoot the big In- 
 dian." Having done this, Andrew plunged into the river 
 to assist Adam in getting out; and the wounded savage, 
 to preserve his scalp, rolled himself into the water, and 
 struggling onward, sunk and could not be found. 
 
 During the continuance of this contest, the whites 
 had overtaken the other five Indians, and after a desperate 
 conflict, succeeded in killing all but one ; with the loss of 
 three of their companions. A great loss, when the num- 
 ber engaged is taken into consideration.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 365 
 
 [270] CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The treaty of peace between the United States and 
 Great Britain, which terminated so gloriously the war of 
 the revolution, did not put a period to Indian hostilities. 1 
 The aid which had been extended to the savages, and 
 which enabled them so successfully to gratify their im- 
 placable resentment against the border country, being 
 withdrawn, they were less able to cope with the whites 
 than they had been, and were less a hindrance to the pop- 
 ulation and improvement of those sections of country 
 which had been the theatre of their many outrages. In 
 North Western Virginia, indeed, although the war con- 
 tinued to be waged against its inhabitants, yet it assumed 
 a different aspect. It became a war rather of plunder, 
 than of blood ; and although in the predatory incursions 
 of the Indians, individuals some times fell a sacrifice to 
 savage passion ; yet this was of such rare occurrence, that 
 the chronicles of those days are divested of much of the 
 interest, which attaches to a detail of Indian hostilities. 
 For several years, scarce an incident occurred worthy of 
 being rescued from oblivion. 
 
 In Kentucky it was far otherwise. The war continued 
 to be prosecuted there, with the wonted vigor of the sav- 
 ages. The General Assembly of Virginia having, at the 
 close of the revolution, passed an act for surveying the 
 land set apart for her officers and soldiers, south of Green 
 river, the surveyors descended to the Ohio, to explore the 
 country and perform the duties assigned them. On their 
 arrival they found it occupied by the savages, and acts of 
 
 1 News of the preliminary articles of peace, which had been signed 
 at Paris, November 30, 1782, did not reach Fort Pitt until May, 1783. In 
 July following, De Peyster, British commandant at Detroit, gathered at 
 that post the chiefs of eleven tribes as far south as the Great Miami and 
 the Wabash, and informed them of the event. R. G. T.
 
 366 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 hostilities immediately [271] ensued. In December, 1788, 
 the Legislature likewise passed an act, appropriating the 
 country between the Scioto and Miami rivers, for the pur- 
 pose of satisfying the claims of the officers and soldiers, if 
 the land previously allotted, in Kentucky, should prove 
 insufficient for that object. This led to a confederacy of 
 the many tribes of Indians, interested in those sections of 
 country, and produced such feelings and gave rise to such 
 acts of hostility on their part, as induced Benjamin Harri- 
 son the Governor of Virginia, in November, 1784, to recom- 
 mend the postponement of the surveys ; and in January, 
 1785, a proclamation was issued, by Patrick Henry, (suc- 
 cessor of Gov. Harrison) commanding the surveyors to de- 
 sist and leave the country. A treaty was soon after con- 
 cluded, by which the country on the Scioto, Miami, and 
 Muskingum, was ceded to the United States. 1 In this in- 
 terval of time, North "Western Virginia enjoyed almost 
 uninterrupted repose. There was indeed an alarm of In- 
 dians, on Simpson's creek in 1783, but it soon subsided ; 
 and the circumstance which gave rise to it (the discharge 
 of a gun at Major Power) was generally attributed to a 
 white man. 
 
 In 1784, the settlement towards the head of West Fork, 
 suffered somewhat from savage invasion. A party of In- 
 dians came to the house of Henry Flesher, (where the town 
 of Weston now is) and fired at the old gentleman, as he 
 was returning from the labors of the field. The gun dis- 
 charged at him, had been loaded with two balls, and both 
 taking effect, crippled his arm a good deal. Two savages 
 immediately ran towards him ; and he, towards the door ; 
 and just as he was in the act of entering it, one of them 
 had approached so closely as to strike at him with the butt 
 end of his gun. The breech came first in contact with the 
 facing of the door, and descending on his head, seemed 
 to throw him forward into the house, and his wife closing 
 
 1 The treaty was held at Fort Mclntosh, at the mouth of the Beaver, 
 early in January, 1785. The tribes represented were the Wyandots, 
 Chippewas, Delawares, and Ottawas. The commissioners were Arthur 
 Lee, Richard Butler, and George Rogers Clark. Col. Josiah Harmar was 
 in charge of the troops. R. G. T.
 
 Of .Border Warfare. 367 
 
 the door, no attempt was made by the savages to force it 
 open. Still, however, they did not feel secure; and as 
 soon as they became assured that the savages were with- 
 drawn, they left the house and sought security elsewhere. 
 Most of the family lay in the woods during the night, 
 one young woman succeeded in finding the way to Hack- 
 er's creek, from whence Thomas Hughes immediately de- 
 parted to find the others. This was effected early next 
 morning, and all were safely escorted to that settlement. 
 
 [272] The foregoing event happened in September, and 
 in a few days after, as Daniel RadclifF was proceeding to 
 the Brushy Fork of Elk creek on a hunting expedition, 
 he was shot (probably by the Indians who had been at 
 Flesher's,) tomahawked and scalped in a shocking manner. 
 
 In 1785, six Indians came to Bingamon creek, (a branch 
 of the West Fork) and made their appearance upon a farm 
 occupied by Thomas and Edward Cunningham. At this 
 time the two brothers were dwelling with their families 
 in separate houses, but nearly adjoining, though not in a 
 direct line with each other. Thomas was then on a trad- 
 ing visit east of the mountain, and his wife and four chil- 
 dren were collected in their room for the purpose of eat- 
 ing dinner, as was Edward with his family, in their house. 
 Suddenly a lusty savage entered where were Mrs. Thomas 
 Cunningham and her children, but seeing that he would 
 be exposed to a fire from the other house, and apprehend- 
 ing no danger from the woman and children, he closed 
 the door and seemed for a time only intent on the means 
 of escaping. 
 
 Edward Cunningham had seen the savage enter his 
 brother's house, and fastened his own door, seized his gun 
 and stepping to a small aperture in the wall next the 
 house in which was the Indian, and which served as well 
 for a port hole as for the admission of light, was ready to 
 fire whenever the savage should make his appearance. 
 But in the other house was a like aperture, and through it 
 the Indian fired at Edward, and shouted the yell of vic- 
 tory. It was answered by Edward. He had seen the aim 
 of the savage only in time to avoid it, the bark from the 
 log close to his head, was knocked off" by the ball and flew
 
 368 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 into his face. The Indian seeing that he had missed his 
 object, and observing an adze in the room, deliberately 
 commenced cutting an aperture in the back wall through 
 which he might pass out without being exposed to a shot 
 from the other building. 1 
 
 Another of the Indians came into the yard just after the 
 firing of his companion, but observing Edward's gun point- 
 ing through the port hole, he endeavored to retreat out of 
 its range. He failed of his purpose. Just as he was about 
 to spring over the fence, the gun was fired and he fell for- 
 ward. The ball however only fractured his thigh bone, 
 and he was yet able to hobble over the fence and take 
 shelter behind a [273] coverlet suspended on it, before Ed- 
 ward could again load his gun. 
 
 While the Indian was engaged in cutting a hole in the 
 wall, Mrs. Cunningham made no attempt to get out. She 
 was well aware that it would draw down upon her head 
 the fury of the savage; and that if she escaped this, she 
 would most probably be killed by some of those who were 
 watching around, before the other door could be opened 
 for her admission. She knew too, that it was impossible 
 for her to take the children with her, and could not brook 
 the idea of leaving them in the hands of the savage mon- 
 ster. She even trusted to the hope that he would with- 
 draw, as soon as he could, without molesting any of them. 
 A few minutes served to convince her of the fallacy of this 
 expectation. When the opening had been made suffi- 
 ciently large, he raised his tomahawk, sunk it deep into 
 the brains of one of the children, and throwing the scarcely 
 lifeless body into the back yard, ordered the mother to 
 follow after. There was no alternative but death, and she 
 obeyed his order, stepping over the dead body of one of 
 her children, 2 with an infant in her arms and two others 
 
 1 L. V. McWhorter, well informed in the local traditions, writes : 
 " When the Indian sprang into the house, with drawn tomahawk, he 
 closed and for a few moments stood with his back to the door. Then, . 
 while cutting an opening through the wall, he asked Mrs Cunningham 
 how many men there were in the other house. She answered by hold- 
 ing up the extended fingers of both hands, indicating 10." R. G. T. 
 'McWhorter: "Mrs. Cunningham related that the last she
 
 Of Border Warfare. 369 
 
 screaming from horror at the sight, and clinging to her. 
 When all were out he scalped the murdered boy, and set- 
 ting fire to the house, retired to an eminence in the field, 
 where two of the savages were, with their wounded com- 
 panion. leaving the other two to watch the opening of 
 Edward Cunningham's door, when the burning of the 
 house should force the family from their shelter. They 
 were disappointed in their expectation of that event by 
 the exertions of Cunningham and his son. When the 
 flame from the one house communicated to the roof of the 
 other, they ascended to the loft, threw off the loose boards 
 which covered it, and extinguished the fire ; the savages 
 shooting at them all the while, and their balls frequently 
 striking close by. 
 
 Despairing of accomplishing farther havoc, and fearful 
 of detection and pursuit, the Indians collected together 
 and prepared to retreat. Mrs. Cunningham's eldest son 
 was first tomahawked and scalped ; the fatal hatchet sunk 
 into the head of her little daughter, whom they then took 
 by the arms and legs, and slinging it repeatedly against a 
 tree, ended its sufferings with its life. Mrs. Cunningham 
 stood motionless with grief, and in momentary expectation 
 of having the same dealt to her and her innocent infant. 
 But no! She was [274] doomed to captivity; and with her 
 helpless babe in her arms, was led off from this scene of 
 horror and of wo. The wounded savage was carried on a 
 rough litter, and they all departed, crossing the ridge to 
 Bingamon creek, near which they found a cave that af- 
 forded them shelter and concealment. 1 After night, they 
 returned to Edward Cunningham's, and finding no one, 
 plundered and fired the house. 
 
 When the savages withdrew in the evening, Cunning- 
 saw of her little daughter, was one quivering little foot sticking up ove* 
 ^ log behind which she had been thrown." R. G. T. 
 
 1 McWhorter : " The cave in which Mrs. Cunningham was 
 concealed is on Little Indian Run, a branch of Big Bingamon Creek, ou 
 which stream the tragedy took place. The cave is about two miles north- 
 west of the site of the capture, and in Harrison County, W. Va." 
 R. G. T. 
 
 24
 
 370 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 ham went with his family into the woods, where they re- 
 mained all night, there being no settlement nearer than 
 eight or ten miles. In the morning, proceeding to the 
 nearest house, they gave the alarm and a company of men 
 was soon collected to go in pursuit of the Indians. When 
 they came to Cunningham's and found both houses heaps 
 of ashes, they buried the bones which remained of the boy 
 who was murdered in the house, with the bodies of his 
 brother and little sister, who were killed in the field; but 
 so cautiously had the savages conducted their retreat that 
 no traces of them could be discovered, and the men re- 
 turned to their homes. 
 
 Some days after, circumstances induced the belief that 
 the Indians were yet in the neighborhood, and men were 
 again assembled for the purpose of tracing them. They 
 were now enabled to distinguish the trail, and pursued it 
 near to the cave, where from the number of rocks on the 
 ground and the care which had been taken by the Indians 
 to leave no vestige, they could no longer discover it. They 
 however examined for it in every direction until night 
 forced them to desist. In thinking over the incidents of 
 the day ; the cave occurred to the mind of Major Robin- 
 son, who was well acquainted with the woods, and he con- 
 cluded that the savages must be concealed in it. It was 
 examined early next morning, but they had left it the pre- 
 ceding night and departed for their towns. After her re- 
 turn from captivity, Mrs. Cunningham stated, that in time 
 of the search on the day before, the Indians were in the 
 cave, and that several times the whites approached so near, 
 that she could distinctly hear their voices ; the savages 
 standing with their guns ready to fire, in the event of their 
 being discovered, and forcing her to keep the infant to her 
 breast, lest its crying might point to the place of their con- 
 cealment. 1 
 
 In consequence of their stay at this place on account 
 of their wounded companion, it was some time before they 
 
 1 McWhorter: " Mrs. Cunningham stated that an Indian stood over 
 her with an uplifted tomahawk, to prevent her from crying out. At 
 times, the whites were upon the very rock above their heads." R. G. T-
 
 Of Border Warfare. 371 
 
 arrived [275] in their own country ;* and Mrs. Cunning- 
 ham's sufferings, of body as well as mind were truly great. 
 Fatigue and hunger oppressed her sorely, the infant in 
 her arms, wanting the nourishment derived from the due 
 sustenance of the mother, plied at the breast for milk, in 
 vain blood came in stead ; and the Indians perceiving 
 this, put a period to its sufferings, with the tomahawk, 
 even while clinging to its mother's bosom. It was cast a 
 little distance from the path, and left without a leaf or 
 bush to hide it from beasts of prey. 
 
 The anguish of this woman during the journey to the 
 towns, can only be properly estimated by a parent; her 
 bodily sufferings may be inferred from the fact, that for 
 ten days her only sustenance consisted of the head of a 
 wild turkey and three papaws, and from the circumstance 
 that the skin and nails of her feet, scalded by frequent 
 wading of the water, came with her stockings, when upon 
 their arrival at a village of the Delawares, she was per- 
 mitted to draw them off. Yet was she forced to continue 
 on with them the next day. One of the Indians belong- 
 ing to the village where they were, by an application of 
 some sanative herbs, very much relieved the pain which 
 she endured. 
 
 "When she came to the town of those by whom she 
 had been made prisoner, although receiving no barbarous 
 or cruel usage, yet everything indicated to her, that she 
 was reserved for some painful torture. The wounded In- 
 dian had been left behind, and she was delivered to his 
 father. Her clothes were not changed, as is the case when 
 a prisoner is adopted by them ; but she was compelled to 
 wear them, dirty as they were, a bad omen for a captive. 
 She was however, not long in apprehension of a wretched 
 fate. A conference was soon to take place between the 
 Indians and whites, preparatory to a treaty of peace ; and 
 
 1 McWhorter says local tradition has it that the Indians remained in 
 the cave a night and a day ; they departed before daylight, during the 
 second night. Mrs. Cunningham related that just before leaving, the 
 wounded brave was borne from the cave by his fellows, and she never 
 again saw him ; her opinion was, that he was then dead, and his body 
 was sunk in a neighboring pool. R. G. T.
 
 372 Withers 1 s Chronicles 
 
 witnessing an uncommon excitement in the village one 
 evening, upon inquiring, learned that the Great captain 
 Simon Girty had arrived. She determined to prevail with 
 him, if she could, to intercede for her liberation, and seeing 
 him next day passing near on horseback, she laid hold on 
 his stirrup, and implored his interference. For a while he 
 made light of her petition, telling her that she would be 
 as well there as in her own country, and that if he were dis- 
 posed to do her a kindness he could not as his saddle bags 
 were too small to conceal her; but her importunity at length 
 prevailed, and he whose heart had been so long steeled 
 [276] against every kindly feeling, every sympathetic im- 
 pression, was at length induced to perform an act of gen- 
 erous, disinterested benevolence. He paid her ransom, 
 had her conveyed to the commissioners for negotiating 
 with the Indians, and by them she was taken to a station 
 on the south side of the Ohio. 1 Here she met with two 
 gentlemen (Long and Deiiton) who had been at the treaty 
 to obtain intelligence of their children taken captive 
 some time before, but not being able to gain any informa- 
 tion respecting them, they were then returning to the in- 
 terior of Kentucky and kindly furnished her a horse. 
 
 In consequence of the great danger attending a jour- 
 ney through the wilderness which lay between the settle- 
 ments in Kentucky and those on the Holstein, persons 
 scarcely ever performed it but at particular periods of the 
 year, and in caravans, the better to defend themselves 
 against attacks of savages. Notice of the time and place 
 of the assembling of one of these parties being given, Mrs. 
 Cunningham prepared to accompany it; but before that time 
 arrived, they were deterred from the undertaking by the 
 report that a company of travellers, stronger than theirs 
 would be, had been encountered by the Indians, and all 
 either killed or made prisoners. Soon after another party 
 
 1 Mrs. Cunningham had been over three years with the savages, 
 when she was taken to a great Indian conference held at the foot of 
 the Maumee rapids, " at or near the site of the present Perrysburgh, 
 Ohio." in the autumn of 1788. Girty brought the attention of McKee, 
 then a British Indian agent, to the matter, and McKee furnished the 
 trinkets which constituted the ransom. R. G. T,
 
 Of Border Warfare. 373 
 
 resolved on a visit to Virginia, and Mrs. Cunningham was 
 furnished a horse belonging to a gentleman on Holstein 
 (which had escaped from him while on a buffalo hunt in 
 Kentucky and was found after his return,) to carry her 
 that far on her way home. Experiencing the many un- 
 pleasant circumstances incident to such a jaunt, she reached 
 Holstein, and from thence, after a repose of a few days, 
 keeping up the Valley of Virginia, she proceeded by the 
 way of Shenandoah, to the county of Harrison. 1 Here 
 she was sadly disappointed in not meeting with her hus- 
 band. Having understood that she had been ransomed 
 and taken to Kentucky, he had, some time before, gone on 
 in quest of her. Anxiety for his fate, alone and on a journey 
 which she well knew to be fraught with many dangers, 
 she could not cheerily partake of the general joy excited 
 by her return. In a few days however, he came back. He 
 had heard on Holstein of her having passed there and he 
 retraced his steps. Arriving at his brother Edward's, he 
 again enjoyed the satisfaction of being with all that was 
 then dear to him on earth. It was a delightful satisfac- 
 tion, but presently damped by the recollection of [277] the 
 fate of his luckless children Time assuaged the bitterness 
 of the recollection and blessed him with other and more 
 fortunate children. 2 
 
 In October 1784, a party of Indians ascended Sandy 
 river and passing over to the head of Clynch, came to the 
 settlement near where Tazewell court house is now located. 
 Going first to the house of a Mr. Davisson, they killed him 
 and his wife; and setting fire to their dwelling, proceeded 
 towards the residence of James Moore, sr. On their way 
 they met Moore salting his horses at a lick trough in the 
 woods, and killed him. They then went to the house and 
 captured Mrs. Moore and her seven children, and Sally 
 
 1 See McKnight's Our Western Border, pp. 714, 716. R. G. T. 
 
 2 Superstition was rife among the Scotch-Irish borderers. McWhorter 
 writes : " On the day before the capture, a little bird came into Mrs. Cun- 
 ningham's cabin and fluttered around the room. Ever afterwards, she 
 grew frightened whenever a bird would enter her house. The fear that 
 euch an occurrence would bring bad luck to a household, was an old and 
 widely-spread superstition." R. G. T.
 
 374 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 Ivens, a young lady who was there on a visit. Fearing 
 detection, they immediately departed for Ohio with the 
 prisoners; and in order to expedite their retreat, killed 
 John Moore, jr. and the three younger children. 
 
 Upon their arrival at the Shawanee town on the Scioto 
 (near the mouth of Paint creek) a council was held, and it 
 was resolved that two of the captives should be burned 
 alive, to avenge the death of some of their warriors who 
 had been killed on the Kentucky river. This dreadful 
 doom was allotted to Mrs. Moore and her daughter Jane, 
 an interesting girl about sixteen years of age. They were 
 tied to a post and tortured to death with burning splinters 
 of pine, in the presence of the remaining members of the 
 family. 
 
 After the death of his mother and sister, James Moore 
 was sent to the Maumee towns in Michigan, where he re- 
 mained until December 1785, his sister Mary and Sally 
 Ivins remaining with the Shawanees. In December 1786, 
 they were all brought to Augusta county in conformity 
 with the stipulations of the treaty of Miami, and ransomed 
 by their friends. 1 
 
 In the fall of 1796, John Ice and James Snodgrass were 
 killed by the Indians when looking for their horses which 
 they [278] had lost on a buffalo hunt on Fishing creek. 
 Their remains were afterwards found the flesh torn from 
 the bones by the wolves and buried. 
 
 In a few days after Ice and Snodgrass left home in 
 quest of their horses, a party of Indians came to Buffalo 
 creek in Monongalia, and meeting with Mrs. Dragoo and 
 her son in a corn field gathering beans, took them pris- 
 oners, and supposing that their detention would induce 
 others to look for them, they waylaid the path leading 
 
 [277] 1 Mary Moore afterwards became the wife of Mr. Brown, a pres- 
 byterian preacher in Augusta. Her brother James Moore, jr., still resides 
 in Taze well county; and notwithstanding that he witnessed the cruel 
 murder of his mother and five brothers and sisters by the hands of the 
 savages, he is said to have formed and still retain a strong attachment to 
 the Indians. The anniversary of the burning of Mrs. Moore & her 
 daughter, is kept by many in Tazewell as a day of fasting and -prayer , 
 and that tragical event gave rise to some affecting verses, generally 
 called " Moore's Lamentation."
 
 Of Border Warfare. 375 
 
 from the house. According to their expectation, uneasy 
 at their continued absence, Jacob Strait and Nicholas 
 Wood went to ascertain its cause. As they approached 
 the Indians fired from their covert, and Wood fell ; Strait 
 taking to flight was soon overtaken. Mrs. Strait and her 
 daughter, hearing the firing and seeing the savages in 
 pursuit of Mr. Strait, betook themselves also to flight, but 
 were discovered by some of the Indians who immediately 
 ran after them. The daughter concealed herself in a 
 thicket of bushes and escaped observation. Her mother 
 sought concealment under a large shelving rock, and was 
 not afterwards discovered by the savages, although those 
 in pursuit of her husband, passed near and overtook him 
 not far off. Indeed she was at that time so close, as to 
 hear Mr. Strait say, when overtaken, " don't kill me and I 
 will go with you ;" and the savage replying " will you go 
 with me," she heard the fatal blow which deprived her 
 husband of life. 
 
 Mrs. Dragoo being infirm and unable to travel to their 
 towns, was murdered on the way. Her son (a lad of seven) 
 remained with the Indians upwards of twenty years, he 
 married a squaw, by whom he had four children, two of 
 whom he brought home with him, when he forsook the 
 Indians. 
 
 In 1787 the Indians again visited the settlement on 
 Bufialoe, and as Levi Morgan was engaged in skining a 
 wolf which he had just taken from his trap, he saw three 
 of them one riding a horse which he well knew, the other 
 two walking near behind coming towards him. On first 
 looking in the direction they were coming, he recognized 
 the horse, and supposed the rider to be its owner one of 
 his near neighbors. A second glance discovered the mis- 
 take, and he siezed his gun and sprang behind a large 
 rock, the Indians at the same instant taking shelter by 
 the side of a large tree. As soon as his body was obscured 
 from their view, he turned, and seeing the Indians looking 
 towards the farther end of the [279] rocks as if expecting 
 him to make his appearance there, he fired and one of 
 tiu.-m fell. Instantly he had recourse to his powder horn 
 to reload, but while engaged in skinning the wolf the stop-
 
 37G Withers^ Chronicles 
 
 per had fallen out and his powder was wasted. He then 
 fled, and one of the savages took after him. For some 
 time he held to his gun; but finding his pursuer sensibly 
 gaining on him, he dropped it under the hope that it would 
 attract the attention of the Indian and give him a better 
 chance of escape. The savage passed heedlessly by it. 
 Morgan then threw his shot pouch and coat in the way, to 
 tempt the Indian to a momentary delay. It was equally 
 vain, his pursuer did not falter for an instant. He now 
 had recourse to another expedient to save himself from 
 captivity or death. Arriving at the summit of the hill up 
 which he had directed his steps, he halted; and, as if some 
 men were approaching from the other side, called aloud, 
 " come on, come on ; here is one, make haste." The In- 
 dian not doubting that he was really calling to some men 
 at hand, turned and retreated as precipitately as he had 
 advanced ; and when he heard Morgan exclaim, " shoot 
 quick, or he will be out of reach," he seemed to redouble 
 his exertion to gain that desirable distance. Pleased with 
 the success of the artifice, Morgan hastened home ; leav- 
 ing his coat and gun to reward the savage for the decep- 
 tion practised on him. 1 
 
 In September of this year, a party of Indians were 
 discovered in the act of catching some horses on the West 
 Fork above Clarksburg ; and a company of men led on by 
 Col. Lowther, went immediately in pursuit of them. 2 On 
 the third night the Indians and whites, unknown to each 
 other, encamped not far apart; and in the morning the 
 fires of the latter being discovered by Elias Hughes, the 
 detachment which was accompanying him fired upon the 
 camp, and one of the savages fell. The remainder taking 
 
 [279] ' At the treaty of Au Glaize, Morgan met with the Indian who 
 had given him this chase, and who still had his gun. After talking over 
 the circumstance, rather more composedly than they had acted it, they 
 agreed to test each other's speed in a friendly race. The Indian being 
 beaten, rubbed his hams and said, " stiff", stiff; too old, too old." " Well, 
 said Morgan, you got the gun by outrunning me then, and I should have 
 it now for outrunning you;" and accordingly took it. 
 
 2 McWhorter: "Alexander West was with Col. William Lowther on 
 this expedition. They followed the Indians to the Little Kanawha 
 River."-R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 377 
 
 to flight, one of them passed near to where Col. Lowther 
 and the other men were, and the Colonel firing at him as 
 he ran, the ball entering at his shoulder, perforated him, 
 and he fell. The horses and plunder which had been taken 
 by the savages, were then collected by the whites, and they 
 commenced their return home, in the confidence of false 
 security. They had not proceeded far, when two guns 
 were unexpectedly fired at them, and John Bonnet fell, 
 pierced through the body. He died before he reached 
 home. 1 
 
 [280] The Indians never thought the whites justifiable 
 in flying to arms to punish them for acts merely of rapine. 
 They felt authorized to levy contributions of this sort, when- 
 ever an occasion served, viewing property thus acquired as 
 (to use their own expression) the " only rent which they re- 
 ceived for their lands ;" and if when detected in secretly 
 exacting them, their blood paid the penalty, they were 
 sure to retaliate with tenfold fury, on the first favorable 
 opportunity. The murder of these two Indians by Hughes 
 and Lowther was soon followed by acts of retribution, 
 which are believed to have been, at least mediately, pro- 
 duced by them. 
 
 On the 5th of December, a party of Indians and one 
 white man (Leonard Schoolcraft) came into the settlement 
 on Hacker's creek, and meeting with a daughter of Jesse 
 Hughes, took her prisoner. Passing on, they came upon 
 E. West, Senr. carrying some fodder to the stable, and 
 taking him likewise captive, carried him to where Hughes' 
 daughter had been left in charge of some of their party. 
 Here the old gentleman fell upon his knees and expressed 
 a fervent wish that they would not deal harshly by him. 
 
 1 Another case of border superstition is related to me by McWhorter. 
 Alexander West had been doing sentry duty most of the night before, 
 and on being relieved early in the morning, sat with his back to a tree 
 and, rifle across his lap, fell to sleep. On awakening he sprang to his 
 feet and cried, " Boys, look out! Some of us will be killed to-day ! I 
 saw the red doe in my dream ; that is the sign of death ; I never knew it 
 to fail ! " When Bonnett fell, it was considered in camp to be a verifica- 
 tion of the " red sign." Bonnett was carried by his comrades on a rude 
 stretcher, but in four days died. His body was placed in a cleft of rock 
 and the entrance securely chinked. R. G. T.
 
 37s Withers's Chronicles 
 
 His petition was answered by a stroke of the tomahawk, 
 and he fell dead. 
 
 They then went to the house of Edmund West, Jun. 
 where were Mrs. West and her sister (a girl of eleven 
 years old, daughter of John Hacker) and a lad of twelve, 
 a brother of West. Forcing open the door, Schoolcraft 
 and two of the savages entered; and one of them im- 
 mediately tomahawked Mrs. West. The boy was taking 
 some corn from under the bed, he was drawn out by the 
 feet and the tomahawk sank twice in his forehead, directly 
 above each eye. The girl was standing behind the door. 
 One of the savages approached and aimed at her a blow. 
 She tried to evade it ; but it struck on the side of her neck, 
 though not with sufficient force to knock her down. She 
 fell however, and lay as if killed. Thinking their work of 
 death accomplished here, they took from a press some 
 milk, butter and bread, placed it on the table, and delib- 
 erately sat down to eat, the little girl observing all that 
 passed, in silent stillness. When they had satisfied their 
 hunger, they arose, scalped the woman and boy, plundered 
 the house even emptying the feathers to carry off the tick- 
 ing and departed, dragging the little girl by the hair, forty 
 or fifty yards from the house. They then threw her over the 
 fence, and scalped her ; but as she evinced symptoms of 
 life, Schoolcraft observed " that is not enough," when im- 
 mediately one of the savages thrust a knife into her side, 
 and they left her. Fortunately the point of the knife 
 came in contact with a rib and did not injure her much. 
 
 Old Mrs. West and her two daughters, who were alone 
 when the otd gentleman was taken, became uneasy that he 
 did not return; and fearing that he had fallen into the 
 hands of savages (as they could not otherwise account for 
 his absence) they left the house and went to Alexander 
 West's, who was then on a hunting expedition with his 
 brother Edmund. They told of the absence of old Mr. 
 West and [281] their fears for his fate ; and as there was 
 no man here, they went over to Jesse Hughes' who was 
 himself uneasy that his daughter did not come home. 
 Upon hearing that West too was missing, he did not 
 doubt but that both had fallen into the hands of Indians;
 
 Of Border Warfare. 379 
 
 
 
 and knowing of the absence from home of Edmund "West, 
 Jun. he deemed it advisable to apprize his wife of danger, 
 and remove her to his house. For this purpose and ac- 
 companied by Mrs. West's two daughters, he went on. 
 On entering the door, the tale of destruction which had 
 been done there was soon told in part. Mrs. West and the 
 lad lay weltering in their blood, but not yet dead. The 
 sight overpowered the girls, and Hughes had to carry 
 them off. Seeing that the savages had but just left them; 
 and aware of the danger which would attend any attempt 
 to move out and give the alarm that night, Hughes guarded 
 his own house until day, when he spread the sorrowful in- 
 telligence, and a company were collected to ascertain the 
 extent of the mischief and try to find those who were 
 known to be missing. 
 
 Young West was found standing in the creek about 
 a mile from where he had been tomahawked. The brains 
 were oozing from his head ; yet he survived in extreme 
 suffering for three days. Old Mr. West was found in the 
 field where he had been tomahawked. Mrs. West was in 
 the house; she had probably lived but a few minutes after 
 Hughes and her sisters-in-law had left there. The little 
 girl (Hacker's daughter) was in bed at the house of old 
 Mr. West. She related the history of the transactions at 
 Edmund West's, Juu. and said that she went to sleep when 
 thrown over the fence and was awaked by the scalping. 
 After she had been stabbed at the suggestion of School- 
 craft and left, she tried to re-cross the fence to the house, 
 but as she was climbing up she again went to sleep and 
 fell back. She then walked into the woods, sheltered her- 
 self as well as she could in the top of a fallen tree, and re- 
 mained there until the cocks crew in the morning. 
 
 Remembering that there was no person left alive at 
 the house of her sister, awhile before day she proceeded 
 to old Mr. West's. She found no person at home, the fire 
 nearly out, but the hearth warm and she laid down on it. 
 The heat produced a sickly feeling, which caused her to 
 get up and go to the bed, in which she was found. She 
 recovered, grew up, was married, gave birth to ten chil- 
 dren, and died, as was believed, of an affection of the
 
 380 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 head, occasioned by the wound she received that night. 
 Hughes' daughter was ransomed by her father the next 
 year, and is yet living in sight of the theatre of those sav- 
 age enormities. 
 
 In March 1789, two Indians came to the house of Mr. 
 Glass in the upper end of Ohio (now Brooke) county. They 
 were discovered by a negro woman, who immediately ex- 
 claimed, " here are Indians." Mrs. Glass rose up from 
 her spinning wheel, ran to the door, and was met by an 
 Indian with his gun presented. She laid hold on the muz- 
 zle and turning it aside, begged that he would not kill, 
 [282] but take her prisoner. He walked into the house 
 and when joined by another Indian with the negro woman 
 and her boy, about four years old, they opened a chest, 
 took out a small box and some articles of clothing, and 
 without doing farther mischief, departed with the prison- 
 ers, Mrs. Glass and her child, two years of age, the negro 
 woman and boy and her infant child. They had pro- 
 ceeded but a short distance when a consultation was held, 
 and Mrs. Glass supposing from their gestures and frequent 
 pointing towards the children they were the subject of de- 
 liberation, held forth her little boy to one of the savages 
 and begged that he might be spared adding, "he will 
 make a fine little Indian after awhile." He signed to her 
 to go on. The other savage then struck the negro boy 
 with the pipe end of his tomahawk, and with the edge 
 gave him a blow across the back of the neck, and scalped 
 and left him. 
 
 In the evening they came to the Ohio river just above 
 Wellsburg, and descended it in a canoe about five miles, 
 to the mouth of Rush run. They drew the canoe some 
 distance up the run and proceeding between one and two 
 miles farther encamped for the night. Next morning they 
 resumed their march and about two o'clock halted on In- 
 dian Short creek, twenty miles farther. 
 
 When the savages came to the house of Mr. Glass he 
 was at work in a field some few hundred yards off, and 
 was ignorant that any thing extraordinary had occurred 
 there, until in the afternoon. Searching in vain for his 
 wife, he became satisfied that she had been taken by the
 
 Of Border Warfare. 381 
 
 Indians; and proceeding to Well's fort prevailed on ten 
 men to accompany him in quest of them. Early next 
 morning they discovered the place where the Indians em- 
 barked in the canoe; and as Mr. Glass readily distin- 
 guished the impression made by Mrs. Glass' shoe on the 
 sand, they crossed the river with great expectation of being 
 able to overtake them. They then went down the river 
 to the mouth of Rush run, where the canoe was found 
 and identified by some of Mr. Glass' papers, purposely 
 left there by Mrs. Glass. From this place the trail of the 
 Indians and their prisoners was plainly visible, and pur- 
 suing it, the party arrived in view of the smoke from 
 their fire on Short creek, about an hour after the Indians 
 had halted. Crossing slyly forward, when rather more 
 than one hundred yards off they beheld the two savages 
 attentively inspecting a red jacket which one of them 
 held, and Mrs. Glass and her little boy and the negro 
 woman and her child a few paces from them. Suddenly 
 the Indians let fall the jacket, and looked towards the 
 men. Supposing they were discovered, they discharged 
 their guns and rushed towards the fire. One of the Indi- 
 ans fell and dropped his gun, but recovering, ran about 
 one hundred yards when a shot aimed at him by Major 
 McGuire brought him to his hands and knees. Mrs. Glass 
 informing them that there was another encampment of 
 Indians close by, instead of following the wounded savage, 
 they returned home with all speed. 
 
 [283] In August five Indians on their way to the set- 
 tlements on the waters of the Monongahela, met with two 
 men on Middle Island creek, and killed them. Taking 
 their horses they continued on their route until they came 
 to the house of William Johnson on Ten Mile, and made 
 prisoner of Mrs. Johnson and some children ; plundered 
 the house, killed part of the stock, and taking with them 
 one of Johnson's horses, returned towards the Ohio. 
 When the Indians came to the house, Johnson had gone 
 to a lick not far off, and on his return in the morning, see- 
 what had been done, and searching until he found the trail 
 of the savages and their prisoners, ran to Clarksburg for 
 assistance. A company of men repaired with him imme-
 
 382 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 diately to where he had discovered the trail, and keeping 
 it about a mile, found four of the children lying dead in 
 the woods. The savages had tomahawked and scalped 
 them, and placing their heads close together, turned their 
 bodies and feet straight out so as to represent a cross. The 
 dead were buried and farther pursuit given over. 
 
 Other Indians, about the same time, came to the house 
 of John Mack on a branch of Hacker's creek. He being 
 from home, they killed all who were at the house. Two 
 of the children, who had been sent into the woods to hunt 
 the cattle, returning, saw a little sister lying in the yard 
 scalped, and directly fled, and gave the alarm. In the 
 morning some men assembled and went to ascertain the 
 extent of the mischief. The house was no longer to be 
 seen, a heap of ashes was all that remained of it. The 
 little girl who had been scalped in the yard, was much 
 burned, and those who had been murdered in the house, 
 were consumed with it. Mrs. Mack had been taken some 
 distance from the house, tomahawked, scalped, and stripped 
 naked. She was yet alive ; and as the men approached, a 
 sense of her situation induced her to exert her feeble 
 strength in drawing leaves around her so as to conceal 
 her nakedness. The men wrapped their hunting: shirts 
 about her, and carried her to a neighboring house. She 
 lived a few days, gave birth to a child and died. 
 
 Some time after the murder of Mack's family, John 
 Sims, living on a branch of Gnatty creek, seeing his horses 
 come running up much affrighted, was led to believe that 
 the Indians had been trying to catch them. In a few min- 
 utes, the dogs began to bark furiously in the corn field ad- 
 joining, and he became satisfied the savages were approach- 
 ing. Knowing [284] that he could offer no effectual resist- 
 ance, if they should attack his house, he contrived an arti- 
 fice to deter them from approaching. Taking down his 
 gun, he walked around the house backward and forward, 
 and as if speaking to men in it, called out, "Be watchful. 
 They will soon be here, and as soon as you see them, draw 
 H fine bead;" Mrs. Sims in a coarse tone of voice and with 
 feigned resolution, answering as she had been advised, 
 "Never fear! let them once shew their yellow hides, and
 
 Of Border Warfare. 383 
 
 we'll pepper them." He would then retire into the house, 
 change his garments, the better to support the deception, 
 and again go forth to watch and give directions to those 
 within. He pursued this plan until night, when he with- 
 drew with his family to a place of safety. The Indians had 
 actually been in the cornfield, and near enough to have 
 shot Sims, the place where they had been sitting being 
 plainly discernible next morning. Sims' artifice no doubt 
 drove them off, and as they were retreating they fired 
 the house of Jethro Thompson on Lost creek. 
 
 In the spring of 1790, the neighborhood of Clarks- 
 burg was again visited by Indians in quest of plunder, and 
 who stole and carried off several horses. They were dis- 
 covered and pursued to the Ohio river, when the pursuers, 
 being reinforced, determined to follow on over into the In- 
 dian country. Crossing the river and ascending the Hock- 
 hocking, near to the falls, they came upon the camp of the 
 savages. The whites opened an unexpected fire, which 
 killing one and wounding another of the Indians, caused 
 the remainder to fly, leaving their horses about their 
 camp. These were caught, brought back and restored to 
 their owners. 
 
 In April as Samuel Hull was engaged in ploughing a 
 field for Major Benjamin Robinson, he was discovered by 
 some Indians, shot, tomahawked, and scalped. The mur- 
 der was first ascertained by Mrs. Robinson. Surprised 
 that Hull did not come to the house as usual, to feed the 
 horses and get his own dinner, she went to the field to see 
 what detained him She found the horses some distance 
 from where they had been recently at work ; and going on, 
 presently saw Hull lying where he had been shot.
 
 384 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 [285] CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Upon the close of the war of the revolution, many 
 circumstances conspired to add considerably to the popu- 
 lation of Kentucky ; and her strength and ability to cope 
 with the savages and repel invasion, were consequently 
 much increased. Conscious of this, and sensible of their 
 own condition, weakened by the withdrawal of their al- 
 lies, the Indians did not venture upon expeditions against 
 its inhabitants, requiring to be conducted by the co-opera- 
 tion of many warriors. They preferred to wage war in 
 small parties, against detached settlements and unprotected 
 families; and guarding the Ohio river and the " wilderness 
 trace" 1 to cut off parties of emigrants removing to that 
 country. In all of those they were eminently successful. 
 In the interval of time, between the peace of 1783 and the 
 defeat of General Harmar, in 1790, it is inferred from evi- 
 dence laid before Congress, that in Kentucky, not less than 
 one thousand human beings were killed and taken prison- 
 ers. And although the whites were enabled to carry the 
 war into the heart of the Indian country, and frequently 
 with success, yet did not this put a stop to their enormities. 
 When pressed by the presence of a conquering army, they 
 would sue for peace, and enter into treaties, which they 
 scarcely observed inviolate 'till those armies were with- 
 drawn from among them. 
 
 In April 1785, some Indians hovering about Bear 
 
 'The "Wilderness Road" (or "trace") was the overland highway 
 through Cumberland Gap. It was sometimes called " Boone's trace." 
 From North Carolina and Southern Virginia, it was the nearest road to 
 Kentucky; to those living farther north, the Ohio was the favorite 
 highway. While the river was an easier path, it was more dangerous 
 on account of Indians : but travelers of the early period who had come 
 down the Ohio, preferred returning east by the Wilderness Road to 
 poling up stream. See Thomas Speed's Wilderness Road, in the Filson 
 Club publications (Louisville, 1886.) R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 385 
 
 Grass, met with Colonel Christian and killed him. His 
 loss was severely felt thoughout the whole country. 1 
 
 In October of the same year, several families moving 
 to the [286] country were attacked and defeated on Skegg's 
 creek. Six of the whites were killed, and a number of the 
 others made prisoners, among whom were Mrs. McClure 
 and her infant. When the attack was begun, she secreted 
 herself with four children in some bushes, which together 
 with the darkness of the night, protected her from ob- 
 servation ; and could she have overcome the feelings of a 
 mother for her child, she might have ensured her own 
 safety and that of her three other children by leaving her 
 infant at some distance from them. She was aware of 
 the danger to which its cries would expose her, and sought 
 to prevent them by giving it the breast. For awhile it 
 had that effect, but its shrieks at length arose and drew 
 the savages to the spot. Three of her children were slain 
 by her side. 
 
 On hearing of this disastrous event, Capt. Whitley 
 collected twenty-one men from the nearer stations, and 
 went in pursuit of the aggressors, He presently overtook 
 them, killed two of their party, and retook the prisoners 
 and the scalps of those whom they had slain. So signal 
 was his success over them. 
 
 In ten days afterwards, another company ot movers, led 
 on by Mr. Moore, was attacked, and in the skirmish which 
 ensued, nine of their party were killed. Again Capt. 
 Whitley went in pursuit of the savage perpetrators of this 
 outrage, having thirty men to accompany him. On the 
 sixth day of the pursuit, they overtook twenty mounted 
 
 1 Col. William Christian, who served in Lord Dunmore's War. He 
 was killed in April, 1786. John May, writing to Governor Henry from 
 Crab Orchard, Ky., April 19, says: ["The Indians about the Wabash] 
 had frequently been on Bear Grass, and Col. Christian, in order to in- 
 duce others to go in pursuit of them, has upon every occasion gone him- 
 self. And last week he with about twenty men crossed the Ohio, and 
 overtook three Indians, whom they killed ; but his men not obeying his 
 orders, which were to rush altogether on them, he with three others 
 only overtook the Indians, and was so unfortunate as to receive a mor- 
 tal wound himseli and Capt. Isaac Kellar received another." R. G. T. 
 25
 
 386 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 Indians, some of whom were clad in the clothes of those 
 they had slain ; and who dismounted and fled upon the first 
 fire. Three of them however were killed, and eight scalps 
 and all the plunder were recovered. 
 
 In consequence of the many repeated aggressions of 
 the savages, an expedition was this fall concerted against 
 their towns on the Wabash, to be carried into immediate 
 execution. Through the exertions of the county lieuten- 
 ants an army of one thousand men, was soon assembled 
 at Louisville * and placed under the command of Gen. 
 Clarke, who marched directly for the theatre of contem- 
 plated operations leaving the provisions and much of 
 their munitions to be transported in boats. The army 
 .irrived near the towns, before the boats; the men became 
 dissatisfied and mutinous, and Gen. Clarke was in conse- 
 quence, reluctantly forced to return without striking a 
 blow. 2 
 
 [287] When the army under Gen. Clarke marched from 
 Louisville, Col. Logan knowing that the attention of the 
 Indians would be drawn almost exclusively towards it, & 
 other towns be left exposed and defenceless, raised a body 
 of troops and proceeded against the villages on the Great 
 Miami, and on the head waters of Mad river. In this 
 campaign he burned eight large towns, killed twenty war- 
 riors and took between seventy and eighty prisoners. 3 
 
 1 The time for rendezvous was September 10, 1786 (letter of Col. Levi 
 Todd to Governor Henry, August 29). R. G. T. 
 
 2 Clark was roundly scored in contemporary accounts, for being much 
 of the time under the influence of liquor. His futile expedition was 
 against the Indians around Vincennes, while Logan's party, which ap- 
 pears practically to have revolted from Clark, had a successful cam- 
 paign against the towns on Mad River. See Green's Spanish Conspiracy, 
 ch. v., and Roosevelt's Winning of the West, iii., passim. R. G. T. 
 
 3 Col. Benjamin Logan to Governor Randolph, Dec. 17, 1786: " Sept. 
 14, 1786, I received orders [from Clark] to collect a sufficient number of 
 men in the District of Kentucky to march against the Shawnee's Towns. 
 Agreeable to said orders I collected 790 men, and on the 6th of Octo- 
 ber I attacked the above mentioned Towns, killed ten of the chiefs of 
 that nation, captured thirty-two prisoners, burnt upwards of two hun- 
 dred dwelling houses and supposed to have burnt fifteen thousand 
 bushels of corn, took some horses and cattle, killed a number of hogs, 
 and took near one thousand pounds value of Indian furniture, and the
 
 Of Border Warfare. 387 
 
 Among the troops led on by Col. Logan, was the 
 late Gen. Lyttle (since of Cincinnati) then a youth of six- 
 teen. 1 At the head of a party of volunteers, when the first 
 towns on the Mad river were reduced, he charged on some 
 of the savages whom he saw endeavoring to reach a close 
 thicket of hazel and plum bushes. Being some distance 
 in front of his companions, when within fifty yards of the 
 retreating enemy, he dismounted, and raising his gun to 
 fire, saw the warrior at whom he was aiming, hold out his 
 hand in token of surrendering. In this time the other 
 men had come up and were making ready to fire, when 
 young Lyttle called to them, " they have surrendered ; 
 and remember the Colonel's orders to kill none who ask 
 for quarters." The warrior advanced towards him with 
 his hand extended, and ordering the others to follow him. 
 As he approached, Lyttle gave him his hand, but with 
 difficulty restrained the men from tomahawking him. It 
 was the head chief with this three wives and children, 
 two or three of whom were fine looking lads, and one of 
 them a youth of Lyttle's age. Observing the conduct of 
 Lyttle in preventing the murder of the chief, this youth 
 drew close to him. When they returned to the town, a 
 crowd of men rushed around to see the chief, and Lyttle 
 stepped out of the crowd to fasten his horse. The lad 
 accompanied him. A young man who had been to the 
 spring to drink, seeing Lyttle with the Indian lad, came 
 running towards him. The youth supposed that he was 
 advancing to kill him, and in the twinkling of an eye let 
 fly an arrow. It passed through Curner's dress, and 
 grazed his side ; and but for the timely twitch which Lyttle 
 gave the lad's arm, would have killed him. His other ar- 
 rows were then taken away, and he sternly reprimanded. 
 
 Upon the return of Lyttle to where the chief stood, 
 
 quantity ot furniture we burnt I can not account for." The force was 
 on duty " not above twenty-seven days . . . and I would venture 
 to say the expenses will be found to be very moderate." R. G. T. 
 
 1 William Lytle, born in Carlisle, Pa., September 1, 1770. He came 
 to Ohio with his father, at the age of ten, and subsequently became 
 surveyor-general of the Northwest Territory. His father served as a 
 captain in the French and Indian War, and as a colonel in the Revolu- 
 tion, and headed a large colony to Ohio in 1780. R. G. T.
 
 388 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 he heard Col. Logan give orders that the prisoners must 
 not be molested, but taken to a house and placed under 
 guard for their [288] security; and seeing Major McGary 1 
 riding up and knowing his disposition, he called to him 
 saying, " Major McGary, you must not molest those pris- 
 oners " and rode off. McGary mutteringly replied, " I'll 
 see to that;" and dismounting, entered the circle around 
 the prisoners. He demanded of the chief, if he were at 
 the battle of the Blue Licks. The chief probably not un- 
 derstanding the purport of the question, replied affirma- 
 tively. McGary instantly seized an axe from the Grena- 
 dier Squaw, standing by and sunk it into his head. Lyttle 
 saw the descending stroke and interposed his arm to prevent 
 it or break its force. The handle came in contact with his 
 wrist and had well nigh broke it. Indignant at the bar- 
 barous deed, with the impetuosity of youth he drew his 
 knife to avenge it. His arm was arrested, or the steel 
 would have been plunged into the heart of McGary. The 
 bloody act of this man caused deep regret, humiliation and 
 shame to pervade the greater part of the army, and none 
 were more affected by it, than the brave and generous 
 Logan. When the prisoners were conducted to the house, 
 it was with much difficulty the Indian lad could be pre- 
 vailed upon to quit the side of Lyttle. 
 
 The commencement of the year 1786 witnessed treaties 
 of peace with all the neighboring tribes ; 2 but its progress 
 was marked by acts of general hostility. Many individual 
 massacres were committed and in the fall, a company of 
 movers were attacked, and twenty-one of them killed. 
 This state of things continuing, in 1787 the secretary of 
 war ordered detachments of troops to be stationed at dif- 
 
 [288] l This name is sometimes written Magery. It is the same in- 
 dividual who caused the disaster at the Blue Licks in August 1782. 
 
 * The treaty with the Shawnees was negotiated January 30, 1786, at 
 Fort Finney, near the mouth of the Great Miami, by George Rogers 
 Clark, Richard Butler, and Samuel H. Parsons, commissioners. The 
 treaty with the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, and Ottawas was ne- 
 gotiated at Fort Mclntosh, January 21, 1785, by Clark, Butler, and 
 Arthur Lee. These treaties were of little avail, so long as British agents 
 like McKee, Elliott, and Simon Girty lived among the Indians and kept 
 them in a constant ferment against the Americans. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 389 
 
 fereiit points for the protection of the frontier. Still the 
 Indians kept up such an incessant war against it, as after 
 the adoption of the federal constitution, led the general 
 government to interpose more effectually for the security 
 of its inhabitants, by sending a body of troops to operate 
 against them in their own country. 
 
 While these things were doing, a portion of the coun- 
 try north west of the river Ohio, began to be occupied by 
 the whites. One million and a half acres of land in that 
 country, having been appropriated as military land, a com- 
 pany, composed of officers and soldiers in the war of the 
 revolution, was formed in Boston in March 1786 under the 
 title of the [289] " Ohio Company," and Gen. Rufus Put- 
 nam, was appointed its agent. In the spring of 1788, he 
 with forty-seven other persons, from Massachusetts, Rhode 
 Island and Connecticut, repaired to Marietta, erected a 
 stockade fort for security against the attacks of Indians, 
 and effected a permanent settlement there. 1 In the au- 
 
 1 The several states which, under their colonial charters had claims 
 to territory beyond the Ohio River, Virginia, New York, Connecticut, 
 and Massachusetts, had (1781-84) relinquished their several claims to 
 the newly-formed United States, and the Ordinance of 1787 had provided 
 for this Northwest Territory an enlightened form of government which 
 was to be the model of the constitutions of the five states into which it 
 was ultimately to be divided. There was formed in Boston, in March, 
 1786, the Ohio Company of Associates, and October 17, 1787, it purchased 
 from Congress a million and a half acres in the new territory, about the 
 mouth of the Muskingum. Many of the shareholders were Revolu- 
 tionary soldiers, and great care was taken to select only good men as col- 
 onists oftentimes these were the best and most prosperous men of their 
 several localities. Gen. Rufus Putnam, a cousin of Israel, and a near 
 friend of Washington, was chosen as superintendent of the pioneers. 
 Two parties one rendezvousing at Danvers, Mass., and the other at 
 Hartford, Conn. arrived after a difficult passage through the moun- 
 tains at Simrall's Ferry (now West Newton), on the Youghiogheny, the 
 middle of February, 1788. A company of boat-builders and other me- 
 chanics had preceded them a month, yet it was still six weeks more be- 
 fore the little flotilla could leave : " The Union Gaily of 45 tons bur- 
 den; the Adelphia ferry boat, 3 tons; & three log canoes of different 
 sizes. No. ol pioneers, 48." The winter had been one of the severest 
 known on the Upper Ohio, and the spring was cold, wet, and backward ; 
 so that amid many hardships it was the seventh of April before they ar- 
 rived at the Muskingum and founded Marietta, named for the unfortu- 
 nate Marie Antoinette, for the love of France was still strong in the 
 breasts of Revolutionary veterans. R. G. T.
 
 390 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 tnmn of the same year, twenty families, chiefly from Essex 
 and Middlesex counties in Massachusetts, likewise moved 
 there, and the forests of lofty timber fell before their un- 
 tiring and laborious exertions. Many of those who thus 
 took up their abodes in that, then distant country had been 
 actively engaged in the late war, and were used, not only 
 to face danger with firmness when it came upon them ; 
 but also to devise and practice, means to avert it. Know- 
 ing the implacable resentment of the savages to the whites 
 generally, they were at once careful not to provoke it into 
 action, and to prepare to ward off its effects. In conse- 
 quence of this course of conduct, and their assiduity and 
 attention to the improvement of their lands, but few mas- 
 sacres were committed in their neighborhoods, although 
 the savages were waging a general war against the fron- 
 tier, and carrying destruction into settlements, compara- 
 tively in the interior. 
 
 In the winter of 1786, Mr. Stites of Redstone visited 
 New York with the view of purchasing (congress being 
 then in session there) for settlement, a tract of country 
 between the two Miamies. The better to insure success 
 to his project, he cultivated the acquaintance of many 
 members of congress and endeavored to impress upon 
 their minds its propriety and utility. John Cleves 
 Symmes, then a representative from New Jersey, and 
 whose aid Stites solicited to enable him to effect the pur- 
 chase, becoming impressed with the great pecuniary ad- 
 vantage which must result from the speculation, if the 
 country were such as it was represented to be, determined 
 to ascertain this fact by personal inspection. He did so ; 
 and on his return a purchase of one million of acres, lying 
 on the Ohio and between the Great and Little Miami, was 
 made in his name. Soon after, he sold to Matthias Den- 
 man and others, that part of his purchase which forms the 
 present site of the city of Cincinnati; and in the fall of 
 1789, some families from New York, New Jersey, and Red- 
 stone, descended the Ohio river to the mouth of the Little 
 Miami. As the Indians were now more than ordinarily 
 troublesome, forty soldiers under Lieut. Kersey, were or- 
 dered to join them for the [290] defence of the settlement.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 391 
 
 They erected at first a single blockhouse, and soon after 
 adding to it three others, a stockade fort was formed on a 
 position now included within the town of Columbia. 
 
 In June 1789, Major Doughty with one hundred and 
 forty regulars, arrived opposite the mouth of Licking, and 
 put up four block houses on the purchase made by Den- 
 man of Symmes, and directly after, erected Fort Washing- 
 ton. Towards the close of the year, Gen. Harmar arrived 
 with three hundred other regulars, and occupied the fort. 
 Thus assured of safety, Israel Ludlow, (jointly interested 
 with Denman and Patterson) with twenty other persons, 
 moved and commenced building some cabins along the 
 river and near to the fort. During the winter Mr. Ludlow 
 surveyed and laid out the town of Losantiville, 1 but when 
 Gen. St. Clair came there as governor of the North "West- 
 ern Territory, he changed its name to Cincinnati. 2 
 
 [290] l Perhaps there never was a more strange compound deriva- 
 tive term than this. Being situated opposite to the mouth of Licking, 
 the name was made expressive of its locality, by uniting the Latin word 
 os, (the mouth) with the Greek, anti (opposite) and the French, ville, (a 
 town,) and prefixing to this union from such different sources, the in- 
 itial (L) of the river. The author of this word, must have been good at 
 invention, and in these days of town making could find ample employ- 
 ment for his talent. 
 
 3 In 1788, John Cleves Symmes uncle of he of " Symmes's Hole " 
 the first United States judge of the Northwest Territory, purchased from 
 congress a million acres of land on the Ohio, lying between the two 
 Miami Rivers. Matthias Denman bought from him a square mile at the 
 eastern end of the grant, " on a most delightful high bank " opposite 
 the Licking, and on a cash valuation for the land of two hundred dol- 
 lars took in with him as partners Robert Patterson and John Filson. 
 Filson was a schoolmaster, had written the first history of Kentucky, 
 and seems to have enjoyed much local distinction. To him was en- 
 trusted the task of inventing a name for the settlement which the part- 
 ners proposed to plant here. The outcome was " Losantiville," a peda- 
 gogical hash of Greek, Latin, and French: L, for Licking; os, Greek for 
 mouth ; anti, Latin for opposite ; ville, French for city Licking-opposite- 
 City, or City-opposite-Licking, whichever is preferred. This was in 
 August; the Fates work quickly, for in October poor Filson was scalped 
 by the Indians in the neighborhood of the Big Miami, before a settler 
 had yet been enticed to Losantiville. But the survivors knew how to 
 "boom" a town; lots were given away by lottery to intending actual 
 settlers, who moved thither late in December or early in January, and
 
 392 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 In 1790, a settlement was made at the forks of Duck 
 creek, twenty miles up the Muskingum at the site of the 
 present town ofWaterford ; another fifteen miles farther 
 up the river at Big Bottom, and a third at Wolf creek near 
 the falls. These settlements were made on a tract of one 
 hundred thousand acres, laid off into " donation " lots of 
 one hundred acres, and gratuitously assigned to actual 
 settlers; and at the close of the year they contained nearly 
 five hundred men, of whom one hundred and seven had 
 families. 
 
 Thus was the present flourishing State of Ohio begun 
 to be occupied by the whites; and the mind cannot but be 
 struck with astonishment in contemplating the wonderful 
 changes which have been wrought there, in such brief space 
 of time, by industry and enterprise. Where then stood 
 mighty and unbroken forests, through which the savage 
 passed on his mission of blood; or stalked the majestic 
 buffaloe, gamboled the sportive deer, or trotted the shaggy 
 bear, are now to [291] be seen productive farms, covered 
 with lowing herds and bleating flocks, and teeming with 
 
 in a few months Judge Symmes was able to write that " it populates 
 considerably." 
 
 A few weeks previous to the planting of Losantiville, a party of 
 men from Redstone had settled at the mouth of the Little Miami, about 
 where the suburb of California now is ; and a few weeks later, a third 
 colony was started by Symmes himself at North Bend, near the Big 
 Miami, at the western extremity of his grant, and this the judge wished 
 to make the capital of the new Northwest Territory. At first it was a 
 race between these three colonies. A few miles below North Bend, 
 Fort Finney had been built in 1785-86, hence the Bend had at first the 
 start; but a high flood dampened its prospects, the troops were with- 
 drawn from this neighborhood to Louisville, and in the winter of 1789- 
 90 Fort Washington was built at Losantiville by General Harmar. The 
 neighborhood of the new fortress became in the ensuing Indian war 
 the center of the district. To Losantiville, with its fort, came Arthur 
 St. Glair, the new governor of the Northwest Territory (January, 1790), 
 and making his headquarters here, laid violent hands on Filson's inven- 
 tion, at once changing the name to Cincinnati, in honor of the Society 
 of the Cincinnati, of which the new official was a prominent member 
 " so that," Judge Symmes sorrowfully writes, " Losantiville will become 
 extinct." It was a winter of suffering for the Western Cincinnati. The 
 troops were in danger of starvation, and three professional hunters were 
 contracted with to supply them with game, till corn could come in from 
 Columbia and other older settlements on the river. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 393 
 
 all the comforts of life. And where then stood the town 
 of Losantiville with its three or four little cabins and their 
 twenty inmates, is now to be seen a flourishing city with 
 its splendid edifices, and a population of 26,513 souls. 
 Continuing thus progressively to improve, the mind of 
 man, " pervading and far darting " as it is, can scarcely 
 picture the state which may be there exhibited in the lapse 
 of a few centuries. 
 
 The formations of those establishments north west of 
 the Ohio river, incited the savages to the commission of 
 such and so frequent enormities that measures .were 
 taken by the general government to reduce them to 
 quiet and render peace truly desirable to them. While 
 preparations were making to carry those measures into 
 operation, detachments from the regular troops at Fort 
 Washington were stationed at Duck creek, the Big Bot- 
 tom and Wolf creek, for the security of the settlers at 
 those places ; and when every thing was prepared, Gen. 
 Harmar, at the head of three hundred and twenty regulars, 
 moved from his head quarters at Fort Washington, to the 
 Little Miami, where the militia detailed for the expedition, 
 were then assembled. The object was to bring the In- 
 dians, if posssible, to a general engagement ; and if this 
 could not be effected, to destroy their towns and crops on 
 the Scioto and Miami. 
 
 On the last day of September 1790, the army then con- 
 sisting of fourteen hundred and forty-three men, (of whom 
 only three hundred and twenty were regulars) marched 
 forward, and on the 17th of October reached the Great 
 Miami village. 1 It was found to be entirely deserted and 
 all the valuable buildings in flames having been fired by 
 
 1 Col. Josiah Harmar's militia were from Virginia, Kentucky, and 
 Pennsylvania. He left Fort Washington (Cincinnati), October 3. At 
 this time the Miami Indians had seven villages in the neighborhood 
 of the junction of St. Joseph and St. Mary's, which streams unite to 
 form the Maumee. The village which lay in the forks of the St. Joseph 
 and the Maumee, was the principal ; one in the forks of the St. Mary's 
 and the Maumee, which was called Kekionga, had 30 houses ; at Chil- 
 licothe, on the north bank of the Maumee, were 58 houses, and oppo- 
 site these 18 houses. The Delawares had two villages on the St. Mary's, 
 45 houses in all, and a town on the St. Joseph of 36 houses. R. G. T.
 
 394 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 the Indians. As it was apparent that the savages had but 
 recently left there, Col. Hardin was detached with two hun- 
 dred and ten men, sixty of whom were regulars to over- 
 take them. Having marched about six miles, he was sud- 
 denly attacked by a body of Indians who were concealed 
 in thickets on every side of an open plain. On the first 
 onset, the militia made a most precipitrate retreat, leaving 
 the few, but brave regulars to stand the charge. The con- 
 flict was short but bloody. The regular troops, over pow- 
 ered by numbers, were literally cut to pieces ; and only 
 seven of them made their escape and rejoined the main 
 army at the Great Miami town. 1 
 
 [292] Among those who were so fortunate as to escape 
 after the shameful flight of the militia, was Capt. Arm- 
 strong of the regulars. He reached a pond of water 
 about two hundred yards from the field of action ; and 
 plunging himself up to the neck in it, remained there all 
 night, a spectator of the horrid scene of a savage war 
 dance, performed over the dead and wounded bodies of his 
 brave soldiers. The escape of ensign Hartshorn was per- 
 haps owing entirely to a lucky accident. As he was fly- 
 ing at his best speed he faltered over a log, which lay in 
 his path, and by the side of which he concealed himself 
 from the view of the savages. 
 
 Notwithstanding the disastrous termination of this 
 engagement, the detachment succeeded in reducing the 
 other towns to ashes, and in destroying their crops of corn 
 and other provisions; and rejoining the main army under 
 Gen. Harmar, commenced their return to Fort Washing- 
 ton. Anxious to wipe off in another action, the disgrace 
 which he felt would attach to the defeat, when within 
 eight miles of Chilicothe, Gen. Harmar halted his men, 
 and again detached Col. Hardin and Major Wylleys, with 
 five hundred militia and sixty regulars, to find the enemy 
 and bring them to an engagement. 
 
 Early next morning, a small body of the enemy was 
 
 1 A third expedition, under Maj. J. F. Hamtramck, went against the 
 Wabash Indians, successfully destroyed several deserted villages, and 
 reached Vincennes without loss. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 395 
 
 discovered, and being attacked, fled in different direc- 
 tions. The militia pursued them as they ran in despite of 
 orders; and when by this means the regulars were left 
 alone, they were attacked by the whole force of the Indi- 
 ans, excepting the small parties whose flight had drawn 
 oft the militia. A severe engagement ensued. The sav- 
 ages fought with desperation ; & when the troops which 
 had gone in pursuit of those who fled upon the first onset, 
 returned to take part in the engagement, they threw down 
 their guns and rushed upon the regulars tomahawk in 
 hand. Many of them fell, but being so very far superior 
 in numbers, the regulars were at last overpowered. Their 
 firmness and bravery could not avail much, against so over- 
 whelming a force ; for though one of them might thrust his 
 bayonet into the side of an Indian, two other savages were 
 at hand to sink their tomahawks into his head. In his offi- 
 cial account of this battle, Gen. Harmar claimed the victory; 
 but the thinned ranks of his troops shewed that they had 
 been severely worsted. Fifty of the regulars and one hun- 
 dred of the militia were killed in the contest, and many 
 wounded. The loss of the Indians was no doubt considera- 
 ble, [293] or they would not have suffered the army to re- 
 tire to Fort Washington unmolested. 1 
 
 Instead of the security from savage hostilities, which 
 it was expected would result from Harmar's campaign, 
 the inhabitants of the frontier suffered from them, more 
 than they had been made to endure since the close of the 
 war with Great Britain. Flushed with the success which 
 had crowned their exertions to repel the invasion which 
 
 1 In his report to the Secretary of War, October 29, 1790, Governor 
 St. Clair said : " I have the pleasure to inform you of the entire suc- 
 cess of Gen. Harmar at the Indian towns on the Miami and St. Joseph 
 Rivers, of which he has destroyed five in number, and a very great 
 quantity of corn and other vegetable provisions. It is supposed that about 
 two hundred of the Indians have likewise fallen in the different en- 
 counters that have happened between them and the detachment, for 
 there has been no general action ; but it has not been without consid- 
 erable loss on our part. ... Of the Federal troops, Major Wyllys 
 and Lieutenant Frothingham and seventy-seven men ; of the militia, 
 Major Fontaine, Captain McMurtry, and Captain Scott, a son of Gen- 
 eral Scott, and seventy -three men, are among the slain." R. G. T.
 
 396 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 had been made into their country, and infuriated at the 
 destruction of their crops and the conflagration of their 
 villages, they became more active and zealous in the prose- 
 cution of hostilities. 
 
 The settlements which had been recently made in 
 Ohio up the Muskingum, had ever after their first estab- 
 lishment, continued apparently on the most friendly terms 
 with the Indians ; but on the part of the savages, friend- 
 ship had only been feigned, to lull the whites into a ruin- 
 ous security. When this end was attained, they too 
 were made to feel the bitterness of savage enmity. On the 
 2d of January 1791, a party of Indians came to the Big 
 Bottom, and commenced an indiscriminate murder of the 
 inhabitants; fourteen of whom were killed and five taken 
 prisoners. The settlement at Wolf's creek escaped a sim- 
 ilar fate, by being apprized of the destruction of Big Bot- 
 tom by two men who got safely off in time of the mas- 
 sacre. When the Indians arrived there the next morn- 
 ing, finding the place prepared to receive them, they with- 
 drew without making any serious attempt to take it. 
 
 On the 24th of April, John Bush (living on Freeman's 
 creek,) having very early sent two of his children to drive 
 up the cattle, became alarmed by their screams, and taking 
 down his gun, was proceeding to learn the cause of it, 
 when he was met at the door by an Indian, who caught 
 hold of the gun, forced it from his grasp, and shot him 
 with it. Bush fell across the threshold, and the savage 
 drew his knife to scalp him. Mrs. Bush ran to the as- 
 sistance of her husband, and with an axe, aimed a blow 
 at the Indian with such force that it fastened itself in his 
 shoulder, and when he jumped back his exertion pulled 
 the handle from her hand. She then drew her husband 
 into the house and secured the door. 
 
 In this time other of the savages had come up, and 
 after endeavoring in vain to force open the door, they com- 
 menced shooting through it. Fortunately Mrs. Bush re- 
 mained unhurt, although eleven bullets passed through 
 her frock and some of [294] them just grazing the skin. 
 One of the savages observing an aperture between the logs, 
 thrust the muzzle of his gun thro' it. With another axe
 
 Of Border Warfare. 397 
 
 Mrs. Bush struck on the barrel so as to make it ring, and, 
 the savage on drawing it back, exclaimed "Dern you." 
 Still they were endeavoring to force an entrance into the 
 house, until they heard what they believed to be a party 
 of whites coming to its relief. It was Adam Bush, who 
 living close by and hearing the screams of the children 
 and the firing of the gun, had set off to learn what had 
 given rise to them, and taking with him his dogs, the 
 noise made by them in crossing the creek alarmed the sav- 
 ages, and caused them to retreat, taking off the two chil- 
 dren as prisoners. A company of men were soon collected 
 and went in pursuit of the Indians; but were unable to 
 surprise them and regain the prisoners. They however, 
 came so nearly upon them, on the Little Kenhawa, 1 that 
 they were forced to fly precipitately, leaving the plunder 
 and seven horses which they had taken from the settlement : 
 these were retaken and brought back. 
 
 In May, as John Mclntire and his wife were returning 
 from a visit, they passed through the yard of Uriah Ash- 
 craft ; and in a small space of time after, Mr. Ashcraft, 
 startled by the sudden growling and springing up of one 
 of his dogs, stepped quickly to the door to see what had 
 aroused him. He had hardly reached the door, when he 
 espied an Indian on the outside with his gun presented. 
 Closing and making fast the door, he ascended the stairs 
 that he might the better fire upon the unwelcome intruder; 
 and after snapping three several times, and having discov- 
 ered that there were other Indians in the yard, he raised 
 a loud shout to apprize those who were within the sound 
 of his voice, that he was surrounded by danger. Upon 
 this the Indians moved off; and three brothers of Mclntire 
 coming to his relief, they all pursued the trail of the sav- 
 ages. About a mile from Ashcraft's, they found the body 
 of John Mclntire, tomahawked, scalped, and stripped; 
 and concluding that Mrs. Mclntire, was taken prisoner, 
 they sent intelligence to Clarksburg of what had happened, 
 and requested assistance to follow the Indians and recover 
 the prisoner from captivity. The desired assistance was 
 
 1 Thirteen miles below Marietta. R. G. T.
 
 398 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 immediately afforded; and a company of men, led on by 
 Col. John Haymond and Col. George Jackson, went in 
 pursuit. On Middle Island creek, 1 before they were aware 
 of their proximity to the savages, they were fired upon by 
 them, and [295] two of the party very narrowly escaped 
 being shot. A ball passed through the hankerchief on the 
 head of Col. Haymond, and another through the sleeve 
 of Col. Jackson's shirt. The fire was promptly returned, 
 and the men rushed forward. The Indians however, 
 made good their retreat, though not without having ex- 
 perienced some injury; as was discovered by the blood, 
 and the throwing down some of the plunder which they 
 had taken. It was here first ascertained that Mrs. Mcln- 
 tire had been killed, her scalp being among the things 
 left and on the return of the party, her body was found 
 some small distance from where that of her husband had 
 been previously discovered. 
 
 Towards the last of June, another party of Indians in- 
 vaded the settlement on Dunkard creek, in the county of 
 Monongalia. Early in the morning, as .Mr. Clegg, Mr. 
 Handsucker, and two of Handsucker's sons were engaged 
 at work in a cornfield near the house, they were shot at by 
 some concealed savages, and Handsucker was wounded and 
 soon overtaken. Clegg and Handsucker's sons ran towards 
 the house, and the former entering it, defended it for 
 a while ; but confident that he would soon be driven out by 
 fire, he surrendered on condition that they would spare his 
 life and that of his little daughter with him. The boys 
 passed the house, but were taken by some of the savages 
 who were also concealed in the direction which they ran, 
 and who had just made captive Mrs. Handsucker and her 
 infant. They then plundered and set fire to the house, 
 caught the horses and made off with the prisoners, leav- 
 ing one of their company, as usual, to watch after their 
 retreat. 
 
 When the firing was first heard, Mrs. Clegg being some 
 distance from the house, concealed herself in the creek, 
 
 1 Eighteen miles above Marietta, and one above St. Mary's, W.Va. 
 R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 399 
 
 under some projecting bushes, until every thing became 
 quiet. She then crept out, but perceiving the Indian who 
 had remained near the burning house, she took to flight; and 
 he having at the same time discovered her, ran in pursuit. 
 She was so far in advance, and ran so well, that the sav- 
 age, despairing of overtaking her, raised his gun and fired 
 as she ran. The ball just grazed the top of her shoulder, 
 but not impeding her flight, she got safely ofF. Mr. Hand- 
 sucker, his wife and child, were murdered on the dividing 
 ridge between Dunkard and Fish creeks. 1 Mr. Clegg after 
 some time got back, and upon the close of the Indian war, 
 ransomed his two daughters. 
 
 [296] In the month of September Nicholas Carpenter 
 set off to Marietta with a drove of cattle to sell to those 
 who had established themselves there ; and when within 
 some miles from the Ohio river, encamped for the night. 2 
 In the morning early, and while he and the drovers were 
 yet dressing, they were alarmed by a discharge of guns, 
 which killed one and wounded another of his party. The 
 others endeavored to save themselves by flight ; but Car- 
 penter being a cripple (because of a wound received some 
 years before) did not run far, when finding himself becom- 
 ing faint, he entered a pond of water where he fondly 
 hoped he should escape observation. But no! -both he 
 and a son who had likewise sought security there, were 
 discovered, tomahawked and scalped. George Legget, 
 one of the drovers, was never after heard of; but Jesse 
 Hughes succeeded in getting off though under disadvan- 
 tageous circumstances. He wore long leggins, and when 
 the firing commenced at the camp, they were fastened at 
 top to his belt, but hanging loose below. Although an 
 active runner, yet he found that the pursuers were gain- 
 
 1 Dunkard Creek flows eastward into the Monongahela. Fish Creek 
 flows southwestward into the Ohio, emptying 113 miles below Pitteburg, 
 and 58 above Marietta. A famous Indian war-trail ran up Fish and 
 down Dunkard a short-cut from Ohio to the western borders of Penn- 
 sylvania and Virginia. R. G. T. 
 
 2 Soon after the establishment of Marietta, a rude wagon road was 
 opened through the forest between that colony and Redstone (Browns- 
 ville, Pa.) This was the road Carpenter was following. R. G. T.
 
 400 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 ing and must ultimately overtake him if he did not rid 
 himself of this incumbrance. For this purpose he halted 
 somewhat and stepping on the lower part of his legging, 
 broke the strings which tied them to his belt ; but before 
 he accomplished this, one of the savages approached and 
 hurled a tomahawk at him. It merely grazed his head, 
 and he then again took to flight and soon got off'. 
 
 It was afterwards ascertained that the Indians by 
 whom this mischief was effected, had crossed the Ohio 
 river near the mouth of Little Kenhawa, where they 
 took a negro belonging to Captain James N"eal, and con- 
 tinued on towards the settlements on West Fork, until 
 they came upon the trail made by Carpenter's cattle. 
 Supposing that they belonged to families moving, they 
 followed on until they came upon the drovers; and tying 
 the negro to a sapling made an attack on them. The 
 negro availed himself of their employment elsewhere, 
 and loosing the bands which fastened him, returned to his 
 master. 
 
 After the defeat of General Harmer, the terrors and 
 the annoyance proceeding from Indian hostilities, still con- 
 tinued to harrass Kentucky, and to spread destruction 
 over its unprotected portions. Seeing that the expeditions 
 of the savages were yet conducted on a small scale, the 
 better to effect their purposes, the inhabitants had recourse 
 to other measures [297] of defence ; and established many 
 posts on the frontier, garrisoned by a few men, to watch 
 the motions of the enemy, and intercept them in their pro- 
 gress, or spread the alarm of their approach. It was pro- 
 ductive of but little benefit, and all were convinced, that 
 successful offensive war could alone give security from In- 
 dian aggression. Convinced of this, preparations were 
 made by the General Government for another campaign 
 to be carried on against them ; the objects of which were 
 the destruction of the Indian villages between the Miamies; 
 the expulsion of their inhabitants from the country, and 
 the establishment of a chain of forts to prevent their re- 
 turn, until a general peace should give promise of a cessa- 
 tion of hostilities on their part. Means, deemed adequate 
 to the accomplishment of those objects, were placed by
 
 Of Border Warfare. 401 
 
 Congress at the disposal of the executive, and of the army 
 destined to effect them, he directed General Arthur St. 
 Clair to take the command. 1 
 
 It was some time before the troops detailed for this 
 campaign, could be assembled at Fort Washington; but as 
 soon as they rendezvoused there, the line of march was 
 taken up. 2 Proceeding immediately for the principal es- 
 tablishments of the Indians on the Miami, General St. 
 Clair had erected the Forts Hamilton and Jefferson, 3 and 
 placing sufficient garrisons in each, continued his march. 
 The opening of a road for the passage of the troops and 
 artillery, necessarily consumed much time; and while it 
 was in progress, small parties of the enemy were often 
 seen hovering near, and some unimportant skirmishes took 
 place; and as the army approached the Indian villages, 
 sixty of the militia deserted in a body. To prevent the 
 evil influence of this example, General St. Clair despatched 
 Major Hamtrack at the head of a regiment, to overtake 
 and bring them back ; and the rest of the army moved 
 forward. 
 
 On the night of the third of November, General St. 
 Clair encamped near the Great Miami village, and not- 
 withstanding the reduced state of the forces under his com- 
 mand, (by reason of the detachment of so large a body in 
 pursuit of the deserters,) he proposed to march in the 
 morning directly to its attack. 4 Having understood that 
 the Indians were collected in great force, and apprehensive 
 of a night attack, his men were drawn up in a square, and 
 
 1 With Gen. Richard Butler, who was killed in the final battle, 
 second in command. R. G. T. 
 
 1 Early in September, 1791. St. Clair had 2,000 men, fifty per cent 
 less than had been promised him by the war department. R. G. T. 
 
 3 Fort Hamilton, a stockade with four bastions, was on the Big 
 Miami, 24 miles from Fort Washington (Cincinnati), on the site of the 
 present Hamilton, O. Fort Jefferson, built of logs laid horizontally, 
 was six miles south of the present Greenville, O. The army left Fort 
 Jefferson, October 24. R. G. T. 
 
 4 The army then numbered 1,400 men, and was encamped at the 
 site of the present Fort Recovery, O., 55 miles away, as the crow flies, 
 from the head of the Maumee, the objective point of the expedition. 
 R. G. T. 
 
 26
 
 402 Withers'^ Chronicles 
 
 kept under arms uirtil the return of day, when they were 
 dismissed from parade for [298] the purpose of refresh- 
 ment. Directly after, and about half an hour before Run 
 rise, an attack was begun by the Indians on the rear line, 
 and the militia there immediately gave way, and retreated, 
 rushing through a battalion of regulars, to the very centre 
 of the camp. The confusion was great. Thrown into 
 disorder by the tumultuous flight of the militia, the ut- 
 most exertion of the officers could not entirely compose 
 the regulars, so as to render them as effective as they 
 would otherwise have been. 
 
 After the first fire, the Indians rushed forward, toma- 
 hawk in hand, until they were checked by the well di- 
 rected aim of the front line ; which being almost simul- 
 taneously attacked by another body of the enemy, had to 
 direct their attention to their own assailants, and the ac- 
 tion became general. The weight of the enemy being 
 brought to bear on the centre of each line where the 
 artillery had been placed, the men were driven with great 
 slaughter from the guns and these rendered useless by the 
 killing of the matrosses. The enemy taking advantage 
 of this state of things, pushed forward upon the lines, and 
 confusion began to spread itself in every quarter. A 
 charge was ordered, and Lieutenant Colonel Drake suc- 
 ceeded in driving back the Indians three or four hundred 
 yards at the point of the bayonet ; but rallying, they re- 
 turned to the attack, and the troops in turn gave way. 
 At this moment the camp was entered by the left flank : 
 and, another charge was directed. This was made by 
 Butler and Clark's battalions with great effect, and re- 
 peated several times with success ; but in each of these 
 charges, many being killed, and particularly the officers, 
 it was impossible longer to sustain the conflict, and a re- 
 treat was directed. 
 
 To enable the troops to effect this they were again 
 formed into line, as well as could be under such circum- 
 stances, and another charge was made, as if to turn the 
 right flank of the enemy, but in reality to gain the road. 
 This object was effected; and a precipitate flight com- 
 menced which continued until they reached Fort Jeffer-
 
 Of Border Warfare. 403 
 
 son, a distance of thirty miles, the men throwing away 
 their guns and accoutrements as they ran. 
 
 Great w r as the havoc done by the Indians in this en- 
 gagement. Of the twelve hundred men engaged under 
 General St. Clair, nearly six hundred were left dead on 
 the field, and many were wounded. Every officer of the 
 second regiment [299] was killed in the various charges 
 made by it to retrieve the day, except three, and one of 
 these was shot through the body. Major General Butler 
 having been wounded, and carried to a convenient place to 
 have his wounds dressed, an Indian desperately adventur- 
 ous, broke through the guard in attendance, rushed up, 
 tomahawked and scalped him, before his own life paid the 
 forfeit of his rashness. General St. Clair had many nar- 
 row escapes. 1 Early in the action, a number of savages 
 surrounded his tent and seemed resolved on entering it 
 and sacrificing him. They were with difficulty restrained 
 by some regular soldiers at the point of- the bayonet. 
 During the engagement eight balls passed through his 
 clothes, and while the troops were retreating, having had 
 his own horse killed, and being mounted on a sorry beast, 
 "which could not be pricked out of a walk," he had to 
 make his way to Fort Jefferson as he could, considerably 
 in the rear of the men. During the action Adjutant Bul- 
 gess received a severe wound, but yet continued to fight 
 with distinguished gallantry. Presently a second shot 
 took effect and he fell. A woman who was particularly 
 attached to him had accompanied him in the campaign, 
 raised him up, and while supporting him in her arms, re- 
 ceived a ball in the breast which killed her instantly. 
 
 The Chicasaws were then in amity with the whites, 
 and some of their warriors were to have co operated with 
 Gen. St. Clair, but did not arrive in time. There was 
 
 1 He lay sick in his tent, when the action opened, but arose and 
 acted with remarkable courage throughout the fight. General Butler 
 was acting commandant while St. Clair was ill, and was credibly in- 
 formed by his scouts, the night before the battle, of the proximity of the 
 enemy. But he took no precautions against surprise, neither did he 
 communicate his news to his superior. Upon Butler's head appears to 
 rest much of the blame for the disaster. R. G. T.
 
 404 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 however one of that nation in the engagement, and he 
 killed and scalped eleven of the enemy with his own 
 hands, and while engaged with the twelfth was himself 
 killed, to the regret of those who witnessed his deeds of 
 daring and of courage. 
 
 According to the statement of the Indians, they 
 killed six hundred and twenty of the American troops, 
 and took seven pieces of cannon, two hundred head of 
 oxen, many horses, but no prisoners. 1 They gave their 
 own loss in killed at only sixty-five ; but it was no doubt 
 much greater. Their force consisted of four thousand 
 warriors, and was led on by a Missasago chief who had 
 served with the British in the late war ; and who planned 
 and conducted the attack contrary to the opinion of a 
 majority of the chiefs, who yet, having such confidence 
 in his skill and judgment, yielded their individual plans 
 and gave to him the entire control of their movements. 
 He is reported to have caused the savages to forbear the 
 pursuit of the retreating troops ; telling them that they 
 had killed enough, and it was time to enjoy the booty 
 they had gained with the victory. He was then about 
 forty-five years of age, six feet in height, and of a 
 [300] sour, morose countenance. His dress was Indian 
 leggins and moccasons, a blue petticoat coming half way 
 down his thighs, and European waistcoat and surtout. 
 His head was bound with an Indian cap, reaching midway 
 his back, and adorned with upwards of two hundred silver 
 ornaments. In each ear he had two ear rings, the upper 
 part of each of which was formed of three silver meddles 
 of the size of a dollar; the lower part consisted of quar- 
 ters of dollars, and more than a foot in length ; one from 
 each ear hanging down his breast, the others over his 
 back. In his nose he wore ornaments of silver curiously 
 wrought and painted. 
 
 Two days after the action the warriors from the Chic- 
 
 2 The Americans lost 37 officers and 593 men, killed and missing, and 
 31 officers and 252 men, wounded. See St. Clair Papers, edited by Will- 
 iam Henry Smith (Cincinnati : Robert Clarke & Co., 1882), for official de- 
 tails of the disaster. For Simon Girty's part, consult Butterfield's His- 
 tory of the Girtys, passim. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 405 
 
 asaw nation arrived at Fort Jefferson, under the command 
 of Piomingo, or the " Mountain Leader." On their march 
 they heard of the fatal battle, and saw one of the enemy; 
 who mistaking Piomingo's party for some of his own com- 
 rades, made up to them. He discovered the mistake when 
 it was too late to rectify it. Piomingo accosted him in harsh 
 tones, saying " Rascal, you have been killing the whites,'* 
 and immediately ordered two of his warriors to expand 
 his arms, and a third to shoot him. This was done and his 
 scalp taken. 
 
 After the disastrous termination of this campaign, 1 
 the inhabitants of Kentucky were as much as, or perhaps 
 more than ever, exposed to savage enmity and those in- 
 cursions which mark the bitterness of Indian resentment. 
 Soon after the retreat of the army under Gen. Sinclair, 
 a party of them came upon Salt river, where two men 
 and some boys were fishing; and falling suddenly upon 
 them killed the men and made prisoners of the boys. 
 They then liberated one of the boys, and giving him a 
 tomahawk, directed him to go home; shew it to his 
 friends ; inform them what had been the fate of his com- 
 panions, and what they were to expect for their own. The 
 threat was fearfully executed. Many families were en- 
 tirely cut off and many individuals sacrificed to their fury. 
 Companies of Indians were constantly traversing the 
 country in secret, and committing depredations, wherever 
 they supposed it could be done with impunity. A re- 
 markable instance of their failure and suffering in at- 
 tempting to form an entrance into a house where was an 
 almost unprotected family, deserves to be particularly 
 mentioned. 
 
 On the 24th of December 1791, a party of savages at- 
 tacked the house of John Merril, in Nelson county. Mr. 
 Merril, alarmed by the barking of the dogs, hastened to 
 the door to learn the cause. On opening it, he was fired 
 at by two Indians and his leg and arm were both broken. 
 The savages then ran forward to enter the house, but be- 
 
 1 St. Clair arrived at Fort Washington, on his return, November 8 
 R. G. T.
 
 406 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 fore they could do this, the door was closed and secured by 
 Mrs. Merril and her daughter. After a fruitless attempt to 
 force it open, they commenced hewing off a part of it with 
 thei r tomahawks, and when a passage was thus opened, one of 
 them attempted to enter through it. The heroic Mrs. Merril, 
 in the midst of her screaming and affrighted children, and 
 her groaning suffering husband, seized an axe, gave the ruf- 
 fian a fatal blow, and [301] instantly drew him into the house. 
 Supposing that their end was now nearly attained, the others 
 pressed forward to gain admittance through the same aper- 
 ture. Four of them were in like manner despatched by 
 Mrs. Merril, before their comrades were aware that any 
 opposition was making in the house. Discovering their 
 mistake the survivors retired for awhile, and returning, 
 two of them endeavored to gain admittance by climbing 
 to the top of the house, and descending in the chimney, 
 while the third was to exert himself at the door. Satisfied 
 from the noise on the top of the house, of the object of the 
 Indians, Mr. Merril directed his little son to rip open a 
 bed and cast its contents on the fire. This produced the 
 desired effect. The smoke and heat occasioned by the 
 burning of the feathers brought the two Indians down, 
 rather unpleasantly; and Mr. Merril somewhat recovered, 
 exerted every faculty, and with a billet of wood soon de- 
 spatched those half smothered devils. Mrs. Merril was all 
 this while busily engaged in defending the door against 
 the efforts of the only remaining savage, whom she at 
 length wounded so severely with the axe, that he was glad 
 to get off alive. 
 
 A prisoner, who escaped from the Indians soon after 
 the happening of this transaction, reported that the 
 wounded savage was -the only one, of a party of eight, 
 who returned to their towns; that on being asked by some 
 one, " what news," he replied, " bad news for poor In- 
 dian, me lose a son, me lose a brother, the squaws have 
 taken the breech clout, and fight worse than the Long 
 Knives." 
 
 The frequent commission of the most enormous out- 
 rages, led to an expedition against the Indians, carried 
 on by the inhabitants of Kentucky alone. An army of
 
 Of Border Warfare. 407 
 
 one thousand mounted volunteers was raised, and the 
 command of it being given to Gen. Scott, he marched imme- 
 diately for their towns. 1 When near them, he sent out two 
 spies to learn the state of the enemy ; who reported that 
 they had seen a large body of Indians, not far from the 
 fatal spot where St. Glair's bloody battle had been fought, 
 enjoying themselves with the plunder there taken, riding 
 the oxen, and acting in every respect as if drunk. Gen. 
 Scott immediately gave orders to move forward briskly ; 
 and arranging his men into three divisions, soon came upon 
 and attacked the savages. The contest was short but de- 
 cisive. Two hundred of the enemy were killed on the 
 spot, the cannon and such of the other stores as were in 
 their possession, retaken, and the savage forces completely 
 routed. The loss of the Kentuckians was inconsider- 
 able, only six men were killed and but few wounded. 
 
 Gen. Scott on his return, gave an affecting account of 
 the appearance of the field, where Gen. St. Clair had been 
 encountered by the savages. "The plain," said he, "had 
 a very melancholy appearance. In the space of three hun- 
 dred and fifty yards, lay three hundred skull bones, which 
 were buried by my men while on the ground ; from thence 
 for miles on, and the road was strewed with skeletons, 
 muskets, &c." A striking picture of the desolation wrought 
 there on the bloody fourth of November. 
 
 1 This expedition under Gen. Charles Scott, one of the Kentucky 
 committee of safety, was made in June, 1791, against the Miami and 
 Wabash Indians. It was followed in August by a second expedition 
 under Gen. James "Wilkinson. In the course of the second campaign, at 
 the head of 500 Kentuckians, Wilkinson laid waste the Miami village of 
 L'Anguille, killing and capturing 42 of the savages. K. G. T.
 
 408 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 [302] CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Neither the signal success of the expedition under 
 General Scott, nor the preparations which were being 
 made by the general government, for the more rigorous 
 prosecution of the war against them, caused the Indians 
 to relax their exertions to harrass the frontier inhabitants. 
 The ease with which they had overcome the two armies 
 sent against them under Harmar and St. Clair, inspired 
 them with contempt for our troops, and induced a belief 
 of their own invincibility, if practising the vigilance 
 necessary to guard against a surprise. To the want of 
 this vigilance, they ascribed the success of Gen. Scott; 
 and deeming it necessary only to exercise greater pre- 
 caution to avoid similar results, they guarded more dili- 
 gently the passes into their country, while discursive 
 parties of their warriors would perpetrate their accus- 
 tomed acts of aggression upon the persons and property 
 of the whites. 
 
 About the middle of May, 1792, a party of savages 
 came upon a branch of Hacker's creek, and approaching 
 late in the evening a field recently cleared by John Wag- 
 goner, found him seated on a log, resting himself after the 
 labors of the day. In this company of Indians was the 
 since justly celebrated General Tecumseh, who leaving 
 his companions to make sure of those in the house, placed 
 his gun on the fence and fired deliberately at Waggoner. 
 The leaden messenger of death failed of its errand, and 
 passing through the sleeve of his shirt, left Waggoner un- 
 injured, to try his speed with the Indian. Taking a di- 
 rection opposite the house, to avoid coming in contact 
 with the savages there, he outstripped his pursuer, and got 
 safely off. 
 
 [303] In the mean time, those who had been left to 
 operate against those of the family who were at the house, 
 finding a small boy in the yard, killed and scalped him ;
 
 Of Border Warfare. 409 
 
 and proceeding on, made prisoners of Mrs. Waggoner and 
 her six children, and departed immediately with them, lest 
 the escape of her husband, should lead to their instant 
 pursuit. They were disappointed in this expectation. A 
 company of men was soon collected, who repaired to the 
 then desolate mansion, and from thence followed on the 
 trail of the savages. About a mile from the house, one of 
 the children was found where its brains had been beaten 
 out with a club, and the scalp torn from its head. A small 
 distance farther, lay Mrs. Waggoner and two others of her 
 children, their lifeless bodies mangled in the most bar- 
 barous and shocking manner. Having thus freed them- 
 selves from the principal impediments to a rapid retreat, 
 the savages hastened on ; and the pursuit was unavailing. 
 They reached their towns with the remaining prisoners 
 two girls and a boy and avoided chastisement for the out- 
 rage. The elder of the two girls did not long remain with 
 them ; but escaping to the neighborhood of Detroit with 
 another female prisoner, continued there until after the 
 treaty of 1795. Her sister abided with her captors 'till the 
 close of the war; and the boy until during the war of 
 1812. He was then seen among some friendly Indians, 
 and bearing a strong resemblance in features to his father, 
 was recognized as Waggoner's captive son. He had mar- 
 ried a squaw, by whom he had several children, was at- 
 tached to his manner of life, and for a time resisted every 
 importunity, to withdraw himself from among them. 
 When his father visited him, it was with difficulty he was 
 enticed to return to the haunts of his childhood, and the 
 associates of his younger days, even on a temporary visit. 
 When however he did return to them, the attention and 
 kindly conduct of his friends, prevailed with him to re- 
 main, until he married and took up his permanent abode 
 amid the habitations of civilized men. Still with the feel- 
 ings natural to a father, his heart yearns towards his chil- 
 dren in the forest ; and at times he seems to lament that 
 he ever forsook them. 1 
 
 1 Drake, in Aboriginal Races of North America (15th ed.), p. 616, cites 
 the Waggoner massacre as "the first exploit in which we findTecumseh 
 engaged." L. V. McWhorter sends me this interesting note, giving the
 
 410 Withers'? Chronicles 
 
 In the summer of this year, a parcel of horses were 
 taken from the West Fork, and the Indians who had 
 stolen them, being discovered as they were retiring, they 
 were pursued by Captain Coburn, who was stationed at 
 
 local tradition regarding the affair: "John Waggoner lived on Jesse's 
 Run, more than two miles above its junction with Hacker's Creek. 
 While engaged in burning logs in his clearing, he was sitting upon a 
 log, with a handspike lying across his lap. It was thought that Tecuni- 
 seh mistook this tool for a gun, and was nervous. But three in number, 
 the Indians had entered the district with some trepidation. Over Sun- 
 day, while the settlers were holding religious services in West's Fort, 
 the savages lay in a neighboring ravine. The dogs of the settlement 
 barked furiously at them, and ran toward their hiding place, trying to 
 lead their masters ; but the latter supposed that the animals had merely 
 scented wolves, hence paid no attention to them. Tecumseh was but 
 thirty paces from Waggoner when he fired, and it is singular that he 
 missed, for the latter was a large man and in fair view. Waggoner 
 sprang up and started for his cabin, a short distance only, but when 
 about fifteen yards away saw an Indian chasing one of the children 
 around the house. Waggoner was unarmed ; his gun was in the house, 
 but he feared to* enter, so ran for help to the cabin of Hardrnan, a 
 neighbor. But Hardman wag out hunting, and there was no gun left 
 there. The screams of his family were now plainly heard by Wag- 
 goner, and he was with difficulty restrained from rushing back to help 
 them, unarmed. Jesse Hughes carried the news into the fort, and a 
 rescue party at once set out. Mrs. Waggoner and her three youngest 
 children had been carried across the ridge to where ia now Rev. Mans- 
 field McWhorter's farm, on McKenley's Run, and here they were toma- 
 hawked and scalped. Henry McWhorter helped to carry the bodies to 
 the fort, but made no mention of their being ' mangled in the most bar- 
 barous and shocking manner.' " 
 
 The boy Peter, then eight years old, remained with the Indians 
 for twenty years. The manner of his return, as related to me by Mr. 
 McWhorter, was singular, and furnishes an interesting and instructive 
 romance of the border. One Baker, one of John Waggoner's neighbors, 
 went to Ohio to " squat," and on Paint Creek saw Peter with a band of 
 Indians, recognizing him by the strong family resemblance. Baker at 
 once wrote to the elder Waggoner, telling him of his discovery, and the 
 latter soon visited the Paint Creek band, with a view to inducing his 
 son to return home. But Peter was loth to go. He was united to a 
 squaw, and by her had two children. In tears, she bitterly opposed 
 his going. When finally he yielded to parental appeals, he promised her 
 he would soon be back again. When the time for his return to the 
 forest came, his relatives kept him under guard; when it had passed, 
 he was afraid to return to his Indian relatives, having broken his word. 
 Gradually he became reconciled in a measure to his new surroundings, 
 but was ever melancholy, frequently lamenting that he had left his 
 jjavage family. " Some time after his return to civilization," continues
 
 Of Border Warfare. 411 
 
 the mouth of Little [304] Kenhawa with a party of men 
 as scouts. Following them across the Ohio river, he 
 overtook them some distance in the Indian country, and 
 retaking the horses, returned to his station. Hitherto 
 property recovered from the savages, had been invariably 
 restored to those from whom it had been stolen ; but on 
 the present occasion a different course was pursued. Con- 
 tending that they received compensation for services ren- 
 dered by them in Virginia, and were not bound to treat 
 without its limits in pursuit of the savages or to retake 
 the property of which they had divested its rightful own- 
 ers, they claimed the horses as plunder taken from the 
 Indians, sold them, and divided the proceeds of sale 
 among themselves much to the dissatisfaction of those 
 from whom the savages had taken them. 1 
 
 In the course of the ensuing fall, Henry Neal, William 
 Triplett and Daniel Rowell, from Neal's station ascended 
 the Little Kenhawa in canoes to the mouth of the Burn- 
 ing Spring run, from whence they proceeded on a Buffoloe 
 hunt in the adjoining woods. But they had been seen as 
 they plied their canoes up the river, by a party of Indians, 
 who no sooner saw them placed in a situation favoring the 
 bloody purposes of their hearts, than they fired upon them. 
 Neal and Triplett were killed, and fell into the river. 
 Rowell was missed and escaped by swimming the Kenhawa, 
 the Indians shooting at him as he swam. In a few days 
 
 McWhorter, " an Indian woman, supposed to be his wife, passed 
 through the Hacker Creek settlements, inquiring for Peter, and going 
 on toward the East. She appeared to be demented, and sang snatches 
 of savage songs. Peter never knew of he'r presence, nor would any 
 one inform her of his whereabouts. He was reticent about his life 
 among the Indians, and no details of that feature of his career became 
 known to his white friends." 
 
 Tecumseh, who is said to have been born on Hacker's Creek, possi- 
 bly at a village near the mouth of Jesse's Run, visited the white settle- 
 ments there, after the peace, and told the whites of his experiences 
 in connection with the Waggoner massacre. R. G. T. 
 
 1 It must be acknowledged that many of these militia forays against 
 the Indians partook of the nature of buccaneering. The spoils were 
 often considerable. Clark, in his Kaskaskia campaign (1778), captured 
 so much booty, in property and slaves, that he declares his men were 
 made "almost rich." R. G. T.
 
 412 Wit hers' s Chronicles 
 
 after the dead were found in a ripple and buried. The 
 Indians had not been able to draw them from their watery 
 grave, and obtain their scalps. 
 
 During this year unsuccessful attempts were made by 
 the general government, to terminate Indian hostilities by 
 negotiation. They were too much elated with their recent 
 success, to think of burying their resentments in a treaty 
 of peace; and so little did they fear the operation of the 
 governmental forces, and such was their confidence in 
 their own strength, that they not only refused to nego- 
 tiate at all, but put to death two of those who were sent 
 to them as messengers of peace. Major Truman and Col. 
 Hardin, severally sent upon this mission, were murdered 
 by them ; and when commissioners to treat with them, 
 were received by them, their only answer was, a positive 
 refusal to enter into a treaty. 1 
 
 When this determination was made known to the 
 President, every precaution which could be used, was taken 
 by him to prevent the recurrence of these enormities 
 which were daily committed on the [305J frontier, and 
 particularly in the new state of Kentucky. Gen. St. Clair, 
 after having asked that a court of enquiry should be held, 
 to consider of his conduct in the campaign of 1791, and 
 finding that his request could not be granted, resigned the 
 command of the army, and was succeeded by Gen. Anthony 
 "Wayne. That the operations of the army might not be 
 
 1 In the spring of 1792, Major Trueman, Colonel Hardin, and Mr. 
 Freeman were dispatched from Fort Washington by different routes, to 
 open peace negotiations, but they were murdered by the savages. Gen. 
 Rufus Putnam, aided by Hekewelder, the Moravian, succeeded in bind- 
 ing the Wabash and Illinois Indians to keep the peace. Later, Benja- 
 min Lincoln, Timothy Pickering, and Beverly Randolph were ordered 
 by the president to go to the Maumee to conclude a general treaty which 
 Indians had declared their willingness to enter into. But the commis- 
 sioners were detained at Niagara by sham conferences with Gov. John 
 Graves Simcoe, of Canada, until the middle of July, when the Indians 
 sent them word that unless they would in advance " agree that the 
 Ohio shall remain the boundary between us," the proposed " meeting 
 would be altogether unnecessary." The commissioners declined to ac- 
 cept this ultimatum, and returned home. Meanwhile, General Wayne 
 was prosecuting preparations for an active campaign against the hos- 
 tiles. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 413 
 
 defeated as heretofore, by a too great reliance on undisci- 
 plined militia, it was recommended to Congress to author- 
 ize the raising of three additional regiments of regular 
 soldiers; and the bill for complying with this recommen- 
 dation, notwithstanding it was strenuously opposed by a 
 stong party hostile to the then administration, was finally 
 passed. 1 
 
 The forts Hamilton and Jefferson, erected by Gen. 
 St. Clair, continued to be well garrisoned; but there was 
 some difficulty in supplying them with provisions the In- 
 dians being always in readiness to intercept them on their 
 way. /(As early as April 1792, they taught us the necessity 
 of having a strong guard to escort supplies with safety, 
 by a successful attack on Major Adair; who with one 
 hundred and twenty volunteers from Kentucky, had 
 charge of a number of pack horses laden with provisions. 
 He was engaged by a body of savages, not much superior 
 in number, and although he was under cover of Fort St. 
 Clair, yet did they drive him into the fort, and carry off 
 the provisions and pack horses. The courage and bold 
 daring of the Indians, was eminently conspicuous on this 
 occasion. They fought with nearly equal numbers, 
 against a body of troops, better tutored in the science of 
 open warfare, well mounted and equipped, armed with 
 every necessary weapon, and almost under the guns of the 
 fort. And they fought successfully, killing one captain 
 and ten privates, wounding several, and taking property 
 estimated to be worth fifteen thousand dollars. Nothing 
 seemed to abate their ardor for war. Neither the strong 
 garrisons placed in the forts erected so far in advance of 
 the settlements, nor the great preparations which were 
 making for striking an effectual blow at them, caused them 
 
 'On a plain near the old French-Indian-English trading village, 
 called Logstown (just below the present Economy, Pa., on the north 
 side of the Ohio, 18 miles below Pittsburg), Wayne's army lay en- 
 camped from November, 1792, to Aprfl 30, 1793. The army was fanci- 
 fully called the "Legion of the United States," and the camp was known 
 as Legionville. From here, Wayne proceeded to Cincinnati, and took 
 up his headquarters in Fort Washington. R. G. T.
 
 414 Wither^s Chronicles 
 
 for an instant to slacken in hostilities, or check their 
 movements against the frontier^/ 
 
 In the spring of 1793, a party of warriors proceeding 
 towards the head waters of the Monongahela river, dis- 
 covered a marked way, leading a direction which they did 
 not know to be inhabited by whites. It led to a settle- 
 ment which had been recently made on Elk river, by Jere- 
 miah and Benjamin Carpenter and a few others from Bath 
 county, and who had been particularly careful to make 
 nor leave any path which might lead to a discovery of their 
 situation, but Adam O'Brien moving into the same section 
 of country in the spring of 1792, and being rather an in- 
 difterent woodsman, incautiously blazed the trees in 
 several directions so as to enable him readily to find his 
 home, when business or pleasure should have drawn him 
 from it. It was upon one of these marked traces that the 
 Indians chanced to fall ; and pursuing it, came to the de- 
 serted cabin of [306] O'Brien : he having returned to the 
 interior, because of his not making a sufficiency of 
 grain for the subsistence of his family. Proceeding from 
 O'Brien's, they came to the House of Benjamin Carpen- 
 ter, whom they found alone and killed. Mrs. Carpenter 
 being discovered by them, before she was aware of their 
 presence, was tomahawked and scalped, a small distance 
 from the yard. 
 
 The burning of Benjamin Carpenter's house, led to a 
 discovery of these outrages; and the remaining inhabit- 
 ants of that neighborhood, remote from any fort or popu- 
 lous settlement to which they could fly for security, retired 
 to the mountains and remained for several days concealed 
 in a cave. They then caught their horses and moved their 
 families to the West Fork ; and when they visited the 
 places of their former habitancy for the purpose of collect- 
 ing their stock and carrying it oft' with their other prop- 
 erty, scarce a vestige of them was to be seen, the Indians 
 had been there after they left the cave, and burned the 
 houses, pillaged their movable property, and destroyed the 
 cattle and hogs. 
 
 Among the few interesting incidents which occurred 
 in the upper country, during this year, was the captivity
 
 Of Border Warfare. 415 
 
 and remarkable escape of two brothers, John and Henry 
 Johnson : the former thirteen, the latter eleven years of 
 age. They lived at a station on the west side of the Ohio 
 river near above Indian Short creek ; and being at some 
 distance from the house, engaged in the sportive amuse- 
 ments of youth, became fatigued and seated themselves on 
 an old log for the purpose of resting. They presently 
 observed two men coming towards them, whom they 
 believed to be white men from the station until they ap- 
 proached so close as to leave no prospect of escape by 
 flight, when to their great grief they saw that two Indians 
 were beside them. They were made prisoners, and taken 
 about four miles, when after partaking of some roasted 
 meat and parched corn given them by their captors, they 
 were arranged for the night, by being placed between the 
 two Indians and each encircled in the arms of the one 
 next him. 
 
 Henry, the younger of the brothers, had grieved much 
 at the idea of being carried off by the Indians, and during 
 his short but sorrowful journey across the hills, had wept 
 immoderately. John had in vain endeavored to comfort 
 him with the hope that they should be enabled to elude 
 the vigilence of the savages, and to return to the hearth of 
 their parents and brethren. He refused to be comforted. 
 The ugly red man, with his tomahawk and scalping knife, 
 which had been often called in to quiet the cries of his in- 
 fancy, was now actually before him ; and every scene of 
 torture and of torment which had been depicted, by nar- 
 ration, to his youthful eye, was now present to his terri- 
 fied imagination, hightened by the thought that they were 
 about to be re-enacted on himself. In anticipation of this 
 horrid doom for some time he wept in bitterness and afflic- 
 tion ; but 
 
 [307] " The tear down childhood's cheek that flows, 
 Is like the dew drop on the rose ; 
 When next the summer breeze comes by 
 And waves the bush, the flower is dry." 
 
 When the fire was kindled at night, the supper prepared 
 and offered to him, all idea of his future fate was merged
 
 416 Withers' s Chronicles 
 
 in their present kindness ; and Henry soon sunk to sleep, 
 though enclosed in horrid hug, by savage arms. 
 
 It was different with John. He felt the reality of 
 their situation. He was alive to the anguish which he 
 knew would agitate the bosom of his mother, and he 
 thought over the means of allaying it so intensely, that 
 sleep was banished from his eyes. Finding the others all 
 locked in deep repose, he disengaged himself from the em- 
 brace of the savage at his side, and walked to the fire. To 
 test the soundness of their sleep, he rekindled the dying 
 blaze, and moved freely about it. All remained still and 
 motionless, no suppressed breathing, betrayed a feigned 
 repose. He gently twitched the sleeping Henry, and 
 whispering softly in his ear, bade him get up. Henry 
 obeyed, and they both stood by the fire. " I think, said 
 John, we had better go home now." " Oh ! replied Henry, 
 they will follow and catch us again." " Never fear that, 
 rejoined John, we'll kill them before we go." The idea 
 was for some time opposed by Henry ; but when he beheld 
 the savages so soundly asleep, and listened to his brother's 
 plan of executing his wish, he finally consented to act the 
 part prescribed him. 
 
 The only gun which the Indians had, was resting 
 against a tree, at the foot of which lay their tomahawks. 
 John placed it on a log, with the muzzle near to the head of 
 one of the savages ; cocked it, and leaving Henry with his 
 finger to the trigger, ready to pull upon the signal being 
 given, he repaired to his own station. Holding in his 
 hand one of their tomahawks, he stood astride of the other 
 Indian, and as he raised his arm to deal death to the sleep- 
 ing savage, Henry fired, and shooting oft* the lower part of 
 the Indian's jaw, called to his brother, "lay on, for I've done 
 for this one," seized up the gun and ran off. The first blow 
 of the tomahawk took effect on the back of the neck, and 
 was not fatal. The Indian attempted to spring up ; but 
 John repeated his strokes with such force and so quickly, 
 that he soon brought him again to the ground ; and leav- 
 ing him dead proceeded on after his brother. 
 
 They presently came to a path which they recollected 
 to have travelled, the preceding evening, and keeping
 
 Of Border Warfare. 417 
 
 along it, arrived at the station awhile before day. The in- 
 habitants were however, all up and in much uneasiness for 
 the fate of the boys ; and when they came near and heard 
 a well known voice exclaim in accents of deep distress, 
 "Poor little fellows, they are killed or taken prisoners" John 
 replied aloud, " No mother, we are here again." 
 
 When the tale of their captivity, and the means by 
 which their deliverance was effected, were told, they did 
 not obtain full credence. [308] Piqued at the doubts ex- 
 pressed by some, John observed, " you had better go and 
 see." " But, can you again find the spot," said one. 
 " Yes, replied he, I hung my hat up at the turning out 
 place and can soon shew you the spot." Accompanied by 
 several of the men, John returned to the theatre of his dar- 
 ing exploits; and the truth of his statement received am- 
 ple confirmation. The savage who had been tomahawked 
 was lying dead by the fire the other had crawled some 
 distance ; but was tracked by his blood until found, when 
 it was agreed to leave him, " as he must die at any rate." 
 
 Companies of rangers had been for several seasons 
 stationed on the Ohio river, for the greater security of the 
 persons and property of those who resided, on and near the 
 frontier. During this year a company which had been sta- 
 stationed at the mouth of Fishing creek, 1 and had re- 
 mained there until its term of service had expired, de- 
 termined then on a scout into the Indian country ; and 
 crossing the river, marched on for some days before they 
 saw any thing which indicated their nearness to Indians. 
 Pursuing a path which seemed to be much used, they came 
 in view of an Indian camp, and observing another path, 
 which likewise seemed to be much frequented, Ensign 
 Levi Morgan was sent with a detachment of the men, to 
 see if it would conduct them to where were others of the 
 Indians, who soon returned with the information that he 
 had seen another of their encampments close by. Upon 
 the receipt of this intelligence, the Lieutenant was sent 
 
 'Fishing Creek enters the Ohio 128 miles below Pittsburgh. At its 
 mouth is now the town of New Martinsville, W. Va. R. G. T. 
 
 27
 
 418 Wit hers* s Chronicles 
 
 forward with a party of men to attack the second encamp- 
 ment, while the Captain with the residue of the company 
 should proceed against that which had been first discov- 
 ered, and commence an assault on it, when he should hear 
 the firing of the Lieutenant's party at the camp which he 
 was sent to assail. 
 
 "When the second camp was approached and the men 
 posted at intervals around it, awaiting the light of day to 
 begin the assault, the Lieutenant discovered that there was 
 a greater force of Indians with whom he would have to 
 contend than was expected, and prudently resolved to 
 withdraw his men without coming into collision with 
 them. Orders for this movement were directly given, and 
 the party immediately retired. There was however, one 
 of the detachment, who had been posted some small dis- 
 tance in advance of the others with directions to fire as 
 soon as the Indians should be seen stirring, and who, un- 
 apprized of the withdrawal of the others, [309] maintained 
 his station, until he observed a squaw issuing from a camp, 
 when he fired at her and rushed up, expecting to be sup- 
 ported by his comrades. He fell into the hands of those 
 whom he had thus assailed; but his fate was far different 
 from what he had every reason to suppose it would be, 
 under those circumstances. It was the hunting camp of 
 Isaac Zane, and the female at whom he had shot was the 
 daughter of Zane ; the ball had slightly wounded her in 
 the wrist. Her father, although he had been with the In- 
 dians ever since his captivity when only nine years of age, 
 had not yet acquired the ferocious and vindictive passions 
 of those with whom he had associated; but practising the 
 forbearance and forgiveness of Christian and civilized man, 
 generously conducted the wanton assailant so far upon his 
 way, that he was enabled though alone to reach the settle- 
 ment in safety. His fate was different from that of those, 
 who had been taken prisoners by that part of the com- 
 pany which remained at the first camp with the Captain. 
 When the Lieuteuant with the detachment, rejoined the 
 others, disappointment at the failure of the expedition 
 under him, led some of the men to fall upon the Indian 
 prisoners and inhumanly murder them.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 419 
 
 Notwithstanding that preparations for an active cam- 
 paign against the savages was fast ripening to their per- 
 fection, and that the troops of the general government 
 had penetrated as far as to the field, on which had been 
 fought the fatal battle of the fourth of November, 1791, 
 and erected there Fort Recovery, 1 yet did they not cease 
 from their accustomed inroads upon the settlements, even 
 after the winter of 1793. In March 1794, a party of them 
 crossed the Ohio river, and as they were advancing towards 
 the settlements on the upper branches of the Monongahela, 
 met with Joseph Cox, then on his way to the mouth of 
 Leading creek on Little Kenhawa, for a load of furs and 
 skins which he had left there, at the close of his hunt the 
 preceding fall. Cox very unexpectedly met them in a 
 narrow pass, and instantly wheeled his horse to ride off'. 
 Endeavoring to stimulate the horse to greater speed by 
 the application of the whip, the animal became stubborn 
 and refused to go at all, when Cox was forced to dismount 
 and seek safety on foot. His pursuers gained rapidly upon 
 him, and he saw that one of them would soon overtake 
 him. He faced the savage who was near, and raised his 
 gun to fire; but nothing daunted, the Indian rushed for- 
 ward. Cox's gun [310] missed fire, and he was instantly a 
 prisoner. He was taken to their towns and detained in 
 captivity for some time ; but at length made his escape, 
 and returned safely to the settlement. 
 
 On the 24th of July, six Indians visited the West 
 Fork river, and at the mouth of Freeman's creek, met 
 with, and made prisoner, a daughter of John Runyan. 
 She was taken off" by two of the party of savages, but did 
 not go more than ten or twelve miles, before she was put 
 to death. The four Indians who remained, proceeded 
 down the river and on the next day came to the house of 
 William Carder, near below the mouth of Hacker's creek. 
 Mr. Carder discovered them approaching, in time to fasten 
 his door; but in the confusion of the minute, shut out two 
 
 1 This was an expedition made by Gen. James Wilkinson, second in 
 command under Wayne, in December, 1793. He marched to the field 
 from Fort Washington at the head of a thousand men, and left a garri- 
 son at the new fort. R. G. T.
 
 420 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 of his children, who however ran off unperceived by the 
 savages and arrived in safety at the house of a neighbor. 
 He then commenced firing and hallooing, so as to alarm 
 those who were near and intimidate the Indians. Both 
 objects were accomplished. The Indians contented them- 
 selves with shooting at the cattle, and then retreated ; and 
 Mr. Joseph Chevront, who lived hardby, hearing the re- 
 port of the guns and the loud cries of Carder, sent his own 
 family to a place of safety, and with nobleness of purpose, 
 ran to the relief of his neighbor. He enabled Carder to re- 
 move his family to a place of greater security, although 
 the enemy were yet near, and engaged in skinning one of 
 the cattle that they might take with them a supply of 
 meat. On the next day a company of men assembled, and 
 went in pursuit; but they could not trail the savages far, 
 because of the great caution with which they had re- 
 treated, and returned without accomplishing any thing. 
 
 Two days afterward, when it was believed that the In- 
 dians had left the neighborhood, they came on Hacker's 
 creek near to the farm of Jacob Cozad, and finding four 
 of his sons bathing, took three of them prisoners, and 
 killed the fourth, by repeatedly stabbing him with a bay- 
 onet attached to a staff. The boys, of whom they made 
 prisoners, were immediately taken to the Indian towns and 
 kept in captivity until the treaty of Greenville in 1795. 
 Two of them were then delivered up to their father, who 
 attended to enquire for them, the third was not heard of 
 for some time after, but was at length found at Saudusky, 
 by his elder brother and brought home. 
 
 After the victory obtained by General Wayne over 
 the Indians, [311] Jacob Cozad, Jr. was doomed to be 
 burned to death, in revenge of the loss then sustained by 
 the savages. Every preparation for carrying into execu- 
 tion this dreadful determination was quickly made. The 
 wood was piled, the intended victim was apprized of his 
 approaching fate, and before the flaming torch was applied 
 to the faggots, he was told to take leave of those who were 
 assembled to witness the awful spectacle. The croud was 
 great, and the unhappy youth could with difficulty press 
 his way through them. Amid the jeers and taunts of those
 
 Of Border Warfare. 421 
 
 whom he would address, he was proceeding to discharge 
 the last sad act of his life, when a female, whose counte- 
 nance beamed with benignity, beckoned him to follow her. 
 He did not hesitate. He approached as if to bid her fare- 
 well, and she succeeded in taking him off unobserved by 
 the many eyes gazing around, and concealed him in a wig- 
 wam among some trunks and covered loosely with a 
 blanket. He was presently missed, and a search immedi- 
 ately made for him. Many passed near in quest of the 
 devoted victim, and he could hear their steps and note 
 their disappointment. After awhile the uproar ceased, 
 and he felt more confident of security. In a few minutes 
 more he heard approaching footsteps and felt that the 
 blanket was removed from him. He turned to surrender 
 himself to his pursuers, and meet a dreadful death. But 
 no ! they were two of his master's sons who had been di- 
 rected where to find him, and they conducted him securely 
 to the Old Delaware town, where he remained until car- 
 ried to camp upon the conclusion of a treaty of peace. 1 
 
 In a short time after the happening of the events at 
 Cozad's, a party of Indians made an irruption upon Ty- 
 gart's Valley. For some time the inhabitants of that set- 
 tlement had enjoyed a most fortunate exemption from 
 savage molestation ; and although they had somewhat re- 
 laxed in vigilance, they did not however omit to pursue a 
 course calculated to ensure a continuance of their tran- 
 quillity and repose. Instead of flying for security, as they 
 had formerly, to the neighboring, forts upon the return of 
 spring, the increase of population and the increased ca- 
 pacity of the communion to repel aggression, caused them 
 to neglect other acts of precaution, and only to assemble 
 
 1 McWhorter says that the capture of the Cozad boys took place at 
 the mouth of Lanson Run, near Berlin, W. Va. The boy who was 
 killed was but six years of age; crying for his mother, an Indian 
 grasped him by the heels and cracked his head against a tree, a favorite 
 method of murdering white children, among Indian war parties. " Ja- 
 cob yelled once, after starting with the Indians, but was knocked down 
 by a gun in the hands of one of the savages. When he came to his senses, 
 a squaw was dragging him up hill by one foot. He remained with the 
 Indians for about two years, being adopted into a chief's family. He 
 died in 1862, in his eighty-ninth year." R. G. T.
 
 422 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 at particular houses, when danger was believed to be in- 
 stant and at hand. In consequence of the reports which 
 reached them of the injuries lately committed by the 
 [312] savages upon the West Fork, several families col- 
 lected at the house of Mr. Joseph Canaan for mutual se- 
 curity, and while thus assembled, were visited by a party 
 of Indians, when perfectly unprepared for resistance. The 
 savages entered the house awhile after dark, and approach- 
 ing the bed on which Mr. Canaan was lolling, one of them 
 addressed him with the familiarity of an old acquaintance 
 and saying " how d'ye do, how d'ye do," presented his 
 hand. Mr. Canaan was rising to reciprocate the greeting, 
 when he was pierced by a ball discharged at him from 
 another savage, and fell dead. The report of the gun at 
 once told, who were the visitors, and put them upon using 
 immediate exertions to effect their safety by flight. A 
 young man who was near when Canaan was shot, aimed 
 at the murderer a blow with a drawing knife, which took 
 effect on the head of the savage and brought him to the 
 ground. Ralston then escaped through the door, and fled 
 in safety, although fired at as he fled. 
 
 When the Indians entered the house, there was a Mrs. 
 Ward sitting in the room. So soon as she observed that 
 the intruders were savages, she passed into another apart- 
 ment with two of the children, and going out with them 
 through a window, got safely away. Mr. Lewis (brother 
 to Mrs. Canaan) likewise escaped from a back room, in 
 which he had been asleep at the firing of the gun. Three 
 children were tomahawked and scalped, Mrs. Canaan 
 made prisoner, and the savages withdrew. The severe 
 wound inflicted on the head of the Indian by Ralston, 
 made it necessary that they should delay their return to 
 their towns, until his recovery; and they accordingly re- 
 mained near the head of the middle fork of Buchannon, 
 for several weeks. Their extreme caution in travelling, 
 rendered any attempt to discover them unavailing ; and 
 when their companion was restored they proceeded on, 
 uninterruptedly. On the close of the war, Mrs. Canaan 
 was redeemed from captivity by a brother from Bruns- 
 wick, in New Jersey, and restored to her surviving friends.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 423 
 
 Thus far in the year 1794, the army of the United 
 States had not been organised for efficient operations. Gen. 
 Wayne had been actively employed in the discharge of 
 every preparatory duty devolving on him; and those 
 distinguishing characteristics of uncommon daring and 
 bravery, which had acquired for him the appellation of 
 "Mad Anthony" and which [313] so eminently fitted him 
 for the command of an army warring against savages, 
 gave promise of success to his arms. 
 
 Before the troops marched from Fort Washington, it 
 was deemed advisable to have an abundant supply of pro- 
 visions in the different forts in advance of this, as well for 
 the supply of their respective garrisons, as for the sub- 
 sistence of the general army, in the event of its being 
 driven into them, by untoward circumstances. With this 
 view, three hundred pack-horses, laden with flour, were 
 sent on to Fort Recovery ; and, as it was known that con- 
 siderable bodies of the enemy were constantly hovering 
 about the forts, and awaiting opportunities of cutting off 
 any detachments from the main army, Major McMahon, 
 with eighty riflemen under Capt. Hartshorn, and fifty 
 dragoons, under Capt. Taylor, was ordered on as an es- 
 cort. This force was too great to justify the savages in 
 making an attack, .until they could unite the many war 
 parties which were near ; and before this could be effected, 
 Major McMahon reached his destination. 
 
 On the 30th of July, 1 as the escort was about leaving 
 Fort Recovery, it was attacked by an army of one thou- 
 sand Indians, in the immediate vicinity of the fort. Cap- 
 tain Hartshorn had advanced only three or four hundred 
 yards, at the head of the riflemen, when he was unex- 
 pectedly beset on every side. With the most consummate 
 bravery and good conduct, he maintained the unequal con- 
 flict, until Major McMahon, placing himself at the head 
 of the cavalry, charged upon the enemy, and was repulsed 
 with considerable loss. Maj. McMahon, Capt. Taylor and 
 Cornet Terry fell upon the first onset, and many of the 
 privates were killed or wounded. The whole savage force 
 
 1 Thirtieth of Jnno. R. G. T.
 
 424 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 being now brought to press on Capt. Hartshorn, that brave 
 officer was forced to try and regain the Fort, but the 
 enemy interposed its strength, to prevent this movement. 
 Lieutenant Drake and Ensign Dodd, with twenty volun- 
 teers, marched from Fort Recovery and forcing a passage 
 through a column of the enemy at the point of the bay- 
 onet, joined the rifle corps, at the instant that Capt. Harts- 
 horn received a shot which broke his thigh. Lieut. Craig 
 being killed and Lieut. Marks taken prisoner, Lieut. Drake 
 conducted the retreat ; and while endeavoring for an in- 
 stant to hold the enemy in check, so as to enable the sol- 
 diers to bring oft' their wounded captain, himself received 
 a shot in the groin, and the retreat was resumed, leaving 
 Capt. Hartshorn on the field. 
 
 [314] When the remnant of the troops came within the 
 walls of the Fort, Lieut. Michael, who had been early de- 
 tached by Capt. Hartshorn to the flank of the enemy, was 
 found to be missing, and was given up as lost. But while 
 his friends were deploring his unfortunate fate, he and 
 Lieut. Marks, who had been early taken prisoner, were 
 seen rushing through the enemy, from opposite directions 
 towards the Fort. They gained it safely, notwithstanding 
 they were actively pursued, and many shots fired at them. 
 Lieut. Marks had got off by knocking down the Indian 
 who held him prisoner ; and Lieut. Michael had lost all 
 of his party, but three men. The entire loss of the Amer- 
 icans was twenty-three killed, and forty wounded. 1 The 
 riflemen brought in ten scalps which were taken early in 
 the action ; beyond this the enemy's loss was never ascer- 
 tained. Many of them were no doubt killed and wounded, 
 as they advanced in solid columns up to the very muzzles 
 of the guns, and were afterwards seen carrying off many 
 of their warriors on pack horses. 
 
 At length Gen. Wayne put the army over which he had 
 been given the command, in motion ; 2 and upon its arrival 
 at the confluence of the Au Glaize and the Miami of the 
 
 1 The white loss, in killed, was 22, including Major McMahon. 
 R.G. T. 
 
 1 The force started August 8. Besides the regulars, were about 1,100 
 mounted Kentucky militia, under Gen. Charles Scott. R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 425 
 
 Lakes, another effort was made for the attainment of 
 peace, without the effusion of blood. Commissioners were 
 sent forward to the Indians to effect this desirable object; 
 who exhorted them to listen to their propositions for ter- 
 minating the war, and no longer to be deluded by the 
 counsels of white emissaries, who had not the power to af- 
 ford them protection ; but only sought to involve the 
 frontier of the United States in a war, from which much 
 evil, but no good could possibly result to either party. 
 The savages however felt confident that success would 
 again attend their arms, and deriving additional incentives 
 to war from their proximity to the British fort, recently 
 erected at the foot of the rapids, declined the overture for 
 peace, and seemed ardently to desire the battle, which 
 they knew must soon be fought. . 
 
 The Indian army at this time, amounted to about two 
 thousand warriors, and when reconnoitered on the 19th of 
 August were found encamped in a thick bushy wood and 
 near to the British Fort. The army of Gen. Wayne was 
 equal in numbers to that of the enemy ; and when on the 
 morning of the 20th, it took up the line of march, the 
 troops were so disposed as to avoid being surprised, and to 
 come into action on the [315] shortest notice, and under 
 the most favorable circumstances. A select battalion of 
 mounted volunteers, commanded by Major Price, moving 
 in advance of the main army, had proceeded but a few 
 miles, when a fire so severe was aimed at it by the savages 
 concealed, as usual, that it was forced to fall back. The 
 enemy had chosen their ground with great judgment, tak- 
 ing a position behind the fallen timber, 1 which had been 
 prostrated by a tornado, and in a woods so thick as to 
 render it impracticable for the cavalry to act with effect. 
 They were formed into three regular lines, much extended 
 in front, within supporting distance of each other, and 
 reaching about two miles ; and their first effort was to turn 
 the left flank of the American army. 
 
 Gen. Wayne ordered the first line of his army to ad- 
 vance with trailed arms, to rouse the enemy from their 
 
 1 Hence the popular name of the engagement, " Battle of Fallen 
 Timbers." R. G. T.
 
 Wit/Urs's Chronicles 
 
 covert at the point of the bayonet, and when up to deliver 
 a close and well directed fire, to be followed by a charge 
 so brisk as not to allow them time to reload or form their 
 lines. The second line was ordered to the support of the 
 first; and Capt. Campbell at the head of the cavalry, and 
 Gen. Scott at the head of the mounted volunteers were 
 sent forward to turn the left and right wings of the enemy. 
 All these complicated orders were promptly executed; but 
 such was the impetuosity of the charge made by the first 
 line of infantry, so completely and entirely was the enemy 
 broken by it, and so rapid the pursuit, that only a small 
 part of the second line and of the mounted volunteers 
 were in time to participate in the action, notwithstanding 
 the great exertions of their respective officers to co-operate 
 in the engagement; and in less than one hour, the savages 
 were driven more than two miles and within gunshot of 
 the British Port, by less than one half their numbers.^-^ 
 
 Gen. Wayne remained three days on the banks of the 
 Miami, in front of the field of battle left to the full and 
 quiet possession of his army, by the flight and dispersion 
 of the savages. In this time, all the houses and cornfields, 
 both above and below the British Fort, and among the 
 rest, the houses and stores of Col. McKee, 1 an English 
 trader of great influence among the Indians and which 
 had been invariably exerted to prolong the war, were con- 
 sumed by fire or otherwise entirely destroyed. On the 
 27th, the American army returned to its head quarters, 
 laying waste the cornfields and villages on each side of the 
 river for about fifty miles; and [316] this too in the most 
 populous and best improved part of the Indian country. 
 
 The loss sustained by the American army, in obtain- 
 ing this brilliant victory, over a savage enemy flushed with 
 former successes, amounted to thirty-three killed and one 
 hundred wounded: 2 that of the enemy was never ascer- 
 tained. In his official account of the action, Gen. Wayne 
 says, " The woods were strewed for a considerable distance, 
 
 1 Alexander McKee, the renegade, of whom mention has frequently 
 been made in foregoing pages. R. G. T. 
 
 * Later authorities place the white loss at 107, killed and wounded. 
 R. G. T.
 
 Of Border Warfare. 427 
 
 with the dead bodies of the Indians and their white aux- 
 iliaries;" and at a council held a few days after, when 
 British agents endeavored to prevail on them to risk 
 another engagement, they expressed a determination to 
 " bury the bloody hatchet" saying, that they had just lost 
 more than two hundred of their warriors. 
 
 Some events occurred during this engagement, which 
 are deemed worthy of being recorded here, although not 
 of general interest. While Capt. Campbell was engaged 
 in turning the left-flank, of the enemy, three of them 
 plunged into the river, and endeavored to escape the fury 
 of the conflict, by swimming to the opposite shore. They 
 were seen by two negroes, who were on the bank to which 
 the Indians were aiming, and who concealed themselves 
 behind a log for the purpose of intercepting them. When 
 within shooting distance one of the negroes fired and 
 killed one of the Indians. The other two took hold of 
 him to drag him to shore, when one of them was killed, 
 by the fire of the other negro. The remaining Indian, be- 
 ing now in shoal water, endeavored to draw both the dead 
 to the bank ; but before he could effect this, the negro who 
 had first tired, had reloaded, and again discharging his gun, 
 killedjiim also, and the three floated down the river. 
 
 ^""Another circumstance is related, which shows the ob- 
 stinacy witH~wTiTch"Th^~c"o"TTtBBt-wa8-maiutained by individ- 
 uals in both armies. A soldier and an Indian came in 
 collision, the one having an unloaded gun, the other a 
 tomahawk. After the action was over, they were both 
 found dead ; the soldier with his bayonet in the body of 
 the Indian, and the Indian with his tomahawk in the 
 head of the ar>1f ^ QT ' 
 
 Notwithstanding the signal victory, obtained by Gen- 
 eral Wayne over the Indians, yet did their hostility to the 
 whites lead them to acts of occasional violence, and kept 
 them for some time from acceding to the proposals for 
 peace. In [317] consequence of this, their whole country 
 was laid waste, and forts erected in the hearts of their set- 
 tlements at once to starve and awe them into quiet. The 
 desired effect was produced. Their crops being laid waste, 
 their villages burned, fortresses erected in various parts of
 
 428 Withers's Chronicles 
 
 their country and kept well garrisoned, and a victorious 
 army ready to bear down upon them at any instant, there 
 was no alternative left them but to sue for peace. When 
 the Shawanees made known their wish to bury the bloody 
 hatchet, Gen. Wayne refused to treat singly with them, and 
 declared that all the different tribes of the North Western 
 Indians should be parties to any treaty which he should 
 make. This required some time as they had been much 
 dispersed after the defeat of the 20th of August, and the 
 great devastation committed on their crops and provisions 
 by the American army, had driven many to the woods, to 
 procure a precarious subsistence by hunting. Still how- 
 ever, to such abject want and wretchedness were they 
 reduced, that exertions were immediately made to collect 
 them in general council ; and as this was the work of some 
 time, it was not effected until midsummer of 1795. 
 
 In this interval of time, there was but a solitary inter- 
 ruption, caused by savage aggression, to the general re- 
 pose and quiet of North Western Virginia; and that 
 interruption occurred in a settlement which had been 
 exempt from invasion since the year 1782. In the sum- 
 mer of 1795, the trail of a large party of Indians was 
 discovered on Leading creek, and proceeding directly to- 
 wards the settlements on the head of the West Fork, 
 those on Buchannon river, or in Tygart's Valley. In 
 consequence of the uncertainty against which of them, 
 the savages would direct their operations, intelligence of 
 the discovery which had been made, was sent by express 
 to all; and measures, to guard against the happening of 
 any unpleasant result, were taken by all, save the inhab- 
 itants on Buchannon. They had so long been exempt 
 from the murderous incursions of the savages, while other 
 settlements not remote from them, were yearly deluged 
 with blood, that a false security was engendered, in the 
 issue, fatal to the lives and happiness of some of them, by 
 causing them to neglect the use of such precautionary 
 means, as would warn them of the near approach of dan- 
 ger, and ward it when it came. 
 
 Pursuing their usual avocations in despite of the 
 warning which had been given them, on the day after the
 
 Of Border Warfare. 429 
 
 express had [318] sounded an alarm among them, as John 
 Bozarth, sen. and his sons George arid John were busied 
 in drawing grain from the field to the barn, the agonizing 
 shrieks of those at the house rent the air around them ; 
 and they hastened to ascertain, and if practicable avert 
 the cause. The elasticity of youth enabled George to ap- 
 proach the house some few paces in advance of his father, 
 but the practised eye of the old gentleman, first discovered 
 an Indian, only a small distance from his son, and with 
 his gun raised to fire upon him. With parental solicitude 
 he exclaimed, " See George, an Indian is going to shoot 
 you." George was then too near the savage, to think of 
 escaping by flight. He looked at him steadily, and when 
 he supposed the fatal aim was taken and the finger just 
 pressing on the trigger, he fell, and the ball whistled by 
 him. Not doubting but that the youth had fallen in death, 
 the savage passed by him and pressed in pursuit of the 
 father. 
 
 Mr. Bozarth had not attained to that age when the 
 sinews become too much relaxed for active exertion, but 
 was yet springy and agile, and was enabled to keep ahead 
 of his pursuer. Despairing of overtaking him, by reason 
 of his great speed, the savage hurled a tomahawk at his 
 head. It passed harmless by ; and the old gentleman got 
 safely off. 
 
 When George Bozarth fell as the Indian fired, he lay 
 still as if dead, and supposing the scalping knife would be 
 next applied to his head, determined on seizing the savage 
 by the legs as he would stoop over him, and endeavor to 
 bring him to the ground ; when he hoped to be able to 
 gain the mastery over him. Seeing him pass on in pur- 
 suit of his father, he arose and took to flight also. On 
 his way he overtook a younger brother, who had become 
 alarmed, and was hobbling slowly away on a sore foot. 
 George gave him every aid in his power to facilitate his 
 flight, until he discovered that another of the savages was 
 pressing close upon them. Knowing that if he remained 
 with his brother, both must inevitably perish, he was re- 
 luctantly forced to leave him to his fate. Proceeding on, 
 he came up with his father, who not doubting but he was
 
 430 Withers'.? Chronicles 
 
 killed when the savage fired at him, broke forth with the 
 exclamation. " Why George, I thought you were dead," and 
 manifested, even in that sorrowful moment, a joyful feel- 
 ing at his mistake. 
 
 The Indians who were at the house, wrought their 
 work of blood upon such as would have been impediments 
 to their [319] retreat; and killing two or three smaller 
 children, took Mrs. Bozarth and two boys prisoners. 
 With these they made their way to their towns and ar- 
 rived in time to surrender their captives to Gen. Wayne. 
 
 This was the last mischief done by the Indians in 
 North Western Virginia. For twenty years the inhabit- 
 ants of that section of the country, had suffered all the 
 horrors of savage warfare, and all the woes which spring 
 from the uncurbed indulgence of those barbarous and vin- 
 dicitive passions, which bear sway in savage breasts. The 
 treaty of Greenville, concluded on the 3d of August 1795, 
 put a period to the war, and with it, to those acts of dev- 
 astation and death which had so long spread dismay and 
 gloom throughout the land. 
 
 \ 
 
 FINIS.
 
 IISTDEX. 
 
 ACOSTA, Father Joseph, on origin of In- 
 dians, 14. 
 
 Adair, James, History of American In- 
 dians, 17-23. 
 
 Adair, Maj., attacked by Indians, 413. 
 
 Albermarle county, Va., 54. 
 
 Alexander, Archibald, early settler, 52; 
 in Sandy-creek voyage, 81. 
 
 Alexander, John, in Sandy-creek voy- 
 age, 81. 
 
 Alexandria, O., old Shawneetown at, 
 82,92. 
 
 Alexandria, Va.. 60, 181. 
 
 Alleghany county, Va., census (1830), 55. 
 
 Allegh any mountains, early Indians in, 
 44, 45, 47; crossed by English. 63-66. 
 
 Alleghany river, early Indians on, 45, 46, 
 73; discovered by Le Moyne, 64; French 
 on, 65; Grant's defeat, 71; in Dun- 
 more's war, 150; in Revolution, 301, 
 309. 
 
 Allen, , killed at Point Pleasant, 171. 
 
 Almon, J., Remembrancer, 355. 
 
 Amherst county, Va., militia of, 99. 
 
 Amherst, Jeffrey, orders Bouquet's ex- 
 pedition, 107. 
 
 Anderson, James, early settler, 126. 
 
 Appalachas, Indian village, attacked by 
 Narvaez, 7. 
 
 Arbuckle, Matthew, in Dunmore's war, 
 
 165, 170, 175; at murder of Cornstalk, 
 211, 212, 216; commandant of Ft. Ran- 
 dolph, 209, 241. 
 
 Archseology. See Mound-builders. 
 
 Archer, Betsy, daughter of Sampson, 52. 
 
 Archer, Sampson, early settler, 52, 89. 
 
 Arkansas river, Sailing at, 48. 
 
 Armstrong, Capt., on Harmar's cam- 
 paign, 394. 
 
 Ashcraft, Uriah, attacked by Indians, 
 397. 
 
 Ashly, Lieut., killed by Indians, 332. 
 
 Athol, Thomas, 93. 
 
 Au Glaize river, treaty of, 376; Wayne on, 
 424, 425. 
 
 Augusta county, Va.. formed, 55, 57,61, 
 151; early settlers in, 53; census (1830), 
 55, 56; militia of, 49, 52, 66, 68, 81, 90, 164, 
 
 166, 170, 209, 210; McDowell's fight, 52; 
 ransom of Moores, 374; Preston's Reg- 
 ister of Indian Depredations, 87 ; History 
 of, 246. 
 
 BAILEY, , in Dunmore's war, 169. 
 
 Bailey, Minter, 240. 
 
 Baker, , discovers Peter Waggoner, 
 
 410. 
 
 Baker, Heury, killed by Indians, 291, 292. 
 Baker, Joshua, murders Logan family, 
 
 125, 148-150. 
 
 Baker, William, explores Kentucky, 115. 
 Baker' s bottom, massacre of Indians at, 
 
 134, 142. 148-150, 184. 
 Bald Eagle, killed by whites, 135, 136. 
 Barkley, Elihu, with Braddock, 66. 
 Barlow, Joel, agent of Scioto Co., 60. 
 Bartlett's run, 248. 
 
 Bath county, Va,, census (1830), 55, 56. 
 
 Baxter's run, 247. . 
 
 Bean, Capt., on Sandusky campaign, 
 328. 
 
 Beard, Samuel, early settler, 127. 
 
 Bear Grass river, early settlements on, 
 274; foray on, 384,385. 
 
 Beaver, Delaware chief, 45. 
 
 Beaver river, Shingiss Old Town. 45; 
 Moravians on, 314; Ft. Mclntosh built, 
 237; treaty at Ft. Mclntosh, 366. 
 
 Bedinger, George M., in Bowman's cam- 
 paign, 271. 
 
 Bedford county, Pa., 190; in " Black 
 boys " uprising, 112-114. 
 
 Bedford county, Va., 70; militia of, 164. 
 
 Bell, James, with Braddock, 66. 
 
 Berkeley county, W. Va., census (1830), 
 55, 56; militia of, 164. 
 
 Berkeley, Sir William, fosters western 
 exploration, 64. 
 
 Berlin, W. Va., 290; f9ray near, 421. 
 
 Beverly, W. Va., origin of, 74. 
 
 Big Beaver river. See Beaver. 
 
 Big Bone creek, Clark at, 146. 
 
 Big Bone lick, 271. 
 
 Biggs, Benjamin, early settler, 125, 203; 
 killed by Indians, 332. 
 
 Big Hockhocking river. See Hockhock- 
 ing. 
 
 Big Kanawha river. See Great Kanawha. 
 
 Big Kntves. See Long Knives. 
 
 Big lick, 162. 
 
 Big Miami river. See Miami. 
 
 Big Sandy river, in Shawnee campaign, 
 81-86. 
 
 Big Sewell mountain, origin of name, 
 57. 
 
 Bildercock, , militia officer, 227, 228. 
 
 Bingamon creek, forays on, 367, 369. 
 
 Bird, Henry, attacks American border- 
 ers, 254; beseiees Ft. Laurens, 262; in- 
 vades Kentucky, 286, 297-300, 305. 
 
 Black Beard, Shawnee chief, 268. 
 
 Black boys, border regulators, 105, 106; 
 attack Pennsylvania traders, 109-116. 
 
 Black Fish, Shawnee chief, 201, 202, 266, 
 268, 273. 
 
 Black Hoof, Shawnee chief, 268. 
 
 Bledsoe, Anthony, in Dunmore's war, 
 167. 
 
 Blevins, William, early settler, 59, 60. 
 
 Blue licks, 268; Boone's captivity, 265- 
 267; battle of, 351-354, 388. 
 
 Blue ridge, 69, 83, 100; early tribes of, 44, 
 47; early explorations of, 64; Borden 
 grant, 51; first settlements beyond, 50, 
 52, 55. 
 
 Bluestone river, 61; in Sandy creek voy- 
 age, 82. 
 
 Boiling Springs, Ky., represented in 
 Transylvania legislature, 193. 
 
 Bolivar, O., 261. 
 
 Bonnett, John, killed by Indians, 377. 
 
 Boone county, N. Y., Delawares in, 136. 
 
 Boone, Daniel, on Holston, 59; first ex- 
 plores Kentucky, 142-144; second trip 
 
 (431)
 
 432 
 
 Index. 
 
 (1778), 144, 145, 147; in Dunmore's war, 
 152, 153, 190; founda Boonesborough, 
 190-197; captured by Indians, 265-267; 
 in Chene's attack on Boonesborough, 
 268, 269; in Paint creek expedition, 
 267, 268: at battle of Blue licks, 351-353. 
 
 Boone, Mrs. Daniel, first white woman 
 in Kentucky, 196, 197. 
 
 Boone, James, killed by Indians, 144, 145. 
 
 Boone, Squire, explores Kentucky, 143, 
 144. 
 
 Boonesborough, Ky., founded, 190-197; 
 first attacked bv Indians, 200, 202, 205; 
 Bowman's arrival, 207, '208; during 
 Boone's captivity, 265-267; Chfine's at- 
 tack on, 268, 270; during Revolution, 
 350,351. 
 
 Booth's creek, origin of name, 122, 123; 
 forays on, 247, 248, 290, 309, 343. 
 
 Booth, James, early settler, 122, 123; kill- 
 ed by Indians, 247. 
 
 Borden, Benjamin, ST., land-grant, 50- 
 54,66; sketch, 51. 
 
 Borden, Benjamin, Jr., 52. 
 
 Boshears, William, scouting service, 227, 
 228. 
 
 Botetourt county. Va., 66, 70; census 
 (1830). 55, 56; Holston settlement, 59; 
 militia of, 81, 164, 165, 167, 209, 210. 
 
 Bouquet, Henry, campaign against In- 
 dians, 106-109. 173; treaty with Indians, 
 91, 141, 173, 179. 
 
 Bourbon county, Ky., 67, 115. 
 
 Bowman, James L., 79. 
 
 Bowman, John, campaign (1779), 190; 
 early defense of Kentucky, 207, 208; 
 Chillicothe expedition, 271-274; cited, 
 268; sketch, 271. 
 
 Boyd, John, killed by Indians, 222. 
 
 Bozarth, George, adventure with Indians, 
 429, 430. 
 
 Bozarth, John, Sr., attacked by Indians, 
 279, 429, 430. 
 
 Bozarth, John, Jr., adventure with In- 
 dians, 429. 430. 
 
 Bozarth, Mrs., adventures with Indians, 
 
 279, 280. 
 
 Braddock, Edward, campaign and de- 
 feat of, 65-69, 71, 72, 77, 105, 106, 143, 145, 
 147, 169. 
 
 Braddock, Pa., 68. 
 Braddock's road, history of, 77. 
 
 Brain, , killed by Indians, 240. 
 
 Brain, Benjamin, captured by Indians, 
 
 280, 281. 
 
 Brain, Isaac, captured by Indians, 280, 
 281. 
 
 Brain, James, killed by Indians, 280, 281. 
 
 Brant, Joseph, Indian chief, 254. 
 
 Braxton county, Va., Bulltown massa- 
 cre, 136-138. 
 
 Breckenridge, Robert, in Sandy-creek 
 voyage, 81. 
 
 Brentou, Capt., on Sandusky campaign, 
 328. 
 
 Bridger, , killed by Indians, 292. 
 
 Brinton, Maj., on Sandusky campaign, 
 328. 
 
 Brodhead, Daniel, expedition to Mua- 
 kingum, 300-305, 309; receives news 
 from Moravians, 315. 
 
 Brooke county, W. Va., census (1830), 
 55, 63; forays in, 380, 381. 
 
 Brooks, Thomas, scout, 266. 
 
 Brown, , in New-river foray, 96, 97. 
 
 Brown, , killed by Indians, 161. 
 
 Brown, Adam, Sr., imprisoned by In- 
 dians, 96, 97. 
 
 Brown, Adam, Jr., 96. 
 
 Brown, Coleman, killed by Indians, 156. 
 
 Brown, James, chases Indians, 246; at- 
 tacked by Indians, 311. 
 
 B>-own, John, early hunter. 121. 
 
 Brown, Samuel, captured by Indiani, 98. 
 
 Brownsville, Pa. See Redstone. 
 
 Bryan, William.companion of Boone, 144 
 
 Bryant, William, killed by Indians, 348. 
 
 Bryant station. Ky., threatened by Bird, 
 296; beseiged by Caldwell, 348-351, 353, 
 354. 
 
 Buchanan, John, diary of, 49. 
 
 Buckhannon river, early settlements on, 
 117-122, 127; Bulltown massacre, 136; in 
 Dunmore's war, 151; Indian forays on, 
 161, 275, 282, 284, 288, 290, 318, 319, 340, 
 342, 343, 422, 428. 
 
 Buffalo creek, first settlement on, 125; 
 Indian forays, 318, 374-376. 
 
 Buffalo gap, Mackey's settlement near,50. 
 
 Buffington, Jonathan, captured by In- 
 dians, 311. 
 
 Bnffington, Mrs., killed by Indians, 311. 
 
 Buford, . captain in Dunmore's war, 
 
 164, 165, 170, 171. 
 
 Bulger, Mai., killed at Blue licks, 353. 
 
 Bulgess, Adj., killed by Indians, 403. 
 
 Bull, Capt., killed by whites, 136-138. 
 
 Bullitt, Thomas, in Forbes's campaign. 
 71; surveys Connolly tract, '45, 14t>; 
 sketch, 71, 72. 
 
 Bullock, Leonard Henley, of Transyl- 
 vania Co., 191. 
 
 Bulltown, Va., massacre of Delawares 
 near, 136-138. 
 
 Burd, James, at Redstone, 77-79. 
 
 Burning Spring, 82, 85. 
 
 Burns, James, Killed by Indians, 245. 
 
 Bush, Adam, chases Indians, 397. 
 
 Bush, John, adventure with;indjans, 341, 
 343; killed by Indians, S96. 
 
 Bush, Mrs. John, adventure with In- 
 dians, 396, 397. 
 
 Bushy run, Bouquet's fight on, 108. 
 
 Butler, Mann, Kentucky, 193. 
 
 Butler, Richard, treaty commissioner. 
 366, 388; in St. Clair's campaign, 401- 
 403. 
 
 Butler, Robert, early settler, 126. 
 
 Butterfleld, Consul W., Crawford's Expe- 
 dition Against Sandusky, 328 ; Hittory ot 
 the Girtys. 153, 178, 189, 224, 308, 347, 404; 
 Washington-Irvine Correspondence, 262. 
 
 CABELL countv, W. Va., census (1830). 
 
 55,56. 
 
 Cahokia, III., founded by La Salle, 6; In- 
 dian mounds at, 40; captured by Clark, 
 
 253. 
 Caldwell, William, expedition against 
 
 Kentucky, 348-354. 
 California, O., founded, 392. 
 Calf Pasture river, in Pontiac war, 97. 
 Callaway, Richard, at Watauga treatv. 
 
 192. 
 
 Cameron, Charles, at Point Pleasant. 174. 
 Cameron, Daniel, killed by Indians, 311. 
 Campbell, Arthur, militia officer, 268. 
 Campbell, Capt., on Wayne's campaign, 
 
 426, 427. 
 
 Campbell, George, border poet, 110, 111. 
 Campbell, John, at Point Pleasant, 174. 
 Campbell, William, settles on Holston, 
 
 59; at Point Pleasant, 174. 
 Camp Charlotte, Indian treaty at, 145, 
 
 173, 176-186, 190, 197. 
 Camp Union, in Dunmore's war, 164, 165, 
 
 167. 
 
 Canaan, Joseph, killed by Indians, 422. 
 Canestoga Indians, killed by Paxton 
 
 boys, 104, 105. 
 Captina creek, in Dunmore's war, 134, 
 
 138, 148, 149, 153; in Revolution, 230. 
 Carder, William, attacked by Indians, 
 
 419, 420.
 
 Index. 
 
 433 
 
 Carlisle, Pa., trial of Smith, 113-115; 
 Scotch-Irish at, 143. 
 
 Carmichael's, Pa., founded, 123. 
 
 Carpenter, Benjamin, killed by Indians, 
 414. 
 
 Carpenter, Dr., captured by Indians, 96, 
 97. 
 
 Carpenter, Jeremiah, 414. 
 
 Carpenter, John, captured by Indians, 
 319. 
 
 Carpenter, Nicholas, adventure with In- 
 dians, 399, 400. 
 
 Carpenter, William, killed by Indians, 
 96, 97. 
 
 Carr's creek, massacre on, 172, 173. 
 
 Carver, , settles on Greenbrier, 57. 
 
 Carver, Jonathan, visits western In- 
 dians, 20, 21, 23, 24; on Indian creek, 38. 
 
 Casper's lick, 152. 
 
 Catawba Indians, early strength of, 46; 
 attack Delawares, 47; fought by Mc- 
 Dowell, 52; claim Kentucky, 142, 194. 
 
 Catawba river, early Indians on, 46; Pat- 
 ton's settlement, 51; f(rays on, 96, 98. 
 
 Catholics (Roman), missionary efforts 
 of, 36; at Gallipolis, 60. See Jesuits. 
 
 Cayahoga river, Delawares on, 45. 
 
 Cayuga Indians, strength of, 46; in Dun- 
 more's war, 155, 172. 
 
 Cedar creek, early settlement on, 52. 
 
 Champlain, Samuel de, founds Quebec, 
 4,5. 
 
 Charleston, S. C., 49, 59. 
 
 Charlevoix, Father, on origin of In- 
 dians, 15, 16. 
 
 Cheat river, 63, 118: first settlements on, 
 75, 76, 126; massacre of Indians on, 135; 
 Indian forays on, 240, 291, 310, 311. 
 
 Chene, Isidore, attacks Boonesborough, 
 268-270. 
 
 Clierokee Indians, early strength of, 46: 
 capture Sailing, 48, 49; Williamson 
 among, 104; visit Gov. Glen, 59; in 
 Sandy-creek voyage. 81, 82; opposition 
 to Kentucky settlers, 142, 145; cession 
 to Henderson, 192, 195; during Revol- 
 ution. 347. 
 
 Chevrout, Joseph, relieves Carder, 420. 
 
 Chew, Colbv, explores Kentucky, 81. 
 
 Chickamauga Indians, claim Kentucky, 
 142. 
 
 Chickasaw Indians, early strength, 46; 
 claim Kentucky, 142; cession to Hen- 
 derson, 195; in St. Clair's campaign, 
 403-405. 
 
 Childers, William, settles on Youghio- 
 gheny, 117, 118. 
 
 Chillicothe towns, Dyer's captivity, 87; 
 in Dunmore's war, 176, 179, 182, 183, 187; 
 Boone's captivity, 266. 267; Bowman's 
 expedition against, 271-274; in Piqua 
 expedition, 305, 307-309; Indian coun- 
 cil at, 346, 347; in Harmar's campaign, 
 393, 394. 
 
 Chillicothe (Old), Renick captivity, 91; 
 Hannah Dennis's escape, 91-93. 
 
 Chillicothe (New), Hannah Dennis's es- 
 cape, 92. 
 
 Chippewa Indians, early strength, 46; 
 fight Clark, 252; during Revolution, 
 347; at Ft. Mclntosh treaty, 366, 388. 
 
 Chiyawee, Wyandot chief, 172. 
 
 Christian. William, in Cherokee cam- 
 paign, 59; in New-river foray, 99; in 
 Dunmore's war, 165, 167, 170, 171, 190; 
 killed by Indians, 385. 
 
 Cincinnati, Indian relics found in, 42; 
 Clark on site of, 306; genesis of, 390- 
 393; in Harmar's campaign, 393-395; in 
 St. ClaiT* campaign, 401, 405; in 
 Wayne's Campaign, 413, 419, 423. 
 
 Circleville, O., Indians mounds at, 41. 
 
 Clark. , on St. Clair's campaign, 402. 
 
 Clark, George, scout, 271. 
 
 Clark. George Rogers, on Indian mounds, 
 40; in Dunmore's war, 134, 164; arrival 
 in Kentucky, 197, 200; in early defense 
 of Kentucky, 207; founds Louisville, 
 146; Illinois campaign, 121, 123, 190, 
 252-255; 257-261, 270, 294, 295, 411; Piqua 
 campaign, 305-309; Shawnee campaign, 
 354, 355; Wabash campaign, 386; treaty 
 commissioner, 366, 388; in Spanish 
 conspiracy, 130; sketch, 253, 254. 
 
 Clark, John, ambushed by Indians, 262. 
 
 Clarke, Col., Pennsylvania militia of- 
 ficer, 263, 264. 
 
 Clarksburg, W. Va., 275; founded, 127; 
 in Dunmore's war, 151; during Revolu- 
 tion, 281, 310, 311, 341, 342, 345; miscel- 
 laneous forays near, 376, 381, 383, 397. 
 
 Clay, , killed by Indians, 166. 
 
 Clegg, , family captured by Indians, 
 
 398, 399. 
 
 Clendennin's settlement, Hannah Den- 
 nig at, 93; massacre at, 93-95; family 
 captured by Indians, 172, 173. 
 
 Clinch river, first settlements on, 59, r 60; 
 Boone on, 145, 152; in Henderson's 
 grant, 193; foray on, 374. 
 
 Coburn, Capt., chases Indians, 410, 411. 
 
 Coburn's creek, 248, 249. 
 
 Cochran, Nathaniel, captured bv In- 
 dians, 247, 250, 251. 
 
 Cocke, William, at Watauga treaty, 192. 
 
 Cohunnewago Indians, strength of, 46. 
 
 Colden, C., Five Nations of New York, 194. 
 
 Coleman, Moses, killed by Indians, 28o. 
 
 Columbia, O., founded, 391, 392. 
 
 Congo creek, 176. 
 
 Connecticut, relinquishes Western laud 
 claim, 389. 
 
 Connelly, , early settler, 126. 
 
 Connoly, Darby, killed by Indians, 234. 
 
 Connolly, John, agent of Dunmore, 74, 
 142, 145, 149;: in Dunmore's war, 164, 
 179-181, 188; land claim at Louisville, 
 145, 146. 
 
 Conococheague valley, massacre in, 101, 
 105; a fur-trade centre, 109, 113. 
 
 Cooley, William, companion of Boone, 
 143. 
 
 Coomes, William, adventure with In- 
 dians, 201. 
 
 Coon, , daughter killed by Indians, 
 
 218, 219. 
 
 Coonce, Mark, French trader, 79. 
 
 Cooper, , killed bv Indians, 311, 
 
 Coplin, Benjamin, kills an Indian, 344. 
 
 Corbly, John, attacked by Indians, 345. 
 
 Corn island, Clark at, 253, 294. 
 
 Cornstalk, Shawnee chief, at Point Pleas- 
 ant, 168, 170, 172, 173; at treaty of Camp 
 Charlotte, 183-186; imprisoned at Ft. 
 Randolph, 209,215, 216; murder of, 173, 
 211-214, 235, 236, 241, 266; sketch of, 172, 
 173. 
 
 Cornwallis, Lord, surrender of, 347. 
 
 Coshocton, O., 153, 314. 
 
 Coshocton, Indian village, Brodhead's 
 expedition against, 302-305, 309, 316. 
 
 Cottrial, Andrew, early settler, 127. 
 
 Cottrial, Samuel, early settler, 127; at- 
 tacked by Indians, 284, 285. 
 
 Cowan, John, on Bullitt's survey, 146. 
 
 Coward, , adventure with Indians, 
 
 166. 
 
 Cowpasture river, 91. 
 
 Cox, Joseph, captured by Indians, 419. 
 
 Cozad, Jacob, Sr., sons killed by Indians, 
 420. 
 
 Cozad, Jacob, Jr., escapes from Indians, 
 420, 421. 
 
 Craig, Lieut., killed by Indiana, 424,
 
 434 
 
 Index. 
 
 Craig, James, adventure with Indians, 
 203? 
 
 Craig's creek, 90. 
 
 Crawford, , killed by Indians. 344. 
 
 Crawford, James, early settler, 123. 
 
 Crawford, John, killed by Indians, 331, 
 334.336. 
 
 Crawford, William, in Dunmore's war, 
 164, 168, 179. 185, 220; Sandusky cam- 
 paign of, 328-339; sketch, 334. ' 
 
 Crawford, William (nephew of fore- 
 going), killed by Indians, 331. 
 
 Cresap, Michael, in Dunmore's war, 134, 
 149, 154, 164; accused by Logan, 184. 
 
 Cresap, Thomas, opens Braddock's road, 
 
 Crooked creek, 169, 170. 
 
 Crooked run, Indian forays on, 282, 344. 
 
 Cross creek, 78. 
 
 Cross, Thomas, Sr.,91. 
 
 Crouch, James, wounded by Indians, 
 287. 
 
 Crouse, Peter, killed by Indians, 282. 
 
 Culpeper county, Va., 59; militia of, 66; 
 in Dunmore's war, 159, 164. 
 
 Cumberland county, Pa., 143. 
 
 Cumberland Gap, Walden's trip, 60; 
 Boone opens path, 143, 192. 
 
 Cumberland, Md., Ohio Co.'s post at, 77. 
 
 Cumberland river, Walden's trip, 60; ex- 
 plored by Smith, 115; Boone on, 152; in 
 Henderson's purchase, 192, 193; foray 
 on, 200. 
 
 Cundiff, , killed at Point Pleasant, 
 
 171. 
 
 Cunningham, Edward, fight with In- 
 dians, 238, 239, 367-370, 373. 
 
 Cunningham, Robert, early settler, 126. 
 
 Cunningham, Thomas, 218; family at- 
 tacked by Indians. 367, 373. 
 
 Cunningham, Mrs. Thomas, captured by 
 Indians, 367-373. 
 
 Curl, Jeremiah, attacked by Indians, 
 288, 289. 
 
 Curner, , on Mad-river campaign, 
 
 387. 
 
 Cusick, David, Ancient History of Six Na- 
 tions, 18, 26, 40. 
 
 Cutright, Benjamin, early settler, 122. 
 
 Cutright, John. Sr., early settler, 122; 
 murders Indians, 137; wounded by In- 
 dians, 290. 
 
 Cutright, John, Jr., 122. 
 
 Cutright, Peter, attacked by Indians, 
 288,289. 
 
 DANVILLE, Ky., origin of, 274; conven- 
 tion at, 115, 190. 
 
 Davis, , settles on Holston, 59. 
 
 Davis, Mrs., daughter of John Jackson, 
 121. 
 
 Davisson, , killed by Indians, 373. 
 
 Davisson, Daniel, early settler, 127. 
 
 Davisson, Josiah, brother of Nathaniel, 
 283. 
 
 Davisson, Nathaniel, killed by Indians, 
 283,284. 
 
 Davisson, Obadiah, early settler, 127. 
 
 Decker, Thomas, early settler, 123; at- 
 tacked by Indians, 77, 78. 
 
 Decker's creek, first settlement on, 77. 
 
 De Creve Coeurs, St. John. Lettres, 153. 
 
 De Hass, Wills, History of Indian Wars, 
 222. 
 
 De Huron, George, on origin of Indians, 
 
 De Kalb, Baron, 86. 
 
 De Laet. John, on origin of Indians, 14. 
 
 Delaware Indians, on Upper Ohio, 45, 46; 
 attacked by Catawbas, 47; in Decker's 
 creek massacre, 77-79; Seybert massa- 
 cre, 88, 89; New-river foray, 96-99; Bull- 
 
 town massacre. 136-138; Pontiac's con- 
 spiracy, 136; claim Kentucky, 142; in 
 Dunmore's war, 150, 172, 179; during 
 Revolution, 219, 263, 301, 303, 314, 315, 
 320, 332, 333, 347; in Harmar's cam- 
 paign, 393; Ft. Mclntosh treaty, 366, 
 388; subsequent foray, 371; Wayne'i 
 camgaign, 421. 
 
 Delaware river, massacre on, 101-104. 
 
 De Moraez, Emanuel, on origin of In- 
 dians, 14. 
 
 Denman, Matthias, founds Cincinnati, 
 390-392. 
 
 Dennis, Hannah, imprisoned by Indians, 
 89-93, 95. 
 
 Dennis, Joseph, killed by Indians, 89. 
 
 Denton, , assists Mrs. Cunningham, 
 
 372. 
 
 Denton, Mrs., settles in Kentucky, 197. 
 
 Deny, William, coroner of Bedford, 114. 
 
 De Peyster, Arent Schuyler, comman- 
 dant at Detroit, 295, 317, 365. 
 
 De Soto, Ferdinand, discovers Missis- 
 sippi, 7, 8. 
 
 Detroit, 91; Indian villages near, 46; un- 
 der French domination, 72; Logan at, 
 155, 156; Connolly at, 181; Boone at, 
 266,267; English headquarters during 
 Revolution, 252, 254. 255, 257; English 
 machinations at, 207, 231,247,286,295, 
 299, 317, 320, 336, 337; arrival of peace 
 news. 365. 
 
 De Villiers, defeats Washington, 74; de- 
 stroys Redstone fort, 77. 
 
 Dickinson, John, in Dunmore's war, 170, 
 175. 
 
 Dillon, , killed at Point Pleasant, 171. 
 
 Dillon, Mrs., killed by Indians, 240. 
 
 Dinwiddie, Robert, governor of Virginia, 
 53, 65; authorizes Sandy-creek voyage, 
 81, 83. 84; Papers, 68, 86. 
 
 Dix, Webster, 119. 
 
 Dodd, Ensign, on Wayne's campaign, 
 424. 
 
 Doddridge, John, early settler, 125. 
 
 Doddridge, Joseph, Notes on the Settle- 
 ments, 125, 126, 153, 183; MS. of, 221. 
 
 Donelson, Col., runs Indian boundary, 
 195. 
 
 Donnelly, Andrew, beseiged by Indians, 
 242-245; repulses them, 291. 
 
 Dorman, Timothy, captured by Indians, 
 340, 341; turns renegade. 341, 342. 
 
 Dougherty, Daniel, captured by Indians, 
 311, 312. 
 
 Dougherty, Mrs., killed by Indians, 311. 
 
 Doughty, Mai., builds Ft. Washington, 
 391. 
 
 Douglas, James, on Bullitt's survey, 146. 
 
 Dragging Canoe, Cherokee chief, 192. 
 
 Dragoo, Mrs., killed by Indians, 374, 375. 
 
 Drake, Lieut., on Wayne's campaign, 
 424. 
 
 Drake, Lieut.-col., on St. Clair's cam- 
 paign, 402. 
 
 Drake, Samuel G., Aboriginal Races of 
 North America, 409. 
 
 Draper, Lyman C., historical notes by, 
 40, 50-63, 57-60, 65, 66, 68, 71,72, 75, 79, 81, 
 83, 85-88, 90, 96, 97, 99, 101, 104, 106-108, 
 115, 121, 123; interviews Sailing's de- 
 scendants, 48; on aboriginal claims to 
 Kentucky, 193-195; cited, 183, 203, 254. 
 
 Drinnon, Thomas, attacked by Indians, 
 292, 293. 
 
 Drinnon, Lawrence, attacked by Indians, 
 291, 292. 
 
 Duke, Francis, killed by Indians, 359, 
 360. 
 
 Dunbar, Pa., settled by Gist, 74. 
 
 Dunkard bottom, settled, 126; massacre 
 on, 240.
 
 Index. 
 
 435 
 
 Duukard creek, a war trail, 75: first set- 
 tled on, 75; forays on, 249, 250, 279, 398, 
 399. 
 
 1*1111 kards, early settlements by, 75; mas- 
 sacre of, 76, 77. 
 
 Dunkin, John, militia officer, 207. 
 
 Dunlap, James, in Sandy-creek voyage, 
 81; killed by Indians, 87. 
 
 Dunlap creek, first settlement on, 77; 
 foray on, 96. 
 
 Dunmore, Lord, 74; in Dunmore's war, 
 135-190, 197, 209, 220, 253, 385; opposes 
 Henderson's purchase, 192. 
 
 Du Pratz, Le Page, History of Louisiana, 
 49. 
 
 Durrett, Reuben T., Centenary of Louis- 
 ville, 294. 
 
 Dutch, introduce African slavery, 10; in 
 New York, 48. 
 
 Dyer, James, imprisoned by Indians, 
 87, 88. 
 
 EAST MEADOWS, Braddock at, 67. 
 
 Eckarly family, early settlers, 126. 
 
 Eckarly, Thomas, Dunkard pioneer, 75; 
 massacre of his brother, 76, 77. 
 
 Economy, Pa., 413. 
 
 Ecuyer, Simeon, under Bouquet, 107. 
 
 Edwards, David, killed by Indians, 252. 
 
 Edwards, William, Moravian mission- 
 ary, 314, 317. 
 
 Elk creek, in Caldwell's invasion, 351; 
 during Revolution, 284; foray on, 367. 
 
 Elk river, origin of name, 118, 119; first 
 settlement on, 126, 127; Stroud massa- 
 cre, 136, 137; in Dunmore's war, 166, 
 167, 175; foray on, 414. 
 
 Elk's Eye creek. See Muskingum. 
 
 Ellinipsico, Cornstalk's son, 172, 211-213. 
 
 Elliott, Matthew, in Dunmore's war, 182, 
 189; attacks Wheeling, 316, 317; encour- 
 ages forays, 347, 388. 
 
 Ellis. Franklin, History of Fayette Co., 77. 
 
 English, territorial claims of, 1-5, 7; em- 
 igration to) Virginia, 49; first occupa- 
 tion of the Ohio, 63; struggle for Forks 
 of Ohio, 64-74; Braddock's campaign, 
 65-69; Forbes's campaign, 69-73; Bou- 
 quet's expedition, 106-109; Dunmore's 
 war, 134-190; Bird's invasion, 294-300, 
 305, 336, 337; Caldwell's invasion, 348- 
 354; second seige of Wheeling, 356, 
 357; encourage forays on American 
 borderers, 147, 207-210", 215, 216, 224, 225, 
 231, 236, 252, 253, 260, 285, 286, 317, 388, 
 425-427. 
 
 Episcopalians, 50, 57. 
 
 FAIRFAX, Lord, land-grant of, 50, 51, 334; 
 militia officer, 101. 
 
 Fairfield, Va., settled, 52. 
 
 Fallen Timbers, battle of, 425-128. 
 
 Falling Spring, Va., 86. 
 
 Falls of Ohio. See Louisville. 
 
 Fauqaier county, Va., 145. 
 
 Fauquier, governor of Virginia, 86. 
 
 Fayette county, Pa., settled, 74, 123; mil- 
 itia from, 328. 
 
 Fayette county, W. Va., 57. 
 
 Fayetteville, N. C., 192. 
 
 Field, John, with Braddock, 66; adven- 
 ture with Indians, 159-161; in Dun- 
 more's war, 164, 166, 169, 171. 
 
 Files. See Foyle, Robert. 
 
 Files creek, first settlement on, 74. 
 
 Files family, massacre of, 126. 
 
 Filson, John, partner of Denman, 391: 
 Boone'a Narrative, 268. 
 
 Fincastle county, Va., 56, 220; Preston as 
 surveyor, 140, 146; militia of, 167. 
 
 Findlay, John, explores Kentucky, 142- 
 144. 
 
 Fink, , killed by Indians, 340. 
 
 Fink, John, killed by Indians, 318, 319. 
 Fink, Henry, early settler, 126; attacked 
 
 by Indians, 288, 318, 319. 
 Fink's run, 122. 
 Fish creek, a war trail, 75, 399; Clark at, 
 
 134, 253; foray on, 399. 
 Fishing creek, foray on, 374; garrison 
 
 on, 417. 
 Fitzpatrick, John, on Bullitt's survev, 
 
 146. 
 Fleming, William, in Dunmore's war, 
 
 164, 167-170, 174, J75. 
 Flesher, Henry, attacked by Indians, 
 
 366. 367. 
 Floyd, John, Kentucky surveyor, 15L>; 
 
 Diary of, 196; builds fort at Louisville, 
 
 294; in Piqua campaign, 307. 
 Florida, discovered by Spanish, 7, 8. 
 Folebaum, George, killed by Indians, 
 
 362. 
 Folke, George, killed by Indians, 102, 
 
 103. 
 
 Fontaine, Maj., killed by Indians, 395. 
 Forbes, John, campaign against Ft. Du 
 
 Quesne, 69-73, 77, 79, 108, 145, 190. 
 Fordyce, Capt., 72. 
 Foreman, William, defeated hy Indians, 
 
 228-230, 356. 
 Fort Bedford, in " Black boys " uprising, 
 
 112-114. 
 
 Fort Boiling, during Revolution, 226. 
 Fort Boone, seat of Henderson colony, 
 
 1531 
 Fort Buckhannon, during Revolution, 
 
 313 
 
 Fort Burd. See Redstone. 
 Fort Bush, 121. 
 
 Fort Casinoe, in Dunmore's war, 151. 
 Fort Coburn, during Revolution, 248. 
 Fort Crevecceur, built by La Salle, 6; 
 
 Sal ling at, 48. 
 Fort Cumberland, 71. 
 Fort Dickenson, massacre of children, 
 
 100. 
 Fort Dinwiddie, in Sandy-creek voyage, 
 
 81; in New-river foray, 97, 99; during 
 
 Revolution, 291. 
 Fort Du Quesne, erected, 65; Braddock's 
 
 expedition, 65-69; Forbes's campaign, 
 
 69-73; destroyed, 73. See Pittsburg. 
 Fort Fincastle. See Wheeling. 
 Fort Finney, built, 392; treaty of, 388. 
 Fort Frederick, 71. 
 Fort Frontenac, built by La Salle, 6; Sal- 
 
 ling at, 48. 
 
 Fort Gower, in Dunmore's war, 179, 182. 
 Fort Greenville. See Greenville, O. 
 Fort Hadden, during Revolution, 286. 
 Fort Hamilton, built by St. Clair, 401; 
 
 in Wayne's campaign, 413. 
 Fort Henry. See Wheeling. 
 Fort Holliday, during Revolution, 2'J<;, 
 
 227. 
 
 Fort Jackson, in Dunmore's war, 151. 
 Fort Jefferson (Ky.), built by Clark, 254. 
 Fort Jefferson (O.), built by St. Clair, 
 
 401-403, 405; in Wayne's campaign, 
 
 413. 
 Fort Laurens, during Revolution, 256. 
 
 261-265. 
 
 Fort Le Bceuf, Washington at, 74, 77. 
 Fort Ligonier, in Forbes's campaign, 73. 
 Fort Littleton, in French and Indian 
 
 war, 190. 
 Fort Loudon, in " Black boys " uprising, 
 
 110, 111. 
 
 Fort Mclntosh, built, 237; during Revo- 
 lution, 263, 265; treaty of, 366. 
 Fort Martin, during Revolution, 282. 
 Fort Massac, Clark at, 253. 
 Fort Miami, Indian villages near, 46.
 
 43G 
 
 Index. 
 
 Fort Necessity, Washington's defeat at, 
 69, 74, 77, 14"). 
 
 Fort Nutter, in Dunmore's war, 151; dur- 
 ing Revolution, 275, 341. 
 
 Fort Pitt. See Pittsburg. 
 
 Fort Pleasant, Eckarly at, 76. 
 
 Fort Powers, during Revolution, 247. 
 
 Fort Pricket, in Dunmore's war, 151; 
 during Revolution, 240, 275, 279. 
 
 Fort Randolph. See Point Pleasant. 
 
 Fort Recovery, 401; built by Wilkinson, 
 419; in Wayne's campaign, 423, 424. 
 
 Fort Richards, during Revolution, 240, 
 241. 
 
 Fort Sackville. See Vjncennes. 
 
 Fort St. Joseph, Indian villages near, 
 46; in Wayne's campaign, 413. 
 
 Fort Seybert, massacre at, 87-89. 
 
 Fort Shepherd, in Dunmore's war, 151. 
 
 Fort Stradler, during Revolution, 249, 
 250. 
 
 Fort Stanwix, treaty of, 70, 195. 
 
 Fort Washington. See Cincinnati. 
 
 Fort Wells, 381. 
 
 Fort West, during Revolution, 240, 241, 
 245, 246; forays against, 287-290, 410. 
 
 Fort Westfall, in Dunmore's war, 151; 
 during Revolution, 343. 
 
 Fort Wilson, during Revolution, 343. 
 
 Fort Young, Hannah Dennis at, 93; in 
 New-river foray, 96, 97. 
 
 Fox river, explored by French, 6. 
 
 Foyle, Robert, settles on Files's creek, 
 74; massacre of family, 75. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 145. 
 
 Franklin county, Pa., 106. 
 
 Franklin, W. Va., 87. 
 
 Frederick county, Va., established, 55; 
 census (1830), 55, 56; Borden manor, 51; 
 militia of. 101, 164. 
 
 Freeman, , killed by Indians, 412. 
 
 Freeman, Mrs., killed by Indians, 245, 
 246. 
 
 Freeman's creek, forays on, 3%, 419. 
 
 French in America, territorial claims, 5; 
 early explorations, 4-6; occupy Upper 
 Ohio, 45, 63, 64; ransom Sailing, 48; 
 conflict with Ohio Co., 64, 65, 74,77, 123, 
 147; on Muskingum, 79: on Scioto, 82; 
 Braddock's campaign, 65-69; Forbes's 
 campaign, 69-73; French and Indian 
 war. 143, 145, 156. 159, 190, 334; found 
 Gallipolis. 60. 82; make peace with 
 England, 106, 120; in attack on Boones- 
 borough, 268-270; relations with Clark, 
 254. 
 
 French creek, Smith's expedition to, 
 106. 
 
 French lick, 193. 
 
 Friedensstadt, Pa., Moravian village, 314, 
 319. 
 
 Friend, Joseph, chases Indians, 311. 
 
 Froth ingham, Lieut., killed by Indians, 
 39&. 
 
 Fry, Col., in Braddock's army, 66. 
 
 Fullenwieder, Peter, defends Rice's fort, 
 362. 
 
 Fur trade, tribal barter, 34; at Winches- 
 ter, 47; Borden's trade, 51; of Ohio Co., 
 64, 65, 67, 74. 77, 147; on Scioto, 82; 
 Erejich and English rivalry. 138, 139; 
 FHttHay y UUveulures, 14SJ of Dun- 
 kards, 76; Gibson's, 79; "Black-boys" 
 trouble, 106, 109-116; Simpson's adven- 
 tures, 118, 119; at Pringle s fort, 120; in 
 Dunmore's war, 150; McKee's, 347; in 
 W. Va., 361. 
 
 Furrenash, Charles, children killed by 
 Indians, 313. 
 
 GADDIS, Thomas, on Sandusky cam- 
 paign, 328. 
 
 Gage, Thomas, confers with Connolly, 
 181. 
 
 Gallatin, Albert, founds Geneva, W. Va., 
 117. 
 
 Gallipolis, founded by French, 60, 82, 84. 
 
 Game, pioneers as hunters, 131; on 
 Greenbrier, 56, 57, 126; in Kentucky, 
 1%, 198, 199, 206, 265, 266; in Valley of 
 Virginia. 119-122; in Tygart's vallev, 
 232, 234; in West Virginia, 280, 283, 36 1 ?, 
 374, 375, 410. 411. 
 
 Garcia, Gregorio, on origin of Indians, 
 
 Gates, Horatio, at Saratoga, 86. 
 
 Gatliff, Charles, fights Indians, 244. 
 
 Gauley river, 57; Stroud massacre, 136, 
 137. 
 
 Gen6t, Edmund Charles, commissions 
 Clark, 254. 
 
 Geneva, W. Va., founded, 117. 
 
 George, Robert, attacks James Smith, 114. 
 
 George's creek, Pringle settlement, 117; 
 murder of Bald Eagle, 136. 
 
 Georgia, early slavery in, 9, 10; in Te- 
 cumseh's conspiracy, 36. 
 
 Germans, at Gallipolis. 60. 
 
 Gibson, Col. John, at Fort Pitt, 78, 79; in 
 Dunmore's war, 176, 184; expert swords- 
 man, 207; commands Ft. Laurens, 266, 
 261-265. 
 
 Gibson, John, family captured by In- 
 dians, 287. 
 
 Giles county, Va., census (1830), 55, 56. 
 
 Gilmore, , killed by Indians, 211, 212. 
 
 Girty, George and James, renegades, 178; 
 during Revolution, 295. 
 
 Girty, Simon, in Dunmore's war, 178, 
 179, 184, 189; not at Wheeling seise, 
 224, 225, 231; during Revolution, 254, 
 262, 273, 295, 308, 333, 334, 347, 350-353; 
 subsequent forays, 372,388; in St. Clair's 
 defeat, 404. 
 
 Gist, Christopher, visits Shingiss, 45; 
 trip down Ohio, 79; settles Fayette 
 Co., Pa., 74, 77, 123. 
 
 Glass, , family attacked by Indians, 
 
 380, 381. 
 
 Glenn, , governorof South Carolina, 
 
 59. 
 
 Glum, Mrs., at seige of Wheeling, 225. 
 
 Gnadenhtitten, Moravian village, 314, 
 317; sacked by whites, 319, 321-327. 
 
 Gnatty creek, foray on, 382. 
 
 Goff, John, early settler, 126. 
 
 Goldsby, : , killed at Point Pleasant, 
 
 171. 
 
 Gooch, Sir William, grants Borden ma- 
 nor, 50, 51. 
 
 Gordon, Capt, killed at Blue Licks, 353. 
 
 Goschocking. See Coshocton. 
 
 Graham, James, killed by Indians, 245. 
 
 Grand Portage, Carver at, 20. 
 
 Grand river. See Ottawa. 
 
 Grant, James, with Braddock, 66; de- 
 feated by Indians, 68-73; in "Black- 
 boys " uprising, 110. 111. 
 
 Grave creek, Indian mounds on, 40; first 
 settlement on, 125; in Dunmore's war, 
 134; in Foreman's defeat, 229, 230, 235, 
 356. 
 
 Grayson county, Va., census (1830), 55. 
 
 Great bridge, Va., defeat of Fordyce, 72. 
 
 Greathouse, Daniel, murders Logan's 
 family, 125, 149. 
 
 Great Kanawha river, 60, 61; Sailing on, 
 49; discovered by Wood, 64; in Sandy- 
 creek voyage, 82, 85; in Hannah Den- 
 nis's escape, 93; Squire Boone on, 143; 
 in Dunmore's war, 145, 159-161, 164-167, 
 169-174, 178; in Hand's expedition, 209- 
 211; during Re volution, 291-292; salines 
 of, 265.
 
 Index. 
 
 437 
 
 Great Meadows, Washington at, 77, 145. 
 
 Great Miami river. See Miami. 
 
 Great Sandy river, 60, 61; in N'ew-river 
 foray, 96. 
 
 Green, George, at seige of Wheeling, 356. 
 
 Green river, Henderson's grant on, 196; 
 early surveys, 365; early settlements, 
 274. 
 
 Green, Thomas M., Spanish Conspiracy, 
 386. 
 
 Greenbrier county, W. Va., 53, 54, 57, 71, 
 91; census (1830), 55, 56; Shawnee at- 
 tack (1755), 81; Clendennin massacre, 
 93-95; militia from, 210, 211; emigrants 
 from, 286; forays into, 242-245, 291-293. 
 
 Greenbrier river, 61; explored, 126; ori- 
 
 fin of name. -19: Loyal Co.'s grant, 49; 
 rst settlements on", 56-59; Lewis on, 
 68; in Pontiac's war, 97. 
 
 Greenlee, Mary, enters land on Borden 
 manor. 52, 53. 
 
 Greenville, O., Ft. Hamilton built, 401; 
 treaty at, 420, 430. 
 
 Gregg, Mrs., attacked by Indians, 343. 
 
 Grenadier Squaw, in Dunmore's war, 
 176; at Ft. Randolph, 242; in Mad-river 
 campaign, 3SS. 
 
 Grigsby, Charles, family killed by In- 
 dians, 217, 218. 
 
 Grim, John, 183. 
 
 Grollon, Father, on origin of Indians, 
 15, 16. 
 
 Grundy, Felix, 247. 
 
 Grundy, William, killed by Indians, 247. 
 
 Gunn, Catharine, imprisoned by Indi- 
 ans, 98. 
 
 Gwinnett, Button, killed by Mclntosh, 
 237. 
 
 HACKEE, John, settles on Buckhannon, 
 121, 122; daughter wounded by Indians, 
 378-380. 
 
 Hacker, Mrs., attacked by Indians, 245. 
 
 Hacker, William, early hunter, 121; mur- 
 ders Indians, 135, 137; attacked by In- 
 dians, 245. 
 
 Hacker's creek, Indian relics on, 42; ori- 
 gin of name, 121, 122; first settlement 
 on, 127; in Dunmore's war, 151; Bull- 
 town massacre, 136, 137; killing of 
 Hughes and Lowther, 240, 241; Wag- 
 goner massacre, 408, 411; miscellane- 
 ous forays on, 275,]287-290, 367, 377, 382, 
 419,420. ' 
 
 Hadden, . early settler, 126. 
 
 Hadden, John, 234. 
 
 Hagerstown, Md., 361. 
 
 Hagle, Michael, killed by Indians, 341. 
 
 Haldimand, Sir Frederick, English gen- 
 eral-in-chief, 252, 261. 
 
 Half King, Wyandot chief, 230, 316. 
 
 Hall, Capt., murders Cornstalk, 211. 212. 
 
 Hall, James, Sketches of the West, 193. 
 
 Hall, Minor C., 287. 
 
 Hamilton, , adventure with Indians, 
 
 211, 212. 
 
 Hamilton, Capt., chases Indians, 245. 
 
 Hamilton, Henry, English lieutenant- 
 governor, 207, 210; encourages Indian 
 forays, 224, 225, 252, 266. 268,269; attacks 
 Clark, 253. 257, 258; captured by Clark, 
 254, 255, 259-261. 
 
 Hamilton, Miss, captured by Indians, 
 234. 
 
 Hammond, Philip, scouting adventure, 
 242, 243. 
 
 Hampden Sydney College, Va., 81. 
 
 Hampshire county, \V. Va., census (1830), 
 56; militia from, 101, 230. 
 
 Hamtramck, J. F., on Harmar's cam- 
 paign, 394; on St. Clair's campaign, 
 401. 
 
 Hancock.William, escapes from Indians, 
 267, 268. 
 
 Hand, Edward, commands Ft. Pitt, 209- 
 211, 213, 214, 216, 219, 221, 230; MS. of, 
 221; sketch, 210. 
 
 Handsucker, , killed by Indians, 398, 
 
 399. 
 
 Hangard. See Redstone. 
 
 Hanover county, Va., 191. 
 
 Haptonstall, Abraham, on Bullitt's sur- 
 vey, 146. 
 
 Harbert, , killed by Indians, 238. 
 
 Hardin county, Ky., origin of name, 123. 
 
 Hardin, John, early Kentucky settler, 
 123; on Harmar's campaign, 394; killed 
 by Indians, 412. 
 
 Hardman, , of Hacker's creek, 410. 
 
 Hardy county, W. Va., census (1830), 56. 
 
 Hargus, John, kills an Indian, 154, 155. 
 
 Harlan, Silas, in Bowman's campaign, 
 271. 
 
 Harland, Maj., killed at Blue Licks, 253. 
 
 Harmar, Josiah, at treaty of Ft. Mcln- 
 tosh, 366; occupies Ft. Washington 
 391, 392; campaign of, 384, 393-395, 400, 
 408. 
 
 Harppld, Nicholas, kills Indians, 135. 
 
 Harrison, , attacked by Indians, 344. 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin, in Dunmore's war, 
 170; governor of Virginia, 366. 
 
 Harrison, Burr, rescued by Logan, 203. 
 
 Harrison county, W. Va., 373; census 
 (1830), 56, 63; first sheriff of, 127; forays 
 in, 217, 369. 
 
 Harrison, S. R., cited, 310. 
 
 Harrison, William, killed by Indians, 
 331, 334, 336. 
 
 Harrison, William H., defeats Tecum- 
 seh, 36. 
 
 Harrod, James, on Bullitt's survey, 146; 
 founds Harrodsburg, 152, 190, 191; 
 prominence as a pioneer, 197, 200: 
 sketch, 190, 191. 
 
 Harrod, Samuel, explores Kentucky, 190. 
 
 Harrod, William, with Clark, 190; in 
 Bowman's campaign, 271, 273. 
 
 Harrodsburg, Ky., founded, 146, 152, 190, 
 191, 197; represented in Transylvania 
 legislature, 193; first attacked by Indi- 
 ans, 200-202, 205, 208; Clark's defense 
 of, 253; settlers' council at, 271. 
 
 Hart, David, of Transylvania Co., 191. 
 
 Hart, Nathaniel, of Transylvania Co., 
 191-193. 
 
 Hart, Thomas, of Transylvania Co., 191. 
 
 Hartley, Cecil B., Life of Wetzel, 161. 
 
 Hartshorn, , ensign in Harmar's cam- 
 paign, 394; captain with Wayne, 423, 
 424. 
 
 Haymond, John, chases Indians, 398. 
 
 Hayward, John, History of Tennessee, 60. 
 
 Hazard, Samuel, U. S. Register, 193. 
 
 Heavener, Nicholas, 121. 
 
 Heckewelder, John G., Moravian mis- 
 sionary. 97, 301, 302, 314, 315, 317; peace 
 commissioner, 412; Narrative, 325; 
 sketch, 301, 302. 
 
 Hedgman river, 55. 
 
 Hellen, Thomas, captured by Indians, 
 156, 157; killed by Indians, 161. 
 
 Helms, Leonard, holds Vincennes, 258, 
 260. 
 
 Henderson, Archibald, 193. 
 
 Henderson, Nathaniel, at Watauga 
 treaty, 12. 
 
 Henderson, Richard, founds Transylva- 
 nia, 153, 191-196; sketch, 191-193. 
 
 Henderson, Samuel, father of Richard. 
 191. 
 
 Henderson, Leonard, 19:5. 
 
 Heunepin, Father Louis, French ex- 
 plorer, 6.
 
 438 
 
 Index. 
 
 Henry countv, Va.. 60. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, governor of Virginia, 
 173, 186, 220, 366. 
 
 Herbert, William, in Dunmore's war, 
 167, 175. 
 
 Hickenbotham, Capt., attacks Indians, 
 99. 
 
 Hickman, Adam, Jr., 127. 
 
 Hickman, Sotha, early settler, 127, 284. 
 
 Hill, Richard, attacked by Indians, 291. 
 
 Hinkstone, , captured by Indians, 
 
 297, 298, 305. 
 
 Hite, Isaac, on Bullitt's survey, 146. 
 
 Hockhocking river, in Dunmore's war, 
 168, 179, 182, 183; Indians raided on, 383. 
 
 Hockingport, O., founded, 179. 
 
 Hogan, Mrs., settles in Kentucky, 197. 
 
 Hogg, James, of Transylvania Co., 191. 
 
 Hogg, Peter, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81- 
 85. , 
 
 Hogg, William, in Sandy-creek voyage,81. 
 
 Hoggin, , of St. Asaph's, 205. 
 
 Holden, Joseph, companion of Boone, 
 143. 
 
 Holder, John, in Bowman's campaign, 
 271. 
 
 Holder's station, Ky,, during Caldwell's 
 invasion, 349. 
 
 Hollis, John, Indian spy, 245. 
 
 Holmes, John, informs against James 
 Smith, 114. 
 
 Holston, Stephen, settles on Holston, 59. 
 
 Holston river, 60; first settlements on, 
 58, 115; forays on, 158, 184. 
 
 Holston settlements, militia of, 165, 170, 
 268; Harrod at, 190; Boone at, 196; Lo- 
 gan at, 204-206; Mrs. Cunningham at, 
 372, 373. 
 
 Hornbeck, Benjamin, captured by In- 
 dians, 311. 
 
 Hornbeck, Mrs., killed by Indians, 311. 
 
 Horse Shoe bottom, settled. 126. 
 
 Horton, Joshua, explores Kentucky, 115. 
 
 Howard, John, companion of Sailing, 49. 
 
 Hudson, William, killed by Indians, 203. 
 
 Hughes, Charles, chases Indians, 246. 
 
 Hughes, Elias, scouting service, 312; 
 fights Indians, 345. 376, 377. 
 
 Hughes, Jesse, early hunter, 121; chases 
 Indians, 246, 378, 379, 410; services at 
 Ft West. 288; scouting service, 312; 
 escapes from Indians, 399, 400; daugh- 
 ter captured by Indians, 377-380; char- 
 acter, 137. 
 
 Hughes, Thomas, early settler, 121, 123; 
 defense of borderers, 367; killed by In- 
 dians, 240, 241. 
 
 Hughey, Joseph, killed by Indians, 168. 
 
 Hull, Samuel, killed by Indians, 383. 
 
 Huron Indians, possible origin of, 16. 
 
 Husted, Gilbert, captured by Indians, 
 248. 
 
 Hutcbins, Thomas, geographer, 46. 
 
 IBERVILLE, Lemoyne d', finds Missis- 
 sippi, 7. 
 
 Ice, John, killed by Indians, 374. 
 
 Illinois, early French in, 6, 7; Clark's ex- 
 pedition to, 146, 252-255, 257, 261. 
 
 Illinois Indians, claim Kentucky, 142; 
 agree to keep peace, 412. 
 
 Ingles, Capt., on New-river campaign, 99. 
 
 Indian creek, foray on, 312, 313. 
 
 Indian Short creek, 380, 381, 415. 
 
 Indians, origin of, 12-27; beliefs, cus- 
 toms and traditions, 17-43; forest com- 
 merce, 34; prehistoric remains, 39-43; 
 intimacy with French, 5,64; relations 
 with Spanish, 7-9; claims to Kentucky 
 reviewed, 193-195; relations with first 
 settlers, 129-133; Christian missions 
 among, 106. See the several tribes. 
 
 Iroquois Indians, supposed origin of, 44; 
 
 oppose French on Ohio, 64; at Easton 
 
 treaty, 58; at Ft. Stanwix treaty, 70; 
 
 claim Kentucky. 194, 195. 
 Irvim\ William, releases Moravians, 317; 
 
 Indian campaign of, 355. 
 Isaac's creek, 312. 
 Ivens, Sally, captured by Indians, 373, 
 
 374. 
 
 JACKSON, , adventure with Indians, 
 
 289. 
 
 Jackson county, O., 175. 
 
 Jackson county, W. Va., 137. 
 
 Jackson, Edward, early settler, 121. 
 
 Jackson, George, early settler, 121; at- 
 tacked by Indians, 313; defends Buck- 
 haunon, 342; chases Indians, 398. 
 
 Jackson, John, early settler, 121; attacked 
 by Indians, 313. 
 
 Jackson. Ned J., 287. 
 
 Jackson s river, 57, 71, 81 ; Hannah Den- 
 nis on, 93; in Pontiac war, 97; forays 
 on, 90, 96, 173. 
 
 James, Enoch, adventure with Indians, 
 218. 219. 
 
 James river, 61, 66, 86; Sailing on, 48, 50; 
 early settlements on, 52; McDowell's 
 fight, 52; Borden's grant, 50-53; forays 
 on, 89-91, 96. 
 
 Jefferson county.W.Va., census (1830), 56. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, on origin of Indians. 
 13, 14, 25, 26; on Indian mounds. 41; 
 " improves " Logan's speech, 184; Notes 
 on Virginia, 134. 
 
 Jesuits, early missions to Indians, 14, 15, 
 60, 64, 410, 411: Relations, 194. 
 
 Jew, , killed by Indians, 91. 
 
 Jew, Sally, imprisoned by Indians, 90. 
 
 Johnson, , thought to have been 
 
 killed by James Smith, 113-115. 
 
 Johnson, Henry and John, escape from 
 Indians, 415-417. 
 
 Johnson, Richard M., 348. 
 
 Johnson, Robert, arrives in Kentucky, 
 348. 
 
 Johnson, William, family massacred by 
 Indians, 381, 382. 
 
 Johnson, Sir William, British Indian 
 superintendent, 108, 136. 
 
 Johnston, William, of Transylvania, 191. 
 
 Joliet, Louis, discovers Mississippi, 5, 6. 
 
 Judah, Henry, kills Indians, 135. 
 
 Juggins, Elizabeth, adventure with In- 
 dians, 309. 310. 
 
 Juggins, John, killed by Indians, 290. 
 
 Juniata river, 112, 113. 
 
 KANAWHA county, W. Va., census (1830), 
 
 55, 56. 
 Kaskaskia, 111., 294; founded by La Palle, 
 
 6; Sailing at, 48; Clark's capture of, 
 
 253-255, 257, 258, 260, 411. 
 Kate (uegress), at seige of Wheeling, 356. 
 Keeney's knob, massacre at, 173. 
 Kekionga, Miami village, 393. 
 Kellar, Isaac, killed by Indians, 385. 
 Kelly, Tady, in Dunmore's war, 153. 
 Kelly, Walter, killed by Indians, 15^161. 
 Kennedy, John, wounded by Indians, 
 
 203. 
 Kenton, Simon, border scout, 161; in 
 
 Dunmore's war, 164, 167; arrival in 
 
 Kentucky, 197. 
 Kentucky, 66, 61, 75; Indian antiquities 
 
 in, 43; exploration by Sailing, 48, 49; 
 
 by Bullitt. 71: by Walker, 81; by Smith, 
 
 115; by Findlay, 142. 143; by Boone, 
 
 142-145, 147, 152, 153, 190; by Stone, 190; 
 
 Indian claims to, 193-195; Connolly's 
 
 survey, 145, 146; first settlements in, 
 
 123, 197; early land jobbing, 196, 197;
 
 Index. 
 
 439 
 
 Harrodsburg founded, 146, 190; Indian 
 opposition to first settlers, 140-142, 189, 
 1'JO, 200-208; character of pioneers, 197- 
 200; rapid increase of population, 274; 
 Transylvania Co., 191-196; early mis- 
 sions, 106; Spanish conspiracy, 130; 
 state convention, 106. 
 
 Kentucky river, Boone on, 152. 153; Har- 
 rodon,"l90; Catawbas on, 194; in Hen- 
 derson's purchase, 192, 193, 195, 1%; 
 forays on, 268, 269, 374. 
 
 Kercheval, Samuel, History of Valley of 
 Virginia, 49, 87, 88. 
 
 Kersey, Lieut. [Kearsey, John], builds 
 at Columbia, 390, 391. 
 
 Kettle, Richard, chases Indians, 311. 
 
 Killbuck, Delaware chief, 88. 
 
 Kimberlain, Jacob, escapes from Indi- 
 ans, 99. 
 
 King, Thomas, Iroquois chief, 58. 
 
 Kinnikinnick creek, 174, 176. 
 
 Kiskepila. See Little Eagle. 
 
 Kittanning, in Hand's expedition, 210. 
 
 Knight, John, captured by Indians, 332- 
 335, 338. 
 
 Knoxville, Tenn., 60. 
 
 Kuhn, Abraham, Wyandot chief, 97. 
 
 Kuydendall, Capt., in Dunmore's war, 
 182. 
 
 LACKEY, Thomas, warns settlers, 286. 
 
 Lake Cayuga, early Indians on, 46. 
 
 Lake Erie, Catawbas on, 47. 
 
 Lake Michigan, early French on, 6. 
 
 Lancaster, Pa., massacre of Canestogas, 
 104, 105; treaty of, 195. 
 
 Land claims, Loyal Co., 49, 58; Lord Fair- 
 fax, 50, 51; Borden manor, 50-53; Ohio 
 Co., 64, 65, 67, 74, 77, 147; Pittsylvania, 
 145; Virginia military warrants, 145; 
 Transylvania Co., 191-196; Connolly, 
 145, 146; early Kentucky jobbers, 196, 
 197; "tomahawk rights," 126; Indian 
 attitude toward, 140, 141; commission- 
 ers killed by Indians, 311; post-Revo- 
 lutionary military warrants, 365, 366; 
 Ohio Co. of Associates, 389, 390; Scioto 
 Co., 60; Miami purchase, 390-392. 
 
 Lane, Lalph, attempts western explora- 
 tion, 64. 
 
 Langlade, Charles, at Braddock's defeat, 
 68. 
 
 L'Anguille, Miami villflge, 407. 
 
 La Salic, Chevalier, explorations of, 6, 
 7; at falls of Ohio, 64. 
 
 Lansou run, 421. 
 
 Laurel hills, 126: explored by Walden, 
 60; by Cresap, 77; by Boone, 192. 
 
 Lawless, Henry, explores Kentucky, 
 81. 
 
 Leading creek, 419; forays on, 311, 428. 
 
 Lederer, John, on Blue ridge, 64. 
 
 Lee, Arthur, treaty commissioner, 366, 
 388. 
 
 Lee county, Va., census (1830), 56. 
 
 Leet, Maj., on Sandnsky campaign, 330. 
 
 Leffler, George, early settler, 125; defends 
 Rice's fort, 362. 
 
 Leffler, Jacob, Jr., defends Rice's fort, 
 362. 
 
 Legget, George, lost in Indian foray, 309. 
 
 Le Moyne, Father, discovers Alleghany, 
 64. 
 
 Lewis, , escapes from Indians, 422. 
 
 Lewis, Andrew, 49. 50; explores Green- 
 brier, 57, 58; with Braddock, 66; in 
 Forbes' s campaign, 68-73; in Sandy- 
 oreek voyage. 81-83. 86; in Dunmore's 
 war, 151, 164-168, 170, 174-176, 178-183, 190; 
 Journal. 81. 82. 
 
 Lewis, Charles, with Braddock, 66; in 
 Pontiac's war, 97; in Dunmore's war, 
 
 151, 159, 166-168; death, 168-171; Jour- 
 nal, 69. 
 
 Lewis county, W. Va., census (1830), 56, 
 63. 
 
 Lewis, John (1), father of Andrew, 53, 
 62; explores Greenbrier, 57, 58>with 
 Braddock, 66; settles Augusta, 66; 
 sketch, 49, 50. 
 
 Lewis, John f2), scalped by Indians, 102. 
 
 Lewis, John, Jr., with Braddock, 66. 
 
 Lewis, Margaret, wife of John (1), 53. 
 
 Lewis, Samuel, defends Greenbrier, 244, 
 245. 
 
 Lewis, Thomas, son of John (I), 50; with 
 Braddock, 66. 
 
 Lewis, William, with Braddock, 66. 
 
 Lewisburgh, W. Va., founded, 164, 165, 
 244; massacre near, 172, 173. 
 
 Lexington, Ky., 271; founded, 52, 274: 
 threatened by Bird, 296-29S, 305; dur- 
 ing Caldwell's invasion, 349, 351. 
 
 Licking river, Thompson's surveys, 146; 
 early settlements on, 274; Boone's cap- 
 tivity, 265, 266; Bird's invasion, 295, 
 297, 298; in Piqua campaign, 305, 307; in 
 Caldwell's invasion, 348; other Revo- 
 lutionary happenings, 271, 352. 
 
 Lichtenau, Moravian village, 314. 
 
 Limestone creek, 348. 
 
 Lincoln, Benjamin, peace commissioner, 
 412. 
 
 Lineback, , Relation, 324. 
 
 Linn, John, in defense of Wheeling, 356, 
 358. 
 
 Linn, William, at Foreman's defeat, 229, 
 230. 
 
 Linsey, Joseph, settles onYoughiogheny, 
 117, 118. 
 
 Little Carpenter, a Cherokee, 192. 
 
 Little Eagle, Mingo chief, 78, 79. 
 
 Little Kenawha river, Bulltown massa- 
 cre, 136-138; in Dunmore's war. 165, 
 179; during Revolution, 232, 284; mis- 
 cellaneous forays on, 376, 397, 400, 411, 
 419. 
 
 Little Meadow creek, 166. 
 
 Little Meadows, 77. 
 
 Little Miami river, Shawnees on, 271; 
 Boone on, 266; during Revolution, 273; 
 Symmes's land-grant on, 390-392; in 
 Harmar's campaign, 393", in St. Clair's 
 campaign, 400-405. 
 
 Little Saluda river, Holston on, 59. 
 
 Little Sewell mountain, origin of name, 
 57. 
 
 Lochaber, treaty of, 195. 
 
 Lockard, Patrick, with Braddock, 66. 
 
 Lockport, O., 314. 
 
 Lockridge, , at Point Pleasant, 17o. 
 
 Locust Grove, Ky.,254. 
 
 Logan, Ann, adventure with Indians, 
 203. 
 
 Logan, Benjamin, builds Logan's sta- 
 tion, 197; in seige thereof, 200, 202-207; 
 in Bowman's campaign, 271-273; in 
 Piqua campaign, 306; at Blue Licks, 
 351-354; in Shawnee campaign, 355; 
 in Miami campaign, 3S6-388; sketch, 
 204. 
 
 Logan county, O., 153. 
 
 Logan county, W. Va.. census (1830), 56. 
 
 Logan, Mingo chief, massacre of family, 
 125, 134, 138, 142, 148-150, 184; attacks 
 whites, 155^-158; speech of, 184. 
 
 Logan's station, Ky., founded, 197; rep- 
 resented in Transylvania legislature, 
 193; attacked by Indians, 200, 202-208. 
 
 Logstown, old trading post, 413; Dyer's 
 captivity, 87; treaty at, 195. 
 
 Long, , assists Mrs. Cunningham, 372. 
 
 "Long Knives." origin of term, 79, SO; 
 use Of, 183, 186, 207, 406.
 
 440 
 
 Index. 
 
 Looney'n creek, 89; Pringle settlement 
 on, 118. 
 
 Losantiville, origin of name, 391, 392. 
 See Cincinnati. 
 
 Loss creek, 218. 
 
 Lost creek, foray on, 383. 
 
 Louisa Company, settles Kentucky, 191. 
 
 Louisiana, founded, 7; French in, 64; 
 Spanish in, 130. 
 
 Louisville, 271. 357; Iroquois defeat 
 Shawnees, 194, 195; La Salle at, 64; 
 Findlay at, 143; Boone at, 152; survey- 
 ed bv Bullitt, 145; founded by Clark, 
 146, 253, 254; threatened by Bird, 294; 
 in Clark's Wabash expedition, 386; 
 Literary News-Letter, 193. 
 
 Love, Philip, in Dunmore's war, 170. 
 
 Lowdermilk, Will H., History of Cumber- 
 land, 77. 
 
 Lowther, Jonathan, killed by Indians, 
 241. 
 
 Lowther, Robert, early settler, 127. 
 
 Lowther, William, militia officer, 127, 
 128: chases Indians, 312. 313, 376, 377. 
 
 Loyal Company, land grant on Green- 
 brier. 49, 58. 
 
 Loyal Hanna river, in Forbes's cam- 
 paign, 73; foray on, 108. 
 
 Ludlow, Israel, partner of Denman, 391. 
 
 Luttsell, John, of Transylvania Co., 191, 
 193. 
 
 Lynn, Jane, marries Hugh Paul and 
 'David Stuart, 53, 54. 
 
 Lynn, Margaret, wife of John Lewis, 49. 
 
 Lytie, William, on Mad-river campaign, 
 "387, 388. 
 
 MCBRIDK, Capt., killed at Blue Licks, 
 353. 
 
 McClannahan, Robert, killed at Point 
 Pleasant, 171. 
 
 McClelland, John, on Sandusky cam- 
 paign, 328. 336. 
 
 McClelland s station, Ky., attacked by 
 Indians, 200. 
 
 McClure, Mrs., captured by Indians, 385. 
 
 McCollum, John, in New-river foray, 99. 
 
 McCulloch, William, in Dunmore's war, 
 180. 
 
 McCullough family, early settlers, 125. 
 
 McCullough, Mai., at seige of Wheeling, 
 228. 
 
 McCullough, Miss, at seige of Wheeling, 
 356. 
 
 McDonald, Angus, Wapatomica expedi- 
 tion, 138, 153-155, 164, 165; in Duumore's 
 war, 220. 
 
 McDowell, Ephraim, early settler, 52. 
 
 McDowell, James, 52. 
 
 McDowell, John, early settler, 53; killed 
 by Indians. 49, 51, 52, 66. 
 
 McDowell, Thomas, killed by Indians, 
 1%. 
 
 McFeeters, Jeremiah, killed by Indians, 
 196. 
 
 McGary, Maj., of St. Asaph's, 205; at Blue 
 Licks, 352; in Mad-river campaign, 
 388. 
 
 McGary, Mrs., settles in Kentucky, 197. 
 
 McGuire, Maj., wounds an Indian, 381. 
 
 Mclntire, John, killed by Indians, 397, 
 398. 
 
 Mclmosh. Lachlan, commandant a t 
 Pittsburgh, 210, 237, 300; expedition 
 against Sandusky, 252, 255, 256, 261, 264, 
 265 
 
 Mclver, Hugh, killed by Indians, 292. 
 
 Mack, John, family massacred by Indi- 
 ans, 382. 
 
 McKee, Alexander, in Dunmore's war, 
 189 during Revolution, 254, 295, 347; 
 ransoms Mrs. Cunningham, 372; en- 
 
 courages forays, 388; property de 
 stroyed by Wayne, 426. 
 
 McKee, Capt., commandant at Ft. Ran 
 dolph, 241-243. 
 
 McKee, William, at Point Pleasant, 174. 
 
 McKenley's run, 410. 
 
 Mackey, John, early settler, 49, 50, 66. 
 
 Mackinaw, in Tecumseh's conspiracy, 
 36; Chippewa villages near, 46. 
 
 McKinley, John, killed by Indians, 333. 
 
 McKnight, Charles, Our Western Border. 
 373. 
 
 McLain, John, killed by Indians, 287. 
 
 McMahon, Maj., killed by Indians, 423. 
 
 McMahon's creek, 162. 
 
 McMechen, James, a Wheeling settler, 
 222, 228, 230. 
 
 McMurtry, Capt., killed by Indians. 395. 
 
 McNutt, John, in Sandy-creek voyage, 
 81, 85, 86; in Revolution, 86; Journal, 
 86. 
 
 McWhorter, Henry, early settler, 287, 
 288, 410. 
 
 McWhorter, J. M., 288. 
 
 McWhorter, L. V., cited, 119, 137, 278, 287, 
 340, 368-371, 376, 377, 409-411, 421. 
 
 McWhorter, Mansfield, 410. 
 
 Mad river, 124; Logan's campaign to, 
 386-388. 
 
 Mahoning creek, 210. 
 
 Manear, John, killed by Indians, 311. 
 
 Mann's lick, 152. 
 
 Marietta, O., the Scioto purchase, 60; 
 settled bv Ohio Co., 389, 390; cattle sup- 
 ply attacked, 399, 400. 
 
 Marion county, W. Va., 279. 
 
 Marks, Lieut., on Wayne's campaign, 
 424. 
 
 Marquette, Father James, discovers Mis- 
 sissippi, 5, 6. 
 
 Marshall, James, militia officer, 327, 328. 
 
 Martin, , settles on Greenbrier, 57. 
 
 Martin, , in seige of St. Asaph's, 204. 
 
 Martin, Gov., opposes Henderson's pur- 
 chase, 192, 193. 
 
 Martin, Jesse, 123. 
 
 Martin. William, 123. 
 
 Martin s station, Ky., sacked by Bird, 
 296, 298; defended. 350. 
 
 Martins vi lie, Va., 60. 
 
 Maryland, emigrants from, 125. 
 
 Mason county, W. Va., census (1830), 56. 
 
 Mason, Samuel, at seige of Wheeling, 
 221-224, 228. 
 
 Massachusetts, relinquishes Western 
 land claim, 389. 
 
 Massawomee Indians, in West Virginia, 
 44. 
 
 Matthew, John, early settler, 52. 
 
 Matthews, George, attacked by Indians, 
 90, 91; in Dunmore's war, 169, 170, 174. 
 
 Matthews, John, with Braddock, 66. 
 
 Matthews, Maj. ,52. 
 
 Maumee Indians, 374. 
 
 Maumee river, Mrs. Cunningham on, 
 372; in Harmar's campaign, 393; in 
 St. Clair's campaign, 401; peace com- 
 missioners sent to, 412; in Wayne's 
 campaign, 424-426. 
 
 Maury, Thomas, killed by Indians, 91. 
 
 Maxwell, Audley, attacked by Indians, 
 90,91. 
 
 Maxwell, William, attacked by Indiana, 
 90, 91. 
 
 May, John. 385. 
 
 Maysville, Ky., 348. 
 
 Meadow river, 242. 
 
 Merrill, John, wounded by Indians, 405, 
 406. 
 
 Merrill, Mrs. John, adventure with In- 
 dians, 406. 
 
 Myers, R. C. V., Life of Wetzel, 161.
 
 Index. 
 
 441 
 
 Miami Indians, early strength of, 46; 
 Renick captivity, 91; operate against 
 Clark, 252; in Harmar's campaign, 393- 
 395: in St. Glair's campaign, 400-405: 
 raided by Scott, 407, 408. 
 
 Miami river, Indians on, 46; in Renick 
 captivity, 91; in Clark's campaign, 254; 
 during Revolution, 295, 299, 355; arrival 
 of peace news, 365; military land- 
 claims on, 366; Logan's campaign on, 
 386; treaty of Ft. Finney, 388; Symmes's 
 land-grant on, 390, 392; in Harmar's 
 campaign, 393-395; in St. Glair's cam- 
 paign. 400-405. 
 
 Michael, Lieut., on Wayne's campaign, 
 424. 
 
 Michillimackinac, 255. See Mackinaw. 
 
 Middle Island creek, foray on, 381, 398. 
 
 Miller, Jacob, killed by Indians (Dela- 
 ware river), 102. 
 
 Miller, Jacob, killed by Indians (Ft. Co- 
 burn), 249. 
 
 Miller, Jacob, defends Ft. Rice, 361, 362. 
 
 Mills, Thomas, killed by Indians, 338, 
 339. 
 
 Minear, John, early settler, 126. 
 
 Mingo Bottom, Indian village at, 78; in 
 Moravian expedition, 320; in Craw- 
 ford's campaign, 328, 329. 
 
 Mingo Indians, on Upper Ohio, 45; Deck- 
 er's-creek massacre, 77-79; New-river 
 foray, 96-99: claim Kentucky, 142; mas- 
 sacre of Logan's family, 134, 138, 142, 
 148-150; Logan's forays, 155-158; Dun- 
 more's war generally, 172, 179, 184, 185, 
 253; during Revolution, 219, 262, 308, 
 336,347. 
 
 Mingo Junction, O. See Mingo Bottom. 
 
 Missions among Kentucky and Tennes- 
 see Indians, 106. See Catholics and 
 Moravians. ~* 
 
 Missasago Indians, in St. Clair's cam- 
 paign, 404. 
 
 Mississippi river, 255; territorial claims 
 in basin of, 5; French on, 5-7, 63; Span- 
 ish on, 7, 8,130, 254: Sailing on, 49; Hol- 
 ston on, 59; Chickasaws on, 195; in Te- 
 cumseh's conspiracy, 36; Cornstalk's 
 knowledge of, 211. 
 
 Mitchell, John, 122. 
 
 Moffett, Capt., ambuscaded, 97. 
 
 Mohican Indians, in King Philip's war, 
 .',>. 33. 
 
 Moluntha, Shawnee chief, 268. 
 
 Monday, , killed by Indians, 293. 
 
 Monongahela river, 73-75; early Indians 
 on, 45, 47; French on, 65; Braddock's 
 defeat, 67-69, 72; Grant's defeat, 71; 
 Gist's settlement, 74; Pringle settle- 
 ment, 117, 118, 122; other early settle- 
 ments, 77, 117. 123. 125. 190; in Dun- 
 more's war, 135, 141, 146, 150, 151, 161; 
 during Revolution, 221, 222, 237, 271, 
 309; militia from, 320; forays on, 381, 
 414, 419. 
 
 Monongalia county, W. Va., census (1830), 
 56, 63; during Revolution, 311; forays 
 in, 344, 374, 398, 399. 
 
 Monroe county, W. Va., census (1830), 
 55,56. 
 
 Montgomery, Col., companion of Clark, 
 254. 
 
 Montgomery countv, Va., census (1830), 
 55,56. 
 
 Montgomery, John, in Sandy-creek voy- 
 agef 81. 
 
 Monteur, , family massacred, 318. 
 
 Monncello, Va., 253. 
 
 Montojur. John, Delaware chief, 179. 
 
 Moonay, James, adventure with Indians, 
 168; companion of Boone, 143. 
 
 Moore, , attacked by Indians, 385. 
 
 Moore, Andrew, early settler, 52; in Dun- 
 more's war, 174. 
 
 Moore, James, Sr., killed by Indians, 373. 
 
 Moore, James, Jr., captured by Indians, 
 374. 
 
 Moore, Jane, burned by Indians, 374. 
 
 Moore, Mrs. John, burned by Indians, 
 373, 374. 
 
 Moore, Lieut., killed by Indians, 241. 
 
 Moore, Mary, captured'by Indians, 374. 
 
 Moorefield, W. Va., founded, 124. 
 
 Moorenead, , Youghiogheny settler, 
 
 114. 
 
 Moravians, missionaries and Indians, 
 J36. 4^2: give information to Hand. 219; 
 visited by Brodhead, 301, 302; villages 
 sacked by whites, 313-327, 340; histor- 
 ical sketch, 314. 
 
 Morgan county, W. Va., census (1830), 56. 
 
 Morgan, Daniel, 276. 
 
 Morgan, David, early settler, 123; adven- 
 ture with Indians, 276-279. 
 
 Morgan, George, Indian agent, 219, 224. 
 
 Morgan, Greenwood S., 279. 
 
 Morgan, Levi, adventures with Indians, 
 375, 376, 417, 418. 
 
 Morgan, Sarah and Stephen, adventure 
 with Indians, 276-279. 
 
 Morgan, William, early settler, 126; es- 
 capes from Indians, 240. 
 
 Morgan town, Pa., 75; founded, 123; foray 
 near, 248, 249. 
 
 Morlin, Thomas, early peddler, 47, 48. 
 
 Morrow, William, iu Dunmore's war, 
 169, 171. 
 
 Mound-building, by early Indians, 39-43. 
 
 Moundsville, W. Va., "big mound "at, 
 40; settled, 125, 230. 
 
 Mount Braddock, Pa., settled, 123. 
 
 Muddy creek, 123; first settled, 58; Clen- 
 dennin massacre, 93-95: miscellaneous 
 forays on, 159, 161, 172, 173, 293, 345. 
 
 Mulhollin, Polly. See Mary Greenlee. 
 
 Munsee Indians, on Susquehanna, 46; 
 raided by Brodhead, 301; during Revo- 
 lution, 347. 
 
 Munseka, Shawnee chief, 266. 
 
 Murphey, John, killed by Indians, 238. 
 
 Murphy, Samuel, 183. 
 
 Muscle shoals, 59. 
 
 Muskingum river, early Indians on, 46; 
 Gist on, 79; Bouquet's expedition, 108; 
 Indian atrocities on, 150, 396; Wapa- 
 tomica campaign, 153-155; Moravian 
 villages on, 219; during Revolution, 
 300-305, 314, 320, 328; land cession by 
 Indians, 366; Ohio Co.'s grant, 389"; 
 Waterford founded, 392. 
 
 NAIN Indians, threatened by Paxtons, 
 105. 
 
 Nanny's run, 127. 
 
 Natchez, Holston at, 59. 
 
 Narragansett Indians, war with Puri- 
 tans, 31-33. 
 
 Narvaez, Pamphilio de, in Florida, 7. 
 
 Nashville, Tenn., 115. 
 
 Neal, Henry, killed by Indians, 411, 412. 
 
 Neal, James, slave stolen from, 400. 
 
 Neely, Alexander, companion of Boone, 
 143, 144. 
 
 Nelson, , early settler, 126. 
 
 Nelson county, Va., foray in, 405, 406. 
 
 Nelson ville, O., 183. 
 
 Nemacolin, Delaware Indian, 77. 
 
 Nemacolin's path. See Braddock's road 
 
 Nequetank Indians, threatened by Pax 
 tons, 105. 
 
 Newcomerstown, O., 314. 
 
 New Englanders, on Greenbrier, 57. 
 
 New France. See French. 
 
 New Inverness, Ga., founded, 237.
 
 442 
 
 Index. 
 
 New Martinsville, O., 417. 
 
 New Orleans, founded, 7; Spanish at, 
 130. 
 
 New Philadelphia, O., 261, 314. 
 
 Newport, Christopher, attempts western 
 exploration, 64. 
 
 New river, first settlements on, 69; in 
 Sandy-creek voyage, 82; Delaware and 
 Mingo foray, 96-99. See Great Ka- 
 nawna. 
 
 New Schbnbrunn, Moravian village, 314, 
 325, 326. 
 
 New York, Delawares in, 136; relin- 
 quishes Western land claim, 389. 
 
 Nicholas county, W. Va., 96; census 
 (1830), 56. 
 
 Nicholson, , interpreter, 184. 
 
 Nicholson, Thomas, in Dunmore's cam- 
 paign, 153. 
 
 North Bend, O., founded, 39'2. 
 
 North Branch, 63. 
 
 North Carolina, Cherokees in, 46; Boone 
 in, 143, 144, 266; Henderson family in, 
 191-193; emigration from, 348, 384. 
 
 North river, early settlement on, 52. 
 
 Northwest Territory, early tribes in, 45; 
 cession of land claims in, 131; ordi- 
 nance of 1787, 389; St. Clair's arrival, 
 391. 392; first settlements in, 392, 393. 
 
 Norton, Thomas, Journal of Saudy-creek 
 voyage, 81, 82. 
 
 Nutter, John, early settler, 127. 
 
 O'BRIEN, Adam, 414. 
 
 Ochiltree, Alexander, killed by Indians, 
 245. 
 
 Oghkwaga, Delaware village, 136. 
 
 Ogle, Joseph, at seige of Wheeling, 221- 
 224, 228; in Foreman's defeat, 230. 
 
 Oglethorpe, James, attitude toward 
 slavery, 10. 
 
 Ohio (state), Indian mounds in, 41, 42; 
 first settlements in, 392, 393. 
 
 Ohio Company, relations with French, 
 45; opeu Ohio valley to settlement, 
 -", 65, 67, 74, 77, 147. 
 
 Ohio Company of Associates, settles 
 Marietta, 389, 390. 
 
 Ohio county, W. Va., census (1830), 55, 
 56, 63; during Revolution, 311. 
 
 Ohio river, 36, 40, 55, 78, 115, 117, 121, 123, 
 125; early Indians on, 45-47; Sailing on, 
 49; Holston on, 59; as a war trail, 75; 
 first English occupation, 63, 64; French 
 and English rivalry for, 64-74, 95; 
 Decker captivity,78, 79; in Sandy-creek 
 voyage, Ki-85; Renick captivity, 91; 
 Hannah Dennis's escape, 92, 93; char- 
 acter of early settlers on, 130, 131; in 
 Dunmore's war, 134, 138, 145, 146, 148, 
 149, 151-153, 156, 162-165, 167-175, 179, 183; 
 in Henderson's purchase, 192, 193; 
 Shawnees on, 194. 195, 209, 211, 216, 219; 
 during Revolution, 219, 220, 227, 230, 
 254, 257, 264, 266, 267, 271, 273, 285, 286, 
 294, 295, 297-300, 305, 320, 335, 347, 355, 
 360, 363, 384. 389, 390, 399, 411, 415, 417; 
 after Revolution, 367, 372, 374, 380, 381, 
 383; as a race boundary, 412. 
 
 Old Town creek, 168, 170, 172; Shawnee 
 village at, 85. 
 
 Oneco, chief of Mohicans, 32. 
 
 Orange county, Va., 55; early settlement 
 of, 55, 66. 
 
 Ordinance of 1787, 389. 
 
 Orme, Robert, with Braddock, 68. 
 
 Osage Indians, stature of, 29. 
 
 Ottawa Indians, early strength of, 46; 
 during Revolution, 347; at Ft. Mcln- 
 tosh treaty, 366, 388. 
 
 Ottawa river, early French on, 5. 
 
 Ouisconsin river. See Wisconsin river. 
 
 Owens, James, killed by Indians, 247. 
 Owens, John, 8r., killed by Indians, 290. 
 Owens, John, Jr., attacked by Indians, 
 
 290, 343, 344. 
 
 Owens, Owen, attacked by Indians. 290. 
 Ox, Susan, captured by Indians, 161 
 
 PACK, , trapper, 96. 
 
 Paint creek, Boone's expedition to, 267, 
 268; Shawnees on, 374; Waggoner on, 
 410. 
 
 Parsons, James, early settler, 126. 
 
 Parsons, Samuel H., treaty commission- 
 er, 388. 
 
 Patterson, Robert, founds Lexington, 
 Ky., 274; partner of Denman, 391; at 
 battle of Blue Licks, 353. 
 
 Patton, Elizabeth, marries John Preston, 
 51. 
 
 Patton, James, early settler of Catawba, 
 51, 52, 68. 
 
 Patton, John W., 127. 
 
 Pattonsburgh, Va., 51. 
 
 Paul, Audley, son of Hugh, 53; at Ft. 
 Redstone, 77, 78; in Sandy-creek voy- 
 age, 81, 83, 85; in James-river foray, 
 91; in New-river foray, 97-99; in Dun- 
 more's war, 169. 
 
 Paul, Hugh, 53. 
 
 Paul, Polly, marries Gov. Matthews, 53. 
 
 Pauling, Henry, militia officer, 207. 
 
 Paull, James, at Redstone, 80. 
 
 Paxton boys, kill Canestoga Indians, 
 104, 105. 
 
 Paynter, Elias, killed by Indians, 341. 
 
 Pekillon, Delaware chief, 303, 304. 
 
 Pendleton county, W. Va., census (1830), 
 56; Seybert massacre, 87-89. 
 
 Penn, William, 124. 
 
 Pennsylvania, boundary dispute with 
 Virginia, 74; Western settlements in, 
 74, 75, 123-125, 143; fur trade of, 101; 
 Paxton boys, 104, 105; "Black-boys" 
 uprising, 109-116; Findlay's adven- 
 tures, 143; Records, 58; Archives, 323. 
 
 Pentecost, Dorsey, 323. 
 
 Peoria Indians, claim Kentucky, 142. 
 
 Perry, Thomas, killed by Indians, 89. 
 
 Perrysburgh, O., 372. 
 
 Peter, Captain, Indian chief, 135. 
 
 Petro, Leonard, captured by Indians, 
 232,233. 
 
 Peyton, John L., History of Augusta 
 county, 53, 246. 
 
 Philadelphia, 105, 109, 124. 
 
 Philip, chief of Narragansetts, 31, 32. 
 
 Phillips, Capt., ambuscaded, 97. 
 
 Phoebe's Falls, W. Va.. settled, 52. 
 
 Pickaway plains, Indian treaty at, 183- 
 186. 
 
 Pickering, Timothy, peace commission- 
 er, 412. 
 
 Pike run, Indian foray on, 283. 
 
 Pindall, Rachel, chased by Indians, 344. 
 
 Pindall, Thomas, attacked bv Indians, 
 344. 
 
 Piomingo, Chickasaw chief, 405. 
 
 Pipe, Delaware chief, 333. 
 
 Pipe, Wyandot chief, 316. 
 
 Pipe creek, massacre of Indians at, 134, 
 142, 148. 
 
 Piqua, Shawnee village, 273; Clark at- 
 tacks, 305-309. 
 
 Pitman, , trapper, 96. 
 
 Pittsburg, 117, 120; French fort at, 45; 
 treaties at, 66: Braddock's defeat, 68, 
 69, 106; in Forbes's campaign, 69-73, 77, 
 79,80; Connolly at, 74; Dyer's escape, 
 87; in Bouquet's expedition, 107-109, 
 173; in Dunmore's war, 134, 141, 142, 145, 
 148, 150, 165,167,177-179, 181, 182; "Black- 
 boys" uprising, 109; asked to aid Ken-
 
 Index. 
 
 443 
 
 tucky, 205; during Revolution, 220, 221, 
 224, 230, 254, 256, 262, 283, 318, 321-323, 335, 
 357, 362; arrival of peace news, 365; 
 Hand's administration, 210, 211, 214, 
 216, 219; Mclntosh's administration, 
 210, 237; warned by Moravians, 315, 
 317; Brodhead's expedition, 300, 301, 
 303, 304, 316. 
 
 Pittsylvania, proposed colony of, 145. 
 
 Pleasant creek, 118. 
 
 Pocahontas county, W. Va., census (1830), 
 56. 
 
 Poe, Adam, adventure with Indians, 362- 
 364. 
 
 Poe, Andrew, adventure with Indians, 
 363, 364. 
 
 Point Pleasant, W. Va., battle of, 59, 60, 
 66, 143, 152, 165-178, 180, 182, 185-187, 189, 
 190, 208; Ft. Randolph at, 173, 291; sur- 
 render of Cornstalk at, 173, 209, 211-216; 
 during Revolution, 237, 241-243. 
 
 Pointer. Dick, fights Indians, 243. 
 
 Pollens, Henry, fur trader, 109. 
 
 Pompey (negro), friend of Indians, 268. 
 
 Pontiac. uprising of, 73, 141, 172. 
 
 Poole, William F., on Clark's campaign, 
 254. 
 
 Port Washington, O., 301, 314. 
 
 Portsmouth, O., old Shawnee town at, 92. 
 
 Post, Charles F., Moravian missionary, 
 301. 
 
 Potomac river, 55; fur trade on, 77; Sey- 
 bert massacre, 87-89. 
 
 Pottawattomie Indians, early strength 
 of, 46; during Revolution, 347. 
 
 Powell, Richard, sons captured by Indi- 
 ans, 280, 281. 
 
 Powell's valley, 60; Walden in, 60; at- 
 tack on Boones, 144, 145; Henderson's 
 grant, 193. 
 
 Power, Major, shot at, 366. 
 
 Powers, John, early settler, 126. 
 
 Powers, William, 122. 
 
 Presbyterians, 50, 54, 57, 168. 
 
 Presque Isle, 65. 
 
 Preston county, W. Va., 280; census (1830), 
 56, 63. 
 
 Preston, James Patton, governor of Vir- 
 ginia, 51. 
 
 Preston, John, marries Elizabeth Pat- 
 ton, 51. 
 
 Preston, William, militia officer, 51; set- 
 tles on Holston, 59; in Sandy-creek 
 voyage, 81, 83; surveyor, 145, 146; in 
 Dunmore's war, 152, 165; Journal, 82; 
 Register of Indian Depredations, 57, 75, 
 87. 90. 
 
 Price, Maj., on Wayne's campaign, 425. 
 
 Price's settlement, Ky., 200. 
 
 Pricket, , killed by Indians, 245. 
 
 Pricket, Josiah, killed by Indians, 161. 
 
 Pricket's creek, 151. 
 
 Prince William county, Va., 71. 
 
 Pringle, Charity, 119. 
 
 Pringle, John and Samuel, adventures 
 of, 117-122. 
 
 Prior, John, killed by Indians, 292. 
 
 Pritehet, John, killed by Indians, 243. 
 
 Province, John, early settler, 123. 
 
 Province, Mrs., buries Bald Eagle, 136. 
 
 Pryor. John, scouting adventure, 242, 243. 
 
 Purgatory creek, 89, 91. 
 
 Purgatory mountain, 89. 
 
 Putnam, Rufus, heads Marietta colo- 
 nists, 389, 390; peace commissioner, 412. 
 
 QUAKERS, 124, 240. 
 
 Quebec, founded by Champlain, 4, 5. 
 
 RACCOON creek, 299. 
 
 Radcliff Daniel, killed by Indians, 367. 
 
 Kadcliff. John, early settler, 121, 122. 
 
 Radcliff, Stephen, attacked by Indians, 
 311. 
 
 Radcliff, William, early settler, 121, 122. 
 
 Ralston, James, killed by Indians, 287. 
 
 Ranck, Geo. W., 274. 
 
 Randolph, Beverly, peace commissioner, 
 412. 
 
 Randolph countv, W. Va., census (1830), 
 56,63; settled, 74. 
 
 Ray, James, adventures with Indians, 
 201. 
 
 Ray, William, killed by Indians, 201. 
 
 Read, John, finds Davisson, 283. 
 
 Red Hawk, Shawnee warrior, 209. 
 
 Red river, De Soto on, 8. 
 
 Redhawk, Delaware chief, 172. 
 
 Redstone (Brownsville, Pa.), first set- 
 tled. 77-80, 123, 216: De Villiers at, 74; 
 Decker massacre, 77, 78; in Dunmore's 
 war, 134, 141, 150; tory trials, 231, 232: 
 militia from, 271; emigrants from, 390, 
 392; road to Marietta, 399. 
 
 Reece, , attacked by Indians, 239. 
 
 Reece. Miss, wounded by Indian, 239. 
 
 Renick family, attacked by Indians, 89- 
 91. 
 
 Reynolds, , at seige of Bryant's sta- 
 tion, 350, 351, 353, 354. 
 
 Rice, Daniel, attacked by Indians, 361. 
 
 Rich mountain, 126. 
 
 Richards, Arnold and Paul, killed by 
 Indians, 345. 
 
 Richards, Conrad, attacked by Indians, 
 251, 252. 
 
 Richmond, Va., 62. 
 
 Riffle, , early settler, 126. 
 
 Roanoke county, Va., 61; Sailing in, 49. 
 
 Roanoke river, 70; explored, 48; in New- 
 river foray, 96, 99; settlements raided 
 by Shawnees, 61, 81, 82. 
 
 Robertson, Dr., on origin of Indians, 25. 
 
 Robertson family, killed by Indians, 158. 
 
 Robertson, James, at Watauga treaty, 
 192. 
 
 Robinson, , explorer, 124; killed by 
 
 Indians, 161. 
 
 Robinson, Mrs. Edward, discovers Hull's 
 body, 383. 
 
 Robinson, Mnj., searches for Mrs. Cun- 
 ningham, 370. 
 
 Robinson, William, captured by Indians, 
 156-158. 
 
 RockbrMge county, Va., Sailing in, 48; 
 district of Augusta, 49; first settled, 5o; 
 census (1830), 56; militia of, 66, 174, 211, 
 212; massacre in, 172. 
 
 Rockcastle river, Boone on, 143, 192. 
 
 Rockford, Pa., 210. 
 
 Rockingham county, Va., census (1830), 
 56,66. 
 
 Rogers, John, on Clark's campaign, 258, 
 259. 
 
 Rogers, Joseph, killed by Indians, 308. 
 
 Roney, Alexander, killed by Indians, 
 311,'312. 
 
 Roney, Mrs. Alexander, captured by In- 
 dians, 311, 312. 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, Winning of the 
 West, 80, 130, 183, 184, 193, 261. 386. 
 
 Rooting creek, 217. 
 
 Ross, Tavenor, renegade, 168. 
 
 Rowell, Daniel, adventure with Indians, 
 411. 
 
 Royall, Ann, Sketches, 57, 95. 
 
 Ruddell, Isaac, arrival in Kentucky, 207; 
 defeated by Bird, 295-297, 350. 
 
 Rule, Henry, early settler, 122. 
 
 Runner, Elijah, murders Bald Eagle, 
 135. 
 
 Runyan, John, daughter killed by Indi- 
 ans, 419. 
 
 Rush run, foray on, 380, 381.
 
 444 
 
 Index. 
 
 Russell county, Va., census (1830), 66. 
 Russell, William, treaty commissioner, 
 
 66; in Dunmore's war, 152, 167, 170, 
 
 176. 
 
 Ryan, John, kills Indians, 135. 
 Ryswick, treaty of, 195. 
 
 ST. ASAPH'S. Sec Logan's station. 
 
 St. Olair, Arthur, arrives at Ft. Washing- 
 ton, 391, 392; names Cincinnati, 391, 
 392; reports on Httrmar's campaign, 
 395; campaign against Miamis, 400-405, 
 407, 408, 413; resigns command, 412. 
 
 St. ClairsvUle, O., 338. 
 
 St. Joseph river, in Harmar's campaign, 
 393, 395. 
 
 St. Lawrence river, Champlain on, 5. 
 
 St. Louis, attacked by English, 254. 
 
 St. Mary's river, in Harmar's campaign, 
 393 
 
 Salem, Va., Sailing at, 49; in Sandy- 
 creek voyage, 82. 
 
 Salem, Moravian village, 301, 302, 314, 
 319, 322, 325, 327. 
 
 Salisbury, N. C., 191. 
 
 Sailing, Henry, brother of John Peter, 
 48. 
 
 Sailing, John Peter, explorations of, 47- 
 49: settles Augusta, 66. 
 
 Salt creek, 175. 
 
 Salt licks, in Kentucky, 48, 1%, 199, 265, 
 266; in West Virginia, 265, 361; in Ohio, 
 267. 
 
 Salt river, foray on, 405. 
 
 Saluda Old Town, S. 0., 59. 
 
 Sam (negro), at seige of Wheeling. 356, 
 357. 
 
 Sandusky, early Indians at 46; in Dun- 
 more's war, 187; Mclntosh's expedi- 
 tion against, 252; Moravians at, 316, 
 317, 320, 327; Crawford's campaign, 327- 
 339; Irvine's expedition, 355; Cozad 
 at, 420. 
 
 "Sandy-creek voyage," against Shaw- 
 nees, 81-86. 
 
 Sandy island, Iroquois defeat Shawnees 
 at, 194, 195. 
 
 Sandy river, foray on, 373. 
 
 Sapoonie Indians, strength of, 46. 
 
 Sappington, John, murders Indians, 
 148, 149. 
 
 Sargent, Winthrop, expedition against 
 Ft. Du Quesne, 68. 
 
 Savannah, Qa., 237. 
 
 Schoolcraft, Austin, killed by Indians, 
 290. 
 
 Schoolcraft, Henry A., Indian Tribes, 40. 
 
 Schoolcraft, John, family massacred, 
 284. 
 
 Schoolcraft, Leonard, captured by Indi- 
 ans, 282; turns renegade, 377-379. 
 
 Schoolcraft, M att h ias, killed by Indians, 
 310. 
 
 Schoolcraft, Michael, captured by Indi- 
 ans, 310. 
 
 Schoolcraft, Simon, attacked by Indians, 
 288, 289; captured by Indians, 310. 
 
 Schbnbrunn, Moravian village, 314, 319, 
 328, 329. 
 
 Scioto Company, settles Gallipolis, 60. 
 
 Scioto river, Shawnees on, 46; in Sandy- 
 creek voyage, 82, 84; Renick captiv- 
 ity, 91; Hannah Dennis on, 92; in Ppn- 
 tiac's war, 172; Clendenning captivity, 
 173; in Dunmore's war, 170, 175, 180, 
 182, 183, 185; during Revolution. 329; 
 military land-claims on, 366; Moore 
 captivity, 374; in Harmar's campaign, 
 393. 
 
 Scoppathus, Mingo chief, 172. 
 
 Scotch and Scotch-Irish, on the border, 
 49,54, 101,104,168; in Georgia, 237; in 
 
 Pensylvania, 143; in Virginia, 191, 334; 
 in West Virginia, 373. 
 
 Scott, Andrew, at seige of Wheeling, 
 356. 
 
 Scott, Capt., killed by Indians. 395. 
 
 Scott. Charles, campaign against Miami 
 and Wabash Indians, 406-408; in 
 Wayne's campaign, 426. 
 
 Scott county, Va., census (1830), 56. 
 
 Scott, David, daughters killed by Indi- 
 ans, 283. 
 
 Scott, Jacob, murders Bald Eagle, 135. 
 
 Scott, Molly, at seige of Wheeling, 356. 
 
 Seekonk. Mingo village, 185. 
 
 Seneca Indians, 194; at Easton treaty, 
 58; robFindlay,143. See Mingo Indians. 
 
 Senseman, Gottlob, Moravian mission- 
 ary, 314. 317. 
 
 Severns, Ebenezer, on Bullitt's survey, 
 146. 
 
 Sevier, John, at Watauga treaty, 192. 
 
 Sewell, Stephen, settles on Greeubrier, 
 57. 
 
 Seybert, Capt., defeated by Indians, 
 87-S9. 
 
 Shabosh, killed by whites, 322, 326. 
 
 Shakers, 106. 
 
 Shamokin, Cayuga village, 155. 
 
 Shane manuscripts, 221. 
 
 Shawnee Indians, on Upper Ohio, 45; in 
 Ohio, 46; attack Roanoke, 61, 81; 
 Sandy-creek voyage, 82-86; Seybert 
 massacre, 87-89; foray on James. S9- 
 91; villages on Scioto, 92; Stroud mas- 
 sacre, 136, 137; Findlay among, 143; 
 attack Boones, 145; in Dunmore's war. 
 134,142,166,167, 172, 175-186, 253: mur- 
 der of Cornstalk, 209-214; Clendenning 
 captivity, 173; Bouquet's expedition, 
 173; in Kentucky, 194, 195, 201; raided 
 by Clark, 123, 254; during Revolution, 
 219, 236, 265-268, 271, 273, 333, 334, 336, 
 347, 354, 355, 374; raided hy Logan, 386- 
 388; at Ft. Finney treaty ,388; raided by 
 Wayne, 428. 
 
 Shawnee springs, 201. 
 
 Shelby, Evans, settles on Holston, 59; in 
 Dunmore's war, 167, 168, 174. 
 
 Shelby, Isaac, in Dunmore's war, 169, 
 170, 174; at Watauga treaty, 192. 
 
 Shenandoah countv, Va., census (1830), 
 56; militia of, 164." 
 
 Shenandoah valley, 66; explored, 47; 
 early settlers in, 46, 50, 190; Borden 
 grant, 50-53; Fairfax survey, 334; fur 
 trade in, 76, 120; Mrs. Cunui'ngham in. 
 373. 
 
 Shepherd, David, early settler, 125: mi- 
 litia officer, 221, 226, 228, 230; in Brod- 
 head's expedition, 300, 301; at seige of 
 Wheeling, 359; manuscripts of, 221. 
 
 Shepherd, Moses, 124. 
 
 Shesheequon, Pa., Moravian village, 
 319. 
 
 Shikellemus, Cayuga chief, 155. 
 
 Shingiss, Delaware chief, 45, 190, 194, 
 237. 
 
 Shinn, Benjamin, attacked by Indian?. 
 247. 
 
 Shinnston, W. Va., 343. 
 
 Shiver, John, captured by Indians, 2fc2. 
 283. 
 
 Shores, Thomas, captured by Indians, 
 201. 
 
 Short creek, settled on, 125. 
 
 Silver creek, 196. 
 
 Simcoe, John G., governor of Canada, 
 412. 
 
 Simpson's creek, 156, 247, 343; settled on. 
 118, 126; foray on, 366. 
 
 Simpson, John, adventures of, 118, 119. 
 
 Sims, Bernard, killed by Indians, 291.
 
 Index. 
 
 445 
 
 Sims. John, attacked by Indians, 291, 
 3*3. 
 
 Six Nations. See Iroquois. 
 
 Skegg's creek, foray on, 385. 
 
 Skidmore, John, in Dunmore's war, 170. 
 
 Skillern, George, in Hand's expedition, 
 210, 211. 
 
 Slaughter, Col., in Dunmore's war, 167, 
 175; commandant at Louisville, 294; in 
 Piqua campaign, 305, 307; at Moravian 
 massacre, 321. 
 
 Slavery, first importation of negroes, 
 9,10. 
 
 Sleeth, Alexander and Thomas, early 
 settlers, 121. 
 
 Slover, John, captured by Indians, 335- 
 338; Narrative, 335. 
 
 Small pox, feared by Indians, 291. 
 
 Smally, James, killed by Indians, 282. 
 
 Smith", , of St. Asaph's, 205. 
 
 Smith, Ballard, 94. 
 
 Smith, Benjamin, killed by Indians, 91. 
 
 Smith, James, imprisoned by French, 67; 
 captured by Indians, 79: chief of 
 "Black- boys'," 105, 106,109-115; explores 
 Kentucky, 115. 
 
 Smith, John, attempts western explora- 
 tion, 64. 
 
 Smith, John, in Sandy-creek voyage, 81; 
 militia officer, 90. 
 
 Smith, Thomas, killed by Indians, 89, 90. 
 
 Smith, Mrs. Thomas, imprisoned by In- 
 dians, 90. 
 
 Smith, William H., St. Clair Papers, 404. 
 
 Snake, John and Thomas, Wyandot 
 chiefs, 316, 317. 
 
 Snip, Wyandot chief, 316. 
 
 Snodgra'ss. Jamps, killp.fi hy Indians, 374, 
 
 "Snowy creek, massacre on, 280. 
 
 Snyder, Jacob, killed by Indians, 102. 
 
 Sodousky, James, 011 Bullitt's survey, 
 146. 
 
 South Branch (or Fork) of Potomac, 75; 
 Dunkard massacre on, 76, 77; Indians 
 defeated on, 97; Seybert massacre, 87- 
 89; emigrants from, 118-120, 122, 124-126; 
 Indians massacred on, 135. 
 
 South Carolina, 46, 59, 160. 
 
 Spanish, territorial claims of, 5; coloni- 
 zing efforts, 7; capture Sailing, 48,49; 
 in Kentucky conspiracy. 130, 254, 258; 
 attack on St. Louis, 254." 
 
 Speed, Thomas, Wilderness Road, 384. 
 
 Spottswood, Gov., crosses Blue ridge, 
 64 
 
 Springfield, W. Va.,91. 
 
 Sprout run, Borden Manor on, 51. 
 
 Squissatego, Seneca brave, 58. 
 
 Stalnaker, , settles on New, 59. 
 
 Stalnaker, Adam, attacked by Indians, 
 343. 
 
 Stalnaker, Jacob, settles on Tygart, 126; 
 attacked by Indians, 343. 
 
 Stamford, Ky., 197. 
 
 Station Camp creek, Boone on, 143. 
 
 Staunton, Va.,91; settlement near, 49, 50; 
 Spectator, 53. 
 
 Steele, John, at Point Pleasant, 174. 
 
 Stephen, Adam, in Forbes's campaign, 
 70; in Sandy-creek voyage, 81; in Dun- 
 more's war, 164. 
 
 Steeth, John, chases Indians, 246. 
 
 Stftubenville, O.,78, 320. 
 
 Stewart, John, killed by Indians, 234. 
 
 Stites, , makes Miami purchase, 390. 
 
 Stone Coal creek, origin of name, 121. 
 
 Stone, Uriah, explores Kentucky, 115. 
 
 Stoner, Michael, explores Kentucky, 
 152, 190. 
 
 Stone's river, origin of name, 115. 
 
 Stout, Benjamin, 126. 
 
 Strait, Jacob, killed by Indians, 375. 
 
 Stroud, Adam, killed by Indians, 136- 
 138. 
 
 Stuart, Betsy, marries Woods, 54. 
 
 Stuart, Charles A., 53. 
 
 Stuart, David, marries Jane Lynn, 53. 
 
 Stuart, James, killed by Indians, 280. 
 
 Stuart, John, pioneer on Greenbrier, 53, 
 54, 57-59; companion of Boone, 143, 
 144; in Dunmore's war, 159-161, 169, 170, 
 174; at murder of Cornstalk, 211, 212; 
 defends Greenbrier, 243-245; Memoir of 
 Indian Wars, 180. 
 
 Sullivan, John, campaign against New 
 York Indians, 210. 
 
 Susquehanna river, 136; Munsees on, 46; 
 forays on, 101-104. 
 
 Swan, John, early settler, 123, 125, 149; 
 militia officer, 226-228; defends Wheel- 
 ing, 360. 
 
 Swope, , trapper, 96. 
 
 Sycamore shoals, treaty at, 192. 
 
 Symmes, John Cleves, secures Miami 
 land-grant, 390-392. 
 
 TANNER, Edward, captured by Indians, 
 342. 
 
 Tate, , at Point Pleasant, 174. 
 
 Tale's creek, 196. 
 
 Tawas. See Ottawas. 
 
 Taylor, Capt., killed by Indians, 423. 
 
 Taylor, Hugh Paul, Sketches, 51, 53, 85. 
 
 Tazewell county, Va., census (1830), 55, 
 56. 
 
 Tazewell Court House, Va., raided by In- 
 dians, 373, 374. 
 
 Tecumseh, conspiracy of, 35, 36; in Wag- 
 goner massacre, 409-411. 
 
 Tegard, Abraham, early settler, 123. 
 
 Telford, Hugh, early settler, 52. 
 
 Tennessee, 75; stone graves in, 43; Sal- 
 ling in, 48, 49; early missions in, 106; 
 Boone in, 144, 145. 
 
 Tennessee river, 253; Sailing on, 48, 49; 
 Holston on, 59; explored by Smith, 115; 
 in Henderson's purchase, 193, 195. 
 
 Ten Mile creek, first settlement on, 190; 
 in Dunmore's war, 151; forays OD, 238- 
 240, 381. 
 
 Terry, Cornet, killed by Indians, 423. 
 
 Thomas, Abraham, Sketches. 180. 
 
 Thomas, John, early settler, 122, 123; 
 killed by Indians, 309, 310, 343. 
 
 Thompson, , surveys on Licking, 146. 
 
 Thompson, Jethro, house burned by In- 
 dians, 383. 
 
 Thompson, Johii, Indian go-between, 
 263. 
 
 Thompson, William, assists "Black- 
 boys," 112, 113. 
 
 Todd, John, defends Kentucky, 200 ; 
 killed at Blue Licks, 351, 353. 
 
 Todd, Levi, in Bowman's campaign, 271; 
 in Wabash campaign, 386. 
 
 Tomlinson, Benjamin, 149; founds 
 Moundsville, 230. 
 
 Tomlinson, Samuel, adventure with In- 
 dians, 222. 
 
 Tonty, Henri de, with La Salle, 6. 
 
 Trails, Warrior branch, 75, 399; Netnaco- 
 lin's path, 77; Cumberland Gap, 143, 
 152,192,384; Wilderness road, 384. 
 
 Transylvania Company, settles Ken- 
 tucky, 190-196. 
 
 Treaties, Ryswick, 195; Paris (1763), 7, 
 106,139; Lancaster, 195; Easton. 58; Ft. 
 Stanwix, 45, 70, 195: Lochaber, 195; 
 Bouquet's, 91, 108, 134, 141, 179; Camp 
 Charlotte, 145, 147, 173, 176-1S6, 195, 197; 
 Watauga, 153, 192, 195; Paris (1782), 365, 
 384; Au Glaize, 374, 376; Ft. Mclntosh. 
 97, 366, 388; Ft. Finney, 338; Greenville, 
 141, 117, 420, 430.
 
 446 
 
 Index. 
 
 Trent, William, at Redstone. 77. ' 
 
 Trigg, Col., killed at Blue Licks. 353, 
 
 Triplett, William, killed by Indians, 411, 
 412. 
 
 Trueman, Maj., killed by Indians, 412. 
 
 Tugg river, origin of name, 85. 
 
 Turkey creek, 99. 
 
 Turkey run, 119, 121. 
 
 Turtle creek, scene of Braddock's de- 
 feat, 67. 
 
 Tnscarawas river, Mclntosh's expedi- 
 tion, 256, 261; Moravian missions on, 
 _'19,301, 313-317, 320, S36. 
 
 Tuscarora Indians, legend of, 18. 
 
 Twightee Indians, strength of, 46. 
 
 Twitty, William, at Watauga treaty, 192; 
 killed by Indians, 196. 
 
 Tygart, David, settles iu Tygart's valley, 
 74, 75. 
 
 Tygart's valley, first settled, 74, 126; Prin- 
 gles in, 117-122; in Dunmore's war, 151; 
 during Revolution, 284, 286, 287, 311; 
 miscellaneous forays in, 232-235, 341, 
 343, 421, 422, 428. 
 
 Tyler county, W. Va., census (1830), 56, 63. 
 
 UNADILI.A river, Delawareson, 136. 
 Unioutown, Pa., 77. 
 
 VALLEY of Virginia, early Indians in, 
 46; Sailing's exploration, 48, 49; Mc- 
 Dowell's fight, 52; first settled, 61, 190; 
 Mrs. Cunningham in, 373. 
 
 Valley river, 63; Pringles on, 118, 119; in 
 Dunmore's war, 151; duiing Revolu- 
 tion, 287; forays on, '.'52, 311. 
 
 Van Meter, Jacob, early settler, 123. 
 
 Vause, , settles on New, 59. 
 
 Veech, James, Monongahela of Old, 79, 80. 
 
 Vernou, Maj., at Ft. Laurens, 265. 
 
 Vigo, M., assists Clark, 258. 
 
 Vincennes, Ind., in ('lark's campaign, 
 253-255, 257-261, 386; Hamtramck at. 394. 
 
 Virginia, Indian mounds, 40; early tribes, 
 44-47; Borden manor, 50-53; Loyal Co., 
 49; Fairfax grant, 50, 51; characteristics 
 of early settlers, 54; Sailing's opera- 
 tions, 47-49; early explorations, 64; 
 Ohio Co., 64, 65; Braddock's campaign, 
 65-69: Forbes's campaign, 69-73; boun- 
 dary dispute with Pennsylvania, 74, 
 142; Pontiac's war, 97; New-river foray, 
 96-99; militia of, 100, 101; border settle- 
 ments, 125; military land warrants, 
 145; Wapatomica campaign, 153-155: 
 Dunmore's attitude toward, 179; relin- 
 quishes western land claim, 130, 389; 
 Dinwiddie Papers, 86; Calendar of State 
 Papers, 86. 
 
 WABASH Indians, raided by Hamtramck, 
 
 394; by Scott, 407, 408; agree to peace, 
 
 412. 
 Wabash river, in Clark's campaigns, 257- 
 
 259, 385, 386; arrival of peace news, 3fi5. 
 Wachatomakah, Indian village, 336. 
 Waggoner, John, family massacred by 
 
 Indians, 408-411. 
 Waggoner, Peter, captured by Indians, 
 
 409-411. 
 
 Walden's creek, origin of name, 60. 
 Walden, Elisha, killed by Indians, 59, 60. 
 Walholling river, 314, 317. 
 Walker, Felix, at Watauga treaty, 192 ; 
 
 wounded by Indians. 196. 
 Walker, Thomas, explores Kentucky, 
 
 81; Journal, 59. 
 Walker, William, educated Wyandot, 
 
 96,97. 
 
 Wallace, , killed by Indians, 319. 
 
 Walpole, , interest in Pittsylvania, 
 
 145. 
 
 Wapatomica, McDonald's expedition 
 against, 138, 153-155; Indian council at, 
 347. 
 
 Ward, Mrs., escapes from Indians, 422. 
 
 Warrior Branch, Indian trail, 75. 
 
 Wars, French and Indian, 65-74, 77-80, 
 100-106. 143, 190, 334, 387; McDowell's 
 fight, 66; Sandy-creek voyage, 81-86; 
 Bouquet's campaign, 106-109; Brad- 
 dock's campaign, 143. 145, 147, 169; 
 Forbes's campaign, 145, 150, 190; Pon- 
 tiac's war, 73, 97, 141, 172; Dunmore s 
 war, 66, 78, 127, 134-190. 209, 253, 334; 
 Revolution, 66, 78, 86, 124, 145, 146, 177, 
 178, 182, 187-365, 382, 387; Hand's cam- 
 paign. 209-211; Harmar's, :4, 393-395, 
 400, 408; St. Clair's, 400-405, 407, 408, 
 413; Wayne's, 412-428. 
 
 Warwick, , early settler, 126. 
 
 Warwick, Jacob, littHcked by Indians, 
 286, 287. 
 
 Warwick, William, attacked by Indians, 
 287. 
 
 Washburn, Benjamin, attacked by Indi- 
 ans, 247. 
 
 Washburn, Charles, killed by Indians, 
 345. 
 
 Washburn, Isaac, killed by Indians, 
 241. 
 
 Washburn, James, tortured by Indians, 
 250, 251. 
 
 Washburn, Stephen, killed by Indians, 
 250. 
 
 Washington county, Ky., 106, 190. 
 
 Washington county. Pa., settled, 125; 
 militia of, 320, 327, 328. 
 
 Washington county, Va., census (1830), 
 56; militia of, 165, 174, 268; threatened 
 by Bird, 299. 
 
 Washington, George, in French and 
 Indian war, 45. 65, 67, 69, 71, 74, 77, 100, 
 101, 145, 334; friendship for Andrew 
 Lewis, 70; advises Sandy-creek voy- 
 age, 81; on Seybert massacre, 87; in 
 Revolutionary war, 106; friend of Ru- 
 fus Putman, 389; Tour to the Ohio, 73. 
 
 Watauga river, treaty with Indians on, 
 153, 192. 
 
 WaterfoH, O., founded, 393. 
 
 Wayne, Anthony, general of army, 412; 
 campaign against Western Indians, 
 147, 412-428. 
 
 Webb, Jonas, early settler, 126. 
 
 Wells, Bazaleel, at Point Pleasant. 174. 
 
 Wells, Maj., on Shawnee campaign, 355. 
 
 Wellsburg, W. Va., 380. 
 
 Welsh, on the border, 49. 
 
 West, Alexander, 378; chases Indians, 
 246, 311; adventure with Indians, 287- 
 290; on Lowther's expedition, 376, 377; 
 sketch, 288. 
 
 West Augusta, district of, 63; first justice 
 of peace, 127. 
 
 West, Charles, chases Indians, 246. 
 
 West, Edmund, Sr., attacked by Indians, 
 288; killed by Indians, 377-379. 
 
 West, Edmund, Jr., family attacked by 
 Indians, 378, 379. 
 
 West Fork river, origin of name, 122; 
 first settlements on, 126, 127; in Dun- 
 more'swar, 151, 156; during Revolution, 
 240,311,312, 343; miscellaneous forays 
 on, 217, 218, 250, 251, 366, 367, 376, 400, 
 410, 411, 414, 419, 422, 428. 
 
 West Newton, Pa., departure of Marietta 
 pilgrims. 389. 
 
 West Virginia, character of early Indi- 
 ans in, 36; mounds in, 40; early tribes 
 in, 44-47; census (1830), 63; first settle- 
 ments in (prior to 1774), 117-133. 
 
 Westfall, , early settler. 126. 
 
 Westfall. O., 176.
 
 Index . 
 
 447 
 
 Westmoreland county, Pa., 115. 
 
 Westmoreland county, Va., militia of, 
 210, 327, 3'^8; forays in, 301. 
 
 Wetzel county, W. Va., 279. 
 
 Wetzel, George, Indian fighter, 161. 
 
 Wetzel, Jacob, adventure with Indiani, 
 161-163. 
 
 Wetzel, John, Indian fighter, 125, 161. 
 
 Wetzel, Lewis, Indian fighter, 125, 161- 
 163,338,339; sketch, 161. 
 
 Wetzel, Martin, Indian fighter, 161. 
 
 Wheat, Betsy, at seige of Wheeling, 225. 
 
 Wheeling. W. Va., 40; founded, 124, 125; 
 in Dunmore's war, 134, 146, 148, 149, 152- 
 154, 163, 165, 179; first seige of, 219-228, 
 235; second seige, 224, 356-360; Fore- 
 man's defeat, 228-230; during Revolu- 
 tion. 237, 299, 301, 319, 336, 338, 362; Mc- 
 Kee's foray, 316. 317. 
 
 Wheeling creek, in Dunmore's war, 151, 
 161. 
 
 White Ityes, Delaware chief, 150, 175, 176, 
 179, 180, 182, 183, 221, 302. 
 
 White, John, killed by Indians, 284. 
 
 White, William, murders Indiana, 186, 
 137; captured by Indians, 232, 233; 
 killed by Indians, 340. 
 
 Whiteman, , early settler, 126. 
 
 Whitley, Paul, early settler, 52; with 
 Braddock, 66. 
 
 Whitley, William, arrival in Kentucky, 
 197; scout, 271; attacks Indians, 385, 
 386; Narrative, 203, 205. 
 
 Whitley, Mrs. William, adventure with 
 Indians, 203. 
 
 Whittlesey, Charles, Fugitive Essays, 183. 
 
 Wilkinson, James, attacks Miamis, 407; 
 builds Ft. Recovery, 419. 
 
 Williams and Mary college, 145. 
 
 Williams, Isaac, explorer, 124. 
 
 Williams, John, of Transylvania Co., 191. 
 
 Williamsburg, Va., 47, 86, 87 159, 178; 
 Sailing at, 49; John Lewis at, 50; in 
 Dunmore's war, 151, 154. 
 
 Williamson, David, expedition against 
 Moravians, 314-318, 320-327: in Craw- 
 ford's campaign, 327, 328. 331. 
 
 Williamson, Lieut., at Ft. Pitt, 78. 
 
 Williamson, Peter, captured by Indians, 
 101-104. 
 
 Will's creek, Ohio Co.'s post at, 67, 74, 77. 
 
 Wilson, , killed at Point Pleasant, 
 
 171. 
 
 Wilson, Benjamin, 184, 186, 234, 235, 247. 
 284, 311. 
 
 Winchester, Va., 56, 68, 71, 81, 121; fur 
 trade at, 47, 48; threatened by Indians, 
 
 101; trial of White, 136; during Revo- 
 lution, 252, 
 
 Wingenund, Delaware chief, 333. 
 
 Winston's Meadows, 99. 
 
 Wisconsin, Indian mounds in. 42. 
 
 Wisconsin Historical Society, manu- 
 scripts in library of, 49, 75, 81, 87, 170, 
 193, 203, 205, 221, 259, 260; Collections, 58. 
 
 Wisconsin river, explored by French, 6. 
 
 Wolf creek, 82, 392, 393, 396. 
 
 Wood, Abraham, discovers Great Kana- 
 wha, 64. 
 
 Wood county, W. Va., census (1830), 56, 
 63; first sheriff of, 127. 
 
 Wood, Nicholas, killed by Indians, 375. 
 
 Woodfin, John, killed by Indians, 249. 
 
 Woodford, Col., 72. 
 
 Woods, Richard, 54. 
 
 Woodson, Obadiah, in Sandy-creek voy- 
 age, 81. 
 
 Wright, , killed by Indians, 344. 
 
 Wyalusing, Pa., Moravian village, 319. 
 
 Wyandot Indians, early strength of, 46; 
 in Kansas, 96, 97; in Dunmore's war, 
 172: at Foreman's defeat, 230; during 
 Revolution, 219, 262, 316. 317, 320, 327, 
 332, 347, 362-364; at Ft. Mclntosh treaty, 
 366, 388. 
 
 Wyllys, Maj., killed by Indians, 893, 394. 
 
 Wythe county, Va., census (1830), 55, 56. 
 
 YADKIN river, Boone on, 143, 144, 205. 
 
 Yellow creek, Logan massacre at, loi, 
 138, 148-150, 184. 
 
 Youghiogheny river, crossed by Brad- 
 dock, 67: early settlements on, 74, 77, 
 113, 114, 118, 334; Marietta pilgrims on, 
 389. 
 
 ZANE, Andrew, adventure with Indians, 
 222. 
 
 Zane, Ebenezer, 148; settles Wheeling, 
 124, 125; defends Wheeling, 225, 228, 
 230, 356-360; in Brodhead's expedition, 
 3uO. 
 
 Zane, Elizabeth, at seige of Wheeling, 
 359. 
 
 Zane, Isaac, captured by Indians, 124; 
 daughter wounded, 418. 
 
 Zane, Jonathan, settles at Wheeling, 124; 
 in Dunmore's war, 153. 
 
 Zane, Noah, 125, 225. 
 
 Zane, Silas, settles at Wheeling, 124; de- 
 fends Wheeling, 356, 357. 
 
 Zanesville, O., 153. 
 
 Zeisberger, David, Moravian missionary, 
 301, 314, 315, 317.
 
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