Chapter I (8)

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 ignorance of his [155] force or movements, to consult and determine on what would be the course for them to pursue under existing circumstances. Cornstalk was admitted to the council; and in the course of some remarks, with which he addressed it, said, "When I was young and went to war, I often thought, each might be my last adventure, 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 delight to the eloquence of his address, and deriving knowledge from his instruction, think to see him so quickly and inhumanly, driven from the theatre of life. It was a fearful deed; and dearly was it expiated by others. The Shawanees were a warlike people, and became henceforward 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.[20]

-----
[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 important work
to all students of the annals of the West during the
Revolutionary War.--R. G. T.

[2] James Harrod'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 Bedford 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 settlement, 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 William on Forbes's
campaign, and very likely saw further service during that war.
In 1772, when he had attained wide celebrity on the border 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 Harrodsburg 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 Bowman's campaign, and the year following was a
captain on Clark's Indian campaign; declining a majorship, 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 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.

[3] The company--successively called The Louisa Company,
Henderson & 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 Hanover 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 education 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. 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
council opened (March 14, 1775) had twelve hundred assembled at
the Sycamore 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 Kentucky (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 Kentucky. 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 warrior,
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 Robertson, 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 under 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 fight with the Indians, they
arrived April 1, and founded 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 Boonesborough 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
Station), 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 interesting 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_, i., 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
government in Kentucky, and annulled the title of the Henderson
company--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.

[4] Among Dr. Draper's manuscripts I find this succinct
review of the 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. Colden, 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 Adirondacks, 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 confederates had recourse to the exercise of
arms, in order, if possible, to retrieve 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 Colden, '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 tributaries 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 Chaoüanons; they
seem to have been the same as were called Tongorias, Erighecks,
Erieehonons, Eries, or Cats, 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 met with a disastrous
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
Carolinas, and to the coast of Florida, and ever after proved a
migratory people. They were evidently 'subdued,' as Colden,
Evans, and Pownall 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 decided 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 Lancaster
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 discovering 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, they said, in natural landmarks. This
considerably enlarged 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, finding
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
extinguished."--R. G. T.

[5] 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.

[6] 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.

[7] Boone set out from Boonesborough, June 13, 1775. He left
the settlement 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 people in all the Kentucky settlements--not reckoning "a
great many land-jobbers from towards Pittsburg, who go about on
the north side of Kentucky, in companies, and build forty or
fifty cabins a piece on lands where no surveying has yet been
done." Among the best of the numerous arrivals, were George
Rogers Clark, Simon Kenton, Benjamin Logan, and Whitley, who
came to be very prominent characters in Kentucky 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 of Kentucky river." Mrs. McGary, Mrs. Hogan, and Mrs.
Denton 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 permanent air, and thenceforward there was
better order.--R. G. T.

[8] 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 Harrodsburg 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.

[9] 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 morning, the 7th.
Other brief attacks on Harrodsburg, were on March 18 and
28.--R. G. T.

[10] 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.

[11] 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.

[12] It occurred throughout Friday, May 30. The Indians are
reported to have numbered fifty-seven.--R. G. T.

[13] 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; Kennedy, 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 possession 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 successfully into the fort. These accounts make no
mention of Martin's intervention. Harrison died of his wounds,
June 13.--R. G. T.

[14] 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
community. 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 expanded 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.

[15] This was the name given to the station of Logan.

[16] 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.

[17] Bowman arrived at Boonesborough the first of August,
with two companies from Virginia, under Capts. Henry Pauling
and John Dunkin--the latter being soon succeeded by Isaac
Ruddell. The force numbered 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.

[18] See pp. 79, 80, _note_, for origin of the term "Long
Knives."--R. G. T.

[19] Edward Hand was born in Ireland. He came to America in
1774 as a surgeon's mate in the Eighth (Royal Irish) Regiment,
and soon settled 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. Finally, 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
officer, 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 McIntosh,
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 1784-85, 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.

[20] See p. 172, _note_ 2, for sketch of life and death of
Cornstalk.--R. G. T.

[156] CHAPTER IX.

While Cornstalk was detained at Point Pleasant, as surety for the peace and neutrality of the Shawanees, Indians, of the tribes already attached to the side of Great Britain, were invading the more defenceless and unprotected 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 afford 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 horrible hell-hounds of war against their countrymen in America, endeared to them by every tie which should sanctify human nature," was a most lamentable circumstance--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.

There is in the Indian bosom an hereditary sense of injury, which naturally enough prompts to deeds of revengeful cruelty towards the whites, without the aid of adventitious 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 entailed 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 detachments 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 themselves 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 incursion. General Hand too, then stationed at Fort Pitt, sent an express to the different settlements, recommending that they should be immediately abandoned, and the individuals composing them, should forthwith seek shelter in some contiguous fortress, or retire east of the [158] mountain. All were apprized of the impending danger, and that it was impracticable in the pressing condition of affairs, 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, sensible of dependence on their individual resources, commenced 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 effected,--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.

Following in the trail of the fugitive, when they had arrived 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 incumbrances to their flight and left them to accidental discovery, or to become food for the beasts of the forest.

[159] Stimulated to more ardent exertions by the distressing 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 become 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, awaiting 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 performing this business, Thomas Cunningham and Enoch James passing along, and seeing her, entered into conversation with her, and after a while proceeded on their road. But before they had gone far, alarmed by the report of a gun, they looked back and saw an Indian run 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 appeared 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 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 involve himself in some danger, he shot her as she ran; and going up to her he tomahawked and scalped her. In endeavoring 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 forsake 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,[2] 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; 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 defended solely by the heroism and bravery of those, who might seek shelter within its walls.[3] 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 consideration. A little village, of twenty-five or thirty houses, had sprung up, where but a few years before, the foot of civilized 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, prosperous 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 time of war was ever impending over them; but relying on the vigilance of their scouts, to ascertain and apprize them of its approach, and on the proximity 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 endeavoring to ascertain the approach of danger,[4] 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 warriors,[5] 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 cornfield 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 observation, six Indians were stationed, for the purpose of decoying 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 danger.[6]--Perceiving the six savages near them, they endeavored 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 occupied 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 proceeded 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 impossibility of maintaining a conflict with them, he endeavored 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.[7] 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 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 lifeless 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 discharge 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 escaped 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.[8]

While these things were doing, the inhabitants of the village were busily employed in removing to the fort and preparing for its 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.[9] But before the assault 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.[10]

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 army 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 standard, 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 his men. He then read to them, Gov. Hamilton's proclamation; and told them, he could allow only fifteen minutes 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 consulted their wives and children, and that all were resolved to perish, sooner than place themselves under the protection of a savage army with him at its head, or abjure the cause of liberty and of the colonies." Girty then represented to them the great force of the Indians,--the impossibility that the fort could withstand the assault,--the certainty 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 withdraw 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 hundred 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 faithfully were they discharged. The more expert of the women, took stations by the side of the men; and handling their guns with soldier like readiness, aided in the repulse, with fearless intrepidity.[11] Some were engaged in moulding bullets; others in loading and supplying the [164] men with guns already charged; while the less robust 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 retreat might be cut off, by reinforcements from the surrounding country, the assailants fired all the houses without the walls; killed all the stock, which could be found; 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 commencing 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 savage 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, Bolling'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, occasionally, 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 Holliday's fort with the intelligence, and the apprehension that if speedy relief were not afforded, the garrison at Wheeling 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 Indian onsets. For this purpose, Col. Swearingen left Holliday's with fourteen men, who nobly volunteered to accompany 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 industriously, 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 Wheeling, and at the appearance of day be obliged to contend with the force of the stream, to regain that point. Floating slowly, they at length descried the light which proceeded from the burning of the houses at Wheeling, and with all their exertion could not then attain their destination 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 reconnoiter 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 preconcerted 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 apprehension, 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 ambush. 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 vigilant men, should go out openly from the fort, and carelessly, 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 return, 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 barbarously 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 off by the enemy, were but heaps of ashes. It was long indeed, before the [166] inhabitants of that neighborhood regained the comforts, of which that night's desolation had deprived them.