The following transcription was submitted by Gaylene Kerr Banister of Houtson, TX for inclusion at the Genealogy in Washington Co., PA web site in May 1999.
Bibliographic
Information:
History of
Washington County, Pennsylvania With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its
Pioneers and Prominent Men, Boyd Crumrine, L. H. Everts & Co. (Philadelphia,
1882), Chapter VI., pp. 66–74.
Dunmore's War
In the year 1774 occurred a series of
Indian incursions and butcheries (chiefly by the Shawanese) in the white
settlements of the western frontier, and a retaliatory and entirely successful
campaign carried on against the savages by white troops under command of Lord
Dunmore, then Governor of Virginia, and his lieutenants, which operations,
extending through the summer and part of the autumn of the year named, have
usually been known as "Dunmore's war." In that conflict the
territory which is now Washington County saw but little of actual bloodshed and
Indian atrocity, yet in the universal terror and consternation caused by the
savage inroads and massacres, most of which occurred farther to the west and
south, this region came near being as completely depopulated as all the
territory west of the Laurel Hill range had been twenty years before by the
panic which succeeded the French victory over Washington at Fort Necessity.
Dunmore's war was the result[1] of several collisions which took place
in the spring of 1774, on the Ohio River above the mouth of the Little Kanawha,
between Indians and parties of white men, some of whom had rendezvoused in that
region for the purpose of making explorations in the country farther to the
northwest, and others who had gone there to clear lands and make preparations
for settlement. Of the latter class was Capt. Michael Cresap, who was the owner
of a store or trading-post at Redstone Old Fort (now Brownsville), on the
Monongahela, which was his base of operations, but who had taken up (under
authority of the colonial government of Virginia) extensive tracts of land at
and below the mouth of Middle Island Creek (now Sistersville, W. Va.), and had
gone there in the early spring of the year named with a party of men to make
clearings and build houses upon his lands there. Ebenezer Zane, afterwards a
famed Indian-fighter and guide, was engaged at the same time and in the same
way with a small arty of men on lands which he had taken up at or near the
mouth of Sandy Creek. Another and larger party had gathered at the mouth of the
Little Kanawha (the present site of Parkersburg, W. Va.), and were waiting
there for the arrival of other Virginians who were expected to join them at
that point, from whence they were to proceed down the river to the then
scarcely known region of Kentucky, there to explore with a view to the planting
of settlements. A leading spirit in this party (though not, strictly speaking,
the leader of it) was George Rogers Clarke, who a few years later became widely
famed as the general who led a body of Virginia troops on an expedition (which
proved entirely successful) against Vincennes and other British posts in and
west of the valley of the Wabash. Many years afterwards Gen. Clarke wrote an
account (dated June 17, 1798) of the circumstances attending the commencement
of hostilities in the spring of 1774, and of the movements of his party of
Virginians and the other parties with Cresap and Zane along the Ohio at that
time. His account, which was written at Louisville, Ky., is as follows:
"This Country [Kentucky] was
explored in 1773. A resolution was formed to make a settlement in the spring
following, and the mouth of the Little Kanawha appointed the place of general
rendezvous, in order to descend the Ohio from thence in a body. Early in the
spring the Indians had done some mischief. Reports from their towns were
alarming, which deterred many. About eighty or ninety men only arrived at the
appointed rendezvous, where we lay some days. A small party of hunters that lay
about ten miles below us were fired upon by the Indians, whom the hunters beat
back and returned to camp. this and many other circumstances led us to believe
that the Indians were determined on war. The whole party was enrolled, and
determined to execute their project of forming a settlement in Kentucky, as we
had every necessary store that could be thought of. An Indian town called the
Horsehead Bottom, on the Scioto, and near its mouth, lay nearly in our way. The
determination was to cross the country and surprise it. Who was to command was
the question. There were but few among us who had experience in Indian
warfare, and they were such as we did not choose to be commanded by. We knew of
Capt. Cresap being on the river, about fifteen miles above us, with some hands
settling a plantation, and that he had concluded to follow us to Kentucky as
soon as he had fixed there his people. We also knew that he had been
experienced in a former war. He was proposed, and it was unanimously agreed to
send for him to command the party. Messengers were dispatched, and in half an
hour returned with Cresap. He had heard of our resolution by some of his
hunters that had fallen in with ours, and had set out to come to us.
"We thought our army, as we called,
complete, and the destruction of the Indians sure. A council was called, and to
our astonishment our intended commander-in-chief was the person that dissuaded
us from the enterprise. He said that appearances were very suspicious, but
there was not certainty of a war; that if we made the attempt proposed he had
doubt of our success, but a war would at any rate be the result, and that we
should be blamed for it, and perhaps justly. But if we wee determined to
proceed he would lay aside all considerations, send to him camp for his people,
and share our fortunes. He was then asked what he would advise. His answer was
that we should return to Wheeling as a convenient spot to hear what was going
forward; that a few weeks would determine. As it was early in the spring, if we
found the Indians were not disposed for war, we should have full time to return
and make our establishment in Kentucky. This was adopted, and in two hours the
whole were under way¼
"On our arrival at Wheeling (the
whole country being pretty well settled thereabouts) the whole of the
inhabitants appeared to be alarmed. They flocked to our camp from every
direction, and all we could say we could not keep them from under our wings. We
offered to cover their neighborhood with scouts until further information if
they would return to their plantations, but nothing would prevail. By this time
we had got to be a formidable party. All the hunters, men without families,
etc., in that quarter had joined our party. Our arrival at Wheeling was soon
known at Pittsburgh. The whole of that country at that time being under the
jurisdiction of Virginia,[2] Dr. Connolly[3] had been appointed by Dunmore
captain-commandant of the district, which was called West Augusta.[4] He, learning of us, sent a message
addressed to the party, letting us know that a war was to be apprehended, and
requesting that we would keep our position for a few days, as messages had been
sent to the Indians, and a few days would determine the doubt. The answer he
got was, that we had no inclination to quit our quarters for some time, that
during our stay we should be careful that the enemy did not harass the
neighborhood that we lay in. But before this answer could reach Pittsburgh he
sent a second express, addressed to Capt. Cresap, as the most influential man
amongst us, informing him that the messengers had returned from the Indians,
that war was inevitable, and begging him to use his influence with the party to
get them to cover the country by scouts until the inhabitants could fortify
themselves. The reception of this letter was the epoch of open hostilities with
the Indians. A new post was planted, a council was called, and the letter read
by Cresap, all the Indian traders being summoned on so important an occasion.
Action was had, and war declared in the most solemn manner; and the same
evening (April 26th) two scalps were brought into camp. The next day some
canoes of Indians were discovered on the river, keeping the advantage of an
island to cover themselves from our view. They were chased fifteen miles and driven
ashore at Pipe Creek. A battle ensued; a few were wounded on both sides, one
Indian only taken prisoner. On examining their canoes we found a considerable
quantity of ammunition and other warlike stores. On our return to camp a
resolution was adopted to march the next day and attack Logan's[5] camp on the Ohio, about thirty miles
above us. We did march about five miles, and then halted to take some
refreshments. Here the impropriety of executing the projected enterprise was
argued. The conversation was brought forward by Cresap himself. It was
generally agreed that those Indians had no hostile intentions, as they were
hunting, and their party was composed of men, women, and children, with all
their stuff with them. This we knew, as I myself and others present had been in
their camp about four weeks past on our descending the river from Pittsburgh.
In short, every person seemed to detest the resolution we had set out with. We
returned in the evening, decamped, and took the road to Redstone."
From this account it appears that
Clarke's party, well knowing that an Indian war must follow the events here
narrated, abandoned the original idea of proceeding to Kentucky, and marched
with Cresap's men to his headquarters at Redstone Old Fort, on the Monongahela.
They carried with them on a litter one man who had been mortally wounded in the
fight with the Indians on the 27th of April. Two others had been wounded but
not seriously. The party, in marching from Wheeling to Redstone, proceeded by
way of Catfish Camp (now Washington borough), and in the evening of the 29th
stopped there at the house of William Huston, who was then the only white
resident at that place. A certificate setting forth the circumstances of this
occurrence was made in 1798 by Huston, subscribed before David Redick, then
prothonotary of Washington County, and placed in his hands. A copy of it is
here given, viz."
"I, William Huston, of
Washington County, in the State of Pennsylvania, do hereby certify to whom it
may concern: That in the year 1774 I resided at Catfish's Camp, on the main
path from Wheeling to Redstone; that Michael Cresap, who resided on or near the
Potomac River, on his way up from the river Ohio, at the head of a party of
armed men, lay some time at my cabin. I had previously heard the report of Mr.
Cresap having killed some Indians said to be the relations of Logan, an Indian
Chief. In a variety of conversations with several of Cresap's party they
boasted of the deed, and that in the presence of their chief. They acknowledged
that they had fired first on the Indians. They had with them one man on a
litter who was in the skirmish.
"I do further certify that, from
what I learned from the party themselves, I then formed the opinion, and have
not had any reason to change that opinion since, that the killing, on the part
of the whites, was what I deem the grossest murder. I further certify that some
of the party who afterwards killed some women and other Indians at Baker's
Bottom also lay at my cabin on their march to the interior part of the country;
they had with them a little girl, whose life had been spared by the
interference of some more humane than the rest. If necessary, I will make
affidavit to the above to be true. Certified at Washington, this 18th day of
April, A. D. 1798.
(signed)
"William Huston."
Immediately after the occurrence of the
events narrated as above by Clarke came the killing of the Indians at Captina
Creek and the murder of the relatives of the Mingo chief Logan at Baker's
Bottom, on the Ohio, the date of the last-named event being April 30th. The
so-called speech of Logan fastened the odium of killing his people in cold
blood on Capt. Michael Cresap, of Redstone Old Fort. That the charge was false
and wholly unjust is now known by all people well informed on the subject.
Cresap did, however, engage in the killing of other Indians, being no doubt
incited thereto by the deceitful tenor of Dr. Connolly's letters, which were
evidently written for the express purpose of inflaming the minds of the
frontiersmen by false information, and so bring about a general Indian war.
The chief Logan, with a hunting party of
his Indians, and having with them their women and children, had pitched his
hunting-camp at the mouth of Yellow Creek, about thirty miles above Wheeling,
on the west side of the Ohio, and opposite Baker's Bottom on the Virginia side,
where lived Joshua Baker, whose chief occupation was selling liquor to the
Indians. From the time when Logan had first pitched his camp at Yellow Creek it
had been the determination of some of the whites to attack it and kill the
Indian party, but in their first attempt to do this they had been overruled in
their purpose, chiefly by the influence of Capt. Cresap, as is shown in
Clarke's account before quoted. But after Cresap and Clark had departed with
their men for Redstone, and while they were making their way from Catfish Camp
to the Monongahela, on the day succeeding the night which they spent at William
Huston's cabin, the plan to kill the Indians of Logan's party was put in execution
(during the absence of the chief) by enticing a part of them across the river
to Baker's cabin, where a party of white men lay concealed. There liquor was
given them, and then when they or some of them were in a state of partial
intoxication the bloody work was done, all the Indians at the house being
killed except an infant child. The party who did the perfidious and
cold-blooded deed were under the leadership of Daniel Greathouse, a settler on
King's Creek near its mouth. Several accounts of the affair have been given,
generally agreeing as to the main facts, but disagreeing to some extent as to
the minor details. One account has it that in the evening preceding the tragedy
a friendly squaw came across the river from Logan's camp and told Baker's wife
with many tears that the lives of herself (Mrs. Baker) and her family were in
danger, as the Indians were planning to come across and murder them. She wished
well to Mrs. Baker, and thus risked her own life to serve her by bringing the
information so as to allow the family time to escape. Upon receipt of this
warning Greathouse's party was collected in haste at the cabin. No Indians
appeared during the night, and on the following morning Greathouse and two or
three others crossed to Logan's camp, and in an apparently friendly manner
invited the Indians to come across to Baker's and get some rum. A party of them
accepted the invitation and came. Most of Greathouse's men lay concealed in
the back part of the cabin. Baker was to deal out rum freely to the indians,
and did so. When they became intoxicated the concealed men rushed out and
killed them. In Mayer's "Logan and Cresap" the following account is
given of the massacre:
"Early in the morning a party of
eight Indians, composed of three squaws, a child, and four unarmed men, one of
whom was Logan's brother, crossed the river to Baker's cabin, where all but
Logan's brother obtained liquor and became excessively drunk. No whites except
Baker and two of his companions appeared in the cabin. After some time Logan's
relative took down a coat and hat belonging to Baker's brother-in-law, and
putting them on, set his arms akimbo, strutted about the apartment, and at
length coming up to one of the men addressed him with the most offensive
epithets and attempted to strike him. The white man_Sappington_who was thus
assailed by language and gesture for some time kept out of his way, but
becoming irritated, seized his gun and shot the Indian as he was rushing to the
door, still clad in the coat and hat. The men, who during the whole of this
scene had remained hidden, now poured forth, and without parley slaughtered the
whole Indian party except the child. Before this tragic event occurred two
canoes, one with two and the other with five Indians, all naked, painted, and
completely armed for war, were descried stealing from the opposite shore, where
Logan's camp was situated. This was considered as confirmation of what the
squaw had said the night before, and was afterwards alleged in justification
of the murder of the unarmed party which had first arrived.
"No sooner were the unresisting
drunkards dead than the infuriated whites rushed to the river-bank, and ranging
themselves along the concealing fringe of underwood prepared to receive the
canoes. The first that arrived was the one containing two warriors, who were
fired upon and killed The other canoe immediately turned and fled; but after
this two others containing eighteen warriors, painted and prepared for
conflict as the first had been, started to assail the Americans. Advancing more
cautiously than the former party, they endeavored to land below Baker's cabin,
but being met by the rapid movements of the rangers before they could effect
their purpose they were put to flight, with the loss of one man, although they
returned the fire of the pioneers.:
Another account of the Baker's Bottom
massacre was given more than half a century afterwards by Judge Jolley, who for
many years was a resident of Washington County, Ohio, and who at the time of
the occurrence was a youth living on the frontier. His account, as given below,
was published in the year 1836 in "Silliman's Journal," viz.:
"I was about sixteen years of age,
but I very well recollect what I then saw, and the information that I have
since obtained was derived from (I believe) good authority. In the spring of
the year 1774 a party of Indians encamped on the northwest of the Ohio, near
the mouth of the Yellow Creek. A party of whites, called 'Greathouse's party,
lay on the opposite side of the river. The Indians came over to the white
party, consisting, I think, of five men and one woman with an infant. The
whites gave them rum, which three of them drank, and in a short time became
very drunk. The other two men and the woman refused to drink. The sober Indians
were challenged to shoot at a mark, to which they agreed; and as soon as they
emptied their guns the whites shot them down. The woman attempted to escape by
flight, but was also shot down; she lived long enough, however, to beg mercy
for her babe, telling them that it was akin to themselves. The whites had a man
in the cabin prepared with a tomahawk for the purpose of killing the three
drunken Indians, which was immediately done. The party of men then moved off
for the interior settlements, and came to Catfish Camp (Washington) on the
evening of the next day, where they tarried until the day following. I very
well remember my mother feeding and dressing the babe, chirruping to the little
innocent, and its smiling. However, they took it away, and talked of sending it
to its supposed father, Col. John Gibson, of Carlisle, Pa. who had been for
some years a trader among the Indians.
"The remainder of the (Indian) party
at the mouth of Yellow Creek, finding that their friends on the opposite side
of the river were massacred, attempted to escape by descending the Ohio, and in
order to prevent being discovered by the whites passed on the west side of
Wheeling Island, and landed at Pipe Creek, a small stream that empties into the
Ohio a few miles below Grave Creek, where they were overtaken by Cresap with a
party of men from Wheeling. They took one Indian scalp, and had one white man
(Big Tarrener) badly wounded. They, I believe, carried him in a litter from
Wheeling to Redstone. I saw the party on their return from their victorious
campaign¼It was well known that Michael Cresap had no hand in the
massacre at Yellow Creek."
The concluding sentence in Judge Jolley's
statement was written in refutation of the calumny which was circulated and for
many years believed by the majority of the people of the country, that the
murder of Logan's men and relatives was done by Capt. Michael Cresap or by his
orders. Such an inference might be drawn from the first part of the statement
of William, already given, viz., where he says, "I had previously heard
the report of Mr. Cresap having killed some Indians, said to be the relations
of Logan, an Indian chief." But his memory was evidently at fault. He
could not have previously hears of the killing at Yellow Creek, as it did not occur
until after the time to which he refers in the certificate. And in the latter
part of the same document he disproves his previous statement by saying,
"I further certify that some of the party who afterwards killed some women
and other Indians at Baker's Bottom also lay at my cabin on their march to the
interior." Another statement that seems to be conclusive proof of Capt.
Cresap's innocence of any participation in the atrocity at Baker's Bottom is
found in an affidavit of the man who shot Logan's brother on that occasion,
viz.: "I, John Sappington, declare myself to be intimately acquainted with
all the circumstances respecting the destruction of Logan's family, and do give
the following narrative, a true statement of that affair: Logan's family (if it
was his family) was not killed by Cresap, nor with his knowledge, nor by his
consent, but by the Greathouses and their associates. They were killed thirty
miles above Wheeling, near the mouth of Yellow Creek. Logan's camp was on one
side of the river Ohio, and the house where the murder was committed was
opposite to it on the other side. They had encamped there only four or five
days, and during that time had lived peaceably with the whites on the opposite
side until the very day the affair happened."
The killing of the Indians at Baker's was
on the 30th of April, as before mentioned. Several accounts of the affair,
however, have mentioned different dates. Sappington stated many years
afterwards that, according to his memory, it happened on the 24th of May; Benjamin
Tomlinson placed it on the 3d or 4th of May; but Col. Ebenezer Zane gave the
date as the late day of April, which is undoubtedly correct. It seems to be
verified by a letter addressed to Col. George Washington by his agent,
Valentine Crawford, who then lived on Jacob's Creek, near the Youghiogheny
River, in Westmoreland County. In that letter (dated Jacob's Creek, May 6,
1774) he says, _
"I am sorry to inform you the
Indians have stopped all the gentlemen from going down the river. In the first
place they killed one Murphy, a trader, and wounded another, then robbed their
canoes. This alarmed the gentlemen very much, and Maj. Cresap took a party of
men and waylaid some Indians in their canoes that were going down the river and
shot two of them and scalped them. He also raised a party, took canoes and
followed some Indians from Wheeling down to the Little Kanawha, when, coming up
with them, he killed three and wounded several. The Indians wounded three of
his men, only one of whom is dead; he was shot through, while the other two
were but slightly wounded. On Saturday last, about twelve o'clock, one
Greathouse and about twenty men fell on a party of Indians at the mouth of
Yellow Creek and killed ten of them. They brought away one child a prisoner,
which is now at my brother, William Crawford's¼"
On the 8th of May, Capt. William Crawford
(who lived on the Youghiogheny River nearly opposite the site of the borough
of Connellsville) said, in a letter addressed by him to Col. George
Washington,_
"The surveyors that went down the
Kanawha,[6] as report goes, were stopped by the
Shawanese Indians, upon which some of the white people attacked some Indians,
and killed several, took thirty horse-loads of skins near the mouth of Scioto;
on which news, and expecting an Indian war, Mr. Cresap and some other people
fell on some other Indians at the mouth of Pipe Creek, killed three and scalped
them. Daniel Greathouse and some others fell on some at the mouth of Yellow
Creek, and killed and scalped ten, and took one child about two months old,
which is now at my house. I have taken the child from a woman that it had been
given to. Our inhabitants are much alarmed, many hundreds having gone over the
mountain, and the whole country evacuated as far as the Monongahela, and many
on this side of the river are gone over the mountain. In short, a war is every
moment expected. We have a council now with the Indians. What the event will be
I do not know. I am now setting out for Fort Pitt at the head of one hundred
men. Many others are to meet me there and at Wheeling, where we shall wait the
motions of the Indians and act accordingly¼"
The settlers along the frontiers, and in
all the territory that now forms the counties of Washington and Greene, were
in a state of the wildest alarm, well knowing that the Indians would surely
make war in revenge for the killing of their people at Captina and Yellow
Creek, and most of them immediately sought safety, either in block-houses or by
abandoning their settlements and flying eastward across the Monongahela and
many across the Allegheny Mountains.[7] Valentine Crawford, in his letter of
May 6th to Col. Washington (before quoted from), said, "This alarm has
caused the people to move from over the Monongahela, off Chartiers and Raccoon
[Creeks], as fast as you ever saw them in the year 1756 or 1757 down in
Frederick County, Virginia. There were more than one thousand people crossed
the Monongahela in one day at three ferries that are not one mile apart."
The general alarm among the inhabitants
was well founded. The Indians, burning to revenge the killing of their people
on the Ohio, particularly at Captina and Yellow Creek, at once took the
war-path and ranged eastward to and across the Monongahela, burning, plundering,
and killing. On the 8th of June Valentine Crawford said in a letter to Col.
Washington, "Since I just wrote you an account of several parties of
Indians being among the inhabitants has reached us. Yesterday they killed and
scalped one man in sight of the fort [Fort Burd, at Brownsville] on the
Monongahela,_ one of the inmates¼There have been several parties of savages seen within
these two or three days, and all seem to be making towards the Laurel Hill or
mountain. For that reason the people are afraid to travel the road by Gist's,
but go a nigh way by Indian Creek, or ride in the night¼On Sunday evening, about four
miles over Monongahela, the Indians murdered one family, consisting of six, and
took two boys prisoners. At another place they killed three, which makes in the
whole nine and two prisoners. If we had not had forts built there would not
have been ten families left this side of the mountains besides what are at Fort Pitt. We have sent our scouts
after the murderers, but we have not heard that they have fallen in with them
yet. We have at this time at least three hundred men out after the Indians,
some of whom have gone down to Wheeling, and I believe some have gone down as
low as the Little Kanawha. I am in hopes they will give the savages a storm,
for some of the scouting company say they will go to their gowns but they will
get scalps." On the same day William Crawford said in a letter to
Washington, "Saturday last we had six persons killed on Dunkard's Creek,
about ten miles from the mouth of Cheat River, on the west side of the
Monongahela, and there are three missing. On Sunday a man who left the party is
supposed to be killed, as he went off to hunt horses, and five guns were heard
to go off. The horse he rode away returned to the house where the party then
was. They set out in search of enemies; found the man's coat and saw a number
of tracks, but could not find the man."
In was the Indian chief Logan, he whose
former friendship for the whites had been turned into bitterest hatred by the
killing of his people, who came in with his band to ravage the settlements on
the west side of the Monongahela, throwing all that country into a state of the
wildest alarm. The present counties of Washington and Greene were almost
entirely deserted by their people. Dr. Joseph Doddridge, in his
"Notes," says, "The massacres of the Indians at Captina and
Yellow Creek comprehended the whole of the family of the famous but unfortunate
Logan, who before these events had been a lover of the whites and a strenuous
advocate for peace;[8] but in the conflict which followed them,
by way of revenge for the death of his people, he became a brave and sanguinary
chief among the warriors."
In the meantime, Capt. Cresap and George
Rogers Clark, upon their retirement from Wheeling by way of Catfish Camp to
Redstone Old Fort, had proceeded from the latter place eastward, Clark going to
Winchester, Va., and Cresap to Old Town, Md., where he had left his family, and
where his father lived. There he at once commenced raising a company of men for
the purpose of taking part in the Indian hostilities which he knew must follow
the occurrences on the Ohio. They sent a messenger to Lord Dunmore at
Williamsburg, Va., notifying him of the situation of affairs; and an express
was also sent to the Governor by Connolly from Pittsburgh, informing him of the
events which had occurred upon the frontier, and the necessity of immediate
preparations for an Indian war, among which necessary preparations he suggested
the propriety of sending a force to Wheeling to erect a fort there. Upon
receipt of this communication Dunmore sent messengers to the settlers who had
already gone forward to Kentucky, notifying them to return at once for their
own safety, and on the 20th of June he wrote Connolly at Pittsburgh, approving
his plan of building a fort at Wheeling, and of carrying war into the Indian
country; also directing him to keep in communication with Col. Andrew Lewis,
who was then in command of Virginia troops on the Kanawha and New Rivers; also
advising him to send Capt. William Crawford with what men could be spared to
co-operate with Col. Lewis, "or to strike a stroke himself, if he thinks
he can do it with safety." "I know him," said Dunmore, "to
be prudent, active, and resolute, and therefore very fit to go on such an
Expedition; and if anything of that kind can be effected, the sooner 'tis done
the better¼I would recommend it to all Officers going out on Parties
to make as many Prisoners as they can of Women and Children, and should you be
so fortunate as to reduce those Savages to sue for Peace, I would not grant it
to them on any Terms till they were effectually chastised for their Insolence,
and then on no Terms without bring in six of Their Heads as Hostages for their
future good behavior, and these to be relieved annually, and that they Trade
with us [Virginians] only for what they want."
But before receiving this authority from
the governor, Connolly had already put some of the militia in the field, with
orders to march to Wheeling and commence the construction of the proposed
fort. On the 11th of June a party of militia from the Monongahela, moving up
the valley of Ten-Mile Creek on their way to Wheeling to join Connolly's other
forces there, and also being in pursuit of Logan and his band, who were burning
and murdering in that section, were attacked by the Indians, and their captain
and lieutenant wounded, the former mortally. Governor Penn was informed of this
occurrence, and of the outrages which had been committed in this region by Logan's
marauders, in a letter[9] written at Pittsburgh on the 14th of
June by Eneas Mackay (afterwards colonel of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment
in the Revolutionary army), in which letter, after detailing some civil
troubles between the Virginia and Pennsylvania partisans at that place, he thus
proceeds, in references to Indian outrages and alarms:
"On the other hand, we don't know
what day or hour we will be attacked by our savage and provoked Enemy the
Indians, who have already massacred sixteen persons to our Certain knowledge.
About and in the neighborhood of Ten-Mile Creek last Saturday, a party of the
militia consisting of one Captain, one Lieutenant and forty privates, were on
their march to join Connelly at the mouth of Whaling [Wheeling], where he
intended to Erect a stockade fort, when on a sudden they were attacked by only
four Indians, who killed the Captain on the spot & wounded the Lieutenant
and made their Escape without being hurt, and the Party, after Burrying their
Captain Returned with their wounded Lieutenant, so that Connelly's intended
Expedition is knocked in the head at this time."
The captain who was mortally wounded by
Logan's party on this occasion (and who died almost immediately) was Francis
McClure. The lieutenant, who was severely wounded, was Samuel Kincaid, who had
then recently been commissioned justice of the peace in Westmoreland County.
They were both considerably in advance of the main body of their company, and
were not taking proper precautions against surprise when they were fired upon.
Arthur St. Clair, of Westmoreland, in a letter of June 16th to Governor Penn,
informed the latter of the occurrence, stating that the captain and lieutenant
were killed, but afterwards, in the same letter, said, "I was mistaken in
saying two people were killed on Ten-Mile Creek. Mcclure was killed and
Kincaid wounded; however, it would have been no great Matter if he had been
killed, as he had accepted a Commission in the Service of Virginia so soon
after the Notice you had been pleased to take of him at the request of his
Father-in-law, Col. Wilson¼Before this Accident Mr. Connolly had determined to March
from Ft. Pitt (which he now calls Fort Dunmore) with three or four hundred men
he had embodied for the purpose of chasing the Shawanese, to erect Forts at
Wheeling and Hockhockton to overawe the Indians, and thence to carry the War
into their own Country; of this he was pleased to inform me by letter, and to
desire I would act in concert with him."
The general tone of the above letter seems
to show that (on the part of the Pennsylvania adherents at least) even the
imminent danger which threatened all the inhabitants west of the Laurel Hill
could not make the partisans of the two colonies forget their animosities and
act in concert for the general welfare. In a letter dated Ligonier, June 16
1774,[10] St. Clair informed Governor Penn that a
very large party of Indians had been discovered crossing the Ohio below
Wheeling and moving eastward. He added, " 'Tis some satisfaction the
Indians seem to discriminate between us and those who attacked them, and their
Revenge has fallen hitherto on that side of the Monongahela which they consider
as Virginia, but least that should not continue, We are taking all possible
care to prevent a heavy stroke falling on the few people that are left in this
country." Thus the people east of the Monongahela were congratulating
themselves that it was not on them, but on the more exposed (but then almost
entirely deserted) settlements west of the Monongahela that the savages were
wreaking their vengeance. "It is said," wrote William Thompson, in a
letter to Governor Penn, dated June 19th, "that the Indians have fixed a
boundary [the Monongahela River] betwixt the Virginians and us, and say they
will not kill or touch a Pennsylvanian. But it is not best to trust them, and I
am doubtful a short time will show the contrary."
But notwithstanding the supposed immunity
of the people east of the Monongahela from Indian inroads, the panic there was
nearly as great and as general as on the west side of the river. "Nothing
can be more surprising," said St. Clair, in a letter written on the 12th
of June[11] to Governor Penn, "than the dread
the people are under, and it is truly shameful that so great a Body of People
should have been driven from their Possessions without even the appearance of
an Enemy, for certain it is as yet no attempt has been made on what is
understood to be Pennsylvania, nor any other mischief done than the killing the
family on White Lick Creek, which I informed you of before, and which from
every circumstance appears rather to have been private revenge than a national
stroke. A fresh report of Indians being seen near Hanna's Town, and another
party on Braddock's road, Set the People agoing again Yesterday. I immediately
took horse and rose up to inquire into, and found it, if not totally
groundless, at least very improbably, but it was impossible to persuade the
People so, and I am certain I did not meet less than a hundred Families and
I think two Thousand head of cattle
in twenty miles riding. The People in this Valley will make a stand, but yesterday
they are moved into this place [Ligonier], and I perceive are much in doubt
what to do. Nothing in my Power to prevent their leaving the Country shall be
omitted, but if they will go I suppose I must go with the stream. It is the
strangest infatuation ever seized upon men, and if they go off now, as Harvest
will soon be on, they must undoubtedly perish by Famine, for spring crop there
will be little or none."
When Lord Dunmore, early in May, received
intelligence of the hostilities which had been commenced at Yellow Creek and
other points on the Ohio, he took measures without delay to carry on a vigorous
aggressive campaign against the Indians. It has been mentioned that he sent to
Connolly, of Pittsburgh, his approval of the plan of building a fort at
Wheeling, and that Connolly gave orders to that effect to the militia. Soon
afterwards Col. McDonald was ordered to move west on Braddock's road, with a
force of about five hundred men, to proceed from Laurel Hill to Fort Burd,
thence across the Monongahela and the present county of Washington to Wheeling,
to complete the fort, and afterwards to cross the Ohio and attack the Indians
on the Muskingum. Capt. Michael Cresap had raised a company of volunteers in
Maryland, and marched them west across the mountains to the Monongahela, which
he reached about the 10th of July. On the 13th of that month, while nine men
were at work in a cornfield on Dunkard Creek, they were suddenly attacked by a
party of Indians, who killed six of them, the three others making their escape.
Whether the Indian party was composed of Logan's Mingoes or not is certainly
known. Connolly reported that they were Shawanese, thirty-five in number.
Cresap, being in the vicinity with his company, pursued the savages, but they
had nearly a day the start of him, and made good their escape. Under these
circumstances he gave up the pursuit, and marched with his company to Catfish
Camp, where "his advance was stopped by a peremptory and insulting letter
from Connolly, in which he was ordered to dismiss his men."[12] Thereupon he turned back, marched to the
Monongahela, and thence across the mountains to Maryland, where he met Lord
Dunmore, who gave him a commission as captain of Hampshire County, Virginia,
militia; and in this capacity he served during the later operations of the
campaign. The reason why Connolly had treated Cresap so cavalierly and refused
the services of his company is not apparent, as in the preceding April, when
George Rogers Clarke and Cresap were encamped with their followers at Wheeling,
the latter had received proof of high consideration from Connolly. that he was
regarded with disfavor by the Pennsylvania partisans is shown in a letter from
St. Clair to Governor Penn, dated July 4th, in which the former says,
"With such officers as Cresap no good can be expected; so that it is very
doubtful all attempts to preserve the tranquility of the country will be
fruitless."
It has been already mentioned that Col.
McDonald was ordered to march with a force of about five hundred men to
Wheeling, and thence into the Indian country west of the Ohio. Under these
orders he marched to the Muskingum, where he surprised the Indians and punished
them sufficiently to induce them to sue for peace, though it was believed that
their request was but a treacherous one, designed only to gain time for the
collection of a larger body of warriors to renew the hostilities.
But the main forces mustered by Dunmore
for the invasion of the Indian country were a detachment to move down the Ohio
from Pittsburgh, under the Governor in person, and another body of troops under
Gen. Andrew Lewis,[13] which was rendezvoused at Camp Union,
now Lewisburg, Greenbrier Co., Va. These two columns were to meet for
co-operation at the mouth of the Great Kanawha River. Under this general plan
Governor Dunmore moved from Williamsburg to Winchester and to Fort Cumberland,
thence over the Braddock road to Fort Pitt, which in the mean time had been
named by his partisans, in his honor, Fort Dunmore. From there he proceeded
with his forces down the Ohio River, and arrived at Fort Fincastle (the
stockade work which had then recently been built according to his directions at
Wheeling) on the 30th of September. Maj. (afterwards colonel) William
Crawford, of Stewart's Crossings on the Youghiogheny, was one of Dunmore's
principle officers, and stood high in the favor of his lordship.[14]
The force under Gen.Andrew Lewis, eleven
hundred strong, proceeded from Camp Union to the headwaters of the Kanawha, and
thence down the valley of that river to the appointed rendezvous at its mouth,
which was reached on the 6th of October. Gen. Lewis, being disappointed in his
expectation of finding Lord Dunmore already there, sent messengers up the Ohio
to meet his lordship and inform him of the arrival of the column at the mouth
of the Kanawha. On the 9th of October a dispatch was received from Dunmore
saying that he (Dunmore) was at the mouth of the Hocking, and that he would
proceed thence directly to the Shawanese towns on the Scioto, instead of coming
down the Ohio to the mouth of the Kanawha as at first agreed on. At the same
time he ordered Lewis to cross the Ohio and march to meet him (Dunmore) before
the Indian towns.
But on the following day (October 10th),
before Gen. Lewis had commenced his movement across the Ohio, he was attacked
by a heavy body of Shawanese warriors under the chief Cornstalk. The fight
(known as the battle of Point Pleasant) raged nearly all day, and resulted in
the complete rout of the Indians, who sustained a very heavy (though not
definitely ascertained) loss, and retreated in disorder across the Ohio. The
loss of the Virginians under Lewis was seventy-five killed and one hundred and
forty wounded. Dunmore and Lewis advanced from their respective points into
Ohio to "Camp Charlotte," on Sippo Creek, where they met Cornstalk
and the other Shawanese chiefs, but as the men of Lewis' command were inclined
to show great vindictiveness towards the Indians, Dunmore, fearing an outbreak
from them, which would defeat the object he had in view (the making of a treaty
of peace with the chiefs), ordered Lewis to return immediately with his force
to Point Pleasant. After their departure a treaty was finally concluded with
the principal chiefs; but as some of the Indians were defiant and disinclined
for peace, Maj. William Crawford was sent against one of their villages,
called Seekunk, or Salt Lick Town. His force consisted of two hundred and forty
men, with which he destroyed the village, killed six Indians, and took fourteen
prisoners.
These operations and the submission of
the Indians at Camp Charlotte virtually closed the war. Governor Dunmore
immediately set on his return, and proceeded by way of Redstone and the Great
Crossings of the Youghiogheny to Fort Cumberland, and thence to the Virginia
capital. Maj. William Crawford also returned immediately to his home on the
Youghiogheny, where, on the day after his arrival, he wrote Col. George
Washington, the friend of his boyhood as follows:
"Stewart's Crossings, Nov. 14, 1774.
"SIR,_I yesterday returned from
our late expedition against the Shawanese, and I think we may with propriety
say we have had great success, as we made them sensible of their villany and
weakness, and I hope made peace with them on such a footing as will be lasting,
if we can make them adhere to the terms of agreement, which are as follows:
first, they have to give up all the prisoners taken ever by them in war with
white people, also negroes, and all horses stolen or taken by them since the
last war. And, further, no Indian for the future is to hunt on the east side of
the Ohio, nor any white man on the west side; as that seems to have been the
cause of some of the disturbance between our people and them. As a guarantee
that they will perform their part of the agreement, they have given up four
chief men, to be kept as hostages, who are to be relieved yearly, or as they
may choose. The Shawanese have complied with the terms, but the Mingoes did not
like the conditions, and had a mind to deceive us; but Lord Dunmore discovered
their intentions, which were to slip off while we were settling matters with
the Shawanese. The Mingoes intended to go to the Lakes, and take their
prisoners with them, and their horses which they had stolen.
"Lord Dunmore ordered myself with
two hundred and forty men to set out in the night. We were to march to a town
about forty miles distant from our camp up the Scioto, where we understood the
whole of the Mingoes were to rendezvous upon the following day, in order to
pursue their journey. This intelligence came by John Montour, son of Cap.
Montour, whom you formerly knew.
"Because of the number of Indians
in our camp. we marched out of it under pretense of going to Hockhocking for
more provisions. Few knew of our setting off, anyhow, and none knew where we
were going to until the next day. Our march was performed with as much speed as
possible. we arrived at a town called the Salt Lick Town the ensuing night, and
at daybreak we got around it with one-half our force, and the remainder were
sent to a small village half a mile distant. Unfortunately one or men was
discovered by an Indian who lay out from the town some distance by a log which
the man was creeping up to. This obliged the man to kill the Indian. This
happened before daylight, which did us much damage, as the chief part of the
Indians made their escape in the dark, but we got fourteen prisoners and killed
six of the enemy, wounding several more. We got all their baggage and horses,
ten of their guns, and two white prisoners. The plunder sold for four hundred
pounds sterling, besides what was returned to a Mohawk Indian who was there.
The whole of the Mingoes were ready to start, and were to have set out the
morning we attacked them."
This assault on the Mingo town by Maj. Crawford was the last act of hostility
in the Dunmore war.
The "settlers' forts" and
block-houses, of which there were many in the territory that is now Washington
County, and which by affording shelter and protection to the inhabitants
prevented an entire abandonment of this section of the country in Dunmore's
war, were nearly all erected during the terror and panic of the spring and
summer of the year 1774. These forts were erected by the associated efforts of
settlers in particular neighborhoods upon the land of some one, whose name was
thereupon given to the fort, as Vance's fort, Beelor's fort, etc. They
consisted of a greater or less space of land, inclosed on all sides by high log
parapets or stockades, with cabins adapted to the abode of families. The only
external openings were a large puncheon gate and small port-holes among the
logs, through which the rifle of the settler could be pointed against the
assailants. Sometimes, as at Lindley's, and many of the other forts in the
adjacent country west of the Monongahela, additional cabins were erected
outside of the fort for temporary abode in time of danger, from which the
sojourners could in case of attack retreat within the fort.
Doddridge, in his "notes on the
Early Settlements and Indian Wars," says the "settler's fort" of
those days was "not only a place of defence but the residence of a small
number of families belonging to the same neighborhood. As the Indian mode of
warfare was an indiscriminate slaughter of all ages and both sexes, it was as
requisite to provide for the safety of the women and children as for that of
the men. The fort consisted of cabins, block-houses, and stockades. A range of
cabins commonly formed one side at least of the fort. Divisions or partitions
of logs separated the cabins from each other. The walls on the outside were ten
or twelve feet high, the slope of the roof being turned wholly inward. A very
few of these cabins had puncheon floors, the greater part were earthen. The
block-houses were built at the angles of the fort. They projected about two
feet beyond the outer walls of the cabins and stockades. Their upper stories
were about eighteen inches every way larger in dimension than the under one,
leaving an opening at the commencement of the second story to prevent the enemy
from making a lodgment under the walls. In some forts the angles of the fort
wee furnished with bastions instead of block-houses. A large folding gate, made
of thick slabs, nearest the spring, closed the fort. The stockades, bastions,
cabins, and block-house walls were furnished with port-holes at proper heights
and distances. The whole of the outside was made completely bulletproof. It may
be truly said that necessity is the mother of invention, for the whole of this
work was made without the aid of a single nail or spike of iron, and for the
reason that such things were not to be had. In some places less exposed a
single block-house, with a cabin or two, constituted the whole fort. Such
places of refuge may appear very trifling to those who have been in the habit
of seeing the formidable military garrisons of Europe and America, but they answered
the purpose, as the Indians had no artillery. They seldom attacked, and
scarcely ever took one of them."
Among the number of forts of this kind
that were erected in what is now Washington County were Vance's fort, on Cross
Creek; Lindley's fort, in Morris township; Well's fort, at Wells' Mills, on
Cross Creek; Wolfe's fort, in Buffalo township; Froman's fort, on Chartiers
Creek; Beelor's fort, on Raccoon Creek, near the site of the village of Candor;
Dillow's fort on Dillow's Run, now Hanover township; Cherry's fort, in Mount
Pleasant township; Beeman's blockhouse or fort, on the north fork of Wheeling
Creek; Doddridge's fort, in what is now Independence township; Rice's fort, on
the Dutch Fork of Buffalo, in Donegal; Miller's fort or block-house, also on
the waters of Dutch Fork, in the same township; and there were a number of
others of the same class in other parts of the county. Nearly all these were
built, as has been mentioned, during the panic of 1774; but they continued to
be used as places of security for settlers' families through a long series of
Indian wars and alarms, that were most frequent and serious from 1778 to 1783,
but which continued to some extent until 1794, when a lasting peace with the
savages in the Ohio Valley was gained by Wayne's victory on the Maumee.
[1]In reference to the causes which led to the Indian hostilities of 1774, an extract is given below from a letter written upon that subject, dated at Redstone Old Fort, on the Monongahela, in October, 1774, immediately after the close of Lord Dunmore's successful campaign against the Shawanese. It is not know who was the writer, but he was evidently a person of position under Lord Dunmore, and had been present with the Governor in the campaign and at the treaty which followed it. The letter is found in American Archives, vol. i, p. 1016, viz.:
[2]The country around Pittsburgh was then claimed by both Virginia and Pennsylvania, but Clarke, being a Virginian, viewed the matter entirely from the Virginian stand-point.
[3]Dr. John Connolly, a nephew of George Croghan, the deputy superintendent of Indian affairs.
[4]All this region was at that time claimed by Virginia to be within its "West Augusta" District.
[5]The Mingo chief Logan, the murder of whose family in this war was charged on Capt. Cresap; but the whole tenor of this letter of Gen. Clarke goes to prove the injustice of the charge.
[6]A number of surveyors who rendezvoused at the mouth of New River, on the Kanawha, Thursday, April 14, 1774, to go down the latter river to the Ohio, there to locate and survey lands warranted to certain officers and soldiers in the Old French war under proclamation of the king of England, dated Oct. 7, 1763. The claimants to those lands were notified to meet the surveyors at the place and time mentioned. The intention was to locate the lands on the bottoms of the Ohio River.
[7]Some of them, however, stood their ground and remained at their cabins, braving the danger rather than abandon their homes. James Chambers, in a deposition made at Washington, Pa., April 20, 1798, before Samuel Shannon, Esq., said that after the massacre at Baker's in 1774 all the settlements broke up along the Ohio River, and that he (being then settled on the river) fled with the rest, but stopped at Catfish Camp, where he remained for some time at the cabin of William Huston. Not a few of the settlers in what is now Greene County lost their lives by attempting to hold their homes.
[8]Judge Jolley, who lived on the frontier at the time of the killing of the Indians at Captina Creek and Baker's Bottom, says in his statement (before extracted from) in reference to those occurrences and their results,--
[9]Penn. Archives, 1774, p. 517.
[10]Penn Archives, 1774, p. 519
[11]Ibid, p. 514
[12]Mayer's Logan and Cresap.
[13]Who had been a captain under Washington in the Fort Necessity campaign of 1754.
[14]Valentine Crawford, brother of William, and agent of Col. George Washington, wrote the latter from Fort Fincastle under date of Oct. 1, 1774, in which letter he said," His Lordship arrived here yesterday with about hundred men, seven hundred of whom came by water with his L'd'p. and five hundred came with my brother William by land with the bullocks. His L'd'p has sent him with five hundred men, fifty packhorses, and two hundred bullocks to meet Col. Lewis at the mouth of Hockhocking, below the mouth of Little Kanawha. His Lordship is to go by water with the rest of the troops in a few days." In accordance with the plan mentioned in this letter, Maj. William Crawford proceeded to Hocking, on the Ohio side of the river, and there erected a stockade which was named Fort Gower. Dunmore arriving with the main force in time to assist in the construction of the work.