History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 33

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728

USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 33
USA > Ohio > Belmont County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 33

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

*This Capt. John Stuart was the author of this narrative. 12-B. & J. COS.

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

our march to the Shawanese towns, where he expected to as- semble with us, but what calculations he might have made for delay or other disappointments that might happen to two armies under so long and difficult a march through a trackless wilderness I never could guess; or how he could suppose they would assemble at a conjuncture so critical as the business then in question required, was never known to any one. The gover- nor's express arrived at our encampment on Sunday, the 9th day of October, and on that day it was my lot to command the guard. One of the men was of the name of Mccullough, with whom I had made some acquaintance in Philadelphia, in the year 1766, at the Indian Queen, where we both happened to lodge. This man, supposing I was in Lewis' army, inquired and was told I was on guard. He made it his business to visit me and renew our acquaintance, and in the course of the conversa- tion I had with him he informed me that he had recently left the Shawanese towns and gone to the governor's camp, which made me desirous to know his opinion of our expected success to subdue the Indians, and whether he thought they would be presumptious enough to offer to fight us, as we supposed we had a force superior to anything they could oppose to us. He answered: "Ah! they will give you grinders, and that before long," and repeating it over again with an oath, swore we would get grinders very soon. I believe he and his com- panions left our camp that evening to return to the governor's camp; and the next morning two young men set out very early to hunt for deer. They happened to ramble up the river two or three miles, and on a sudden fell on the Indian camp, who had crossed the river on the evening before, and was just about fix- ing for battle. They discovered the young men and fired upon them; one was killed, the other escaped and got into the camp just before sunrise. He stopped before my tent, and I dis- covered a number of men collecting around him as I lay in bed.

"I jumped up and approached him, to know what was the alarm, when I heard him declare he saw above five acres of land covered with Indians, as thick as one could stand beside another. General Lewis immediately ordered a detachment of Augusta troops, under his brother Charles Lewis, and another detachment of Botetourt troops, under Col. William Fleming. These were composed. of the companies commanded by the eldest captains, and the junior captains were ordered to stay in camp and aid the others as occasion might require. The de- tachments marched out in two lines and met the Indians in the same order of march, about four hundred yards from our camp and in sight of the guard. The Indians made the first fire and killed both scouts in front of the lines just as the sun was rising. A very heavy fire soon commenced and Col. Lewis was mortally wounded, but walked into the camp and died a few minutes afterwards, observing to Col. Charles Lewis with his last words: 'I have sent one of the enemy to eternity be- fore me.' During his life it was his lot to have frequent skir- mishes with the Indians, in which he was always successful, and gained much applause for his intrepidity, and was greatly beloved by his troops. Col. Fleming was also wounded, and our men had given way some distance before they were rein- forced by other companies issuing in succession from the camp, when the Indians in turn had to retreat until they had formed a line behind logs and trees across from the bank of the Ohio to the banks of the Kanawha, and kept up their fire till sunset.

"The Indians were exceedingly active in concealing their dead that were killed, and I saw a young man draw out three that were covered with leaves beside a large log, in the midst of the battle. Col. Christian came with troops to our camp that night about eleven o'clock; General Lewis having dis- patched a messenger up the Kanawha to give him notice we were engaged, and to hasten his march to our assistance. He brought about three hundred men with him, and marched out early the next morning over the battle ground, and found twenty-one of the enemy slain on the ground and twelve more were afterwards found, all concealed in one place, and the Indians confessed they had thrown a number into the river in time of the battle. So that it is possible the slain on both sides are about equal. We had twenty-five killed and one hun- dred and forty wounded. The Indians were headed by their chief, the Cornstalk warrior, who, in his plan of march and retreat displayed great military skill. Amongst the slain on our side were Col. Charles Lewis, Col. John Field, Capt. Buford, Capt. Murray, Capt. Ward, Capt. Wilson, Capt. Robert McClan- aghan, Lieut. Allen, Lieut. Goldsby, Lieut. Dillon and other subaltern officers.

"Col. Field had raised his company as I believe under no particular instructions, and seemed from the time he joined our army at camp Union, to assume an independence, not subject

to the control of others. His claims to such privileges might have risen from some former military service, in which he had been engaged, which entitled him to a rank that ought to re- lieve him from being subject to control by volunteer command- ers, and when we marched from camp Union he took a separate route, and on the third day after our departure two of his men of the name of Coward and Clay, who left the company to look for deer for provisions as they marched, fell in with two Indians on the waters of the little Meadows. As Clay passed round the root of a large log under which one of the Indians was con- cealed, he killed Clay, and running up to scalp him, Coward killed him, being at some distance behind Clay. They both fell together on the same spot. The other Indian fled and passed our scouts unharmed. A bundle of ropes was found where they killed Clay, which manifested their intention was to steal horses. Col. Field joined us again that evening and separated no more until we arrived at Point Pleasant, the mouth of the Great Kanawha.

"After the battle we had different accounts of the number of Indians that attacked us. Some asserted there were upwards of one thousand; some said no more than four or five hundred. The correct number was never known to us; however, it was certain they were combined of different nations-Shawnees, Winedotts and Delawares. Of the former there is no doubt the whole strength of the nation was engaged in the battle.

"And on the evening of the day before the battle, when they were about to cross over the river, the Cornstalk proposed to the Indians, if they were agreed, he would come and talk with us and endeavor to make peace, but they would not listen to him. The next day, as we are informed, he killed one of the Indians for retreating in the battle in a cowardly manner. I could hear him the whole day speaking to his men very loudly, and one of my company, who had once been a prisoner, told me what he was saying was encouraging the Indians, saying: "be strong, be strong."

" None will suppose we had a contemptible enemy with whom to do, who has any knowledge of the exploits performed by them. It was chiefly the Shawanese that cut off the British army under General Braddock in the year 1756, and nineteen years before our battle, when the General himself, and Sir Peter Hatchett, second in command, were both slain, and a mere remnant of the whole army only escaped. And they were they who defeated Major Grant and his Scotch Highlanders at Fort Pitt in 1758, when the whole of the troops were killed and taken prisoners. And after our battle they defeated all the flower of the first bold and intrepid settlers of Kentucky at the battle of the Blue Licks. There fell Colonel John Todd and Colonel Stephen Trigg. The whole of their men were almost all cut to pieces. Afterwards they defeated the United States Army over the Ohio, commanded by General Harmer, and lastly they defeated General Arthur St. Clair's great army with prodigious slaughter.

" I believe it was never before known that as many Indians were ever killed in any engagement with the white people, as fell by the army of General Lewis at Point Pleasant. They are now dwindled down to insignificance, and no longer noticed, and futurity will not easily perceive the prowess of which they were possessed. Of all the Indians the Shawanese were the most bloody and terrible, holding all other men, Indians as well as white men, in contempt as warriors, in comparison with themselves. This opinion made them more restless and fierce than ony other savages, and they boasted that they had killed ten times as many white people as any other Indians had. They were well formed, active and ingenious people ; were assuming and imperious in the presence of others not of their own nation, and sometimes very cruel.

"General Lewis' army were all chiefly young volunteers, well trained in the woods to the use of arms, as hunting in those days was much practiced and preferred to agriculture by enterprising young men. The produce of the soil was of little value on the west side of the Blue Ridge; the ways bad and distance too great to market to make it esteemed. Such pur- suits inured them to hardships and danger.

" We had more than every fifth man in our army killed or wounded in the battle, but none was disheartened. All erossed the river, fully determined to destroy the enemy, with eheer- fulness, and had they not been restrained by the governor's orders, I believe they would have exterminated the Shawanese nation.

" This battle was in fact the beginning of the revolutionary war that has obtained for our country the liberty and indepen- dence enjoyed by the United States, (and a good presage of future success,) for it is well known the Indians were influ-

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

enced by the British to commence the war, to terrify and con- found the people before they, the British, commenced hostilities themselves the following year at Lexington, in Massachusetts.

"It was thought by British politicians that to excite an Indian war would prevent a combination of the colonies to the opposing of parliamentary measures to tax the Americans, therefore the blood spilt in this memorable battle will long be remembered by all the good citizens of Virginia and the United States with gratefulness.

"The Indians passed over the Ohio river in the night time after the battle and made the best of their way back to the Shawanese towns on the Scioto. And after burying our dead, General Lewis ordered intrenchments to be made round our camp by extending across from the Ohio to the Kanawha, to secure the wounded, under an officer, with an adequate number of men to protect them in safety, and marched his army across the Ohio for the Shawanese towns. In this command he had many difficulties to encounter, of which none can well judge, who has never experienced similar troubles, to preserve order and necessary discipline over an army of volunteers, who had no knowledge of the use of discipline or military order, when in an enemy's country well skilled in their own manner of warfare.

"And it is well remembered that the youth of our country, previous to those times, had grown up in times of peace, and were quite unacquainted with military operations of any kind. Ignorance of those duties, together with high notions of independence and equality of condition, rendered the service extremely difficult and disagreeable to the commander, who was by nature of a lofty and high military spirit, and who had seen much military service under General Braddock and other commanders.

"He was appointed first captain under General Washington, together with Captain Peter Hogg, in the year 1752, when Gen. Washington was appointed Major by Governor Gooch, to go on the frontiers and erect a garrison at the Little Meadows, on the waters of the Monongahela, to prevent the encroachment of the French, who were extending their claims from Fort Pitt (then Fort Duquesne) up the Monongahela river and its waters.

TREACHERY OF LORD DUNMORE.

"It is said there is a book now extant in this country under the title of Smith's Travels in America (which was written in England), wherein the author asserts that he was on the expe- dition in the year 1774, and that he joined the Augusta troops in Staunton. He gives a particular description of Mr. Samp- son Mathew's tavern and family, who kept the most noted public house in town, and of the march of our army from camp Union to Point Pleasant. He also gives an account of the battle and of Col. Lewis being killed in the engagement. If such a person were along I am persuaded he was incog, and a creature of Lord Dunmore, for I was particularly acquainted with all the officers of the Augusta troops and the chief of all the men, but I knew of no such man as Smith, and I am the more con- firmed in this opinion from what General Lewis told me in the year 1779, that he was informed that on the evening of the 10th of October, the day of our battle, that Dunmore and the noted Dr. Connelly, of Tory memory, with some other officers were taking a walk, when Dunmore observed to the gentlemen that he expected by that time that Col. Lewis had hot work. And this corresponds with my suspicions of the language of McCul- lough, who promised us "Grinders," for had not Mccullough seen the Indians coming down the river on his return the evening before the battle, they could not have known the strength of our army or the amount of our troops so correctly as they certainly did; for during the battle I heard one of the enemy hollow out with abusive terms in English, that they had eleven hundred Indians and two thousand more coming. The same boast was vociferated from the opposite side of the river, in hearing of many of our officers and men who occupied the Ohio bank during the battle, as the number of eleven hun- dred was precisely our number, and an expectation entertained by some that Col. Christian would come on with two thousand more. The intelligence must have been communicated to the Indians by the Governor's scouts, for there could have been no other means of conveying such exact information to them. Col. Christian had only about three hundred altogether, includ- ing the three companies of Shelby, Russell and Harbert, when he arrived at our camp.

" Having finished the entrenehments and put every thing in order for securing the wounded from danger after the battle, wc crossed the Ohio river on our march to the Shawnee towns,

taking our march by the way of the Salt Lieks, and Captain Arbuckle for our guide, who was equally esteemed for a soldier as a fine woodsman. When we came to the prairie on Killi- kenny creek, we saw the smoke of a small Indian town, which they deserted and set on fire at our approach. Here we met an express from the governor's camp who had arrived near the nation and proposed terms of peace with the Indians. Some of the chiefs, with the grenadier squaw, on the return of the In- dians after their defeat, had repaired to the governor's army to solicit terms of peace for the Indians (which I apprehend they had no doubt of obtaining), and the governor promised them the war should be no further prosecuted, and that he would stop the march of Lewis' army before any more hostilities should be committed upon them. However, the Indians, find- ing we were rapidly approaching, began to suspect that the governor did not possess the power of stopping us, whom they designated by the name of Big Knife men. Therefore, the governor, with the White Fish warrior, set off and met us at Killikenny creek, and there Colonel Lewis received orders to return with his army, as he had proposed terms of peace with the Indians, which he assured should be accomplished. His lordship requested Colonel Lewis to introduce him to his officers, and we were accordingly ranged in rank and had the honor of an introduction to the governor and commander-in- chief, who politely thanked us for services rendered on so mon- strous an occasion, and assured us of his high esteem and re- spect for our conduct.

"On the governor's consulting Col. Lewis it was deemed necessary that a garrison should be established at Point Pleas- ant to prevent and intercept the Indians from crossing the Ohio to our side, as well as to prevent any whites from crossing over to the side of the Indians, and by such means preserve a future peace, according to the condition of treaty then to be made by the governor with the Indians. And Capt. Arbuckle was appointed commander of the garrison, with instructions to enlist one hundred men for the term of one year from the date of their enlistment, and proceeded to erect a fort, which was executed on the following summer.

BREAKING OUT OF THE REVOLUTION.

"The next spring the revolutionary war commenced between the British army under Gen. Gage, at Boston, and the citizens of the State of Massachusetts, at Lexington. And Virginia soon after did assume an independent form of government, and began to levy troops for the common defence of the country, when another company was ordered to the aid of Capt. Arbuckle's garrison, to be commanded by Capt. William McKee. But the troubles of the war accumulated so fast that it was found too in- convenient and expensive to keep a garrison at so great a dis- tance from any inhabitants, as well as a demand for all the troops that could be raised to oppose the British force. Capt. Arbuckle was ordered to vacate the station and to join General Washington's army, but this he was not willing to do, having engaged, as he alleged, for a different serviec. A number of his inen, however, marched and joined the main army until the time of their enlistment expired. In the year 1777 the In- dians, being urged by British agents, beeame very troublesome to frontier settlements, manifesting much appearance of hos- tilities, when the Cornstalk warrior, with the young Redhawk, paid a visit to the garrison at Point Pleasant. He made no se- eret of the disposition of the Indians, declaring that on his own part he was opposed to joining in the war on the side of the British, but that all the rest of the nation but himself and his tribe were determined to engage in the war, and that of course, he and his tribe would have to run with the stream (as he expressed it.) On which Capt. Arbuckle thought proper to detain him, the young Redhawk and another fellow, as hostages, to prevent the nation from joining the British.

" In the course of the summer our government had ordered an army to be raised of volunteers, to serve under the com- mand of Gen. Hand, who was to have collected a number of troops at Fort Pitt; with them to descend the river to Point Pleasant, there to meet a reinforcement of volunteers, expected to be raised in Augusta and Botetourt counties, and then to pro- eced to the Shawanese towns and chastise the Indians so as to compel them to a neutrality, but Hand did not sueeeed in the collection of troops at Fort Pitt, and but three or four companies only were raised in Botetourt and Augusta, and which were under the command of Col. George Shilleran, who had ordered me to use my endeavors to raise all the volunteers I could get in Greenbrier for that service. The people had begun to see the difficulties attendant on a state of war and long campaigns car-

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

ried through wildernesses, and but few were willing to engage in such service, but the settlements we covered being less ex- posed to the depredations of the Indians, had shown a willing- ness to aid in the proposed plan to chastise the Indians, and had raised three companies. I was very anxious of doing all I could to promote the business and aid the service, used the ut- most endeavors by proposing to the military officers to volun- teer ourselves, which would be an encouragement to others, and by such means raise all the men that could be got. The chief of the officers in Greenbrier agreed to the proposal, and we cast lots who should command the company. The lot fell on Andrew Hamilton for captain, and William Remick for lieutenant, and we collected in all about forty men and joined Col. Shilleran's party on their way to Point Pleasant. When we arrived at Point Pleasant there was no account of Gen. Hand, or his army and little or no provision made to support our troops, except what we had taken with us down the Kanawha, and we found the garrison unable to spare us any supplies, having nearly ex- hausted, when we got there, what had been provided for them- selves, but we concluded to remain there as long as we could to wait the arrival of Gen. Hand or some account from him. But during the time of our stay two young men of the name of Hamilton and Gilmore went over the Kanawha one day to hunt for deer. On their return to camp some Indians had con- cealed themselve on the bank among the weeds to view our en- campment, and as Gilmore came along past them they fired on him and killed him on the bank. Capt. Arbuckle and I were standing upon the opposite bank when the gun was fired, and whilst we were wondering who could be shooting contrary to orders, or what they were doing over the river, we saw Hamil- ton run down the bank and called out, saying "Gilmore is killed."

MURDER OF CORNSTALK.

"Gilmore was one of the company of Capt. John Hall, of that part of the country (now Rockbridge county), and a relation of Gilmore, whose family and friends were chiefly cut off by the Indians in the year 1763, when Greenbrier was cut off. Hall's men instantly jumped into a canoe, and went to the relief of Hamilton, who was standing in momentary expecta- tion of being put to death; and they brought the corpse of Gilmore down the bank covered with blood and scalped. They put him into a canoe, and as they were passing the river I observed to Capt. Arbuckle that the people would be for killing the hostages, as soon as the canoe would land, but he supposed they would not offer to commit so great an outrage on the inno- cent, who were in no wise accessory to the murder of Gilmore; but the canoe had scarcely touched the shore until the cry was raised: 'Let us kill the Indians in the fort,' and every man with his gun in his hand came up the bank as pale as death with rage. Capt. Hall was at their head and leader. Arbuckle and I met them and endeavored to dissuade them from so un- justifiable an action, but they cocked their guns and threatened us with instant death if we did not desist. They rushed by us into the fort and put the Indians to death. On the preceding day the Cornstalk's son, Elinipsico, had come from the nation to see his father and to know if he were well and yet alive. When he came to the river opposite the fort he hollowed over. His father was at that instant in the act of delineating a map of the country and waters between the Shawnee towns and the Mississippi, at our request, with chalk upon the floor. He im- mediately recognized the voice of his son, got up and went out and answered, and the young fellow crossed over and they em- braced each other in the most tender and affectionate manner. The interpreter's wife, who had been a prisoner with the In- dians and had recently left them, on hearing the uproar the next day, and hearing the men threatening that they would kill the Indians, for whom she retained much affection, ran to their cabin and informed them that the people were just com- ing to kill them, and that because the Indians that killed Gil- more had come with Elinipsico the day before. He utterly denied it, declared that he knew nothing of them, and trembled exceedingly. His father encouraged him not to be afraid, for the great man above had sent him there to be killed and die with him. As the men advanced to the door, the Cornstalk rose up and met them. They fired upon him, and seven or eight bullets passed through him. Thus fell the great Corn- stalk warrior, whose name was bestowed upon him by the consent of the nation as their great strength and support. His son was shot dead as he sat upon a stool. The Redhawk made an attempt to go up the chimney, but was shot down. The other Indian was shamefully mangled and I grieved to see him long in the agonies of death.

"The Cornstalk from personal appearance and many brave acts, was undoubtedly a hero. Had he been spared to live I believe he would have been friendly to the American cause. Nothing could have induced him to make the visit to the gar- rison, at the critical time he did, but to communicate the tem- per and disposition of the Indians, and their design of taking part with the British. On the day that he was killed, we had held a council, in which he was. His countenance was de- jected, and he made a speech, all of which seemed to indicate an honest and manly disposition. He acknowledged that he expected he and his party would have to run with the stream, for all the Indians on the lakes and northwardly, were joining the British. When he returned to the Shawanese town, after the battle at the Point, he called a council of the nation, to con- sult what was to be done, and upbraided the Indians for their folly in not suffering him to make peace on the evening before the battle, saying: " What will you do now? The Big Knife is coming on us, and we shall all be killed. Now you must fight, or we are undone." But no one made answer. He then said : 'Let us kill all our women and children and go and fight till we die.' But none wouldanswer. At length, he arose and struck his tomahawk in the post, in the centre of the town house, and said, 'I'll go and make peace !' and then the war- riors all grunted out 'ough ! ough ! ough!' And runners were instantly dispatched to the governor's army to solicit a peace, and the interposition of the governor on their behalf. When he made his speech in the council with us he seemed im- pressed with an awful prediction of his approaching fate. For he repeatedly said, 'when I was a young man and went to war I thought that might be the last time, and I would return no more.' 'Now,' said he, 'I am here amongst you, you may kill me if you please; I can die but once, and it is all one to me now or another time!' And this declaration concluded every sentence of his speech. He was killed about one hour after our council broke up.

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History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 33

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 728

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728