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 38

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 38
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 38

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For twenty-three hours, all was life, and energy, and activity within the walls of the fort. Every individual had particular duties to perform; and promptly and faithfully were they dis- charged. 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. Some were engaged in moulding bullets; others in loading and supplying the 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.

Soon after the attack was begun to be made on Wheeling, the alarm reached Shepherd's fort, and a runner was dispatched from thence to Fort Van Metre and Holliday's fort with the intelligence, and the apprehension that if speedy relief were not afforded the garrison at Wheeling must fall. No expecta- tion of being able to collect a force sufficient to cope with the assailants was entertained. All that was expected was to throw succor into the fort, and thus enable the garrison the more successfully to repel assaults and preserve it from the vio- lence of the Indian assaults. "About daybreak," according to one account, " Major Samuel McColloch, with forty-five mounted men from Short creek, came to the relief of the little garrison. The gate was thrown open, and McColloch's men, though closely beset by the Indians, entered in safety; but McColloch himself was not permitted to pass the gateway. The Indians crowded around him and separated him from his party. After several ineffectual attempts to force his way to the gate he wheeled about and galloped with the swiftness of a deer in the direction of Wheeling hill.

When McColloch was hemmed in by the Indians before the fort they might have taken his life without difficulty, but they had weighty reasons for desiring to take him alive. From the very commencement of the war his reputation as an Indian hunter was as great, if not greater, than that of any white man on the northwestern border. He had participated in so many rencontres that almost every warrior possessed a knowl- edge of his person. Among the Indians his name was a word of terror; they cherished against him feelings of the most phrensied hatred, and there was not a Mingo or Wyandotte chief before Fort Henry who would not have given the lives of twenty of his warriors to secure to himself the living body of Maj. Samuel McColloch. When, therefore, the man whom they had long marked out as the first object of their vengeance, ap- peared in their midst, they made almost superhuman efforts to acquire possession of his person. The fleetness of MeColloch's well-trained steed was scarcely greater than that of his enemies, who, with flying strides, moved on in pursuit. At length the hunter reached the top of the hill, and, turning to the left, darted along the ridge with the intention of making the best of his way to Short creek. A ride of a few hundred yards in that direction brought him suddenly in contact with a party of Indians who were returning to their camp from a marauding

*Withers.

+This is Withers' statement; McKiernan says twelve men and boys.

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excursion to Mason's bottom, on the eastern side of the hill. This party being too formidable in numbers to encounter single handed, the Major turned his horse about and rode over his own track, in the hope of discovering some other avenue of escape. A few paces only of his counter-mareh had been made, when he found himself confronted by his original pursuers, who had by this time gained the top of the ridge, and a third party was discovered pressing up the hill directly on his right. He was now completely hemmed in on three sides, and the fourth was almost a perpendicular precipice of 150 feet descent, with Wheeling creek at its base.

"The imminence of his dan- ger allowed him but little time to reflect upon his situation. In one moment he decided upon his course. Supporting his rifle in his left hand and carefully adjusting his reins with the other, he urged his horse to the brink of the bluff, and then made the leap which decided his fate. In the next moment the noble steed, still bearing his intrepid rider in safety, was at the foot of the precipice. McColloch immediately dashed across the creek and was soon beyond the reach of the Indians."* 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 everything on which they could lay their hands, retired almost as suddenly as they had appeared, and left the garrison in possession of the fortress, but deprived of almost everything else.

Col. Andrew Swearingen, when he received information of the attack on Fort Henry, left Holliday's fort with fourteen men, who nobly volunteered to accompany him, in this hazard- ous enterprise of attempting to afford relief to the besieged garrison. These men got into a large continental canoe, and plied their handles industriously to arrive in time to be of service. 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, at length, it was thought advisable to cease rowing, and float with the current, lest they might unknowingly, pass Wheeling. Floating so slowly, they were further from their destination, when day began to dawn, than they had expected, and, with all their ex- ertion, found they would be unable to attain their purpose without great risk. They at length descried the light which proceeded from the burning of the houses and were in much doubt what plan to pursue. 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 to 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 ru- ins. Col. Swearingen, Capt. Bildubock, 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 this difficulty, Col. Swearin- gen, Capt. Bildubock and William Boshears, taking a circuitous route to avoid passing the cornfield, returned to their compan- ions, 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 re- quested to devise some expedient by which to be assured of the fact, recommended that two of their most active and vigilent men, should go out openly from the fort, and carelessly, but surely, examine the cornfield near the pallisade. 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 siege.

They then all proceeded to view the battlefield. Here was indeed a pitiable sight. Twenty-three of the men, who had accompanied Captains Mason and Ogle in the preceding morn- ing, were lying dead; few of them had been shot, but the

greater part most inhumanely 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 conveniently be taken off by the enemy, were but heaps of ashes. The alarm of the presence of Indians having been given after day- light, and the attack on the fort commencing before sunrise, but little time was afforded the settlers for securing their mova- ble 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 up within the fort, and straining every nerve to repel its savage assail- ants. It was long, indeed, before the inhabitants of that neigh- borhood regained the comforts of which that night's desolation had deprived them.

During the investiture not a man within the fort was killed and only one wounded, and that but slightly. But the loss sustained by the settlers during the enemy's inroad was re- markably severe. With the twenty-three men who were killed in the cornfield at the beginning of the action must also be reckoned the two men who had been sent down the river in a canoe the previous night and were intercepted by the Indians on their return and killed. The Indian loss was estimated at about one hundred, but as, according to their aneient custom, they removed their dead from the field, the extent of their loss must be merely conjectural.

The defense of Fort Henry, when we consider the extreme weakness of the garrison and the immense superiority of the besieging host, was admirably conducted. Col. Shepherd and the brothers, Ebenezer, Jonathan and Silas Zane, and John Caldwell, men of influence in the community, contributed greatly to the success of the battle. The name of every indi- vidual composing the little garrison should be inscribed on the pages of history, but many of them have escaped the record. Besides the names mentioned above those of Abraham Rodgers, John Linn, Joseph Biggs and Robert Lemon must not be omitted, as they were among the best Indian fighters on the frontier, and aided much in achieving the victory of the day.

The wife of Col. Ebenezer Zane,* together with several other females in the fort, undismayed by the sanguinary strife that was going on, employed themselves in running bullets and pre- paring patehes for the use of the men, and by their presence at every point where they could make themselves useful, and by their cheering words of encouragement, infused new life into the soldiers and spurred them on in the performance of duty. Mrs. Glum and Betsy Wheat are mentioned as performing all the duties of soldiers with firmness and alacrity.

Thus ended the first invasion and attack in foree on the western frontier, after the war between Great Britain and the colonies began. It was emphatically one of the battles of the Revolution, and as such deserves to rank in history with the other patriotic defences of the land. Not only was the gar- rison summoned to submit to the British authorities, by a British official, but the northwest Indians, who assaulted their fortifications, were as much the mercenary tribes of Great Britain, as were the Hessians, and Walkecks, who fought at Saratoga, and Trenton, and Princeton. If the price received by the Indians for the scalps of American citizens did not always amount to the daily pay of the European minions of England, it was, nevertheless, sufficient to prove that the American savages, and the German hirelings, were precisely on the same footing as part and parcel of the British army.t

FOREMAN MASSACRE NEAR GRAVE CREEK.

Soon after the siege of Fort Henry, a company of militia, under the command of Capt. Foreman, came from east of the Alleghenies, to take charge of the fort at Wheeling, and for the protection of the settlements in that vicinity. While stationed there, it became known that parties of indians were still lurk- ing in the neighborhood, and, to prevent mischief at their hands, detachments were frequently sent out on scouting expe- ditions to learn their whereabouts, and disperse or capture them. On the 26th of September, Captain Foreman himself,

*See Abraham Rogers statement. Appendix A.

+This account is compiled from several sources-principally Withers and McKirnan. A general acknowledgment is here made in lieu of the multiplicity of notes_otherwise required.

*McKiernan.

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with forty-five men, started in search of them, and marched down the river about twelve miles below Wheeling, where he encamped. Here, through ignorance of the methods and prae- tices of Indian warfare and a foolish perversity in rejeeting the prudent counsel of one of the settlers, named Lynn, who accompanied him as a spy, his command was ambushed and almost destroyed. Twenty-one of his men were killed outright, and but for the judgment, skill and bravery of Lynn and his four comrades the whole party must have been completely an- nihilated. Among the slain was the unfortunate Foreman and his two sons. "On the ensuing day the inhabitants of the neighborhood of Wheeling, under the direction and guidance of Col. Zane, proceeded to Grave Creek and buried those who had fallen."*

Sundry outrages and massacres occurred towards the close of the year on the Kanawha, Tygart's Valley and other interior settlements, but, the cold weather setting in, prevented further inroads for that season. It had proved a trying and eventful year to the border, but they "'quitted themselves like men" amid the terrible scenes that were enacted from one extremity of the frontier to the other.

RENEWED EFFORTS OF GOVERNOR HAMILTON TO ENTICE THE FRONTIER SETTLERS FROM THEIR ALLEGIANCE-BORDER TORIES -TORY CONSPIRACY.

Early in January, 1778, Col. Morgan received notice from the chief, White Eyes, of an intended raid of the Wyandots against Redstone, and also of the actions of an emissary of Governor Hamilton's in disseminating a proclamation designed to entice the settlers away from their homes and from their allegiance to the cause of the colonies. He says: "A man from Detroit, his name Edward Hazel, came here with some writings from the Governor of Detroit, and desired us to send some Indians with him to bring them into the inhabitants of the white peo- ple, but we deelined it, and told him we would not meddle with such affairs. Writings of the same kind were also sent to the Shawanese, to leave them where they should kill any white people, which they delivered to me. ' Both I send to you, and you will see the contents thereof."+

This proclamation bears date January 5, 1778, and calls upon all the people to resume their fealty to the British Crown, and promises protection and security for all those who will entrust themselves to the care of his Indian allies, and "who wish to exchange the hardships experienced under their present mas- ters for security and freedom under their lawful sovereign."}

Appended to it is the certificate of certain persons who claim to have been conducted to Detroit from the border by the sav- ages in Hamilton's interest, and of their good treatment and happiness generally. It is eurious to note that of the signers to this document there are but six, all told. Their names and localities are given below, and go to show that the border did not cherish many tories if these ean be said to be a fair speci- men. They are George Baker, from five miles below Logstown; James Butterworth, from the Big Kanawha; Thomas Shoers, from Harrodsburg, Ky .; Jacob Pugh, from six miles below the fort at Wheeling; Jonathan Muchmore, from Fort Pitt; James Whitaker, from Fish Creek; John Bridges, from Fish Creek.

A conspiracy was discovered about this time for the murder of the Whigs, as those were ealled who espoused the eause of the colonies, and for accepting the terms offered by the Gov- ernor of Canada to those who would renounce their fealty to the colonies and repair to Detroit. The discovery was made through the confession of one of the conspirators who had qualms of conscience about the matter, and it is possible much mischief was prevented. A court for the trial of the conspir- ators was organized at Redstone, but as their object had been defeated, and their number was insignificant, they were finally released on taking the oath of allegiance to the United States.

"THE SQUAW CAMPAIGN."

General Hand, who for some months had been meditating an expedition against Cuyahoga to capture the arms, ammunition, provisions and clothing, said to have been sent there from Detroit, at length succeeded in gathering a sufficient force and marched in February, 1778, from Fort Pitt to the point of at- tack. Not succeeding in finding what he had expected, and otherwise meeting with no success, he terminated his exploit at the Salt Lieks, in what is now Mahoning county, Ohio, with killing and capturing a few squaws. It was the first campaign

into the Indian country from Southwest Pennsylvania during the revolution, and, from its inglorious result, was named, in derision, the "Squaw Campaign."

DISCOVERIES OF A SPY AT DETROIT-GOV. HAMILTON'S COMPLIC- ITY WITH THE INDIAN MASSACRES-OFFERS REWARDS FOR THE SCALPS OF VIRGINIA AND PENNSYLVANIA SETTLERS.

"In March, 1778, Daniel Sullivan, who had been employed by the State of Virginia, under the direction of Col. Morgan, to act as a spy in the Indian country and at Detroit, in the spring of 1777, returned and made a statement of his discov- eries. It seems that he had been taken prisoner, when a boy, by the Delawares, and lived among them nine years, but was released about the year 1773. His attachment, however, to the ways and manners of the Indians induced him to return and live with them again. He was directed by Colonel Morgan to attach himself to one of the Indian traders, who sold goods at Cuyahoga, and, in the capacity of a servant, go with him to Detroit. This he succeeded in doing. At that period it took a batteau eight days to coast from Cuyahoga to Detroit.

He wore the Indian dress, and was questioned by Governor Hamilton as to his business there. He also inquired of him the strength of the garrison at Fort Pitt. He gave him liberty to stay as long as he pleased and to walk about the place. A white man, named Tucker, one of Governor Hamilton's inter- preters, took him home to his house and treated him well. His wife, it seems, was a Virginia woman, who had been a prisoner with the Indians, and knew Sullivan's family. This woman told Sullivan that Governor Hamilton used all his influence with the Indians to induce them to massacre the white inhab- itants of the frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania-paying them very high prices for all the scalps they would bring. That he also paid for prisoners, but would not redeem them so long as the war continued.

One day, as he was walking round the town, looking at the defences and strength of the place, he was recognized by a son of the notorious banditti chief, Pluggy. He immediately ap- plied to Governor Hamilton to have him arrested, on account of his killing his brother-in-law, at the Kanawha, in the fall of 1776. John Montour also testified to the same thing. He was arrested and put in irons and sent down to Montreal and Que- bec. From here, as a white man, he was sent round with other prisoners to New York, and set at liberty on parole.

His testimony only confirms that of many others as to the fact of Governor Hamilton paying the Indians for all the scalps of the Americans which they could bring. This policy was, no doubt, the cause of the death of many poor women and children, whom the Indian elemency might have spared but for this odious bounty.">

PROJECTED INVASION OF THE TERRITORY OF THE INDIANS IN 1778.

The projeeted invasion into the enemy's territory, in the year 1777, having been abandoned, the plan was again renewed on a much larger scale, early in the spring of 1778. As it would take several months to collect the provisions, paek- horses and boats necessary for an army of three thousand men, preparations were commenced in April by purchasing cattle, flour, &c. The State of Virginia was to furnish nearly all the men. Twenty-seven hundred came from the counties cast of the mountains and three hundred from those on the west side. Fifteen hundred were to march through Greenbrier, down the Big Kanawha to Fort Randolph, and as many more were to assemble at Fort Pitt, and descend the Ohio to that post. From this point the assembled forces were to invade the Indian coun- try and destroy their towns and crops. Colonel Morgan was directed to make an estimate of the quantity of provision necessary for the support of three thousand men for three months-the number of pack horses, beef cattle, &e. The amount is so great that we are led to look with wonder and ad- miration at the courage and patriotism of the brave men of that day, whose heroism led them to make such sacrifices on the altar of their country's liberties.";

GEN. M'INTOSH RELIEVES GEN. HAND IN COMMAND OF THE DEPART- MENT.

While these preparations were making by Col. Morgan for provisioning the troops, in May, 1778, Brigadier General Lach- lan McIntosh was appointed by General Washington to the command of the Western Department. He arrived at that

* Hildreth's Ploneer History, p. 125. #Hildreth's Pioneer History, p. 131.

*Withers. fllildreth's Pioneer Ilistory. 14-B. & J. COS. #Ibid.

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post with a body of five hundred regular troops in August, relieving Brigadier General Hand of the command.

Col. George Rogers Clark, of Virginia, having planned a se- cret expedition against what was known as the Illinois coun- try, then occupied by Indians and Canadians, in the interest of Great Britain, arrived early in the year to complete his undertaking. In May he descended the Ohio from Fort Pitt to the Falls, (now Louisville) with a small force and proceeded directly against Kaskaskia. The result of his expedition was the capture of Kaskaskia, Fort Phillips, Cahokia and Prairie du Rocher. Col. Crawford wrote Washington, July 12, that the effect of Col. Clark's successes had been "to change the disposition of the Indians much," and it is said the tribes living on the Mississippi nearest his conquests changed their relations to the co'onies permanently.

Soon after Gen. McIntosh's arrival he descended the Ohio river with the regulars and some militia from Fort Pitt to the the mouth of Big Beaver creek, where he directed the building of a fort, both as a protection for an exposed portion of the frontier and also as a covering point for any invasions of the Indian country which might be attempted, affording them a base of supplies and protection in case of retreat. It was a regular stockade work with four bastions, was garrisoncd, and had a six-pounder* mounted for its defence. It was named Fort McIntosh.

Before proceeding with the projected invasion it was thought advisable to convene the Delaware tribe of Indians to obtain their consent to the expedition passing through their country. This was done accordingly on September 17th.

In the meantime the various fortifications erected along the northwestern portion of the border had the manifest tendency of driving the Indians engaged in predatory excursions to the more exposed portions of the south western frontier and interior settlements. In May a party of savages came to the house of Mr. Doddridge, on Dunkards' creek, tomahawked his aged father, and carried off his three little girls and their grandmother into captivity. Other murders occurred at Hacker's creek, West Fork, Cheat river, Greenbrier, Booth's creek, Coburn's creek, and Valley river. An attempt was also made against Fort Randolph, then in command of Capt. McKee, but without suc- cess. Capt. McKee sent his reply to the summons to surrender by the Grenadier Squaw, sister to the celebrated Cornstalk, and very friendly to the whites, refusing their demand. For a week the garrison was closely besieged, when the Indians withdrew, and made a raid through Greenbrier, committing many mur- ders and depredations.

In October, Gen. McIntosh assembled one thousand men at the fort on Beaver creek, and marched into the enemy's country. The season, however, was so far advanced that he only pene- trated seventy miles west of Fort McIntosh and halted on the west bank of the Tuscarawas river, a little below the mouth of Sandy creek. Here he built a stockade fort called Fort Laurens. The other branch of the expedition intended to be assembled at the mouth of the Big Kanawha was never collected. No op- position was offered to the march of Gen. McIntosh's army by the hostile Indians, as they were hardly aware of his presence before he had fallen back.

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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 38

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