USA > Ohio > The picturesque Ohio : a historical monograph > Part 10
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From Dunmore's War, through the French and English con- test, through the Revolution, through the surrender of the lake forts by the English, through St. Clair's disastrous defeat, through
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the joy of "Mad Anthony " Wayne's victory and the glory of the Thames and Tippecanoe, down to the final pacification of the border by General William Henry Harrison, the "Pioneers of the West" were in the fore-front of battle. From first to last the older records best tell the story.
"The battle of Point Pleasant took place in Dunmore's War, October 10, 1774. It was the bloodiest battle perhaps ever fought with the Indians in Virginia. It had its origin in a variety of causes; but that which more than all others hastened the crisis was the murder of the family of Logan by the whites, at or near the mouth of Yellow Creek. This disgraceful act is, by some, imputed to Colonel Cresap, a distinguished frontiersman, who resided near the town of Wheeling. Logan at least believed him to be the guilty party. By others it is strongly denied that Colonel Cresap was a par- ticipant in the affair. But, be this as it may, the act, in addition to other exasperations, had greatly incensed the Indian tribes on the north of the Ohio River.
"To protect the settlements bordering on the Upper Ohio, it soon be- came necessary to organize an army in the East sufficient to operate against the savages.
"The army destined for the expedition was composed of volunteers and militia, chiefly from the counties west of the Blue Ridge, and consisted of two divisions. The Northern Division, comprehending the troops collected in Frederick, Dunmore (now Shenandoah), and the adjacent counties, was to be commanded by Lord Dunmore in person; and the Southern, com- prising the different companies raised in Bottetourt, Augusta, and the ad- joining counties east of the Blue Ridge, was to be led on by General Andrew Lewis. These two divisions, proceeding by different routes, were to form a junction at the mouth of the Big Kanawha, and from thence pen- etrate the country north-west of the Ohio River, as far as the season would permit, and destroy all the Indian towns and villages they could reach.
"When the Southern Division arrived at Point Pleasant, Governor Dunmore, with the forces under his command, had not reached there; however, advices were received from his lordship that he had determined on proceeding across the country directly to the Shawnee towns," and
* On the Scioto River, about eighty miles north-west of Point Pleasant.
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ordering General Lewis to cross the river, march forward and form a junc- tion with him near to them. These advices were received on the 9th of October, and preparations were immediately commenced for the transporta- tion of the troops over the Ohio River.
"Early on the morning of Monday, the Ioth of that month, two sol- diers left the camp and proceeded up the Ohio River in quest of deer. When they progressed about two miles, they unexpectedly came in sight of a large number of Indians rising from their encampment, and who, discovering the hunters, fired upon them and killed one; the other es- caped unhurt, and, running briskly to the camp, communicated the intel- ligence 'that he had seen a body of the enemy covering four acres of ground as closely as they could stand by the side of each other.' The main part of the army was immediately ordered out under Colonel Lewis and William Fleming, and, having formed into two lines, they proceeded about four hundred yards, when they met the Indians, and the action commenced.
"At the first onset, Colonel Charles Lewis having fallen, and Colonel Fleming being wounded, both lines gave way, and were retreating briskly toward the camp, when they were met by a re-enforcement under Colonel Field, and rallied. The engagement then became general, and was sus- tained by the most obstinate fury on both sides. The Indians, perceiving that the 'tug of war' had come, and determined on affording the Colonial army no chance of escape if victory should declare for them, formed a line extending across the point from the Ohio to the Kanawha, and protected in front by logs and fallen timber. In this situation they maintained the contest with unabated vigor from sunrise till toward the close of evening, bravely and successfully resisting every charge which was made on them, and withstanding the impetuosity of every onset with the most invincible firmness, until a fortunate movement on the part of the Virginian troops decided the day.
" Some short distance above the entrance of the Kanawha River into the Ohio there is a stream called Crooked Creek, emptying into the former of these from the north-east, whose banks are tolerably high, and were then covered with a thick and luxuriant growth of weeds. Seeing the imprac- ticability of dislodging the Indians by the most vigorous attack, and sensible of the great danger which must arise to his army if the contest were not decided before night, General Lewis detached the three companies which
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were commanded by Captains Isaac Shelby, George Matthews, and John Stewart, with orders to proceed up the Kanawha River and Crooked Creek, under cover of the banks and weeds, till they could pass some distance be- yond the enemy, when they were to emerge from their covert, march down- ward toward the point, and attack the Indians in the rear. The maneuver thus planned was promptly executed, and gave a decided victory to the Colonial army. The Indians, finding themselves suddenly and unexpect- edly encompassed between two armies, and not doubting but in the rear was the looked-for re-enforcement under Colonel Christian, soon gave way, and about sundown commenced a precipitate retreat across the Ohio to the towns on the Scioto.
"The victory indeed was decisive, and many advantages were obtained by it, but they were not cheaply bought. The Virginian army sustained in this engagement a loss of seventy-five killed and one hundred and forty wounded, about one-fifth of the entire number of troops.
"Nor could the number of the enemy engaged be ever ascertained. Their army is known to have been made up of warriors from the different nations north of the Ohio, and to have comprised the flower of the tribes already mentioned. The distinguished chief and consummate warrior, Cornstalk, who commanded their forces, proved himself on that day to be justly entitled to the prominent station which he occupied. His plan of alternate retreat and attack was well conceived, and occasioned the princi- pal loss sustained by the whites. If at any time his warriors were believed to waver, his voice could be heard above the din of arms, exclaiming in his native tongue : 'Be strong! Be strong!' And when one near him, by trepi- dation and reluctance to proceed to the charge, evinced a dastardly disposi- tion, fearing the example might have a pernicious influence, with one blow of the tomahawk he severed his skull. It was perhaps a solitary instance in which terror predominated. Never did men exhibit a more conclusive evidence of bravery in making a charge, and fortitude in withstanding an onset, than did those undisciplined soldiers of the forest in the field at Point Pleasant.
" Having buried the dead, and made every arrangement of which their sit- uation admitted for the comfort of the wounded, intrenchments were thrown up, and the army commenced its march to form a junction with the northern division under Lord Dunmore. Proceeding by the way of the Salt Licks General Lewis pressed forward with astonishing rapidity (considering that
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the march was through a trackless desert) ; but before he had gone far an ex- press arrived from Dunmore with orders to return immediately to the mouth of the Big Kanawha. Suspecting the integrity of his lordship's motives, and urged by the advice of his officers generally, General Lewis refused to obey these orders, and continued to advance till he was met at Kilkenny Creek,* and in sight of an Indian village which its inhabitants had just fired and deserted, by the governor, accompanied by White Eyes, who informed him that he was negotiating a treaty of peace, which would supersede the necessity of any further movement of the Southern Division, and repeated the order for his return.
"On his arrival at Point Pleasant, General Lewis left a sufficient force to protect the place, and a supply of provisions for the wounded, and then led the balance of the division to the place of rendezvous (Lewisburg) and disbanded them."
Into this story of Dunmore's War comes a sadder page; for it emphasizes a history which runs through more than one " Cent- ury of Dishonor !"-the history of the Indians' wrongs and the Government's shame :
"Cornstalk had, from the first, opposed the war with the whites, and when his scouts reported the advance of General Lewis's division the saga- cious chief did all he could to restrain his men and keep them from battle. But all his remonstrances were in vain, and it was then he told them, 'As you are determined to fight, you shall fight.' After their defeat and return. home, a council was convened to determine upon what was next to be done. The stern old chief said, rising : 'What shall we do now? The Long Knives are coming upon us by two routes. Shall we turn out and fight them? Shall we kill all our squaws and children, and then fight until we are killed ourselves?' Still the congregated warriors were silent, and, after a 110- ment's hesitation, Cornstalk struck his tomahawk into the war-post, and with compressed lips and flashing eyes gazed around the assembled group; then, with great emphasis, spoke: 'Since you are not inclined to fight I will go and make peace.'
"Lord Dunmore, on his return to Camp Charlotte, concluded a treaty
* Congo, a branch of the Scicto.
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with the Indians. Cornstalk was the chief speaker on the part of the In- dians. He openly charged the whites with being the sole cause of the war, enumerating the many provocations which the Indians had received, and dwelling with great force and emphasis upon the diabolical murder of Logan's family. This great chief spoke in the most vehement and denun1- ciatory style. His loud, clear voice was distinctly heard throughout . the camp.
"But there was one who would not attend the camp of Lord Dunmore, and that was Logan. The Mingo chief felt the chill of despair at his heart; his very soul seemed frozen within him ; and, although he would not interpose obstacles to an amicable adjustment of existing difficulties, still he could not meet the Long Knives in council as if no terrible stain of blood rested upon their hands. He remained at a distance, brooding in melancholy silence over his accumulated wrongs during most of the time his friends were negotiating. But Dunmore felt the importance of at least securing his assent, and for tliat purpose sent a special messenger, Colonel John Gibson, who waited upon the chief at his wigwam. The messenger in due time returned, bringing with him the celebrated speech which has given its author an immortality almost as imperishable as that of the great Athe- nian orator. The speech was probably prepared by Colonel John Gibson, and polished either by himself or some one else skilled in the art of com- position. Its authorship has been ascribed to Mr. Jefferson. But after reading the highly eulogistic terms in which that gentleman speaks of it, one could hardly suppose it to have been written by him. He says : 'I may challenge the whole orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator (if Europe has furnished a more eminent), to produce a single passage superior to it.' This would be rather too much for any modest writer to say of his own performance. It may be added, that De Witt Clinton indorsed the opinion expressed by Mr. Jefferson as to this celebrated speech.
"But that the intelligent reader may judge for himself, the speech of Logan, as found in Jefferson's Notes, is given here :
"'I appeal,' says he, 'to any white man to say, if he ever entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if he ever came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin and advocated peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they
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passed and said, "Logan is the friend of the white man." I had even thought to live with you but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last Spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it; I have killed many; I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace, but do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.'
"In the year 1777 the Indians, being urged by British agents, became very troublesome to the frontier settlements, manifesting much appearance of hostility, when Cornstalk, with Redhawk, paid a visit to the garrison at Point Pleasant. He made no secret of the disposition of the Indians, declaring that on his part he was opposed to joining in the war on the side of the British, but that all the nations except himself and his own tribe were determined to engage in it, and that of course he and his tribe would have to run with the stream.
"On this Captain Arbuckle thought proper to detain him, Redhawk, and another fellow as hostages, to prevent the nation from joining the British.
"During our stay two young men by the naines of Hamilton and Gilmore went over the Kanawha one day to hunt for deer. On their re- turn to camp, some Indians had concealed themselves on the bank, among some weeds, to view our encampment, and as Gilmore came along past them, they fired on him and killed him on the bank.
"'Captain Arbuckle and myself were standing on the opposite bank when the gun fired, and while we were considering who it could be shoot- ing contrary to orders, or what they were doing over the river, we saw Hamilton run down the bank, who called out that Gilmore was killed. Gilmore was one of the company of Captain John Hall, of that part of the country now Rockbridge County. The captain was a relation of Gilmore, whose family and friends were nearly all killed 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 expectation of being put to deatlı. They brought the corpse of Gilmore down the bank, covered with blood and scalped, and put him into the canoe.
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As they were passing the river, I observed to Captain Arbuckle that the people would be for killing the hostages as soon as the canoe should land. He supposed they would not offer to commit so great a violence upon the innocent, who were in no wise accessory to the murder of Gilmore. But the canoe had hardly touched the shore until the cry was raised, "Let us kill the Indians in the fort," and every man, with gun in hand, came up the bank, full of rage. Captain Hall was at their head and led them. Captain Arbuckle and I met them, and endeavored to dissuade them from so un- justifiable an action ; but they cocked their guns, threatened us with in- stant death if we did not desist, rushed by us into the fort, and put the Indians to death.
"'On the preceding day, Cornstalk's son, Elinipsico, had come from the nation to see his father, and to know if he was well or alive. When he came to the river opposite the fort he hallooed. His father was at that instant in the act of delineating, at our request, with chalk on the floor, a map of the country and the waters between the Shawanese towns and the Mississippi. He immediately recognized the voice of his son, got up, went out, and answered him. The young fellow crossed over, and they embraced each other in the most tender and affectionate manner. As the men advanced to the door Cornstalk rose up and met them. They fired upon him, and seven or eight bullets went through him. So fell Cornstalk, the great 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. Redhawk made an attempt to go up the chimney, but was shot down. The other Indian was shamnefully mangled, and I grieved to see him so long in the agonies of death.
"The murder of Cornstalk and his party of course produced its nat- ural effect, deciding the wavering Shawanese to join the other tribes as allies of the British, and converting them from possible friends of the Amer- ican cause into the most bitter and relentless enemies."
During the entire period of the Revolutionary War there was an almost constant succession of daring raids and desperate encounters upon the Western frontier.
Furnished with English weapons, and occasionally led by British officers, the Indians made constant inroads into Ken-
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tucky and Western Virginia; and hardly one of the scattered settlements south of the OHIO RIVER escaped without severe loss, even when its defenders succeeded in beating back their assailants. A death of torture, or a captivity which beggars de- scription, awaited the hapless prisoners, taken from their fancied security in the distant regions far back of the line of block- houses and stations. In fact, there was no assurance or hope of safety for the women and children, except the shelter of the little log forts, which were defended by the rifles of the matchless marksmen of the border.
The most life-like sketches of the time which we have been able to glean from the early chronicles, have already been pre- sented to the reader in brief extracts from the traditions and records of the " Early Settlements." Nearly all of these sketches belong to the sparsely inhabited era; yet we must not lose sight of the fact that the increase and growth of these settlements brought a fuller life into the wilderness.
In Kentucky, Western Virginia, and Pennsylvania “ block- houses " were still in existence during the last decade of the eighteenth century, but around each a village had grown. The forests between the "stations " were cut by wide swaths of clear- ings ; homely little cabins were nestled at the base of the linked chain of the beautiful rounded hills, which are the most distinct- ive characteristic of the valley of the Ohio; and the more pre- tentious log houses of the "proprietors " dotted the rich bottom- lands of the south-eastern affluents of the RIVER.
The advent of this semi-civilization had changed and soft- ened the savage features of the wilderness. The tangled soli- tudes were awakening into a new life. This rich wild nature- heretofore jealously guarding her hidden treasures-was now an
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open book to the SURVEYOR, who had followed hard upon the footsteps of the PIONEER.
Indian trails were enlarging into "new roads ;" openings, where adventurous backwoodsmen had " cleared their lots," were closing up and coming together; and the regular weekly " mail- wagon " rattled across the " corduroy bridges," or changed horses at the log stable, under shady, overarching trees; where, within a past which could be counted by single numbers, the express- rider had ridden in hot haste to distance a bullet or pass an am- buscade before the deadly tomahawk could disable his horse or strike him from his seat.
From the villages, where the houses clustered together for good neighborship as well as for defense, the " clearings " began to stretch out over the swelling ridges, exhibiting their summer's wealth in wide, billowy waves of yellow corn and green pastures ;. and on the sunny southern slopes peach and apple orchards marked the coming of spring, with their delicate sweet blossoms. The bronze-crested, flame-throated, purple-winged humming-bird, leaving his Winter home by the Gulf, came up the river when he knew the wild honeysuckles would be in bloom; but the orchard scents caught him, and he forgot the pretty wild things in the glen, and hung in mid-air above the lovely buds, in the rapt delight of a new joy. All the twittering little feathered creatures, that care for man and seek his companionship, came flocking into the open glades that edged the deeper forests; for the Dark and Bloody Ground was losing its somber shades, and its haunted forest-aisles were no longer the hiding-places of the death-dealing red men. The fiat had gone forth; the land-loving Saxon and his affiliated Celtic brother had won, and would hold, the south bank of "The White Shining River," which the tribes
SPANNING NORTH FORK.
ANAND SHOW
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were never more to see. In their visions of the happy hunting- grounds there would be a reproduction of its banks; or at least a dream-given likeness in those far-away shining shores of peace.
On the north bank the contest was about to begin on a larger scale. War was to be war. Squadrons of horsemen, companies of infantry, troops marching with banners, were now about to drive the Indians to that uncertain NORTH-WEST which is always changing its boundaries. From the beginning of time, as time is counted by struggles and battles, the Indians were always on the losing side. As allies of the French they were conquered by the English; as allies of the English they fought through the Revolution, and for years after the surrender of Cornwallis kept the war spirit, which is the spirit of hell, alive upon the border. The fire of hatred between the borderer and the Indian was unex- tinguishable. At every breath of rumour hostilities broke out afresh. Foot by foot the Eastern tribes had been driven to the Alleghanies, across the chain, into the fertile belts and magnificent forests of the loveliest of lovely river valleys. There they would have rested, and for that they joined the confederacy of the Miamis. But the Saxon followed hard and fast. Their new al- lies in the West were to suffer defeat and loss, and the broad free lands of all the nations, watered by the most beautiful of the tribu- taries of the RIVER which was their pride and their delight, were to be the spoil of the conquerors.
Every defeat compelled the tribes to go backward. Every treaty of peace was an enforced sale of the lands upon which they collected the peltries that brought them comparatively nothing, but that made the gains of the white trader.
Their removal from the Ohio had now come to be a question of life and death to the tribes upon the Ohio; for year by year
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they were steadily nearing the Mississippi, and near by the Mississippi were their un-friends, the Illinois, and across the Mississippi their deadly enemies, the Sioux. The wisest of their chiefs, their prophets, foretold their utter destruction, and the warriors understood that the final day of resistance had come. The tomahawk, the scalping-knife, the rifle, and their most desperate powers of endurance and resistance, must decide their ownership of any lands east of the Mississippi; for if they made friends with the Illinois, and found favor with the haughty, imperious Sioux, who could assure them that the persistent "Long Knives" would not cross the mighty waters? All through the century they had been fighting the same foe-the same Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania pioneers-the men who preferred the hunting, the rude sports, and the desperate frays of the border to the ways of peace.
Back of the "Long Knives" a different, yet a no less per- sistent and inimical people, were following in their wake. The New Englander had heard of the fertile valleys ; of the land flow- ing, if not "with milk and honey," with the traffic that breeds riches. He was as godly a sectarist as could be found in the fighting Scotch-Irish stock; and though a less picturesque figure than the sturdy pioneer, he had come to stay. This new-comer felt it to be part of the eternal fitness of things, for the rough fellow in the hunting-shirt and the buckskin breeches to go on- ward, while he rested upon the rich lands which bordered the broad-bosomed river.
The Ist of March, 1784, Virginia ceded her North-west Ter- ritory to the United States, to be laid out and formed into States, " having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and in- dependence as the other States." Among other conditions,
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"they were to be FREE STATES," and all "French Canadians, and other settlers," were to "hold their possessions in peace." The VIRGINIA OHIO COMPANY had builded forts, and assisted with material aid the men who fought the Indians and the English through the dark days of the Colonies and the sufferings of the Revolution ; fought every step of the road of conquest, from the topmost ridge of the Alleghanies to the Falls of the Ohio, until the fight for the river was won. The next work to be done-work in which all must assist, for the newly arrived settler on the north bank must be protected-was the pacification or the extermination of the Miamis and their new allies.
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