History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 16

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 16

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towns when the Yellow Creek Indians came in, and that there were great lamentations by all the Indians of that place. Some friendly In- dians advised him to leave the Indian settlements, which he did.

"Could any rational person believe for a moment that the Indians came to Yellow Creek with hostile intentions, or that they had any sus- picion of similar intentions on the part of the whites against them ? Would five men have crossed the river, three of them in a short time

become dead drunk, while the other two discharged their guns, and thus put themselves entirely at the mercy of the whites, or would they have brought over a squaw with an infant pappoose, if they had not re- posed the utmost confidence in the friendship of the whites? Every person who is at all acquainted with Indians knows better, and it was the belief of the inhabitants who were capable of reasoning on the sub- ject that all the depredations committed on the frontiers by Logan and his party in 1774 were as retaliation for the murder of Logan's friends at Yellow Creek."

annually, and that they Trade with us [Virginians] only for what they want."

But before receiving this authority from the Gov- ernor, 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 Monon- gahela, 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 sec- tion, were attacked by the Indians, and their captain and lieutenant wounded, the former mortally. Gov- ernor Penn was informed of this occurrence, and of the outrages which had been committed in this region by Logan's marauders, in a letter1 written at Pitts- burgh on the 14th of June by Eneas Mackay (after- wards 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 reference 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 six- teen persons to our Certain knowledge. About and in the neighborhood of Ten-Mile Creek last Saturday, a party of the militia, consisting of one Capt" one Lieut and forty privates, were on their march to join Con- nelly 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 Capt on the spot & wounded the Lieut and made their Escape without being hurt, and the Party, after Burrying their Capt Returned with their wounded Lieut, 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 immedi- ately) 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 Westmore- land, in a letter of June 16th to Governor Penn, in- formed 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. Wilson. Before this Accident Mr. Connolly had deter-

1 Penn. Archives, 1774, p. 517.

DUNMORE'S WAR.

mined to March from Ft. Pitt (which he now calls ; possible to persuade the People so, and I am certain Fort Dunmore) with three or four hundred men he had embodied for the purpose of chastising the Shaw- anese, to erect Forts at Wheeling and Hockhockon to overawe the Indians, and from 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, 1774,1 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 Vir- ginia, 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 con- gratulating themselves that it was not on them, but on the more exposed (but then almost entirely de- serted) settlements west of the Monongahela that the savages were wreaking their vengeance. "It is said," wrote William Thompson, in a letter to Gov- ernor 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 June2 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 rode up to inquire into, and found it, if not totally groundless, at least very improbable, but it was im-

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 all moved into this place [Ligonier], and I perceive are much in doubt what to do. Noth- ing 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 intel- ligence 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 Pitts- burgh, 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. Mc- Donald was ordered to move west on Braddock's road, with a force of about five hundred men, to pro- ceed from Laurel Hill to Fort Burd, thence across the Monongahela and the present county of Wash- ington to Wheeling, to complete the fort, and after- wards 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 not 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 circum- stances 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."" 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 dur- ing the later operations of the campaign. The reason : why Connolly had treated Cresap so cavalierly and re- fused 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 proofs of high con-

1 Penn. Archives, 1774, p. 519.

2 Ibid., p. 514.

3 Mayer's Logan and Cresap.

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

sideration 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 tranquillity of the country will be fruitless."

It has been already mentioned that Col. McDonald was ordered to march with a force of about five hun- dred 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 Gov- ernor in person, and another body of troops under Gen. Andrew Lewis,1 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 Wil- liamsburg 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. (after- wards colonel) William Crawford, of Stewart's Cross- ings on the Youghiogheny, was one of Dunmore's principal officers, and stood high in the favor of his lordship.2

The force under Gen. Andrew Lewis, eleven hun- dred strong, proceeded from Camp Union to the head- waters 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 find- ing 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 Kan- awha as at first agreed on. At the same time he ordered Lewis to cross the Ohio and march to meet him (Dun- more) 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 ascer- tained) 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. Dun- more 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 in- clined 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. Gov- ernor Dunmore immediately set out on his return, and proceeded by way of Redstone and the Great Cross- ings of the Youghiogheny to Fort Cumberland, and thence to the Virginia capital. Maj. William Craw- ford 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 expedi- tion 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, fur- ther, no Indian for the future is to hunt on the east side of the Ohio, nor any white man on the west side; as

1 Who had been a captain under Washington in the Fort Necessity campaign of 1754.

2 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 twelve 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 pack- horses, 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.

DUNMORE'S WAR.

that seems to have been the cause of some of the dis- 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 riffe of the settler could be pointed against the assail- ants. Sometimes, as at Lindley's, and many of the other forts in the adjacent country west of the Mo- turbance between our people and them. As a guar- antee that they will perform their part of the agree- ment, 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 ' nongahela, additional cabins were erected outside of discovered their intentions, which were to slip off the fort for temporary abode in times of danger, from which the sojourners could in case of attack retreat within the fort. 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 follow- ing day, in order to pursue their journey. This intel- ligence came by John Montour, son of Capt. Mon- tour, 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 per- formed 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 vil- lage half a mile distant. Unfortunately one of our 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 In- dian. 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 pris- oners 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.

Doddridge, in his " Notes on the Early Settlements and Indian Wars," says the " settlers' fort" of those days was " not only a place of defense but the resi- dence 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 out- side 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 were 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 bullet- proof. 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 for- midable 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."

The "settlers' forts" and block-houses, of which there were many in the territory that is now Wash- ington County, and which by affording shelter and - protection to the inhabitants prevented an entire abandonment of this section of the country in Dun- more'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 con- sisted of a greater or less space of land, inclosed on : near the site of the village of Candor ; Dillow's fort

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 ; Wells' 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,

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

on Dillow's Run, in now Hanover township; Cherry's fort, in Mount Pleasant township; Beeman's block- house or fort, on the north fork of Wheeling Creek ; Doddridge's fort, in what is now Independence town- ship; 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 se- curity 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 sav- ages in the Ohio Valley was gained by Wayne's vic- tory on the Maumee.

CHAPTER VII.

THE REVOLUTION.

Patriotic Meetings-Troops sent to the Field-Military Operations under Gens. Hand and McIntosh and Col. Brodhead-Expeditions under Gen. George Rogers Clarke-Fate of Col. Lochry's Command-The Moravian Expeditions and Massacre.

WASHINGTON COUNTY had no separate and inde- pendent organization or existence during the period of the Revolution until near the close of the great struggle for independence ; and as for this very good reason the Revolutionary muster-rolls embrace no military organizations distinctively from this county, and no full regiments or companies are known to have been raised here for regular service in the Con- tinental or Pennsylvania line, it might be inferred that the people then living within the territory that is now the county of Washington took very little, if any, part in the patriotic conflict. But such an in- ference would be wholly erroneous; for, besides the men who went from the then sparsely populated country west of the Monongahela to join the regi- ments and companies that were raised on the other side of that river, in Westmoreland County, soon after the opening of hostilities, there were also furnished from the settlements of Washington County, both be- fore and immediately after its erection as such, many hundreds of volunteers and militiamen, who took gallant part, and did good service in the numerous expeditions that were sent from the valleys of the Monongahela and Ohio against the Indian tribes in the Northwest. These campaigns and expeditions were necessary for the protection of the frontiers against incursions and massacre by savages, incited by white renegades and the British, and sometimes led by officers of the royal army. They were as much a part of the Revolutionary conflict as were the battles of Trenton and Monmouth; and the men who took part in them were as much entitled to credit for their

bravery and patriotism as were those who fought in the army of Washington on the Delaware and Brandy- wine.

Early in May, 1775, the tidings came across the Al- leghenies that on the 19th of the preceding month a detachment of royal troops from Gen. Gage's force at Boston had fired on the Massachusetts provincials at Lexington Common ; that the yeomanry had returned the fire and harassed the retreating regulars far on their way towards the city. Thus was announced the opening of the first act in the great drama of the Rev- olution, and the response which it brought forth from the people west of the mountains was prompt and un- mistakably patriotic.

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 16

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216