USA > Virginia > A history of the valley of Virginia, 1st ed > Part 14
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he was severely threatened and dismissed, perhaps on bail, but I do not recollect how: another Pennsylvania magistrate was sent to Staunton jail. And I have al- ready shewn in the preceding pages, that there was a sufficient preparation of materials for this war in the pre- disposition and hostile attitude of our affairs with the In- dians; that it was consequently no difficult matter with a Virginia governor to direct this incipient state of things to any point most conducive to the grand end he had in view, namely, weakening our national strength in some of its best and most efficient parts. If, then, a war with the Indians might have a tendency to produce this result, it appears perfectly natural and reasonable to suppose that Dunmore would make use of all his power and in- fluence to promote it ; and although the war of 1774 was brought to a conclusion before the year was out, yet we know that this fire was scarcely extinguished before it burst out into a flame with tenfold fury, and two or threearmies of the whites were sacrificed before we could get the Indians subdued; and this unhappy state of our affairs with the Indians happening during the severe conflict of our revolutionary war, had the very effect, I suppose, Dunmore had in view, namely, dividing our forces and enfeebling our aggregate strength; and that the seeds of these subsequent wars with the Indians were sown in 1774 and 1775, appears almost certain.
Yet still, however, we admit that we are not in pos- session of materials to substantiate this charge against the earl: and all we can do is to produce some facts and circumstances that deserve notice, and have a strong bearing on the case.
And the first we shall mention* is, a circular letter sent by Maj. Connoly, his proxy, early in the spring of the year 1774, warning the inhabitants to be on their guard -- that the Indians were very angry, and manifested so much hostility, that he was apprehensive they would strike somewhere as soon as the season would permit,
*The remark, as it should! seem incidentally made, in Dunmore's procla- "mation, as to the Indian war, (see page lol,) deserves notice, as it has no connection with the subject of that proclamation.
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and enjoining the inhabitants to prepare and retire into forts, &c. It might be useful to collate and compare this letter with one he wrote to Capt. Cresap on the 14th July following ; see hereafter. In this letter he declares there is war or danger of war, before the war is properly be- gun ; in that to Capt. Cresap he says the Indins deport themselves peaceably, when Dunmore and Lewis and Cornstalk are all on their march for battle.
This letter was sent by express in every direction of the country. Unhappily we have lost or mislaid it. and consequently are deficient in a most material point in its date. But from one expression in the letter, namely, that the Indians will strike when the season permits, and this season is generally understood to mean when the leaves are out, we may fix it in the month of May. We find from a subsequent letter from Pentecost and Connoly to Capt. Reece, that this assumed fact is prov- ed : see hereafter.
Therefore this letter cannot be of a later date than sometime in the month of April ; and if so, before But- ler's men were killed on Little Beaver; and before Lo- gan's family were killed on Yellow creek, and was in fact the fiery red-cross and harbinger of war, as in days of yore among the Scottish clans. That this was the . fact is I think absolutely certain, because no mention is made in Connoly's letter of this affair, which certainly would not have been omitted, if precedent to his letter.
This letter produced its natural result. The people fled into forts, and put themselves into a posture of de- fense, and the tocsin of war resounded from Laurel hill to the banks of the Ohio. Capt. Cresap, who was peace- ably at this time employed in building houses and im- proving lands on the Ohio, received this letter, accompa- nied, it is believed, with a confirmatory message from Col. Croghan and Maj. M.Gee, Indian agents and in- terpreters ;* and he thereupon immediately broke up his camp, and ascended the river to Wheeling fort, the near- est place of safety, from whence it is believed he intend-
*I had this from Capt. Crezap himself, a short time after it occurred.
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ed speedily to return home; but during his stay at this place, a report was brought into the fort that two Indians were coming down the river. Capt. Cresap, supposing from every circumstance, and the general aspect of af- fairs, that war was inevitable, and in fact already begun, went up the river with his party; and two of his men, of the name of Chenoweth and Brothers, killed these two Indians. Beyond controversy this is the only cir- cumstance in the history of this Indian war, in which his name can in the remotest degree be identified with any measure tending to produce this war ; and it is cer- tain that the guilt or innocence of this affair will ap- pear from its date. It is notorious, then, that those In- dians were killed not only after Capt. Cresap had re- ceived Connoly's letter, and after Butler's men were killed in the canoe, but also after the affair at Yellow creek, and after the people had fled into forts. But more of this hereafter, when we take up Mr. Doddridge and his book ; simply, however, remarking here, that this affair of killing. these two Indians has the same aspect and relation to Dunmore's war that the battle of Lex- ington had to our war of the revolution.
But to proceed. Permit us to remark, that it is very · difficult.at this late period to form a correct idea of these times, unless we can bring distinctly into view the real state of our frontier. The inhabitants of the western country were at this time thinly scattered from the Alle- gany mountain to the castern banks of the Ohio, and most thinly near that river. In this state of things, it was natural to suppose that the few settlers in the -vicin- ity of Wheeling, who had collected into that fort, would feel extremely solicitous to detain captain Cresap and his men as long as possible, especially until they could sce on what point the storm of war would fall. Capt. Cresap, the son of a hero, and a hero himself, felt.for. their situation; and getting together a few more men in addition to his own, and not relishing the limits of a lit- tle fort, nor a life of inactivity, set out on what was call- ed a scouting party, that is, to reconnoiter and ecour the
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frontier border ; and while out and engaged in this busi- ness, fell in with and had a running fight with a party of Indians, nearly about his equal in numbers, when one Indian was killed, and Cresap had one man wound- ed. This affair took place somewhere on the banks of : the Ohio, Doddridge says it was at the mouth of Cap- tina : be it so-it matters not; but he adds, it was on the same day the Indians were killed in the canoc. In this the doctor is most egregiously mistaken, as I shall prove hereafter. ..
But may we not ask, what were these Indians doing here at this time, on the banks of the Ohio? They had no town near this place, nor was it their hurting Ecason, as it was about the Sth or 10th of Mav. Is it not then probable, nay almost certain, that this strag- gling banditti were prepared and ready to fall on some . parts of our exposed frontier, and that their dispersion saved the lives of many helpless women and children ?
But the old proverb, cry mad-dog and kill him ! is, I suppose, equally as applicable to heroes as to dogs.
Capt: Cresap soon after this returned to his family in Maryland ; but feeling. most sensibly for the inhab- itants on the frontier in their perilous situation, immedi- ately raised a company of volunteers, and marched back to their assistance ; and having advanced as far as Cat- fish camp, the place where Washington, Pa. now stands, he was arrested in his progress by a peremptory and in- sulting order from Connoly, commanding him to dis- miss his men and to return home.
This order, couched in offensive and insulting lan- guage, it may be well supposed, was not very grateful to a man of captain Cresap's high sense of honor and peculiar sensibility, especially conscious as he was of the purity of his motives, and the laudable end he had in view. He nevertheless obeyed, returned home and dis- missed his men, and with the determination, I well know from what he said after his return, never again to take any part in the present Indian war, but to leave Mir. Commandant at Pittsburg to fight it out as he could.
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This hasty resolution was however of short duration. For however strange, contradictory, and irreconcilable the conduct of the earl of Dunmore and his vice-gov- ernor of Pittsburg, &c. may appear, yet it is a fact, that on the 10th of June, the earl of Dunmore, unsolicited, and to captain Cresap certainly unexpected, sent him a captain's commission of the militia of Hampshire coun- ty, Virginia, notwithstanding his residence was in Ma- ryland. This commission reached Capt. C. a few days after his return from the expedition to Catfish camp, just above mentioned ; and inasmuch as this commis- sion, coming to him in the way it did, carried with it a tacit expression of the governor's approbation of his con- duct-add to which, that about the same time his feel- ings were daily assailed by petition after petition, from almost every section of the western country, praying, begging, and beseeching him to come over to their as- sistance,-it is not surprising that his resolution should be changed. Several of these petitions and Dunmore's commission have escaped the wreck of time, and are in my possession.
This commission coming at the time it did, and in the way and under the circumstances above recited, aided and strengthened as it was by the numberless petition- ers aforesaid, broke down and so far extinguished all Capt. Cresap's personal resentnient against Connoly that he once more determined to exert all his power and in- fluence in assisting the distressed inhabitants of the west- ern frontier, and accordingly immediately raised a com- pany, placed himself under the command of Maj. An- gus M.Donald, and marched with him to attack the In- dians, at their town of Wappatomachie, on the Mus- kingum. His popularity, at this time, was such, and so many men flocked to his standard, that he could not consistently with the rules of an army, retain them in his company, but was obliged to transfer them, much a- gainst their wills, to other captains, and the result was, that after retaining in his own. company as many men as he could consistently, he filled completely the compa-
OF DUNMORE'S WAR. 121
ny of his nephew Capt. Michael Cresap, and also part- ly the company of Capt. Hancock Lee. This little army of about 100 men, under Maj. M.Donald, pene- trated the Indian country as far as the Muskingum ; near which they had a skirmish with a party of Indians under Capt. Snake, in which M.Donald lost six men, and killed the Indian chief Snake.
A little anecdote here will go to show what expert and close shooters we had in those days among our ridemen. When M'Donald's little army arrived on the near bank of the Muskingum, and while lying there, an Indian on the opposite shore got behind a log or old tree, and was lifting up his head occasionally to view the white men's army. One of Capt. Cresap's men, of the name of John Harness, seeing this, loaded his rifle with two balls, and placing himself on the bank of the river, watched the opportunity when the Indian raised his head, and firing at the same instant, put both balls through the Indian's neck and laid him dead ;* which circumstance no doubt had great influence in intimida- ting the Indians.
M.Donald after this had another running fight with the Indians, drove them from their towns, burnt them, destroyed their provisions, and, returning to the settle- ment, discharged his men.
But this affair at Wappatomachie and expedition of M.Donald were only the prelude to more important and efficient measures. It was well understood that the In- dians were far from being subdued, and that they would now certainly collect all their force, and to the utmost of their power return the compliment of our visit to their territories.
"The governor of Virginia, whatever might have been His views as to the ulterior measures, lost no time in pre- paring to meet this storm. He sent orders immediately to Col. Andrew Lewis, of Augusta county, to raise au anny of about one thousand men, and to march with all expedition to the mouth of the Great Kanawha. on
* The Muskingum at dis place is said to be about 200 yards wide.
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the Ohio river, where, or at some other point, he would join him, after he had got together another army, which he intended to raise in the northwestern counties, and command in person. Lewis lost no time, but collected the number of men required, and marched without de- lay to the appointed place of rendezvous.
But the earl was not quite so rapid in his movements, which circumstance the cagle eye of old Cornstalk, the general of the Indian army, saw, and was determined to avail himself of, foreseeing that it would be much. easier to destroy two separate columns of an invading army before than after their junction and consolidation. With this view he marched with all expedition to attack Lewis, before he was joined by the carl's army from the north, calculating, confidently no doubt, that if he could destroy Lewis, he would be able to give a good account of the army under the earl.
The plans of Cornstalk appear to have been those of a consummate and skillful general, and the prompt and rapid execution of them displayed the energy of a war- rior. He therefore, without loss of time, attacked Lewis at his post. The attack was sudden, violent, and I be- lieve unexpected. It was nevertheless well fought, very obstinate, and of long continuance ; and as both parties fought with rifles, the conflict was dreadful; many were killed on both sides, and the contest was only finished with the approach of night. The Virginians, however, kept the field, but lost inany valuable officers and men, and among the rest, Col. Charles Lewis, brother to the commander in chief.
Cornstalk and Blue Jacket, the two Indian captains, it is said, performed prodigies of valor; but finding at length all their efforts unavailing, drew off their men in good order, and with the determination to fight no more, if peace could be obtained upon reasonable terms.
This battle of Lewis's opened an easy and unmolest- ed passage for Dunmore through the Indian country ;*
* A little anecdote will prove that Dunmore was a general, and also the high estimation in which he hold Capt. Cresap. While the army was march-
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but it is proper to remark here, however, that when Dunmore arrived with his wing of the army at the mouth of Hockhocking, he sent Capt. White-eyes, a Delaware chief, to invite the Indians to a treaty, and he remained stationary at that place until White-eyes returned, who reported that the Indians would not treat about peace. I presume, in order of time, this must have been just before Lewis's battle; because it will ap- pear in the sequel of this story, that a great revolution took place in the minds of the Indians after the battle.
Dunmore, immediately upon the report of White- eyes that the Indians were not disposed for peace, sent an express to Col. Lewis to move on and meet him near Chilicothe, on the Scioto, and both wings of the army were put in motion. But as Dunmore approached the Indian towns, he was met by flags from the Indians, demanding peace, to which he acceded, halted his army, and runners were sent to invite the Indian chiefs, who cheerfully obeved the summons, and came to the treaty -save only Logan, the great orator, who refused to come. It seems, however, that neither Duminore nor the Indian chiefs considered his presence of much im- portance, for they went to work and finished the treaty without him-referring, I believe, some unsettled points for future discussion, at a treaty to be held the ensuing summer or fall at Pittsburg. This treaty, the articles of which I never saw, nor do I know that they were ever recorded, concluded Dunmore's war, in September or October, 1774. After the treaty was over, old Corn- stalk, the Shawnce chief, accompanied Dunmore's ar- my until they reached the mouth of Hockhocking, on the Ohio; and what was most singular, rather made his home in Capt. Cresap's tent, with whom he continued oni terms of the most friendly familiarity. I consider
ing through the Indian country, Dunmore ordered Capt. Cresap with his company and some more of his best troops in the rear. This displeased Cresap, and he expostulated with the earl, who replied, that the reason of this arrangement was, because he knew that if he was attacked in front, all those meu would soon rush forward into the engagement. This reason. which was by the by a handsome compliment, satisfied Cresap, and all the rear guard.
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this circumstance as positive proof that the Indians themselves neither considered Capt. Cresap the mur- derer of Logan's family, nor the cause of the war. It appears, also, that at this place the earl of Dunmore re- ceived dispatches from England. . Doddridge says he received these on his march out.
But we ought to have mentioned in its proper place, that after the treaty between Dunmore and the. Indians . commenced near Chilicothe, Lewis arrived. with his ar- my, and encamped two or three miles from Dunmore, which greatly alarmed the Indians, as they thought he was so much irritated at losing so many men in the late battle that he would not casily be pacified ; nor would they be satisfied until Dunmore and old Cornstalk went into Lewis's camp to converse with him.
Doct. Doddridge represents this affair in different shades of light from this statement. I can only say I had my information from an officer that was present at the time.
But it is time to remind the reader, that, although I have wandered into such a minute detail of the various occurrences, facts, and circumstances of Dunmore's war; and all of which as a history may be interesting to the present and especially to the rising generation; yet it is proper to remark that I have two leading ob- jects chiefly in view-first, to convince the world, that whoever and whatever might be the cause of the Indian . war of 1774, it was not Capt. Cresap; secondly, that from the aspect of our political affairs at that period, and from the known hostility of Dunmore to the American revolution, and withal from the subsequent conduct of Dunmore, and the dreadful Indian war that commen- ced soon after the beginning of our war with Great Bri- tain-I say, from all these circumstances, we have in- finitely stronger reasons to suspect Dunmore than Cre- sap; and I may say that the dispatches abovementioned that were received by Dunmore at Hockhocking, al- though after the treaty, were yet calculated to create suspicion.
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But if, as we suppose, Dunmore was secretly at the bottom of this Indian war, it is evident that he could not with propriety appear personally in a business of this kind ; and we have seen and shall see, how effectually his sub-governor played his part between the Virginians and Pennsylvanians; and it now remains for us to ex- amine how far the conduct of this man (Connoly) will bear us out in the supposition that there was also some foul play; some dark intriguing work to embroil the western country in an Indian war.
And I think it best now, as we have introduced this man Connoly again, to give the reader a short condensed history of his whole proceedings, that we may have him in full view at once. We have already presented the reader with his circular letter, and its natural result and consequences, and also with his insulting letter and mandatory order to Capt. Cresap, at Catfish camp, to dismiss his men and go home; and that the reader may now see a little of the character of this man, and un ... . derstand him, if it is possible to understand him, I pre- sent him with the copy of a letter to Capt. Reece.
" As I have received intelligence that Logan, a Min- go Indian, with about twenty Shawnees and others, were to set off for war last Monday, and I have reason to believe that they may come upon the inhabitants a- hout Wheeling, I hereby order, require and command you, with all the men you can raise, immediately to march and join any of the companies already out and under the pay of government, and, upon joining your parties together, scour the frontier and become a barrier to our settlements, and endeavor-to fall in with their tracks, and pursue them, using your utmost en- deavors to chastise them as open and avowed enemies.
"I am, sir, your most humble servant, "DORSEY PENTECOST, for "JOHN CONNOLY. " To Capt. Joel Reece, use all expedition, May 27, 1774."
Now here is a fellow for you. A very short time be- fore this, perhaps two or three days before the date of
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this letter, Capt. Cresap, who had a fine company of vo- lunteers, is insulted, ordered to dismiss his men and go home; and indeed it appears from one expression in this letter, namely, "the companies who are already out," that these companies must have been actually out at the very time Cresap is ordered home.
Now if any man is skilled in the art of legerdemain, let him unriddle this enigma if he can.
But as so many important facts crowd together at this eventful period, it may be satisfactory to the reader, and have a tendency more clearly to illustrate the various scenes interwoven in the thread of this history, to pre- sent to his view a chronological list of these facts; and I think the first that deserves notice is Connoly's circu- Har letter, which we date the 25th day of April; second- ly, the two men killed in Butler's canoe we know was the first or second day of May; thirdly, the affair at Yellow creek was on the third or fourth day of May ; fourthly, the Indians killed in the canoe above Wheel- ing the fifth or sixth day of May ; fifthly, the skirmish with the Indians on the river Ohio, about the eighth or tenth day of May ; after which, Capt. Cresap return- ed to Catfish camp about the twenty-fifth of May. In- deed this fact speaks for itself ; it could not be earlier, when it is considered that he rode home from the Obio, a distance of about 140 miles, raised a company and marched back as far as Catfish, through bad roads, near 120 miles; and all, agrecably to my statement, in seven- teen days : then it is evident that he was not at Catfish camp sooner than the 25th of May; and if so, he was ordered home at the very time when scouts were out, and the settlement threatened with an attack from the Indians, as is manifest from Connoly's own letter to Capt. Reece, dated May 27, 1774.
But the hostility of Connoly to Capt. Cresap was un- remitting and without measure or decency ; for on the 1 4th July, of the same year, we find one of the most, extraordinary, crooked, malignant, Grubstreet epistles, that ever appeared upon paper : but let us see it.
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" Fort Dunmore,* July 14, 1774.
" Your whole proceedings, so far as relate to our dis- turbances with the Indians, have been of a nature .so extraordinary, that I am much at a loss to account for the cause; but when I consider your late steps, tending directly to ruin the service here, by inveigling away the militia of this garrison by your preposterous proposals, and causing them thereby to embezzle the arms of yo- vernment, purchased at an enormous expense, and at the same time to reflect infinite disgrace upon the honor of this colony, by attacking a set of people, which, not- withstanding the injury they have sustained by you in the loss of their people, yet continue to rely upon the professions of friendship which I have made, and de- port themselves accordingly ; I say when Iconsiderthese matters, I must conclude that you are actuated by a spirit of discord, so prejudicial to the peace and good or- der of society, that the conduct calls for justice, and due execution thereof can only check. I must once again order you to desist from your pernicious designs, and require of you, if you are an officer of militia, to send the deserters from this place back with all expedition, that they may be dealt with as their crimes merit.
"I am, sir, your servant, "JOHN CONNOLY."
This letter, although short, contains so many things for remark and animadversion. that we scarcely know where to begin. It exhibits, however, a real picture of the man, and a mere superficial glance at its phraseolo- gy will prove that he is angry, and his nerves in a tre- mor. It is, in fact, an incoherent jumble of words and sentences, all in the disjunctive.
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