USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, with reminiscences illustrative of the vicissitudes of its pioneer settlers (A Supplement) > Part 7
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In October, the House of Burgesses made a liberal grant for the public service, and during the winter of 1754-'5 ten thousand
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pounds were sent from England. The Governor became more energetic than ever. He determined to increase the number of companies to ten, and to settle disputes among officers about rank he reduced all the commands to independent companies, so that there should be no officer in a Virginia regiment above the rank of captain. Washington, considering it derogatory to his character to accept a lower commission than he had held, resigned and went home.
Peter Hogg,15 born in Scotland in 1703, settled in Augusta with his brothers, James and Thomas, about 1745, and married here Elizabeth Taylor. He was a captain in Washington's regiment, having been commissioned March 9, 1754. He finally became a lawyer of some note in the Valley. In January, 1755, he was recruiting on the Eastern Shore, and on the 19th of that month Governor Dinwiddie wrote to him with charac- teristic bluntness : "When you had your commission I was made to believe you could raise forty men. You carried up to Alexandria only nine, and that at a very great expense. You have now been two months getting fourteen. There is not an ensign that has been recruiting but has had more success. * * The forces are all marched for Wills's Creek. I therefore order you to proceed directly with all the recruits you have raised either to Alexandria or Fredericksburg, and make what dispatch you can to join the forces at Wills's Creek." On the Ist of February the Governor wrote to Hogg : "I received your letter and am glad you have raised forty men, with whom I desire you to proceed the most ready way for Winchester and Wills's Creek, where I expect the rest of our forces are by this time." [In the foregoing extracts we have omitted most of the capital letters and written out many words in full.]
Andrew Lewis was left in Augusta till after February 12, 1755. The Governor wrote to him on that day : " I now order you to leave the Ensign, a Sergeant, or corporal, and eighteen private men at the fort you have built, and with the rest of your com- pany you are to march imediately for Winchester, and there re- main till you have further orders. * * If you can 'list some stout young men that will march with you to Winchester, they
15 Ancestor of the Hoges of Augusta.
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shall, after review, be received into the service, and be paid their enlisting money."
The ensign left to hold the fort was William Wright. The Governor wrote to him on the 12th, instructing him "to keep a good look out," to be exact in his duties, to make short excur . sions from the fort, and to apply to Colonel Patton, in case of danger, to have some of his militia ready at an hour's warning.
The apathy of other colonies was a great affliction to the Vir- ginia Governor. He wrote to Lord Halifax, February, 24, 1755: "But my heart is grieved, and I want words to express the obdu- rate and inconsistent behaviour of our neighboring colonies, not as yet awakened from their lethargy, North Carolina only ex- cepted, who have voted £5,000 for the expedition. Maryland Assembly now sitting. Pennsylvania Assembly adjourned with- out voting one farthing."
Where Andrew Lewis was and what doing from February 12, 1755, till the fall of that year, we cannot ascertain. Although ordered by the Governor, in February, to proceed with most of his company to Winchester, he could not have accompanied General Braddock on his disastrous expedition. In a letter to Colonel Stephen, April 12, 1755, the Governor refers to Captain Lewis as if he were not then at Cumberland, but he was proba- bly in the vicinity of that place. Writing to Lewis himself, however, July 8th, he says : " You was ordered to Augusta with your company to protect the frontier of that county. We have lately a messenger from thence giving an account of some bar- barous murders committed on Holston's river, which has greatly intimidated the settlers. Colonel Patton being here he carries up blank commissions for officers to raise one company of ran- gers of 50 men, for the further protection of the inhabitants. I, therefore, desire you will correspond with the above gentleman, and if occasion is, he has orders to send for you to assist in de- feating the designs of these wicked murderers." But in a letter to Colonel Patton, on the 8th, he says: "Inclosed you have a letter to Captain Lewis, which please forward to him. I think he is at Green Brier ; and another letter to Lieutenant Wright, who I think is at Holston's river."
Lieutenant Wright seems to have gone from his former post- the fort built by Lewis-to Holston river, and the Governor was dissatisfied on account of the poor speed he made. Writ-
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ing to the Lieutenant, also on the 8th, he says :- "I have been informed you was twenty two days in marching six miles ; this is not agreeable to the opinion I conceived of you."
General Braddock arrived in Virginia February 19, 1755, with two regiments of British soldiers, and proceeded to Alexandria, as the most convenient place at which to organize an expedition to the Ohio. Washington was summoned from Mt. Vernon, to act as one of the General's aides, and promptly undertook the duty. The command consisted of the two regiments of regulars, augmented by some Virginia levies selected for the purpose; two companies of "hatchet men"; six of rangers, from different provinces; and one troop of light horse. The whole composed an army of nearly twenty- five hundred men.
The Virginia recruits and companies were clothed and drilled to make them look like soldiers. They were ridiculed by young British officers, one of whom wrote : " They performed their evolutions and firings as well as could be expected, but their languid, spiritless and unsoldier-like appearance, considered with the lowness and ignorance of most of their officers, gave little hopes of their future good behavior." In a few weeks, however, the survivors of Braddock's army entertained a dif- ferent opinion of the provincial troops.
The army set out from Alexandria April 20th, and proceeded by way of Winchester, Fredericktown and Cumberland. What Augusta men accompanied the expedition, we do not know. It is said that Peter Hogg was one of the Virginia captains, and we know nothing to the contrary. He was ordered by Governor Dinwiddie to repair to Alexandria, only a little before General Braddock arrived there. An humble member of the expedition was a negro slave named Gilbert, who died in Staun- ton, in 1844, at the reputed age of one hundred and twelve years.
Leaving General Braddock and his army to pursue their tedious and painful march, let us observe the course of a peace- ful traveler who at the same time traversed the Valley of Virginia.
The Rev. Hugh McAden, a young Presbyterian minister, went from Pennsylvania to North Carolina on horseback in 1755. He kept a diary of his trip, which we find in Foote's Sketches of North Carolina. It appears from the diary that an excessive drought prevailed in the county during that summer.
5
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On Thursday, the 19th of June, Mr. McAden set off up the Valley of the Shenandoah, of which he says : " Alone in the wil . derness. Sometimes a house in ten miles, and sometimes not that." On Friday night (20th) he lodged at a Mr. Shankland's, eighty miles from Opecquon (near Winchester), and twenty from Augusta Courthouse. On Saturday he stopped at a Mr. Poage's-" stayed for dinner, the first I had eaten since I left Pennsylvania."
From Staunton he went with Hugh Celsey [Kelso?] to Samuel Downey's, at the North Mountain, where he preached on the fourth Sabbath of June, according to appointment. His horse being sick, or lame, he was detained in the county, and preached at North Mountain again on the fifth Sabbath in June, and in " the new courthouse" on the first Sunday of July. The diary says : " Rode to Widow Preston's Saturday evening, where I was very kindly entertained, and had a commodious lodging." The lady referred to was the widow of John Preston, and lived at Spring Farm, now Staunton Water Works.
On Monday, July 7th, Mr. McAden rode out to John Trim- ble's, more encouraged by the appearances at North Mountain than in Staunton. He went on Tuesday to the Rev. John Brown's, the pastor of New Providence and Timber Ridge. Mr. Brown had set apart a day of fasting and prayer "on account of the wars and many murders committed by the savage Indians on the back inhabitants," and vehemently desired the traveller to tarry and preach "in one of his places." He consented, and preached on Friday, July 11th, at Timber Ridge "to a pretty large congregation."
The diary proceeds : "Came to Mr. Boyer's [Bowyer], where I tarried till Sabbath morning, a very kind and discreet gentle- man, who used me exceedingly kindly, and accompanied me to the Forks, twelve miles, where I preached the second Sabbath of July [13th] to a considerable large congregation. * Rode * home with Joseph Lapsley, two miles, from meeting, where I tarried till Wednesday morning [16th]. Here it was I received the most melancholy news of the entire defeat of our army by the French at Ohio, the general killed, numbers of inferior officers, and the whole artillery taken. This, together with the frequent accounts of fresh murders being daily committed upon the fron- tiers, struck terror to every heart. A cold shuddering possessed
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every breast, and paleness covered almost every face. In short, the whole inhabitants were put into an universal confusion. Scarcely any man durst sleep in his own house, but all met in companies with their wives and children, and set about building little fortifications to defend themselves from such barbarians and inhuman enemies, whom they concluded would be let loose upon them at pleasure. I was so shocked upon my first reading Colonel Innes's letter that I knew not well what to do."
This was Braddock's defeat, which occurred on the 9th of July. On Wednesday, the 16th, Mr. McAden left Mr. Lapsley's in company with a young man from Charlotte county, who had been at the Warm Springs, and was flying from the expected inroad of savages.
The speed with which news of the disaster was circulated is wonderful. Colonel Innes was left by Braddock in command of Fort Cumberland. He wrote to Governor Dinwiddie on the IIth, giving him the first tidings of the defeat, and the letter was received by the Governor on the 14th, Cumberland being distant from Williamsburg 259 miles. It is hardly possible that this was the letter alluded to by Mr. McAden, who was more than 150 miles from Williamsburg ; but Colonel Innes no doubt wrote also to the County Lieutenant of Augusta, and the direful news was speeded through the country.
Thackeray, in his novel called " The Virginians," gives an ac- count of Braddock's defeat, and refers to the marvelous rapidity with which tidings of the disaster were circulated. Alluding to Eastern Virginia, he says: "The house negroes, in their mid- night gallops about the country, in search of junketing or sweet- hearts, brought and spread news over amazingly wide districts. They had a curious knowledge of the incidents of the march for a fortnight at least after its commencement. * * But on the Ioth of July a vast and sudden gloom spread over the province. A look of terror and doubt seemed to fall upon every face. Affrighted negroes wistfully eyed their masters and retired, and hummed and whispered with one another. The fiddles ceased in the quarters ; the song and laugh of those cheery black folk were hushed. Right and left, everybody's servants were on the gallop for news. The country taverns were thronged with horse- men, who drank and cursed and bawled at the bars, each bring- ing his gloomy story. The army had been surprised. The
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troops had fallen into an ambuscade, and had been cut up almost to a man. All the officers were taken down by the French marksmen and the savages. The General had been wounded and carried off the field in his sash. Four days afterwards the report was that the General was dead, and scalped by a French Indian."
We have further evidence of the widespread anxiety and alarm, in the sermons of the celebrated Samuel Davies, who then resided in Hanover county. On the 20th of July, 1755, he preached to his people from Isaiah, xxii, 12-14: "And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning," &c. When he began to prepare his discourse, the news of the disaster had not been received, but full of forebodings the preacher, after referring to the peace and abundance lately enjoyed by Virginia, exclaims: "But what do I now see ? - what do I now hear? I see thy brazen skies, thy parched soil, thy withered fields, thy hopeless springs, thy scanty har- vests. Methinks I hear the sound of the trumpet, and see gar- ments rolled in blood, thy frontiers ravaged by revengeful savages, thy territories invaded by French perfidy and violence. Methinks I see slaughtered families, the hairy scalp clotted with gore, the horrid arts of Indian and popish torture." So he pro- ceeds for several pages, and then: "Thus far had I studied my discourse before I was alarmed with the melancholy news that struck my ears last Thursday. Now every heart may meditate terror indeed ; now every face may gather blackness ; now I may mingle darker horrors in the picture I intended to draw of the state of my country. For what do I now hear? I hear our army is defeated, our general killed, our sole defence demol- ished." The people are earnestly exhorted to rally and show themselves "men, Britons, and Christians on this trying occa- sion." "What," asks the preacher, "is that religion good for that leaves men cowards upon the approach of danger?" "And, permit me to say," he continues, "that I am particularly solicitous that you, my brethren of the Dissenters, should act with honor and spirit in this juncture, as it becomes loyal subjects, lovers of your country, and courageous Christians." At the close of the discourse he remarked: "It is certain many will be great suf- ferers by the drought, and many lives will be lost in our various expeditions. Our poor brethren in Augusta and other frontier counties are slaughtered and scalped."
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Braddock's defeat occurred, as stated, on July 9, 1755. It was a slaughter, rather than a battle. Colonel Dunbar, the British officer who succeeded to the command on the death of Braddock, retreated, or rather fled, with the remnant of the army to Win- chester ; and fearing for his safety even there, retired with the regulars to winter quarters in Philadelphia. Washington and other Virginians who escaped the massacre, returned to their homes deeply mortified and indignant at the inefficiency of the leaders of the expedition.
The consternation was universal, and many of the settlers on the western frontier fled across the Blue Ridge, and even to North Carolina. Among the refugees to that province was the Rev. Alexander Craighead, with a portion of his congregation. Mr. Craighead came from Pennsylvania and settled on the Cow- pasture river, near Windy Cove (now Bath county), in 1749. It is said he had a double motive for leaving Virginia-to escape the savages, and also the disabilities imposed here upon Dissent- ing ministers. He was a man of ardent temper, and could not brook the idea of holding the frontier and protecting the people of Eastern Virginia from savage inroads, while not permitted to celebrate the rite of marriage according to the ceremonies of his own church. He died in North Carolina in 1766.
The alarm about Staunton is described by the Rev. John Craig in his narrative. He says : "When General Braddock was defeated and killed, our country was laid open to the enemy, our people were in dreadful confusion, and discouraged to the highest degree. Some of the richer sort that could take some money with them to live upon were for flying to a safer part of the country. My advice was then called for, which I gave, opposing that scheme as a scandal to our nation, falling below our brave ancestors, making ourselves a reproach among Vir- ginians, a dishonor to our friends at home, an evidence of cowardice, want of faith and a noble Christian dependence on God, as able to save and deliver from the heathen; it would be a lasting blot to our posterity." Mr. Craig urged the building of forts, one of which was to be the church. He says : "They required me to go before them in the work, which I did cheer- fully, though it cost me one-third of my estate. The people readily followed, and my congregation in less than two months was well fortified."-[See Foote's Sketches, page 32.]
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In the above extract, Mr. Craig seems to refer to the building of the present stone church, and to fix the date as not earlier than 1755; but the tradition in the congregation is, that the house was completed in 1748. Possibly his reference is par- ticularly to the fortifications constructed around the building, the remains of which are still visible. Many families took refuge. there upon occasions of alarm. The cattle were, of course, left on the farms, and the cows were likely to suffer by going unmilked. It is said that the Moffett family, whose residence was miles away, had a negro female servant who displayed courage and fidelity at such times worthy of a heroine. Every night, mounted on a black horse, as less likely to be seen by a lurk- ing foe than one of a different color, she rode home, relieved the swollen udders of the kine, churned the milk of the previous night, and returned with the butter to the fort before daylight.
Governor Dinwiddie, never wearied in denouncing and ridi- culing Colonel Dunbar for going into winter quarters in mid- summer. Writing to Colonel Patton July 16th, he says: "I am sorry to hear a further dismal account of murders in your county, and I fear your people are seized with a panic in suf fering the Indians in such small companies to do the mischief they do without raising to oppose them. Surely if they were properly headed and encouraged they would overcome them all. I have sent some powder, &c., to Colonel Stewart. I have ordered the whole militia of this dominion to be in arms, and your neighboring counties are directed to send men to your assistance on your application."
It is curious to discover that the people of Halifax county also were apprehensive of Indian invasion, but Halifax then extended westward to the Blue Ridge.
The Governor of Virginia found constant occupation during this time in writing scolding letters, but in writing abroad he stood up for the credit of the provincial troops. To Sir Thomas Robinson, referring to Braddock's disaster, he said : " All the officers and men raised here behaved well, but am sorry to hear the private men of the regulars were seized with panic, run away like sheep."
To Colonel James Patton, the Governor wrote, August Ist : "This day I have sent a cart load of ammunition, &c., to your Court House. How can you think I am able to order susten-
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ance to the poor people that have left their plantations? I wish they had not been seized with such panic as prevented their resisting the few enemies that appeared in your county." At the date of this letter Colonel Patton was in his grave.
Foote's Sketches of Virginia, second series, contain a long account of the circumstances attending the death of Colonel Patton, and of the captivity and escape of Mrs. Mary Ingles. Dr. John P. Hale, of Kanawha, a descendant of Mrs. Ingles, in his work called "Trans-Alleghany Pioneers," 16 gives a still fuller and, doubtless, more accurate account, and we shall mainly follow the latter.
Thomas Ingles, says Dr. Hale, came from Ireland when a widower, with his three sons, William, Matthew, and John, and settled first in Pennsylvania. According to tradition, he, in 1744, accompanied by his son, William, then a youth, made an excursion into the wilds of Southwest Virginia, going as far as New river. On this occasion, it is supposed, he became ac- quainted with Colonel James Patton. The latter then or soon afterward held a grant from the British crown of 120,000 acres of land west of the Blue Ridge, at that time Augusta county, but in the present counties of Botetourt, Montgomery, &c. The old town of Pattonsburg, on James river, in Botetourt, was called for him, and the opposite town of Buchanan was so named for his son-in-law, Colonel John Buchanan.
During the same excursion, probably, the Ingleses for the first time encountered the Draper family, who had settled on James river, at Pattonsburg. This family consisted of George Draper, his wife, and his two children, John and Mary. While living at Pattonsburg, George Draper went out hunting, and was never heard of again. About the year 1748 the Ingleses, Drapers, Adam Harman, Henry Leonard and James Burke, removed from James river and settled near the present town of Blacksburg, in Montgomery county, calling the place Draper's Meadows, since known as Smithfield.
In April, 1749, the house of Adam Harman was raided by Indians, but, as far as appears, no murders were perpetrated. This is said to have been the first depredation by Indians on
16 For the opportunity of reading some sheets of this work in advance of its publication, we are indebted to Major Jed. Hotchkiss.
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the whites west of the Alleghany. It was reported to a justice of the peace for Augusta county, with a view to the recovery of damages allowed by law.
William Ingles and Mary Draper were married in 1750, and John Draper and Bettie Robertson in 1754. The marriages no doubt took place in Staunton, there being no minister nearer Draper's Meadow authorized to perform the ceremony.
In July, 1755, Colonel Patton went to the upper country on business, and was accompanied, it is said, by his nephew, Wil- liam Preston. He was resting from the fatigues of his journey, and also seeking recovery from sickness, at the dwelling of William Ingles and the Drapers. It was on Sunday, the 8th of July, says Dr. Hale-but circumstances had led us to fix the date at least a week later-that an unexpected assault was made on the house by Indians. Preston had gone to Philip Ly- brook's to engage his help in harvesting. William Ingles and John Draper were away from the house. Foote says they and others were at work in the harvest field ; but if it was on Sun- day the statement is quite certainly incorrect. Mrs. John Draper, being in the yard, was the first to discover the Indians. She hastened into the house to give the alarm, and snatching up her sleeping infant ran out on the opposite side. Some of the Indians fired upon her, breaking her right arm, and causing the child to fall to the ground. Taking up the infant with her left hand she continued her flight, but was overtaken, and the skull of the child was crushed against the end of a Jog. At the moment of the assault, Colonel Patton was sitting at a table writing, with his broadsword before him. Being a man of great strength, of large frame, and over six feet high, he cut down two Indians, but was shot and killed by others out of his reach. Other persons killed were Mrs. George Draper, the child of John Draper, and a man named Casper Barrier. The Indians plun- dered the premises, securing all the guns and ammunition, and setting fire to the buildings, immediately started on their retreat, carrying with them as prisoners Henry Leonard, Mrs. John Draper, and Mrs. Ingles and her two children-Thomas four, and George two years of age. The unarmed men in the field could only provide for their own safety. The country was sparsely settled, and some days elapsed before a rescuing party could be collected.
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The Indians, on their hasty retreat, stopped at the house of Philip Barger, an old man, cut off his head and carried it in a bag to Lybrook's. Preston and Lybrook had gone back to Draper's Meadows by a different route from that taken by the Indians, and thus they escaped.
In letters written by Governor Dinwiddie on the 11th of Au- gust (nine letters were written by him the same day) he referred to Colonel Patton's death. To Colonel David Stewart, of Au- gusta, he wrote that Patton " was wrong to go so far back with- out a proper guard." He hoped the wagons with ammunition did not fall into the hands of the Indians; but he could not con- ceive what Patton was to do with ammunition "so far from the inhabited part of the country." Writing to Colonel Buchanan at the same date, he expressed regret that the men sent by Buchanan "after the murderers, did not come up with them." This is the only information we have of any pursuit.
Colonel Patton's will was admitted to record by the County Court of Augusta, at Staunton, at November term, 1755. It was executed September 1, 1750, and witnessed by Thomas Stewart, Edward Hall, and John Williams. The following are extracts :
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