USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 > Part 12
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that quarter. The trader wanted to obtain "the long island in Hol- ston river," and is encouraged to hope he may get it.
As we have seen, Governor Dinwiddie was all agog for a cam- paign immediately against the French at Fort Duquesne, [Pittsburg]. Washington was opposed to it under the circumstances. The force which could be raised was too small, and the season was too late for a march over the Alleghanies. The Virginia Assembly at first refused to vote a supply of money. Some members of that body had opposed the original measures of the Governor, which resulted in the war. They were not sure that England had a just title to the region around Fort Duquesne, which was held and claimed by the French .- [Irving's Life of Washington, Vol. I, p. 103]. Under the pretext of protecting all settlers on the waters of the Mississippi, a supply was finally granted, and the Governor proceeded to raise a regiment of three hun- dred men, divided into six companies, of fifty men each. Joshua Fry was Colonel, and Washington, Lieutenant-Colonel ; but the latter soon succeeded to the command, on the death of the former. Recruiting went on slowly, till bounty land on the Ohio river was promised to the soldiers. Early in August, 1754, Washington rejoined his regiment at Alexandria, and was urged by the Governor to raise the full com- plement of men, and unite with Colonel Innes, at Wills's creek.
Governor Dinwiddie wrote to the Earl of Albemarle, August 15, 1754, pleading for assistance from "home," as England was still called. Two regiments of regular forces, he said, would be absolutely neces- sary. To Earl Granville he wrote on the same day, that the French intended to build forts, not only on the Ohio, but on Greenbrier, Hol- ston and New rivers, and "the back of North Carolina." On the 6th of September, he had heard "complaints from our frontier in Augusta county of many parties of Indians, etc., robbing and ill-treating our people." In another letter of the same date, he says : "The French and Indians are now making incursions among our inhabitants in Augusta county, threatening our people to depart from their planta- tions, and propose building forts on Holstein's, Green Brier's and other rivers."
"Therefore," wrote the Governor to Washington, September 11, 1754, "I now order you to give a detachment of forty or fifty men to Capt. Lewis. With them he is to march imediately to Augusta county, in order to protect our frontier from the incursions of small parties of Indians, and I suppose some French. Order him to march immediately, and to apply to Col. Patton, the County-Lientenant, who will direct him where to proceed that he may be most useful." A letter was addressed to Captain Andrew Lewis the same day,-the first of a long series, -of which we give a literal copy :
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"Sir : I have order'd Colo. W. to give You a detachm't of 40 or 50 Men from his regim't ; with them you are imediately to march for Augusta Co'ty. Apply to the Co'ty Lieut. for his direct'n, where You may be most usefull in protecti'g the Frontiers of y't Co'ty. If You happen to meet with any Parties of French or Ind's, You are imedi- ately to examine the Ind's, of w't Nat'n, and take them Prisoners, if they cannot give a proper Acc't of themselves, and if any Party shi'd be obstrepolous and commit any hostilities on our Subjects, in y't Case You are to repell Force by Force, but I expect You will be very cir- cumspect in Y'r Conduct, and behave with good Discipline of Y'r Men, and a proper Courage, so y't You may recomend Y'rself to the Service of Y'r Country. You are to apply to Colo. Patton, Y'r Father, or any other Person for Provisions for Y'r Men. I recomend Frugality on this Head, and " [that you] "have Y'r Acc't thereon properly kept, and so just, y't You can swear to the Truth thereof, and it shall be p'd. You are to carry with You a suitablee Qu'ty of Amunit'n, and if two or three Horses are wanted to carry the same, apply to Maj'r Carlyle, shew him this Let'r, and lie will supply You therewith. You shall hereafter have my Orders w'n to return to join the other Forces. I now desire You to be as expeditious as possible in getting to Augusta, as I have several Letters of some Parties of Ind's. &c., Robbing and Plundering our People. Write me from Augusta. I wish You Health and Success in the Com'd You are ordered on, and I remain, Sir, Y'r Friend, &c."
On the 6th of October Captain Lewis was on his march to protect the frontier. He went somewhere west or south of Staunton, but to what point we cannot ascertain, and built a stockade fort there to check Indian raids, -perhaps it was in the Greenbrier country, or it may have been Fort Lewis, near the site of the present town of Salem, in Roanoke county. He could not be spared, however, to remain there long, when an advance of the main army from Wills's Creek, or Fort Cumberland, was contemplated. The Governor wrote to him on No- vember 5th : "You are to be in readiness to march to Wills's Creek on the first notice from Governor Sharpe" [of Maryland], " who now commands the forces, or by order of Colonel Stephens. I am now re- crniting more men ; if you can get any with you I desire you may enlist them, and if you want money for that service, if Colonel Patton or any other person advances it, draw on me and I. will pay it." It is a matter of regret that we have no account of what Andrew Lewis did or suffered in this expedition.
In October, the House of Burgesses made a liberal grant for the public service, and during the winter of 1754-'5 ten thousand pounds
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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 lie reduced all the com- mands to independent companies, so that there should be no officer in a Virginia regiment above the rank of captain. Washington, consid- ering it derogatory to his character to accept a lower commission than he had held, resigned and went home.
Peter Hogg,* born in Scotland ill 1703, settled in Augusta with his brothers, James and Thomas, about 1745, and married here Eliza- beth 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 hiim with characteristic 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 pro- ceed 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 Win- chester 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, a corporal, and eigliteen private men at the fort you have built, and with the rest of your company you are to march imediately for Winchester, and there remain till you have further orders. *
* If you can 'list some stout young men that will march with you to Winchester, they 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 Gov- ernor wrote to him on the 12th, instructing him " to keep a good look out," to be exact in his duties, to make short excursions 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.
* Ancestor of the Hoges and Blackleys of Augusta.
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The apathy of other colonies was a great affliction to the Virginia Governor. He wrote to Lord Fairfax, February 24, 1755 : "But my heart is grieved, and I want words to express the obdurate and incon- sistent behaviour of our neighboring colonies, not as yet awakened from their lethargy, North Carolina only excepted, who have voted £5,000 for the expedition. Maryland Assembly now sitting. Penn- sylvania Assembly adjourned without voting one farthing." [The Quakers who had control in Pennsylvania opposed the war.]
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 Cum- berland, but he was probably 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 barbarous murders committed on Holston's river, which has greatly intimidated the settlers. Colonel Patton being here he carries up blank commissions of officers to raise one company of rangers 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 defeating 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."
Lientenant Wright seems to have gone from his former post,-the fort built by Lewis,-to Holston river, and the Governor was dissatis- fied on account of the poor speed he made. Writing 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 yon."+
General Braddock arrived in Virginia February 19, 1755, with two regiments of British soldiers, and proceeded to Alexandria, as the most
* Mrs. Towles states that her uncle, Andrew Lewis, and her father, William Lewis, were at Braddock's Defeat, and that the latter was wounded. She could hardly be mistaken in regard to her father. Mrs. Floyd says Andrew Lewis was a colonel under Braddock, but if with Braddock at all he was only a captain.
t It is said that Lieut. Wright and two soldiers were killed by Indians, July 12, 1765, at Reed Creek.
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convenient place at which to organize an expedition to the Ohio. Washington was summoned from Mt. Vernon, to act as one of the Gen- eral's aides, and promptly undertook the duty. The command con- sisted 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 inost of their officers, gave little hopes of their future good be- havior." In a few weeks, however, the survivors of Braddock's army entertained a different opinion of the provincial troops.
The army set out from Alexandria April 20th, and proceeded by by way of Winchester, Fredericktown and Cumberland. What Au- gusta mien accompanied the expedition, we do not know. It is said that Peter Hogg was one of the Virginia captains, and we know noth- ing 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 Staunton, 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 traveler on a peaceful errand, 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 Caro- lina. It appears from the diary that an excessive drought prevailed in the country during that summer.
On Thursday, the 19th of June, Mr. McAden set off up the Valley of the Shenandoah, of which he says : "Alone in the wilderness. Some- times 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 Satur- day 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
* Grandfather of the Rev. James C. Wilson.
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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 in 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 Trimble'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 inany murders committed by the savage Indians on the back inhabitants," and vehemently desired the traveler 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 gentleman, who used me exceedingly kindly, and accompanied me to the Forks, twelve miles, where I preached the second Sabbath of July [13th] to a consid- erable 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 en- tire defeat of our army by the French at Ohio, the General killed, numbers of inferior officers, and the whole artillery taken. This, to- gether with the frequent accounts of fresh murders being daily com- mitted upon the frontiers, struck terror to every heart. A cold shuddering possessed every breast, and paleness covered almost every face. In short, the whole inhabitants were put into an universal con- fusion. 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 pleas- ure. I was so shocked npon 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 11th, giving
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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 Att- gusta, and the direful news was speeded through the country.
Thackeray, in his novel called "The Virginians," gives an account 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 midnight gallops about the country, in search of junketings or sweethearts, 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 commence- ment. * But on the roth 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 dance of those cherry black folk were hushed. Right and left, everybody's servants were on the gallop for news. The country taverns were thronged with horsemen, who drank and cursed and bawled at the bars, each bringing his gloomy story. The army had been surprised. The troops had fallen into an ambuscade, and had been cut up almost to a inan. All the officers were taken down by the French marksmen and 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," etc. 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 Virginians, exclaimed : "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 harvests. Methinks I hear the sound of the trumpet, and see garments 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 proceeded for several pages, and then: "Thus far
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had I studied my discourse before I was alarmed with the melancholy news that struck my ears last Thursday. Now every heart may med- itate terror indeed; now every face may gather blackness; now I may mingle 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 demolished." The people are earnestly exorted to rally and show themselves "men, Britons, and Christians on this trying occasion." "What," asks the preacher, "is that religion good for that leaves men cowards on the approach of danger ?" "And permit me to say," he continues, " that I am partic- ularly 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 sufferers by the drought, and many lives will be lost in our various expedi- tions. Our poor brethren in Augusta and other frontier counties are slaughtered and scalped."
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 Winchester ; 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.
Young James Smith was detained in Fort Du Quesne at the time. of the defeat, and says, in his narrative already quoted : "I had ob- served some of the old country soldiers speak Dutch ; as I spoke Dutch, I went to one of them, and asked him what was the news? He told me that a runner had just arrived, who said that Braddock would certainly be defeated ; that the Indians and French had surrounded him, and were concealed behind trees and in gullies, and kept a con- stant fire upon the English, and that they saw the English falling in heaps, and if they did not take the river, which was the only gap, and make their escape, there would not be one man left alive before sun- down. Some time after this I heard a number of scalp-halloos, and saw a company of Indians and French coming in. I observed they had a great many bloody scalps, grenadiers' caps, British canteens, bayo- nets, etc., with them. They brought the news that Braddock was defeated. After that, another company came in, which appeared to be about one hundred, and chiefly Indians, and it seemed to me that about every one of this company was carrying scalps ; after this came another
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company with a number of wagon horses, and also a great many scalps. Those that were coming in, and those that had arrived, kept a constant firing of small arms, and also the great guns in the fort, which were accompanied with the most hideous shouts and yells from all quarters ; so that it appeared to me as if the infernal regions had broke loose.
"Abont sundown I beheld a small party coming in with about a dozen prisoners, stripped naked, with their hands tied behind their backs, and their faces and part of their bodies blacked, -these prisoners they burned to death on the bank of Alleghany river opposite to the fort. I stood on the fort wall until I beheld them begin to burn one of these men ; they had him tied to a stake, and kept touching him with firebrands, red-hot irons, etc, and he screaming in a most doleful manner,-the Indians in the mean time yelling like infernal spirits. As this scene appeared too shocking for me to behold, I retired to my lodgings both sore and sorry.
" When I came into my lodgings I saw Russell's Seven Sermons, which they had brought from the field of battle, which a Frenchman made a present of to me. From the best information I could receive, there were only seven Indians and four French killed in this battle, and five hundred British lay dead in the field, besides what were killed in the river on their retreat.
" The morning after the battle I saw Braddock's artillery brought into the fort ; the same day I also saw several Indians in British offi- cers's dress, with sash, half-moon laced hats, &c., which the British then wore."
Thomas Carlyle, in his history of Frederick the Great, alludes to almost every occurrence of any importance in the civilized world during the time of his hero. Among other things he tells abont Braddock's Defeat. Braddock's two regiments, he says, ran away at the battle of Prestonpans in 1745; but it is hardly probable that after ten years the rank and file of the regiments were the same. Still, the regiments were unfortunate, to be routed first by barelegged Highlanders, and then by naked savages. Of Braddock while borne from the field, Car- lyle says : "The poor General,-ebbing homewards, he and his enter- prise, hour after hour,-roused himself twice only, for a moment, from his death-stupor: once, the first night, to ejaculate mournfully, 'Who would have thought it!' And again once, he was heard to say, days after, in a tone of hope, 'Another time we will do better !' which were his last words, 'death following in few minutes.' Weary, heavy -laden soul ; deep sleep now descended on it-soft, sweet cataracts of Sleep
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and Rest ; suggesting hope, and triumph over sorrow : 'Another time we will do better ;' and in few minutes was dead ! "
The consternation was universal, and many of the settlers on tlie western frontier fled across the Blue Ridge, and even to North Caro- lina. 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 Cowpasture 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 Dissenting ministers. He was a man of ardent temper, and could not brook the idea of holding the frontier and pro- tecting 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 .*
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