USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 > Part 15
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ANNALS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
there was any Indian settlement at or near the Big Sandy. But the Governor was full of his plans, and could not be dissuaded. He enter- tained high expectations, and wrote on the subject to nearly everybody, -to Major Lewis and his subordinate officers, and to public function-
aries in America and England.
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As much doubt remains in regard to many facts connected with this famous expedition, as surrounds the wars between the Greeks and Trojans. Various writers state that the expedition took place in 1757,
In a letter of January 2, 1756, Governor Dinwiddie speaks of his efforts to conciliate the Cherokees, and says: "It had its proper ef- fect, for they took up the hatchet and declared war against the French and Shawnesse, and sent into Augusta county one hundred and thirty of their warriors to protect our frontier. These people proposed marching to the Shawnesse town to cut them off. I agreed thereto, and ordered four companies of our rangers to join them. "
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ANNALS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
and that the men were recalled, when near the Ohio river, by order of Governor Fanquier ; but the Dinwiddie papers show that it occurred early in 1756, and that the survivors returned home more than two years before Fauquier became Governor of Virginia. To this day, however, the number of men led ont into the wilderness by Lewis is uncertain, and also how many companies there were, and who com- mianded them. Governor Dinwiddie, in his instructions to Major Lewis, not dated, says he had ordered Captain Hogg, with forty of his company, to march on the expedition ; that a draft of sixty meu would be made from the companies of Captains Preston and Smith, to be commanded by the latter ; and that Captain Samnel Overton's con- pany consisted, he supposed, of forty men, and Captain Obadialı Woodson's of forty more. He says: "One Capt. McMett and some others proposed some men on a voluntary subscription." "From the forementioned four companies," continues the Governor, "the Chiero- kee Indians and the volunteers, making in all 350 men, I think will be sufficient for the expedition ; but if you should think more men necessary, I leave it to you." He appears never to have known the number of the men. In several of his letters he speaks of the Chero- kees under Pearis as numbering one hundred and thirty, and in another as eighty ; while his statements of the number of white men vary from two hundred to three hundred. Among the captains nsual- ly mentioned are, Peter Hogg, William Preston, John Smith and Robert Breckinridge, besides Captains Overton and Woodson. These were captains of rangers, then employed in guarding the frontier. Archibald Alexander commanded a volunteer company, and, it is said, that Captains Montgomery and Dunlap led other companies also raised for this special service. Certainly there was no scarcity of cap- tains, but the size of the companies was small, and we are not sure that all the persons named accompanied Lewis. Captain David Stuart acted as commissary.
Of Peter Hogg and William Preston we have already spoken. John Smith was the ancestor of the late Judge Daniel Smith of Rock- ingham, Joseph Smith of Folly Mills and others .*
Dr. William Fleming was a lieutenant, but in whose company does not appear. From a letter addressed to him, February 6th, by Governor Dinwiddie, it seems that lie acted also as surgeon of the ex- pedition, and was to be paid for his "extra trouble. " Medicines were furnished by Dr. George Gilmer, physician and apothecary in Williamsburg.
* The pay of Capt. John Smith's company to June 25, 1756, was {576.13 .- Hening, Vol. 7, p. 200.
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Captain Overton's company was raised in Hanover county, and was the first organized in the colony after Braddock's defeat. To this company the Rev. Samuel Davies preached, by request, August 17, 1755, from the text : "Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God," etc. 2 Sam. x : 12. The preacher asks: " Is it a pleasing dream ? Or do I really see a number of brave men, without the compulsion of authority, withont the prospect of gain, voluntarily associated in a company to march over trackless mountains, the haunts of wild beasts, or fiercer savages, into a hideous wilderness, to succor their helpless fellow-subjects, and guard their country ?" But the sermon is memorable chiefly on ac- count of a note by the preacher, in which he speaks of "that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom," he says, " I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner, for some im- portant service to his country."
Archibald Alexander was the executor of Benjamin Borden, the younger, and ancestor of the well-known Rockbridge family of that name, and the late Mrs. McClung, of Staunton.
The person referred to by Governor Dinwiddie as "one Captain McMett " was no doubt Alexander McNutt, a subaltern officer in Cap- tain Alexander's company. He has been mentioned as the purchaser of a town lot in Staunton. It is stated that Lieutenant McNutt kept a journal of the campaign, which he presented to the Governor, and wliich was deposited in the executive archives at Williamsburg. In this journal the writer reflected upon the conduct of Major Lewis, which led to a personal affray between Lewis and McNutt iu Staun- ton.
Major Lewis's command rendezvoused at Fort Frederick, which is stated by some writers to have been ou New River, and by others, on the Roanoke, near the site of the present town of Salem. While waiting at the fort for horses and pack saddles, the Rev. Messrs. Craig and Brown preached to the soldiers.
In his instructions to Major Lewis, the Governor is very minute. Among other things, he says: "You are to do everything in your power to cultivate morality among the men, and that they may have dependence on God, the God of armies and the giver of victory." He does not omit to " recommend frugality."
To several of the captains, the Governor wrote also. Captain John Smith, it seems, wanted biscuit furnished for the expedition, but is told he must provide corn-meal or flour. Money to the amount of £100 was sent to the Captain, which "you must account for on your return," says the Governor. To one and all he recouimended
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"care and diligence," "love and friendship." He sent £100 to Pearis, or Paris, reminding him, however, that it was to be accounted for, and enjoining "unanimity and friendship."
The Governor thought the expedition ready to start on February 6th, and so wrote to Governor Dobbs, of North Carolina, but in this he was premature ; and finding out his mistake, he rebuked Major Lewis for his tardiness. At the same time he charged the Major to "take care [that] Mr. Pearis behaves well and keeps sober." The distance, he thinks, is 200 miles. He concludes as follows : "I have no further orders than desiring you to keep up good discipline and your people in good morality, forbidding swearing and all other vices, and put your trust in God, the protector and disposer of all things."
We pause to mention that in February, 1756, John O'Neil was examined by the County Court on the charge of speaking treasouable words and acquitted, but being convicted of "abusing the government and cursing the Bible " he was held for trial.
The expedition having started at last, Governor Dinwiddie turned his attention for a time to other matters. He indited a long report to the Lords of Trade on the state of the province. In this he broaches the idea of a chain of forts from the head waters of the Potomac, upon the ridges of the Alleghany, to the North Carolina line, for the protection of the frontier, and also the establishment of another colony west of the Alleghany, with such indulgences in matters of re- ligion etc., as would induce Protestant Dissenters to settle in that re- gion.
In March, 1756, the Provincial Assembly passed an act providing for the construction of the forts referred to .- "to begin at Henry Enoch's, on Great-Cape-Capon, in the county of Hampshire, and to extend to the south fork of Mayo river, in the county of Halifax."
In regard to the Dissenters in the province, the laws affecting them were always relaxed in times of war or public danger, and many of them were disposed to act as if all such laws were abolished. We find that the Rev. John Brown, of New Providence, was so im- prudent as to perform the marriage ceremony twice in 1755 for mem- bers of his flock, but, discovering his mistake, he did not officiate again in that manner till 1781, when the law authorized him to do so .- [See list of marriages by Mr. Brown, published in Staunton Spectator of December 18, 1866.]
We are not done, however, with Governor Dinwiddie's report to the Lords of Trade. He had been endeavoring for more than four months to raise a thousand mnen for the protection of the frontier, but had not been able to recruit above half that number. He says :
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"They are a lazy, indolent set of people, and I am heartily weary of presiding over them." He estimated the population of the colony as 293,472,-whites 173,316, and blacks 120,156. The number of white tithables in Augusta county in February, 1756, he states as 2,273, and of blacks only 40. Multiplying the white tithables by 4, as he did, the white population of the county was 8,992. All negroes, male and female, over sixteen years of age, were tithables, and there- fore the black tithables were multiplied by 2, showing a total black population in the county of about 80.
After the departure of Major Lewis on his expedition, Governor Dinwiddie did not forget the enterprise. He continued to refer to it in his correspondence, and to express sanguine hopes. He had also sent commissioners, Peter Randolph and William Byrd, to conclude formal treaties with the Cherokee and Catawba Indians.
Major Lewis started from Fort Frederick on February 18, and reached the head of Sandy Creek on the 28th. Before the middle of March the supply of provisions began to run low, and soon afterwards some of the party were rescued from starvation only by the killing of several elks and buffaloes. On March 11 ten men deserted, and finally the whole body, except the officers and twenty or thirty of the privates, declared their purpose to return. It is related that on the westward march the raw hides of several buffaloes were hung upon bushes near a certain stream, and that on the return the men in the extremity of their hunger cut these hides into thongs, or tugs, and devoured them. From this circumstance, it is said, the stream re- ferred to received the name of Tug river, which it still bears. Some writers state that a day or two after the retreat began a party of Cap- tain Hogg's men went out from camp in pursuit of wild turkeys and encountered a dozen Indians in war paint, who fired upon them. Ac- cording to these writers, two of the white men were killed, and the fire being returned, one Indian was wounded and captured. What was done with him is not mentioned. This story, however, like many other things related of the expedition, is of doubtful authenticity. Governor Dinwiddie's letters imply that no hostile Indians were en- countered.
It required two weeks for the men to reach the nearest settlement, and during that interval they endured great suffering from cold and hunger. Some of the men who separated from the main body per- ished.
At what date Major Lewis and other survivors of the expedition returned to the settlements, we have not found stated. Governor Din-
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widdie alludes to their return, in a letter to Washington, dated April 8th. He takes no blame to himself, but indulges in sarcasın towards Lewis. "Major Lewis," he says, "and his men are returned, having done nothing essential. I believe they did not know the way to the Shawnesse towns. I expect him in town to give an account of his march," etc. To Governor Dobbs he writes, April 13: "The expe- dition against the Shawnesse proved unsuccessful. They were gone upwards of a month ; met with very bad weather ; a great part of their provisions lost crossing a river, the canoes being overset. They were obliged to eat their horses, and are returned, having taken the French- nien, who I believe are of the neutrals, bound to Fort Duquesne. The commissioners that went to the Cherokees, &c., are not returned, but write me the Cherokees and Catawbas are in good humor and pro- fess great friendship. They are ready to assist us with their warriors, if they can have a fort built for their women and children."
The French " Neutrals" mentioned by the Governor were some of the people banished from Nova Scotia and brought to Virginia, of whom an account will be given on a future page. Parties of them went roaming through the country in the endeavor to get to the French settlement in the northwest.
Fifteen of the returned Cherokees visited the Governor at Wil- liamsburg, and he endeavored to induce the whole party, reduced to sixty, to march to Winchester and join Washington.
Andrew Lewis made his peace with the Governor. At any rate, whether in wrath or as a token of favor, he was immediately ordered to proceed to the Cherokee country, now East Tennessee, and build the fort those Indians had stipulated for as a condition of their send- ing reinforcements. He was directed to enlist sixty men who could use saw and axe, " taking great care to be as frugal as possible," to be much on his guard "against any surprise from the enemy lurking in the woods," and to lose no time about the business. This order was issued April 24th. Of course it required some time for Major Lewis to get ready, and in the meanwhile he was the superior military officer in Augusta.
On the 27th of April, in consequence of a report that the French and Indians had invested Winchester, the Governor called out the militia of ten counties, and Major Lewis was ordered to speed the de- parture of the Cherokees under Pearis to join Washington. The reports from Winchester were greatly exaggerated, and the alarm in that quarter soon subsided ; bnt some new cause of anxiety had arisen in Augusta. On the 5th of May the Governor wrote to Lewis, in a
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very sulky mood. He was surprised at "the supineness of the people of Augusta," who were "intimidated at the approach of a few Indians," and most shamefully ran away. "They are always solicit- ing for arms and ammunition. Of the first," said the Governor, "I have none, and powder and lead they have been supplied with more from me than any six counties in this Dominion, and as they have not exerted themselves in any action against the enemy I fear those sup- plies have been misapplied, but still if they want a little powder I can supply them if they will send for it, as the other counties do, but I have no lead." That unfortunate wagon lost by Colonel Patton thie year before, was still on the Governor's mind, and he declares that the county must pay for it. Colonel Jefferson, of Albemarle, (father of President Jefferson), was ordered to take half of his militia to Augusta ; but Lewis was on no account to remain here. He was, with all pos- sible dispatch, to proceed to the Cherokee country and build the fort there. No time was to be lost. Captain Hogg would assist the peo- ple of Augusta. It was hoped that the Cherokees were on the marcli to Winchester.
We do not know in what part of the country this alarm arose. Probably it was the disaster at Edward's fort, April 18th, mentioned in a note on page 111, Volume 1, Dinwiddie Papers. This note states that Edward's fort was on the Warm Springs mountain, now Bath county, but Kercheval, who was more likely to be accurately in- formed, says it was on Capon river, between Winchester and Romney. In 1756, according to the note referred to, but in 1757, according to Kercheval, thirty or forty Indians approached the fort and killed two men who were outside. Captain Mercer, at the head of forty of the garrison, sallied out in pursuit of the enemy, but fell into an ambush, and he and all his men, except six, were slain. One poor fellow, who was badly wounded, lay for two days and nights before he was found, the whites not venturing sooner to collect and bury the dead.
The apprehension of the people, and the unwillingness of the mien to enlist in the army, were natural and unavoidable. Augusta men were always ready to go on any warlike expedition when their homes could be left in safety, but to abandon wives and children to the merciless savages was more than ought to have been demanded. The enemy did not come in military array, with banners and martial music, to war upon men in arms ; but in small parties, by stealth, hid- ing by day in the forests and mountains, and in the dead hour of night, or at early dawn, falling upon the isolated cabins of white set- tlers. Then, woe to the women and children left defenceless by the absence of husbands and fathers 1 It was no common danger. Gov-
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ANNALS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
ernor Dinwiddie, in his comfortable quarters at Williamsburg, was totally unable to appreciate the difficulties and the spirit of the people .*
The Governor's vituperation of the people of Atigusta did not im- pair the intense loyalty of the County Court, however others of the population may have been affected by it. This spirit was carried to excess, and rather absurdly exhibited at times. It was in 1756 that one Francis Farguson was brought before the court "by warrant un- der the hand of Robert McClanahan, gent .. for damning Robert Dinwiddie, Esq., for a Scotch peddling son of a b-," and found guilty. He was discharged, however, ou apologizing and giving security to keep the peace.
Major Lewis did not get off till the month of June. The Chero- kees, brought out by Pearis, refused to go to Winchester, but went home, promising, however, to come back with a larger reinforcement of their tribe. The Governor, on the 12th of June. addressed a stately message "to the Emperor, Old Hop, and other sachems of the great nation of Cherokees."
It was determined by a council of war, held at Fort Cumberland, that Captain Hogg should have the care of constructing the forts pro- vided for by Act of Assembly. Washington addressed instructions to Hogg, dated Winchester, July 21, 1756. The militia of Augusta were ordered out to assist. The forts were to be twenty or thirty miles apart, to the southward of Fort Dinwiddie, on Jackson's river. Lieutenant Bullitt was to be left at Fort Dinwiddie, with thirty pri- vates of Hogg's company, and the other forts were to be garrisoned by fifteen to thirty men each. Hogg was instructed not to divide his force, but to keep his men together, and build fort after fort, without attempting to construct more than one at the same time. This precau- tion indicates the danger of attack by the enemy. The building of the
* The historian Parkman entertained a much more favorable opinion of the Virginia frontier settlers than Governor Dinwiddie, although he has depicted them as ruder in appearance and manners than they were. In his work called The Conspiracy of Pontiac he says: "The advancing frontiers of American civili- zation have always nurtured a class of men of striking and peculiar character. The best examples of this character have, perhaps, been found among the settlers of Western Virginia, and the hardy progeny who have sprung from that generous stock. The Virginian frontiersman was, as occasions called, a farmer, a hunter, and a warrior, by turns. The well-beloved rifle was seldom ont of his hand ; and he never deigned to lay aside the fringed frock, moccasins, and Indian leggins, which formed the appropriate costume of the forest ranger. *
* * Many of his traits have been reproduced in his offspring .- From him have sprung those hardy men whose struggles and sufferings on the bloody ground of Kentucky will always form a striking page in American history."
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forts was a scheme of the Governor's, disapproved by Washington, and resulted in no good.
In a letter to Henry Fox, Esq., dated July 24th, Governor Din- widdie says : " About one month ago, one hundred French and Indians came into Augusta county, murdered and scalped some of the unweary and unguarded people, but I think the militia drove them over the mountains." It is tantalizing that we cannot ascertain the scene of this raid, and other circumstances ; but it probably occurred on the frontier, and more or less remote from the western limit of the present county. In a letter to General Abercrombie, dated August 12th, the Governor alluded to the raid just mentioned, or another-we cannot tell which. He says : "About a month ago, a hundred of them" [Shawnee Indians] " with some French, came into the county of Au- gusta, in this Dominion, killed and carried away prisoners twenty-four of our people. We killed sixteen of them."
The record book of Courts Martial held by officers of Augusta militia, from 1756 to 1796, has in part escaped destruction. Both backs have disappeared, and some leaves also here and there, but a large part of the volume remains.
We find from this volume that "a Council of War" was held at Augusta Courthouse, July 27, 1756, by order of the Governor, to consider and determine at what points forts should be erected along the frontier for the protection of the inhabitants. The Council was composed of Colonels John Buchanan and David Stewart, Major John Brown, and Captains Joseph Culton, Robert Scott, Patrick Martin, William Christian, Robert Breckinridge, James Lockhart, Samuel Stalnicker, Israel Christian, and Thomas Armstrong. William Pax- ton acted as clerk. The William Christian mentioned was the son of Gilbert, and not Israel Christian's son of the same name, who was then a boy.
The Council unanimously agreed that forts should be constructed at the following places : "At Peterson's, on the South Branch of Po- towmack, nigh Mill Creek," two miles from the northern county line ; at Hugh Man's Mill, on Shelton's tract, 18 miles from Peterson's ; "at the most important pass between the last named place and tlie house of Matthew Harper, on Bull Pasture" [the place afterwards desig- nated was Trout Rock, 17 miles from Man's]; at Matthew Harper's, 20 miles from Trout Rock ; and at Captain John Miller's, on Jackson's river, 18 miles from Harper's. The Council then say : "As the fron- tiers are properly protected by the forts of Captains Hog [Dinwiddie's], Breckinridge and Dickinson, there is no want of a fort unto the mouth of John's Creek, a branch of Craig's Creek, at which place a fort is to
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be erected." Jolin's Creek was 25 miles from Dickinson's fort. Fort William, 20 miles from John's Creek, and supposed to be the same as Breckinridge's fort, was deemed "sufficient to guard that important pass," and the next place to the southwest, 13 miles distant, desig- nated for a fort, was Neal McNeal's. The remaining places named for forts are, Captain James Campbell's, 13 miles from McNeal's ; Captain Vaux's [Vass'], 12 miles from Campbell's ; and Captain John Mason's on the south side of Roanoke, 25 miles from Vaux's. From Mason's "to the first inhabitants in Halifax county, south side of Ridge," was 20 miles.
The Council ordered, subject to the approval of Captain Peter Hogg, that Fort Vaux be at least one hundred feet square in the clear, with stockades at least sixteen feet long, and be garrisoned by seventy men. The other forts were to be sixty feet square, with two bastions in each. The garrisons, besides Vaux's, were to be as follows: Mason's and McNeal's thirty men each, Dickinson's forty, Dinwiddie's sixty, and each of the others fifty men.
In Fort Dinwiddie there was an underground passageway covered with logs, from the blockhouse to a spring within the stockade, which was only recently filled up.
The services rendered by soldiers in the forts when garrisoned, are thus described by J. T. McAllister : "Two men, provisioned for three or four days, were sent out in each direction along the mountains. They were under strict orders not to build a fire in any event, and to return within the three or four days, unless they had reports to make earlier. They had to watch the gaps or low places in the mountain chains, and in some cases had to cover a distance of thirty miles. As soon as these parties returned, other parties were sent out in their places."
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