USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 > Part 16
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The length of frontier to be protected was estimated by the Coun- cil as two hundred and fifty miles, and the number of men to garrison the forts as six hundred and eighty. The scheme was abandoned, however, only one or two new forts having been built.
The Courts Martial record book gives the names of the captains of militia in 1756. The captains of horse were Israel Christian, Patrick Martin and John Dickinson ; of foot, besides those already named, Samuel Norwood, James Allen,* George Willson, John Mathews, Joseph Lapsley, James Mitchell, Daniel Harrison, Abram Smith, Ephraim Love, Ludovick Francisco, and Robert Bratton.
* Captain Allen's company, in 1756, consisted of sixty-eight men, and was composed of Walkers, Turks, Kerrs, Robertsons, Bells, Crawfords, Givenses, Craigs, Pattersons, Poages, and others.
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The Governor had received no report from Major Lewis up to August 19th. Writing to Washington on that day, he says : " Col. Stewart, of Augusta, proposed and sent the sketch for fourteen forts, to be garrisoned by 700 men, but I took no notice of it, waiting for Captain Hogg's report of what he thinks may be necessary, and to be managed with frugality, for the people in Augusta appear to me so selfish that private views and interest prevail with them without due consideration of the public service, which makes me much on my guard with them." He appears to have cherished a bitter animosity towards Stewart, the name being then generally so written, but now Stuart.
On the 20th, the Governor had tidings from Lewis, and was happy in the expectation of soon receiving a reinforcement of one hundred and fifty Cherokees and fifty Catawbas. He desired to have provis- ions for these allies at several points on their march to Winchester, and, not being acquainted with any person in Augusta he could con- fide in, ordered Colonel Clement Read, County-Lieutenant of Lunen- burg county, to make arrangements for supplies at Roanoke and Au- gusta Courthouse. Colonel Buchanan had advised him that wheat could be bought at Roanoke for 2s. 6d., and if Read had " an opin- ion " of Buchanan, the latter might be employed to make purchases. Five chests of small arms and six barrels of gunpowder were sent to Roanoke for the Indians. To Lewis the Governor wrote on the 30th of August : "I have wrote Col. Washington that he may expect the Cherokees under your conduct, and I order you to march them with all possible expedition. They shall be supplied at Winchester with all sorts of ammunition, but no cutlasses to be had here."
Captain Hogg enjoyed the Governor's entire confidence, and was no doubt worthy of it,-they were brother Scots. To him the Gov- ernor poured out his heart on September 8th :- "The behavior and backwardness of the militia in assisting you is unaccountable, or can I account for the dastardly spirit of our lower class of people in gen- eral, but that of Augusta county, I think, exceeds them all." Col- onel Buchanan, commanding the Augusta militia, and probably then residing on the Roanoke river, is accused of inefficiency ; and it turn- ed out that Colonel Read had "no influence but in his own county." By the date of this letter, the writer had changed his mind about the forts. He thought as many as three unnecessary, aud the one Hogg was then building, enough. "Dickinson," adds the Governor, "is uow here, and says he was sent for to the general muster when his fort was attacked. I told him he had no call to be there when he otherways was on duty, and he confesses his errors, but says he con-
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stantly kept centries and scouting parties from the fort for soute mouths " [or miles] "round, and those that went after the Indians, he says, were militia under different officers, that he could not command them ; that he had 120 pounds of powder and 200 pounds of lead when attacked. In short, I am of opinion, if there had been proper conduct they might have destroyed some of the enemy."
Here again we are ignorant of details. Dickinson's fort was on the Cowpasture river, some four miles below Millborough. Withers says [Border Warfare, page 75] the garrison was so careless that sev- eral children playing under the walls outside the fort were run down and caught by the Indians, who were not discovered till they arrived at the gate. He states that the circumstance occurred in 1755, but was no doubt mistaken in regard to the date. He, moreover, is silent as to an assault upon the fort ; but in addition to the Governor's refer- ence to one, there is a reliable tradition of an assault, during which a young girl aided in moulding bullets for the men. This young girl was the grandmother of Judge William McLaughlin. The incident mentioned of her may, however, have occurred in 1757, when Dickin- son's fort was assailed again. Tradition also informs us that at one time, when a party of hostile Indians was believed to be at hand, a married woman, hastening with her family and neighbors to take shiel- ter in Dickinson's fort, was seized with the pains of child-birth on the way, and was detained in the forest till her agony was over.
In September, 1756, the number of Indian allies expected by the Governor had grown to four hundred, and he was correspondingly elated. The Cherokees were highly pleased with their fort, but de- sired a small garrison of white men to hold it during the absence of their warriors. Captain Overton, with most of the men sent to build the fort, had returned by September 18th. Major Lewis remained to bring in the Indian reinforcement.
At a Court Martial held September 11, 1756, Colonel David Stew- art presiding, several persons were exempted from military duty, among them one man for the reason that two of his children were "natural fools."
From the " Preston Register " we learn that, in September, 1756, the Indians fell upon the settlement on Jackson's river, at or near Fort Dinwiddie. They killed 13 people, including Ensign Madison, Nicholas Carpenter, James Montgomery, John Bird, and George Kin- kead ; and carried off 28, among them Mrs. Bird and 6 children, Mrs. Kinkead and 3 children, Mrs. Parsinger and 2 children, and 5 children name Carpenter. It is presumed that the family whose name is here written Bird, were the progenitors of the Bath county family who write
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their name Byrd. A communication to the " Virginia Magazine of History," by J. T. McAllister, (July, 1894), states that John Byrd was eight years old when he was carried off. Eight years later he was re- stored to his surviving friends, pursuant, no doubt, to Bouquet's treaty of 1764. A sister was married to an Indian, and never re- turned. We have no account of Mrs. Byrd and her other children. When John Byrd was given up he wore a gold chain suspended to his nose and ears. He made two attempts to return to the Indians, but was prevented, and died in 1836. He was the grand-father of Johu T. Byrd, of Bath.
The alarm in Augusta still continued. "One-third of the militia from Augusta." wrote the Governor on September 30th, "and some from other counties contiguous have been ordered out for protection of their frontiers, but they are such a dastardly set of people that I am convinced they do not do their duty, which is the reason of the late invasion there. They have neither courage, spirit, or conduct." Again, on the 26th of October, to Washington : " I received your let- ter from Augusta, and observe its contents. The behavior of the militia is very unaccountable, and I am convinced they are under 110 command. I ordered part of the militia to the frontier and there to remain till relieved by others, * instead thereof, they go and come at their own pleasure, and many of them come here with large demands as if they had done the duty ordered in a proper manner : they are a dastardly set of people, and under no management or dis- cipline, much owing to their officers, who I fear are little better than the private men."
At last Major Lewis returned from the Cherokee country, and brought in only seven warriors and three women, to the Governor's " great surprise and concern."
The French, it was feared, had been tampering with the Southern Indians, and had seduced them from the English. One of the seven was sent back to remind the Cherokees of their repeated promises, and the others in Augusta were exhorted by the Governor to accompany Major Lewis to Winchester.
The fort built by Andrew Lewis was called Fort Loudoun. It was on the south bank of the Tennessee river, at the head of naviga- tion, and about thirty miles south of the present town of Knoxville .*
* As Fort Loudoun was built by a party of men sent from Augusta county, its history is of some interest to the people of the county.
In 1760 it was occupied by two hundred soldiers under Captains Demere (called Dennis) and Stuart, and many people had settled in the vicinity, trusting to the protection of the fort. Amongst the means of defence were twelve cannon,
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The middle of November, 1756, having arrived, Governor Din- widdie, thinking there was no danger of invasion during the cold season, ordered Major Lewis to recall the men on the frontiers, and to reduce the Augusta companies in service to three. In the meanwhile, however, he was much concerned about the accounts sent in by officers of militia in Augusta. Colonel Buchanan was instructed to scrutinize the accounts closely, with the assistance of Captain Hogg. These officers were to meet at Vass' fort, where Hogg was stationed. When December 23d came round, the Governor's wrath was particu- larly directed to Captain Robert Breckinridge, of Augusta, and Major Lewis was peremptorily ordered to "put him out of com- mission."
Early in January, 1757, Governor Dinwiddie was full of another scheme. This one was instigated apparently by Captain Voss, Vass, or Vance-the Governor writes the name all sorts of ways, but Vaux was probably the correct mode-and encouraged by Colonel Read and but in what manner they were transported for hundreds of miles through the wilderness, and from whence, is not known. A small party of Cherokees had accompanied Gen. Forbes in his successful expedition against Fort Du Quesne, in 1758, and returning home through the back part of Virginia helped themselves to sonie horses found roaming at large. They were pursued by white people and a dozen or more of them were killed. This treatment from allies greatly enraged the tribe, which, added to other causes of discontent, led to an outbreak .- Moreover, the Indians claimed that the fort belonged to them, having been built for their protection, and they regarded its occupation by soldiers as an insult and menace to them.
Fort Loudoun was closely besieged. The garrison and the settlers who had taken refuge there, were reduced to the last extremity by the want of food, and there was no hope of relief from any quarter. Capt. Stuart, therfore, made an agreement with the Indians to surrender the fort, upon condition of being per- initted to retire in safety. The soldiers and others marched out, and were allowed to proceed the first day without molestation. But early the next morning, they were surrounded and assailed by the Indians .- At the first fire Capt. Dennis, three other officers, and about twenty-six privates were killed, and all the others were captured. There is a strange uncertainty as to the fate of the unfortunate people. According to one account, the prisoners were afterwards redeemed. Another tradition is that between two and three hundred men, besides women and children, perished in the massacre, and that the Indians made a fence of their hones. Capt. Stuart and two others were saved by the friendly intervention of the Indian Chief, Attakullakualla, called by the whites Little Carpenter. This Indian, who had formed a special fondness for Stuart, purchased him from the leading chief by giving up all his possessions ; and fearing for his safety among the Indians, took him out professedly to hunt, and by traveling nine days and nights brought him to the frontier of Virginia.
Stuart adhered to Great Britain during the Revolutionary war. His son, born in Georgia, hecame a distinguished officer in the British army during the wars of Napoleon.
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others. It seems that a number of persons calling themselves "As- sociators," proposed to raise two hundred and fifty to three hundred men for an expedition against the Shawnees. They were to choose their own officers, to be provided by the government with provisions, arms and ammunition, to have all the plunder, and to be paid £10 for every scalp or prisoner brought in. The provisions were to be carried to Vass' fort, and from thence on horses to the pass in the mountains, where the horses should be kept under a guard. The whole affair was to he kept as secret as possible, to prevent intelligence of it getting to the enemy. The Governor had the affair "much at heart," and on the ist of February he wrote : "The expedition is very pleasable." It is observable that he wrote to nobody in Augusta on the subject. On the 5th of April lie wrote to Colonel Read : "Last Thursday I ar- rived from Philadelphia, when I was much surprised after the san- guine expressions and assurances of three hundred inen from Augusta, etc., entering an association to march against the Shawness towns is defeated by a presumption, they would not proceed with fewer than six hundred. This, I conceived, was intended to load the country with extraordinary expense, and to furnish arms, etc., for that 1111111- ber, whichi can't be done. * * I believe it's only a few persons that wanted command occasioned this hindrance, and I find it has been usual with the people of Augusta to form schemes of lucrative views, which, for the future, I will endeavor to prevent."
Thus another well-laid plan came to naught. Of course, the peo- ple of Augusta were responsible for the failure! By this time the Governor was clamoring to be relieved of his labors,-he was weary and sick, and doubtless nearly all the people in the colony desired his departure, the people of Augusta most of all.
We find from the correspondence, that two parties of Indian tramps, professing friendship, were roaming about in Lunenburg and Halifax counties, and committing depredations. They scalped one of their number in Colonel Read's yard, and otherwise behaved in a "rude and villainous" manner. The Governor feared that Paris was "the ring-leader of all these enormities "; but advised caution in bringing the Indians to reason, as he greatly dreaded a war with the Cherokees.
The Governor's instructions to Washington, of May 16, 1757, state how sundry forts were to be garrisoned, etc. Fort Loudoun [Winchester], 100 men under Washington himself ; Edward's, 25 men under a subaltern ; Dickinson's, 70 men under Major Lewis ; Vass'. 70 men under Captain Woodward. At the same time, as he wrote to the Lords of Trade, he had in service 400 Indians from the Catawbas,
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Cherokees and Tuscaroras. "I ordered them out with some of our forces," he says, "to observe the motions of the enemy, protect our frontiers, and go a scalping agreeable to the French custom." In another letter of the same date, he says : " I've ordered them out in parties with some of our men to discover the motions of the enemy and to scalp those they can overcome-a barbarous method of conducting war, introduced by the French, which we are obliged to follow in our own defence."
On the 18th of May, one hundred and ten of the Catawba allies were in Williamsburg, on their way home, "pretending they dis- covered the tracks of Shawnesse and Delawares marching towards their towns ; that they must go to protect their women and children." They, however, brought the Governor two Shawnee scalps. On the 26th of May, only some Cherokees and eleven other friendly Indians remained on our frontiers. At that date the Governor complained of many disorders by the Cherokees, while marching through the conn- try. They had killed a Chickasaw warrior, whose squaw, however, made her escape.
A party of thirty Cherokees was at Williamsburg on June 16tli, on their way to Winchester, and the Governor was obliged to give them shirts, leggins, paint, etc. Old Hop promised to send out three other parties by way of Augusta.
From a letter written by Governor Dinwiddie to Washington, June 20th, we learn that there was a new alarm at Winchester. French and Indians were said to be marching from Fort Duquesne, probably to attack Fort Cumberland, and one-third of the militia of Frederick, Fairfax. and other counties, were called out. This appre- hension subsided ; but the Governor wrote to the Earl of Halifax : " I think we are in a very melancholy situation." On the 24th he wrote to Washington : "Major Lewis has been very unlucky in all his expeditions."
During the month of July there were "weekly alarms from our frontiers of the enemy's intention to invade us," and corresponding vigilance and activity on the part of the Governor. On August 3d he wrote to Colonel Read : "It surprises me that I have no account from Augusta of the terrible murders committed on the frontiers. * I * hope I shall have the news you write contradicted, or at least not so dismal as represented, though I am in great uneasiness till I hear from some of the commanding officers in Augusta."
We do not know the scene, and have no account of the circum- stances of the disaster referred to in the letter just quoted. Perhaps, however, a letter of August 8th to Colonel Buchanan, colonel of Au-
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gusta militia, indicates the place. "Your letter of the 23d of last month," writes the Governor, "I did not receive till the 6th of this, so it was fifteen days coming to my hands. I am sincerely sorry for the many murders and captives the enemy have made, and I fear the people in pay do not execute their duty. Where was Captain Preston and the people at Hogg's?"* "Surely they ought to have been sent for, and repelled the force of the enemy, as the bearer assures me there were not above six attacked their house, and you must be misin- formed of the number of two hundred at Dickinson's fort-that number, I conceive, would have carried their point, and I am informed Dickin- son was not at his fort. This I leave yon to inquire into, for I fear the country is greatly imposed on by neglect of the officers," etc. It seems that some people were captured and carried off by the Indians. "One thousand inen," continnes the letter, "could not cover the whole frontiers, and I am surprised the reinforcement from the regi- ment are not arrived in Augusta, as Colonel Washington had my or- ders the 18th of last month to send them directly, and I hope they are witlı you before this time. * * I amı pretty well convinced the enemy must have returned to their towns before this. Let me know where Captain Preston is, and whether the men at Hogg's fort were apprised of the enemy's cruelties, and the reason they did not march against them. * * I am sensibly concerned for the poor people, and heartily wish it was in my power to give them a thorough protection." In a letter to Washington, on the 9th of August, the Governor refers to letters from Augusta, Halifax and Bedford, informing him that the enemy had murdered seven people and captured eleven.
At Dickinson's fort, in 1757, was a boy who in after years became quite famous. He was born in Augusta county, in 1742, and his name was Arthur Campbell. He had volunteered as a militiaman to aid in protecting the frontier. Going one day with others to a thicket in search of plums, the party was fired upon by Indians lying in am- bush, and young Campbell was slightly wounded and captured.
James Smith was detained at a Wyandot Indian town near Lake Erie, and tells about the arrival there of a band of warriors. "These warriors," he says, " had divided into different parties, and all struck at different places in Augusta county. They brought with them a considerable number of scalps, prisoners, horses and other plunder. One of the parties brought in with them one Arthur Campbell, that is now Colonel Campbell, who lives on Holston river, near the Royal Oak. As the Wyandots at Sunyendeand and those at Detroit were connected, Mr. Campbell was taken to Detroit ; but he remained some
* Fort Dinwiddie ?
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time with me in this town : his company was very agreeable, and I was sorry when he left me. During his stay at Sunyendeand he borrowed my Bible, and made some pertinent remarks on what he had read. One passage was where it is said, 'It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.' He said we ought to be resigned to the will of Providence, as we were now bearing the yoke in our yonth. Mr. Campbell appeared to be then about sixteen or seventeen years of age." The Bible had been brought from Pennsylvania by a band of predatory Indians.
Young Campbell was taken to the vicinity of the great lakes, and detained a prisoner for three years, when he made his escape and re- turned home. About six years before the Revolution, he removed to the Holston river, now Washington county, his father and family soon following. He was afterwards prominent in the assembly and the state convention of 1788, as well as during the Revolutionary war. One of liis sons, Colonel John B. Campbell, fell at Chippewa, where he commanded the right wing of the army under General Scott. General William Campbell, the hero of King's mountain, also a native of Au- gusta county, was Arthur Campbell's cousin and brother-in-law.
By this time, Governor Dinwiddie was in an ill-humor with Washington, and wrote him a scolding letter on the 13th of August. Washington had sent in certain accounts, and the Governor complains that he could not tell whether the amount was £100 or £1000. "You have sent a detachment from the regiment to Augusta," says the let- ter, "but you do not mention the number, or do you mention the re- ceipt of the small arms sent from this, or any account of the misunder- standing with the Indians at Winchester. You must allow this is a loose way of writing, and it is your duty to be more particular to me.
* I approve of your hanging the two deserters." Washington was directed, by the same letter, to give Paymaster Boyd, of the Vir- ginia regiment, a small escort to Augusta Courthouse, where he was to deliver money to Major Lewis, for the men on duty in this county. Lewis appears to have been sent by Washington, with several com- panies of the Virginia regiment, from Winchester to Augusta, in pur- suance of the Governor's order.
On the 15th of August, the Governor being much indisposed, Secretary Withers wrote to Major Lewis, leaving it discretionary with him as to abandoning Vass' fort. About one thing, however, the Major was left no discretion : he must forthwith suspend Colonel Stewart from command, "for raising false alarms, terrifying the people," etc. Stewart, or Stnart as now written, was a colonel of militia. He no doubt communicated to the Governor the recom-
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mendation of the Council of War in regard to the chain of forts, which, as we have seen, was contemptuously rejected.
The Governor had not forgotten Captain Dickinson. On Sep- tember 19th, he wrote to Major Lewis : " Pray ask Captain Dickinson where he was when his fort was last invested. I hear he wasn't in it." The House of Burgesses had voted to raise three hundred rangers, and two hundred of them were intended for the Augusta frontier. The Governor desired Captain Hogg to command them, as he said in writing to Washington on the 24th. In this letter he ac- cuses Washington of ingratitude.
The following extract from a letter of Dinwiddie to Washington, dated October 19th, though not a part of the Annals of Augusta, is too interesting to be omitted : " I cannot agree to allow you leave to come down here at this time ; you have been frequently indulged with leave of absence. You know the fort is to be finished, and I fear in your absence little will be done, and surely the commanding officer should not be absent when daily alarmed with the enemy's intentions to invade our frontiers. I think you are wrong to ask it. You have no accounts, as I know of, to settle with me, and what accounts you have to settle with the committee may be done in a more proper time. I wish you well."
Captain Hogg was duly commissioned to command one of the new companies of rangers in Augusta, under direction of Major Lewis. The private men were to be paid twelve pence, about fifteen cents, a day, and find their own clothing. To Major Lewis, the Governor wrote, in October : " Recommend morality and sobriety to all the peo- ple, with a due submission and regard to Providence. Let swearing, private quarrels, drunkenness and gaming be strictly forbidden."
The next victim of Governor Dinwiddie's displeasure was Colonel John Spotswood, County Lieutenant of Spottsylvania county. Some blank commissions had been sent to Colonel Spotswood to be delivered to company officers when appointed. Colonel Spotswood, however, had committed the offence of giving a colonel's commission to Benja- min Pendleton, and a major's to Charles Lewis .* The offence was enhanced by the fact that Pendleton had no estate in the county, and kept an ordinary. As to Lewis, whatever his fault may have been, he " deserves no commission from me," says the angry Governor.
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