USA > Virginia > Historical collections of Virginia : containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, &c. relating to its history and antiquities ; together with geographical and statistical descriptions ; to which is appended, an historical and descriptive sketch of the District of Columbia. > Part 78
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The annexed biographical sketches of Col. Arthur Campbell. and of Gen. William Campbell, are from the Ms. history of Washing- ton county. The notice of the latter was written by the former, who was both a cousin and a brother-in-law :
ARTHUR CAMPBELL was born in 1742, in Augusta county. When about fifteen years old he volunteered as a militiaman, to perform a tour of duty in protecting the frontier settlements against the incursions of the Indians, and was stationed in a fort which had been erected about that period, near where the road leading from Staunton to the Warm Springs at this time crosses the stream called the Cow Pasture. While engaged in this service, a party of men from the fort, of which he was one, went some distance to a plum thicket, in quest of plums. The Indians, lying in ambush, fired upon them, and one of their balls grazed the knee of Arthur, then in one of the plum-trees. He sprang to the ground, and the shock, together with the injury from the wound, although slight, caused him to fall, and he was captured ere he could recover himself. The others made their escape without injury.
This youth, a mere stripling, was loaded with Indian packs, and made to carry them for seven days. The Indians, who were of one of the tribes in the vicinity of Lakes Erie and Michigan, immediately set out for their country. He was soon exhausted, unable to travel, and was treated with great severity. The aged chief in command in- teriered. took him from the others, and protected him from further injury ; and when the party reached the Indian towns, this chief adopted him, and he remained in his family during his captivity.
The young man now turned his attention to studying the Indian character, learning their language and customs ; and soon acquiring the confidence of his chief, became his companion in all his hunting excursions, in which they rambled over the whole country now forming Michigan, and the northern portions of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. In 1759, some portion of the British army was marched towards the upper lakes and the country bordering on Lake Erie, with a view of bringing the Indian tribes to subinis- sion. - In what particular direction the force marched, the writer hereof has not now the means of ascertaining. It was moving towards the borders of Lake Erie when runners and truders made known to the Indians that such a force was marching towards their country. Campbell knew that although they were several hundred miles distant, the Indians would watch his every movement with the greatest suspicion ; he, however, formed the bold resolution of escaping to them. To accomplish it required skill and cool determination, and the result showed he possessed both in a high degree. A hunt- ing excursion was soon projected, in which he joined; and after several days march in an opposite direction somewhat from the army, the party left their camp one morning, each separating for the day's hunt. Campbell took what he judged to be die proper course, and in two weeks reached the British army. In this journey of several hundred miles, partly through an unknown country, great peril was encountered in avoiding Indian hunting parties ; but he escaped all, furnishing himself meat with his rifle. On reaching the outposts, he requested to be conducted to the commander. The officer was deeply interested in his narrative, and being struck with the intelligence of the young
* We learn: fann tradition, that after the battle, the American officers held a council, and Mainz some fifteen of twenty of their tory prisoners. Many more were condemned ; but, dispu ted with this work of blond, their sives were spared. Among those who supered was an frishurt, a good-looking young man, who had by his own exertions ruled a company of royalistes. As the rope was being augusted around his neck, he was offered hits Hie if he would join the Americans. He spurned the offer with indignation, and as they were about swinging him off, cried, " Long live King George!"-H.H.
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man, engaged him to pilot the army. In this he rendered them important service, and soon after returned home.
During his three years of captivity, his friends had not heard of his destiny, and time in some measure had healed the wounds inflicted by his supposed horrible fate. In their imaginations his name had long been numbered with the dead, and to sooth the feelings of his pious parents. it had been ceased to be mentioned in the midst of a numer- ous family of brothers and sisters. A letter is unexpectedly received from him, dated at Pittsburg, announcing bis safety, and that in a few days he would have the pleasure of meeting them at the parental hearth. The parents and children are overwhelned with joy at the prospect of once beholding and embracing their long-lost son and brother. The eldest son starts immediately to meet him, and they meet in the road alone. The captive boy has grown a tall youth, with the erect, manly step, and lofty air of the red man. He reaches home, the neighbors flock to see him. He has acquired the taciturnity of the Indian, and the thousand inquisitive interrogatories annoy him. Soon as he be- comes settled, instead of devoting his leisure to social amusements, he is acquiring a knowledge from books that places him above his cotemporaries, and to the astonishment of all, writes an elegant epistle to the governor of the state, detailing his captivity, escape, and services rendered to the army as a guide ; upon which the government then allows him a thousand acres, near Louisville, Kentucky.
, About four years before the commencement of the revolution, David Campbell (his father) and family, (Arthur and one sister having emigrated two years previous,) moved, and settled at a place called " the Royal Oak," on Holston River, then a wilderness and an Indian hunting-ground. Arthur was soon appointed a major in the Fincastle county militia, and in the spring of 1776 was elected to the Virginia assembly, and was a mem- ber of the convention forming the constitution. In this convention he took a decided stand against an established church, and although not a public speaker, influenced some of the first members of the convention. While a member of the Assembly, he became intimately acquainted with Edmund Pendleton, Richard Henry Lee, and George Mason, and afterwards with Jefferson and Madison, with all of whom he corresponded. Previous to this, he married the third sister of Gen. William Campbell, a lady of beauty, spright- liness, and intelligence. When Washington county was formed, he was appointed county lieutenant, or colonel-commandant. At this period there was a general military spirit, and no officers resigned their commissions. Col. Campbell retained command of this regiment (the 70th) for nearly thirty years; and there were in his corps several captains with heads perfectly white with age. Before Col. Campbell reached the com- mand of a regiment, he was engaged in and commanded several military expeditions, as wel! as after. The public documents at Richmond giving authentic accounts of public affairs, were destroyed (it is supposed) by Arnold, and therefore previous to the date of his colonelship, little can be learned about his public services. The crowning act of his life, his brilliant services against the Cherokees, are elsewhere detailed.
Col. Campbell resided on the farm he first settled after coming to Holston, about thirty-five years. He then removed to Yellow Creek, Knox county, Kentucky, where he died of a cancer in the face, in the 74th year of his age. Col. Campbell was tall, of a dignified air, a man of extensive reading, and fine conversational talents. With the mass of society he was unpopular, although respected, owing mainly to his not relaxing in his manner to suit it. His temper being hasty and overbearing, occasioned violent quarrels and bitter enemies. He was a zealous whig, and in the gloomiest hour had not a doubt of an auspicious result to the contest.
Col. Arthur Campbell had two sons, who died in the army during the late war. Capt. James Campbell died at Mobile, and Col. John B. Campbell fell at Chippewa, where he commanded the right wing of the army under Gen. Winfield Scott. He was a gui- lant and a humane officer, and in the winter of 1813, commanded an expedition against the Indians on the Wabash, and had a bloody battle with them at Mississioewa, and finally destroyed their towns.
Gen. WILLIAM CAMPBELL, the subject of this memoir, was a native of Augusta, in the state of Virginia, of the true Caledonian race by the maternal line, as well as that by the father. Being an only son, he received a liberal education under the best teachers of those times. He had an ardent mind, very susceptible of literary improvement, and acquired early in ide a correct knowledge of the English language, of ancient and med- ern history, and of several branches of the mathematics. Nature had formed him for a commander in military capacity. His personal appearance was grave and masculine, being something about six feet high, and well proportioned; in conversation rather
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WASHINGTON COUNTY.
reserved and thoughtful ; in his written communications expressive and elegant. His patriotism was not of a timid cast. He never balanced between his military duty and prudential maxims. When his ire was excited, he showed in his countenance the fury of an Achilles. The trusty Andreferrara, the sword he wore on the day of battle, was once the property of his grandfather from Scotland, and he had an arm and a spirit that could wield it with effect. In the year 1775, he was of the first regular troops raised in Virginia, being honored with a captain's connaission in the first regiment. Here he acquired a practical knowledge of tactics and the discipline of an army. In the latter part of the year 1776, he resigned his commission on account of the Indian war breaking out, by which his family and friends were exposed to immediate danger. Soon after he was promoted to be lieut .- colonel of the militia of Washington county, and the next year, on the resignation of Evan Shelby, sen., to that of colonel of the regiment. In this rank he remained until after the battle of King's Mountain, and of Guilford, when he was appointed by a vote of the legislature of Virginia, to raak as a brigadier- general, and was ordered to join the Marquis Lafayette, to oppose the invasion of the enemy in 1781. After the defeat of Ferguson, the British general, Cornwallis, imbibed a personal resentment, and had the temerity to threaten if Gen. Campbell fell into his hands, he would have instantly been put to death for his rigor against the tories. "This, instead of intimidating, had the contrary effect, and in turn the American general re- solved, if the fortune of war should place Cornwallis in his power, he should meet the fate of Ferguson. This soon after, at the battle of Guilford, had nearly been the case, for had all the militia behaved with the same firmness and courage as on the wing where Gen. Campbell commanded, the British army must have met with a total defeat. On forming the army in Virginia, under the Marquis Lafayette, in 1781, Gen. Camp- bell became a favorite of that gallant nobleman, who gave him the command of the brigade of light infantry and riflemen. A few weeks before the siege of Yorktown, he took sick of a complaint in his breast, which obliged him to retire from the army to a friend's house in the country, and there, after a short sickness, to end his days in the thirty-sixth year of his age, much lamented by the friends of liberty who knew him. Of his military character we have given a short sketch, His moral sentiments and social demeanor in civil life were exemplary. Although an only son, and an heir to a considerable property, he never gave way to the fashionable follies of young men of fortune, He well knew that vice, at any time of life, or in any shape, darkens the understanding, perverts the will, and thus injures social order in every grade of society. He kept a strict guard on his own passions, and was by some deemed too severe in punishing the deviations of others. His military career was short but brilliant. War. ren and Montgomery acted on a conspicuous stage, and deserved the culogiums so often repeated. Campbell undertook a no less arduous task, with an inferior number of undisciplined militia. He marched in a few days near two hundred miles, over vast mountains, in search of the enemy, who were commanded by an experienced officer, of known bravery and military skill, and who had chosen his field for battle. It was [King's Mountain] rother a fortification than an open space for combatants to meet upon. The assault of the Americans was impetuous and irresistible, and the event was victory to a wish. This victory resulted in the retreat of the main British army a con- siderable distance, and their relinquishment of the scheme of invading Virginia that year. It also reanimated all the friends of liberty in the southern states, and was the prelude of adverse events to the enemy; which, in the course of the next campaign, terminated in their final overthrow .*
Judge PETER JOHNSON, who resided in this vicinity in the latter part of his life, was originally intended for the church. At the breaking out of the revolution he clandes- tively left his father's house, and joined the legion of Lee. Proving a most vigilant and prudent soldier, he was promoted to a lieutenancy. At the siege of Augusta. a ditch of the besingers was occupied by Lieut. Johnson and 24 men. Early in the night infor- ination was received that a party of 40 British soldiers and Indians were approaching. Johnson unmediately ordered his men, who had their muskets loaded, to sit on their
* The Virginia legriature presented this officer with a sword, horse, and pistols, for his conduct at King's Mountain, and & hed a county after han. The Continental Congress proceda his thana helly c.uaplimentary resolution. Bis coeduet at Guilford drew from Geu. Greene, and from Col. Henry Lee, tto whose lagtop he pescuit ched; doering letters. And when the scene chef , and de vil im iting him, Lafayette issues a funeral order, regretting the decease of " an officer whose services imust have endeared hlin to every citizen, and in particular to every American soldier :" as une who has acquired ha glory in the atfurs of Kong's Mountain and Guilford Court-House, that will do his memory eves fasting honor, and ensure him a high rank among the defenders of liberty in the American canse."
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WAYNE COUNTY.
hams on the reverse of the ditch. In a few minutes the enemy were heard stealthily advancing. When they were within a few yards, he gave the order, and his men sud- denly rising took deliberate aim and poured in upon them a deadly fire. They were completely routed, and instead of surprising Johnson were themselves surprised. His intrepidity and coolness on this occasion saved his detachment from being cut off.
While his brother officers were spending their time in dissipation, Johnson was pur- suing his studies. After the war he acquired distinction at the bar, was elected speaker of the House of Representatives, and finally received the appointment of judge. He left a numerous family, some of whom are now residing in this county.
WAYNE.
WAYNE is a new county, formed in 1842 from the southwestern part of Cabell. It is about 35 miles long, with a mean breadth of 10 miles. The Ohio forms its xw. boundary, the Tug Fork of Big Sandy divides it from Kentucky, and Twelve Pole creek rises in Logan and runs through it centrally. The surface of the county is considerably broken, and it is sparsely inhabited. The court- house is at Trout's Hill.
The following description of this section of country is extracted from the history of a voyage from Marietta to New Orleans in 1305, and communicated to the American Pioneer, by Dr. S. P. Hildreth :
At the mouth of the Big Sandy, the dividing line between Virginia and Kentucky, the Ohio makes its extreme southern bend, and approaches nearer to the climate of the cane, (arundinaria macrosperma,) than at any other point between Pittsburg and Cincinnati. At this period it grew in considerable quantities near the falls, 30 miles from the mouth, and had been visited in 1804 by Thomas Alcock, of Marietta, for the purpose of collect- ing its stems to manufacture weavers' reeds. It was the highest point, near the Ohio, where this valuable plant was known to grow, and has long since been destroyed by the domestic cattle of the inhabitants. In Tennessee and Kentucky it furnished the winter food for their cattle and horses many years after their settlement. The head waters of' the Sandy and Guyandotte interlock with those of the Clinch and the Holston, amid the spurs of the Cumberland mountains. In their passage to the Ohio, they traverse 'he anost wild and picturesque region to be found in western Virginia : abounding in in !- mense hills of sand rocks, cut into deep ravines by the water-courses, containing caverns of various sizes and extent. At this period it was the most famous hunting-ground for bears in all the country. In the years 1805-6 and 7, eight thousand skins were col- lected by the hunters from the district traversed by these rivers and a few adjacent streams. It was the paradise of bears ; effording their most favorite food in exhaust. jess abundance. The bear is not strictly a carnivorous animal, but, like the hog, feeds chiefly on vegetable food. On the ridges were whole forests of chestnuts, and the hill- sides were covered with oaks, on whose fruits they luxuriated and fattoned, until their glossy hides afforded the finest peltry imaginable. The war in Europe created a great demand for their skins, to decorate the soldiers of the hostile arinies; and good ones yielded to the hunters four and five dollars each.
Since that day the attention of the sojourners of this wild region has been turned to the collection of the routs of the griseng. This beautiful plant grows with great luxuri. unce, and in the most wonderful abundance, in the rich virgin soil of the hill and moun- tain sides. For more than thirty years the forests have afforded a constant supply of many thousand pounds annually, to the traders stationed at remote points along the wa- ter.courses. No part of America furnishes a more stately growth of forest trees, eui- bracing all the species of the climate. The lofty Liriodendron attaing the height of eighty and a hundred feet without a limb, having a shaft of from four to six feet in diameter. The white and yellow oak are its rivals in size. The magnolia aetnaact: towers aloft to an altitude derstimmen in any other region ; nde its more namibie pie- lives, the tripetal and mverovalila, somich in great beauty by its side. It may be con- sidered the storehouse for building future cities, when the prolific pines of the Alleghany River are exhausted. In addition to all these vegetable riches, the hills are full of fine beds of bituminous coal, and argillaceous iron ores.
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WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
WESTMORELAND.
WESTMORELAND lies on the Potomac, in the NE. section of the state. It is about 30 miles long, with a width of from 8 to 10 miles. The first mention which has been found of this county, is in an act of the " Grand Assembly" of July. 1653, by which " It is ordered that the bounds of the county of Westmoreland be as fol- loweth, (viz.,) from Machoactoke River, where Mr. Cole lives, and so upwards to the falls of the great river Pawtomake, above the Nescostin's towne." From this, it would seem the county was previously in existence, but it is not ascertained at what time it was taken from the older colony of Northumberland. (at first called Chicawane or Chickown.) which was established in 1648, and declared hy an act of that year to contain the "neck of land between Rappahannock River and Potomack River." Its surface is indented with numerous tributaries of the Potomac, the waters of which generally abound with the finest fish, oysters, and wild- fowl. . The face of the country is diversified by hills and flatland The soil on the streams is fertile, and the middle or forest-lands are covered with a thick growth of pine and cedar, and exhibit all the symptoms of early exhaustion from the successive culture of tobacco. They are not, however, irreclaimable, and in many instances, by a proper system of agriculture, give abundant crops. Large quantities of cord-wood are exported to the Baltimore market. Pop. in 1840, whites 3,466, slaves 3,500, free colored 963 ; total, 8.019. The Court-House is situated near the line of Rich- mond co., 70 m. NE. of Richmond, and contains a few dwellings only.
Westmoreland has been called " the Athens of Virginia." Some of the most renowned men in this country have been born within her borders. Among these may be mentioned WASHING- TON, Richard Henry Lee, and his three brothers, Thomas, Francis, and Arthur, Gen, Henry Lee, Monroe, and the late Judge Bushrod Washington.
President Monroe was born at the head of Monroe's creek. Clumtilin, situated upon the Potomac. now in ruins, was once the residence of Richard Henry Lee. Upon the same stream, a few miles further up, is Stratford, the family seat of the Lees for many generations. The BIRTHPLACE of Washington was destroyed pre- vious to the revolution. It stood about half a mile from the june- tion of Pope's creek with the Potomac. A stone has lately been placed there to mark its site, by G. W. Custis, Esq. It bears the simple inscription, " ilEne, ON THE LITH OF FEBRUARY, (O. S.) 1732. GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS BORN."
" The spot is of deep interest, not only from its association but its natural beauties. It commands a view of the Maryland shore ; of the Potoinac, one of the most majestic of rivers, and of its course for many miles towards Chesapeake Bay. The house was a low -pitched, single-storied, frame building, with four rooms on the first floor, and an enormous glumacy at each end on the outside. This was the state of the taret sort of houses in these days, and they are still occasionally seen in the old settlements of Vir .. ginia."
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WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
The fac-simile in the engraving, of the record of the birth of Washington, is from the family record in the Bible which belonged to his mother. The original entry is supposed to have been made by her. This old family Bible is in the possession of George W. Bassett, Esq., of Farmington, Hanover co., who married a grand- niece of Washington. It is in the quarto form, much dilapidated by age, and with the title-page missing. It is covered by the striped Virginia cloth, anciently much used.
The portrait of Washington which we give, is engraved from the original painting by his aid, Col. John Trumbull. When Lafayette was on his visit to this country, he pronounced it the best likeness of Washington he had seen. It was taken at the time of life when they were both together in the army of the revolution.
It is unnecessary here to give a biographical sketch of Wash- ington, as it is to be presumed that the reader is already familiar with the events of his life. But we insert the tribute paid to his character by Lord Brougham, where he contrasts him with Napo- leon :
How grateful the relief which the friend of mankind, the lover of virtue experiences when, turning from the contemplation of such a character, his eye rests upon the great- est man of our own or any other age. . . . In Washington we truly behold a marvellous contrast to almost every one of the endowments and the vices which we have been contemplating ; and which are so well fitted to excite a mingled admiration, and sorrow, and abhorrence. With none of that brilliant genius which dazzles ordinary minds ; with not even any remarkable quickness of apprehension; with knowledge less than almost all persons in the middle ranks, and many well educated of the humbler class possess ; this eminent person is presented to our observation clothed with attributes as modest, as unpretending, as little calculateu to strike or astonish, as if he had passed through some secluded region of private life. But he had a judgment sure and sound ; a steadiness of mind which never suffered any passion, or even any feeling to ruffle its calin ; a strength of understanding worked, rather than forced its way through all ob- stacles-removing or avoiding, rather than overleaping them. His courage, whether in battle or in council, was as perfect as might be expected from this pure and steady tem- per of soul. A perfectly just man, with a thoroughly firm resolution never to be misled by others, any more than by others to be overawed; never to be seduced, or betrayed, or hurried awa, by his own weakness, or self-delusions, any more than by other met's arts ; nor even to be disheartened by the most complicated difficulties, any more than be spoilt on the giddy heights of fortune-such was this great man -- whether we regard him alone sustaining the whole weight of campaigns, all but desperate, or gloriously terminating a just warfire by his resources and his courage ; presiding over the jarring clements of his political council, alike deaf to the storms of all extremes-ci directing the formation of a new government for a great people, the first time so vast an experi- ment had been tried by man ; or finally retiring from the supreme power to which his virtue bad raised him over the nation he had created, and whose destinies he had guided as long as his aid was required -- retired with the veneration of all parties, of all nations, of all mankind, in order that the rights of men might be preserved, and that his example might never be appealed to by vulgar tyrants.
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