USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 27
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"That Heaven may give you Success & Safety it is the Sincere wish
of Sir your most Humble Servant
Wm. Preston.
Colo. William Christian"
These military orders, issued by the county lieutenant of Fin- castle County, will be read with interest, no doubt, by all persons who are descendants of the pioneer settlers of Tazewell County; and should be interesting to those who care to acquaint themselves with its early history. It will be observed that the first military expedition sent to the Clineh Valley, in the first war in which its inhabitants were to take an active part, was ordered to march to the lower sections of the Valley, though the three principal passes used by the Indians when they came by the way of the Sandy Val- ley were at the headwaters of the Louisa, the Dry Fork, and Tug River. All of these passes were in territory that was subsequently embraced in Tazewell County. This indicates that the inhabitants of the Lower Clineh Valley were more seriously threatened, or were more alarmed than the people on the headwaters of the Clinch, or that they were not as well prepared to resist savage invasions as were our pioneer ancestors.
The exhortation of Colonel Preston to the officers, to be "unani- mous and friendly among themselves," warrants the belief that jealousies and rivalries had previously existed, or were then being cultivated, among the officers connected with the expedition. In . fact, such a feeling had been manifested by and between certain of the officers from the Holston Valley, and possibly by some of those from the New River and Reed Creek sections. There was nothing of this kind shown among the Tazewell pioneers. None of them were concerned about holding official positions. Their chief eoneern was the protection of the homes they had struggled to erect in the wilderness country. In a letter written by Captain Russell to Colonel Preston after the arrival of the expedition at Castle's Woods, he showed some feeling, because he thought he and others in the T.H .- 18
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Clinch Valley had not received proper consideration in being ap- pointed to commands and regularly enlisted in the service. He said: "I am sorry to find Sir, I can't be Indulged to serve my Country with a Captns Command, as early as others; who are but new Hands." In another part of the letter he said: "Was I to Keep a Commission, in hopes of Benefiting my Country, or selfe, and my hopes was, from a set of Gentlemen; who, were all desireous to serve as well as my selfe; I am assured against such powerful Con- nexions, as are upon the Holston, and New River Waters, It wood be useless for me to mention one Word about it."
Captain Russell was not much of a speller, and he was ill- versed in the art of punctuation and the proper use of capital let- ters; but he knew how to politely rebuke what he believed to be favoritism and nepotism. Possibly he had been wrought to this temper by remembrance of the manner in which the county offices had been distributed when the county of Fincastle was organized. Certain families "upon the Holston and the New River Waters" were apportioned all the offices of honor and profit; and Colonel Preston was, at the time Russell wrote him, county lieutenant through appointment by the governor, and both sheriff and surveyor of Fincastle County by election by the county court, of which court he was also a member. In those days certain families in Virginia, under a royal government, were potential in most of the counties, and such has been the case in nearly all the counties of the Com- monwealth since a republican form of government was established in 1776. This was a very natural condition, and it always obtains where organized society is found. The organization of what we call civil government has ever been brought about by the energy and zeal of a few dominating spirits, who necessarily become self-con- stituted leaders of the government, or are made such by the people. This was the case when our Federal and State governments were formed, and the records show that it was the same when the great county of Tazewell was organized as a distinct civil and military community.
The first week in July, 1774, in obedience to orders, Colonel Christian assembled his command of three companies, of fifty men each, besides officers, at Town House. At this point lived Captain James Thompson, who was a grandson of Colonel James Patton. Thompson had a small private fort and the name of his home, "Town House," was given because it had been selected by Colonel
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Patton as a suitable place for a settlement or town, just as he had selected Draper's Meadows for such a purpose. Captain William Campbell was in command of one of the companies, Captain Walter Crockett of another, and Colonel Christian, in compliance with orders, took charge of the third company. Campbell then lived at Aspinvale, the present Seven Mile Ford, and Crockett lived on the headwaters of the South Fork of Holston River, both living within the limits of the present Smyth County.
Soon after commencing his march from Town House for the Clinch, Colonel Christian deemed it expedient to make a departure from the specific orders of Colonel Preston to march with all his force "to the Clinch and from thence over Cumberland Mountain * * to the head branches of the Kentucky." From a point e somewhere near Abingdon, on the 9th of July, Christian sent a messenger, with a written report of the movements of his command, to Colonel Preston. Among the important matters reported, the following is found:
"On Thursday last Mr. Doack's letter to Crockett was shown to me at Cedar Creek about 9 miles on this Side of Stalnakers. I thought it best to send Crockett off with 40 men to the head of Sandy creek, that the reed creek and head of Holston people might know where to Send to him in case any attack should be made, that he might waylay or follow the enemy. *
* Yesterday I heard a report that 50 Indians were seen at Sandy creek but as it came thro several hands it may not be true."
There were several causes for this change in the disposition of the men under his command. The day previous, the 8th of July. Captain Dan Smith, who had a fort at Elk Garden, and who had charge of the line of defence in the Upper Clinch Valley, wrote to Colonel Preston, reporting an alarming condition at the head of the north fork of Clinch and Bluestone. He said: "The constant Rumor of the Indians being just ready to fall on the Inhabitants hath scared away almost the whole settlement at the head of the north fork of Clinch and Bluestone. I am sorry to find that the people are so scary and that there are so many propagators of false reports in the country."
Captain Smith then reported that the false rumors were causing "timorous people to run away." He said: "This the people at the head of the river did before I got the least notice of their intention to start. The men have said they will return again after carrying
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their wives and children to a place of safety; If they do 'twill be more than I expect. They alledge as an excuse for their going away that there was no Scout down Sandy Creek." Captain Smith admitted the charge was true that there had been no scout down Sandy Creek, but tried to place the responsibility for this neglect upon James Maxwell, to whom he said he had entrusted the duty. Smith charged that, instead of looking after the matter, James Maxwell had "gone down to Botetourt to see his family,-and whose return is not expected shortly;" and that James Maxwell had left the scouting matter in the hands of his brother, Thomas Maxwell. It seems that James Maxwell had notified Smith of the arrangement with his brother and that Smith had acquiesced, for he further re- ported to Colonel Preston about James Maxwell's non-performance of duty :
"As he lived most convenient to the head of Sandy Creek I con- sulted him with regard to scouts that should go down that water course. His brother Thomas was the one pitched upon. On their return from the first trip, altho they brought no accounts of Indians, As your letter of the 20th ult. came to hand about that time I sent two scouts down a river called Louisa, and at the recommendation of Mr. Th. Maxwell appointed one, Israel Harmon to act with him down Sandy Creek, for it was natural for me, as I reposed much confidence in Mr. James Maxwell to pay regard to what his Brother Thomas advised. I am now to inform you that Mr. Thomas Maxwell proved Highly unworthy the confidence I reposed in him, so much so that I think his behaviour requires that he should be called to account at the next court martial, as I've just been informed there really is a militia law yet subsisting; for instead of going down Sandy Creek as I strictly charged him to do he went to the head of the river, reported the danger they were in, and assisted Jacob Harmon to move into the New River settlement."
There is no doubt but that Captain Dan Smtih entirely misunder- stood the character and quality of the men he was censuring so bit- terly, and thoroughly misapprehended their real worth. They had no garrisoncd fort at hand, as Captain Smith had at Elk Garden, in which they could easily place their wives and children for safety; and they were living along one of the most frequented and most dangerous trails the Indians used when they made hostile visits to the settlements. The pioneer Maxwells and Harmans were as brave and true as any of the splendid men who were of the first settlers in
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the Clinch Valley. At least, one of them, the one Smith most severely condemned, Thomas Maxwell, by his future actions hero- ically disproved the aspersions Smith cast upon his character. Smith was reputed to be a very courageous man ; and it may be that he was so fearless that caution and prudence in others to him had the appearance of cowardice. But if Smith ever came in contact with hostile Indians, there is nothing of record to show it.
Thomas Maxwell was no "timorous" man. Dressed in hunting shirt, with tomahawk and scalping knife in belt; and with his trusty mountain rifle on his shoulder, he marched to and fought at King's Mountain. After the battle at that place, which was fought on the 7th of October, 1780, Thomas Maxwell settled on the North Fork of Holston River, near Broad Ford, in the present Smyth County. In the spring of 1781, a small band of Shawnee Indians made an inroad into Burke's Garden and made the wife and children of Thomas Ingles captives. Ingles went immediately to the North Fork of Holston, where he found Captain Thomas Maxwell engaged in drilling a squad of fourteen militia. Maxwell and his men went with Ingles to Burke's Garden, and from that place trailed the Indians until they overtook them on Tug River. In the attack that was made to rescue the captives Captain Maxwell was the only one of the white men killed. The pass where the encounter took place has ever since been called Maxwell's Gap, where the "timorous" man rests in a heroe's grave.
In this letter to Colonel Preston, wherein Smith accuses the Max- wells and other settlers "at the head of the north fork of Clinch and Bluestone" with cowardice and neglect of duty, he makes con- fession that his own men, in the Elk Garden settlement, were alarmed and asks that a company of soldiers be sent there to relieve their fears. He says: "As the spirits of the men that are yet left in my company Are not in very high flow, I do think that a Company of men stationed on the river if there was not over 20 would greatly encourage the settlers, if they did nothing but Assist to build forts in this busy time of laying by Corn. I really shall be greatly pleased if you should be of the same Opinion." Captain Smith was a little inconsistent, to say the least, in rebuking the Maxwells and Harmans for showing anxiety for the safety of their families, and expressing no condemnation for the timid settlers of his own community.
Subsequent events proved that the pass at the head of Sandy Creek was the most important and dangerous one on the frontier west
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of New River; and that the Maxwells and Harmans had not been mistaken when they decided it was too dangerous to let their fami- lies remain in its vieinity. Consternation prevailed among the inhabi- tants in Rich Valley, on Walker's Creek, at the head of the Middle Fork of Holston and in the Reed Creek Valley. Captain Robert Doack, who was an officer in the Fineastle militia, and who was then living in the neighborhood of old Mt. Airy, in the present Wythe County, had been ordered to draft a company of men and march them to the heads of Sandy Creek and Clinch. On the 12th of July, 1774, four days after the letter was written by Captain Smith reporting the supposed delinquencies of the Maxwells and Harmans, Captain Doack addressed a letter to Colonel Preston, from which the following is quoted:
"Sir-Agreeable to your Order I Drafted men & was in Read- iness to March to the heads of Sandy Creek & Clineh, When some traets were seen in this neighbourhood supposed to be Indians which Colo. Christian hearing sent Capt. Crockett to where I was, Ordered & Directed me to range near the Inhabitants. We were informd, that sixteen Indians were seen on Walkers Creek which I went down with 25 men but not finding any Signs & hearing the News Contra- dieted Dischargd them. The people were all in Garison from Fort Chiswell to the Head of Holston & in great Confusion. They are fled from the Rich Valley & Walkers Creek. Some are Building forts they have Began to build at my Father's, James Davis', & Gasper Kinders. I think they are not strong enough for three forts but might do for two. If you thought proper to Order that a Ser- geant Command might be Stationed at each of these places on Mis- chief being Done Or at any two of them I think it would Keep this part of the Country from leaving it & would enable them to save their Crops this I humbly Conceive would be a protection & encour- agement & on an alarm when people fled to the forts with their Familys those men would always be Ready to follow the Enemy."
With such conditions of alarm and confusion existing in the more populous settlements of the Holston and Reed Creek valleys, because of the apprehension of Indian raiding parties by way of the Sandy Creek passes, it was the duty of the men on the extreme frontier to remove their families to places of assured safety. At this time there was no reported disquietude or fear in the localities where the Tazewell pioneers had grouped themselves in communities
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and built forts. The men in the neighborhoods where the Wynne, the Witten and the Bowen forts were located were not calling for help or protection. The Harmans, Peerys, Wynnes, Taylors, Evans' and other settlers in the vicinity of Wynne's fort had confidence in their ability to mect and defeat any Indian bands that came to their neighborhood; the Wittens, Greenups, Peerys, Marrs', and the Cecils, grouped near Wittens fort ; and the Bowens, Wards, Martins, Thompsons, and others about Maiden Spring, seem to have been inspired with the same confidence.
In compliance with the orders which Colonel Preston had given him, Colonel Christian marched promptly, with ninety men, to Rus- sell's fort on the Clinch, at Castle's Woods. From that place, on the 12th of July, 1774, he wrote Colonel Preston that he thought it his duty to send Captain Walter Crockett and his company "to cover the inhabitants that lie exposed to Sandy Creek Pass." He further suggested that it was the opinion of the officers of his command that an expedition of 150 or 200 men should be sent to the Ohio, at the mouth of the Scioto, and thence on forty-five miles to destroy the "Shawnese Town."
On the 12th of July, the same day that Colonel Christian wrote to Colonel Preston suggesting that an expedition should be sent to the Shawnee towns in Ohio, Governor Dunmore forwarded an order to Colonel Andrew Lewis, directing him to assemble a force of men from Botetourt, Fincastle and other counties, to go on an expedition to the Ohio Valley for the purpose of bringing the Indians into sub- jection. Colonel Lewis forwarded Dunmore's order to Colonel Pres- ton, accompanying it with a letter in which he said, in part: "The governor from what he wrote us has taken it for granted that we would fit out an Expedition & has acted accordingly. I make no doubt but he will be as much surprised at our backwardness, as he may call it, as we are at ye precipetet steps in ye other quarter. Dont fail to come and let us do something. I would as matters stand usc great risque rather than a miscarrage should happen." Colonel Lewis ordered Preston, as county lieutenant of Fincastle, to enlist two hundred and fifty men, or more, if they could possibly be raised, to go on the expedition. This of course made an end of Christian's proposition for an expedition to the mouth of the Scioto River; and immediate steps were taken to comply with the orders of Governor Dunmore. Colonel Preston on the 20th of July, 1774,
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sent by special messenger from his home at Smithfield, a cireular letter to Colonel Christian, in which he said:
"Inclosed you have a Copy of Lord Dunmore's Letter to Colo. Lewis of the 12th Instant, In Consequence of which, the Colo. has Called upon me to Attend on the Expedition, with at least, two hun- dred & fifty Men, or more if they can Possibly be raised; This Demand if Possible must be Complyed with, as it is not Altogether our Quota; & indeed it appears reasonable, we should turn out cheerfully On the present Occasion in Defence of our Lives and Properties which have been so long exposed to the savages. * * We may Perhaps never have so fair an Opportunity of reducing our old Inveterate Enemies to Reason, if this should by any means be neglected. The Earl of Dunmore is deeply ingaged in it. The House of Burgesses will without all Doubt enable his Lordship to reward every Volunteer in a handsome manner, over and above his Pay; as the plunder of the County will be valuable, & it is said the Shawnees have a great stock of Horses. Besides it will be the only method of settling a lasting Peace with the Indian Tribes Around us, who on former Occasions have been Urged by the Shaw- nees to engage in a War with Virginia. This useless People may now at last be Obliged to abandon their Country, their towns may be plundered and burned, their cornfields destroyed; & they dis- tressed in such a manner as will prevent them from giving us any future Trouble; Therefore I hope the men will Readily & cheerfully engage in the Expedition as They will not only be conducted by their own Officers but they will be Assisted by a great number of Officers & soldiers raised behind the Mountains, whose Bravery they cannot be Doubtful of, while they Act from the same Motive of Self Defence."
This circular letter must be authentic, as it was one of the Pres- ton papers turned over to Lyman C. Draper by the descendants of Colonel William Preston; and which is now possessed and preserved by the Wisconsin Historical Society as a valuable and precious document. The spirit of the paper is not of a character that should win the approval of the descendants of the pioneer settlers of South- west Virginia. It breathes too much of the spirit of the Celtie Rob Roys and the Saxon Cederics, who thought it not immoral to plunder and kill their weaker neighbors. The paper also shows that Colonel Preston and, possibly, a number of the Trans-Alleghany pioneers,
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still held to the idea that there were no good Indians; and were in sympathy with the policy, which started at Jamestown, of extermi- nating the aborigines. If the proposed unrighteous features of the expedition induced any of our ancestors to accompany it, we should not be proud of the fact. It was an invitation to go with an expedi- tion to Ohio to drive the benighted aboriginal inhabitants from their lands, to plunder and burn their homes, destroy their crops, and massacre their women and children. Fortunately these cruel designs were thwarted by the peace which was made with the Indians by Lord Dunmore immediately after the battle of Point Pleasant was won by the gallant Virginia mountaineers.
The year 1774 was a very eventful and trying one to the Taze- well pioneers. Though the population west of New River was sparse and very much scattered, the inhabitants soon became inti- mately associated in making preparation to repel invasions of the hostile Indians. Excitement was intense at a most important period of the year, when the settlers were busily' occupied in making and saving their crops of grain, chiefly corn, upon which their families were dependent for subsistence during the ensuing year. Small scalping parties of Shawnees began to invade the regions along and west of New River; and in making these incursions they showed a strong disposition to use the passes at the headwaters of Sandy River, all of which fronted on the Upper Clinch Valley in Tazewell County.
In compliance with the orders of Colonel William Preston, five companies were in process of enlistment and organization to join the expedition of Colonel Andrew Lewis to Ohio. These com- panies were ultimately organized and marched under command of Captains William Campbell, Evan Shelby, and Walter Crockett, of the Holston Valley; Captain William Herbert of the Upper New River Valley; and Captain William Russell of the Clinch Valley. While these companies were being enlisted and assembled, a small band of Shawnee Indians came up Tug River, crossed over to and down Wolf Creek to New River, and went up the latter stream to the homes of Philip Lybrook and John McGriff on the east side of New River, just below the mouth of Sinking Creek, in the present county of Giles. On Sunday, the 7th day of August, 1774, they made an attack upon a group of children who were playing on
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the bank of the river. Three of Lybrook's children one a sucking infant, a young woman by the name of Scott, and two little girls of Mrs. Snidow were killed; and Lybrook, who was at a small mill he had built near his home, was wounded in the arm. The children were scalped and mangled in a very cruel manner. McGriff shot and mortally wounded one of the Indians. Some years later the remains of the Indian were found under rocks at a cliff near the scene of the tragedy. Three small boys, Theophilus and Jacob Snidow and Thomas McGriff, were made captives and taken away by the Indians. On the following Wednesday night, while camping at Pipestem Knob, in the present Summers County, West Virginia, two of the boys, Jacob Snidow and Thomas McGriff, made a daring and suc- cessful escape. Judge Johnston, who gives a very interesting account of the tragic incident in his History of the New River Settlement, says: "Theophilus Snidow, the other captive boy, was carried by the Indians to their towns north of the Ohio, and when he had reached his manhood returned to his people, but in delicate health with pulmonary trouble from which he shortly died."
Colonel Preston had sent Major James Robertson, with a scout- ing party of twenty men to Culbertson's Bottom, now known as Crump's Bottom, in Summers County, West Virginia, to build a fort and give warning to the settlers on the river above. Robertson wrote to Colonel Preston on the 1st of August, 1774, reporting, in part, as follows: "About three hours ago John Draper came here with thirteen men, which makes our number 33." He then reported that he was keeping scouts out continually, and had seen no fresh signs of Indians for four or five days; but said: "as John Draper came down yesterday he surely seen the tracks of five or six Indians, he says, on Wolf Creek, and they made towards the settlements." This was evidently the same party that made the attack upon the Lybrooks and Snidows, as Colonel Preston reported to Lord Dun- more that there were but six Indians in the band that killed the Lybrook and Snidow children. The Indians had knowledge of the scouting station at Culbertson's and had adroitly avoided Robertson's scouts, by traveling up Tug, crossing over to Wolf Creek and reach- ing New River about twenty miles above where Robertson was stationed. On the 12th of August he again wrote Colonel Preston from Culbertson's, sayings: "This morning our scouts met with a couple of poor little boys between this and Blue Stone, one a son of John McGriff's, the other a son of Widow Snidows at Burks
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fort, that made their escapes from the Indians, last Tuesday night about midnight away up towards the Clover Bottoms on Blue Stone or between that and the lower war road on Blue Stone."
Robertson was very much impressed with the danger that threatened the inhabitants of the Upper New River settlements and of Reed Creek, on account of the ease with which the Indians could come up the Sandy route and slip between the outposts on New River and those on the headwaters of the Clinch. This caused him to communicate his fears to Colonel Preston as follows: "Unless you keep your own side of the mountain well guarded there them stragling little partys will do Abundance of Damage. Where People is gathered in forts there ought to be men under Pay Just Ready on any Occasion these Small partys passes Scouts and Companys without Possibly being Discovered."
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