USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 34
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was exhausted the British host scaled the trenches. The Americans clubbed their guns and still fought the enemy, but were forced to retire from the trenches at the point of the bayonet. The British lost a thousand and fifty-four, killed and wounded, in the battle, while the American losses were one hundred and fifteen killed, three hun- dred and five wounded, and thirty-two prisoners. Among the Amer- ican dead was the gallant General Warren. The retreat was effected by way of Charlestown Neck and Prospect Hill, and a new line of entrenchments was made, which left with the Americans command of the entrance to Boston; and the battle of Bunker Hill gave fresh encouragement to the colonists. When the news of the battle was carried to the Southern provinces the spirit of resistance to British tyranny was greatly increased; and the scheme for forming the government of The United Colonies of America was given fresh impulse.
The day that Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain boys cap- tured Ticonderoga the Continental Congress reassembled at Phila- delphia, pursuant to adjournment the previous autumn. George Washington, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, and others, who were to be conspicuous figures in the Revolution, were members of the august body.
Composed of such men as these, the Congress was still controlled by a conservative and compromising spirit. The delegates were so reluctant to engage in a bloody conflict with the mother country that another written appeal was prepared and forwarded to George III., urging him to recede from his policy of oppression toward his American subjects. In this memorial, however, the king was given to understand that, if necessary, the colonies would fight to the bitter end for the preservation of their civil and religious freedom. Congress recognized the necessity for co-ordinating the military forces of the colonies and took steps for organizing a Continental army. The necessity for having a commander-in-chief was also seen, and John Adams nominated George Washington, of Virginia, for the responsible position. On the 15th of June, 1775, Congress unanimously confirmed his nomination. Washington was so awed by the heavy responsibilities he was called upon to bear that, with tears in his eyes, he remarked to Patrick Henry: "I fear that this day will mark the downfall of my reputation." But the great patriot accepted the heavy task and proceeded to Boston as quickly as pos-
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sible to take command of the Continental army at that place, which was accomplished fifteen days after the battle of Bunker Hill.
During the spring, summer and fall of, 1775, the authority of England's King was superseded by independent republican govern- ments in all the colonies. The Virginia colonists had kept apace with the colonies of New England. In March a convention of Vir- ginians was held in Old St. John's Church at Richmond. Patrick Henry urged that an army be raised to resist British oppression ; and in support of his suggestion made the wonderful speech that would have immortalized him if he had done nothing else to assist in freeing his countrymen from enslavement by England.
The hostile conduct of the colonies caused the issuance of orders to the several colonial governors to place all military stores beyond the reach of the patriots. In compliance with these orders, Governor Dunmore, on the 19th of April, 1775, secretly removed the gun- powder from the magazine at Williamsburg, and stored it on the Magdalen, a British man-of-war, that was anchored off Yorktown. The people of Williamsburg remonstrated with Dunmore and threat- ened to seize his person if the powder was not returned. Dunmore was so exasperated that he swore if any injury was offered to him- self or the officers who had acted under his orders, he would free the slaves and destroy Williamsburg with fire. These brutal threats not only failed to suppress the people, but caused such indignation throughout the colony that thousands of men from all sections of Virginia armed themselves, assembled at Fredericksburg, and offered their services to defend the capital and drive Dunmore from the colony. Patrick Henry was the leader of this movement; and Dun- more was so greatly alarmed that he sent the King's receiver-general to Henry and paid him for the powder.
CONVENTION OF FINCASTLE MEN.
On the 15th of July, 1775, the Committee of Safety for Fincastle County met at the Lead Mines. After protesting against the dis- honorable acts of Dunmore, the following resolutions were adopted:
"Resolved, that the spirited and meritorious conduct of Patrick Henry, Esq., and the rest of the gentlemen volunteers attending him on the occasion of the removal of the gunpowder out of the magazine at Williamsburg, very justly merits the very hearty approbation of this Committee, for which we return them our thanks, with an assur- ance that we will, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, support and justify them with regard to the reprisals they made.
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"Resolved, That the council of this Colony in advising and co- operating with Lord Dunmore in issuing the proclamation of the 3rd of May last, charging the people of this Colony with an ungov- ernable spirit and licentious practices, is contrary to many known matters of fact, and but too justly shows to us that those who ought to be mediators and guardians of our liberties are become the abject tools of a detested administration.
"Resolved that it is the opinion of this committee that the late sanguinary attempt and preparation of the King's troops, in the colony of Narragansett Bay, are truly alarming and irritating, and loudly call upon all, even the most distant and interiour parts of the Colonies, to prepare and be ready for the extreme event, by a fixed resolution and a firm and manly resolve to avert ministerial cruelty in defence of our reasonable rights and liberties."
In this way the people of Fincastle County, including the set- tlers of Clinch Valley, thoroughly identified themselves with the struggle the American colonies were making for their independence. As soon as the Colonial Convention, which met at Williamsburg on the 24th of July, 1775, made provision for the raising of two regi- ments of soldiers, to be commanded by Patrick Henry, the county of Fincastle promptly sent a company of its daring riflemen to Williamsburg. The company was under the command of Captain William Campbell, and did valiant service in the struggle which was then taking place between Governor Dunmore and the revolting colonists. Historians have vainly tried to find a roll of the men who composed Campbell's company. Captain Campbell lived in the Holston Valley, and it is reasonable to suppose that most of the members of his company were from that valley. It is more than probable that some were from the Clinch Valley, as this valley fur- nished men for all preceding and succeeding military expeditions that went from the country west of New River.
Dunmore had, on the 8th of June, fled from Williamsburg and gone on board the warship Fowey at Yorktown. The General Assembly invited him to return to Williamsburg to sign bills of importance to the colony, and perform other necessary duties of his office. He refused to exercise the functions of governor in associa- tion with the General Assembly, unless that body would hold its sessions at Yorktown, where he could be protected by the guns of his ship. This proposal was rejected by the Assembly, and all offi- cial intercourse between it and the governor was terminated. The
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last of June, Dunmore sailed down York River, away from the seat of government, and was never again at Williamsburg.
Regarding the royal government in Virginia as ended, the Gen- eral Assembly was dissolved with an agreement that the members would meet in convention at Richmond to organize a provisional government and formulate a plan of defence. The convention met, pursuant to agreement, on the 17th of July, and elected a committee of safety to temporarily direct the affairs of the new government.
The old Magazine, still standing at Williamsburg, from which Governor Dunmore removed the powder.
This committee was composed of the following then distinguished, and afterwards illustrious citizens of Virginia :- Edmund Pendle- ton, George Mason, John Page, Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Paul Carrington, Dudley Digges, James Mercer, Carter Brax- ton, William Cabell, and John Tabb. This excellent committee very efficiently and loyally administered the government until the ist of July, 1776, when the State Government was organized, with Patrick Henry as Governor.
After he sailed from Yorktown in June, 1775, Dunmore remained for about a year at different localities on the Chesapeake Bay, and there were several collisions of minor importance between his troops and the Colonials. He finally located on Gwynn's Island, off the coast of the present Matthews County. From that place he was driven away on the 9th of July, 1776, by General Andrew Lewis, who was then commander of all the Virginia military forces.
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It looked like retributive justice for the splendid mountain soldier to enjoy the privilege of chasing the treacherous Scotch Royalist Governor from the soil of the Old Dominion. Lewis felt that Dunmore had acted insincerely and treacherously toward him and his army of mountaineers after they had made their laborious and dangerous march to Ohio in 1774; and the last official act of Dunmore tended to confirm this suspicion of his integrity. His last official act was the issuing of an order for disbanding the garrison at Fort Blair, the fort which Colonel Andrew Lewis had built at the mouth of the Kanawha after he had defeated the Shawnees at Point Pleasant. This order was made in furtherance of a diabolical scheme to turn the Ohio Indians loose upon the Virginia frontiers while the war was raging between Great Britain and the colonies. The plan of execution was to be worked out by John Connolly, the despised Tory agent of Dunmore, who had been the latter's com- panion and adviser on the Ohio expedition in the autumn of 1774. Connolly was sent to General Gage at Boston, and returned from that place in October invested with a commission of lieutenant colonel of a regiment of loyalists to be raised on the frontiers. The plans agreed upon were to have the various Indian tribes co-operate with the Tories in harrassing the frontiers, then to assemble at Fort Pitt, and from there march to Alexandria, where they would be joined by Dunmore. The plot was for a time successfully advanced, but suspicions were at last awakened that led to the arrest of one of Connolly's emmisaries, upon whose person incriminating papers were found. This was followed by the arrest of Connolly and two confederates, Allen Cameron and Dr. John Smith, both Scotchmen. They were apprehended at Hagerstown, Maryland, en- route for Detroit, where they were going to bribe the Indians and incite them to begin murdering the frontier settlers. When the bag- gage of Connolly was searched a general plan of the entire campaign was discovered. Large sums of money and a letter from Dunmore to one of the great Indian chiefs were also found. The discovery of the plot saved all the western frontiers for a time from a concerted invasion by the Indians and Connolly's regiment of Tories. Con- nolly was held a prisoner until 1781, when he succeeded in making his escape to Canada. After his arrival in Canada he plotted a descent upon Pittsburg, and in 1782 conducted a force which destroyed Hannastown.
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CHAPTER XII.
FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION-DECLARES UNITED COLONIES FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES-DECLARATION OF RIGHTS AND CONSTITUTION ADOPTED.
In conformity with the requirements of an ordinance passed by the convention held at Richmond in 1775, the Committee of Safety for Virginia directed that the people of each of the counties of the province elect delegates to a General Convention to be held for the purpose of organizing a constitutional government. The dele- gates to this convention were chosen in the same manner that mem- bers of the House of Burgesses had formerly been elected. Fin- castle County sent as its delegates Arthur Campbell and William Russell. Though the settlements in the Clinch Valley had been started less than ten years previous, it seems that this great valley had already attained sufficient importance and population to have one of its first settlers represent Fincastle County in the convention that organized the government of the State of Virginia.
The convention assembled in the capitol at Williamsburg the 6th day of May, 1776. On the same day the House of Burgesses, elected under the royal government, also met at the capitol, but concluded that it had no legal existence, as the royal government had been overthrown. The General Convention was organized by electing Edmund Pendleton, president, and John Tazewell, clerk of the body. On the 15th of May, the convention instructed their delegates in Congress to declare the United Colonies free and independent States. The instructions were given by the adoption of a resolution, which is as follows:
"That the delegates appointed to represent this colony in Gen- eral Congress, be instructed to propose to that respectable body, to declare the united colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance to, or dependence on the crown or parliament of Great Britain; and that they give the assent of this colony to such declaration, and whatever measures may be thought necessary by Congress for forming alliances, and a confederation of the colonies, at such time, and in the manner that to them shall seem best ; pro- vided, that the power of forming governments for, and the regula- T.H .- 23
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tions of the internal concerns of each colony, be left to the colonial legislatures."
The convention on the same day this resolution was adopted also appointed a committee to prepare a DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, and such a PLAN OF GOVERNMENT "as would be most likely to maintain peace and order in the colony and secure substantial and equal liberty to the people." George Mason was added to the committee on the 18th, and on the 27th of May, 1776, Archibald Cary, chairman of the committee, reported the Bill of Rights to the convention, and it was ordered to be printed for perusal by the members.
After it had been printed, the bill was considered in the com- mittee of the whole on the 29th of May and the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 10th of June. It was again reported to the House with amendments on the 11th, the amendments were agreed to, and it was ordered that the declaration, as amended, be fairly transcribed and read a third time. This was done; and on the 12th of June the declaration had its third reading and was unanimously adopted without debate. It has ever since been considered and retained as the most vital part of the organic law of Virginia.
The fathers were confronted with grave issues when they essayed to make a democratic plan of government for themselves and their cager countrymen. They had to cut loose from the monarchical forms under which they and their ancestors had lived for centuries and sever the ties that bound them to kindred and mother country. But, inspired with the spirit of freedom that had been living and growing for more than a hundred years on Virginia soil, they developed a plan of government that will stand unsurpassed in excellence as long as civilization endures.
It is admitted by all persons, who have an intelligent knowledge of its provisions, that the Virginia Bill of Rights is the most com- prehensive, compact and perfect charter of human liberty and popu- lar government that has ever been written. Constitutions may have to be made elastic and may need frequent revisions ; but the Virginia Bill of Rights requires nothing more than honest interpretation and application to insure for those persons who desire to live under its ægis the purest and best form of democratic government. Its funda- mental principles were in perfect accord with the aspirations and
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purposes that influenced the Tazewell pioneers to seek this beautiful but wild and isolated region for rearing their families.
Immediately after the adoption of the Bill of Rights the conven- tion proceeded to frame a constitution for the new State of Virginia. The constitution was proclaimed on the 29th of June; and the authority of the Committee of Safety, which had been conducting the affairs of the colony for a year, was vacated. Then the conven- tion proceeded to organize the civil department of the government of the Commonwealth as follows:
"Patrick Henry, Esq., governor. John Page, Dudley Digges, John Taylor, John Blair, Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley, Bartho- lomew Dandridge, Charles Carter of Shirley, and Benjamin Harri- son of Brandon, counsellors of state. Thomas Whiting, John Hutchins, Champion Travis, Thomas Newton, Jun., and George Webb, Esquires, commissioners of admirality. Thomas Everard and James Cocke, Esquires, commissioners for settling accounts. Edmund Randolph, Esq., attorney-general."
Only a few days intervened between the adoption of the Virginia Bill of Rights by the Virginia Convention and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. That wonderful document, which declared all the American colonies were free of British misrule, was drafted by Virginia's greatest citizen, Thomas Jefferson, and on lines that correspond with the resolu- tions of the Virginia Convention. The Declaration of Independence was adopted on the 4th of July, 1776, was proclaimed the 8th, and as promptly as possible read to each Division of the Continental army, and transmitted to governing authorities of each of the col- onies. On the 29th of July it was proclaimed at the capitol, the court house, and the palace at Williamsburg. The proclamation was heard with joy by the people and was saluted with the firing of cannon and musketry.
After Virginia became an independent government, it was neces- sary to reorganize the civil government of Fincastle County. The first county court under the State Constitution was held at the Lead Mines on the 3rd of September, 1776, with the following members of the court in attendance: William Preston, James McGavock, Arthur Campbell, John Montgomery, and James McCorkle.
The court appointed William Preston sheriff and county lieu-
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tenant; William Sayers, deputy sheriff ; and Stephen Trigg, deputy clerk.
FRONTIERS ATTACKED BY INDIANS-KENTUCKY, WASHINGTON AND
MONTGOMERY COUNTIES FORMED.
While the Virginia Convention was in session at Williamsburg, the fiendish scheme orignated by Dunmore, and managed by Con- nolly until he was captured at Hagerstown, for uniting the North- western and Southern Indians with the Tories to kill and plunder the patriots on the western frontier, was being perfected by the agents of Great Britain. As previously stated, the last official aet of Dunmore as governor of Virginia was to order the withdrawal of the garrison from Fort Blair at the mouth of Kanawha River. This left the entire frontier of Virginia bordering on the Ohio without any military post, and left it wide open to invasion by the Indians. As soon as the General Assembly, elected under the Virginia Constitu- tion, met at the capitol the Legislature re-established the garrison at Fort Blair, and had another stockade fort built a short distance up the river. The new fort was named Fort Randolph, and a regular garrison was stationed there, with Captain Arbuckle in command. From the mouth of the Kanawha on down the Ohio as far as the Virginia territory extended there were no stations along the river. The Sandy Valley was unguarded from the Ohio to the headwaters of the three principal tributaries of Sandy River, all of which had their source in the territory afterwards formed into Tazewell County. So, the Upper Clinch Valley and Bluestone settlements were left exposed, as they had been in 1774, to incursions by the Shawnees and other tribes in Ohio.
About the time that Virginia was erected into an independent democratic government, in July, 1776, the Delaware, Shawnee and Mingo chiefs gathered at Fort Pitt and solemnly declared that they would remain neutral in the conflict that had begun between the Americans and Great Britain. The Iroquois had representatives at the council, and, after declaring for neutrality, asserted that the tribes of that nation would not allow either the Americans or the British to march their armies over or through the territory of the Six Nations. They urged the Shawnees and Delawares to adopt the same policy toward the belligerents. This action of the Indians, in proclaiming neutrality, stimulated the agents of the British Govern-
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ment to greater effort for sccuring the assistance of the red men to exterminate the frontier settlers or drive them from their homes.
Henry Hamilton, who was the British lieutenant governor for the northwestern territory, was selected by his government to seduce the Indians from their pledged neutrality. He was a bold and unscrupulous man, and well fitted for the execution of the wicked purposes of the British Government. His influence with the Indians was on a plane with his unscrupulous character, and he succeeded in enlisting the support of most of the Northwestern Indians on the side of the British. In the fall of 1776, Hamilton summoned the Northwestern tribes to meet him in councils at Detroit. The tribes of that region were strongly represented at the councils; and the Iroquois, who had abandoned their position of neutrality, sent ambassadors to urge the Northwestern Indians to compose their differences, and unite with the Six Nations in their support of the British against the Americans. The fiendish Hamilton made free use of presents and "fire water" to excite the Indians into acquies- cence; and succeeded only too well in his brutal designs. By direc- tion of the British authorities, he promised the savages that they should be paid a liberal price for every American scalp they took and delivered to him or other agents of his government, the prices being graduated and fixed for the scalps of men, women, and chil- dren. In some instances fifty dollars was the price paid for a scalp; and one cunning Indian divided a large scalp into two parts, receiv- ing fifty dollars for each part. Roosevelt, in "Winning of the West," speaking of Hamilton and his beastly associates, says:
"These were hardened, embittered men who paid for the zeal of their Indian allies accordingly as they received tangible proof thereof ; in other words, they hired them to murder non-combatants as well as soldiers, and paid for each life, of any sort, that was taken. The fault lay primarily with the British Government, and with its advisers who, like Hamilton, advocated the employment of the savages. They thereby became participants in the crimes com- mitted; and it was idle folly for them to prate about having bidden the savages be merciful. Making all allowance for the strait in which the British found themselves, and admitting that much can be said against their accusers, the fact remains that they urged on hordes of savages to slaughter men, women, and children
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along the entire frontier; and for this there must ever rest a dark stain on their national history."
Having won the Indians to the support of Great Britain, Hamil- ton began to make preparations for attacking the frontiers the fol- lowing spring. He organized a company of white men, which was made up of French, British, and Tories who had gathered at Detroit. Three members of the band were the despised renegades, Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott, and Simon Girty. These infamous white men were engaged to lead the savages in the campaign designed to exterminate the white settlers on the borders. Hamilton had been ordered by his superior officers to execute the plans agreed upon by General Howe and Dr. John Connolly the preceding spring, that is, to attack the frontier settlements of Virginia and Pennsylvania, destroy the crops of the settlers, burn their houses, and kill the inhabitants, regardless of age or sex, or drive them east of the Alleghanies. Another pledge was made the Indians to induce them to give their earnest support to the British. Hamilton was ordered to and did promise them that they would not only be paid liberally for the scalps they took, but that they would be given back their former hunting grounds, from which the white settlers were to be ejected.
Maddened with liquor and ensnared by the liberal gifts of the English agents, the poor, ignorant savages indulged the hope that the British would restore to them their hunting grounds south and east of the Ohio. Of course "Perfidious Albion" would never, if it could have done so, made good this pledge to the red men. In October, 1773, the Privy Council had made a grant to Thomas Wal- pole and a company of Englishmen for all the territory belonging to Virginia situated west of the Alleghanies. Walpole and his speculative associates were to establish a new province to be called Vandalia, with the seat of government located at the mouth of the Kanawha on the Point Pleasant battle ground.
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