USA > Virginia > Frederick County > Frederick County > Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants: A History of Frederick County, Virginia. > Part 15
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On the 8th and 9th of April, the Provincials and six companies of the 44th regiment under Sir Peter Halkett, set out for Winchester, and Lt. Col. Gage and four companies remained to escort the artillery. April 18th, the 48 regt. un- der Col. Dunbar, set out for Frederick, Md. The Maryland Governor and many Maryland citizens urged the General to move the whole force through Maryland, knowing a road would be opened to Fort Cumberland or Wills Creek; and as this was impracticable, causing too much de- lay, Col. Dunbar on May Ist, headed his divi- sion for the Potomac, so as to enter Virginia and strike the road already opened. Washing- ton in a letter dated May 14th, says : "Col. Dun- bar's regiment recrossed at Connogogee and came down within six miles of Winchester to take the new road to Wills Creek." Irving says that Braddock went from Frederick to Winchester ; that the road on the Maryland side had not been made. Returning to the division under Sir Peter Halkett, when he left Alexandria, Genl.
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Craighill says their first day's march took the command to old C. H. (Fairfax) 18 miles, then to Colemans 12 miles-Nourse's 15 miles- Thompsons, 12 miles-Keys 17 miles-to Win- chester 23 miles; crossing the Shenandoah at Keys Ford and the mountain at Keys Gap; stop- ping near the site of Charlestown, and then to Winchester. So many erroneous impressions be- ing held regarding Braddock's march to Win- chester, the author deemed it wise to give the matter space for a brief statement of facts. It must be added here, that the British government urged all the American colonies to adopt meas- ures for mutual protection, and to be prepared to act in concert with the British troops under British generals. A union was formed in 1754- We will only mention what was done by Virginia as a result of this agreement; and keep in view that this work is intended to show the connec- tion the old Frederick County and the upper Shenandoah settlers had with the Indian and French War. Virginia was ready with eight hundred volunteers to support Braddock on his arrival at Alexandria. This force was divided into eight Companies, all officered by experienced Indian fighters, who were familiar with Indian warfare, and the force composed of settlers who had been constantly alert for years defending their homes from Indian forays. It is to be re- gretted that no authentic list of that eight hun- dred was preserved. The writer will in suc- ceeding pages; give the names of quite a num- ber who were certified by the old county court as soldiers entitled to a liberal bounty that the Virginia government granted them in land along the Ohio River, for their service in the Indian Wars.
The following are the names of the captains of the nine companies : Stephen, Mercer, Lewis, Waagener, Stewart, Hogg, Peyronny, Poulson and Cocke. The three first named became dis- tinguished generals with Washington in the Rev- olution against Great Britain, 1776-00. General Braddock on his arrival in the village of Win- chester, headed a formidable army, as it appeared to the Valley settlers. The regular troops were well equipped; and they with the Virginians as guides and skirmishers, together with Maryland's quota, gave hope that the Indian war must soon end. The British General, however, failed to rely on the troops the colonies offered him; and used them as rear guards and laborers to make the roads suited to his lofty ideas of his line of march into the Monongohela country, where he arrived and crossed the river July 9th, 1755, with his army of about 2,000 men.
Before leaving Winchester, Braddock detached one of the Virginia companies, with Capt.
Thomas Lewis, for the purpose of making a forced march to the Greenbrier country, and there building block houses and stockades, to in- tercept the movements and raids of the Indians, who Col. Washington had learned were then moving from the Ohio River villages toward Staunton. We must not attempt a description of the disaster and utter defeat that overwhelmed Braddock and his army, after they crossed the Monongohela on that fateful day. The am- buscade was complete. Braddock disregarded the opinions of experienced frontiersmen such as Washington, Stephen, Stewart and many others; and madly rushed on, to fall mortally wounded in the midst of 700 of his army who fell dead in the first terrific attack. The remain- der were put to flight. The General was carried off the field of carnage in his own silk sash, which was converted into a hammock. Tra- dition says that this hammock was fastened to the pommels of two saddles, and the General carried between the troopers' horses. Another account is, that his British officers, by relays, carried him in his sash the entire distance, ex- cept when crossing the river, he was placed in a wagon.
The Braddock sash incident deserves fuller notice, by reason of its close association with the historical events of the County. The sash, which was large and of perfect weave, carefully preserved as one of the many relics of this disastrous war, was presented to Genl. Zachary Taylor in 1846, when he was engaged in the Mexican War, with the understanding that he should present it to the bravest man in the army. The General, however, never understood it that way, and deemed it best to retain and endeavor to preserve it. At this writing it is in the pos- session of his daughter Mrs. Bettie Dandridge (formerly Mrs. Maj. Bliss). The Author has seen it; and feels safe in pronouncing it the sash used on the occasion mentioned.
Genl. Braddock died July 13th, at 8 P. M., near the Great Meadow Fort. He was buried in the middle of the road, and the troops and wagon trains passed over the grave, so that it could not be found to disturb and mutilate his remains.
The tragic end of this man gave the event such notoriety, that each succeeding generation of the Valley people handed down the oft re- peated story of Braddock's defeat, until it has become part of the history of the Old County and her subdivisions.
Some writers have described him as desperate in his fortunes, brutal in his behavior, obstinate in his sentiments, but withal a capable captain.
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He has been called a gallant bull-dog. Another says he was profligate, arrogant, and a bigot to military rules.
Washington's coolness and experience suc- ceeded in making a retreat that became as fa- mous as the defeat. The withdrawal of the British army left all the western borders of Virginia and Pennsylvania exposed to untold cruelties perpetrated by the Indians, who had become more infuriated than ever before. The French were willing allies in much of the de- vastation that swept over that region. Indians in great numbers forced their way into the Val- ley at several points. Many settlers in the ex- posed places fled from the Valley over into eas- tern Virginia. War between England and France was the result of this defeat. Great Britain de- clared war against France May 9th, 1756. This put an end to what was known as the French and Indian War; and opened what has been distinguished by historians as the British and French War for the conquest of North America. The poor colonists were in trying straits; and when the great need for men on the border, was the daily cry, they were called upon for soldiers, to protect their settlements from the savages. The French soon discovered that their Indian allies must be used in regular warfare, and not for the butchery of women and children; and this new movement by the French, gave re- lief eventually to the outlying settlements. Vir- ginia furnished 1,600 men for the new army. Washington was made Colonel, Adam Stephen Lt. Col., and Andrew Lewis, Major. England was alarmed at the successful campaigns of the French along the entire border line. The dark days seemed to portend the end of England's claim. The French and Indians had glowing prospects of conquest of all North America, which were not diminished until 1758, when the scales began to show the weight of the Colonists and British forces; and when 1760 dawned upon the country, victory shone upon the British arms, resulting finally in England's conquest of Canada, after a struggle extending over 150 years. The French were driven from the Ohio Valley, and their Indian allies were left to bear the brunt of vengeance that the old settlers were now ready to wreak upon them, wherever found.
The treaty of peace between England and France was signed at Fontainbleau, 1762.
Returning to the defeated and retreating Braddock army, we find them dispirited. The British regulars followed Col. Dunbar to Fort Cumberland, thoroughly demoralized. Although their flight was rapid, they would have been overtaken by the pursuing enemy and doubtless
destroyed, had it not been for the coolness and experience of Washington, who headed the Vir- ginians, all of whom were accustomed to Indian warfare. They made frequent stands during that terrible retreat of one hundred and twenty miles through the mountains, and from ambush hurled many of the advancing bands of murder- ous savages to their death; and thus their re- treat was covered. Many of the Eight Hundred were left strewn along this line of retreat. The troops under Washington, knew what it meant to their homes in the Great Valley, if the French and Indians were allowed to reach their home country. So we find the "Washington Notes and Diary" full of the most pathetic statements concerning the valor and desperation the Valley soldiers displayed along the line of march. Dun- bar never halted to render any aid. Sir Peter Halkett is mentioned as on two occasions hav- ing rallied his Hibernians, and fought them val- iantly. Dunbar having sent his supply train to the front, the rear-guard never saw this train or received any rations until they arrived at Fort Cumberland. Hunger and hardship de- pleted the ranks of the dauntless Eight Hundred as badly as did the pursuing foe. The names of many who fell by the wayside on this retreat, were years afterwards presented to the old Fred- erick County court by the survivors, asking that their widows and children should receive aid from the Court, which promptly made provision for this class. Many descendants of this noble band have no knowledge of the service their an- cestors rendered in those trying days. The Au- thor in some cases has been able to locate some such descendants, from whom he received grate- ful acknowledgments. More than one Colonial Dame owes her membership in her Society, to such accidental information. And, reader, it might be well for you to some day enquire of a successor of the old Clerk who now incident- ally mentions these facts, and learn from him if your ancestors can be traced to this Spartan band which saved the Great Valley in the middle part of the Eighteenth Century, from untold horrors.
Col. Dunbar left the wounded and sick at Fort Cumberland, exposed to the enemy, and with the remnant of his Royal Regiments, marched away to Philadelphia. One of Washington's let- ters says that St. Clair, who was in the village of Winchester, in charge of the base of this mili- tary movement, also moved towards Philadel- phia, claiming that he had not received orders from Col. Dunbar. Washington, who was only a staff officer on this expedition, was without au- thority to further act, and leaving the Virginians, South Carolinians and the remnants of two
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Maryland companies, to be governed and used as the surviving company officers should deter- mine, returned to Winchester; and there wrote two characteristic letters to Gov. Dinwiddie, which resulted in his going to Williamsburg during the latter part of the Winter of 1756. There he reported to the Governor. He received a commission from the Colonial Government as Colonel, and was given the command of all the Virginia forces then in the field and others who were to make up Virginia's quota, for the great struggle rapidly approaching between France and England.
Col. Washington returned to Frederick Coun- ty; and once more assumed command, making Winchester his base. As previously stated, his associate officers were Lt. Col. Adam Stephen and Major Andrew Lewis. Here he organized his army. The old border companies were re- cruited and mustered in to serve during the war. So once more, the Valley people felt secure. Fort Loudoun was built; and other forts and stock- ades were hastily erected all through the settle- ments, and preparations made once more for renewed hostilities. This time desperation seiz- ed the whole country. This brutal war was to be terminated. An active campaign was conduct- ed by the British and Colonists. Washington once more started on his march to Fort Cumber- land in July, 1758, with 2,000 men in his divi- sion. There he was to form part of the army of 6,000, with Genl. Forbes in command.
We have the inclination but not the space to recount the disasters of this army, in their in- tended attack on Fort Duquesne. Washington, however, on November 25th, with about 1,000 men, succeeded in capturing the Fort, which was demolished by the retreating enemy.
November 25th, 1758, Fort Duquesne passed from the French to the English. On the 26th, Genl. Forbes wrote William Pitt, who had been instrumental in supplying reinforcements to as- sist the Virginian Colony in repelling the savages and their French allies, of the fall of the fort and retreat of the enemy down the Ohio. The Gen- eral found the fort burned; but he changed the name to Pitt, and built a new fort on the site. He also announced another important incident, that on this day, being Sabbath, Rev. Mr. Beatty, a Presbyterian Chaplain, preached a Thanksgiv- ing sermon.
Owing to bad generalship on the part of Forbes, heavy losses to his army occurred in his preliminary movements. The reader will re- member this was the third campaign made by Washington and his Valley companies; and must be reminded at this point, that Washington found time during this period, to be a candidate for
election to the House of Burgesses, when he was defeated; again a candidate in 1758, while in active service, and was elected; again in 1761, was re-elected. (This is more fully treated else- where.)
In recounting the occurrences of this last movement against the French-known as the Forbes Expedition-the reader, if he be a stu- dent of history, will remember that the British also moved against the fortified lines of the French from the St. Lawrence, Niagara, and the Ohio, at the same time, with well equipped armies; and although reverses fell to the lot of the British and Colonial troops in all these pre- liminary movements, the French lines were brok- en when Fort Duquesne was captured by the army that had Winchester for its base of opera- tions. A similar attack was made on forts lower down the Ohio, after great struggles in the mountain regions, the Indian allies pursuing their mode of warfare of skirmishing from ambush. The army under Genl. Forbes often wavered, and suffered severe losses. Whole companies were destroyed or captured; and before the French finally gave way and abandoned the country, the British army had suffered such losses, that at the close of the long and bloody campaign, it lacked the spirit and efficiency to pursue and destroy the retreating foe.
The Indian tribes, then known as the Six Nations, and the Shawanese and their neighbor- ing tribes who had been drawn into the war, concentrated their forces and retired to what was known as the Big Woods, across the Ohio opposite the point known as Point Pleasant, soon to become famous for one of the last great battles the Indians fought. In the Big Woods were many Indian villages. There the Indians sullenly waited further movements; and stub- bornly contested every advance made toward the country they held as their own. The con- federated tribes were governed and controlled by great warriors, as Cornstalk (a Shawnee chief), Blue Jacket, Red Hawk (a Delaware) and chiefs of the Mingo tribe, and Wyandottes, and the celebrated Logan of the Cayugas. The Colonists and British generals were anxious to treat with these great warriors, and have the inhuman war to close. England was too much engaged in her war with France, to send further aid to the Colonists, to protect them from the warring tribes; and while the Colonists, espe- cially the Virginia border settlers West of the Blue Ridge, were unable to wage successful war- fare across the Ohio, they succeeded in holding back in great measure any heavy advance into the outlying settlements. But it must not be concluded that the Indians were inactive; for
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we have many authentic accounts of massacres occurring during the period prior to the Foun- tainbleau Treaty of Peace. The Indian warriors were often wily enough to penetrate far into the settlements both in the upper and lower Valley, on hunting expeditions, and to plunder the country, and carry back not only horses and provisions for their villages, but many white prisoners.
Finally, the day came when the British made peace with France, and could aid the colonies ; and the Indians, seeing their French allies had deserted them, were ready to make peace. But the terms they offered, were regarded by the Colonial governments as too objectionable to be considered; and concessions demanded of the tribes, once more aroused them to frenzy; and all the savagery of their wild nature blazed forth in alarming symptoms. The long looked-for peace had not come to the border people; the great war-like tribes would not yield. They re- garded the white man as the invader of their soil and the murderers of their women and children. They were alarmed by the determined encroachments of England. All the old French forts were manned with British troops; and new forts built far out along the great lakes, formed lines in their rear. So it was, that these renown- ed warriors felt that a great effort must be made to exterminate the whites and drive them be- yond the Great Mountains, leaving to the old owners of the Great Valley, hunting grounds and all to the West, including their Big Woods ter- ritory beyond the Ohio. The time had come for them to defend their rights and recover them from the whites, or be driven out and become wandering tribes forever. History is so full of the destructive war these tribes plunged the country into, 1764-65, that we cannot give space for more than a brief mention, to show the con- nection of the Lower Valley with another Indian war. The object was now to recover all the country from the Lakes to the Carolinas. Hos- tilities were opened by wholesale murders of the Indian traders, only two out of 120 escaping. Whole garrisons along the great Lakes, were slaughtered. Furious attacks were made on Fort Pitt. That garrison was reinforced, and held out, though they suffered a loss of over one hun- dred in killed and wounded. We may briefly add here, that it was during this war that the Wyom- ing massacre occurred, and many settlements were desolated on the Susquehanna.
Several battalions of Virginians-men of the Valley region-were engaged in this new and most destructive of all the Indian wars; which terminated in the Autumn of 1764, after more than a year of butchery along the entire border
settlements, which was especially destructive to the western sections of the two Valley counties, Frederick and Augusta. A peace was effected that was to leave all the territory embraced in the two counties, forever free from the Indian claim. The Indian Confederacy entered into a treaty with the British and Colonists. This treaty, the chiefs endeavored to have their tribes live up to, and no more enter the white man's country. Some excursions were made, but only to hunt and wander over their old haunts; and they were very peaceably disposed for several years. But in 1773, some white men who desired revenge for the murder of their wives in the wars previous to this period, killed several Indians. The Indians retaliated, and made preparations for an uprising. This brings us to what has been called Dunmore's War. He was then Gov- ernor of Virginia; and regarding the situation as one requiring his personal attention, he called for volunteers from the Valley counties-Freder- ick and her three new offsprung counties, Shenan- doah, Hampshire and Berkley, and also Augusta. Very soon, Col. Andrew Lewis had a force of 1,000 men moving from Augusta towards the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers; while the Governor with ten companies from the lower counties, proceeded towards Fort Pitt, where there seem- ed to be some conflict of authority. In the spring of 1774, Kercheval says: "Daniel Morgan and James Wood, commanded two of the com- panies." The names of other officers of the ten companies may appear later on, under the head of "Sketches of certain families." Several prom- inent men on the frontier have been held re- sponsible for this unfortunate event. Chief among them were Capt. Michael Cresap, com- manding the port at Wheeling, and Col. Crogh- an and his nephew, Dr. John Connolly, both am- bitious and strong men-true and loyal to Vir- ginia concerning her claim as to certain disputed territory around Pittsburg, then unsettled be- tween Virginia and Pennsylvania, (which subject will be fuller treated in other pages of this work). Connolly took possession of Fort Pitt, and partly razed and dismantled it, and then built one to his own liking on the old founda- tion, calling it Fort Dunmore.
Capt. Cresap was a willing ally of Connolly's in his independent war on the Indians. He had not believed in sparing life, so far as concerned the Indians, and now exhibited desire to exter- minate the race if possible. A careful study of the causes and instigators of this Dunmore War, will repay the reader, and enable him to place the blame where it rightfully belongs. This war resulted in great loss of life, principally in Col. Lewis's command, in his marches through
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the mountains and frequent ambuscades, finally ending with great loss of life at Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774-a memorable day. Some of the survivors have left recorded facts relating to the deperate fighting on both sides. The far- famed Shawnee Chieftain Cornstalk, commander- in-chief; Logan, renowned as well for his ora- tory as for his adroitness as a captain in battle and other chiefs, supported by brave Red war- riors on the one side; and the Lewis brothers with their famous captains and the White heroes of the other wars, on the other, made this final struggle along the Ohio, one that has become famous the world over. Col. Lewis won a vic- tory and drove the Tribes across the Ohio; pursued them some distance, and was overtaken by Dunmore with his Lower Valley Companies, and was informed that he, the Governor, had already effected arrangements for a new treaty.
Viewing this final struggle of the Cresap-Con- nelly-Dunmore War, as we see it now, shorn of all prejudice and hatred between the races, we are forced to the conclusion that it was precipi- tated by the Cresap-Connelly Confederation for no other motives than greed and revenge; their ambition being to plant new colonies on cap- tured territory regardless of all treaties, and secure from the complaisant Governor grants for thousands of acres of the Ohio country, and then parcel it out to the new settlers at their own price and terms. Dunmore frustrated their plans by his treaty; thus securing the friendship of the hostile tribes so far as he was concern- ed, but leaving bitterness and discontent between the Colonists who had been drawn into the war. Dissensions soon arose between Lewis's branch of the service and the Cresap factions; and the border was again inflamed with fearful results. The brave Lewis and his whole force believed that Dunmore had deliberately planned for the annihilation of the gallant little army that had crossed over from the Greenbrier country, to aid the settlers along the Ohio to repel invasions from the Redmen. More than one writer has charged Dunmore with duplicity with the Cre- sap-Connolly factions, to incite feuds and jeal- ousies between the Colonists, to blind them to his British master's oppressions, by whom the rights of the struggling colonists were disre- garded. But his plans were broken by the ter- rible battle of the Point. Lewis and his noble survivors emerged from that conflict to become household words through succeeding generations, for their heroism, while the name of Dunmore was expunged from the records of the Valley for his perfidy and brutality. That there was discontent among the settlers along the Ohio, there can be no question of doubt. The line
between the two colonies of Virginia and Penn- sylvania, had not been fully determined. The conflict of ruling authority in the territory ad- jacent to Fort Pitt, was giving much concern. The two Colonial governments were at wordy war; and when Dunmore marched with his army to Fort Pitt, with the declared purpose of aiding the Cresap-Connolly factions to suppress the Indian uprising, he, immediately upon his ar- rival, sanctioned what Connolly had done, in usurping the claim to all the country around Fort Pitt and to the West. This he had claimed as within the jurisdiction and control of Vir- ginia, ignoring all claims of Pennsylvania, whose citizens were made prisoners and punished for their refusal to recognize him as the Assistant Governor of Virginia. This question grew so serious, that the Congress in session at Phila- delphia in 1775, was appealed to by many set- tlers along the Ohio, to carve out another State and recognize their grants. The members of that Congress from Pennsylvania and Virginia, issued an address to the complaining sections of the western border, and urged them to aban- don all contentions and animosities, and devote their united efforts to sustaining the country in the great struggle for independence, and save the infant Republic from British rule.
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