USA > West Virginia > Monroe County > A history of Monroe county, West Virginia > Part 4
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We are told that the above incidents took place in the October following the tragedy at Clendennin's. It is far more probable that the advance of the Indian party was almost simultaneous with the attack at the Levels in July. At the later date the three whites would have taken a greater risk in trapping where they were. Corn- stalk would have made his foray comprehensive as well as sudden. He would wish to wipe out the infant settlement in the Monroe Sinks. So it is highly probable that the firing of Byrnside's cabin was by the division going toward Jackson's River.
The Pontiac war lasted little more than a year. It was brought
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
to an end by Colonel Bouquet, who compelled the Indians to sign a treaty in October, 1764. The Indians were given 12 days to give up their captives, and many were returned. But means were found for holding back those to whom the red men were particularly attached. The treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1765 permitted settle- ment west of the mountains. But as we have seen, it was not until 1769 that there was a third attempt to settle the Greenbrier.
During the next five years there was a precarious peace. In the spring of 1774 an outbreak was at hand. Groups of irreconcilables, especially renegades from the tribes, were molesting the frontier. On the other hand, the hasty and thoughtless behavior of certain lawless frontiersmen was making equal trouble. It was arranged between Governor Dunmore and Colonel Andrew Lewis that each should lead a force to the Ohio, there join forces and compel a peace. The column under Lewis, about 1200 strong, was made up almost wholly of the militia from the counties of Augusta, Botetourt and Fincastle. The various commands effected a partial concentration at Camp Union, on the site of Lewisburg. It was a picturesque assemblage of men in coonskin caps, white, yellow, red, or brown hunting shirts and leggings that came halfway up the thigh. The officers carried rifles as well as the privates. The army was of material naturally excellent. Many of the officers won renown in the war for Amer- ican independence. In physique the rank and file have perhaps never been surpassed. Not one of the 60 men under George Math- ews was under six feet in height, and many measured six feet and two inches.
The battle of Point Pleasant was fought in Botetourt county, of which Monroe was then a part. The pioneers of this section had much at stake, and they helped to fill the ranks of the two Green- brier companies. Certain of the incidents of Indian warfare which are associated with the history of Monroe may belong to the summer of this year. Raiding parties then penetrated as far east as the Cowpasture. It was probably at this time that the blockhouse of Wallace Estill on Indian Creek was beseiged. The settlers around gathered into the refuge and beat off the foe. One of the redskins
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THREE WARS WITH THE INDIANS
was killed and his body was left unburied as food for the wolves. The killing of John Cook may have occurred the same season.
Nineteen days were consumed by the army under Lewis in open- ing a road to the Great Kanawha. The attractive situation at the mouth of the stream suggested the name of Point Pleasant. The pilot in this difficult advance was Matthew Arbuckle, who had gone down New River ten years earlier with a load of furs. Settlement had not progressed farther than 12 miles below Kanawha Falls.
While Lewis was preparing to cross the Ohio to join the other wing under Dunmore, he was attacked before daybreak on the morn- ing of October 10. The assailants, perhaps 800 strong, were un- der the command of Cornstalk. The Virginians narrowly escaped a surprise. Several men in violation of orders had gone out of camp to hunt game. Two of these stumbled upon the stealthily ad- vancing redskins and gave the alarm. There was in fact little dis- cipline in the camp. It was not the custom of the American mil- itiaman of that century to obey orders except when it suited him to do so.
The battle lasted all day, the lines being only six to twenty yards apart, and the woods resounded with the yells, taunts, and curses of white man and red. There was an aggregate of individ- ual fights rather than a conflict under military rules. Every man availed himself of any cover which the trees, whether standing or fallen, might supply. In the afternoon a flank attack on the rear of the left wing of the Indians made them think it was by the Fin- castle regiment, although that command was still several miles in the rear. The Indians now fell back, but the whites had been pun- ished too severely to pursue them. After nightfall Cornstalk made an unmolested retreat across the Ohio. The loss of the Virginians was never officially reported, and was probably not less than 200. Many of the wounded soon died for want of adequate attention. Several valuable officers were among the slain. One of these was Colonel Charles Lewis, brother to the commander-in-chief. Another was Captain McClenahan, commanding one of the Greenbrier com- panies. The loss of the Indians was never accurately known, but seems to have been scarcely half as great. Not one of their chiefs
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
was killed except the father of the celebrated Tecumseh. They quit the fight only because of their habitual disinclination to sustain heavy loss. In this respect the borderer had the advantage, and he was a rather better shot. But he was entirely too lax in avoiding sur- prise, too negligent in taking cover in time, and so little amenable to discipline that his usefulness as a soldier was much impaired.
The following letter by Colonel Christian of the Fincastle regi- ment was written on the battleground:
From what I can gather here I cannot describe the bravery of the enemy in the battle. It exceeded every man's expectations. They had men planted on each river to kill our men as they would swim over, making no doubt I think of gaining a complete victory. Those over the Ohio in the time of battle called to the men to "drive the white dogs in." Their Chief ran continually along the line exhorting the men to "lye close" and "shoot well," "fight and be strong." At first our men retreated a good ways and until new forces were sent out on which the enemy beat back slowly and killed and wounded our men at every advance. Our people at last formed a line, so did the enemy, they made many attempts to break our lines, at length our men made a stand, on which the enemy challenged them to come up and began to shoot. Our men could have forced them away precipitately, but not without great loss, and so concluded to main- tain their ground all along the line. Which they did until Sundown, when the enemy were supposed to be all gone. Our people then moved backward scalping the enemy, and bringing in the dead and wounded.
The enemy came over on rafts about six miles up Ohio & set at the same place. They encamped within two miles of this place the night before the battle and killed some of our beeves. They damd our men often for Sons of Bitches, said "Don't you whistle now" (making sport of the fife) and made very merry about a treaty
The battle of Point Pleasant is one of the memorable events in American history. It decided the campaign of 1774, and within three weeks the Indians had agreed to terms of peace. The Ohio was designated as the boundary of the Indian country. East of this river they were not to hunt without special permission. Had Corn- stalk won the victory, as he came so near doing, it is probable that the Greenbrier would have been deserted the third time. It is prob-
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THREE WARS WITH THE INDIANS
able that the Alleghany range would have been recognized as the boundary of the Indian country. The British Board of Trade sought to curb the Americans by hampering their progress into the interior of the continent. It also wished to preserve the fur trade with the Indians. But the defeat of the red men had an important bearing on the war for independence. It not only advanced the westward frontier to the Ohio, but it led, almost as a matter of course, to the conquest of the Illinois country by George Rogers Clark in 1778, and therefore to the advance of the colonies to the Mississippi.
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MONROE IN THE REVOLUTION
The Fincastle Declaration-Local Incidents-Forts-Toryism.
HE Declaration of Independence is sometimes miscon- strued. It went beyond asserting the independence of the Thirteen Colonies as an object to strive for. It announced a state of things that already exist- ed Hostilities had been in progress more than a year. The authority of the British crown was everywhere a dead letter. All the colonies were exercising self-government outside of the few lo- calities overawed by foreign bayonets.
The Ulstermen came to America with hot resentment against the British crown because of the economic and religious persecution from which they had suffered. It was for relief from this that they sought new homes in the Western world. To show the feeling of the time in Monroe and its vicinity, we quote the resolutions adopted by the freeholders of Botetourt, January 20, 1775. These were in- structions to Colonel Andrew Lewis and John Bowyer, their repre- sentatives to the House of Burgesses.
We require you to represent us with hearts replete with the grateful and loyal veneration for the race of Brunswick, for they have been truly our fathers; and at the same time the most dutiful affection for our sov- ereign, of whose honest heart we cannot entertain any diffidence, but sorry we are to add, that in his councils we can no longer confide. A set of miscreants, unworthy to administer the laws of Britain's empire, have been permitted impiously to sway. How unjustly, cruelly, and tyrannically they have invaded our rights we need not now put you in mind.
We only say, and we assert it with pride, that the subjects of Britain are one, and when the honest man of Boston, who has broken no law, has his property wrested from him, the hunter of the Alleghanies must take the alarm, and as a freeman of America, he will fly to the representatives and thus instruct them: "Gentlemen, my gun, my tomahawk, my life, I de- sire you to tender to the honor of my king and country; but my liberty to
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range these woods upon the same terms (as) my father has done is not mine to give up. It was not purchased by me and purchased it was. It is entailed upon my son, and the tenure is sacred. Watch over it, gen- tlemen, for to him it must descend inviolate, if my arm can defend it, but if not, if wicked power is permitted to prevail against me, the original purchase was blood, and mine shall seal the surrender."
That our countrymen, and the world, may know our disposition, we choose that this be published. And we have one request to add, that is, that the sons of worth and freedom, who appeared for us at Philadelphia, will accept our most ardent, grateful acknowledgments. And we ear- nestly plight them our faith, that we will religiously observe their reso- lutions and obey their instructions, in contempt of power and temporary interest; and should the measures they have wisely calculated for our re- lief fail, we will stand prepared for every contingency.
The people of Virginia were not sensible of any sweeping change in the working of their governmental machinery. They had not put on, so to speak, a brand new suit. The old coat was dusted and put on again. They now lived under a governor of their own choosing, instead of accepting a parasitic governor from England, as a local representative of the crown. The name of the governor was substituted for that of king in public proclamations. But the colon- ial laws remained in force. Burgesses, magistrates, sheriffs, and all other state and county officials were chosen as before.
With respect to Virginia, the war for independence presents three phases : first, the campaign against Dunmore, ending with the expulsion of the tory governor early in 1776; second, a war with the Indians, beginning about two years after the battle of Point Pleas- ant and not ending until several years after the treaty with Britain; third, a campaign east of the Blue Ridge, beginning near the close of 1780 and terminating with the capture of Cornwallis in October, 1781.
The inhabitants of Monroe and Greenbrier saw little of the war except the trouble with the Indians, which was the result of British emissaries. Their settlements included little more than 2000 people. It was nearly as much as they could do to stand off the In- dians. And yet they bore a very honorable part in the conquest of the Illinois country by Colonel Clark. But for this achievement, the treaty of peace would not have recognized the Mississippi as the
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
western confine of the United States. It might not have been pos- sible to secure the Ohio as a part of that boundary. The Greenbrier settlements might have found themselves adjacent to territory still British.
In 1781 the governor ordered that 137 of the Greenbrier men serve through the summer under Clark. The county court ordered a draft of 146 men. But as there were scarcely 550 militia in all Greenbrier, and as there was next a call for 34 men to join the continental service, the court concluded to ask an extension of time until the militia who had joined Clark could have time to get home. Andrew Donally, writing the governor March 27, 1781, says the militia ordered to join Clark had "gone with much alacrity." But in the following year, Samuel Brown would not permit a draft for the Continental regiments.
Associated with the early annals of Monroe are several incidents relating to Indian raids. Not always are we able to point out the year in which they occurred. There was one in 1778, at the time of the attack on Donally's fort. In 1781 there was a foray on the settlers of Indian Creek. Next February Samuel Brown asked the governor for a garrison of 20 men at the mouth of Elk, saying that some of the people driven from there would return. The succeed- ing April the red men raided the settlements on New River. A petition of August, 1786, says the people on Bluestone had suffered so much that the settlements had weakened and prompt aid had be- come very necessary. Even so late as 1788 there was fear that the transalleghany settlements would once more be extinguished. So the governor directed the county lieutenant to have ready a company of rangers in case of another invasion. William Clendennin was its captain. No Indians are known to have penetrated the county, ex- cept one, who in company with a white renegade killed Thomas Griffith near Lewisburg. They were pursued and the renegade killed.
The only actual forts within the present limits of Monroe were Woods' fort on Rich Creek and Cook's fort on Indian. But while such defenses were very serviceable against the Indians, they were not regarded as government posts. On Crump's bottom was Cul-
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MONROE IN THE REVOLUTION
bertson's fort, and near the mouth of Wolf was Jarrett's fort. We hear also of forts that were no more than fortified houses. One of these stood near the present concrete bridge over Second Creek. An- other was on Pickaway Plains. Still others were on Indian Creek or in the south of the county.
In building a palisade a trench was dug to a depth of some four feet and in it was planted a double row of logs, set in a vertical po- sition and projecting about ten feet above the general level of the ground. The row was double, so as to leave no crevices for bullets to pass through. The Cook stockade is said to have inclosed an oblong space of an acre and a half. Three hundred people found refuge here in 1778. The inclosure at Woods' was probably much smaller. Within the stockades were cabins, the palisade forming one of the walls, and the cabin roof serving as a parapet to shoot from. The people who assembled in these forts for protection ren- dered them crowded, uncomfortable, and insanitary. They would sometimes take too great risks, in order to escape for a time the stuf- finess of their quarters. Yet it required a great deal of hard labor to inclose even an acre. For this reason the stockade was much less common than the uninclosed blockhouse. The latter was a dwell- ing built so as to make the wall ball-proof. The door was very thick, sometimes studded with broad-headed nails, and was so firmly secured as to withstand a shock by a log used as a battering ram. The windows were too narrow for a person to crawl through. Where there was an upper story, it sometimes projected over the lower to enable the defenders to shoot an enemy coming close to the lower wall. These fortified houses could sometimes hold out against a formidable attack. The greatest danger was a blazing arrow di- rected at the roof. Hence it was important that the foe should not find cover within arrow-shot.
Cook's fort stood about midway in the Indian Creek bottom, on the south side of the stream and perhaps 200 yards west of the road crossing at the ford just below Greenville. The swale close by may then have furnished water. The position was such as to com- mand the trail from Ellison's Ridge that crossed Indian near by and ran up Indian Draft. The statement in several books that it
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
stood three miles above the mouth of Indian is very incorrect. The first marriage in the stockade is said to have been that of Philip Hammond to Christiana, a daughter of Valentine Cook. In 1778 Hammond distinguished himself as one of the two messengers sent from Fort Randolph at Point Pleasant to warn the settlers around Donally's fort. They outstripped the Indian army by several hours. Both men had been disguised to look like Indians by an Indian woman who had come with her cattle to take refuge at the fort. It is be- lieved that she was a sister to Cornstalk. By the whites she was known as the Grenadier Squaw, on account of her commanding stature.
Woods' fort, built in 1773 by Captain Matthew Woods, almost certainly stood on the small promontory that makes into Rich Creek bottom at the house of John H. Karnes, some four miles above Pe- terstown. At the outbreak of the Dunmore war Woods furnished Colonel William Preston a roll of the men of the neighborhood who were fit for duty. Just three weeks before the battle at Point Pleasant, Colonel Christian, commanding the Fincastle regiment of the army under Lewis, camped a few miles away and sent 800 pounds of flour to the fort. With 14 men Woods joined the regiment and marched to Point Pleasant. Some of his men were ready to join the Illinois regiment under Clark at the time the Indians raided Indian Creek in the spring of 1781. It was a detachment from his company that pursued the hostiles and recovered the prisoners.
The raid of 1778 was inspired by the murder of Cornstalk at Point Pleasant in the preceding November. Fort Randolph had been built on the battlefield and was now garrisoned by Captain Matthew Arbuckle. A large force of militia had arrived to join General Hand in an expedition against the Indian towns on the Scioto. A few of the Rockbridge men went across the Kanawha to hunt turkeys, and one of them, named Gilmer, was killed by some lurking Indian. Shortly before this event, Cornstalk came to * the fort to warn Arbuckle against the hostile feeling of his tribe. The chief was joined by his son and two other comrades. Arbuckle thought it best to detain them as hostages. There is nothing to show that they were concerned in the killing of Gilmer. Cornstalk
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was on a peaceful errand and must have been aware that he was running a risk. He had been a redoubtable foe, and had carried havoc as far as Kerr's Creek in Rockbridge. But according to the Indian standard he was an honorable enemy.
In a fit of blind and senseless fury, the companions of Gilmer at once rushed to the fort, and in spite of Arbuckle's efforts to prevent their purpose they shot down all four of the unarmed Indians in cold blood. Governor Patrick Henry was indignant at the dark blot on the name of his state, and made an earnest effort to punish the murderers. Next April Captain James Hall and Hugh Gal- braith were summoned before the Rockbridge court on a charge of felony, but as no witnesses would appear against them, both men were acquitted. Public opinion in Rockbridge therefore upheld the cowardly murder.
Cornstalk was about forty years old and was born on the Ka- nawha. He was large in stature, commanding, intellectual, and an orator. Since the battle at Point Pleasant he had kept the peace, and he sought to live on friendly terms with the whites. On several occasions he brought to Fort Randolph horses that had been stolen from the settlers. Roosevelt speaks of his assassination as "one of the darkest stains on the checkered pages of frontier history." Point Pleasant did not prosper for many years and there was a belief that the town lay under a curse.
Next season the Shawnees sought to avenge the death of their chief. They besieged Fort Randolph a week, though without much effect, and then sent one war party against Donally's fort, eight miles from Lewisburg, and another against Indian Creek. Of the latter raid we have scarcely any accurate knowledge. It seems to have been by a small band and without serious result.
The fight at Donally's fort was the most considerable combat of the Revolution within the original limits of Greenbrier. The fort was a large double log house of two stories and was surrounded by a stockade. Couriers from Fort Randolph arrived in advance of the Indians and found only five men in the blockhouse. Word was at once sent over the settlement and about 20 men collected to- gether with their families. Next morning before daylight a ser-
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
vant of Donally's went out for wood, left the gate open, and was shot dead. The Shawnees then attempted to break down the door of the house. Only two men were on guard, Philip Hammond and a slave bearing the name of Dick Pointer. When the second plank of the door was beaten off, the negro fired a gun plentifully loaded with buckshot, nails, and old iron. The recoil knocked him down, but the effect of the discharge was deadly. Three of the assailants were killed, several were wounded, and the others fell back. By this time the other men in the fort were awake. An attempt to fire the house from under the floor resulted in the death of several more Indians. While the battle was going on, the women were moulding bullets. A relief party of 66 men from Lewisburg arrived about four o'clock, escaped ambush by coming in from the rear, and by crawling through a field of rye, they reached the fort without any casualties. The Indians kept up the fight until dark and were pur- sued next day by Captain Andrew Hamilton with 70 men. Four of the whites and 17 of the Indians were killed in the battle at the fort. The latter were buried by Pointer in a sinkhole. Bullet scars in the logs were still to be seen a half century later. Pointer and his wife were abandoned by Donally when the latter moved to Kanawha. But he was given his freedom, a cabin was built for him, and he lived to an old age that was tarnished by intemperance. He was buried at Lewisburg with military honors.
Owing to a partial paralysis of commerce, a lack of good money, and an absence of good roads across the Alleghany, the people on the Greenbrier had to undergo great hardships during the Revolu- tion. The Continental paper money depreciated until it became al- most entirely worthless. A claim of James Handley against Chris- topher Bryan of the Monroe Sinks was scaled down from 10,000 pounds to exactly two-thirds of one percent of the face value. But- ter, deerskins, hemp, and ginseng were leading articles of barter.
An Act of Assembly requiring an oath of allegiance to be ad- ministered to the free whites, the court of Botetourt appointed James Henderson to act in this capacity in his own militia precinct and those of Captains Gillespie, Vanbibber, and John Henderson. This was in August, 1777.
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The Ulstermen came to America to get rid of grevious oppres- sion. In most of these Appalachian counties they were the domi- nant element. It is stated in some histories that the mountain peo- ple were patriots almost to a man. But this does not accord with the facts. In some of the mountain counties of Virginia the tories were numerous and troublesome. One of the more conspicuous of those in Greenbrier was one William Hinton, a miller, who boasted that he could raise 500 men in the county to fight for the king. There were scarcely more than 500 militia in all Greenbrier, and many of them were in the army. And yet the boast indicates that disaffec- tion existed. Hinton was tried before Colonel Sampson Mathews, and sentenced to a fine of 400 pounds and imprisonment for four years.
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