USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia > Part 11
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"Captain Arbuckle and myself were standing on the opposite bank when the gun was fired; and while we were wondering who it could be shooting, contrary to orders, or what they were doing over the river, we saw Hamilton running down the bank, who called out that Gilmore was killed. Gilmore was one of the com- pany of Captain John Hall, of that part of the country. now Rockbridge county. The captain was a relative of Gilmore's, whose family and friends were chiefly cut off by the Indians in the year 1763. Hall's men in-
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stantly jumped into a canoe and went to the relief of Hamilton, who was standing in momentary expecta- tion of being put to death. They brought the corpse of Gilmore down the bank, covered with blood and scalped, and put it into the canoe. As they were passing the river, I observed to Captain Arbuckle that the men would be for killing the hostages as soon as the canoe would land. He supposed that they would not offer to commit so great a violence upon the inno- cent, who were in no wise accessory to the murder of Gilmore. But scarcely had the canoe touched the shore, when the cry was raised, 'Let us kill the In- dians in the fort!' and every man, gun in hand, came up the bank pale with rage. Captain Hall was at their head and leader. Captain Arbuckle and I met them, and endeavored to dissuade them from so un- justifiable an act; but they cocked their guns, threat- ened us with instant death if we did not desist, rushed by us into the fort, and put the Indians to death.
"On the preceding day the Cornstalk's son, Elin- ipsico, had come from the nation to see his father, and to know if he was well. When he came to the river opposite the fort, he hallooed. His father was at that instant in the act of delineating a map of the country and the waters between the Shawnee towns and the Mississippi, at our request, with chalk on the floor. He at once recognized the voice of his son, got up, went out and answered him. The young fellow crossed over, and they embraced each other in the most affectionate manner. The interpreter's wife, who had been a prisoner among the Indians, and had re- cently left them, on hearing the uproar and the men threatening that they would kill the Indians-for whom
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she retained much affection-ran to the cabin and told them what she had just heard, that they would be killed because the Indians who killed Gilmore had come with Elinipsico the day before. He utterly de- nied it; declared that he knew nothing of them and trembled exceedingly. The Cornstalk encouraged him not to be afraid, for the Great Man above had sent him there to be killed and die with his father. As the men advanced to the door, the Cornstalk rose up to meet them ; they fired, and seven or eight bul- lets went through him. So fell the great warrior, whose name was bestowed upon him by the consent of the nation as their great strength and support. His son was shot dead as he sat upon a stool. The Redhawk made an attempt to go up the chimney, but was shot down. The other Indian was shamefully mangled, and I grieved to see him so long in the agonies of death."
It has been said that Virginia made no effort to bring to justice the perpetrators of this fiend-like act. That this statement is untrue is shown by the records of Rockbridge county. The first court held for that county convened at the house of Samuel Wallace- where Lexington now stands-April 7, 1778. The justices composing it were John Bowyer, Archibald Alexander, Samuel McDowell, Charles Campbell, Samuel Lyle, Alexander Stewart, Andrew Reid, John Trimble, and John Gilmore, all of whose names are prominent in the annals of Virginia. The following is taken from the records of that court :
"April 30, 1778 .- At a court held this day in the second year of the Commonwealth for the examina- tion of Captain James Hall, who stands bound in
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recognizance for his appearance, charged with suspi- cion of felony in being concerned in the murder of the Cornstalk Indian, his son Elinipsico, Redhawk, and another chief of the Indians on the 10th day of November last, there were present Charles Campbell, Samuel Lyle, Alexander Stewart and John Trimble, gentlemen. The above named James Hall appeared, and upon examination desired the facts with which he was charged, whereupon the sheriff proclaimed who could give evidence against the prisoner in behalf of the Commonwealth to appear and do the same, but none appeared. The Court were of the opinion that the said James Hall be further bound to appear before a court to be held for his examination on the 28th day of this instant, which he agreed to and entered into recognizance accordingly." At the appointed time he again appeared, was placed on trial and acquitted. Similar entries appear showing that Hugh Galbraith, Malcolm McCown and William Rowan were each tried upon the same charge and acquitted.
FATAL AMBUSCADE-SIEGE OF FORT RANDOLPHI.
No sooner did intelligence of the death of Corn- stalk reach the Indians, than they resolved to avenge the death of their illustrious chieftain. For that pur- pose war parties were sent out on their mission of rapine and murder. The following account of the suc- ceeding events is from Withers' "Border Warfare:"
"A while after Cornstalk's murder a small band of savages made their appearance near the fort at Point Pleasant, and Lieutenant Moore, with some men, was despatched from the garrison to drive them off. Upon his advance, they commenced retreating, and the offi- 11
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cer commanding the detachment, fearing they would escape, ordered a quick pursuit. He had not pro- ceeded far when they fell into an ambuscade. He and three of his men were killed at the first fire. The rest of the party saved themselves by a precipitate flight to the fort.
"In May, 1778, a force of two hundred Indians again appeared before the fort. But as the garrison had been very much reduced by the removal of Cap- tain Arbuckle's company, and the experience of the previous season had taught them prudence, Captain McKee forebore to detach any of his men in pursuit of them. Disappointed in their expectation to entice others to destruction as they had Lieutenant Moore, the Indians suddenly rose from their covert, presented an unbroken line extending from the Ohio to the Kanawha river, and in front of the fort. A demand for the surrender of the fort was then made, and Cap- tain McKee asked until next morning to consider of it. All through the night the men were busily employed in bringing water from the river, expecting that the Indians would continue before the fort some time.
" In the morning Captain McKee sent his answer by the Grenadier squaw-sister of Cornstalk, who, not- withstanding the murder of her brother and nephew, was still attached to the whites, and was remaining at the fort in the capacity of interpreter-that he could not comply with the demand. The Indians immedi- ately began the attack, and for one week kept the garrison closely besieged. Finding, however, that they made no impression on the fort, they collected the cattle about it, and, instead of returning toward their
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own country with the plunder, proceeded up the river toward the Greenbrier settlement."
EXPEDITION OF GENERAL MCINTOSH.
General Lachlin McIntosh, commandant of the Western Military Department, came to the Ohio; and, in 1778, at the head of one thousand men, left Fort Pitt and began the march into the wilderness, his design being to proceed directly to Detroit. But when reaching the banks of the Tuscarawas, near the present town of Bolivar, Tuscarawas county, Ohio, he halted, and concluding to proceed no farther, erected a fort, which, in honor of Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, the President of the first Continental Con- gress, was named Fort Laurens. Leaving a garrison of one hundred and fifty men under command of Colo- nel John Gibson, McIntosh, probably lacking in energy, and ignorant of Indian warfare, returned with the army to Fort Pitt. Fort Laurens, then the most western outpost of English civilization, was invested by eight hundred Indians, who kept up the siege for nearly two months. They drew the garrison into several ambus- cades, in one of which fourteen men were killed. The provisions were exhausted, and when supplies arrived from Fort Pitt, the garrison was so much elated that a salute of musketry was fired, at which the pack- horses took fright and ran into the woods, and thus a large proportion of the supplies was lost. Colonel Gibson, deeming himself unable to hold the fort in the heart of the wilderness, abandoned it in August, 1779, and marched the garrison to Fort Pitt.
General McIntosh was born in Scotland in 1727, and at the age of six years, together with his father's
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family, accompanied General Oglethorpe to Georgia. He commanded the First Georgia Infantry Regiment during the Revolution, rising in the scale of promo- tion to the rank of brigadier-general. He killed But- ton Guinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independ- ence, in a duel, in 1777; commanded the Western Army in 1778; was taken prisoner by the British at Charleston, South Carolina, May 12, 1780 ; was elected to Congress from Georgia in 1784; became Indian Commissioner in 1785, and died at Savannah in 1806.
CLARK'S ILLINOIS CAMPAIGN.
By the terms of the treaty of Fontainebleau, No- vember, 1763, the French dependencies in North America were formally ceded to Great Britain. The southern part of the territory thus surrendered was known as the Illinois country, and in it the various forts were speedily manned by English garrisons. Among these were Kaskaskia, founded by the French in 1680, in what is now Randolph county, Illinois; Cahokia, nearly opposite St. Louis, now in St. Clair county, in the same State, and St. Vincents, now Vincennes, founded in 1735, in what is now Knox county, Indi- ana. At these forts British emissaries supplied the neighboring tribes with ammunition, arms and cloth- ing, and incited them to hostilities against the Virginia and Kentucky frontier. These streams of devastation could only be dried up by destroying the fountains. But how could this be accomplished? Virginia was straining every nerve and exhausting every resource in defending her seaboard against British arms. If these forts were reduced, it must be done by the fron- tiersmen on the western slopes of the Alleghenies.
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In 1775, George Rogers Clark, then holding a major's commission in the Virginia State Line, and who had served with the rank of captain in Dunmore's war, appeared in Kentucky. June 6, 1775, a general meet- ing of the Kentucky settlers convened at Harrods- town and elected Gabriel John Jones and Major Clark agents to represent them before the General Assembly of Virginia. The object was to secure the aid of the Commonwealth in the defence of the pioneer homes of Kentucky, then a part of Virginia. Clark, with his associate, at once set out through the southern wilder- ness to Williamsburg, then the capital of Virginia. After a weary journey of many days, over mountains and through forests frequented by savage bands, they reached Fincastle, in Botetourt county, and there learned that the Assembly had adjourned. Jones returned to the settlements on Holstein river while Clark proceeded to Lower Virginia. He found Gov- ernor Henry lying sick at his residence in Hanover county, and to him he explained the object of his journey, at the same time laying before him his plan, previously kept secret, for the reduction of the British posts in the Illinois country. This received the cordial approbation of the Governor, who gave him a letter to the Council of State. Clark appeared before that body and presented his petition for aid. August 23, 1776, an order was made for conveying five hundred pounds of gunpowder to Pittsburg, there " to be safely kept and delivered to Mr. George Rogers Clark, or his order, for the use of the said inhabitants of Ken- tucky."
In the meantime, Clark was joined by Jones in Vir- ginia, and the former having received from the authori-
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ties two sets of instructions-one public, directing him to proceed to Kentucky for its defence, and the other secret, ordering an attack upon the British post of Kaskaskia-both proceeded to Pittsburg. At the same time Major William Smith was despatched to the set- tlement on the Holstein river to enlist men, while Captains Leonard Helm, of Fauquier county; Joseph Bowman, of Frederick; William Harrod, and several others, proceeded to different sections west of the Blue Ridge for the same purpose.
Just as Clark was beginning the descent of the Ohio from Pittsburg, he learned that France had recognized the independence of the United States. This information came opportunely and was of great service to him. The expedition, consisting of three companies, on reaching the mouth of the Great Kanawha, were pressed by Captain Arbuckle, com- mandant at that place, to engage with him in pursuit of the Indians who had attacked him the day previous, but had withdrawn and proceeded up the Kanawha. This Clark would have done gladly, but his own undertaking was of greater importance, and he knew his duty too well to be diverted from it. Pressing onward, he reached the present site of Louisville, where he hastily reared the walls of Fort Jefferson. Here, after receiving slight reinforcements, Clark dis- closed to his men the true object of the expedition. All was in readiness, and the next day, during a total eclipse of the sun, the boats passed the falls, having on board the entire force, composed of the companies of Captains Leonard Helm, Joseph Montgomery, Wil- liam Harrod and Joseph Bowman, the aggregate being less than four hundred men. This was the 24th day
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of June, 1778. The voyage down the Ohio was con- tinued to within a few miles of the present town of Massac, Massac county, Illinois, where the boats were abandoned and the march into the wilderness began. So rapid was the movement, that on the evening of the 4th of July, Rocheblave, the commandant, was taken completely by surprise, and Kaskaskia surren- dered without the firing of a gun. Captain Bowman, at the head of a detachment of horsemen, dashed away toward Cahokia, distant sixty miles, and two days later this post fell into the hands of the Vir- ginians.
Clark at once determined to farther extend Vir- ginia's domain by the capture of Post St. Vincennes. This was accomplished the following winter. Thus Clark, in the space of a few short months, had com- pletely broken the power of the English in that region, thereby extending Virginia's jurisdiction to the Mis- sissippi, and winning for himself the title of "The Hannibal of the West." He sent a messenger to Virginia, requesting the appointment of a civil gov- ernment for the conquered territory; and, in compli- ance therewith, the General Assembly, in October, 1778, passed an act establishing the "county of Il- linois," which embraced all the chartered limits of Virginia west of the Ohio river.
COLONEL BRODHEAD'S EXPEDITION.
In the meantime, General McIntosh was succeeded in the command of the Western Military Department by Colonel David Brodhead. This officer, in the spring of 1781, resolved to strike an effective blow against the Indian towns on the Muskingum. A force
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numbering about eight hundred men, among whom were many of the most daring Indian scouts and hunters on the Virginia frontier, was collected at Wheeling, and, with Colonel Brodhead commanding in person, crossed the Ohio. After a toilsome march the army reached the Muskingum in the vicinity of the present site of Zanesville, where supplies were re- ceived from the Christian Indians at the mission station of Rev. John Heckewelder.
Proceeding up the Miami, the army reached the Indian villages situated on both sides of the river, where Coshocton, the seat of justice of Coshocton county, now stands. The Indians were taken by sur- prise, and those on the east bank of the river were taken prisoners and their towns burned, but those on the west escaped destruction because of the high stage of the water, which prevented the Virginians from crossing the river.
Of the captured Indians, a number were bound and taken some distance from the camp, where they were killed and scalped. The next morning after this butchery, an Indian, on the west bank of the stream, called aloud for the "Big Captain," and when asked what he wanted, replied, " Peace !" "Then send over some of your chiefs," said Colonel Brodhead. Having been assured of safety, one came over and entered . into conversation with the commander. While thus engaged, a soldier, named John Wetzel, came up be- hind him and, with a tomahawk, struck a blow so deadly that the chieftain almost instantly expired. The same day the army began its retreat from Cos- hocton, the surviving prisoners, about twenty in num- ber, being placed in care of the militia, who soon began
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killing them. This they continued until all were mur- dered except a few women and children, who were carried to Fort Pitt.
MASSACRE OF THE MORAVIAN INDIANS.
In the history of mission work that among the Indians of the Tuscarawas Valley will ever be a prominent feature. Rev. Charles Frederick Post, a Moravian missionary from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, visited the valley of the Muskingum as early as 1761. Ten years later Rev. David Zeisberger visited the Tuscarawas Valley, and in the wigwam of Netawat- was, a Delaware chief, on the present site of New- comerstown, Tuscarawas county, on the 14th day of March, 1771, preached what was probably the first Protestant sermon ever delivered in Ohio. In 1772, he began his active missionary work, that year estab- lishing a Moravian mission station-Schönbrunn-two miles south of what is now New Philadelphia. The same year, Gnadenhutten, another mission station, was established eight miles below Schönbrunn in what is now Clay township, Tuscarawas county. In 1776 Lichtenau was founded two miles below the mouth of the Walhonding river, and nearly opposite the present town of Coshocton. New Schonbrunn, within a mile of what is now New Philadelphia, followed in 1779, and Salem in 1780. Associated with these early mis- sion stations will ever be prominent the names of Zeisberger, Heckewelder, Roth, Schmick, Ettwein and Senseman-men whose zeal for the faith which they professed armed them with courage to brave the dan- gers of the American wilderness, that they might carry the glad tidings to the savages therein. They
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gathered around them a large number of converts, chiefly Delawares, who, practising the principles of that gospel they had so recently learned, lived at peace alike with the savage brethren on the one hand and the frontiersmen of Virginia and Pennsylvania on the other. But at length they became the victims of suspicion on the part of both. Fatal position to occupy.
In February, 1782, John Carpenter, Mrs. William Wallace and her three children were carried into cap- tivity by the Indians, and Mrs. Wallace and her infant soon after murdered. This, occurring in mid-winter, induced the belief that the perpetrators had been en- tertained by the Moravian Indians, and vengeance against those who had harbored them was determined upon. A body of ninety men, chiefly from the Monon- gahela Valley, was speedily collected, and in March ensuing rendezvoused at Mingo Bottoms, three miles below Steubenville, now in Jefferson county, Ohio. Colonel David Williamson was placed in command, and the march to the Moravian towns soon accom- plished. There the Indians, not suspecting danger, made no defence and were soon disarmed and con- fined in two well-guarded houses. Colonel William- son, on the Sth day of May, 1782, submitted to his men the question, "Whether the Moravian Indians should be carried to Pittsburg or put to death," and requested all those in favor of saving their lives to step from the ranks. Of the ninety but eighteen stepped out to form a second line. Thus that of Mercy was far too short for that of Vengeance.
The fate of the victims was scaled, and there was enacted a scene without a parallel in American annals.
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The gun, the spear, the scalping-knife and the bludgeon were the instruments of execution, and the horrid work was continued in these slaughter-houses without sigh or groan, until ninety-four innocent and peaceable human beings were still in death. Of this number sixty-two were adults, one-third of whom were women, and the remaining thirty-two children. Of all the In- dians confined in these charnel houses but two es- caped ; these were boys, one of whom succeeded in reaching a cellar, where he concealed himself, and the other was scalped and left for dead, but afterward re- covered.
No writer has offered a word of apology for the brutal murderers, but every one without exception has condemned them as the actors in a tragedy which is not only a blot on the page of American history, but a disgrace to humanity. Smucker says: " It does, in- deed, make for us the darkest, cruelest, bloodiest page in the history of the Northwest." Doddridge pro- nounced it an "atrocious and unqualified murder." Loskiel, the Moravian historian, characterizes it as "the most infamous act in the border wars of the West."
COLONEL WILLIAM CRAWFORD'S SANDUSKY CAMPAIGN.
Early in the spring of 1782, another expedition was undertaken, the object of which was the destruction of the Wyandotte towns on the Sandusky plains. Nearly all of Colonel Williamson's men, just returned from the slaughter of the Moravian Indians, re-en- listed, and by the 25th of May, a force of 480 men was collected at Mingo Bottom. An election for the com- mander of the expedition was held here, which re-
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sulted in the choice of Colonel William Crawford, he having received 235 votes, while 230 votes were cast for Colonel David Williamson, who was thereby chosen second ranking officer of the expedition. Crawford . was reluctant to accept the command, but at length yielded to the entreaties of his friends.
The entire force was mounted and followed " Wil- liamson's Trail " to the Tuscarawas, and thence passed rapidly on to Sandusky. Three miles north of Upper Sandusky, and within the present limits of Wyandotte county, Ohio, an encampment was established. Here on the 4th of June, was fought the battle of Sandusky, in which the whites were defeated with a loss of more than a hundred killed and wounded. On the 5th, amid the darkness of night, the survivors, 300 in num- ber, began a retreat towards the Ohio.
Colonel Crawford placed himself at the head of the column, but missing his son, John Crawford, his son-in- law, John Harrison, and his nephews, Major Rose and William Crawford, he passed back to the rear in search of them, but without avail, for they were then prisoners in the hands of the savages. Far in the rear he met Dr. Knight, the surgeon of the expedition, and the two were joined by others, two of whom were Captain John Biggs and Lieutenant Ashley, the latter of whom was wounded. . All pushed forward to over- take the fugitive army. They had proceeded but a short distance, when several Indians sprang up before them. Crawford and Knight surrendered ; Biggs and Ashley escaped for the time, but were killed the next day.
On the morning of the roth of June Colonel Craw- ford and Dr. Knight, together with nine other prisoners,
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were taken back to the Sandusky towns by a party of seventeen Indians, at the head of whom were Pipe and Wingemund, two Delaware chiefs. Here all were painted black, the first step in preparation for the awful fate to follow. Colonel Crawford desired to see Simon Girty, but that fiend in human form gloried even more in savage torment than did the savages themselves. We subjoin the following account of the execution of Crawford, from the memoirs of Dr. Knight, who was an eye-witness, but afterwards made his escape and succeeded in reaching the Virginia border.
" When we came to the fire the colonel was stripped naked, ordered to sit down by the fire, and then they beat him with sticks and their fists. Presently after I was treated in the same manner. They then tied a rope to the foot of a post about fifteen feet high, bound the colonel's hands behind his back and fastened the rope to a ligature between his wrists. The rope was long enough either for him to sit down or to walk around the post once or twice and return the same way. . . .
" Captain Pipe, a Delaware chief, made a speech to the Indians, consisting of about thirty or forty men and sixty or seventy squaws and boys. When the speech was finished they all yelled a hideous and hearty assent to what had been said. The Indian men then took up their guns and shot powder into the colonel's body from his feet as far up as his neck. I think not less than seventy loads were discharged upon his naked body. They then crowded around him and to the best of my observation cut off his ears: when the throng had dispersed a little I saw blood running from both sides of his head in consequence thereof.
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