USA > West Virginia > Barbour County > The history of Barbour County, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 6
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CHAPTER V.
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WEST VIRGINIA IN THE REVOLUTION,
The territory of the present State of West Virginia was not invaded by a British army, except one company of forty, during the war for American independence. Its remote position made it safe from attack from the east; but this very remoteness rendered it doubly liable to invasion from the west where Great Britain had made allies of the Indians, and had armed and supplied them, and had sent them against the frontiers from Canada to Georgia, with full license to kill man, woman and child. No part of America suffered more from the savages than West Virginia. Great Britain's pur- pose in employing Indians on the frontiers was to harrass the remote country, and not only keep at home all the inhabitants for defense of their settlements, but also to make it necessary that soldiers be sent to the West who otherwise might be employed in opposing the British near the sea coast. Notwithstanding West Virginia's exposed frontier on the west, it sent many soldiers to the Continental Army. West Virginians were on almost every battlefield of the Revolution. The portion of the State east of the Alleghanies, now forming Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, Hampshire, Hardy, Grant, Mineral and Pendleton counties, was not invaded by Indians during the Revolution, and from this region large numbers of soldiers joined the armies under Washington, Gates, Greene and other patriots.
As early as November 5, 1774, an important meeting was held by West Virginians in which they clearly indicated under which banner they would be found fighting, if Great Britain persisted in her course of oppression. This was the first meeting of the kind west of the Alleghanies, and few similar meetings had then been held anywhere. It occurred during the return of Dunmore's Army from Ohio, twenty-five days after the battle of Point Pleasant. The soldiers had heard of the danger of war with England; and, although they were under the command of Dunmore, a royal Governor, they were not afraid to let the country know that neither a royal Governor nor any one else could swerve them from their duty as patriots and lovers of liberty. The meeting was held at Fort Gower, north of the Ohio River. The soldiers passed resolutions which had the right ring. They recited that they were willing and able to bear all hardships of the woods; to get along for weeks without bread or salt, if necessary; to sleep in the open air; to dress in skins if nothing else could be had; to march further in a day than any other men in the world; to use the rifle with skill and with bravery. They affirmed their zeal in the cause of right, and promised continued allegiance to the King of England, provided he would reign over them as a brave and free people. "But," they continued, "as attachment to the real interests and just rights of America outweigh every other consideration, we resolve that we will exert every power within us for the defence of American
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liberty, when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our country- men." It was such spirit as this, manifested on every occasion during the Revolution, which prompted Washington in the darkest year of the war to exclaim that if driven from every point east of the Blue Ridge, he would retire west of the mountains and there raise the standard of liberty and bid defiance to the armies of Great Britain.
At two meetings held May 16, 1775, one at Fort Pitt, the other at Hannastown, several West Virginians were present and took part in the proceedings. Resolutions were passed by which the people west of the mountains pledged their support to the Continental Congress, and expressed their purpose of resisting the tyranny of the mother country. In 1775 a number of men from the Valley of the Monongahela joined Washington's army before Boston. The number of soldiers who went forward from the eastern part of the State was large.
There were a few persons in West Virginia who adhered to the cause of England; and who from time to time gave trouble to the patriots; but the promptness with which their attempted risings were crushed is proof that traitors were in a hopeless minority. The patriots considered them as enemies and dealt harshly with them. There were two attempted uprisings in West Virginia, one in the Monongahela Valley, which the inhabitants of that region were able to suppress; the other uprising was on the South Branch of the Potomac, in what is now Hardy and Grant Counties, and troops were sent from the Shenandoah Valley to put it down. In the Monongahela Valley several of the tories were arrested and sent to Rich- mond. It is recorded that the leader was drowned in Cheat River while crossing under guard on his way to Richmond. Two men of the Morgan family were his guard. The boat upset while crossing the river. It was the general impression of the citizens of the community that the upsetting was not accidental. The guards did not like to take the long journey to Richmond while their homes and the homes of their neighbors were exposed to attacks from Indians. The tory uprising on the South Branch was much more serious. The first indication of trouble was given by their refusal to pay their taxes, or to furnish their quota of men for the militia. Complaint was made by the Sheriff of Hampshire county, and Colonel Vanmeter with thirty men was sent to enforce the collection of taxes. The tories armed themselves, to the number of fifty, for resistance, and placed themselves under the leadership of John Brake, a German, whose house was above Petersburg, in what is now Grant County. These enemies of their country had made his place their rendezvous. They met the militia from Hamp- shire, but no fight took place. Apparently each side was afraid to begin. There was a parley in which Colonel Vanmeter pointed out to the tories the consequence which must follow, if they persisted in their present course. He advised them to disperse, go to their homes and conduct themselves as law-abiding citizens. He left them and marched home.
The disloyal elements grew in strength and insolence. They imagined that the authorities were afraid and would not again interfere with them. They organized a company, elected John Claypole their captain, and pre- pared to march off and join the British forces. General Morgan was at that time at his home in Frederick County, and he collected militia to the number of four hundred, crossed the mountain and fell on the tories in such dead carnest that they lost all their enthusiasm for the cause of Great Britain. Claypole was taken prisoner, and William Baker, who refused to
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surrender, was shot, but not killed. Later a man named Mace was killed. Brake was overawed; and after two days spent in the neighborhood, the militia, under General Morgan, returned home. The tories were crushed. A number of them were so ashamed of what they had done that they joined the American army and fought as patriots till the close of the war, thus endeavoring to redeem their lost reputations.
The contrast between the conduct of the tories on the South Branch and the patriotic devotion of the people on the Greenbrier is marked. Money was so scarce that the Greenbrier settlers could not pay their taxes, although willing to do so. They fell delinquent four years in succession and to the amount of thirty thousand dollars. They were willing to per- form labor if arrangements could be made to do it. Virginia agreed to the proposition, and the people of Greenbrier built a road from Lewisburg to the Kanawha River in payment of their taxes.
The chief incidents in West Virginia's history during the Revolutionary War were connected with the Indian troubles. The State was invaded four times by forces large enough to be called armies; and the incursions by smaller parties were so numerous that the mere mention of them would form a list of murders, ambuscades and personal encounters of tedious and monotonous length. The first invasion occurred in 1777 when Fort Henry, now Wheeling, was attacked; the second, 1778, when Fort Randolph, now Point Pleasant, was besieged for one week, the Indians moving as far east as Greenbrier County, where Donnolly's fort was attacked; the third inva- sion was in August, 1781, when Fort Henry was again attacked by 250 In- dians under the leadership of Matthew Elliott. The fourth invasion occurred in September, 1782, when Wheeling was again attacked. The multitude of incursions by Indians must be passed over briefly. The cus- tom of the savages was to make their way into a settlement and either lie in wait along paths and shoot those who attempted to pass or break into houses and murder the inmates or take them prisoner, and then make off hastily for the Ohio River. Once across that stream, pursuit was not prob- able.
The custom of the Indians in taking prisoners, and their great exertion to accomplish that purpose, is a difficult thing to explain. Prisoners were of little or no use to them. They did not make slaves of them. If they sometimes received money as ransom for captives the hope of ransom money seems seldom or never to have prompted them to carry prisoners to their towns. They sometimes showed a liking, if not affection, for captives adopted into their tribes and families; but this kindly feeling was shallow and treacherous, and Indians would not hesitate to burn at the stake a cap- tive who had been treated as one of their family for months if they should take it into their heads that revenge for injuries received from others called for a sacrifice. The Indians followed no rule or precedent as to which of their captives they would kill and which carry to their towns. They some- times killed children and spared adults, and sometimes the reverse.
When the Revolutionary War began the English and the Americans strove to obtain the good will of the western Indians. The Americans sent Simon Girty and James Wood on a peaceful mission to the Ohio tribes in July, 1775. On February 22 of that year Simon Girty had taken the oath of allegiance to the King of England, but when war commenced he took sides with the Americans. In July, 1775, Congress created three Indian depart- ments, that embracing the portions of West Virginia and Pennsylvania west 4
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of the Alleghanies, to be known as the Middle Department. Commissioners were appointed to establish and maintain friendly relations with the Indians. In October of that year delegates from several of the Ohio tribes visited Pittsburg, which, since September before, had been occupied by Captain John Neville and a garrison of one hundred Americans. The Indian dele- gates made a treaty and agreed to remain neutral during the trouble be- tween the colonies and Great Britain.
The British were less humane. Instead of urging the savages to remain neutral, as the Americans had done, they excited the tribes to take up the hatchet against the Americans. The subsequent horrors of the In- dian warfare along the frontier are chargeable to the British, who resorted to "every means which God and nature had placed in their power" to an- noy the Americans. The most industrious of British agents in stirring up the Indians was Henry Hamilton, who in April, 1775, was appointed Lieu- tenant-Governor and Indian agent, with headquarters at Detroit. His sal- ary was one thousand dollars a year. He reached his destination Novem- ber 9, 1775. The Indians flocked to him and importuned him for permission and assistance to attack the settlements. But Hamilton had not yet received instructions from his government, authorizing him to employ Indians, and he did not send them to war at that time. In June, 1776, George Morgan, Indian agent for the Middle Department, held a conference with some of the Ohio tribes and succeeded in keeping them away from Detroit at that time. The suggestion that Indians be employed against the Americans came from Governor Hamilton late in 1776. The proposition was eagerly accepted; and on March 26, 1777, Lord George Germain gave the fatal order that Hamilton assemble all the Indians possible and send them against the frontiers, under the leadership of proper persons who could restrain them. This order was received by Governor Hamilton in June 1777, and before August 1 he had sent out fifteen marauding parties aggregating 289 Indians.
The year 1777 is called in border history the "bloody year of the three sevens." The British sent against the frontiers every Indian who could be prevailed upon to go. Few settlements from New York to Florida escaped. In this State the most harm was done on the Monongahela and along the Ohio in the vicinity of Wheeling. Monongalia County was visited twice by the savages that year, and a number of persons were killed. A party of twenty invaded what is now Randolph county, killed a number of settlers, took several prisoners and made their escape. It was on November 10 of this year that Cornstalk, the Shawnee chief, was assassinated at Point Pleasant by militiamen who assembled there from Greenbrier and else- where for the purpose of marching against the Indian towns. Earlier in the year Cornstalk had come to Fort Randolph, at Point Pleasant, on a visit, and also to inform the commandant of the fort that the British were inciting the Indians to war, and that his own tribe, the Shawnees, would likely be swept along with the current, in spite of his efforts to keep them at home. Under these circumstances the commandant of the fort thought it best to detain Cornstalk as a hostage to insure the neutrality of his tribe. It does not seem that the venerable Chief was unwilling to remain. He wanted peace. Some time after that his son came to see him, and crossed the Ohio, after making his presence known by hallooing from the other side. The next day two of the militiamen crossed the Ohio to hunt and one was killed by an Indian. The other gave the alarm, and the militiamen crossed the river and brought in the body of the dead man. The
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soldiers believed that the Indian who had committed the deed had come the day before with Cornstalk's son, and had lain concealed until an oppor- tunity occurred to kill a man. The soldiers were enraged, and started up the river bank toward the cabin where Cornstalk resided, announcing that they would kill the Indians. There were with Cornstalk his son and another Indian, Red Eagle. A sister of Cornstalk, known as the Granadier Squaw, had lived at the fort some time as interpreter. She hastened to the cabin and urged her brother to make his escape. He might have done so, but refused, and admonished his son to die like a man. The soldiers arrived at that time and fired. All three Indians were killed. The leaders of the men who did it were afterwards given the semblance of a trial in Virginia, and were acquitted.
It is the opinion of those acquainted with border history that the mur- der of Cornstalk brought more suffering upon the West Virginia frontier than any other event of that time. Had he lived, he would perhaps have been able to hold the Shawnees in check. Without the co-operation of that bloodthirsty tribe the border war of the succeeding years would have been different. Four years later Colonel Crawford, who had been taken prisoner, was put to death with extreme torture in revenge for the murder of Cornstalk, as some of the Indians claimed.
Fort Henry was besieged September 1, 1777, by two hundred Indians. General Hand, of Fort Pitt, had been informed that the Indians were pre- paring for an attack in large numbers upon some point of the frontier, and the settlements between Pittsburg and Point Pleasant were placed on their guard. Scouts were sent out to discover the advance of the Indians in time to give the alarm. But the scouts discovered no Indians. It is now known that the savages had advanced in small parties, avoiding trails, and had united near Wheeling, crossed the Ohio a short distance below that place, 'and on the night of the last day of August approached Fort Henry, and setting ambuscades near it, waited for daylight. Fort Henry was made of logs set on end in the ground, in the manner of pickets, and about seven- teen feet high. There were port holes through which to fire. The garrison consisted of less than forty men, the majority of whom lived in Wheeling and the immediate vicinity. Early in the morning of September 1 the Indians decoyed Captain Samuel Mason with fourteen men into the field some distance from the fort, and killed all but three. Captain Mason alone reached the fort, and two of his men succeeded in hiding, and finally escaped. When the Indians attacked Mason's men, the firing was heard at the fort, together with the yells of the savages. Captain Joseph Ogle with twelve men sallied out to assist Mason. He was surrounded and nine of his men were killed. There were only about a dozen men remaining in the fort to resist the attack of four hundred Indians, flushed with victory. There were perhaps one hundred women and children in the stockade.
In a short time the Indians advanced against the fort, with drum and fife, and the British flag waving over them. It is not known who was leader. He was a white man, or at least there was a white man among them who seemed to be leader. Many old frontier histories, as well as the testimony of those who were present, united in the assertion that the In- dians at this siege were led by Simon Girty. It is strange that this mistake could have been made, for it was a mistake. Simon Girty was not there. He was at that time, and for nearly five months afterwards, near Fort Pitt. The commander of the Indian army posted himself in the window of a house
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within hearing of the fort, and read the proclamation of Governor Hamil- ton, of Detroit, offering Great Britain's protection in case of surrender, but massacre in case of resistance. Colonel Shepherd, commandant of the fort, replied that the garrison would not surrender. The leader was insisting upon the impossibility of holding out, when his words were cut short by a shot fired at him from the fort. He was not struck. The Indians began the assault with a rush for the fort gate. They tried to break it open; and failing in this, they endeavored to push the posts of the stockade down. They could make no impression on the wall. The fire of the garrison was deadly, and the savages recoiled. They charged again and again, some times trying to break down the walls with battering rams, attempting to set them on fire; and then sending their best marksmen to pick off the garrison by shooting through the port holes. In course of time the deadly aim of those in the fort taught the savages a wholesome caution. Women fought as well as men. The siege continued two nights and two days, but all at- tempts of the Indians to burn the fort or break into it were unavailing. They killed many of the cattle about the settlement, partly for food partly from wantonness. They burned nearly all the houses and barns in Wheel- ing. The savages were preparing for another assault when Colonel Andrew Swearengen, with fourteen men, landed near the fort and gained an en- trance. Shortly afterwards Major Samuel McColloch, at the head of forty men, arrived, and after a severe fight, all reached the fort except McCol- loch, who was cut off, but made his escape. The Indians now despaired of success, and raised the siege. No person in the fort was killed. The loss of the Indians was estimated at forty or fifty.
In September of this year, 1777, Captain William Foreman, of Hamp- shire County, with about twenty men of that county, who had gone to Wheeling to assist in fighting the savages, was ambushed and killed at Grave Creek, below Wheeling, by Indians supposed to have been a portion of those who had besieged Fort Henry.
On March 28, 1778, Simon Girty ran away from Pittsburg in company with Alexander McKee, Robert Surphitt, Matthew Elliott, - Higgins and two negroes belonging to McKee. It is misleading to call Girty a deserter, as he was not in the military service. He had formerly been an interpreter in pay, but he was discharged for unbecoming behavior. He had two brothers, James and George, who also joined the British and did service among the Indians; and one brother who remained true to the Amer- icans. Simon Girty reached Detroit in June, 1778, after a loitering journey through the Indian country, during which he busied himself stirring up mischief. He was employed by the British as interpreter at two dollars a day, and was sent by Hamilton to work among the Ohio Indians. His influ- ence for evil was great, and his character shows few redeeming traits.
The year 1778 was one of intense excitement on the frontier. An In- dian force of about two hundred attacked Fort Randolph, at the mouth of the Kanawha, in May, and. besieged the place one week. The savages made several attempts to carry it by storm. But they were unsuccessful. They then moved off, up the Kanawha, in the direction of Greenbrier. Two soldiers from Fort Randolph eluded the savages, overtook them within twenty miles of the Greenbrier settlement, passed them that night, and alarmed the people just in time for them to flee to the blockhouses. Don- nally's fort stood within two miles of the present village of Frankfort, in Greenbrier County. Twenty men, with their families, took shelter there.
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At Lewisburg, ten miles distant, perhaps one hundred men had assembled, with their families. The Indians apparently knew which was the weaker fort, and accordingly proceeded against Donnally's, upon which they made an attack at daybreak. One of the men had gone out for kindling wood and had left the gate open. The Indians killed this man and made a rush for the fort and crowded into the yard. While some crawled under the floor, hoping to gain an entrance by that means, others climbed to the roof. Still others began hewing the door, which had been hurriedly closed. All the men in the fort were asleep except one white man and a negro slave. As the savages were forcing open the door, the foremost was killed with a tomahawk by the white man, and the negro discharged a musket loaded with heavy shot into the faces of the Indians. The men in the fort were awakened and fired through the port holes. Seventeen savages were killed in the yard. The others fell back, and contented themselves with firing at longer range. In the afternoon sixty-six men arrived from Lewisburg, and the Indians were forced to raise the siege. Their expedition to Greenbrier had been a more signal failure than the attempt on Fort Randolph.
The country along the Monongahela was invaded three times in the year 1778, and once the following year. Few settlements within one hun- dred miles of the Ohio River escaped. In 1780 Greenbrier was again paid a visit by the savages; and in this year their raids extended eastward into Randolph County, and to Cheat River, in Tucker County, to the very base of the Alleghany Mountains. The Monongahela Valley, as usual, did not escape, and ten settlers were killed.
In this year General George Roger Clark, with a small but excellent army, invaded Illinois to break up the British influence there. He left Captain Helm in charge of Vincennes, Indiana. No sooner had Governor Hamilton heard of the success of Clark than he set out from Detroit to re- establish the British prestige. He took with him thirty-five British regu- lars, forty-four irregulars, seventy militia and sixty Indians. He picked other Indians up on the way, and reached Vincennes December 17. Cap- tain Helm surrendered. Hamilton then dismissed the Indians, ordering them to re-assemble the next spring with large reenforcements. His designs were ambitious, embracing conquests no less extensive than the driving of the Americans out of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and the capture of Pittsburg. But General Clark destroyed all of these high hopes. Marching in the dead of winter he captured Vincennes, Feb- ruary 25, 1779, after a severe fight, and released nearly one hundred white prisoners, chastised the Indians, captured stores worth fifty thousand dollars, cleared the whole country of British from the Mississippi to Detroit; and, most important of all, captured Governor Hamilton himself, and sent him in chains to Richmond. This victory secured to the United States the country as far as the Mississippi; and it greatly dampened the ardor of the Indians. They saw for the first time that the British were not able to pro- tect them.
Fort McIntosh was built in 1778 on the north bank of the Ohio. below the mouth of Beaver, and the headquarters of the army were moved from Pittsburg to that place, October 8, 1778. In the same year Fort Laurens was built on the west bank of the Tuscarawas, below the mouth of Sandy Creek, and Colonel John Gibson was placed in command with 150 men. On March 22, 1779, Captain Bird, a British officer from Detroit, and Simon Girty, with 120 Indians and seven or eight British soldiers, besieged the
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