Ohio History Journal

THE DUNMORE WAR.*

BY E. O. RANDALL.

Secretary Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.

The American colonists had fought the French and Indian

war1 with the expectation that they were to be, in the event of

success, the beneficiaries of the result and be permitted to occupy

the Ohio Valley as a fertile and valuable addition to their Atlantic

coast lodgments. But the war over and France vanquished, the

royal greed of Britain asserted itself, and the London government

most arbitrarily pre-empted the territory between the Alleghanies

and the Mississippi as the exclusive and peculiar dominion of the

Crown, directly administered upon from the provincial seat of

authority at Quebec. The parliamentary power promulgated the

arbitrary proclamation (1763) declaring the Ohio Valley and the

* Authorities consulted in preparation of the article on Dunmore's

War-E. O. R.: Abbott's History of Ohio; Albach's Western Annals;

American Archives (4th Series, Vol. 1); Atwater's History of Ohio;

Bancroft's History of the United States; Black's Story of Ohio; Brow-

nell's Indians of North America; Burk's History of Virginia; Butler's

History of Kentucky; Butterfield's History of the Girtys; Campbell's

History of Virginia; Cook's History of Virginia; Doddridges's Notes

on Indian Wars, etc.; Drake's Indians of North America; Drake's life

of Tecumseh; Fernow's Ohio Valley in Colonial Days; Fiske's Ameri-

can Revolution, Vol. II; The Hesperian, Vol. II., (1839); Hildreth's

Pioneer History of the Ohio Valley; Hosmer's Short History of the

Mississippi Valley; Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio; Howe's His-

torical Collections of Virginia; Jacob's Life of Cresap; Jefferson's Notes

on Virginia; Kercheval's History of the Valley of Virginia; King's His-

tory of Ohio; Lewis's History of West Virginia; Mayer's (Brantz)

Logan and Cresap; McDonald's sketches; McKnight's Our Western Bor-

der; Mitchener's Ohio Annals; Moore's Northwest Under Three Flags;

Monette's Valley of the Mississippi; Ohio Archaeological and Historical

Publications; Olden Time (Monthly), Vol. II; Peter Parley's History

of the Indians; Ryan's History of Ohio; Roosevelt's Winning of the

West; Stone'sLife of Joseph Brant; Taylor's (J. W.) History of Ohio;

Thatcher's Indian Biographies; Thwaites's Afloat on the Ohio; Vir-

ginia Historical Register (Vol. V); Walker's History of Athens County;

Whittlesey's Fugitive Essays; Winsor's Western Movement; Withers'

Chronicles of Border Warfare.

11756-1763.                (167)

168        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

Great Northwest territory should practically be an Indian reserva-

tion, ordering the few straggling settlers to move therefrom,

forbidding the colonists to move therein, and even prohibiting

trading with the Indians, save under licenses and restrictions so

excessive as to amount to exclusion.

On June 22, 1774, Parliament passed the detestable Quebec

Act which not only affirmed the policy of the Crown adopted in

the proclamation of 1763, but added many obnoxious features, by

granting certain religious and civil rights to the French catholic

Canadians.

This policy of the Crown stultified the patents and charters

granted the American colonies in which their proprietary rights

extended to the Mississippi, and beyond, embracing the very

territory to which they were now denied admittance2.

The establishment of England's authority in Canada, with

Quebec as the seat of arbitrary and direct rule over the colonies,

was a tightening of the fetters that bound the chafing colonies.

The Quebec Act was one of the irritants complained of in the

Declaration of Independence "for abolishing the free system of

English law in a neighboring province, establishing therein an

arbitrary government and enlarging its boundaries so as to render

it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same

absolute rule into these colonies." The French Canadians were

favored by the Quebec Act in their legal rights and religious

privileges. The untutored savages were its especial foster chil-

dren. The colonists were flagrantly and unjustly discriminated

2 "In 1763, at the close of the French and Indian War, the English

Parliament passed an act which disfranchised the Catholics of Canada,

and cut off the revenues of their church. This law continued in force

until October, 1774, when Parliament, having received intelligence of

the "Boston Tea Party," and fearing that the Canadians would unite

with her now disaffected colonies, enacted what is known as "The Quebec

Act." By it the boundaries of that province were extended to the Ohio

and Mississippi rivers; the old French laws were restored in all judicial

proceedings, and to the Catholics were secured the enjoyment of all

their lands and revenues. Thus it is seen that the present State of Ohio

was made a part of Quebec, and the inhabitants of the District of West

Augusta were correct in their representations to Congress that the Ohio

was all that separated them from Quebec."--Lewis, History of West

Virginia, p. 139. This last (1774) act was especially obnoxious to the

American colonists.

The Dunmore War.                   169

against. The restless enterprise and obstinate opposition of the

frontier settlers led them to encroach and "poach" upon the "pre-

serves" of the Crown. The fearless and independent frontiersman

of Pennsylvania and Virginia longed for the unrestrained oppor-

tunity to cross the Ohio, and pushing their way into the trackless

wilderness, seek homes upon the banks of the Tuscarawas, the

Muskingum, the Scioto, the Sandusky and the Miamis. They

went first as hunters, then as prospectors, and finally as settlers;

"they purchased lands with bullets, and surveyed claims with

tomahawks."

Such was the situation until the year 1774 when the smoulder-

ing embers burst into a flame, and Dunmore's war was the prelude

to the Revolution. The Dunmore war has been promotive of

much ingenious speculation and curious guesswork by writers and

historians. An air of semi-mystery heightens the intense interest

that attaches to this most important and romantic event in western

American history. John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, was the royal

governor of Virginia colony. He was a descendant in the feminine

line from the house of Stuart; the blood of the luxurious, im-

perious and haughty Charleses ran in his veins. He was a Tory of

the Tories. He was an aristocratic, domineering, determined,

diplomatic representative of his sovereign, King George, but he

was also a tenacious stickler for the prerogatives of the colony

over which he presided. He held his allegiance as first due the

Crown, but he also was "eager to champion the cause of Virginia

as against either the Indians or her sister colonies."  He was

avaricious, energetic and interested in the frontier land specula-

tions. He had an eye for the main chance, financial and political.

He could not have looked complacently upon the Canadian policy

of his government. But he was the center of opposing influences.

The prescribed limits of the various colonies, while generally dis-

tinctly defined near the Atlantic coast, often became indefinite and

conflicting west of the mountains. The grant to Virginia gave

her a continuation of territory west across the continent, and

according to her claim took in the southern half of Ohio, Indiana

and Illinois. The Quebec Act nullified this claim and incurred the

disfavor of Dunmore, who defiantly opposed this injustice to his

colony. More than this the Virginians assumed title to all of the

extreme western Pennsylvania, especially the forks of the Ohio

170         Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

river and the valley of the Monongahela. This, of course, meant

Fort Pitt, which, at this time was occupied as a Virginian town,

though claimed by the Pennsylvanians as their territory.

Governor Dunmore appointed as his agent or deputy at Fort

Pitt one Dr. John Connolly, a man of reputed violent temper and

bad character. Connolly was named vice governor and command-

ant of Pittsburg and its dependencies. Connolly was at best an

impetuous and unscrupulous minion of his master. He changed

the name of the settlement from Fort Pitt to Fort Dunmore, and

proceeded to assume jurisdiction in such an arrogant and merciless

manner in behalf of the Virginians, and against the peaceable

Pennsylvanians, that a war-like collision was narrowly averted3.

Connolly's counter plays between the Virginians, the Penn-

sylvanians, the Indians and the British authorities are too complex

and contradictory to be unravelled here. Whatever Lord Dun-

3 In the winter of 1773-4, one Dr. John Connolly, a nephew of

George Croghan, determined to assert the claims of Virginia upon Fort

Pitt and its vicinity. He issued a proclamation to the inhabitants to

meet at Redstone, now Brownsville, on the 24th and 25th of January,

1774, and organize themselves as a Virginia militia. Before the time

appointed Connolly was arrested by Arthur St. Clair, who then repre-

sented the Pennsylvania proprietors at Pittsburg, and the assemblage

at Redstone dispersed without definite action. As soon as Connolly was

released from custody, however, he renewed his efforts to establish the

exclusive authority of Virginia. He came to Pittsburgh on the 28th

of March, with an armed band of followers, and in the name and by

the authority of Lord Dunmore, proclaimed the jurisdiction of Virginia,

rebuilding Fort Pitt, which was called Fort Dunmore. He was recog-

nized as Captain Commandant of a district called West Augusta, and

almost immediately exhibited a tyrannical spirit to all who were in the

Pennsylvania interest, while he seemed not unwilling to involve the

frontier in an Indian War, one motive for the latter policy being, as

suggested by Arthur St. Clair and others, to cloak his extravagant civil

expenditure, with the indefinite item of frontier defence.-Taylor (J.

W.), History of Ohio, pp. 242-3.

American Archives, 4th Series, Vol. I, p. 270 et seq. contains

numerous letters and documents revealing the riotous state of affairs

prevailing at Fort Pitt after the arrival there of John Connolly, who,

though a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, was regularly com-

missioned by Lord Dunmore to represent his lordship's authority as

magistrate for West Augusta, the county Dunmore had added to Vir-

ginia from Pennsylvania territory.--E. 0. R.

The Dunmore War.                     171

more was, this man Connolly was double-dyed in duplicity. He

pitted one colony against the other, the Indians against both, and,

so far as he could, doubtless aided the British to urge on the

Indians. That the British authorities were, in this whole affair,

the abettors of the savages, is sufficiently evidenced by the fact

that while the Indians were openly and unitedly fighting the

colonies who were still British subjects on the Ohio frontier, they

(the Indians) were receiving arms, ammunition and provisions

from the English distributing station at Detroit⁴.

The Canadian French traders who drove a thriving business

with the Indians naturally stimulated them to resist the frontiers-

men's encroachments. The occupation of the exclusive territory

by the colonists meant the termination of their traffic. The brunt

of this contention fell upon the Ohio Indians and the Virginian

backwoodsmen. The six nations as such took no part in it. The

Pennsylvanians stood aloof. They were not so aggressive as

their southern neighbors, and their interest in the Indian was a

commercial and peaceful one. The Virginians, therefore, were

the only foes the Ohio Indians really dreaded. The Virginians

were crack fighters in those frontier days. They were adventur-

ous, courageous, and of hardy stuff. In the mountain dwellers

of the Monongahela and Kanawha valleys the red man found a

foeman worthy of his prowess. It was they the Indians styled

the "long knives," or "big knife," because of the bravery they

displayed in the use of their long belt knives, or swords. They

were a match for the deadly tomahawk. Another reason why

the Virginians were willing and active aggressors in these border

difficulties was that the royal authority had promised the Vir-

ginia troops a bounty in these western lands as reward for their

services in the French and Indian war. A section had been

allowed them by royal proclamation on the Ohio and Kanawha

rivers. When in the spring of 1774 Colonel Angus McDonald

4 "For it is well known that the Indians were influenced by the

British to continue the war to terrify and confound the people, before

they commenced hostilities themselves the following year in Lexington.

It was thought by British politicians that to excite an Indian war would

prevent a combination of the colonies for opposing parliamentary meas-

ures to tax the Americans." - Narrative of Capt. John Stuart in the Vir-

ginia Historical Register, Vol. V, p. 188.

172        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

and party proceeded to survey these lands they were driven off by

the Indians. Meanwhile, intrusions across the border, depreda-

tions, conflagrations and massacres were committed in turn by

either side. Much has been written as to which was the earlier

or greater aggressor. That discussion is not pertinent to our

purpose. Many cabins were burned and many lives brutally de-

stroyed. Havoc and horror were prevalent.

Most prominent among the leaders of the whites in this In-

dian warfare was one Captain Michael Cresap, a Marylander

who removed to the Ohio early in 1774, and after establishing

himself below the Zane settlement (Wheeling) organized a com-

pany of pioneers for protection against the Indians⁵. He was

appointed by Connolly, a captain of the militia of the section in

which he resided, and was put in command of Fort Fincastle3.

Cresap was a fearless and persistent Indian fighter, and just the

one to lead retalitory parties across the Ohio into the red men's

country. In April, Connolly, only too anxious to spring the ex-

plosion, issued an open letter warning the frontiersmen of the

impending war and commanding them to prepare to repel the

Indian  attack⁷.  Such  a  letter from   Dunmore's lieutenant

amounted to a declaration of war. The backwoodsmen were at

once in arms and seeking an opportunity to fight. As soon as

Cresap's band received Connolly's letter they proceeded to declare

war in regular Indian style, calling a council, planting the war

post, etc. What is sometimes known as "Cresap's war" ensued.

Several Indians while descending the Ohio in their canoes were

killed by Cresap's company. Other Indians were shot within the

Ohio border by intruding and exasperated whites. Logan, chief

of the Mingos, established a camp near the mouth of Yellow

This individual (Captain Michael Cresap), owing to the beauty

and eloquence of the Logan speech, has acquired a reputation, certainly

not to be envied, and which we verily believe he does not merit. He

was an early martyr in the cause of his country, in the struggle for

independence, and we feel it to be a duty and a pleasure to do him

justice. That he killed some Indians in the spring of 1774, seems un-

deniable, but that he was clear of any connection with the Yellow Creek

outrage is equally certain.-Craig's Olden Time, Vol. II, p. 65.

6 Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, Vol. I, p. 370.

7Roosevelt, Winning of the West, Part I, p. 257.

The Dunmore War.                     173

creek, about forty miles above Wheeling. It was first thought

Logan's camp was a hostile demonstration, and the camp should

be attacked and destroyed. Cresap and his party proposed and

started to do this, but finally thought better and decided Logan's

intentions were peaceful, - for he had ever been the friend of the

whites, - and the intended attack was abandoned. But Logan's

people did not escape. Opposite the mouth of Yellow creek on

the Virginia side of the Ohio resided an unscrupulous scoundrel

and cut-throat, Daniel Greathouse, and fellow frontier thugs.

They kept a carousing resort, known as Baker's Bottom, where

the Indians were supplied with rum, at Baker's cabin. On the

last day of April, a party of Indians from Logan's camp, on the

invitation of Greathouse, visited Baker's place and while plied

with liquor were set upon and massacred. There were nine, in-

cluding a brother and a sister of Logan, the latter being the re-

puted squaw of John Gibson, who were thus foully murdered.

Other relatives of Logan had been previously killed. The Baker

massacre is one of the most awful blots upon the white man's

record. Michael Cresap was not present and had nothing

to do with the dastardly deed, and his innocence in the af-

fair is well established, though many authorities still couple

his name with the plot, if not the act itself. Logan be-

lieved Cresap to be the guilty party, as is evidenced by his using

Cresap's name in the famous speech⁸. There were many bloody

enactments. Vengeance and retalition were resorted to equally

by both sides. The malevolent murder of Bald Eagle, the Dela-

ware chief, of Silver Heels, the Shawanee chief, the malignant

massacre of the mother, brother, sister and daughter of the famous

Mingo chief Logan, were but incidents among many that aroused

8A vast deal of literature pro and con is extant concerning Cresap's

relation to the murder of Logan's family. This subject has been pretty

thoroughly worked over in Jacob's Life of Cresap; Brantz Mayer's Logan

and Cresap; Jefferson's Notes on Virginia; American Pioneers, Vol. I

(1842); The Olden Time, Vol. II (edited by Craig), and many other

publications. The best vindication of Cresap is the statement of George

Clark as printed in The Hesperian Vol. 2. 309, 1839. The evidence is

conclusively in favor of the innocence of Cresap in the Baker's Bottom

massacre. Cresap was made captain of a company in Dunmore's com-

mand.- E. O. R.

174      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

the hostility of the Indians to a furious pitch. They thirsted for

the warpath. The white borderers were no less anxious for the

encounter. Lord Dunmore did not wish to repress it. While the

solitude of the western forest was broken by the war whoop, and

the crack of the white man's deadly rifle, and the midnight sky

was lighted with the flaming cabin, and the burning ripened crops,

the citizens of the New England colonies were no less astir with

intense excitement. Freedom was beginning to breathe. Meet-

ings were being held to protest against royal tyranny, and com-

mittees of correspondence were sending forth their missives

laden with the ideas of independence. It was 1774. The Boston

Port Bill had been passed by parliament in March, and denounced

in the Boston public meeting in May. That same month the Vir-

ginia House of Burgesses, of which George Washington, Patrick

Henry and Thomas Jefferson were members, assembled at Wil-

liamsburg, the colony capital, and resolved "with a burst of in-

dignation," to set aside the first of June, when the Port Bill

should go into operation, "as a day of fasting and prayer to

implore the divine interposition for averting the heavy calamity

which threatens the civil rights of America." The right honor-

able, the Earl of Dunmore, governor of Virginia, at once dissolved

that highly impertinent king-insulting assembly. The Virginians

saw the clouds gathering in the east. But the storm in the west

was howling at their door. They were prepared to take up arms

for their political rights against the mother government, while

they hastily made ready to fight for their proprietary rights

against their hostile neighbors, the forest savages. The panic

among the inhabitants along the river banks, and for a distance

inland, had become terrible. The time to strike could not be de-

layed. Both red men and pale faces were spoiling for the fray.

When Dunmore learned of the failure of the surveying

expedition of Colonel Angus McDonald, he authorized that brave

soldier to raise a regiment and proceed into the country of the

enemy and punish them. McDonald easily collected some four

hundred militiamen, and crossing the mountains moved down the

Ohio to the site of Wheeling, where he built Fort Fincastle, after-

wards Fort Henry. In June he descended the Ohio to Captina

creek, the scene of one of the late massacres, and there the men

The Dunmore War.                      175

debarking from their boats and canoes, made a dashing raid upon

the Shawnee villages as far as Wappatomica, an Indian town on

the Muskingum, near the present city of Coshocton.

The little army suffered many hardships, and encountered

many perils. At times their only sustenance consisted of weeds

and one ear of corn a day. Many villages and fields of crops were

destroyed. The soldiers returned in a few weeks without serious

loss. This forceful invasion of the Indian country was sufficient

declaration of war, and produced a general combination of the

various Indian tribes northwest of the Ohio.

Meanwhile the Virginians were girding up their loins. Gov-

ernor Dunmore was awake to the situation. His actions have been

both attacked and applauded. He is credited with moving

promptly and zealously in defense of his colony, and in defiance

of the policy and public promulgation of the sovereign powers

concerning the inhabited Indian province. He is charged with

using this opportunity, in view of the coming colonial revolt, to

bring about a clash between the ferocious Indians and the strength

and flower of Virginian soldiery that the onslaught might divert

the attention of the colonists from the threatening rebellion

against the mother country, and through the inhuman methods of

the savage and the ensuing calamities and atrocities cause the

Americans to pause in, if not positively desist from, their further

procedure towards independence. The proof of his alleged

treachery is not conclusive. His movements in this war were at

times not above suspicion, and his subsequent proceedings were

such as to add grave conjectures concerning his integrity. But

Dunmore thus far seems entitled to the benefit of a doubt.

9Even Lord Dunmore, that bitter enemy of the colonies and stead-

fast upholder of the British cause, ignored the western policy of the home

government. His personal characteristics, love of money and of power,

contributed to this end. "His passion for land and fees," says Bancroft,

"outweighing the proclamation of the king and reiterated most positive

instructions from the Secretary of State, he supported the claims of

the colony to the West, and was a partner in two immense purchases

of land from the Indians in southern Illinois." - Hinsdale's Old North-

west, p. 144. When the Revolutionary War broke out the Earl not only

fought the revolted colonists with all legitimate weapons, but tried to in-

cite the blacks to servile insurrection, and sent agents to bring his old foes,

176        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

In August the governor began his preparations and the

plan for the campaign agreed upon. An army for offensive

operations was called for. Dunmore directed this army should

consist of volunteers and militiamen, chiefly from the countries

west of the Blue Ridge, and be organized into two divisions. The

northern division, comprehending the troops collected in Fred-

erick, Dunmore (now Shenandoah), and adjacent counties, was

to be commanded by Lord Dunmore in person; the southern di-

vision comprising the different companies raised in Botetourt,

Augusta and adjoining counties east of the Blue Ridge, was to be

led by General Andrew Lewis. The two armies were to number

about fifteen hundred each; were to proceed by different routes,

unite at the mouth of the Big Kanawha, and from thence cross

the Ohio and penetrate the northwest country, defeat the red

men and destroy all the Indian towns they could reach.

The volunteers who were to form the army of Lewis began to

gather at Camp Union, the Levels of Greenbrier (Lewisburg)

before the first of September. It was a motley gathering. They

were not the king's regulars, nor trained troops. They were not

knights in burnished steel on prancing steeds. They were not

cavaliers' sons from luxurious manors. They were not drilled

martinets.  They were, however, determined, dauntless men,

sturdy and weather-beaten as the mountain sides whence they

the redmen of the forest down on his old friends, the settlers. He

encouraged piratical and plundering raids, and on the other hand failed

to show the courage and daring that are sometimes partial offsets to

ferocity. But in this war, in 1774, he conducted himself with great

energy in making preparations, and showed considerable skill as a nego-

tiator in concluding the peace, and apparently went into the conflict with

hearty zest and good-will. He was evidently much influenced by Con-

nolly, a very weak adviser, however, and his whole course betrayed

much vacillation and no generalship.- Roosevelt's Winning of the West,

Part II; footnote under p. 14. These two objects (speaking of Dun-

more's ulterior designs) were first, setting the new settlers on the west

side of the Alleghany by the ears; and secondly, embroiling the western

people in a war with the Indians.--Jacob's account of Dunmore's War,

as quoted in Kercheval's Valley of Virginia, p. 160.

The above citations represent the opposite views taken of Dun-

more's purposes. The better belief now coincides with such opinions

as are expressed by Roosevelt and Hinsdale. - E. O. R.

The Dunmore War.                   177

came. They were undrilled in the arts of military movements, but

they were in physique and endurance and power nature's noble-

men, reared amid the open freedom and hardihood of rural life.

The army as finally made up consisted of four main commands,

a body of Augusta troops, under Colonel Charles Lewis, brother

of the General; a contingent of Botetourt troops, under Colonel

William Fleming; those commands numbered four hundred each;

a small independent company, under Colonel John Field, of Cul-

pepper; a company from Bedford, under Captain Thomas Buford,

and two from the Holstein settlement under Captains Evan Shelby

and Harbert. The three latter companies were part of the force

to be led by Colonel Christian, who was likewise to join the two

main divisions of the army at Point Pleasant as soon as the other

companies of his regiment could be assembled.

The army started on September 8th in three divisions, the

two under Colonel Charles Lewis and General Andrew Lewis,

respectively, followed by the rather irregular and independent

force under Colonel John Field. Colonel Christian's contingent

left later, and portions of them did not reach Point Pleasant in

time to engage in the battle, but Captains Shelby and Russell,

with parts of their companies, hastened ahead and did valiant

service in the engagement. It was a distance of one hundred and

sixty miles from Camp Union to their destination at the mouth

of the Kanawha. The regiments passed through a trackless forest

so rugged and mountainous as to render their progress extremely

tedious and laborious. They marched in long files through "the

deep and gloomy wood" with scouts or spies thrown out in front

and on the flanks, while axmen went in advance to clear a trail

over which they would drive the beef cattle, and the pack-horses,

laden with provisions, blankets and ammunition. They struck out

straight through the dense wilderness, making their road as they

went10. On September 21st they reached the Kanawha at the

mouth of Elk creek (present site of Charleston). Here they

halted and built dug-out canoes for baggage transportation upon

the river. A portion of the army proceeded down the Kanawha,

10 The country at this time, in its aspect, is one of the most romantic

and wild in the whole Union. Its natural features are majestic and

grand. Among the lofty summits and deep ravines, nature operates on

12 Vol. XI.

178        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

while the other section marched along the Indian trail, which

followed the base of the hills, instead of the river bank, as it was

thus easier to cross the heads of the creeks and ravines. Their

long and weary tramp was ended October 6th, when they camped

on Point Pleasant, the high triangular point of land jutting out on

the north side of the Kanawha where it empties into the Ohio11.

General Lewis was disappointed in not finding Governor Dun-

more at the appointed place of meeting. Dunmore was far away.

While the backwoods general was mustering his "unruly and tur-

bulent host of skilled riflemen" the Earl of Dunmore had led his

own levies¹², some fifteen hundred strong, through the mountains

at the Potomac Gap to Fort Pitt. Here he changed his plans and

decided not to attempt uniting with Lewis at Point Pleasant.

Taking as scouts George Rogers Clark, Michael Cresap, Simon

Kenton12a and Simon Girty, he descended the Ohio river with a

a scale of grandeur, simplicity and sublimity scarcely ever equaled in

any other region, and never surpassed in the world. At the time of this

expedition only one white man had ever passed along the dangerous

defiles of this route. That man was Captain Matthew Arbuckle, who was

their pilot on the painful and slow march. -Atwater's History of Ohio,

p. 112.

11 The site upon which the Virginia army encamped was one of

awe-inspiring grandeur. Here were seen hills, valleys, plains and prom-

ontories, all covered with gigantic forests, the growth of centuries, stand-

ing in their native majesty unsubdued by the hand of man, wearing the

livery of the season, and raising aloft in mid-air their venerable trunks

and branches, as if to defy the lightning of the sky and the fury of the

whirlwind. The broad reach of the Ohio closely resembled a lake with

the mouth of the Kanawha as an arm or estuary, and both were, at

that season of the year, so placid as scarcely to present motion to the

eye. Over all, nature reigned supreme. There were no marks of in-

dustry, nor of the exercise of those arts which minister to the comforts

and convenience of man. Here nature had for ages held undisputed

sway over an empire inhabited only by the enemies of civilization.-

Lewis's History of West Virginia, p. 121.

12 Dunmore himself raised about a thousand men among the old

Virginians east of the Blue Ridge for this expedition. With these men

he marched by the old route in which Washington and Braddock had

passed the Alleghenies. He marched up the Potomac to Cumberland,

thence across the remaining mountains to Fort Pitt. Here procuring

boats, he descended the Ohio river to Wheeling, where he rested several

days, and concluded to change his mind.-Atwater's History of Ohio,

p. 114.

¹²a Known at that time as Simon Butler.

The Dunmore War.                      179

flotilla of a hundred canoes, besides keel boats and pirogues, to the

mouth of the Hockhocking, where he built and garrisoned a small

stockade, naming it Fort Gower. Thence he proceeded up the

Hockhocking to the falls, moved overland to the Scioto, finally

halting on the north bank of the Sippo creek four miles from its

mouth at the Scioto, and about the same distance east of Old

Chillicothe, now Westfall, Pickaway county. He entrenched him-

self in a fortified camp, with breastworks of fallen trees, so con-

structed as to embrace about twelve acres of ground. In the center

of this he built a citadel of entrenchments, in which he and his

chief officers resided for special protection. This camp Dunmore

named Charlotte, according to most authorities, in honor of the

handsome queen of George III., but more likely the gallant gov-

ernor called the camp Charlotte after his accomplished wife Char-

lotte, who was the daughter of the Earl of Galloway. While

Governor Dunmore was thus engaged in the heart of the

Ohio country Lewis was destined to strike the decisive

blow  on the banks of the Kanawha.          On the ninth of

October Simon Girty and probably two other messengers13

arrived at Lewis's camp bringing the message from Lord

Dunmore which bade Lewis join his lordship at the Indian towns

on the Pickaway plains. General Lewis, deeply displeased at this

change in the campaign, arranged to break camp that he might

set out the next morning in accordance with his superior's orders.

He had with him about eleven hundred men. His plans were

destined to be rudely forestalled, for Cornstalk, coming rapidly

through the forest, had reached the Ohio. The very night that

Girty brought Lewis the message from Dunmore the Indian chief

ferried his men across the river on rafts, a few miles above the

13 Captain John Stuart says one of the governor's express messen-

gers to Lewis at Pt. Pleasant on the 9th was McCullough.

Dunmore and his weaker force, after throwing up a fortification

at the mouth of the Hockhocking, were permitted to march undisturbed

to Sippo Creek, a tributary of the Scioto (near the line between Ross

and Pickaway counties), and there, at his fortified camp (Charlotte),

had received the submission of the Shawnees. Their messengers, suing

for peace, had set out to meet him at the Hockhocking, whilst Cornstalk

was executing his quick flanking stroke at the other wing. In skill and

strategy, nothing superior to this had occurred in Indian warfare.

-King's Ohio, p. 110.

180       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

Kanawha, and by dawn was on the point of hurling his whole

force of savage braves on the camp of the slumbering Virginians.

The great Shawnee chief, Cornstalk, was as wary and able as he

was brave. He was chief of the Shawnees, and the head of the

Indian tribes of Ohio now united against the whites. The Shaw-

nees were a very extensive and warlike tribe. They were the

proudest and the richest of Indian nations. They were the most

populous of any of the tribes in Ohio, and they had, in the main,

ever been the fierce foe of the whites, first against the French, then

with the French against the British, and now goaded on by the

late depredations upon their land and homes, and the recent massa-

cre of members of their own and fellow tribes, they were aroused

to the greatest warlike ferocity14.  Cornstalk's army numbered

about eleven hundred, practically the same as that of Lewis, and

was composed of the flower of the Shawnee, Delaware, Mingo,

Wyandot and Cayuga and minor tribes. The great General Corn-

stalk, sachem of the Shawnee and king of the northern confed-

eracy, though in chief command, was aided by some of the most

famous and skilled warriors of his race. Logan15, Elenipsico, son

of Cornstalk; Red Hawk, the Delaware chief; Scrappathus, a

Mingo; Chiyawee, the Wyandot; Red Eagle, Blue Jacket, Pack-

ishenoah, the Shawnee chief and father of Tecumseh; his son

Cheesekau, elder brother of Tecumseh. In no battle were there

ever so many bold and distinguished braves. They were unaided

14 It was chiefly the Shawnees that cut off the British army under

General Braddock, in the year 1755, only nineteen years before our

battle (Pt. Pleasant), when the General himself, and Sir Peter Hackett,

second in command, were both slain and a mere remnant of the whole

army only escaped. It was they, too, who defeated Major Grant and

his Scotch Highlanders at Fort Pitt in 1758, where the whole of the

troops were killed and taken   prisoners.  After our battle they

defeated all the flower of the first bold and intrepid settlers of Ken-

tucky at the Blue Licks. There fell Colonel John Todd and Colonel Ste-

phen Trigg. "The whole of their men were almost cut to pieces. After-

wards they defeated the United States army over the Ohio commanded by

General Harmar. And lastly, they defeated General Arthur St. Clair's

great army with prodigious slaughter." - Narrative of Captain John Stuart

in the Virginia Historical Register, Vol. V, p. 187.

15 Brantz Mayer, Cresap and Logan, p. 120, says Logan was not in

the battle.

The Dunmore War.                   181

by French or English allies. Cornstalk had the craft of his race

and the tact of a Napoleon. He saw his enemy divided. Lewis

was at Kanawha; Dunmore on the Pickaway Plains. If Lewis's

army could be surprised and overwhelmed, the fate of Lord Dun-

more would be merely a question of days¹⁵. So Cornstalk, "mighty

in battle and swift to carry out what he had planned, led his long

file of warriors with noiseless speed, through leagues of trackless

woodland to the banks of the Ohio." Stealthily and unannounced

had Cornstalk arrived on the Virginia side of the Ohio banks

below  the mouth of Oldtown creek, which, parallel to the

Kanawha, pours into the Ohio some three miles above the Kan-

awha point. Early on the morning of the tenth, just as the sun

was peeping over the Virginia hills, two soldiers (Robertson and

Hickman) left the camp and proceeded up the Ohio river in quest

of game. When they had progressed about two miles they un-

expectedly came in sight of a large number of Indians, just rising

from their encampment, and who discovering the two hunters,

fired upon them and killed one (Hickman); the other escaped

unhurt and fled back to communicate the intelligence "that he had

seen a body of the enemy covering four acres of ground as closely

as they could stand by the side of each other."

General Andrew Lewis was a well seasoned soldier, alert and

self-possessed in every emergency and an Irishman, quick-witted

and full of fight. He had been schooled in Indian warfare for

twenty years. He was major of a Virginia regiment at Brad-

dock's defeat. He had served with Washington, who held him in

the highest esteem. General Lewis "lighting a pipe," it is re-

ported, coolly ordered the troops in battle array in the grey of

early dawn. Colonel Charles Lewis with several companies was

directed to move toward the right in the direction of Crooked

creek. Colonel Fleming, with other companies, was instructed to

proceed to the left up the Ohio. Lewis's force met the left of

Cornstalk's column about a half mile from the Virginians' camp.

15 But the earl was not quite so rapid in his movements, which

circumstance the eagle eye of old Cornstalk, the general of the Indian

army, saw, and was determined to avail himself of, foreseeing that it

would be much easier to destroy two separate columns of an invading

army before than after their junction and consolidation.--Kercheval,

p. 172.

The Dunmore War.                 183

General Lewis now began to fortify his position by felling

timber and forming a breastwork before his camp. The fight was

soon general, and extended the full front of the opposing armies.

What a strange and awful scene was presented, one of mingled

picturesque beauty and ghastly carnage on that October Monday

morning. A host of forest savages, "a thousand painted and

plumed warriors, the pick of the young men of the western tribes,

the most daring braves between the Ohio and the great lakes"

their brown athletic and agile bodies decked in the gay and rich

trappings of war; their raven black hair tossed like netted manes in

the fray as with glowering eyes and tense muscles they leaped

through the brush and stood face to face with the white foe, the

latter rigid with firm resolution and unwincing courage, fighters

typical of the frontier; a primitive army equal in numbers to their

assailants, heroes in homespun, and backwoodsmen in buckskin,

clothed in fringed leather hunting shirts and coarse woollen leg-

gings of every color; they wore skin and fur caps, and slung over

their shoulders were the straps of the shot-bag and the strings of

the powder-horn. Each, like his barbaric antagonist, carried his

flint-lock, his tomahawk and his gleaming scalp-knife. For that

tragic tableau, quaint and dramatic, nature never made a more

magnificent or peaceful setting. The two lines grappled in deadly

conflict on the peak of land elevated by precipitate banks high

above the Ohio, which swept by in majestic width, joined by the

Kanawha that noiselessly crept its way amid a forest and hill-

framed valley. The Ohio heights fretted the sky to the west, and

the Virginia mountains in the near eastern background were re-

splendent in the gorgeous drapery of early autumn. It was a

landscape upon which nature had lavished her most luxuriant

charms. It was a picture for the painter and the poet rather than

the cold chronicler of history. No event in American annals sur-

passes this in the mingling of natural beauty and human violence.

The brutal savage and the implacable Anglo-Saxon were to ex-

change lives by gory combat in the irrepressible conflict between

their races.

It was nearly noon and the action was "extremely hot," says

a participant. The Indians, who had pushed within the right line

of the Virginians, were gradually forced to give way; the dense

184       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

underwood, many steep banks and fallen timber favored their

gradual retreat. They were stubbornly but slowly yielding their

ground, concealing their losses as best they could by throwing

their dead in the Ohio, and carrying off their wounded. The in-

cessant rattle of the rifles; the shouts of the Virginians, and the

war whoops of the red men made the woods resound with the

"blast of war." The groans of the wounded and the moans of the

dying added sad cadence to the clash of arms. At intervals, amid

the din, Cornstalk's stentorian voice could be heard as in his native

tongue he shouted cheer and courage to his faltering men, and

bade them "be strong, be strong." But their desperate effort did

not avail, though exerted to the utmost16. No more bitter or

fierce contest in Indian warfare is recorded. The hostile lines

though a mile and a quarter in length were so close together, being

at no point more than twenty yards apart, that many of the com-

batants grappled in hand-to-hand fighting, and tomahawked or

stabbed each other to death. The battle was a succession of single

combats, each man sheltering himself behind a stump or rock, or

tree-trunk. The superiority of the backwoodsmen in the use of

rifles - they were dead shots, those Virginia mountaineers -

was offset by the agility of the Indians in the art of hiding and

dodging from harm. After noon the action in a small degree

abated. The slow retreat of the Indians gave them an advan-

tageous resting spot from whence it appeared difficult to dislodge

them. They sustained an "equal weight of action from wing to

wing." Seeing the unremitting obstinacy of the foe, and fearing

the final result if they were not beaten before night, General

Lewis, late in the afternoon, directed Captains Shelby, Mathews

and Stuart with their companies to steal their way under cover

of the thick and high growth of weeds and bushes up the bank

16 "I could hear him (Cornstalk) the whole day speaking very loud

to his men, and one of my company, who had been a prisoner, told

me what he was saying, encouraging the Indians, telling them to 'Be

strong, be strong.'"--Stuart's Narrative, p 187.

Cornstalk and Blue Jacket, the two Indian captains, it is said,

performed prodigies of valor; but finding at length all their efforts un-

availing, drew off their men in good order, and with the determination

to fight no more, if peace could be obtained upon reasonable terms.-

Kercheval, p. 172.

The Dunmore War.                       185

of the Kanawha and along the edge of Crooked creek until they

should get behind the flank of the enemy, when they were to

emerge from their covert, move downward towards the river

point, and attack the Indians in the rear. The strategic manoeuver

thus planned was promptly and adroitly executed and turned the

tide in favor of the colonial soldiers. The Indians finding them-

selves suddenly and unexpectedly encompassed between two

armies and believing that the force appearing in the rear was the

reinforcement from Colonel Christian's delayed troops, they were

discouraged and dismayed, and began to give way. The appear-

ance of troops in the rear of the Indians at once prevented the con-

tinuance of Cornstalk's scheme of fighting, namely, that of alter-

nately attacking and retreating, particularly with his center, thus

often exposing the advancing front of the Virginians to the mercy

of the Indian flanks¹⁷. The skirmishing continued during the

afternoon, the Indians though at bay making a show at bravado.

But their strength was spent, and at the close of the day under the

veil of darkness they noiselessly and precipitately retreated across

the Ohio and started for the Scioto towns¹⁸.

The battle of Point Pleasant was won. "Such a battle with

the Indians, it is imagined, was never heard of before," says the

writer of a letter printed in the government reports. But the day

17 Those acquainted with Indian tactics inform us that it is the

great point of his generalship to preserve his flanks and overreach those

of his enemy. They continued, therefore, contrary to their usual prac-

tice, to dispute the ground with the pertinacity of veterans along the

whole line, retreating slowly from tree to tree, till one o'clock p. m.,

when they reached a strong position. Here both parties rested, within

rifle range of each other, and continued a desultory fire along a front

of a mile and a quarter until after sunset. - Chas. Whittlesey's Address

on Dunmore War (1850).

18 In the battle of the great Kanawha the Indians, though hardly

defeated, were somewhat cowed by the prowess of the frontiersmen,

which was now shown for the first time on a considerable scale.-

Hosmer's Mississippi Valley, p. 71.

The Indians marched 80 miles through an untrodden wilderness,

and on October 24 encamped on the banks of the Congo (Pickaway

township, Pickaway county), near the chief Shawnee village of Old

Chillicothe-now  Westfall-on the Scioto, the headquarters of the

Confederate tribes.-Howe's Ohio, Vol. III, p. 64.

186    Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

was dearly bought. The Americans lost a fifth of their number,

some seventy-five being killed or fatally wounded, and one hun-

dred and forty-seven severely or slightly wounded. Among the

slain were some of the bravest Virginian officers, including Col-

onels Charles Lewis, Major John Field, Captains Thomas Buford,

John Murray, James Ward, Samuel Wilson, Robert McClanna-

han; and Lieutenants Allen, Goldsby and Dillon. The Indian loss

was never definitely known19. They cunningly carried off or con-

cealed most of their killed, and secretly cared for their wounded.

They lost probably only half as many as the whites. About forty

warriors were known to be killed outright, or to have died of their

wounds. Of the number of wounded no estimate could be made.

While the Virginians lost many officers, strangely enough among

the Indians no chief of importance was slain, except Packishenoah,

the Shawnee chief, and father of Tecumseh²⁰. No "official report"

of this battle was made, or if so, probably not preserved. The

battle of Point Pleasant was the most extensive, the most bitterly

contested, and fraught with the most significance of any Indian

battle in American history²¹. It was purely a frontier encounter.

The whites were colonial volunteers. The red men, the choice of

their tribes, led by their greatest warriors. The significance of

that battle was manyfold and far-reaching. It was the last battle

fought by the colonists while subjects to British rule. It was the

first battle of the Revolution. Whatever the exact understanding

may have been between Lord Dunmore and the royal authorities,

or between the Indians and the British powers, or whether there

was any explicit understanding at all, that battle represented the

19 "I believe it was never known that so many Indians were ever

killed in any engagement with the white people as fell by the army of

General Lewis at Point Pleasant." -Narrative of Captain John Stuart.

It is fair to assume that the loss of the Indians was not far short

of that sustained by the whites.--Drake's Tecumseh, p. 33.

20 Drake's Life of Tecumseh, p. 33.

21All circumstances considered, this battle may be ranked among

the most memorable and well-contested that has been fought on this

continent. The leaders on either side were experienced and able, the

soldiers skillful and brave. The victorious party, if either could be

so called, had as little to boast of as the vanquished. It was alike credit-

able to the Anglo-Saxon and to the aboriginal arms.- Drake's Tecumseh,

p. 33.

The Dunmore War.                     187

opening bloodshed between the allies of the British and the colon-

ial dependents. Had Cornstalk been the conqueror of that contest

the whole course of American events would doubtless have been

otherwise than history records. The colonists would have been

stunned to inaction by the blow of defeat, the fear of an extended

and horrible Indian warfare on their western borders would have

deterred them from entering upon a revolt against England's

power. At any rate the Ohio and Mississippi valleys would most

certainly have remained the great western province of the royal

power, and the United States be but a strip east of the Alleghenies.

The victory of General Lewis destroyed the danger in the west,

and gave nerve and courage to the Virginians, who were the

strength and sinew of the Revolutionary movement. England's

fate lay in the balance in the battle of Point Pleasant, though no

British soldier participated therein. America has no more historic

soil than the ground of the Kanawha and Ohio point - reddened

that October day by the blood of savage warriors and frontier

woodsmen22.

The Virginian victors buried their dead, and left the bodies

of the vanquished to the decay of uncovered graves. General

Lewis, leaving his sick and wounded in the camp at the Point,

protected by rude breastworks, and with an adequate guard,

crossed the Ohio (October 18) and began his march by way of the

Salt Licks and Jackson to join Dunmore on the Pickaway Plains.

When but a few miles from Dunmore's camp Lewis was met by a

messenger from the earl informing him that a treaty of peace was

22 Very many survivors of the battle of Point Pleasant became

famous soldiers in the American Revolution and distinguished civilians

in the United States Nation. We note a few by illustration: General

Isaac Shelby, Governor of Kentucky, aid to General Harrison in War of

1812; Colonel William Fleming, Acting Governor of Virginia; General

Andrew Moore, Senator from Virginia; Colonel John Steele, Com-

mander of Washington's lifeguard in 1780; General George Matthews,

Governor of Georgia and Senator from that state; and so through a long

list of distinguished officials and heroes who were either officers or pri-

vates in the battle of Point Pleasant. Hale, in his Trans-Alleghany Pio-

neers, devotes a chapter to this subject, entitled, "Point Pleasant (battle)

as a Developing Military High School." He gives a long list with brief

biographies of those who fought in that contest, and were subsequently

conspicuous for distinguished services to their country. - E. 0. R.

The Dunmore War.                        189

explained the situation to Lewis, complimented his generalship,

and the bravery of his men, stating there was no further need of

advancement by his (Lewis's) division of the army. General

Lewis, recrossing the Congo, encamped for the day, and then re-

luctantly commenced his return march to the Ohio, proceeding

posed peace to the Indians. Some of the chiefs with the Grenadier

Squaw (sister of Cornstalk) on the return of the Indians after their

defeat, had repaired to the Governor's army to solicit terms of peace

for the Indians, which I apprehend they had no doubt of obtaining. The

Governor promised them the war should be no further prosecuted, and

that he would stop the march of Lewis's army before any more hostili-

ties should be committed upon them. However, the Indians, finding we

were rapidly approaching, began to suspect that the Governor did not

possess the power of stopping us, whom they designated by the name

of the Big Knife men; the Governor, therefore, with White Fish (Capt.

Stuart must mean White Eyes-E. O. R.) warrior set off and met us

at Killicanic Creek and there General Lewis received his orders to return

with his army, as he (Dunmore) had proposed terms of peace with the

Indians, which he assured should be accomplished."-Narrative of Capt.

John Stuart, as printed in Virginia Historical Register, Vol. V, p. 189.

The two divisions were now within a few miles of each other; for

Lewis, disregarding the commands of his lordship, continued to advance

until the Indians, fearful of the destruction of their towns and crops

by the enraged men under his command, again applied to Dunmore,

who went in person to Lewis's command, and persuaded him to halt

his men and retire. To this, with great reluctance, he finally consented,

as it was an abandonment of the sole object of the campaign-the de-

struction of the crops and towns of the Indians.-Hildreth, Pioneer

History, p. 89.

The Ohio campaign of Dunmore brought upon him much angry

criticism. Many of the border men felt as did Lewis, who was for

carrying out the original revengeful program, regardless of Indian sur-

render or repentance. Dunmore's official conduct in connection with the

colonial revolt made it easy in the.earlier days to misconstrue his mo-

tives under circumstances calling for no such suspicion. That he had

no other than humane and honorable designs in accepting the Indians'

plea for peace, no longer appears probable.-Black's Story of Ohio,

footnote under p. 70.

Before Dunmore reached the vicinity of the Indian towns he was

met by a flag of truce and a deputy from the Indians, requesting for

the chiefs an interpreter with whom they could communicate. He moved

on to Camp Charlotte. Lewis marched on and encamped on the west

side of the Congo Creek, about a mile and a half below where it enters

into the Sippo. Dunmore, on the approach of Lewis and his army, sent

190        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

by the route he had come, to Point Pleasant. Meanwhile Corn-

stalk and his crestfallen warriors had reached the Pickaway

Plains. The spirit of the Indians had been broken by their defeat;

but the stern old chief, their commander, Cornstalk, remained

with unshaken heart. He was still prepared to fight to the bitter

word to him to return, as he would settle the result with the Indians.

Lewis refused to obey this order. Dunmore then went in person to

enforce his orders. It is said Dunmore drew his sword upon Colonel

Lewis. -Howe's Ohio Collections. This incident is another of the

alleged suspicious movements of Dunmore, it even being charged that

Dunmore wanted to keep the armies divided that they might fall a prey

to the Indian attacks if renewed. Again, that he did not wish to over-

awe the Indians by the presence of the united forces, as he wished to

conciliate the Indians and incur their favor with a view to their friend-

ship in the coming revolution.- E. O. R.

Lewis encamped that night on the west side of Congo Creek, two

miles above its mouth, and five and a quarter miles from old Chillicothe,

with the Indian town half way between. The Shawnees were now

greatly alarmed and angered, and Dunmore himself, accompanied by

the Delaware chief, White Eyes, a trader, John Gibson, and fifty vol-

unteers, rode over in hot haste that evening to stop Lewis and repri-

mand him. His lordship was mollified by Lewis's explanations, but

the latter's men, and indeed Dunmore's, were furious over being stopped

when within sight of their hated quarry; and tradition has it that it

was necessary to treble the guards during the night to prevent Dunmore

and White Eyes from being killed. The following morning (the 25th)

his lordship met and courteously thanked Lewis's men for their valiant

service; but said, that now the Shawnese had acceded to his wishes,

the further presence of the southern division might engender bad blood.

Thus dismissed, Lewis led his army back to Point Pleasant.-Thwaite's

Note in Border Warfare, pp. 176-8, quoted by Safford in Ohio Arch.

Hist. Pub., Vol. VII, p. 353.

That Earl Dunmore, the last royal Governor of Virginia, rendered

himself excessively unpopular by ordering Lewis back is certain, and

it hastened his final abandonment of the colony, when he fled to a

British fleet for protection from his not very loving people. Whether

his object, while at Camp Charlotte, was to make the Indians friendly

to the British crown, and unfriendly to the colonists, in case of war

between the two countries, which so soon followed this campaign, we

can never know with absolute certainty. We are well aware, though,

that General George Washington always did believe that Dunmore's

object was to engage the Indians to take up the tomahawk against the

colonists as soon as war existed between the colonies and England. So

believed Chief Justice Marshall, as we know from his own lips.-

Atwater's History of Ohio. p. 118.

The Dunmore War.                        191

end. He summoned a council over the situation, and in an elo-

quent address strove to goad on the braves to another campaign.

They listened in sullen silence. Finally, finding himself unable

to stir his braves to further battle, he struck his tomahawk into

the war post and peremptorily declared, "I will go and make

peace." He was as good as his word. With his retinue of fellow

chiefs, some eight in number, Cornstalk proceeded to Dunmore's

quarters within the entrenchments of Camp Charlotte. Here he

made a prolonged and passionate plea for his people, reciting the

wrongs inflicted by the whites, and the rights denied the red men²⁴.

Various parleyings ensued, the net conclusion of which was, the

Indians agreed to give up all white prisoners and stolen horses in

their possession, cease from further hostilities, and molestation

of travelers down the Ohio and "surrender all claim to the lands

south of the Ohio25."

24 The conference was commenced by Cornstalk in a long, bold,

and spirited speech, in which the whites were charged with being the

authors of the war by their aggressions on the Indians at Captina and

Yellow Creeks-Drake, Tecumseh, p. 35.

Cornstalk was a truly great man. Colonel Wilson, who was pres-

ent at the interview between the chief and Lord Dunmore, thus speaks

of the chieftain's bearing on the occasion: "When he arose he was

in nowise confused or daunted, but spoke in a distinct and audible

voice, without stammering or repetition, and with peculiar emphasis.

His looks while addressing Dunmore were truly grand and majestic, yet

graceful and attractive. I have heard the best orators in Virginia--

Patrick Henry and Richard Lee--but never have I heard one whose

powers of delivery surpassed those of Cornstalk." - Stone's Life of Joseph

Brant, Vol. I, p. 45.

25 What the exact terms of that treaty were is not now fully known.

No copy of the treaty can be found.-Drake's Tecumseh, p. 35. Both

Burk and Campbell, in their respective Histories of Virginia, say peace

was secured on condition that the lands "on this side of the Ohio"-

meaning the south side-"should be forever ceded to the whites," etc.

Butler (History of Kentucky), quoting the above terms, remarks (p. 10),

"Such a treaty appears at this day (1834) to be utterly beyond the ad-

vantages which could have been claimed from Dunmore's expedition."

Doddridge, in his notes, p. 237, says: "On our part we obtained at the

treaty a cessation of hostilities and a surrender of prisoners, and nothing

more." Whatever the terms of the treaty may have been, the results

of the Dunmore war were most important. "It kept the northwestern

tribes quiet for the first two years of the Revolutionary struggle; and

192       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

This agreement whatever its explicit text, was another step

in the westward progress of the white invader. Cornstalk haught-

ily and disdainfully acceded to the terms of the whites. But there

was one distinguished chief who was not at that council, and who

had refused to be present. It was Logan. He declared that he

was a "warrior, not a councillor, and he would not come." Logan

was a splendid specimen of his race. He was chief of the Mingo

tribe and his father, whom he succeeded, had been chief of the

Cayugas. Up to the time of the Dunmore war Logan had been

the friend of the white man. He took no part in the French and

Indian war, except that of peacemaker. But when in the border

troubles between the Indians and whites in the spring of 1774,

Logan's relatives were massacred at the Yellow creek, as he sup-

posed, by Cresap and party, Logan's rage became terrible. His

character changed into all the revengeful and distorted hate and

unrelenting ferocity of which the Indian nature is capable. From

that moment for the rest of his life he was the inveterate and

implacable foe of the white. He would not attend the peace coun-

cil with Cornstalk. His influence with the Indians made it impor-

tant that his concurrence be secured. Lord Dunmore, desiring

his presence, sent John Gibson, afterwards general, a frontier

veteran and one familiar with the Indian language, to urge the

attendance of Logan. Taking Gibson aside, under the shade of a

neighboring tree, Logan suddenly addressed him that famous

speech which immortalized the chief and furnished a model of

oratory for thousands of American school boys²⁶. The speech is

popularly supposed to have been delivered in Logan's native In-

above all, it rendered possible the settlement of Kentucky, and therefore

the winning of the West. Had it not been for Lord Dunmore's war

it is more than likely that when the colonies achieved their freedom they

would have found their western boundary fixed at the Allegheny Moun-

tains.-Roosevelt, Winning of the West, Part II, p. 33.

26 "Gibson found Logan some miles off at a hut with several Indians,

with whom he (Logan) talked and drank a while, and then touching

Gibson's coat, stealthily beckoned him out of the house, led him to a

solitary thicket, when, sitting on a log, he burst into tears and uttered

some sentences of impassioned eloquence, which Gibson immediately

committed to paper. As soon as the envoy (Gibson) had reduced the

message to writing, it was read aloud in the council and heard by the

soldiers."-Brantz Mayer's Cresap and Logan, p. 122.

The Dunmore War.                        193

dian tongue, and have been literally translated and written down

in English by John Gibson, and so delivered to Lord Dunmore,

who read it in open council to the Virginian army. However it

may have been that speech is one of the great Indian classics. It

has a wierd, pathetic strain, and is a poetic recital with a rhetorical

charm not unlike the Greek chorus.

"I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's

cabin hungry and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and

naked and he clothed him not? During the course of the last long

and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his camp, an advocate for

There is much dispute, of course, about the details of this historic

incident. Some authorities assert Logan spoke fluently in English, which

Gibson either wrote down on the spot or subsequently at Dunmore's camp.

Again, it is related Logan could not speak English and delivered his "say"

to Gibson in his native tongue, and that Gibson, who understood the

Indian language, either took it down in translation or put it into English

after returning to the camp of Dunmore. Jefferson's report of the speech

in his Virginia notes created considerable controversy and led to the

affidavit of John Gibson, which we give in the appendix. This affidavit

does not show what language Logan used. Even if he could speak

English, which is most probable, it is doubtful if he used such rhetoric

as the "report" gives him. The English phraseology of the speech as

read to Dunmore's army is most likely partially due to Gibson, the senti-

ment and thought without question are Logan's. - E. O. R. On this

question see American Pioneer for January, 1842, and Jefferson's Notes

on Virginia, Jefferson's Works, Vol. VIII, p. 309.

"While negotiations were going forward, the Mingo chief, Logan,

held himself aloof. 'Two or three days before the treaty,' says an

eye witness, 'when I was on the outguard, Simon Girty, who was

passing by, stopped with me and conversed. He said he was going after

Logan, but he did not like his business, for he was a surly fellow. He,

however, proceeded on, and I saw him return on the day of the treaty,

and Logan was not with him. At this time a circle was formed and

the treaty begun. I saw John Gibson, on Girty's arrival, get up and

go out of the circle and talk with Girty, after which he (Gibson) went

into a tent, and soon after returning into the circle, drew out of his

pocket a piece of clean, new paper, on which was written, in his own

handwriting, a speech for and in the name of Logan.' This was the

famous 'speech' about which there has been so much controversy. It

is now well established that the version as first printed was substantially

the word of Logan, but it is equally certain that he (Logan), in attrib-

uting the murder of his relatives to Colonel Cresap, was mistaken. Girty

from recollection, translated the 'speech' to Gibson, and the latter put

13-Vol. XI.

194        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen

pointed as I passed and said, 'Logan is the friend of the white

man.' I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the

injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold

blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not

even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of

my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me

for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully

glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of

peace; but don't harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear.

Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his

life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one."

This speech was a fitting epilogue to the close of the Dunmore

war. The campaign had ended.²⁷      The camp was struck and the

soldiers took up their march from the Pickaway Plains back to

it into excellent English, as he was abundantly capable of doing."-

Butterfield's History of the Girtys, p. 30.

That Logan delivered his speech in English, there is no reason to

doubt, and that Mr. Jefferson called it a translation by mistake, is by

no means strange. We will now adduce the affidavit of General Gibson

(See Appendix for this affidavit-E. O. R.), which relates to the gen-

uineness of the speech, in which he says that "Logan, after shedding

abundance of tears, delivered to him the speech, and that on his return

to camp he delivered it to Lord Dunmore" - not that he translated it for

Lord Dunmore. Logan delivered it to him, he delivered it at camp, and

no doubt both deliveries were in English.-American Pioneer (January,

1842), a monthly publication of the Logan Historical Society. The same

is also authority for the statement (p. 5): "In an assemblage of pioneers

and citizens from different parts of the Scioto Valley, at Westfall, in

Pickaway county, July 28, 1841, Judge Corwin, of Portsmouth, a

pioneer of the last century, in a short, impressive speech, stated, that

from the best information he possessed, we are on or very near the

spot where Logan, the Mingo chief, the Indian philanthropist and friend

of the white man, delivered his celebrated speech, sent to Lord Dunmore

creditable to mankind and honorable to him and his nation."

Popular tradition places the site of the delivery of Logan's speech

under the famous Logan's elm on the Boggs farm, banks of the Congo,

some three miles southeast of old Chillicothe, in which Logan's cabin

was located.-E. 0. R.

27 The Dunmore war, so far from being a mere episode of the border,

conquered the peace that opened Kentucky to settlement; and Kentucky

in its turn not only made an impassable frontier barrier to protect the

The Dunmore War.                      195

the Ohio. When Dunmore's army arrived at Fort Gower at the

mouth of the Hockhocking the soldiers learned for the first time

of the action taken by the first Continental Congress, which had

assembled at Philadelphia September 5, 1774. The officers of the

army thereupon held a meeting and passed resolutions²⁸ to the

effect, after complimenting the success of their general, that they

professed allegiance to the king and crown, but added that "their

devotion would only last while the king deigned to reign over a

free people, for their love of liberty for America outweighed all

other considerations, and they would exert every power for its

defense when called forth by the voice of their countrymen."

Strange scene, on the soil of Ohio, on the banks of the "beautiful

river," Virginia frontiersmen celebrate their triumph over the

western Indians by proclaiming their sympathy with colonial

independence. That was six months before the shot was fired

at Lexington that was "heard round the world."

rear of the colonies during the Revolution, but also furnished the men and

the leaders who subdued the savages of the Northwest, and finally broke

the power of the British at the battle of the Thames in the War of 1812.

-Moore's Northwest, etc., p. 194.

28 For the resolution in full see Appendix B. to this article.- E. O. R.

APPENDIX A. AFFIDAVIT OF GIBSON CONCERNING

LOGAN'S SPEECH.

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, SS.:

Before me, the subscriber, a Justice of the Peace in and for said

county, personally appeared John Gibson, Esq., an Associate Judge of

same county, who being sworn, deposeth and saith, that in the year

1774, he accompanied Lord Dunmore on the expedition against the

Shawnese and other Indians on the Sciota; that on their arrival within

fifteen miles of the towns, they were met by a flag, and a white man

of the name of Elliott, who informed Lord Dunmore that the chiefs

of the Shawnese had sent a request to his lordship to halt his army

and send in some person who understood their language; that this de-

ponent, at the request of Lord Dunmore and the whole of the officers

with him, went in; that on his arrival at the towns Logan, the Indian,

came to where this deponent was sitting with the Corn-Stalk, and the

other chiefs of the Shawnese, and asked him to walk out with him;

that they went into a copse of wood, where they sat down, when Logan,

196         Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

after shedding abundance of tears, delivered to him the speech, nearly

as related by Mr. Jefferson in his Notes on the State of Virginia; that

he, the deponent, told him then that it was not Colonel Cresap who

had murdered his relations, and that although his son, Captain Michael

Cresap, was with the party who killed a Shawnese chief and other

Indians, yet he was not present when his relations were killed at Baker's

near the mouth of Yellow Creek on the Ohio; that this deponent on

his return to camp delivered the speech to Lord Dunmore, and that

the murders perpetrated as above, were considered as ultimately the

cause of the war of 1774, commonly called Cresap's War.

JOHN GIBSON.

Sworn and subscribed the 4th April, 1800, at Pittsburgh, before me.

JER. BAKER.

APPENDIX B. RESOLUTIONS OF DUNMORE'S SOLDIERS AT

FORT GOWER.

[Taken from American Archives, 4th Series, Vol. I, p. 962.-E. 0. R.]

Meeting of Officers Under Earl of Dunmore. - At a meeting of the

officers under the command of his Excellency, the Right Honorable the

Earl of Dunmore, convened at Fort Gower, November 5, 1774, for

the purpose of considering the grievances of British America, an officer

present addressed the meeting in the following words:

"Gentlemen:-Having now concluded the campaign, by

the assistance of Providence, with honor and advantage to

the colony and ourselves, it only remains that we should give

our country the strongest assurance that we are ready, at all

times, to the utmost of our power, to maintain and defend

her just right and privileges. We have lived about three months

in the woods without any intelligence from Boston, or from

the delegates at Philadelphia. It is possible, from the ground-

less reports of designing men, that our countrymen may be

jealous of the use such a body would make of arms in their

hands at this critical juncture. That we are a respectable body

is certain, when it is considered that we can live weeks with-

out bread or salt; that we can sleep in the open air without

any covering but that of the canopy of Heaven; and that our

men can march and shoot with any in the known world. Blessed

with these talents, let us solemnly engage to one another, and

our country in particular, that we will use them to no purpose

but for the honor and advantage of America in general, and

of Virginia in particular. It behooves us, then, for the satis-

faction of our country, that we should give them our real

sentiments, by way of resolves, at this very alarming crisis."

The Dunmore War.                        197

Whereupon the meeting made choice of a committee to draw up

and prepare resolves for their consideration, who immediately with-

drew, and after some time spent therein, reported that they had agreed

to and prepared the following resolves, which were read, maturely con-

sidered, and agreed to, nemine contradicente, by the meeting, and or-

dered to be published in the Virginia Gazette:

Resolved, That we will bear the most faithful allegiance to His

Majesty, King George the Third, whilst His Majesty delights to reign

over a brave and free people; that we will, at the expense of life, and

everything dear and valuable, exert ourselves in support of his crown,

and the dignity of the British Empire. But as the love of liberty, and

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 defense of American liberty, and for the support of

her just rights and privileges; not in any precipitate, riotous or tumul-

tous manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice

of our countrymen.

Resolved That we entertain the greatest respect for His Excellency,

the Right Honorable Lord Dunmore, who commanded the expedition

against the Shawnese; and who, we are confident, underwent the great

fatigue of this singular campaign from no other motive than the true

interest of this country.

Signed by order and in behalf of the whole corps.

BENJAMIN ASHBY, Clerk.