History of West Virginia - The Rear Guard of the Revolution Lists of Early Forts ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** Submitted by Valerie Crook, , January 1999 The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume I, pgs. 81-83 CHAPTER VIII THE REAR GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION The history of western Virginia in the Revolution was largely a history of relations with the Indians upon the frontier. On the eve of the Revolution, in 1775, Lord Dunmore, among his last acts as governor of Virginia, ordered the abandonment of Fort Dunmore at the mouth of the Monongahela and Fort Blair at Point Pleasant--forts which he had established in 1774, partly to aid certain land transactions in the West and partly to impress the Indians with a sense of Virginia's power. The Virginian patriots promptly seized the fort at Pittsburgh following the news of Dunmore's order; but no patriot force was at hand to occupy Fort Blair after the commandant evacuated it and removed the cattle and stores across the mountains by way of the Big Sandy, and the fort was burned by the Indians. Fort Fincastle, which had been constructed at Wheeling in June, 1774, had no garrison. The frontiersmen of northwestern Virginia and western Pennsylvania took prompt measures to counteract British influence with the Indians. In May, 1775, they met at Pittsburgh in a convention which formed a committee of safety and sent a petition to the Continental Congress concerning the fear of an Indian attack. A conference with the Indians, previously called by Dunmore, was arranged for September of 1775 and delegates to attend were appointed by Virginia and Pennsylvania and by Congress. James Wood was sent by Virginia to confer with the Indians and to invite them to attend for the purpose of making a treaty. Representatives from the Ottawas (from near Detroit), Wyandots, Shawnees, Mingoes, Delawares and Senecas, appeared. Among them was Cornstalk who had led the Shawnees at Point Pleasant. The treaty of peace which was there concluded was regarded as especially important to western Virginia. Possibly it prevented a general Indian war on the frontier during the Revolution. At least it secured a pledge of neutrality which was kept for two years, thus permitting western Virginians to cross the mountains to join the Revolutionary forces in the East, and enabling the frontier to establish itself more firmly against later attacks which might otherwise have thrust it back again to the eastern base of the Alleghenies. Thus it helped to determine the boundaries of the treaty of 1783 and the destiny of the trans-alleghelly region. Forts and places of shelter were erected in many places as a precautionary measure against sudden attack. At the beginning of the Revolution, the following forts were already in use: Along the Ohio: Fort Wells, built in 1773 on the dividing ridge between the waters of Cross creek and Harmon's creek, in Cross creek district, Brooke county; Fort Henry, built in 1774 on what is now Market street, Wheeling; Fort Shepherd, built in 1775, at the forks of Wheeling creek in Triadel- phia district, Ohio county; Fort VanMeter, built in 1774 on the north side of Short creek, five miles from the Ohio river in the present nichland district, Ohio county; Fort Tomlinson, built in 1670 on the site of the present city of Mounds- ville; Fort Blair, built in 1774 on the site of the present city of Point Pleasant. Along the Monongahela: Fort Martin, built in 1773 on the. west side of the Monongahela river on Crooked run in Case district, Monongalia county; Fort Statler, built about 1770 on Dunkard creek in Clay district, Monon- galia county; Fort Pierpont, built in 1769 one mile from present village of Easton and four miles from present city of Morgantown, in Union district, Monon- galia county; Fort Morgan, built in 1772 on the site of the present city of Morgan- town; Fort Cobun, built in 1770 near Dorsey's Knob on Cobun creek in Morgan district, Monongalia cqunty; Fort Stewart, built in 1773 on Stewart's run, two miles from the present village of Georgetown in Grant district; Fort Prickett, built in 1774 at the mouth of Prickett's creek on the east side of the Monongahela river five miles below the present city of Fairmont; Fort Powers, built in 1771 on Simpson's creek in Simpson district, Har- rison county, on the present site of Bridgeport; Fort Jackson, built in 1774 on Ten Mile creek in Sardis district, Har- rison county. In the eastern valley of the Monongahela, the following forts were built along the Cheat: Fort Morris, built in 1774 on Bog run in Grant district, Preston county; Fort Butler, built in 1774 at the mouth of Roaring creek, on the east side of the Cheat in Portland district, Preston county; Fort Westfall, built in 1774 about one quarter of a mile south of the present town of Beverly, Randolph county; Fort Currence (also called Fort Cassino), built in 1774 half a mile east of the present site of the village of Crickard in Huttonsville district, Randolph county. Along the Greenbrier branch of the Kanawha-New Valley: Fort Donnally, built in 1771 near the present site of Frankfort, ten miles north of Lewisburg in Falling Spring district, Greenbrier county; Fort Keekley (also known as Fort Day and sometimes as Fort Price), built in 1772 on the Little Levels in Academy district, Pocahontas county. Along the Great Kanawha: Fort Woods, built in 1773 on Rich creek, four miles east of Peterstown in Red Sulphur Springs district, Monroe county; Fort Culbertson (sometimes called Fort Byrd, Fort Field or Culbertson's Bottom Fort), built in 1774 in Crump's Bottom on New River in Pipestem district, Summers county; Fort Morris, built in 1774 on the south bank of the Rana~iha, opposite the mouth of Campbell's creek, Loudon district, I(anawha county. The following additional forts were erected and in use during the period of the Revolution: Along the Ohio: Fort Chapman, built near the site of New Cumberland in Hancock county; Fort Rolliday, built in 1776 on the present site of Holliday's Cove, Butler district, Hancock county; Port Edgington built near the mouth of Rarmon's creek nearly oppo- site Steubenville, in Cross creek district, Brooke county; Fort Rice, built on Buffalo creek near the present site of Bethany college in Buffalo district, Brooke county; Fort Beech Bottom, built on the east bank of the Ohio, twelve miles above Wheeling, in Buffalo district, Brooke county; Fort Liberty, built on the site of the present town of West Liberty, Ohio county; Fort Bowling, built above Wheeling in the panhandle; Fort Link, built in 1780 in Middle Wheeling district, near the present town of Triadelphia, Ohio county; Fort Wetzel, built on Wheeling creek in Sandhill district, Marshall county; Fort Clark, built on Pleasant Hill in Union district, Marshall county; Fort Beeler, built in 1779 by Colonel Joseph Beeler on the site of the present town of Cameron; Fort Martin, built near the mouth of Fishing Creek in Franklin district, Marshall county; Fort Baker (known as Baker's Station or Fort Cresap), built in 1782 at the head of Cresap's Bottom in Meade district, Marshall county; Fort Randolph, built early in 1776 on the old site of Fort Blair which the Indians had burned after its abandonment by the British garrison. Along the Monongahela: Fort Baldwin (the most western fort of white men in the county), built on the site of Blacksville in Clay district, Monongalia county; Fort Dinwiddie (also called Rogers' Fort), built on the site of the present village of Stewartstown, Union district, Monongalia county; Fort Harrison, built on the west side of the Monongahela river at the source of Crooked run, Case district, Monongalia county; Fort Burris, built on the "Flatts" on the east side of the Mononga- hela river in Morgan district, Monongalia county; Fort Rerns, built on the west side of the Monongahela river opposite the mouth of Decker's creek in Morgan district; Fort Pawpaw, built in Pawpaw creek in Pawpaw district, Marion county; Fort Edwards, built five miles south of Boothsville in Booth creek district, Taylor county; Fort Harbert, built on Tenmile creek in Harrison county; Fort Goon, built on the West Fork river in Harrison county; Fort Richards, built on the west bank of the West Fork river in Union district, Harrison county; Fort Nutter, built on the east bank of Elk creek, on the present site of the city of Clarksburg; Fort West, built on Hacker's creek in Hacker's district, Lewis county (within the present corporate limits of Jane Lew); Fort Buckhannon, built near the present town of Buckhannon; Fort Bush, built a little above the mouth of Turkey run in Upshur county. Along the Cheat: Fort Minear, built in 1776 on the east side of Cheat on the site of the present town of St. George in Tucker county; Fort Wilson, built two miles south of Elkins on the east side of the Tygart's Valley river in Randolph county; Fort Friend, built at Maxwell's Ferry on Leading creek in Randolph county; Fort Radden, built at the mouth of Elkwater creek in Huttonsville district, Randolph county; Fort Warwick, built in Huttonsville district, Randolph county. Along the Greenbrier branch: Fort Arbuckle, built by Captain Mathew Arbuckle at the mouth of Mill creek, four miles from the mouth of Muddy creek in Blue Sulphur district, Greenbrier county; Fort Savannah, built on the Big Levels on the site of the present town of Lewisburg in Greenbrier county; Fort Stuart, built four miles southwest of Lewisburg, Greenbrier county. Along the Kanawha: Fort Cook, built about three miles from the mouth of Indian creek in Red Sulphur district, Monroe county; Fort Kelly (also known as Kelly's Station), built on the Kanawha, twenty miles above Charleston at the mouth of Kelly's Creek, in Cabin creek district, Kanawha county. In 1776 various preparations for defense were made by the assignment of militia. As early as May, 1776, a company of troops was sent from Pittsburgh to Point Pleasant to garrison Fort Randolph which had been built in place of the earlier Fort Blair. About the same time Captain John Lewis and Samuel Vance had their companies of Augusta militia in service at Fort Warwick. Sergeant Aaron Scaggs had command of some Montgomery county militia in service on Bluestone river, guarding Mare's and McGuire's stations. Captain John Henderson had a company of Botetourt volunteers guarding the frontiers. They began in May at Cook's Fort and ranged the country up New river through the present Virginia county of Giles. Companies were kept at this fort (which was located in Monroe county, at Indian creek, near Red Sulphur Springs) from 1776 to 1780. (In 1777 Captain Archibald Wood was in charge of these troops, and in the same year Captain Joseph Cloyd, of Montgomery, had troops in that section. In 1780 Captain Gray had command. Among the men engaged in this service were William Hutchinson, Phillip Cavender, Nicholas Wood, John Bradshaw, and Francis Charlton. Its spies were often at Fort Wood, on Rich creek, and patrolled the county for thirty miles or more, until they met the spies from Fort Burnsides. They went at times to the head of Bluestone river to guards the settlers there while gathering their crops.) Another precautionary measure of 1776 was the sending of Captain John McCoy's company to the West Fork of the Monongahela river. Men from this company were stationed at Fort "West, Lowther's Fort, and at Nutter's Fort. By the beginning of 1777, the signs of fresh trouble with the In- dians appeared in acts of hostility which became more frequent there- after. Along the exposed frontier from Kentucky to the head of the Ohio, the alarm soon became general. The venerable Cornstalk, find- ing that he could not much longer restrain the young warriors of the Shawnees from joining in the conflict, went to Fort Randolph at Point Pleasant to warn the garrison of the danger. When the commandant decided to retain him as a hostage to influence the peace of the Shawnee warriors, he was apparently content to remain at the fort with his sister and some other Indians. When the military expedition arrived in the fall from the Greenbrier and other eastern points with plans for an invasion of the Indian country, he willingly furnished information in regard to routes and rivers. Unfortunately following the action of lurking Indians in killing a soldier who had crossed the river to hunt, lie (and also his son) was murdered by enraged soldiers at the fort (who after the semblance of a trial were acquitted). The fierce Shaw- nees, no longer held in check by their former chief, and prompted to revenge his murder which had occurred while he was on a friendly mission, promptly joined in the war against the Americans. They became the foremost in raids, the most tireless in pursuit, and the least merciful in the treatment of unfortunate prisoners who fell into their hands. Among the new preparations for defense in western Virginia in 1777 was the despatch of a company from Rockingham county to Ty- gart's valley, the despatch of an additional force to Warwick's fort, the despatch of a force to garrison a fort on Hackett 's creek, the assign- ment of a Greenbrier company to Elk river, later transferred to Point Pleasant and the assignment of a Hampshire county company to Fort Pitt from whence it was sent by General Hand to the fort at Wheeling. The most important event of the year (1777) was the preparation for sending an army into the Indian country—especially against De- troit. Plans were made for the expedition to start from Point Pleasant, from Staunton and other points, especially from Augusta and Rock- bridge counties. Several companies of men were marched to Point Pleasant. To provide for the wants of the troops a lot of cattle were driven to the Point, a company from the fort meeting the cattle at the mouth of Elk river. There were about 700 of these volunteers. It waa while these volunteers were at the fort that Cornstalk, his son, Ellinipsco and two Indians called Red Hawk and Petalla were brutally murdered by these men. It was while at the Point that the news of Burgoyne's surrender was announced to the troops. General Hand was late in arriving, and decided to abandon the expedition. He had, before announcing that decision, irritated the men greatly by com- plaining that they were feasting too high, and by issuing orders to shorten the pay and cut down the daily allowance of food. When the attempt was made to put this order into effect, nearly every man in the fort shouldered his gun, put on his knapsack and started for home. Colonel McDowell persuaded General Hand to rescind the order, and the men returned. In western Virginia there was very little trouble from Tories. After the suppression of Dr. John Connolly'a plot of 1775, there were two cases of threatened or apprehended trouble from the Tories in western Virginia during the Revolution. One was in the Monongahela valley, where there was very little Tory sentiment. In August, 1777, Colonel Thomas Gaddis of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, revealed evi- dence of a conspiracy (perhaps largely rumor) connected with an ap- prehended attack upon Pittsburgh by a large expedition from Detroit. Gaddis at once warned Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Brown at Red- stone Old Fort on the Monongahela that the Tories had associated for the purpose of cutting off the inhabitants; that Brown must therefore keep a strong guard over his powder magazine, which supplied all the Virginia counties west of the mountains, and also warn the friends of the American cause to be "upon their watch." Colonel Brown acted with promptness posting a guard of fifteen men over the magazine, which Colonel Gaddis with about 100 men went in pursuit of the loyal- ists. But the officer who did most in uncovering and destroying this conspiracy was Colonel Zackwell Morgan of Monongalia county, Vir- ginia. With 500 men he hastened to "Miner's Fort" in his vicinity, whence he wrote (August 29) to Brigadier General Edward Hand at Pittsburgh that he had been forced to raise all the men possible, unen- listed as well as enlisted to put a stop to what he called "This unnat- ural unheard of frantic scene of mischief * * * in the very heart of our country." Morgan said that he had already taken numbers who confessed to having sworn allegiance to the King, with the understand- ing that some of the leading men at Fort Pitt were to be "their rulers and heads." He declared further that such of his prisoners as had made confession agreed that the English, French and Indians would descend on Pittsburgh in a few days, when the loyalists were to embody themselves and Fort Pitt was to be surrendered with but little opposi- tion. Morgan added that he had been astonished at some of the per- sons taken into custody, but that he was determined to purge the country before disbanding his troops. The conspiracy proved to be short lived under the prompt measures taken by Colonels Morgan and Gaddis, although some of its leaders remained at Pittsburg until the following spring. In the neighboring country it required only a skirmish to disperse the loyalists. The only life lost as the result of the conspiracy was that of a loyalist by the name of Higginson or Hickson. Toward the end of October, when Colonel Zackwell Morgan and four associates were returning across the Cheat river with this man as their prisoner, Hickson was drowned. Morgan was charged with having pushed him out of the boat in which the passage of the stream was made, and the coroner's inquest found an indictment of murder against the Colonel. In con- sequence the militia of Monongalia county was thrown into a state approaching mutiny, and most of the officers resigned. Fortunately, the trial, which was held at Williamsburg, resulted in Colonel Morgan's acquittal. The rumored expedition from Detroit proved to be only another Indian raid, which was directed not against Fort Pitt but against Fort Henry at Wheeling. The other plot or conspiracy for an uprising was east of the Alle- ghenies in the region now included in Hardy, Grant and Pendleton counties but part of which was then in Hampshire county. The center of the plot was near the site of Petersburg in Grant county. A number who were implicated in the conspiracy lived twenty miles above at Upper Tract and others on the Moorefield river near the base of the Shenandoah mountains. Their purpose was first shown by their refus- ing to pay their taxes or to contribute to Hampshire's quota of men for the army. When Colonel Van Meter was sent from Oldsfields with thirty militiamen to enforce the payment of taxes, fifty Tories armed themselves and assembling themselves at the house of a German, named John Brake, declared that they would resist the demands by force. Van Meter, finding that their strength was greater than he had an- ticipated, thought best not to attack at that time. After attempting to convince them by arguments that they were in the wrong, he returned to Romney, leaving them still in arms and defiant. The Tories, regard- ing themselves as victorious became more insolent. They organized a company, elected John Claypole as their captain and prepared to march away to join the British along the eastern coast as soon as the opportunity might present itself. Their self-confidence and defiance resulted in their ruin. General Daniel Morgan of the Continental army learned of their organization while he was in Frederick county, about sixty miles distant. Collecting 400 militia, he advanced against them and without attempting to open any parley or argument, as Van Meter had done, he pressed them closely and completely conquered them, shoot- ing several and accepting the surrender of Claypole and Brake. Many of those who had been so defiant made amends by joining the American army and by fighting until the end of the war. The period of military operations in western Virginia during the Revolution extended from September, 1777, to September, 1782. Dur- ing this period there were three main invasions by hostile forces of Indians commanded by white men, and other smaller invasions. The three main invasions were the attacks against Fort Henry at Wheeling in 1777, the attack against Fort Randolph and the extended invasion up the Kanawha to the Greenbrier in 1778 and another attack against Wheeling in 1782. The smaller invasions consisted of numerous trouble- some raids and pillaging expeditions of Indians against various points between the Greenbrier and the Pennsylvania line. In 1778 the region along the Monongahela was invaded three times. In 1779 it was in- vaded again. In 1780, Greenbrier was invaded and raids were also extended eastward to the region now included in Randolph county and to the Cheat river and the base of the Alleghenies within the present limits of Tucker county. A large step toward reducing the danger of these invasions was the Virginia expedition of General George Rogers Clarke in 1779 against the British post at Vincennes. The attack on Fort Henry (earlier known as Fort Fincastle) at Wheeling in September, 1777, was a determined one but fortunately was unsuccessful. The fort, although a strong one with high walls, had no cannon except a wooden dummy erected to scare the Indians who, however, were quick in discovering the sham. It was under the com- mand of Col. David Shepherd. The plan of defense was simply to pre- vent the enemy from breaking through the gate or from starting a fire. The attack by over 300 Indians led by a white man, Simon Girty, was begun by an ambuscade and a pretended retreat which enticed into a trap two squads of men—a pursuing force of fourteen men—leaving in the fort, besides women and children, only about a dozen men (not soldiers) to resist the attack. Following a demand for surrender and an attempt at argument which was cut short by a shot from the fort, the assault began with a series of determined but unsuccessful rushes against the gate and the stockade posts. After the failure of these rushes in which logs and stones were used as battering rams, attempts were made to fire the fort until the fire from the port-holes drove the enemy from the walls. The attack was then renewed at a safer dis- tance, by riflemen who wasted large quantities of powder in unsuccess- ful efforts to hit the defenders by shooting through the portholes. After two days the attacking force amused themselves by burning all the cabins and barns of the neighborhood and by a barbecue of the cattle of the neighborhood. While the enemy feasted, the fort was reinforced by the arrival of Colonel Andrew Swearingen with fourteen men; and soon thereafter it received an additional forty men, commanded by Major Samuel McCulloch, who following a sharp encounter with the Indians escaped capture by the famous leap on horseback down the precipitous bluff east of Wheeling. The Indians, discouraged by their failure * to capture the fort, and by their heavy losses, departed—prob- "ably with the determination to return later. * The success of the defense of the fort against the Indians was probably in part due to a supply of powder which had been obtained from New Orleans. In 1776 two men named Gibson and Linn descended the Ohio and Mississippi, from Pitts to New Orleans, and brought back a cargo of 135 kegs of gunpowder, pro- cured from the Spanish authorities and intended for the use of the Continental army. Altho they probably used canoes or bateaux instead of flat-boats, it is stated, that when they reached the falls of the Ohio, in the spring of 1777, they were obliged to unload their boats and carry their cargo around the falls. The success of their trip gave an impetus to the flat-boat trade, which rapidly increased in magnitude, and which, except during temporary suspension arising from Spanish hostility continued for many years. Following the attack upon Fort Henry the Indians laid an ambus- cade at Grave Creek Narrows, a short distance below Wheeling, and killed twenty men who had been sent under the leadership of Captain William Foreman, of Hampshire county, to assist in defending the settlements along the Ohio. In 1778 the Indians visited nearly all settlements west of the moun- tains, even making raids to the base of the Alleghenies. The most im- portant operation of the year was the Shawnee siege of Fort Randolph at Point Pleasant to avenge the death of Cornstalk, and the attack on Donnally's Fort in Greenbrier county. At Fort Randolph 200 Indians approached the place and set an ambuscade as they had done at Wheel- ing. When the soldiers at the fort, suspecting the trick, refrained from leaving the fort to fight, the savages threw off all disguises and openly came forward in battle line. After one week of unsuccessful attempt to carry the besieged fort by storm they abandoned the siege and moved up the Kanawha in the direction of Greenbrier with the expectation of finding a weaker fort. The Commandant at Fort Randolph apprehended the danger which threatened the Greenbrier country 160 miles distant, and called for volunteers to pass the Indian army in order to warn the settlers. Two soldiers volunteered to carry the news of danger. They were dressed like Indians and painted black by Cornstalk's sister who had continued to remain at the fort after the death of her brother. Succeeding in passing the Indians on Meadow River they gave the warning on Green- brier in time to enable the settlers to escape to places of safety. Twenty men with their families took shelter at Donnally's Fort near the site of Frankfort and about a hundred families retired to Lewisburg. At Donnally's Fort, which was the first one attacked, preparations were made for the expected siege. The Indians arrived at night but delayed the attack until morning. Failing in their rush upon the door they at- tempted to enter by raising the floor from beneath and by climbing the walls to the roof above. The men upstairs sprang from their beds and poured into the invaders such a severe fire that they beat a hasty re- treat, leaving seventeen dead in the yard and contenting themselves thereafter with firing at a safe distance. Meantime the settlers at the Lewisburg Fort learned from their scouts that the fight was in progress at Donnally's and quickly sent sixty-six men to the relief of the besieged fort. Upon the approach of this relief the Indians fled and never troubled Greenbrier again. Later in the war, in 1782, the Indians made one raid across the Alleghenies. Led by an Englishman named Timothy Dorman, they burned the fort on Buckhannon river, crossed into Randolph county and, proceeding over the Seneca trail, reached the head of Seneca creek in Pendleton county but were promptly driven westward by the settlers. A large factor in reducing the danger on the frontier was the ex- pedition of George Rogers Clarke, consisting largely of Virginians, which, in 1779, carried the war into the Indian country. This expedition, after penetrating as far as the Mississippi river in the Illinois country, marched eastward to Vincennes in the dead of winter, surprised and captured the place, liberated 100 white prisoners, seized valuable mili- tary stores and sent as a prisoner to Richmond the commander of the fort, Governor Hamilton, who had hoped to conquer western Virginia and to capture the key to the West at Pittsburgh. This victory, which gave the United States a basis for claiming the Mississippi as a west- ern boundary, dampened the ardor of the Indians and made war no longer an amusement for them.