History of West Virginia, Old and New - Chapter VIII THE REAR GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm Submitted by Valerie Crook, From The History of West Virginia, Old and New, by James Morton Callahan, 1923, Vol. I, pg. 81-93 [Transcriber's Note: Footnotes appear at the end of each page in the original book. All footnotes are located at the end of this work. vfc] 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. In 1781 another expedition was sent against the Indians. It was organized under the command of General Brodhead, consisting of about 300 men, crossed the Ohio at Wheeling, attacked the Delaware Indians in Ohio and destroyed several of their towns. In the latter part of the Revolution additional attacks were planned against Wheel- ing. An attack planned in 1781 was abandoned for some reason. A contemplated attack in the summer of 1782 was thwarted. About 300 Indians accompanied by Simon Girty and commanded by a British of- ficer named Caldwell moved toward Wheeling but suddenly dispersed to defend their homes, after hearing a false report that General Clarke was invading their country. The last siege of Fort Henry occurred in September, 1782, and has sometimes been regarded as the last battle of the Revolutionary. The attack was made by forty irregular British soldiers and 230 Indians under the command of Captain Bradt, who apparently did not regard the surrender of Cornwallis as the end of the war. The attack was so sudden that there was barely time for the people to repair to the fort after they had received warning from the commandant. The enemy began by the demand of an immediate surrender, which was refused. Having learned by experience that rushes against the stockade walls were not likely to be successful, the enemy remained beyond rifle range until dark. During this delay the garrison was fortunate in receiving small reinforcements from the captain and crew of a boat from Pitts- burgh which was loaded with cannon balls for the garrison at Lewis- ville. During the night the savages tried more than a score of times to set fire to the fort by firing hemp placed against the palisades, but fortunately the hemp was too damp to burn. They next tried to break in the gate by assaults with logs but were unsuccessful. They then decided to burn the cabin of Colonel Zane (located near the fort), from which they had been annoyed during the attack by shots fired by Colonel Zane and his family, but again their attempt failed. The story of Elizabeth Zane's bravery in this connection is well known. Ebenezer Zane's cabin stood very near to the fort. He con- sidered it near enough to be successfully defended and he was anxious to hold it, as it was believed that the enemy would burn all the houses in their power as they had done in 1777. Two white men and a negro remained in the cabin with Zane. While the attack was delayed, the discovery was made that a keg of powder which was needed in the fort had been left in Zane's cabin. To get it while scores of Indians were within shooting distance was extremely perilous, but several volunteers offered themselves for the service. Among them was Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Ebenezer Zane, and upon her insistence she was sent for the powder. As she ran from the fort across the open space to the cabin, the Indians saw her but refrained from firing, simply exclaiming con- temptuously, "A squaw." But when she emerged from the cabin door a few minutes later with the powder in a tablecloth that had been tied around her waist by her father, the purpose of her mission was suspected and bullets struck all about her as she ran, but she fortunately escaped harm and safely entered the fort. Finally the Indians jeered at what they supposed was a wooden cannon (but what was a real cannon) mounted on one of the bastions where they could easily see it. Doubting the genuineness of the cannon they challenged the garrison to fire it. Then, taking possession of an empty cabin near the fort, they proceeded to make night hideous with their leaps and yells. Suddenly in the midst of their howls their revelry was stopped by a cannon ball which broke a joist and precipitated the entire howling crowd to the floor below. Instigated by the repeated firing of the cannon thereafter they decided to make a cannon of their own for reply. Improvising a siege gun from a hollow log, wrapping it with chains from a neighboring blacksmith's shop, and loading it with cannon balls taken from the boat at the river's edge, they adroitly aimed it at the gate of the fort and applied fire to the powder. Dis- couraged by the result of the explosion which left some of them wounded by splinters and did no harm to the fort, they retired and unsuccess- fully turned their attention to Rice 's fort in the vicinity. The following traditional story of the end of the siege is interest- ing. "Girty, finding that all his efforts to reduce the works proved abortive, discontinued his fire, again summoned the commandant to surrender, promising him at the same time that if they complied with the conditions of the proclamation of the English governor, Hamilton, of Detroit, and laid down their arms, the lives of all should be spared. This offer the Virginians peremptorily rejected. While the negotiations between Zane and Girty were in progress, the restless warriors, some of whom had seen French artillery in Canada, found a hard, hollow maple log and resolved to convert it into a siege gun with which to batter down the gate of the fort. One end was tightly plugged, and then they went into the smithshop, which stood near the fort, and secured a number of log chains and traces which they wrapped around their cannon to add to its strength. Then a touch-hole was made and they dragged the gun to the high hill in the rear of the fort, where it was heavily charged with powder and loaded with stones and such pieces of iron as they had been able to find about the cabins outside of the fort. Then the great gun was trained upon the gate of the fort and a large body of the savages gathered around to witness the result of their first experiment in artillery tactics. The fire was applied-the cannon was shivered into a thousand fragments and about twenty of the anxious Indian warriors went suddenly to their long homes. The survivors made an instantaneous retreat which neither the threats nor entreaties of the disappointed Girty were able to arrest." At the close of the Revolution the negotiations for the extension of the American western boundaries to the Mississippi were greatly facilitated by the success of the operations in the West during the war. The Lord North proposition to hold the Ohio valley as a barrier by recognizing the independence of the Indians in that region had little chance of adoption. The Indian chiefs, when informed by the gov- ernor of Canada (in July, 1783) that the war was over, were reluctant to stop the fighting, and they remained sour and disappointed. It was evident that they would not immediately cease to give trouble to the advancing settlers in the new era of an awakening life in the West. During the Revolution, the older settlements grew and some new ones were made. Settlements and population continued to multiply west of Harper's Ferry along the Potomac and up the South Branch. Shepherdstown was a busy industrial town through which there was much travel and traffic and for many years thereafter it continued to maintain its position as a center of trade. During the war it had many industries, and few places rendered more useful and valuable service to the cause. "Clothing was made; shoes, hats, rifles, shotbags, and all other military accoutrements; wagons, saddles and many other things were manufactured for the use of the soldiers. The town was like a hive of industrious bees. The humming of looms; the whir of numerous spinning wheels; the marching of militia and state troops; the lumber- ing off of wagons loaded with provisions; the markets held in the vil- lage ; and the constant stream of pack horses, into and out of the town; with now and then the arrival of a half-spent express rider with news from the seat of war, must have made it a lively and noisy little center. Sometimes a long line of prisoners would pass through the place, strictly guarded by the Continental soldiers in blue and buff, or in one of the picturesque uniforms adopted by the state troops." The new county of Berkeley, including all the territory now em- braced in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan, was formed from Frederick county in 1772. The town of Bath (Berkeley Springs) was incorpo- rated in 1776 and laid off into lots a year later.(2) Martinsburg (named in honor of Colonel T. B. Martin) was established in October, 1778, by act of the Assembly (of 1777), which also named seven trustees in whom the titles to lots were vested. The first sheriff was Adam Stephen, who was constituted and appointed by a commission from the governor for Berkeley county on the 18th day of April, 1772. Tradition relates an animated contest that took place between Sheriff Adam Stephen and Jacob Hite, Esq., in relation to fixing the seat of justice for this county and by which the latter lost his life. Hite con- tended for the location thereof on his own land at what is now called Leetown, in the county of Jefferson. Stephen successfully advocated Martinsburg. Hite became so disgusted and dissatisfied that he sold out his fine estate and removed to the frontier of South Carolina. "His removal proved fatal; for he had not long settled in that state before the Indians murdered him and several of his family in the most shock- ing and barbarous manner." The first court was held in the dwelling house of Edward Beeson, situated on the land now owned by Mr. A. J. Thomas, at the north end of the city. The building was a rude log house and consisted of one story and a half. The first court house erected was built of stone, and located where the present fine structure now stands. In the Middle New river region settlement continued to expand. The first important settlement on the Bluestone tributary of the New river was made by Mitchell Clay in 1775 at Clover Bottom (five miles north of Princeton). A settlement on the site of Alderson was made in 1775-77 by Rev. John Alderson a Baptist minister from Rockingham county. Here he organized a Baptist church in 1781. In 1778 Thomas Ingles and family located in Wright's valley near the site of Bluefield; but finding himself too dangerously near the Indians' trail from the head of Tug of Sandy southward across East river mountain to Wolf's creek and Walker's creek settlements, he soon removed to Burke's Gar- den. In 1780 the Davidson and Bailey families located at Beaver Pond Spring, a branch of the Bluestone-where they built a fort, battled with the Indians and maintained their position on the border until the close of the Indian wars in 1795. In the same year John Toney settled at the mouth of East river at Montreal (now Glenlyn). John and Christian Peters settled on the site of Peterstown in 1783-a year later than the settlement of Capt. George Pearls at Pearisburg on land entered in 1780 by William Ingles. The influx of population was in- creased during the Revolution by the arrival of immigrant Tories from North Carolina (including David Hughes who settled on Sugar run in 1780) and at the close of the Revolution by American and Hessian soldiers seeking new homes. By the construction of Fort Randolph at Point Pleasant the New river and Greenbrier settlements were protected from larger bands of Ohio Indians although they still suffered from smaller bands who evaded the frontier defenses. The murder of Cornstalk at Point Pleasant in 1777 incited new Indian hostilities which lasted long after the Revolu- tion, bringing upon the pioneer settlers the horrors of savage vengeance and retarding the advance of the frontier lines of settlement. In 1778 Fort Randolph was attacked by a large force of Indians who being compelled to withdraw started toward the New river settlements which were saved only by timely warning. In 1783 Indians destroyed the settlement of Mitchell Clay, but they were pursued along the old trail from the Bluestone across Flat Top mountain and over the divide be- tween the Guyandotte and Coal river along the top of Cherry Pond mountain and were overtaken near the mouth of Pond fork (in Boone county). In the fight that followed many fell before the fire of the pursuers and their backs furnished strips of skin used as souvenir razor-straps for years later. The problems which tested the spirit and endurance of the frontiers- men of this period is illustrated by the story of Mrs. Margaret Hanley Paulee who starting with her husband and son and others, in Sep- tember, 1779, from Monroe county to go to Kentucky,(3) was captured by a party of Shawnee Indians about five miles from the mouth of East river and taken to their town at Chillicothe and finally, after her ransom in 1782, returned home through the wilderness via Pittsburgh with eight other ransomed captives. In Greenbrier county, which was created in 1777, new settlers ar- rived in 1778 and 1780 and continued to arrive thereafter. In October, 1776, from the District of West Augusta was formed the counties of Youghiogheny, Monongalia and Ohio. Monongalia included all the ter- ritory drained by the Monongahela in Virginia and considerable terri- tory in the southwest part of Pennsylvania. Its first county seat was on the plantation of Theophilus Phillips (two miles from the site of Geneva, Pennsylvania), which was located in the most thickly popu- lated part of the county. During the Revolution the settlers manned the feeble stockade forts against Indian attacks, at the same time their ranks furnished men to participate in the campaigns and battles of the East. At the close of the Revolution, the settlement of the boundary dis- pute with Pennsylvania reduced the bounds of Monongalia and neces- sitated the removal of the county seat. From 1774 to 1780 Virginia courts continued to sit on territory claimed by Virginia in western Pennsylvania. An agreement on the boundary was finally reached by negotiations of 1779 which were ratified by Virginia in June, 1780. The temporary survey of the Mason and Dixon line was completed in 1781, and the permanent survey in 1784 (soon followed by the comple- tion of the survey of the western boundary of Pennsylvania northward to Lake Erie in 1785-86). In April, 1782, before the Pennsylvania- Virginia boundary line was run through Monongalia, and therefore prior to the regular administration of civil government in the disputed territory, confusion was threatened; and between the Youghiogheny and the Monongahela, and in the larger part of Washington county, there was (among the settlers opposed to the transfer to Pennsylvania) a strong sentiment expressed in conventions favorable to a proposed new state including the territory west of the Alleghenies from the Kanawha to Lake Erie-a resurrection of the old Walpole grant of 1772 (the abor- tive Vandalia). It was counteracted by an act of Pennsylvania, passed December, 1782, but was revived in 1794 by some of the leaders of the Whiskey Insurrection. In 1782 the county seat of Monongalia was located at Morgantown by an act of the legislature which made Zackwell Morgan's the place of holding court and designated Morgan's and Bush's Fort (now Buck- hannon) as voting places. At Morgantown was built a frame court house which by 1802 was replaced by a brick structure. The region stretching along the head streams of Cheat and Tygart, forming the southwestern part of the Monongahela drainage system, received some of the earliest settlers who passed over the divide from the older-settled bordering region of Pocahontas. The scattered settle- ments along Tygard's valley, in which three new forts were built in 1777, were attacked by Indians late in 1777 and again in 1779, 1780, 1781 and 1782-after which this valley remained free from Indian invasions, with one exception, in May, 1791. The most disastrous in- vasion of 1781 began by an attack on a party of men who were return- ing from a visit to Clarksburg to obtain deeds from the land commis- sioners, and it closed by an attack which almost broke up the settlement on Leading creek. On upper Cheat a new settlement was begun on the site of St. George in 1776 by John Minear, who, after building a stockade, moved his family and led a colony of others from the South Branch. Here he promptly built a saw mill which was probably the first one west of the mountains. Soon thereafter small colonies were established at various points along Cheat. They usually led their cows and brought a few utensils and other "plunder" on packhorses. On the revival of the Indian war in 1777 the Parsons colony, which had been established above St. George in 1772-74, built a fort and soon thereafter a grist mill and a saw mill. During the first four years these settlements prospered and were considerably increased by the arrival of new immigrants who brought with them horses, cows and other domestic animals. Although some- what secluded and less exposed to Indian attacks than other parts of the frontier, they were not free from anxiety. Finally in March, 1780, while several St. George settlers had gone to take their produce to market at Winchester in order to obtain salt, iron, ammunition and tools, they were attacked by Indians who, after crossing the Ohio near Parkers- burg, had besieged the fort on Hacker's creek and disturbed the set- tlers of Buckhannon and Tygart's valley. In April, 1781, Minear and others went to Clarksburg to obtain their land patents from the commissioners of Monongalia and while returning, just before crossing the Valley river below Philippi, were attacked by Indians who murdered Minear and then turned south and murdered settlers on Leading creek. A year later one of three small forces of militia from Hampshire county sent by the governor of Vir- ginia to protect the border settlements was stationed on Cheat near St. George. After 1781 these settlements were free from Indian in- vasions. After the expedition of Lord Dunmora there was a revival of the movement of settlers westward from the Monongahela toward the upper Ohio-a movement which continued at intervals throughout the Revolu- tion. The chief outpost of defense was Fort Henry which was besieged by the Indians in 1777. In 1780, near the site of Triadelphia the set- tlers erected Fort Link which was attacked in 1781. Ohio county was formed in 1776. Its first courts were held at Black's cabin on Short creek near the site of West Liberty. To the settlements farther up the river came new homeseekers in 1774-76, largely from New England. Below Wheeling creek in the present limits of Marshall county, new settlements were made in 1777. ******************************************************************************* Chapter Footnotes: (2) The springs at old "Bath" are historic, their use as a health resort dating back to Washington's time. They were originally owned by Lord Fairfax, and in 1776 the tract of land including the spring was set apart by an act of the Vir- ginia legislature as a health resort under the control of 14 trustees. Washington, Lord Fairfax, and other noted men of their time had cottages there. The locality was then reached by the Bath or Warm Spring road, which after crossing the Shenandoah Valley from Washington enters the Hancock quadrangle at Hedges- ville and passes over the hilly country around the north end of Meadow Branch Mountains. (3) In September, 1779, John Pauley and family and others set out from the Greenbrier section to go to Kentucky via the hunters trail. They crossed New river at Horse Ford near the mouth of Rich creek, then down New and up East river which was the shortest route to Cumberland Gap (there were no settlements then on East river). This route was via Bluefield, Bluestone-Clinch divide to the Clinch and down Clinch and via Powell's river and was the route usually followed by Greenbrier-New section to Kentucky.