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Before resuming our record of events in the progress of the Virginia colony toward independence, let us take a brief survey of succeeding Indian hostilities on the Virginia frontier, until the close of the war. It is a wide and romantic field, but we must not be tempted into minute details. We will note the most prominent features of those events, and refer the reader to fuller details drawn by other pens. I briefly referred to the Indian war in this region on page 264, volume i., and promised a more extended notice. Here I will fulfill that promise.
For a while after the treaty on the Seiota, the western Indians made no concerted attacks upon the white settlements on the frontiers; but small parties continually harassed those civil heroes who went over the Alleghany ranges and explored the broad forests which stretched between the Cherokees, Creeks, and Catawbas of the south, and the Shawnees Delawares, and Wyandols, of the north, now the state of Kentucky. The first of these bold pioneers was Daniel Boone, * a hero in the truest sense of the term. He explored a portion of the wilderness west of the Blue Ridge as early as 1769, and for two years dwelt among the solitudes of the forests. Accustomed to the woods from earliest childhood, he found his highest' happiness in the excitements of forest life, and in 1773 his own and a few other families accompanied him to the paradise lying among the rich valleys south of the Ohio From that time, until the power of the western tribes was broken by the expedition under Major George Rogers Clark, Boone's life was an almost continual conflict with the Indians. Engaged in Dunmore's expedition in 1774, he was marked for vengeance by the savages; and when he built his little fort at Boonsborough,1775a few miles from Lexington, they viewed his labors with jealousy, and resolved to drive him from his foothold. Already the Indians had killed his eldest son, and now his wife
* Daniel Boone was born about the year 1730. His parents, who came from Bridgenorth, in England, went from Pennsylvania to the banks of the Yadkin River, in North Carolina, and his childhood was spent in the forest. In 1769, he was induced to accompany John Finley in the wilds west of the mountains, within the limits of the present state of Kentucky. From that period his own history is identified with that of the state. During his first visit there, he was captured by the Indians, but escaped within a week or ten days afterward. He look his family to Kentucky in 1775, and settled on the Clericle River. In 1774, at the request of Lord Dunmore, he accompanied a party of surveyors to the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville), and was active in expeditions against the Indians during that year. He removed to the locality of the present Boonsborough, and built a fort there in 1775. In the course of three or four years, many other settlers came to his vicinity. While at the Blue Lick, on the Licking River, making salt for his garrison, in February, 1778, he and his companions were captured by a party of Indians, and taken to Chillicothe. The Indians became much attached to him. A family adopted him as a son, according to the Indian custom, and an offer of §500 for his ransom, made by Governor Hamilton of Canada, was refused. Four months after his capture, he learned that five hundred warriors were preparing to march against Boonsborough. He effected his escape on the 16th of June, and arrived home on the 20th, having traveled one hundred and sixty miles, and eaten only one meal, during four days. He arrived in time to assist in preparing the fort for the expected attack mentioned in the text. Boone's wife, with his children, in the mean while, had returned to the house of her father, on the Yadkin, where Boone visited them in 1779. He remained there until the next year, when he returned to Kentucky. He subsequently accompanied George Rogers Clarke in his expeditions against the Indians on the Ohio, and was an active partisan until the close of the war. From that time, until 1798. he resided alternately in Kentucky and Virginia. In consequence of a defect, in his title to lands in Kentucky, he was dispossessed of what was an ample estate, and made poor. The region he had explored, and helped to defend, now contained a population of half a million. Indignant because of being dispossessed, he shouldered his rifle, left Kentucky forever, and, with some followers, plunged into the interminable forests of Missouri, west of the Mississippi.
"Of all men, saving Sylla, the man-slayer,Was happiest among mortals any where;Who passes for in life and death most lucky,For, killing nothing but a bear or buck, heOf the great names, which in our faces stare,Enjoyed the lonely, vigorous, harmless days,The General Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky,Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze.—Byron's Don Juan, VIII., lxi.
* They settled upon the Little Osage in 1799, and the following year explored the head waters of the Arkansas. At the age of eighty years, accompanied by only two men (one white and the other black), he made a hunting excursion to the great Osage, where they trapped many beavers and other game. At about that time (1812), Boone addressed a memorial to the Legislature of Kentucky, setting forth that he owned not an acre of ground on the face of the earth, and, at the age of fourscore, had nowhere to lay his bones. He asked for a confirmation of his title to land in Louisiana, given him by the Spanish government in 1794, before that territory was ceded to the United States. The Legislature instructed their delegates in Congress to solicit a confirmation of this grant, and two thousand acres were secured to him. He died on the twenty-sixth of September, 1820, at the age of almost ninety years. On that occasion, the Legislature of Missouri, then in session, agreed to wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days, as a token of respect. The grave of Boone is by the side of that of his wife, in the Cemetery at Frankfort, Kentucky, but no stone identifies it to the eye of a stranger.
Boone's Family on the Kain-tuck-ee. Boone's Fort assailed by Indians. Capture of Boone's Daughter and Companions.
and daughters, the first white women who ever stood upon the banks of the Kain-tuck-ee, were with him and engaged his solicitude. Kenton, Henderson, Logan, the M'Afees, Hardin, Harrod, Hart, Kay, the Irvines, Bryants, Rogers, and others, soon followed; and in the course of seven or eight years the "western precincts of Finley county," as Kentucky was called, contained scores of adventurers planting small settlements along the water-courses.
A record of the adventures of the settlers with the Indians would fill volumes. I have space to notice only a few of the prominent events of that period which have a direct relation with the history of our war for Independence. *
In the spring of 1775, Daniel Boone erected a fort on the western bank of the Kentucky River, the site of the present village of Boonsborough. It was the first fortification built in that region; and the British, who had forts of the Indians respecting it. In December of that year,Dec 23, 1775a party of Indians assailed it, but were repulsed; the little garrison lost but one man. On the seventh of July following, one of Boone's daughters, and two other girls who were amusing themselves near the fort, were caught and carried away by the Indians, but were speedily rescued. ***
In 1774, Harrodsburg, in Mercer county, Kentucky, was founded, and several log-cabins were
* The reader, desirous of possessing minute information respecting this exciting portion of our early history, will be amply rewarded by a perusal of "Kentucky, its History, Antiquities, and Biography,'" an excellent work of nearly six hundred large octavo pages, with forty engravings, by Lewis Collins of Louisville, Kentucky.
** This sketch is from a drawing by Colonel Henderson, and published in Collin's Historical Collections of Kentucky, page 417. It was composed of a number of log-houses disposed in the form of an oblong square. Those at each corner, intended particularly for block-houses, were larger and stronger than the others. The length of the fort was about two hundred and fifty feet, and the width about one hundred and fifty feet.
*** Betsey and Frances Calloway, the youngest about thirteen years of age, were the companions of Miss Boone on that occasion. Their screams alarmed the people in the fort. It was just at sunset when the Indians carried off their victims. Boone and seven others started in pursuit. The next day they came up with the savages, forty-five miles distant from Boonsborough, furiously attacked them, and rescued the girls, who had received no farther injury than that produced by the effect of excessive fright.
Construction of other Forts.—Indian Assaults.—Expedition against the Kentucky Settlements—George Rogers Clarke.
built. Early in 1776, Colonel Benjamin Logan, and a small party of settlers, encamped about a mile west of the present town of Stanford, in Lincoln county, and erected a log fortification, which they called Logan's Fort. These two settlements and Boone's Fort were simultaneously attacked by a large party of Indians on the fifteenth of April, 1777. The assailants, having neither artillery nor scaling-ladders, made but little impression upon Boonsborough. A few men of the garrison were killed, and a quantity of corn and cattle belonging to the settlers was destroyed. Many of the assailants were killed.
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On the fourth of July following, about two hundred warriors attacked Boonsborough with great vigor. The assailants were repulsed with the loss of seven of their number, while the garrison had but one man killed, and two wounded. The siege lasted two days and nights. On the ninth of September, 1778, a third attack was made upon Boonsborough. The Indians, five hundred in number, were led by Captain Duquesne, and other skillful Canadian officers. When the enemy appeared in front of the fort, the British flag was displayed, and a formal demand for the surrender of the fortress was made. Boone requested an allowance of two days for consideration. It was granted, and in the mean while the garrison, consisting of only fifty men, prepared for a vigorous defense. Boone assembled the defenders, and set before them the actual state of things. To surrender might insure them their lives, but they would lose all their property; to resist and be overcome, would result in the death of every man, woman, and child. Every one resolutely determined to defend the fort to the last, and this decision Boone communicated to Captain Duquesne. The Canadian was chagrined, and sought to obtain by stratagem what he feared he might not accomplish by force. * The siege was commenced, and lasted nine days, when the assailants, having lost many of their number, and unable to make any impression on the fort, retreated suddenly and in great confusion. This was the last, time that Boonsborough was assailed, for the garrisons of other forts between it and the Ohio were rapidly augmenting in numbers and strength, and made it dangerous for the enemy to penetrate far into Kentucky.
With the single exception of Dunmore's expedition in 1774, hostilities west of the
Alleghanies were nothing but a series of border conflicts, each little party acting upon its own responsibility, until 1778, when Major George Rogers Clarke led a regular expedition against the frontier posts of the enemy in the wilderness. Clarke first went to Kentucky in 1775, when he paddled down the Ohio with the Reverend David Jones,
* Duquesne, professing great humanity, proposed to Boone to send out nine of the principal men of his garrison to treat for an accommodation, the entire safety of the people within the fort being the basis. Unsuspicious of treachery, Boone and eight others went out to the camp of the enemy. While engaged in council, at a concerted signal, two strong warriors for each man attempted to seize and carry off the delegation. The whole nine succeeded in releasing themselves, and escaping to the fort amid a shower of bullets from the enemy. Only one man was wounded. The siege immediately commenced.
** George Rogers Clarke was born in Albermarle county, Virginia, on the nineteenth of November, 1752, little is known of his early youth, he was engaged in land surveying, and this led him to love a forest life. He commanded a company in Dunmore's army in 1774, and then first became acquainted with the country west of the Alleghanies. In 1775 he first went to Kentucky, and, while there, he was placed in temporary command of armed settlers. His subsequent military career, until the close of the Revolution, is given in the text. Three years after the conclusion of the war (1786), Clarke commanded an expedition of one thousand men against the Indians on the Wabash. It was disastrous. Several years afterward, Genet, the French minister, undertook to raise and organize a force in Kentucky, for a secret expedition against the Spaniards on the Mississippi, and General Clarke accepted a commission as major general in the armies of France, to conduct the enterprise. Before it could be matured, Genet was recalled, and Clarke's commission annulled. General Clarke never appeared in public life afterward. After suffering for many years from a rheumatic affection, he was prostrated by paralysis, and died near Louisville, in February, 1818, at the age of sixty-six.
Clarke's Explorations in the Wilderness.—Expeditions against British Forts.—Simon Kenton.
then on his way to preach the Gospel to the Western Indians. He was at once impressed with the importance of that fertile region, and the necessity of making it a secure place for settlements. His mind was clear and comprehensive; his personal courage of the truest stamp; his energies, physical and mental, always vigorous, and he soon became an oracle among the backwoodsmen. During the years 1775 and 1776, he traversed vast regions of the wilderness south of the Ohio, studied the character of the Indians chiefly from the observations of others, and sought to discover a plan by which a tide of emigration might flow unchecked and secure into that paradise of the continent.
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He soon became convinced that the British garrisons at Detroit, Kaskaskia, and Vincennes, were the nests of those vultures who preyed upon the feeble settlements of the west, and deluged the virgin soil with the blood of the pioneers. Virginia, to which province this rich wilderness belonged, was at that time bending all her energies in advancing the cause of independence within her borders east of the Alleghanies, and the settlers west of the mountains were left to their own defense. Major Clarke, convinced of the necessity of reducing the hostile forts in the Ohio country, submitted a plan for the purpose to the Virginia Legislature, in December, 1777.
His scheme was highly approved, and Governor Henry and his council were so warmly interested, that all the preliminary arrangements were soon made. Major Clarke received two sets of instructions, one public, ordering him to "proceed to the defense of Kentucky," the other private, directing an attack upon the British fort at Kaskaskia. Twelve hundred pounds were appropriated to defray the expenses of the expedition; and the commandant of Fort Pitt was ordered to furnish Clarke with ammunition, boats, and other necessary equipments. His force consisted of only four companies, but they were all prime men. Early in the spring1778they rendezvoused upon Corn Island, at the Falls of the Ohio, six hundred and seven miles by water, below Fort Pitt. Here Clarke was joined by Simon Kenton, one of the boldest pioneers of the west, then a young man of twenty-two years. He had been acting as a spy for two years previously; henceforth he was engaged in a more honorable, but not more useful service.
* Simon Kenton was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, May 15th, 1755. His father was a native of Ireland; his mother came from Scotland. He fled to the wilderness at the age of sixteen, on account of an affray with a young man who had married his affianced. Believing he had killed his rival in a fist fight, he went over the Alleghanies, and became a noble pioneer in the march of western civilization. At Fort Pitt he formed an intimacy with Simon Girty, the desperate renegade in after years, and his daily companions were trappers and hunters. He was an active spy for Governor Dunmore in 1774, and after that he had many encounters with the sons of the forest in their native wilds. He became a companion of Boone, and with him and his co-laborers arrested Kain-tuck-ee from the red men. He joined Major Clarke at the Falls of the Ohio in 1778, and after the surprise of Kaskaskia he returned to Boonsborough. Toward the close of that year he was captured by the Indians, and finally became a prison laborer in the hands of the British at Detroit. Aided by a trader's wife, he escaped in company with two fellow-prisoners, the renowned Captain Bullitt and Lieutenant Coffee, and arrived at the Falls in July, 1779. Kenton subsequently joined Clarke in his expeditions. It was in 1782 when he heard that he had not killed his rival in love, and that his old father still lived. He went to Virginia» and, after spending some time among the friends of his early youth, he returned to Kentucky, taking his father and family with him. On the way the old man died; the remainder of the family reached Kenton's settlement in safety. From that period, until Wayne's expedition in 1793, Kenton was much engaged in Indian warfare.
* Poor Simon Kenton experienced the bitter effects of wrong, ingratitude, and neglect. On account of some legal matters concerning his lands in Kentucky, he was imprisoned for twelve months upon the very spot where he built lis cabin in 177-3. In 1802, beggared by lawsuits and losses, he became landless. Yet he never murmured at the ingratitude which pressed him down, and in 1813 the veteran joined the Kentucky troops under Shelby, and was in the battle of the Thames. In 1824, then seventy years old, he journeyed to Frankfort, in tattered garments and upon a miserable horse, to ask the Legislature of Kentucky to release the claims of the state upon some of his mountain lands. He was stared at by the boys, and shunned by the citizens, for none knew him. At length General Thomas Fletcher recognized him, gave him a new suit of clothes, and entertained him kindly. When it was known that Simon Kenton was in town, scores flocked to see the old hero. He was taken to the Capitol and seated in the speaker's ehair. His lands were released, and afterward Congress gave him a pension of two hundred and forty dollars a year. He died, at the age of eighty-one years, in 1836, at his residence at the head of Mad River, Logan county, Ohio, in sight of the place where, fifty-eight years before, the Indians were about to put him to death.
Kenton's Life and Sufferings.—Surprise of Kaskaskia.—Capture of the Garrison.—Location of Kaskaskia.
From Corn Island they proceeded in boats to the mouth of the Tennessee River, and landed upon the site of Paducah. There they met a party of hunters from Kaskaskia and obtained valuable information. They reported that M. Rocheblave, commander of the garrison at Kaskaskia, was an exceedingly vigilant officer, and kept spies continually on the alert to discover the approach of Kentuckians. The hunters believed that a surprise might be effected, and they offered to accompany the expedition as guides. Their services were accepted, and the expedition having dropped down the Ohio to a proper point on the Illinois shore, and concealed their boats, commenced their march through the wilderness to Kaskaskia. ** They arrived in the vicinity of the town toward the evening of the fourth of July,1778where they remained until dark, unperceived by any of the people. Before midnight the town and garrison were in possession of the Kentuckians. Philip Rocheblave, the British commander, was surprised in bed, like Delaplace at Ticonderoga. His wife, whom the polite Kentuckians would not disturb, secured or destroyed most of his papers. The rest of his papers, which revealed the fact that the British were stimulating the Indians to hostilities, were sent, with the commandant himself, to Williamsburg, in Virginia. It was a bloodless conquest, and in the course of a few days the prudent policy of Clarke secured the respect of the French people, and they accepted the government of Virginia with satisfaction.
About sixty miles further up the Mississippi was Cahokia, a village coeval in settlement with Kaskaskia. It was a place of considerable trade, and a depository of British arms for distribution among the Indians. Clarke dispatched Captain Joseph Bowman with a little
* The city of Louisville is at the Falls or Rapids of the Ohio. The rapids, formed by a dike of limestone stretching across the river, extend about two miles. Captain Bullitt, of Virginia, a brave officer, who accompanied Washington in his expedition against Fort Duquesne, visited this spot in 1773. and, it is said, laid out the city there, on the south side of the river. But no settlement was made until 1778, when a small number of families accompanied Mr. Clarke down the Ohio, and were left by him upon Corn Island. In the autumn they moved to the main land, built a block-house of logs, and thus founded Louisville, now (1851) a city and port of entry, with a population of 50,000. In 1780, the Virginia Legislature passed an aet for establishing the town of Louisville, the name being given in honor of Louis XVI. of Franee, then lending his aid to the Americans. A stronger fort was built there in 1782, and was called Fort Nelson, in honor of Governor Thomas Nelson, of Virginia. For several years the settlement was harassed by the Indians, but it soon became too strong to fear them. The commerce of Louisville began in 1783, when Daniel Broadhead took goods from Philadelphia and exposed them for sale there.—Collins, page 360.
** Kaskaskia, the present capital of Randolph county, Illinois, is situated on the west side of Kaskaskia River, seven miles from its junction with the Mississippi. It was settled by some French Jesuits about 1683, and was one of the towns which went into the possession of the British by the treaty of 1763, at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War. It then contained about one hundred families, and that was about the amount of its population at the time of Clarke's expedition.
Surprise of Cahokia.—Capture of Vincennes.—Its Loss and Recapture.—Terrible March over the "Drowned Lands."
less than two companies,July 8to reduce that post, and also to capture two other small towns. Several inhabitants of Kaskaskia gladly accompanied them. The expedition was successful at the small towns, and reached Cahokia unobserved. The surprise was complete. The inhabitants were greatly alarmed; but when the Kaskaskia people explained the whole matter, the fears of the people were changed to emotions of joy, and the American flag was saluted with three hearty huzzas. They took the oath of allegiance, and the conquest was thorough. The region thus brought under the sway of Virginia was erected into a county, and named Illinois.
The stronger and more important post of Vincennes * was yet unsubdued, and Clarke felt that the object of his mission would be but half accomplished if he did not gain possession of that place. It was necessary to garrison Kaskaskia and Cahokia, in order to retain them, and to do this would so weaken his little army that he could scarcely hope for victory in an attack upon Vincennes, unless he should be as successful in effecting a surprise as he had in capturing the posts already in his possession. While thus perplexed, and doubting what course to pursue, he communicated his desires to Father Gibault, a French priest, who agreed to endeavor to bring those inhabitants of Vincennes, over whom he had pastoral charge, to the support of the American cause. The influence of the priest was successful; the inhabitants arose in the night and cast off' their allegiance to the British, expelled the garrison from the fort, and pulled down the English standard
The American flag floated in triumph over the ramparts in the morning.Aug. 1778Major Clarke, just promoted to colonel by the Virginia authorities, now applied himself to the pacification of the Indian tribes. His reputation as a warrior was great among them, and, as the qualities of a hero inspires the Indian with respect, his influence was also great. He was a successful negotiator, and the prejudices of many of the tribes against the provincials were subdued. While thus engaged, he received no news from Vincennes, and he began to have fears for its safety. On the twenty-ninth of January, 1779, he received intelligence that Governor Hamilton had marched an expedition against that place, from Detroit, nearly a month previously, and that the town was again in possession of the enemy. He was also informed that another and more formidable expedition was to be sent out in the spring to recapture Kaskaskia, and to assail the various posts on the Kentucky frontier. With his usual promptness and energy, Colonel Clarke prepared to anticipate the enemy, and strike the first blow. He planned an expedition against Vincennes, and on the seventh of February1779commenced his march through the wilderness, with one hundred and seventy-five men. He had previously dispatched Captain Rogers and forty men, two four-pounders, and a boat, with orders to force their way up the Wabash to a point near the mouth of White River, and there wait for further orders. For a whole week Colonel Clarke's party traversed the drowned lands of Illinois, suffering every privation from wet, cold, and hunger. When they arrived at the Little Wabash, at a point where the forks of the stream are three miles apart, they found the intervening space covered with water to the depth of three feet. The points of dry land were five miles apart, and all that distance those hardy soldiers waded the cold snow-flood, sometimes armpit deep!
On the evening of the eighteenth,Feb.17779they halted a little distance from the mouth of Embarrass Creek, and so near Vincennes that they could hear the booming of the evening gun. Here they encamped for the night, and the next morning at dawn, with their faces blackened with gunpowder to make themselves appear hideous, they crossed the river in a boat they had secured, and pushed on through the floods toward the town. Just as they reached dry land, in sight of Vincennes, they captured a resident, and sent him into the town with a letter demanding the immediate surrender of the place and fort. The people, taken by surprise, were greatly alarmed, and believed the expedition to be from Kentucky, composed of the fierce and strong of that advancing commonwealth. Had armed men dropped in their midst from the clouds, they could not have been more astonished, for it
* Vincennes is the capital of Knox county, Indiana. It is situated on the east bank of the Wabash River, one hundred miles above its entrance into the Ohio. A French trading post was established there in 1730.
Colonel Hamilton made Prisoner.—Detroit.—Tory Emissaries.—Dr. Connolly.—Official Tampering with the Indians.
seemed impossible for this little band to have traversed the deluged country. The people were disposed to comply with the demand, but Governor Hamilton, who commanded the garrison in person, would not allow it. A siege commenced, and for fourteen hours a furious conflict continued. The next day the town and fort were surrendered, and the garrison were made prisoners of war. * The stars and stripes took the place of the red cross of St. George; a round of thirteen guns proclaimed the victory, and that night the exhausted troops of Colonel Clarke reposed in comfort.
While Boone and his companions were beating back the Indians from the Kentucky frontier, and Colonel Clarke was prosecuting his conquests and establishing the American power over the more westerly posts, Detroit was a position toward which the Continental Congress, and the Assemblies of Pennsylvania and Virginia, looked with anxiety, for it was the focal point of British influence over the Western Indians, and the rendezvous for expeditions against the frontier settlements. Colonel Hamilton, the commandant at that post, was actively engaged, from the commencement of the war, in winning the Indians over to the British interest, and in organizing parties to go out upon the war-path for blood and spoil. Among his most active emissaries were three Tories—Girty, M'Kee, and Elliot, whom I have alluded to on page 264, of the first volume of this work. Governor Dunmore, too, was implicated, as early as the summer of 1775, in the nefarious business of exciting the Indian tribes to fall upon the white settlements on the frontiers of his province, hoping thereby to weaken the powers and resources of the people, then engaged in their struggle for independence. The capture of Connolly, his chief agent in the business, exposed the whole plot, and made the Continental Congress more vigilant, as well as more determined. ** General Gage also appears to have been concerned in the measure, and there can not be a doubt that the representatives of royalty in British America were secretly engaged, after the battle of Bunker Hill, in a grand scheme for uniting the various Indian tribes, and bringing them down upon the white people with the desolating fury of a tornado The fidelity of some of the Indian chiefs impeded the consummation of the plan until countervailing measures were taken by Congress, and the darling project of Dunmore and his associates was frustrated.
Simon Girty, who with Elliot and M'Kee had been confined by the patriots at Pittsburgh, burned with a spirit of revenge. He collected about four hundred Indian warriors at Sandusky, in the summer of 1777, and marched toward Limestone (now Maysville), on the Kentucky frontier. Fort Henry, *** a small establishment near the mouth of Wheeling Creek (now Wheeling), was garrisoned by about forty men, under the command of Colonel Sheppard. The movements of Girty were known at that post, and scouts were kept on the
* Governor Hamilton and several of his chief officers were sent to Williamsburg, in Virginia, where, on account of their having incited the Indians to their cruel deeds, they were confined in jail, and heavily ironed. Governor Jefferson used his influence in favor of relieving them of this rigorous treatment. He was successful, and Hamilton and his associates were allowed to go to New York on parole.
** John Connolly was a physician, and resided at Pittsburgh, where he and Washington became acquainted. At the commencement of the war he took sides with Dunmore, and doubtless suggested to the governor the plan of arousing and combining the Indian tribes against the colonists. He visited General Gage in the autumn of 1775, and ten days after his return to Williamsburg, in Virginia, he left Dunmore and departed for the Ohio country with two companions, Allen Cameron, and Dr. John Smythe. Near Hagerstown, in Maryland, they were stopped as suspicious characters, and taken back to Frederickton. Connolly's papers were concealed in the tree of his saddle. They revealed the whole nefarious plot. It appeared that Connolly had received from Dunmore the appointment of colonel, and was to raise a regiment in the western country and Canada. Detroit was to be his place of rendezvous, from whence, as soon as his forces could be collected, he was to enter Virginia, march to Alexandria in the spring, and there meet. Lord Dunmore with a naval armament and another body of troops. Connolly and his papers were sent to Philadelphia; the first was placed in the custody of the jailer, the latter in that of Congress. Connolly was afterward a prisoner in Baltimore, and he was left in durance until about the close of the war.
*** This fort was erected in 1774, during Dunmore's campaign, as a place of refuge. It was first, called Fort Fincastle; afterward its name was changed to Henry, in compliment to the great Virginia orator The fort stood on the south branch of the Ohio, about a quarter of a mile below the mouth of Wheeling Creek.
Girty before Fort Henry.—Massacre of a Reconnoitering Party.—Attack upon the Fort.—Elizabeth Zane and Mrs. Merrill.
alert. Girty's design seemed to be to cross the Ohio and attack the Kentucky frontier; but, with dextrous caution, he pushed up the river, and, undiscovered by Sheppard's scouts, he appeared before Fort Henry with his fierce followers, early on the morning of the twenty-sixth of September. Fortunately for the settlers of Wheeling, then a scattered village of about twenty-five log-huts, they had intimations of savages being near on the evening previous, and all had taken refuge in the fort.
The first attack was made upon a reconnoitering party under Captain Mason. The Indians were ambushed, and fell upon the little band without a moment's warning. More than one half of them perished. Captain Ogle, with twelve men, sallied out to the assistance of Mason, and only four of his company escaped. Bullet and tomahawk cut them down, and the garrison was thus reduced to only twelve men and youths, among whom Colonel Sheppard, and Ebenezer and Silas Zane, were the most prominent. * The women and children of the little settlement were within the pickets, overwhelmed with grief and fear, and all hope for the salvation of the fort and its inmates faded away. At that critical moment, Simon Girty appeared with a white flag, and demanded the unconditional surrender of the fort. Although the assailants outnumbered the garrison forty-fold, the beleaguered resolved to resist, and Colonel Sheppard promptly told the scoundrel that it should never be surrendered tohim, nor to any other man, while there was an American left to defend it. Girty was enraged, and immediately ordered a siege The Indians entered the log-houses near the fort for protection, and for six hours they kept up an ineffectual fire against the pickets (for they had no artillery), while the sharp-shooters within seldom sent a bullet upon a fruitless errand of death. At meridian the Indians fell back to the base of Wheeling Hill, and the firing ceased. This season of quiet was employed by the garrison in a bold attempt to bring some powder into the fort, for their ammunition was almost exhausted. This feat was accomplished by an intrepid young woman, a sister of the Zanes. **
* Ebenezer Zane became the founder of Zanesville, in Ohio, twenty years afterward.
** Elizabeth Zane was the sister of Ebenezer and Silas Zane. She had just returned from Philadelphia, where she had completed her education, and was but little accustomed to the horrors ot border warfare. With other females in the fort, she assisted in casting bullets, making cartridges, and loading rifles. When the powder in the fort, was exhausted, Ebenezer Zane remembered that there was a keg of the article in his house, sixty yards distant from the fort. The man who should attempt to go for it would be exposed to the close and numerous shots of the Indians. Only one man for the service could be spared from the fort. Colonel Sheppard was unwilling to order any one to the duty; he asked for a volunteer. Every man present eagerly offered to undertake the hazardous duty. They contended so long for the honor, that it was feared that the Indians would return to the siege before an attempt to get the powder should be made. At this moment Elizabeth Zane came forward and asked permission to go for the powder, giving as a reason that her life was of less value to the garrison than that of a man. At first she was peremptorily refused, but so earnest were her solicitations, that consent was reluctantly given. She went out the gate, and fearlessly passed the open space to her brother's house. The Indians saw her, and watched her movements. When she eame out of the house, and, with the keg of powder in her arms, sped with the fleetness of a fawn toward the fort, they sent a full volley of bullets after her, but not a hall touched her person. The shield of God's providence was about her, and the noble girl entered the fort in safety with her valuable prize. A loud shout welcomed her, and every man, inspired by her heroism, resolved to repulse the foe or die in the trench. Elizabeth Zane was twice married. The name of her first husband was M'Laughlin; of the second, Clarke. She resided on the Ohio side of the river, near Wheeling, until within the last ten years. The story of Elizabeth Zane ought to be perpetuated in marble, and preserved in the Valhalla of our Revolutionary heroes.
* The history of our Western States is full of the chronicles of heroic women, who boldly battled with the privations incident to new settlements, or engaged in actual conflicts with the Indian tribes upon lands which the white men wrongfully invaded. Elizabeth Zane was a type of the moral, and Mrs. Merrill of the physical heroines of that day. During the summer of 1787, the house of John Merrill, in Nelson county, Kentucky, was attacked by a party of Indians. It was midnight when the approach of the savages was announced by the barking of a dog. Mr. Merrill opened the door to ascertain the cause of the disturbance, when he received the fire of five or six rifles, and his thigh and arm were broken. He fell, and called to his wife to close the door. She was an Amazon in strength and courage, and seizing an ax for defense, closed the door just as several Indians approached with tomahawks. They soon made a breach and attempted to enter. Mrs. Merrill killed or badly wounded four of them with the ax, and maintained her post. The Indians ascended the roof, and essayed to enter the house by the broad chimney. Mrs. Merrill seized her only feather-bed, ripped it open, and east the contents upon the fire. The suffocating smoke brought two of the savages down almost insensible. These she dispatched with the ax. The only remaining savage now tried to force his way in through the door. Across his cheek Mrs. Merrill drew the keen blade of the ax. With a horrid yell, he fled to the woods, and, arriving at Chillicothe, gave a terrible account of the strength and fury of the "long knife squaw." I might fill pages with similar recitals. For such records, see M'Clung's Sketches of Western Adventure.
Effect of a Log Field piece.—Arrival of Succor.—Abandonment of the Siege.—Escape of M'Culloch
The assailants renewed the attack at half past two o'clock. Again they took possession of the cabins near the fort, and were thus covered from the fire of the Republicans. They also attempted to force the gate of the fort, but were obliged to abandon it after six of then-number were shot down. Still they eagerly sought to secure their prey within. Approaching darkness did not end the conflict. The Indians converted a hollow maple log into a field piece, and after dark conveyed it within sixty yards of the fort. It was bound with chains, filled to the muzzle with stones, pieces of iron, and other missiles, and discharged against the gates of the fort. The log burst into a thousand fragments, and its projectiles were scattered in all directions. Several Indians were killed, but not a picket of the fort was Injured. This failure of their artillery discouraged the assailants, and the conflict ceased for the night. At four o'clock in the morning,Sept. 28, 1777Colonel Swearingen and fourteen men arrived, and fought their way into the fort without losing a man; and at daybreak Major McCulloch arrived with forty mounted men. His followers entered the fort in safety, but he, being separated from his companions, was obliged to flee to the open country. He narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the Indians, who thirsted for his blood, for he was their most skillful enemy. They hated him intensely, and yearned to subject him to their keenest tortures. *
Girty and his fellow-savages abandoned all hope of capturing the fort, after this augmentation of the garrison, and, setting fire to the houses and fences outside of the palisades, and killing about three hundred head of cattle belonging to the settlers, they raised the siege and departed for the wilderness. ** Mot a man of the garrison was lost during the siege; twenty-three of the forty-two in the fort were slain at the first attack, before the siege commenced. The loss of the enemy was between sixty and one hundred. *** The defense of Fort Henry was one of the most remarkable for courage, on record, and deserves far more prominence in the catalogue of battles for independence than has generally been awarded to it by historians.
Early in 1778, Congress sent three commissioners to Pittsburgh to make observations, and determine the importance of Detroit as a place of rendezvous for the hostile tribes. They reported the activity of the commander, and his influence among the Indians, and represented the necessity of sending an expedition against that post immediately. Congress resolved to do so, but the financial embarrassments of the government, then fearfully increasing, rendered an expedition so expensive quite incompatible. The design was reluctantly abandoned, **** and in lieu thereof, General Lachlin M'Intosh, then commanding the western department, was ordered to march from Fort Pitt (his head-quarters), with a sufficient force, against the principal Indian towns in the Ohio country, and so to chastise them
* The Indians might have killed Major M'Culloch, but they determined to take him alive and torture him. His horse was fleet, but the savages managed io hem him in on three sides, while on the fourth was an almost perpendicular precipiee of one hundred and fifty feet descent, with Wheeling Creek at its base. He had the single alternative, surrender to the Indians, or leap the precipiee. His horse was a powerful animal. Gathering his reins tightly in his right hand, and grasping his rifle in his left, M'Culloch spurred his charger to the brow of the declivity and made the momentous leap. They reached the foot of the bluff in safety, and the noble animal dashed through the creek, and bore his rider far away from his pursuers.
** Simon Girty was the offspring of crime. His father, a native of Ireland, and settler in Pennsylvania, was a sot; his mother was a bawd. They had four sons; Simon was the seeond. With two brothers, he was made a prisoner by the Indians at Braddock's defeat. His brother James was adopted by the Delawares, and became the fiercest savage of the tribe: Simon was adopted by the Senecas, became a great hunter, and exercised his innate wickedness to its fullest extent. For twenty years the name of Simon Girty was a terror to the women and children of the Ohio country. He possessed the redeeming quality of honesty in all his transactions. It was his earnest wish that he might die in battle. That wish was gratified; he was killed at Proctor's defeat in the battle of the Thames, on the fifth of October, 1813.
*** American Pioneer.
**** See Journals of Congress, iv., 245 and 305.
Fort M'Intosh.—Expedition against Sandusky Towns.—Successful Expedition from Detroit against Kentucky Forts.
as to insure their future quiet. As soon as spring opened, M'Intosh descended the Ohio River about thirty miles, and erected a fort at Beavertown, at the mouth of Beaver Creek, to intercept the war parties on their marches toward the settlements, and to make effective demonstrations against the savages when opportunities should occur. * After considerable delay, he marched toward the Sandusky towns, on Sandusky Bay, with one thousand men. The season was so far advanced when they reached the Tuscarawas, that General M'Intosh thought it imprudent to advance farther. He built a fort about half a mile below the present village of Bolivia, and named it Fort Laurens, in honor of the then president of Congress
1778Leaving a garrison of one hundred and fifty men under the command of Colonel John Gibson (the embassador to poor Logan), he returned to Fort Pitt barren of the honors of an Indian fight.
On the first of June, 1780, an expedition was sent out from Detroit, composed of six hundred Canadians and Indians under Colonel Byrd. They took with them six pieces of artillery; their destination was some of the stations upon the Licking River, in Kentucky. Colonel Byrd went up the Licking as far as the forks, where he landed his artillery, and erected some huts upon the site of Falmouth. Gathering strength on his way, he marched from the forks, with nearly one thousand men and his artillery, for Ruddell's Station, on the south fork of the Licking, three miles below the junction of Hinkston and Stoner's branches of that stream. The Kentucky stockades, all wanting cannons, were quite powerless before the artillery of Colonel Byrd, and Captain Ruddell at once surrendered, after being assured that the people within should not be made the prisoners of the Indians. When the gates were opened, however, Byrd could not restrain his savage allies. They rushed in, and seizing men, women, and children promiscuously, claimed them as their own, and thus families were separated during a long captivity. All the property was destroyed or carried away, and the place was made a desolation. Elated with their success, the Indians proposed an attack upon Martin's, Bryant's, and Lexington Stations, all lying between the Licking and Kentucky Rivers. Colonel Byrd endeavored to dissuade them, for his humanity was shocked by the scenes at Ruddell's. The chiefs finally consented to allow all future prisoners to be under the control of their commander. The army then proceeded to Martin's Station, captured it without opposition, and, bearing away all the property found there, took up its line of march toward the fork of the Licking, leaving Bryant's and Lexington unmolested, except by marauding parties of Indians, who drove away many horses from each place. The whole expedition returned to Detroit by the way of the Great Miami, on the banks of which, at the point where they commenced their land journey toward Detroit, they concealed their artillery.
This incursion from Detroit aroused all the energies of Colonel Clarke. He visited Richmond in December,1780and urged the Provincial Assembly to furnish him with means to chastise the enemy for his insolence. While there, Arnold invaded the state by
* Fort M'Intosh (as the redoubt was called) was erected under the general superintendence of the Chevalier De Cambray, a French engineer, who commanded the artillery in the western department. It was built of strong stockades furnished with bastions, and mounted one six-pounder. Cambray's chief officer was Captain William Sommerville, conductor of the artillery, who, from letters front De Cambray to him (copies of which are before me), appears to have been an officer of mueh merit.* He was in the continental service four years and a half (more than two of which as conductor of artillery, with the rank of captain), when he resigned, and, at the close of the war, settled in the Valley of Virginia, in Berkeley county, where he died about 1825. Like many of the subordinate officers of merit connected with the artillery service of the Revolution, Captain Sommerville has not received the attention of the historian How many patriots of that struggle lie in forgotten graves!
* The following extract from a letter of instruction, sent by Colonel De Cambray to Captain Sommerville, and dated "Fort Pitt, 6th January, 1779," is a fair specimen of that officer's diction in English: "For the supplies necessary to your department, you are to apply to the quarter-master (Colonel Archibald Steele), and, in case of refusal, to form your complaint against them. You must insist repeatedly for your store-house to be put in order, to secure the military stores, who, if continue to be neglected in three months more ought to be unfit for service, if you insist, you shall not be accountable of it, but the commanding officer. If I did omit something, I leave to your discretion to supply it. I recommend to you once more the greatest care, and to be very scrupulous on the orders of issuing, for to avoid, if possible, the bad effects of the wasting genius who reign all over this department."
Colonel Clarke in Virginia.—Made a Brigadier.—Battle at the Blue Licks. The Indians subdued.
way of the James River, and Clarke took a temporary command under Baron Steuben. He afterward succeeded in raising a considerable foree for an expedition against Detroit, and the corps destined for the service was ordered to rendezvous at the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville), on the fifteenth of March.1781Clarke was promoted to the rank of a brigadier, and joined his troops at the appointed, time. Unexpected difficulties arose.
Cornwallis was menacing all Virginia with desolation; the financial resources of Congress were at their lowest point, and operations on the western frontier were confined to defensive acts. Like a lion chained, Clarke beheld the British and their forest allies lording it over the chosen country of the pioneers, who were without strength sufficient to drive them away, or hardly able to beat them back when they came as assailants. Finally, the disastrous battle at the Blue Licks, which spread a pall of gloom over Kentucky, aroused his desponding spirit, and he raised a war-cry which awoke responsive echoes every where in that deep forest land. * That battle was fought in August,Aug. 19, 1872and in September, General Clarke, at the head of more than one thousand mounted riflemen, assembled at the mouth of the Licking (opposite the present city of Cincinnati), crossed the Ohio, and pressed forward to the Indian towns on the Sciota. He was accompanied by Simon Kenton as pilot, and who had command of a company on that occasion. The natives fled before the invaders and eseaped; but five of their villages, and numerous corn-fields and orchards, were laid waste. The Kentuckians returned to the mouth of the Licking on the fourth of November.2 This expedition had a salutary effect; it awed the savages, and no formidable Indian war party ever afterward invaded Kentucky. For more than ten years subsequently, the Indians on our northwestern frontier were troublesome, and it was not until Wayne and a powerful force desolated their country,1794and wrung from them a general treaty of peace,1795that they ceased their depredations.
Let us return from the "dark and bloody ground" west of the Alleghanies, and view the progress of events at Williamsburg and vicinity.
* The battle at the Blue Licks! in Nicholas county, Kentucky, occurred on the nineteenth of August, 1782. For some time a strong body of Indians, partially under the control of Simon Girty, had committed depredations in the neighborhood, and it was finally resolved to pursue and chastise them. Daniel Boone with a party from Boonsborough, Trigg from Harrodsburgh, and Todd from Lexington, joined their forces at Bryant's Station, about five miles northeast of Lexington. The little army consisted of one hundred and eighty-two men. They marched on the eighteenth, notwithstanding the number of the enemy was nearly twice their own, but expecting to be joined by General Logan, then at Lincoln, within twenty-four hours. Early on the following morning they came within sight of the enemy at the lower Blue Licks, who were ascending the opposite bank of the stream. The Kentuckians held a council of war, and Boone proposed waiting for the arrival of Logan. They were generally inclined to adopt the prudent council of the veteran, when Major M'Gary, impetuous and imprudent like Meeker before the fatal battle of Minisink, raised a war-whoop, dashed with his horse into the stream, and, waving his hat, shouted, "Let all who are not cowards follow me!" Instantly the mounted men and footmen were dashing through the strong current of a deep ford in wild confusion. They ascended the bank and rushed forward in pursuit of the enemy, and, as Boone had suggested, fell into an ambuscade. The Indians, concealed in bushy ravines, almost surrounded the Kentuckians, who stood upon a bald elevation between. The Kentucky sharp-shooters fought like tigers, but the Indians, greatly superior in numbers, came up from the ravines, closed in upon their victims, and produced terrible slaughter. Most of the Kentucky leaders, including a son of Daniel Boone, were killed, and utter destruction seemed to await the pioneers. It was soon perceived that the Indians were extending their line to cut off the retreat of the Kentuckians. A retrograde movement was immediately ordered. A tumultuous retreat ensued, and great was the slaughter by the pursuing Indians. The mounted men eseaped, but nearly every man on foot was slain. A large number were killed at the ford, and the waters of the river were reddened with the blood of the victims. Those who succeeded in crossing the river plunged into the buffalo thickets, and by various routes escaped to Bryant's Station.—See M'Citing's Sketches of Western Adventure.
** It was while the expedition was slowly winding its way down this hill above Cincinnati (then an unknown name, now a city with almost 120,000 inhabitants), that Captain M'Cracken, then dying from the effects of a wound in his arm, proposed that they should all enter into an agreement that, fifty years thereafter, the survivors should "meet there and talk over the affairs of the campaign." On the fourth of November, 1832, many of those veterans met in Cincinnati, and more would doubtless have been there, had not the ravages of the cholera prevented. Kenton was still living, but debility prevented his joining his old companions in arms.—See Collins's Kentucky.
Affairs at Williamsburg.—Patrick Henry's bold Resolutions in favor of Military Preparations.—His eloquent Defense of them.
We left Governor Dunmore and the Virginia House of Burgesses in open rupture. The governor had dissolved them, and they had assembled at the Raleigh tavern in convention, and appointed delegates to represent Virginia in the approaching General Congress. That Congress met; its acts have elsewhere been noticed in detail. * The breach between the governor and the people continued to widen; the affairs of Great Britain and her American colonies rapidly approached a crisis. Every day the power of royal governors became weaker; every day the representatives of the people became bolder. To sagacious minds war appeared inevitable, and preparations for it were regarded as acts of common prudence.
In the Virginia Legislature, convened at Richmond in March, 1775, Patrick Henry, in a series of resolutions, recommended a levy of volunteer troops in each county, for the better defense of the country; in other words, a standing army of minute-men, pledged to the republican cause. He had seen with impatience the temporizing spirit of his colleagues, and he determined to test their courage and patriotism by a bold proposition in' the form of resolutions. Like his famous Stamp Act resolutions ten years before, these filled the House with consternation. His proposition was considered as premeditated rebellion, and it was opposed as rash and premature by several who afterward became his most zealous co-workers. Opposition aroused all the fire of Henry's genius, and he poured forth a flood of brilliant eloquence such as the Virginia Assembly had never heard.March 23, 1775He closed his speech with a loud cry of "Give me Liberty or give me Death!" and when he sat down, not a murmur of applause or of disapprobation was heard. ** "After the trance
* See pages 265-270 inclusive.
** Mr. Wirt, in his life of Patrick Henry, gives the following report of his speech on that occasion. Referring to the apparently gracious manner in which the king had received their petitions, he exclaimed: "Sutler not yourselves to be betrayed by a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win us back to our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir! These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of armies and navies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying argument for the last ten years.... We have petitioned; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted: our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free; if we wish to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending: if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us. "They tell us, sir, that we are weak—unable to cope with so formidable an enemy. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be next week, or next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. And again, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. * There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable! and let it come!! I repeat it, sir, let it come!!! It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace; but there is no peaee! The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!* Our brethren are already in the field! What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me," he cried, with both arms extended aloft, his brow knit, every feature marked with the resolute purpose of his soul, and with his voice swelled to its loudest note, 'Give me Liberty or give me Death!!!'"
* This prediction was speedily fulfilled; for almost "the next gale from the north" conveyed the boom of the signal-gun of freedom at Lexington.
* The boldness of Mr. Henry, and the great influence whieh he exerted, caused him to be presented to the British government in a bill of attainder. His name, with that of Thomas Jefferson, Peyton Randolph, John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and several others, were on that black list.
Effect of Henry's Speech.—Seizure of Powder by Dunmore.—Patrick Henry with a Military Force.—A Compromise.
of a moment," says Wirt, "several members started from their seats. The cryto arms!seemed to quiver on every lip, and gleam from every eye. Richard Henry Lee arose, and supported Mr. Henry with his usual spirit and eloquence, but his melody was lost amid the agitations of that ocean which the master spirit of the storm had lifted on high. That supernatural voice still sounded in their ears, and shivered along their arteries. They heard, in every pause, the cry of Liberty or Death! They became impatient of speech—their souls were on fire for action." The resolutions were adopted by a large majority.
During the spring of 1775, secret orders came from the British ministry to the royal governors to remove the military stores out of the reach of the colonists, if there should appear symptoms of rebellion. The attempt by Governor Gage, of Boston, to execute their orders, produced the conflicts at Lexington and Concord;April 19, 1775and a similar attempt made by Governor Dunmore, on the very next dayApril 20brought the Virginians out in open rebellion. The British man-of-warMagdalen, Captain Collins, was lying at anchor in the York River, a little below Williamsburg, and at midnight Dunmore had the powder in the old magazine secretly removed to that vessel. The movement was discovered, and at dawn the minute-men of Williamsburg assembled, with their arms, and were with difficulty restrained from seizing the governor. The people also assembled, and sent a respectful remonstrance to Dunmore, complaining of the act as specially wrong at that time, when a servile insurrection was apprehended. Dunmore made an evasive reply. He pretended that he feared a slave insurrection in a neighboring county, and said that in case a rising of the negroes in James City county should occur, the powder should be restored. His reply was quite unsatisfactory, and the people demanded the immediate surrender of the ammunition. Patrick Henry was then at his home in Hanover county. When intelligence of the movement reached him, he assembled a corps of volunteers at New Castle, * and marched immediately for the Capitol to secure the treasury from a like outrage, and to procure a restoration of the powder. His corps augmented on its march, and numbered about one hundred and fifty well-armed men when he arrived at Doncaster's ordinary, within sixteen miles of the capital. There he was met by some of the Virginia delegation to Congress, on their way to Philadelphia, and was informed that his approach had frightened the governor. There he also met Corbin, the receiver-general, who came with authority from the governor to compromise the matter. Henry demanded and received the value for the powder (three hundred and thirty pounds), and immediately sent it to the treasury at Williamsburg. ** The volunteers were disbanded,May 4, 1775and they returned to their homes. Henry departed for Philadelphia a week afterward, he being a delegate to Congress.
Dunmore was greatly irritated by the result, and menaced the people. He swore by
* See page 431.
** All the arms and ammunition in the magazine were not sufficient to cause a disturbance, for they were too small in amount to have been of much service to either party. The amount of powder removed by Dunmore was fifteen half barrels, containing fifty pounds each. In fact, it was not the value of the powder, nor the harm that might result from its removal, which probably induced Patrick Henry to summon to his standard the volunteers of Hanover. He deemed it of higher importance that the blow, which must be struck sooner or later, should be struck at once, before an overwhelming royal force should enter the colony. The Honorable Charles Augustus Murray, a Scotch gentleman, who visited this country in 1836 (and in 1851 was married to a lady of New York, since dead), is a lineal descendant of Lord Dunmore. In his published narrative of his travels, he mentions, as a rather singular coincidence, that when he went down the Chesapeake from Baltimore for the purpose of visiting Williamsburg, the steam-boat that conveyed him was named Patrick Henry.
Dunmore's Oath.—General Excitement.—Proceedings of the Assembly.—Attempt to Destroy the Magazine.—Dunmore's Flight.
the living God, that if any of his officers were injured, he would raise the royal standard, enfranchise all the negroes, and, arming them against their masters, lay the city of Williamsburg in ashes. He also issued a proclamationMay 6against "a certain Patrick Henry, of the county of Hanover, and a number of deluded followers," and forbade all persons countenancing them in the least. He converted his palace into a garrison, filled it with his adherents, and surrounded it with cannon. The injudicious course of Dunmore, especially his savage threats and the fortifying of his palace, greatly exasperated the people throughout the colony. Six hundred inhabitants of the upper country, full armed, assembled at Fredericksburg, and offered their services to defend the Capitol against the governor. They were restrained from marching to Williamsburg by the prudent advice of Randolph and Pendleton, who begged them to remain quiet until the Continental Congress should adopt some relative measure. * In every county committees of vigilance and safety were formed, and at public meetings the conduct of Patrick Henry was loudly applauded. Some of Dunmore's letters to ministers were brought to light, and, like Governor Hutchinson on a similar account, he was despised for the meanness which they exhibited. ** Dunmore unwittingly raised a whirlwind which swept away every vestige of his power.
In the midst of the excitement, the governor unexpectedly convened the Assembly.June 1His object was to obtain the approbation of the Burgesses for a conciliatory plan proposed by Lord North. That plan was as specious and deceptive as the king's gracious speech against which Patrick Henry had warned them, and the Burgesses rejected it. *** While the Assembly was in session, some inconsiderate young men attempted to procure arms from the magazine,June 5and one of them was wounded by a spring gun, placed there by order of the governor. This event exasperated the people, and a large concourse assembled, broke open the magazine, and took away most of the arms. Leading members of the Burgesses induced them to return them, and the next day the keys of the magazine, by order of the governor, were delivered to the speaker of the House. On examination, several barrels of powder were found under the floor, evidently designed by Dunmore to blow up the magazine. This discovery augmented the excitement, and when, on the seventh,June 1775a rumor prevailed that Captain Collins, of the Magdalen, had slipped her cables, and was coming up the river with one hundred marines in boats, the citizens flew to arms. The report was untrue, but the readiness of the people to seize arms on every occasion of alarm, was a lesson of deep import to Dunmore; and fearing personal violence, he left Williamsburg, with his family, early on the morning of the eighth, and proceeded to Yorktown, where he went on board the Fowey man-of-war. He was the first royal representative who "abdicated government here."
From the Fowey, Lord Dunmore sent letters, messages, and addresses, to the House of Burgesses, and received the same in return. They were mutually spirited. Finally, when the necessary bills were passed, and the House asked him to return to Williamsburg to sign them, at the same time pledging their honor for the safety of his person, he refused, and demanded that they should present themselves at his present residence (the ship-of-war) for signature. Of course they would not comply, for the demand was unwarrantable.