the whites themselves. Several murders were committed by the whites npon the Indians,(1) under seemingly justifying pretexts.

(1) Appendix, 203, 212, 214. 217.

John Ryan

* Extract of a letter dated at Redstone, October, 1774. "It will not be improper to investigate the cause of the Indian war which broke out in the spring, before I give you a sketch of the history of the expedition which his Excellency Lord Dunmore, has carried on successfully against the Shawanese, one of the richest, proudest, and bravest of the Indian nations. In order to do this, it is necessary to look back as far as the year 1764, when Colonel Bouquet made peace with that nation. The Shawanese never complied with the terms of that peace; they did not deliver up the white prisoners; there was no lasting impression made upon them by a stroke from the troops employed against them that campaign; and they barely acquiesced in some articles of the treaty by command of the Six Nations. The RED HAWK, a Shawanese chief, insulted Colonel Bouquet with impunity; and an Indian killed the Colonel's foot-man the day after the peace was made.This murder not being taken notice of, gave rise to several daring outrages committed immediately after.

In the year following, several murders were committed by the Indians on New river; and soon after, several men employed in the service of Wharton and Company, were killed on their passage to Illinois, and the goods belonging to the company carried off. Sometime after this outrage, a number of men employed to kill meat for the garrison of Fort Chartres, were killed, and their rifles, blankets, &c., carried to the Indian towns. These repeated hostilities and outrages being committed with impunity, made the Indians bold and daring. Although it was not the Shawanese alone that committed all these hostilities, yet, letting one nation pass with impunity, when mischief is done, inspires the rest of the tribes with courage; so that the officers commanding his Majesty's troops on the Ohio, at that time, not having power or spirit to pursue the Indians, nor address to reclaim them, mischief became familiar to them; they were sure to kill and plunder whenever it was in their power, and indeed they panted for an opportunity.

It is probable you will see Lord Dunmore's speech to some chiefs of the Six Nations, who waited on his Lordship; it mentions the particular murders and outrages committed by them every year successively, since they pretended to make peace with Colonel Bouquet. The most recent murders committed by the Indians before the white people began to retaliate, were that of Cap. tain Russell's son, three more white men, and two of his negroes, on the fifteenth of October, 1773; that of a Dutch family on the Kenhawa, in June of the same year; and one Richard, in July following; and that of Mr. Hogg and three white men, on the Great Kenhawa, early in April 1774. Things being in this situation, a message was sent to the Shawanese, inviting them to a conference, in order to bury the tomahawk and brighten the chain of friendship. They fired upon the messengers, and it was with difficulty they escaped with their lives. Immediately on their return, letters were written by some gentlemen at Fort Pitt, and dispersed among the inhabitants on the Ohio, assur. ing them that a war with the Shawanese was unavoidable, and desiring them to be on their guard, as it was uncertain where the Indians would strike first. In the mean time, two men, of the names of Greathouse and Baker, sold some rum near the mouth of Yellow creek, and with them some Indians got drunk, and were killed. Lord Dunmore has ordered that the manner of their being Killed be enquired into. Many officers and other adventurers who were down the Ohio, in order to explore the country and have lands surveyed, upon receiving the above intelligence, and seeing the letters from the gentlemen at Fort Pitt, thought proper to return. Captain Michael Cresap was one of these gentlemen. On their return to the river, they fell in with a party of Indians, and being apprehensive that the Indians were preparing to attack them, as appeared by their manoeuvers, the white people being the smallest number, thought it advisable to have the advantage of the first fire, whereupon they engaged; and after exchanging a few shots, killed two or three of the Indians and dispersed the rest; hostilities being then commenced on both sides, the

killed three Indians, on the Ohio, Monongahela and Cheat rivers. Several were killed at South Branch, while on a friendly visit to that country. This was done by two associates, Henry Judah and Nicholas Harpold. Logan's family, the decided friend to the English, and others, were selected as objects upon whom the sworn enemies of the savages wreaked their vengeance. The instances of injustice done to these children of the forest, were numerous. Among many such at that time, was also the murder of Bald Eagle, an Indian of notoriety, not only among his own nation, but also with the inhabitants of the frontier, with whom he was in the habit of associating and hunting. In one of his visits among them, he was discovered alone and murdered, solely to gratify a most wanton thirst for Indian blood. After the commission of this most outrageous enormity, he was seated in the stern of a canoe, and with a piece of corn-cake thrust into his mouth, set afloat on the Monongahela. In this situation he was seen descending the river by several, who supposed him to be as usual, returning from a friendly hunt with the whites in the upper settlements, and who expressed some astonishment that he did not stop to see them. The canoe floating near to the shore, below the mouth of George's creek, was observed by a Mrs. Province, who had it brought to the bank, and the friendly, but unfortunate old Indian, decently buried.

"Not long after the murder of Bald Eagle, another outrage of a similar nature was committed on a peaceful Indian, for which the person was apprehended and taken to Winchester for trial. But the fury of the populace did not suffer him to remain there awaiting that event.The prison doors were forced, the irons knocked off and he again set at liberty.

But a still more atrocious act is said to have been soon after perpetrated. Until then, the murders committed were only such as were found within the limits of white settlements, and on men and warriors. In 1772, there is every reason to believe, that women and children likewise became victims to the exasperated feelings of our own citizens; and this too, while quietly enjoying the comforts of their own huts, in their own village.

There was at that time an Indian town on the little Kenhawa, called Bulltown, inhabited by five families, who were in habits of social and friendly intercourse with the whites on Buchanan and on Hacker's creek; frequently visiting and hunting with them. There was likewise residing on Gauley river, the family of a German by the name of Stroud. In the summer of that year, Mr. Stroud being from home, his family

were all murdered, his house plundered, and his eattle driven off. The trail made by these leading in the direction of Bulltown, induced the supposition that the Indians of that village had been the authors of the outrage, and caused several to resolve on avenging it upon them. `

A party of five men, two of whom were William White and Wil liam Hacker, who had been concerned in previous murders, expressed a determination to proceed immediately to Bulltown. The remonstrance of the settlement generally, could not operate to effect a change in that determination. They went; and on their return, circumstances justified the belief that the pre-apprehension of those who knew the temper and feelings of White and Hacker, had been well founded; and that there had been some fighting between them and the Indians. And notwithstanding that they denied ever having seen an Indian in their absence, yet it was the prevailing opinion, that they had destroyed all the men, women and children at Bulltown, and threw their bodies into the river. Indeed, one of the party is said to have, inadvertantly, used expressions confirmatory of this opinion; and to have then justified the deed, by saying that the clothes and other things known to have belonged to Stroud's family, (1) were found in the possession of the Indians. The village was soon after visited, and found entirely desolaten, and nothing being ever after heard of its former inhabitants, there can remain no doubt but that the murder of Stroud's family was requited on them." (2)

"The destructive war, that broke out in 1774, and threw the whole frontier into consternation, was provoked by the misconduct of the whites. In the spring of that year, a rumor was circulated that the Indians had stolen several horses from some land speculators, who were exploring the shores of the Ohio and Kenhawa rivers. No evidence of the fact was produced, and the report has since been considered to have been false. It was, however, believed at the time, and produced a general impression that the Indians were about to take up the hatchet against the frontier settlements. The land jobbers ascended the river and collected at Wheeling, at which place was a small station commanded by Capt. Cressap.

Here a scene of confusion and high excitement ensued. The report that a canoe containing two Indians, was approaching, kindled up the incipient fires of hatred and revenge. Capt. Cressap proposed to take a party, and intercept the Indians;* while Col. Zane, the proprietor of (1) Appendix, 221.

12) Withers' Chronicle of Border Warfare, 105-106.

the place, decidedly objected to any act of hostility on the part of the whites, on the grounds that the killing of these Indians would bring on a general war, while the act itself would be a criminal murder, which would disgrace the names of the perpetrators. On the frontier, the counsels of humanity and peace are not often regarded as those of wisdom. The party set out, and on being asked on their return, what had become of the Indians, the cool reply was, that "they had fallen overboard!" The fate of the savage warriors was not long a secret; the canoe was found bloody, and pierced with bullets; the tribes flew to arms, and a sanguinary war was the immediate consequence of this and other acts of unprovoked outrage. One of these was an atrocious attack upon a party of Indians, encamped at the mouth of Captina creek, committed by thirty-two men under the command of Daniel Greathouse. On the same day on which the murder occurred, which we have just described, another was perpetrated at Yellow creek, by the same party.(1) The whole family of the celebrated, but unfortunate Logan, were comprehended in the massacres at Captina and Yellow creeks; and he who had always been the friend of the whites, and the efficient advocate of peace, was converted by the lawless acts of a few unprincipled individuals, into an active and daring enemy.

Those alone who have resided upon the frontiers are aware of the thrill of terror, spread by such an event, among the scattered inhabitants of the border. Anticipating immediate retaliation, and not knowing at what moment, or from what quarter, the blow may come, the panic 'spreads with the rapidity of the wind. Bold and hardy as the borderers are, when traversing the forest alone in pursuit of game, or when assembled for battle, they cannot, at the first rumor of an Indian war, avoid quailing under the anticipated terrors of a sudden inroad of savage hostility. They know that their enemy will steal upon them in the night, in the unguarded hour of repose, and that the innocent child and helpless female will derive no protection from their sex or weakness; and they shrink at the idea of a violated fireside, and a slaughtered family. The man who may be cool, when his own life alone is exposed to danger, or whose spirit may kindle into enthusiastic gallantry, amid the animating scenes of the battle field, where armed men are his companions and his foes-becomes panic-struck at the contemplation of a merciless warfare which shall offer his dwelling to the firebrand of the incendiary, and his family to the tomahawk of the infuriated savage.

Such was the effect of the unadvised and criminal acts which we

have related. A sudden consternation pervaded the whole frontier. A war unwelcome, unexpected, and for which they were wholly unpre pared, was suddenly precipitated upon them, by the unbridled passions of a few lawless men; and a foe always quick to resent, and ever eager to shed the blood of the white race, was roused to a revenge which he would not delay in obtaining. The settlers began to remove to the interior, or colleet in log forts hastily erected for the occasion. Men who had acquired homes by years of perilous and toilsome labor, who had plied the axe incessantly in clearing away the immense trees of the forest, in making fences, in building houses, in disencumbering the land of its tangled thickets, and bringing it into culture-abandoned all, and fled in precipitation to places of safety. In every path might be seen the sturdy pioneer, striding hastily forward, with his rifle on his shoulder, casting wary glances into each suspicious dell and covert; and followed by a train of pack-horses, burthened with his wife, his children, and such moveables as could be transported by this mode of conveyance. After a few days the whole scene was changed. The frontier, so lately peaceful, had become the seat of war. The fields of the husbandman were ravaged by the Indian; the cabins were burned, and the labor of many years desolated. The few settlers that incautiously remained in their homes were slaughtered, or with difficulty rescued by their friends.(1) The prudent men, whose backs had lately been turned upon the foe, having placed their families in security, were now seen in arms, either defending the rude fortresses, or eagerly scouring the woods in search of the enemy. However reluctantly they had been forced into the war, they had now entered into the spirit of the contest; the inconveniences they had suffered, the danger of their families, and the sight of their desolated hearths and blasted fields, had awakened in their bosoms a hatred not less implacable than that of their savage foemen.

Expresses were sent to Williamsburg, the seat of government of Virginia, announcing the commencement of hostilities, and a plan was immediately matured for a campaign against the Indians. The active commander was Gen. Lewis, of Botetourt county. The forces were to rendezvous in Greenbriar county. The Earl of Dunmore was to raise another army to be assembled at Fort Pitt, and thence to descend the river to Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Kenhawa.

On the eleventh of September, General Lewis, with eleven hundred men, commenced his march from his rendezvous in Greenbriar, for Point Pleasant, distant one hundred and sixty miles. The country to