Dunmore's War
Encyclopedia
Dunmore's War was a war in 1774 between the Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee
and Mingo
American Indian
nations.
Lord Dunmore
, the Governor of Virginia
, asked the House of Burgesses
to declare a state of war
with the hostile Indian nations and order up an elite volunteer militia
force for the campaign.
The conflict resulted from escalating violence between British colonists, who in accordance with previous treaties were exploring and moving into land south of the Ohio River
(modern West Virginia
and Kentucky
), and American Indians
, who held treaty rights to hunt there. Of the upper Ohio Valley, assessing appellent Allegheny, George Washington
writes in his journal Sat. Nov. 17, 1770, "The Indians who are very dexterous, even ther women, in the Management of Canoes, have there Hunting Camps & Cabins all along the River for the convenience of Transporting their Skins by Water to Market."
As a result of successive attacks by Indian hunting and war bands upon the settlers, war was declared "to pacify the hostile Indian war bands". The war ended soon after Virginia's victory in the Battle of Point Pleasant
on October 10, 1774.
As a result of this victory, the Indians lost the right to hunt in the area and agreed to recognize the Ohio River as the boundary between Indian lands and the British colonies.
Although the Indian national chieftains signed the treaty, conflict within the Indian nations soon broke out. Some tribesmen felt the treaty sold out their claims and opposed it, and others believed that another war would mean only further losses of territory to the more powerful British colonists.
When war broke out between the colonists and the British government, the war parties of the Indian nations quickly gained power. They mobilized the various Indian nations to attack the colonists during the Revolutionary War.
The area south of the Ohio River had long been claimed by the Iroquois
Confederacy. Although they were the most powerful Indian nation in the Northern Colonies, other tribes also made claims to the area and often hunted the region. The Ohio Country
was one of the causes of the Seven Years War between France and Britain, which ended with France ceding notional control over the entire area at the Treaty of Paris
in 1763.
When British officials acquired the land south of the Ohio River in the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix
from the Iroquois
, Ohio Indians who hunted the land refused to sign the treaty and prepared to defend their hunting rights.
At the forefront of this resistance were the Shawnee. They were the most powerful among the anti-Iroquois Indian nations. They soon organized a large confederacy of Shawnee-Ohio Confederated Indians who were opposed to the British and the Iroquois in order to enforce their claims. British and Iroquois officials worked to isolate the Shawnee diplomatically from other Indian nations. When Dunmore's War broke out in 1774, Shawnee faced the Virginia militia with few allies.
Following the 1768 treaty, British explorers, surveyors, and settlers began pouring into the region.(see Vandalia (colony)
In September 1773, an obscure hunter named Daniel Boone
led a group of about 50 emigrants in the first attempt by British colonists to establish a settlement in Kentucky County, Virginia
.
On October 9, 1773, Boone's oldest son James and a small group of men and boys who were retrieving supplies were attacked by a band of Delawares
, Shawnees, and Cherokees. They had decided "to send a message of their opposition to settlement…" James Boone and another boy were captured and tortured to death. The brutality of the killings shocked the erstwhile settlers along the frontier, and Boone's party abandoned their expedition.
The deaths among Boone's party were among the first events in Dunmore's War. For the next several years, Indian nations opposed to the treaty continued to attack settlers, ritually mutilated and tortured to death the surviving men, and took the women and children into slavery.
, the owner of a trading post at Redstone Old Fort
(now Brownsville, Pennsylvania
) on the Monongahela River
. Under authority of the colonial government of Virginia
, Cresap had taken control of extensive tracts of land at and below the mouth of Middle Island Creek
(now Sistersville, West Virginia
.) He went there in the early spring of 1774 with a party of men to settle his holdings.
Ebenezer Zane
, afterwards a famed “Indian fighter” and guide, was engaged at the same time and in the same way with a small party of men on lands which he had taken up at or near the mouth of Sandy Creek
.
A third and larger group that included George Rogers Clark
, who later became a general during the Revolutionary War, had gathered at the mouth of the Little Kanawha River
(the present site of Parkersburg, West Virginia
.) They were waiting there for the arrival of other Virginians expected to join them before they moved downriver to settle lands in Kentucky. Clark's group began to hear reports that hostile Indian nationals were robbing and occasionally killing traders, surveyors
and others traveling down the Ohio. They concluded that hostile nations of the Shawnee-centered Ohio confederacy were bent on all-out war. The group decided to attack the Ohio Indian village called Horsehead Bottom, near the mouth of the Scioto River
and on the way to their intended destination in Kentucky.
Few in the group had experience in warfare. After some discussion, the group selected Cresap, whom they knew was about fifteen miles (24 km) upriver. They knew he was intending to follow them into Kentucky, and he had combat experience. They sent for Cresap, who quickly came to meet with the group. After some discussion, Cresap dissuaded them from attacking the Shawnee. He thought that while the actions of the Shawnee-Ohio confederates were hostile, he did not believe war was inevitable. He argued further that if the group carried out its plans, he did not doubt their initial success, but war would then surely come. They would be blamed for it.
He suggested the group return to Wheeling, Virginia
for a few weeks to see what would develop. If the situation calmed, they could resume their journey to Kentucky. The group agreed. When they arrived at Wheeling, they found the whole area in an uproar. People were panicked by the stories of the survivors of the Indian attacks. They were upset by what they viewed as Indian savagery. Fearing for the lives of women and children, the British colonists from the frontier flocked to town for protection. Cresap's group was swelled with volunteers for a fight.
As word of the group’s arrival had reached Fort Pitt
, Capt. John Connolly, commander of the fort, sent a message asking that the group to remain in Wheeling a few days. He had sent messages to the local tribes to determine their intentions. A flurry of correspondence resulted, first, with the group saying they would wait for further word from Connolly. Before their message reached Fort Pitt, Cresap received a second message from Connolly that said the Shawnee-Ohio tribes had signaled they intended war.
Cresap called a council on April 26. After he read Connolly’s letter aloud, the assembly declared war against the Indians. After spotting some Indian canoes on the river the next day, settlers chased them fifteen miles (24 km) downriver to Pipe Creek. There settlers engaged them in battle, with a few casualties on each side. The following day, Clark's party abandoned the original idea of proceeding to Kentucky. Expecting retaliation, they broke camp and moved with Cresap's men to his headquarters at Redstone Old Fort.
From Captain Hanson's Journal (Surveyor enroute to job site stopped at Point Pleasant this date. He found confirming news he had heard from the Canawagh, Kanawha Iroquois, few days earlier as his team canoed down the Kanawha River
that the Ohio Indians were on the war path. It was the talk by the locals all up and down all the rivers.)
leader Logan
. Up until this point, he had expressed peace toward the settlers. Logan and his hunting party were camped on the west bank of the Ohio at Yellow Creek, about thirty miles above Wheeling (near present day Steubenville, Ohio
) and across the river from Baker’s Bottom. On April 30 some members of the hunting party (Logan was not among them) crossed the river to the cabin of Joshua Baker, a settler and rum trader. The visiting Mingo
included Logan's younger brother, commonly known as John Petty, and two closely related women. The younger was pregnant, and also had an infant girl with her. The father of both children was John Gibson, a well-known trader. Once the group was in Baker's cabin, 30 frontiersmen, led by Daniel Greathouse
, crowded in and killed all except the infant child,
When Logan heard of the massacre, he was led to believe that Capt. Michael Cresap was responsible for attack. However, many people familiar with the incident (including George Rogers Clark) knew that Daniel Greathouse and his men were the ones who had killed the party. Settlers along the frontiers realized that these killings were likely to provoke the remaining Indian nations of the Ohio Country to attack. Settlers remaining on the frontier immediately sought safety, either in blockhouse
s or by fleeing eastward across the Monongahela River
. Many traveled back across the Allegheny Mountains
. Their fear was well founded. Logan and small parties of Shawnee and Mingo soon began striking frontier settlers in revenge for the murders at Yellow Creek.
1774 - May 5, 1774, The Shawanee delivered the following message:
(now Lewisburg, West Virginia
) to meet Dunmore at the mouth of the Great Kanawha River
. Under this general plan, Governor Dunmore traveled to Fort Pitt and proceeded with his forces down the Ohio River. On September 30, he arrived at Fort Fincastle
(later Fort Henry), recently built at Wheeling by his direction.
The force under Lewis, 1100 strong, proceeded from Camp Union to the headwaters of the Kanawha, and then downriver to the appointed rendezvous, reaching the river's mouth on October 6. Not finding Dunmore there, Lewis sent messengers up the Ohio to meet him and tell him of the arrival. On October 9 Dunmore sent a dispatch announcing his plans to proceed to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto. He ordered Lewis to cross the Ohio and meet him at the Shawnee towns.
On October 10, before Lewis began crossing the Ohio, he and his 1,100 men were surprised in attack by warriors under Chief Cornstalk
. The Battle of Point Pleasant
raged nearly all day and descended into hand-to-hand combat. Lewis's army suffered about 200 casualties, including Lewis's brother. His forces defeated the Ohio Confederacy warriors, who retreated across the Ohio. Dunmore and Lewis advanced from their respective points into Ohio to within eight miles (13 km) of the Shawnee town on the Scioto. They erected the temporary Camp Charlotte on Sippo Creek.
Here they met with Cornstalk to begin peace negotiations. Although Chief Logan said he would cease fighting, he would not attend the formal peace talks. After the Mingo refused to accept the terms, Major William Crawford
attacked their village of Seekunk (Salt Lick Town). His force of 240 men destroyed the village.
These operations, and the submission of the Shawnee and Mingo at Camp Charlotte, virtually closed the war. Governor Dunmore began his return, proceeding by Redstone and the Great Crossings of the Youghiogheny River
to Fort Cumberland
, and then to the Virginia capital.
The peace did not prevail for long following this treaty. In May 1776, as the American Revolution
was heating up, the Shawnee joined renegade Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe
in declaring war against the Virginia colonists. (see Chickamauga Wars (1776-1794)).
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
and Mingo
Mingo
The Mingo are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans made up of peoples who migrated west to the Ohio Country in the mid-eighteenth century. Anglo-Americans called these migrants mingos, a corruption of mingwe, an Eastern Algonquian name for Iroquoian-language groups in general. Mingos have also...
American Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
nations.
Lord Dunmore
John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore
John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore was a British peer and colonial governor. He was the son of William Murray, 3rd Earl of Dunmore, and his wife Catherine . He is best remembered as the last royal governor of the Colony of Virginia.John was the eldest son of William and Catherine Murray, and nephew...
, the Governor of Virginia
Colony and Dominion of Virginia
The Colony of Virginia was the English colony in North America that existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American Revolution...
, asked the House of Burgesses
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America. The House was established by the Virginia Company, who created the body as part of an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America...
to declare a state of war
State of War
State of war may refer to:*a situation where two or more states are at war with each other, with or without a real armed conflict*State of War , a book by James Risen which makes numerous controversial allegations about Central Intelligence Agency activities*State of War , a real-time strategy...
with the hostile Indian nations and order up an elite volunteer militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
force for the campaign.
The conflict resulted from escalating violence between British colonists, who in accordance with previous treaties were exploring and moving into land south of the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
(modern West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
and Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
), and American Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, who held treaty rights to hunt there. Of the upper Ohio Valley, assessing appellent Allegheny, George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
writes in his journal Sat. Nov. 17, 1770, "The Indians who are very dexterous, even ther women, in the Management of Canoes, have there Hunting Camps & Cabins all along the River for the convenience of Transporting their Skins by Water to Market."
As a result of successive attacks by Indian hunting and war bands upon the settlers, war was declared "to pacify the hostile Indian war bands". The war ended soon after Virginia's victory in the Battle of Point Pleasant
Battle of Point Pleasant
The Battle of Point Pleasant, known as the Battle of Kanawha in some older accounts, was the only major battle of Dunmore's War. It was fought on October 10, 1774, primarily between Virginia militia and American Indians from the Shawnee and Mingo tribes...
on October 10, 1774.
As a result of this victory, the Indians lost the right to hunt in the area and agreed to recognize the Ohio River as the boundary between Indian lands and the British colonies.
Although the Indian national chieftains signed the treaty, conflict within the Indian nations soon broke out. Some tribesmen felt the treaty sold out their claims and opposed it, and others believed that another war would mean only further losses of territory to the more powerful British colonists.
When war broke out between the colonists and the British government, the war parties of the Indian nations quickly gained power. They mobilized the various Indian nations to attack the colonists during the Revolutionary War.
Background
The area south of the Ohio River had long been claimed by the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
Confederacy. Although they were the most powerful Indian nation in the Northern Colonies, other tribes also made claims to the area and often hunted the region. The Ohio Country
Ohio Country
The Ohio Country was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie...
was one of the causes of the Seven Years War between France and Britain, which ended with France ceding notional control over the entire area at the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
in 1763.
When British officials acquired the land south of the Ohio River in the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix
Treaty of Fort Stanwix
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was an important treaty between North American Indians and the British Empire. It was signed in 1768 at Fort Stanwix, located in present-day Rome, New York...
from the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
, Ohio Indians who hunted the land refused to sign the treaty and prepared to defend their hunting rights.
At the forefront of this resistance were the Shawnee. They were the most powerful among the anti-Iroquois Indian nations. They soon organized a large confederacy of Shawnee-Ohio Confederated Indians who were opposed to the British and the Iroquois in order to enforce their claims. British and Iroquois officials worked to isolate the Shawnee diplomatically from other Indian nations. When Dunmore's War broke out in 1774, Shawnee faced the Virginia militia with few allies.
Following the 1768 treaty, British explorers, surveyors, and settlers began pouring into the region.(see Vandalia (colony)
Vandalia (colony)
Vandalia was the name of a proposed British colony in North America . The colony was located south of the Ohio River, primarily in what is now the U.S...
In September 1773, an obscure hunter named Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
led a group of about 50 emigrants in the first attempt by British colonists to establish a settlement in Kentucky County, Virginia
Kentucky County, Virginia
Kentucky County was formed by the Commonwealth of Virginia by dividing Fincastle County into three new counties: Kentucky, Washington, and Montgomery, effective December 31, 1776. Four years later Kentucky County was abolished on June 30, 1780, when it was divided into Fayette, Jefferson, and...
.
On October 9, 1773, Boone's oldest son James and a small group of men and boys who were retrieving supplies were attacked by a band of Delawares
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
, Shawnees, and Cherokees. They had decided "to send a message of their opposition to settlement…" James Boone and another boy were captured and tortured to death. The brutality of the killings shocked the erstwhile settlers along the frontier, and Boone's party abandoned their expedition.
The deaths among Boone's party were among the first events in Dunmore's War. For the next several years, Indian nations opposed to the treaty continued to attack settlers, ritually mutilated and tortured to death the surviving men, and took the women and children into slavery.
- 1774 - Another lawful Field Surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
leader, William Preston
William Preston
William Preston may refer to:*William Preston , Scottish author of Illustrations of Masonry*William Preston , Irish-born frontier Virginia leader, signer of the Fincastle Resolutions...
, sends a letter of report to the head engineer of the frontier fort construction and who was one of the surveyor leaders also, George Washington, May 27, 1774 shows the understanding of the surveyors before Dunmore's War.
"FINCASTLE May 27. 1774.
DEAR SIR
Agreeable to my Promise I directed Mr. Floyd an Assistant to Survey your Land on Cole River
Coal River (West Virginia)
The Coal River is a tributary of the Kanawha River in southern West Virginia. It is formed near the community of Alum Creek by the confluence of the Big and Little Coal Rivers, and flows generally northward through western Kanawha County, past the community of Upper Falls and into the Kanawha...
on his Way to the Ohio
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
, which he did and in a few Days afterwards sent me the Plot by Mr. Thomas Hog. Mr. Spotswood Dandridge who left the Surveyors on the Ohio after Hog Parted with them, wrote me that Mr. Hog and two other Men with him had never since been heard of. I have had no Opportunity of writing to Mr. Floyd Since. Tho' I suppose he will send me the Courses by the first Person that comes up, if so I shall make out the Certificate and send it down. This I directed him to do when we parted to prevent Accidents. But I am really afraid the Indians will hinder them from doing any Business of Vallue this Season as the Company being only 33 and dayly decreasing were under the greatest Apprehension of Danger when Mr. Dandridge parted with them.
It has been long disputed by our Hunters whether Louisa
Levisa Fork River
The Levisa Fork is a tributary of the Big Sandy River, approximately long, in southwestern Virginia and eastern Kentucky in the United States....
or Cumberland River
Cumberland River
The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...
s was the Boundary between us and the Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
s. I have taken the Liberty to inclose to you a Report made by some Scouts who were out by my Order; and which Sets that matter beyond a Doubt.
It is say'd the Cherrokees claim the Land to the Westward of the Louisa & between Cumberland M [mutilated] and the ohio. If so, and our Government gives it up we loose all the most Valluable part of that Country. The Northern Indians Sold that Land to the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
at the Treaty of Lancaster
Treaty of Lancaster
The Treaty of Lancaster was a treaty concluded between the Six Nations and the colonies of Virginia and Maryland. Deliberations began at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on June 28, and ended on July 4, 1744....
in 1744. by the Treaty of Logs Town in 1752 and by that at Fort Stanwix
Fort Stanwix
Fort Stanwix was a colonial fort whose construction was started on August 26, 1758, by British General John Stanwix, at the location of present-day Rome, New York, but was not completed until about 1762. The fort guarded a portage known as the Oneida Carrying Place during the French and Indian War...
in 1768. At that Time the Cherrokees laid no Claim to that Land & how the[y] come to do it now I cannot imagine...", Edited by Stanislaus Murray Hamilton (The Washington Papers, Library of Congress).
"Cresap's War"
Among the settlers was Captain Michael CresapMichael Cresap
Michael Cresap was a frontiersman born in Maryland. He was the son of the pioneer Thomas Cresap. He spent part of his adult years in the Ohio Country as a trader and land developer. He led several raids against Indians whom he believed were hostile to white settlement. Logan of the Mingo Indians...
, the owner of a trading post at Redstone Old Fort
Redstone Old Fort
Redstone Old Fort or Redstone Fort or Fort Burd on The Nemacolin Trail was the name of the French and Indian War era wooden fort built in 1759 by Pennsylvania Militia Colonel James Burd to guard the ancient Indian trail's river ford on a mound overlooking the eastern shore of the Monongahela River...
(now Brownsville, Pennsylvania
Brownsville, Pennsylvania
Brownsville is a borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, officially founded in 1785 located 35 miles south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River...
) on the Monongahela River
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...
. Under authority of the colonial government of Virginia
Colony and Dominion of Virginia
The Colony of Virginia was the English colony in North America that existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American Revolution...
, Cresap had taken control of extensive tracts of land at and below the mouth of Middle Island Creek
Middle Island Creek
Middle Island Creek is a river, 77 miles long, in northwestern West Virginia, USA. It is a tributary of the Ohio River, draining an area of 565 square miles on the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau...
(now Sistersville, West Virginia
Sistersville, West Virginia
Sistersville is a city in Tyler County, West Virginia, along the Ohio River. The population was 1,588 at the 2000 census. The Sistersville Ferry crosses the Ohio River to the unincorporated community of Fly in Monroe County, Ohio.-Geography:...
.) He went there in the early spring of 1774 with a party of men to settle his holdings.
Ebenezer Zane
Ebenezer Zane
Ebenezer Zane was an American pioneer, road builder and land speculator. Born in what is now Moorefield, West Virginia , Zane established the settlement known as Fort Henry in Wheeling, Virginia on the Ohio River...
, afterwards a famed “Indian fighter” and guide, was engaged at the same time and in the same way with a small party of men on lands which he had taken up at or near the mouth of Sandy Creek
Sandy Creek
Sandy Creek may refer to:In Australia* Sandy Creek * Sandy Creek , a tributary of Lake Somerset* Sandy Creek, South Australia, a town* Sandy Creek In the United States of America...
.
A third and larger group that included George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark was a soldier from Virginia and the highest ranking American military officer on the northwestern frontier during the American Revolutionary War. He served as leader of the Kentucky militia throughout much of the war...
, who later became a general during the Revolutionary War, had gathered at the mouth of the Little Kanawha River
Little Kanawha River
The Little Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, 169 mi long, in western West Virginia in the United States. Via the Ohio, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 2,320 mi² on the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau...
(the present site of Parkersburg, West Virginia
Parkersburg, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 33,099 people, 14,467 households, and 8,767 families residing in the city. In 2006 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Parkersburg's population had decreased 4.4% to 31,755. The population density was 2,800.5 people per square mile . There were 16,100 housing...
.) They were waiting there for the arrival of other Virginians expected to join them before they moved downriver to settle lands in Kentucky. Clark's group began to hear reports that hostile Indian nationals were robbing and occasionally killing traders, surveyors
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
and others traveling down the Ohio. They concluded that hostile nations of the Shawnee-centered Ohio confederacy were bent on all-out war. The group decided to attack the Ohio Indian village called Horsehead Bottom, near the mouth of the Scioto River
Scioto River
The Scioto River is a river in central and southern Ohio more than 231 miles in length. It rises in Auglaize County in west central Ohio, flows through Columbus, Ohio, where it collects its largest tributary, the Olentangy River, and meets the Ohio River at Portsmouth...
and on the way to their intended destination in Kentucky.
Few in the group had experience in warfare. After some discussion, the group selected Cresap, whom they knew was about fifteen miles (24 km) upriver. They knew he was intending to follow them into Kentucky, and he had combat experience. They sent for Cresap, who quickly came to meet with the group. After some discussion, Cresap dissuaded them from attacking the Shawnee. He thought that while the actions of the Shawnee-Ohio confederates were hostile, he did not believe war was inevitable. He argued further that if the group carried out its plans, he did not doubt their initial success, but war would then surely come. They would be blamed for it.
He suggested the group return to Wheeling, Virginia
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
for a few weeks to see what would develop. If the situation calmed, they could resume their journey to Kentucky. The group agreed. When they arrived at Wheeling, they found the whole area in an uproar. People were panicked by the stories of the survivors of the Indian attacks. They were upset by what they viewed as Indian savagery. Fearing for the lives of women and children, the British colonists from the frontier flocked to town for protection. Cresap's group was swelled with volunteers for a fight.
As word of the group’s arrival had reached Fort Pitt
Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)
Fort Pitt was a fort built at the location of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.-French and Indian War:The fort was built from 1759 to 1761 during the French and Indian War , next to the site of former Fort Duquesne, at the confluence the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River...
, Capt. John Connolly, commander of the fort, sent a message asking that the group to remain in Wheeling a few days. He had sent messages to the local tribes to determine their intentions. A flurry of correspondence resulted, first, with the group saying they would wait for further word from Connolly. Before their message reached Fort Pitt, Cresap received a second message from Connolly that said the Shawnee-Ohio tribes had signaled they intended war.
Cresap called a council on April 26. After he read Connolly’s letter aloud, the assembly declared war against the Indians. After spotting some Indian canoes on the river the next day, settlers chased them fifteen miles (24 km) downriver to Pipe Creek. There settlers engaged them in battle, with a few casualties on each side. The following day, Clark's party abandoned the original idea of proceeding to Kentucky. Expecting retaliation, they broke camp and moved with Cresap's men to his headquarters at Redstone Old Fort.
From Captain Hanson's Journal (Surveyor enroute to job site stopped at Point Pleasant this date. He found confirming news he had heard from the Canawagh, Kanawha Iroquois, few days earlier as his team canoed down the Kanawha River
Kanawha River
The Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, it has formed a significant industrial region of the state since the middle of the 19th century.It is formed at the town of Gauley...
that the Ohio Indians were on the war path. It was the talk by the locals all up and down all the rivers.)
April the 19th, surveyor Hanson enters in his log, "Mr. Hogg confirmed the news we had of the Indians, He says there were 13 People who intended to settle on the Ohio, and the Indians came upon them and a battle ensued." Mr. Hogg was clearing the 14 miles (22.5 km) long bottom on the lower east side of the Kanawha River. The Captain was not quick to accept the Kanawhan labormen's word on the matter.
April "(sic)20th. We proceeded to the mouth of the Kanawha, 26 miles (41.8 km). At our arrival we found 26 People there on different designs - Some to cultivate land, others to attend the surveyors, They confirm the same story of the Indians. One of them could speak Indian language, therefore Mr. Floyd & the other Surveyors offered him 3 per month to go with them, which he refused, and told us to take care of our scalps. We passed but one bottom which is within 7 miles (11.3 km) of the mouth of the River, & I am informed it runs 20 miles (32.2 km) deep & is good Land, is on the South Side about 6 miles (9.7 km) broad on the side of the River. On the North point, where we met the People is very fit for a fort, and to my opinion does not overflow which is not the case of the other bottoms. Mr. Floyd and the other Surveyors were received with great joy by the people here."
Yellow Creek Massacre
Immediately after the Pipe Creek attack, settlers killed relatives of the MingoMingo
The Mingo are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans made up of peoples who migrated west to the Ohio Country in the mid-eighteenth century. Anglo-Americans called these migrants mingos, a corruption of mingwe, an Eastern Algonquian name for Iroquoian-language groups in general. Mingos have also...
leader Logan
Logan
Logan was a Native American leader.Logan may also refer to:- Australia :* Logan City, a local government area in Queensland* Electoral district of Logan, an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly...
. Up until this point, he had expressed peace toward the settlers. Logan and his hunting party were camped on the west bank of the Ohio at Yellow Creek, about thirty miles above Wheeling (near present day Steubenville, Ohio
Steubenville, Ohio
Steubenville is a city located along the Ohio River in Jefferson County, Ohio on the Ohio-West Virginia border in the United States. It is the political county seat of Jefferson County. It is also a principal city of the Weirton–Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area...
) and across the river from Baker’s Bottom. On April 30 some members of the hunting party (Logan was not among them) crossed the river to the cabin of Joshua Baker, a settler and rum trader. The visiting Mingo
Mingo
The Mingo are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans made up of peoples who migrated west to the Ohio Country in the mid-eighteenth century. Anglo-Americans called these migrants mingos, a corruption of mingwe, an Eastern Algonquian name for Iroquoian-language groups in general. Mingos have also...
included Logan's younger brother, commonly known as John Petty, and two closely related women. The younger was pregnant, and also had an infant girl with her. The father of both children was John Gibson, a well-known trader. Once the group was in Baker's cabin, 30 frontiersmen, led by Daniel Greathouse
Daniel Greathouse
Daniel Greathouse was a settler in colonial Virginia. His role in the Yellow Creek massacre in 1774 was instrumental in starting Dunmore's War....
, crowded in and killed all except the infant child,
When Logan heard of the massacre, he was led to believe that Capt. Michael Cresap was responsible for attack. However, many people familiar with the incident (including George Rogers Clark) knew that Daniel Greathouse and his men were the ones who had killed the party. Settlers along the frontiers realized that these killings were likely to provoke the remaining Indian nations of the Ohio Country to attack. Settlers remaining on the frontier immediately sought safety, either in blockhouse
Blockhouse
In military science, a blockhouse is a small, isolated fort in the form of a single building. It serves as a defensive strong point against any enemy that does not possess siege equipment or, in modern times, artillery...
s or by fleeing eastward across the Monongahela River
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...
. Many traveled back across the Allegheny Mountains
Allegheny Mountains
The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...
. Their fear was well founded. Logan and small parties of Shawnee and Mingo soon began striking frontier settlers in revenge for the murders at Yellow Creek.
1774 - May 5, 1774, The Shawanee delivered the following message:
(sic)[Note 1: "Brothers: (Captain Connolly, Mr. McKee, and Mr. Croghan,) We have received your Speeches by White Eyes, and as to what Mr. Croghan and Mr. McKee says, we look upon it all to be lies, and perhaps what you say may be lies also, but as it is the first time you have spoke to us we listen to you, and expect that what we may hear from you will be more confined to truth than what we usually hear from the white people. It is you who are frequently passing up and down the Ohio, and making settlements upon it, and as you have informed as that your wise people have met together to consult upon this matter, we desire you to be strong and consider it well. Brethren: We see you speak to us at the head of your warriors, who you have collected together at sundry places upon this river, where we understand they are building forts, and as you have requested us to listen to you, we will do it, but in the same manner that you appear to speak to us. Our people at the Lower Towns have no Chiefs among them, but are all warriors, and are also preparing themselves to be in readiness, that they may be better able to hear what you have to say.
"You tell us not to take any notice of what your people have done to us; we desire you likewise not to take any notice of what our young men may now be doing, and as no doubt you can command your warriors when you desire them to listen to you, we have reason to expect that ours will take the same advice when we require it, that is, when we have heard from the Governour [sic] of Virginia."--American Archives, Fourth Series, Vol. 1. p. 479.]
Dunmore's expedition
Early in May 1774, Governor Dunmore received word that fighting had begun at Yellow Creek and other points on the Ohio. He requested the legislature to authorize general militia forces and fund a volunteer expedition into the Ohio River valley. With the new forces, the Governor advanced toward the Ohio where he split his force into two groups: one would move down the Ohio from Fort Pitt, led by him, and another body of troops under Colonel Andrew Lewis would travel from Camp UnionCamp Union
Camp Union was a military training center for the Union Army during the American Civil War. Constructed near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the camp operated from 1861 until 1865, and primarily served various Pennsylvania volunteer regiments....
(now Lewisburg, West Virginia
Lewisburg, West Virginia
Lewisburg is a city in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 3,830 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Greenbrier County.-Geography:Lewisburg is located at ....
) to meet Dunmore at the mouth of the Great Kanawha River
Kanawha River
The Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, it has formed a significant industrial region of the state since the middle of the 19th century.It is formed at the town of Gauley...
. Under this general plan, Governor Dunmore traveled to Fort Pitt and proceeded with his forces down the Ohio River. On September 30, he arrived at Fort Fincastle
Fort Fincastle
Fort Henry was a fort which stood about ¼ mile from the Ohio River where the town of Wheeling, West Virginia is now located. The fort was originally known as Fort Fincastle and was named for Viscount Fincastle, Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia. Later it was renamed for Patrick Henry, and...
(later Fort Henry), recently built at Wheeling by his direction.
The force under Lewis, 1100 strong, proceeded from Camp Union to the headwaters of the Kanawha, and then downriver to the appointed rendezvous, reaching the river's mouth on October 6. Not finding Dunmore there, Lewis sent messengers up the Ohio to meet him and tell him of the arrival. On October 9 Dunmore sent a dispatch announcing his plans to proceed to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto. He ordered Lewis to cross the Ohio and meet him at the Shawnee towns.
On October 10, before Lewis began crossing the Ohio, he and his 1,100 men were surprised in attack by warriors under Chief Cornstalk
Cornstalk
Cornstalk was a prominent leader of the Shawnee nation just prior to the American Revolution. His name, Hokoleskwa, translates loosely into "stalk of corn" in English, and is spelled Colesqua in some accounts...
. The Battle of Point Pleasant
Battle of Point Pleasant
The Battle of Point Pleasant, known as the Battle of Kanawha in some older accounts, was the only major battle of Dunmore's War. It was fought on October 10, 1774, primarily between Virginia militia and American Indians from the Shawnee and Mingo tribes...
raged nearly all day and descended into hand-to-hand combat. Lewis's army suffered about 200 casualties, including Lewis's brother. His forces defeated the Ohio Confederacy warriors, who retreated across the Ohio. Dunmore and Lewis advanced from their respective points into Ohio to within eight miles (13 km) of the Shawnee town on the Scioto. They erected the temporary Camp Charlotte on Sippo Creek.
Here they met with Cornstalk to begin peace negotiations. Although Chief Logan said he would cease fighting, he would not attend the formal peace talks. After the Mingo refused to accept the terms, Major William Crawford
William Crawford (soldier)
William Crawford was an American soldier and surveyor who worked as a western land agent for George Washington. Crawford fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War...
attacked their village of Seekunk (Salt Lick Town). His force of 240 men destroyed the village.
These operations, and the submission of the Shawnee and Mingo at Camp Charlotte, virtually closed the war. Governor Dunmore began his return, proceeding by Redstone and the Great Crossings of the Youghiogheny River
Youghiogheny River
The Youghiogheny River , or the Yough for short, is a tributary of the Monongahela River in the U.S. states of West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania...
to Fort Cumberland
Fort Cumberland (Maryland)
thumb|380px|Fort Cumberland, 1755 Fort Cumberland was an 18th century frontier fort at the current site of Cumberland, Maryland, USA...
, and then to the Virginia capital.
The peace did not prevail for long following this treaty. In May 1776, as the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
was heating up, the Shawnee joined renegade Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe
Dragging Canoe
Tsiyu Gansini , "He is dragging his canoe", known to whites as Dragging Canoe, was a Cherokee war chief who led a band of Cherokee against colonists and United States settlers...
in declaring war against the Virginia colonists. (see Chickamauga Wars (1776-1794)).