CHAPTER V.--An Unbidden Guest.
Beginning with the abduction of the children, the whole Virginiafrontier was subjected to Indian raids. While the majority of thesettlers attributed the uprising to Governor Dunmore's agency, thebetter informed knew that it was traceable to the murder of the Loganfamily.
As Jackson River was a frontier settlement, the farmers met at theschool house and made preparations for defense.
All able bodied freemen between the ages of fifteen and fifty wereenrolled in the local militia. All realized that serious days were aheadfor the colony, which must not only suppress the Indians, but beprepared to join with the other colonies in resisting, even by force ofarms, the oppressive measures adopted by the mother country.
In the reorganization, they insisted upon choosing new and competentofficers to command them; men who had seen military service and whoseloyalty to the colony was not tainted by Toryism.
Mr. Campbell's efforts at organization coupled with the knowledge thathe had been an officer in and seen actual service in the British armyand that a warrant had been issued for his arrest resulted after carefulconsideration in his selection as their captain. This selection aftersome delay was confirmed upon the recommendation of Mr. Peyton Randolphand Mr. Fairfax.
After receiving his commission he worked zealously in organizing,drilling and equipping his company of 170 men; all of whom wereexperienced woodsmen and excellent marksmen.
With this command he counted not only upon protecting the frontier; butif all peaceful means failed, at an opportune time of rescuing his sonand little Dorothy.
His plantation, well up the mountain side, was the first settlement onthe trail coming over the mountain from the Kanawha country, and atnight half a dozen men used his barn as barracks, while he and his twoservants slept in the house, their rifles within easy reach of theirbeds. A guard of three men was also placed in the mountain pass to watchthe trail and give warning.
Signal flags were set upon John Calvin Rock to give warning by day and agreat pile of wood and timber, ready for flint and steel, was placedupon its summit to give a blaze of warning by night.
On the night of the thirtieth of July, the party in the barn wereawakened by Indians stealing the two horses. They gave the alarm byfiring at them just as they were leaving the lot, and then followed upthe mountain trail in close pursuit, occasionally taking a shot when arolling stone or the noise made by the horses indicated the location ofthe marauders.
The shooting warned the guards at the pass, and they, at close range,making out the figures of the Indians even in the darkness, killed oneand recovered one of the horses.
When daylight came, Mr. Campbell and his two servants scoured thewestern mountain side in search of the other horse and found him. He hadbeen shot through the fleshy part of the neck and the halter rope wasentangled in a laurel bush.
While they were examining his wounds, Jerry, who had followed them, keptup an incessant barking and growling in a thick cluster of laurels.Investigating the cause they found an Indian, shot through the chest andmurmuring in unconscious monotone.
Richard said: "Let's kill him, he is going to die any way and a deadIndian is always a good Indian." But Mr. Campbell forbade it, not onlyfrom kindness of heart but with the hope that from him he might learnnews of the children.
He was placed upon the horse; and supported on either side by hiscaptors was carried to the Campbell home. There, exhausted anddelirious, he was put to bed in a small shed used as a store room.
After two weeks' careful nursing he began to recover and shortly afterMr. Campbell was told by the Valley doctor: "In a few days you will havea dangerous Indian on your hands, but he is yet too weak to leave hisbed."
The morning after the doctor's visit Mr. Campbell found the bed emptyand the patient gone. Scratched on the wall in charcoal, he read: "Onewhite man good to Indian; before cahonks fly bring back papoose.Tah-gah-jute."
Tah-gah-jute, son of Skikellemy, a Cayuga Indian chief, was born in1725, at Shamokin, on the Susquehanna. He was given the name of Logan,after John Logan, then Secretary of the Pennsylvania Colony, a man whomany times had shown himself a friend of the Cayugas.
Logan grew to be a man of intelligence and fine personal appearance; anduntil he moved westward on the Ohio River in 1770, was of good personalhabits. There, because of his friendliness with the whites, he, with hisfamily, usually camped in the neighborhood of the stations of the whitetraders and by the association not only he but his family acquiredhabits of intemperance.
On the twentieth of April, 1774, they moved to the mouth of YellowCreek, on the north bank of the Ohio, just across the river from JoshuaBaker's joint and trading station.
Shortly afterwards some land jobbers near the month of Sandy Creek wererobbed by a band of Indians. In retaliation Captain Cresap gathered agang of men and began killing Indians in the neighborhood of Wheeling.On Grave Creek, below Wheeling, they killed two of Logan's kinsmen.Hearing a rumor of this and wishing to ascertain the truth, Logan on thetwenty-seventh of April accompanied by two braves traveled down to GraveCreek. In the meantime, Captain Cresap and Daniel Greathouse with theirgang came to Baker's.
Logan's mother, sister and cousin, a little girl, with four Indian men,crossed in a canoe to Baker's; where after being made drunk, they wereall murdered, except the little girl who was carried off a prisoner.
In retaliation, Logan with several Indians, not being able to findCresap, came up the river to the mouth of the Kanawha, where theymurdered several white men; then ascending the Kanawha to its head,crossed the mountain to Campbell's plantation and stole the twochildren. They carried them to Shauane-Town, on the Scioto, near thepresent site of Circleville.
The first of July, Logan, accompanied by seven Mingoes, into whichconfederacy he had been adopted and made a chief, ascended the west forkof the Monongahela into what was then West Augusta county where theycame upon William Robinson and two farm hands working in a field. Theykilled one of his men and made Robinson and the other prisoners,carrying them to Shauane-Town; Logan declaring it to be his purpose tokill or make captive as many whites as they had murdered of his kindred.
Though Logan spoke English he could write very little. He therefore madeRobinson write a note to Captain Cresap, in the nature of a declarationof war, which was tied to a war club and thrown into the first whitesettlement he passed. It read:
"Captain Cresap:
"What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for? The white people killed my kin at Conestoga and I let it pass. But you killed my kin, even my mother and sister on Yellow Creek and took my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I must kill too; and I have been three times to war since; but the Indians are not angry, only myself.
"July 21, 1774. John Logan."
Cresap, Greathouse and certain other traders continued murderingIndians, until they stirred up the whole Indian country; then the tribesin retaliation began killing the settlers west of the Alleghanies,making no discrimination between the settlers and traders. The settlersdeserting their homes fled eastward across the mountains.
A man by the name of Connelley, the confidential agent of GovernorDunmore, came to Shauane-Town and there met in council with the chiefsof the Shauanese, Delawares, Wyandottes and Mingoes; his mission beingto induce them to war with the "Long Knives," or Virginians. He wassuccessful and war was declared.
Four hundred of the Virginia militia assembled at Wheeling, marched downthe Ohio and up the Muskingum, killing Indians and destroying theirtowns.
Jefferson in his "Notes on Virginia," comments upon these incidents asfollows:
"In the spring of the year 1774 a robbery was committed by some Indianson certain land adventurers on the Ohio River. The whites in thatquarter, according to their custom undertook to punish this outrage in asummary way. Captain Michael Cresap and a certain Daniel Greathouseleading on these parties, surprised at different times traveling andhunting parties of Indians, having their wome
n and children with themand murdered many. Among these were unfortunately the family of Logan, achief celebrated in peace and in war and long distinguished as a friendof the whites. This unworthy return provoked his vengeance. Heaccordingly signalized himself in the war which ensued."
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On the fifth of September Captain Campbell received orders from GeneralAndrew Lewis, directing that he with his company report for service atFort Union on the tenth of September, prepared for a sixty day campaigninto the Ohio River country. He and his wife were delighted at thereceipt of the order, believing the opportunity was now presented torescue the children.
His company of ninety-seven left the settlement on the morning of theeighth, and about noon on the ninth reached Fort Union on the westernslope of the Alleghanies.
On September eleventh, General Lewis led his detachment of elevenhundred men down the mountain side into the Kanawha valley, beginning aone hundred and sixty mile tramp through the pathless, rough and heavilytimbered wilderness of the valley to Point Pleasant, where they arrivedon the first of October. Here Governor Dunmore was supposed to meet himwith two thousand men, who were to march over the mountains to theMonongahela River and descend that stream and the Ohio to the rendezvousin canoes and batteaux.
After waiting nine days he received word that the Governor had changedhis plans, and instead of meeting them as agreed, had come down the Ohioto the mouth of the Hocking River and ascended that stream to the falls;declaring it his intention to march across country and attack the Indiantowns on the Scioto.
On the afternoon of the day this information was received, CaptainCampbell and one of his men, thinking to supplement his company'srations by killing a deer or two, left the camp and traveled more than amile back into the timbered river valley.
There a large party of Indians hiding in a cane brake attacked them,killing the soldier. Two Indians close at hand rushed the captain,intending to take him a prisoner. He killed one, the other, a powerfulman, throwing him to the ground rolled upon him. Each looked into theother's face and recognition was mutual. It was Logan. He muttered:"Throw Indian off and run to camp." This he did, and was so closelypursued by the chief, who kept even with but apparently could notovertake him, that the other Indians dared not fire.
General Lewis expecting every day to be joined by Governor Dunmore hadneglected to fortify his camp near the junction of the Ohio and Kanawharivers. There the Indians, superior numerically, cornered his detachmentand cut off retreat.
The morning following Captain Campbell's escape, while the camp wasbeing broken up to join Dunmore's forces, the Indians in great numbers,began the attack with a well directed fire, howling and screeching asonly wild men can; and for several hours had the best of the conflict.They were commanded by Chief Cornstalk, who moving back and forth alongtheir line when it began to waver, could be heard above the din ofconflict, calling out in Indian tongue: "Be strong! Be strong!" Thebattle continued throughout the day and by evening it was evident thewhites were victorious. At dark the Indians withdrew, and during thenight crossed the Ohio.
Of the colonists, ten officers, including two colonels and five captainsand more than a hundred private soldiers were killed. Of the JacksonRiver Company, seven were killed and eleven were wounded. Among thewounded was Captain Campbell, who with the other wounded were leftbehind at the camp, now strongly entrenched and well guarded, while theGeneral with most of his men marched up the river to join Lord Dunmore.
Opposite the mouth of the Hocking River they ferried the Ohio in theGovernor's boats and marched rapidly northward expecting to join Dunmorewho had entrenched about five miles east of Shauane-Town, giving thecamp the name of Fort Charlotte.
Learning of General Lewis' approach, he rode out and met him severalmiles from his fort, having as his escort several officers and Indianchiefs, two of whom had been in the Point Pleasant battle. When they methe peremptorily ordered Lewis to return to Virginia. This order theGeneral reluctantly obeyed; his men grumbling and threatening, evencharging that the Governor had been cognizant of the contemplated attackupon them, perhaps had instigated it; and was now showing hisdisappointment because they had defeated the Indians.
After the battle of Point Pleasant the Indians had repaired toShauane-Town, where Cornstalk convened a general council.
His advice was that they slay their women and children and then fightuntil all were slain. Some of the chiefs seemed not to dread surrenderto Lord Dunmore and his proposition was met with silent disapprobation.Finding the Indians either disheartened or apathetic or anxious forpeace, he drove his tomahawk into a log, the sign of submission, andsaid: "I will sue for peace."
The peace council was held at Fort Charlotte. Lord Dunmore and theIndians had no difficulty in coming to terms. All the chiefs ofprominence were represented except Logan. He had opposed making peaceand disdained to be seen among the suppliants at Fort Charlotte; butlest the sincerity of the treaty should be distrusted, he sent bymessenger (John Gibson) the following speech to be delivered to LordDunmore:
"I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabinhungry and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked and heclothed him not. During the last long and bloody war, Logan remainedidle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for thewhites that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said: 'Logan is thefriend of the white man.' I had even thought to have lived with you butfor the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in coldblood and unprovoked, murdered all the relatives of Logan, not sparingmy women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins ofany living creature. This called on me for revenge. For my country Irejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor the thought that mineis the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heelto save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one."
At the peace conference, in the absence of Logan, the usual Speaker,Cornplanter presented the cause of the Indians. He began by complainingof the white men who had disregarded their treaties; settling uponIndian lands without even an offer of purchase; even upon soil which bytreaty had been reserved as sacred from settlement or incursion, thencontinued: "* * * and have robbed again and again and murdered Indiansand their families while peacefully hunting. For years we have patientlyendured these wrongs, till at length we were driven into this bloodywar. We do not wish for war; we wish for peace. We know the power of thewhite man and that he can overpower the Indian. But this is a whiteman's war. Yet had we not resented the wrongs done us even the white manwould have despised us for cowardice."
Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant Page 11