| Lord Dunmore's War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theAmerican Indian Wars | |||||||
 John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, for whom the war is named. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Shawnees Mingos | .svg) Colony of Virginia | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Cornstalk Talgayeeta | Lord Dunmore Andrew Lewis Angus McDonald William Crawford | ||||||
 | This article includes alist of references,related reading, orexternal links,but its sources remain unclear because it lacksinline citations. Please helpimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(April 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Lord Dunmore's War, also known asDunmore's War, was a brief conflict in fall 1774 between the BritishColony of Virginia and theShawnee andMingo in thetrans-Appalachian region of the colony south of the Ohio River. Broadly, the war included events between May and October 1774. Thegovernor of Virginia during the conflict wasJohn Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, who in May 1774, asked theHouse of Burgesses to declare a state ofwar with the Indians and call out theVirginia militia.
The conflict resulted from escalating violence between white settlers, who, in accordance with previous treaties, especially theTreaty of Fort Stanwix (1768), were exploring and moving into land south of theOhio River (modernWest Virginia,southwestern Pennsylvania, andKentucky), and theOhio CountryShawnee who had historical hunting rights in the south of Ohio lands of theIroquois Confederacy. Resulting cross-river attacks by the Shawnee caused war to be declared "to pacify the hostile Indian war bands".[citation needed] The war ended soon after Virginia's victory in theBattle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774. In the ensuing Treaty of Camp Charlotte, the Native Americans surrendered their hunting rights south of the Ohio, and agreed to cease attacks upon travelers on the river and recognize the river, running nearly north–south at its eastern end, as the boundary between Indian lands of Ohio Country to the west, and theColonies to the east. This was a major resetting of the Appalachian boundary defined by theRoyal Proclamation of 1763 which ended theFrench and Indian War.
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 settlers. When theAmerican Revolutionary War broke out between the American settlers and the British in 1775, the war parties of the Indian nations quickly gained power. They mobilized the various Indian nations to ally with the British during the war, initiating theCherokee-American wars that lasted nearly two decades.
The area south of the Ohio River and west of theKanawha River (long referred to asKentucke country after a region around the namesake river in what is today eastern Kentucky) had been claimed by theIroquois Confederacy since their conquest in the 17th-centuryBeaver Wars. 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.
When, in accordance with theTreaty of Fort Stanwix (1768), British officials acquired the land south of the Ohio River from the Iroquois, many other Ohio Indians who had hunted in these lands refused to accede to the treaty and prepared to defend their hunting rights.[1]
At the forefront of this resistance were theShawnee, the most powerful among the alliedAlgonquin tribes of the Ohio Valley. 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.[2] British officials worked to isolate the Shawnee diplomatically from other Indian nations. When full-blown hostilities broke out within a few years, the Shawnee would find that they faced the Virginia militia with few allies.
Following the 1768 treaty, colonial explorers, surveyors, and settlers began pouring into the region.[3] This immediately brought them into direct contact with Native Americans of the upper Ohio Valley, especially theAllegheny River.George Washington wrote in his journal for November 17, 1770, "The Indians who are very dexterous, even their 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."
In September 1773, noted frontiersmanDaniel Boone led a group of about 50 emigrants up thePowell River valley in Tennessee in the first attempt by white colonists to establish a settlement inKentucke. On October 9, 1773, just south of theCumberland Gap, Boone's oldest son James, age 16, and a small group of men and boys who were retrieving supplies were attacked by a band ofDelawares, Shawnees, andCherokees. They had decided "to send a message of their opposition to settlement..."[4] James Boone and Henry Russell, a teenage son of future Revolutionary War officer William Russell, were captured and tortured to death. The brutality of the killings shocked the settlers along the frontier, and Boone's party abandoned their expedition. By December, the incident had been reported in Baltimore and Philadelphia newspapers.
The deaths among Boone's party were among the seminal events that culminated in Lord 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.[5]
Boone's expedition was the first of several as part of a scheme with land speculatorRichard Henderson to establish theTransylvania Colony inKentucke.
Starting in 1769,Ebenezer Zane, afterwards a famed "Indian fighter" and guide, known forZane's trace, had established a settlement on Wheeling Creek just over the Pennsylvania border on the Allegheny he named "Zanesburg" (nowWheeling, West Virginia). Later, Fort Fincastle was sited there.
Among the early settlers of the Allegheny valley beyond Pennsylvania was CaptainMichael Cresap, the owner of a trading post atRedstone Old Fort (nowBrownsville, Pennsylvania) on theMonongahela River. Under authority of the colonial government ofVirginia, Cresap had taken control of extensive tracts of land at and below the mouth ofMiddle Island Creek (nowSt. Marys, West Virginia.) He went there in the early spring of 1774 with a party of men to settle his holdings.[citation needed]
In spring of 1774, a group that includedGeorge Rogers Clark, who later became a general during theRevolutionary War, had gathered at the mouth of theLittle Kanawha River (nowParkersburg, 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 Indians were robbing and occasionally killing traders,surveyors and others traveling down the Ohio. So they invited another settler, Captain Michael Cresap, who also intended to go to Kentucky, and who had combat experience, to join the group.
Cresap understood that any provocations might result in war, so he suggested the group return upstream to Zane's small settlement at "Zanesburg" (the futureWheeling) and wait to see if Indian hostilities would decline. However, when they arrived, 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 the Indian brutality towards captured settlers. Fearing for the lives of women and children, colonists living on thefrontier flocked to the town for protection. A message fromJohn Connolly, the garrison commander at upstreamFort Pitt, indicated that the local tribes including Shawnee and Delaware, intended war.[6][7][8]
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 retreated with Cresap's men to his headquarters at Redstone Old Fort.
Immediately after the Pipe Creek attack, settlers killed relatives of theMingo leaderLogan. Up until this point, Logan had expressed peaceful intentions toward the settlers. He and his hunting party were camped on the west bank of the Ohio at Yellow Creek, about 30 miles (48 km) above Zanesburg (near present daySteubenville, 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 visitingMingo included Logan's younger brother, commonly known as John Petty, and two closely related women. The younger woman was pregnant and also had an infant girl with her. The father of both these children wasJohn Gibson, a well-known trader. Once the group was inside Baker's cabin, some 30 frontiersmen, led byDaniel Greathouse, suddenly crowded in and killed all the visitors except the infant.
When Logan heard of the massacre, he was led to believe that Cresap, not Greathouse, was the man responsible for the attack.[9][10] However, many people familiar with the incident (including Clark) knew that 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 inblockhouses or by fleeing eastward across theMonongahela River. Many even traveled back across theAllegheny Mountains. Their fear was well founded. Logan and small parties of Shawnee and Mingo soon began striking at frontier settlers inrevenge for the murders at Yellow Creek.[11]
The following month, a fieldsurveyor namedWilliam Preston sent a letter of report to the head engineer of the frontier fort construction, namelyGeorge Washington, which indicates his understanding of circumstances just prior to the outbreak of Dunmore's War:[12]
FINCASTLE May 27. 1774.
DEAR SIRAgreeable to my Promise I directed Mr. Floyd an Assistant to Survey your Land onCole River on his Way to theOhio, 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 whetherLouisa orCumberland Rivers was the Boundary between us and theCherokees. 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. TheNorthern Indians Sold that Land to theEnglish at theTreaty of Lancaster in 1744, by theTreaty of Logs Town in 1752 and by that atFort Stanwix in 1768. At that Time the Cherrokees laid no Claim to that Land & how the[y] come to do it now I cannot imagine...
Early in May 1774, Dunmore received word that fighting had begun at Yellow Creek and other points on the Ohio. He requested the legislature to raise regular military forces to quell the threat of growing violence.[13] TheHouse of Burgesses preferred temporary militia forces.[13] The legislature spent their time in session showing support toBoston[14] and discussing the border dispute with Pennsylvania,[15] but failed to renew the expiring militia act.[16] Dunmore dissolved the House of Burgesses on 26 May 1774[17] and used his executive power under the expiring Invasions and Insurrections Act to mobilize Virginia's county militias.
According to historiansEric Hinderaker andPeter C. Mancall inAt the Edge of Empire (2003):
With the new forces, Dunmore advanced toward the Ohio where he split his force into two groups: one would move down the Ohio from Fort Pitt (nowPittsburgh), 1,700 men led by him, and another body of 800 troops under ColonelAndrew Lewis would travel from Camp Union (nowLewisburg, West Virginia) with the two forces rendezvousing at the mouth of theGreat Kanawha River.[18] Under this general plan, Dunmore traveled to Fort Pitt and duly proceeded with his forces down the Ohio. On September 30, he arrived at Fort Fincastle (laterFort Henry), recently built at Zanesburg at his direction.
The force under Lewis, now 1,100 strong, proceeded from Camp Union to the headwaters of the Kanawha. From there, he continued downriver to the appointed rendezvous, reaching the river's mouth (October 6) where he established "Camp Pleasant" (soon to be known asPoint Pleasant). Not finding Dunmore there, he sent messengers up the Ohio to meet him and tell him of the arrival. On October 9 Dunmore sent a dispatch announcing his presence at the mouth of theHocking River, and that he would proceed to the Shawnee towns on theScioto. He ordered Lewis to cross the Ohio and meet him at the Shawnee towns.
Dunmore encouraged the county militia lieutenants to build small forts to protect inhabitants, and also for use by militias.[16]Connolly sentWilliam Crawford to buildFort Fincastle in June 1774, to oversee the mouth ofWheeling Creek.[19] From here, Connolly planned to launch offensive operations.
In the first battle of the war,[20] on July 26, 1774, forces underAngus McDonald crossed the Ohio River to attack the villages ofWakatomika. McDonald commanded a battalion of about 400 men divided into eight companies, includingMichael Cresap,George Rogers Clark, andDaniel Morgan as three of the company commanders.[21]
After making first contact on July 31 with 3 Native Americans on horseback,[22] McDonald suspected a decoy initiated ambush, and organized the companies into three columns.[23] The following day, they indeed encountered three Native American scouts who ran through a swamp, leading McDonald's battalion to an ambush.[23] Prepared for this tactic, McDonald's battalion flanked the Native Americans, who conducted a fighting withdrawal. The battalion reported two dead and five wounded, with one Native American confirmed killed.[24]
The Virginians continued to theMuskingum River, where they exchanged musket fire with village defenders, killing one while suffering no losses.[24] During the exchange, a Virginian named Joseph Nicholson and a Lenape man recognized one another, and the Lenape man crossed the river to speak with McDonald.[24] He told McDonald that the Pennsylvanians had warned the area villages of the "cruel" Virginian's approach, and that the Lenape were friendly towards white settlers. The Lenape man left and returned the next day with two more Lenape men and one Mingo. After some discussion, McDonald sent them with a message that he would spare the nearby villages if they released two white women that had recently been captured, and offered three warriors to be held by the Virginians until the chiefs could meet in a council.[25]
While awaiting their response, McDonald sent two companies to cross the river downstream. When the Lenape did not return on August 2, 1774, McDonald ordered an attack. Along the way, they found the Mingo man from the previous day, who said the villages had refused their terms. McDonald kept the man as hostage.[26] The two companies that had crossed the river, meanwhile, met an ambush of defenders. The Virginians outflanked their position and believed that they had killed or wounded several. The entire battalion entered the villages, which they found abandoned. They plundered and burned one Mingo and five Shawnee villages, but spared the Lenape villages since they were considered neutral.[26]
Shawnee defenders killed two Virginians and wounded several more, but McDonald was able to sack multiple villages and destroy their fields.[27] They returned to Wheeling with three Shawnee captives and three scalps. Native American attacks continued; McDonald's campaign accomplished little, but convinced Governor Dunmore than overwhelming force was needed.[28]
On October 10, before Lewis began crossing the Ohio, he and his force were surprised by warriors under ChiefCornstalk. TheBattle of Point Pleasant (at what is today its namesake Point Pleasant, WV on the WV/Ohio border) raged nearly all day and descended into hand-to-hand combat. Lewis's army suffered about 215 casualties, of whom 75 were killed, including Lewis's brother, and 140 wounded. His forces defeated the Ohio Confederacy warriors, who retreated across the Ohio, having lost about 40 warriors.[29] CaptainGeorge Mathews of the Virginia militia was credited with a flanking maneuver that initiated Cornstalk's retreat.[30]
After victory at the Point, Dunmore and Lewis advanced from their respective camps into Ohio to within eight miles (13 km) of the Shawnee towns atPickaway Plains (presentPickaway County, Ohio) on the Scioto. Here they erected the temporary Camp Charlotte on Scippo Creek and met with Cornstalk to begin peace negotiations. By the terms of the Treaty of Camp Charlotte (October 19, 1774), the Shawnee agreed to cease hunting south of the Ohio and to discontinue harassment of travellers on the River.[31] Although Chief Logan said he would cease fighting, he would not attend the formal peace talks. It was here that an agent of Chief Logan (possiblySimon Girty) recited a speech by Logan which became one of the most famous speeches in Indian and Ohio history, dubbed,Logan's Lament.
After the Mingo refused to accept the terms, MajorWilliam Crawford attacked their village of Seekunk (Salt Lick Town, nowColumbus, Ohio). His force of 240 men destroyed the village.[32] These operations, and the submission of the Shawnee at Camp Charlotte, virtually closed the war.
The treaty was reaffirmed in talks the following year at Fort Pitt, where commissioners from theContinental Congress urged representatives from the Iroquois, Shawnee, Lenape, Wyandot, and Odawa to remain neutral in the growing conflict with Great Britain.[33]
In early November 1774, the army of Virginians arrived back at the point of land formed by confluence of the Ohio and Hocking Rivers and to the makeshift base camp they had established several weeks earlier named Fort Gower (forEarl Gower, a British Lord).[34] There they were informed that the Continental Congress in Philadelphia had enacted a boycott of English goods in response to theCoercive Acts. Recognizing the significance of what was essentially an act of rebellion, the Virginians, in a declaration of the increasing spirit of independence among the colonists, addressing King George and their fellow Virginians, wrote and had published what came to be known as theFort Gower Resolves. Among the soldiers present were many Virginians that later became famous in the revolution:William Campbell, George Rogers Clark, William Crawford,Simon Kenton, Andrew Lewis,Daniel Morgan,William Russell,Adam Stephen and many others.
At a Meeting of the Officers under the Command of his Excellency the Right Honourable the EARL of DUNMORE, convened at Fort Gower*, November 5, 1774, for the Purpose of considering the Grievances of BRITISH AMERICA, an Officer present addressed the Meeting in the following Words:
GENTLEMEN: Having now concluded the Campaign, by the Assistance of Providence, with Honour and Advantage to the Colony, and ourselves, it only remains that we should give our Country the strongest Assurance that we are ready, at all Times, to the utmost of our Power, to maintain and defend her just Rights and Privileges. We have lived about three Months in the Woods, without any intelligence from Boston, or from the Delegates at Philadelphia. It is possible, from the groundless Reports of designing Men, that our Countrymen may be jealous of the Use such a Body would make of Arms in their Hands at this critical Juncture. That we are a respectable Body is certain, when it is considered that we can live Weeks without Bread or Salt, that we can sleep in the open Air without any Covering but that of the Canopy of Heaven, and that our Men can march and shoot with any in the known World. Blessed with these Talents, let us solemnly engage to one another, and our Country in particular, that we will use them to no Purpose but for the Honour and Advantage of America in general, and of Virginia in particular. It behooves us then, for the Satisfaction of our Country, that we should give them our real Sentiments, by Way of Resolves, at this very alarming Crisis.
Whereupon the Meeting made Choice of a Committee to draw up and prepare Resolves for their Consideration, who immediately withdrew; and after some Time spent therein, reported, that they had agreed to, and prepared the following Resolves, which were read, maturely considered, and agreed tonemine contradicente, by the Meeting, and ordered to be published in the Virginia Gazette:
Resolved, that we will bear the most faithful Allegiance to his Majesty King George III, whilst his Majesty delights to reign over a brave and free People; that we will, at the Expense of Life, and every Thing dear and valuable, exert ourselves in Support of the Honour of his Crown and the Dignity of the British empire. But as the Love of Liberty, and Attachment to the real Interests and just Rights of America outweigh every other Consideration, we resolve that we will exert every Power within us for the Defence of American Liberty, and for the Support of her just Rights and Privileges; not in any precipitate, riotous, or tumultous Manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous Voice of our Countrymen.
Resolved, that we entertain the greatest Respect for his Excellency the Right Honourable Lord Dunmore, who commanded the Expedition against the Shawanese; and who, we are confident, underwent the great Fatigue of this singular Campaign from no other Motive than the true Interest of this Country.
Signed by Order, and in Behalf of the whole corps,
BENJAMIN ASHBY,
Clerk.
The Resolves were published in theVirginia Gazette December 22, 1774.[35]
It was the first time colonists had asserted that they were prepared to use force of arms against the Crown to secure their rights—acts which, if executed, would be treason.
These resolves were virtually adeclaration of independence in Ohio by Virginia backwoodsmen six months before theshot in Concord "heard round the world" and fully a year and a half before the peal of theLiberty Bell announced the freedom of the colonies.
Dunmore's militia then retreated over theAlleghenies proceeding byRedstone Old Fort and theGreat Crossings of the Youghiogheny River[36] toFort Cumberland, and then to the capitol atWilliamsburg.
The peace did not stay for long following the treaty, however. On March 24, 1775, a band of Shawnee who apparently did not recognize the Ohio river boundary attackedDaniel Boone in Kentucky along theWilderness Road. Nonetheless, by the time of colonial victories atLexington and Concord, there were several permanent settlements inKentucke country: Harrod's Town, Boone's Station, Logan's Fort, and Lexington. In May 1776, as theAmerican Revolution got underway, the Shawnee joined dissident Cherokee chiefDragging Canoe in again declaring war on the Virginia colonists. These were theCherokee–American wars of 1776–1794.Kentucke country would go on to become its own county (1776) and eventually the U.S. state ofKentucky (1792); the northern portion, including Point Pleasant, would become the state of West Virginia.
Fort Gower was abandoned after Dunmore's war. Its present location is believed to be underwater just beyondHockingport, Ohio. Fort Fincastle, renamed Fort Henry by the colonial militia, along with Fort Pitt and the downstreamFort Harmar in Ohio (1785) became major stepping stones for advancement of the trans-Appalachian frontier during the Cherokee-American and Northwest Indian wars. A series of forts were established at the Point during and after the Revolutionary War; all were abandoned. Settlement along the Allegheny was inhibited until the end of the Indian wars. About that time, a settlement grew up on the Point and was chartered Point Pleasant in 1794.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) "The Shawanese on the whole appear at present the most attentive to the Six Nations Councils of any to the Southward, but they are much alarmed at the numbers who go from Virginia &c in pursuit of new settlements leaving large Tracts of Country unsettled behind them, and who I am sorry to find an not be restrained being numerous, & remote from the influence and Seats of Government, and the old claims of Virginia conspiring to encourage them, so long as they confine themselves within the ceded Tract...I gave them of His Majestys Intentions to form a Colony on Ohio, and of the evacuating of Fort Pitt, that they were very thankfull for the whole they had thereof and hoped (page 890) that the person appointed to govern there would prove a wise man and restrain the abuses in Trade & irregularities committed by the Frontier Inhabitants,..." Sir Johnson Letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, (Johnson Hall, Sept. 22, 1773), Johnson, Sir William in:Docs. Rel. to the Col. Hist. of the State N. Y.(London Docs.: XLIII): VIII, pp. 395-397, and inThe Papers of Sir William Johnson, vol. 8, pp. 888-891. 1996, Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology and The Trustees of Indiana University"Archived copy". Archived fromthe original on 2009-03-11. Retrieved2009-07-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Logan, a prominent Seneca-Cayuga leader, accused Cresap of murdering his family. Cresap did not happen to be involved in thisparticular instance of brutality; but he was immortalized in Logan's speech (known as "Logan's Lament" and quoted in Thomas Jefferson'sNotes on the State of Virginia) as the murderer of Logan's family.
Brothers: [directed at Captain Connolly, Mr. McKee, and Mr. Croghan] We have received your Speeches byWhite 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 us 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
