 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(October 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Robert "Bob"Benge (c. 1762–1794), also known asCaptain Benge (or "The Bench" to frontiersmen), was aCherokee leader in the Upper Towns, in present-day farSouthwest Virginia during theCherokee–American wars (1783–1794).
He was born as Bob Benge about 1762 in theOverhill Cherokee town ofToqua, to a Cherokee woman and a Scots-Irish trader named John Benge, who lived full-time among the Cherokee and had taken a "country wife." They also had a daughter Lucy. Benge stood out physically because of his red hair. Under the Cherokeematrilineal kinship andclan system, children were considered born into their mother's family and clan. Their mother's eldest brother was considered the most important male figure in their growing up, especially for boys. The children were reared largely in Cherokee culture and identified as Cherokee.
The available sources strongly imply, but do not prove, that young Benge and his sister Lucy were half-siblings ofSequoyah, also known as George Guess.[citation needed] They were related to maternal great-unclesOld Tassel andDoublehead.
WhenDragging Canoe and his party moved southwest from eastern Tennessee in 1777, trader John Benge also moved his family to Running Water, one of the ChickamaugaLower Towns in the Piedmont.
Bob Benge, who later became known as "Captain Bench," his half-brother 'The Tail,' and cousinTahlonteeskee were around 20 years old, they joined their maternal uncleJohn Watts as warriors to fight against European-American settlers who were encroaching on their territory. These armed confrontations began soon after the Americans had gained independence from Great Britain in their revolutionary war, and began migrating over the Appalachian Mountains to settle in Cherokee territory.
While living atRunning Water (now Whiteside, Tennessee), Benge had met members of theShawnee band ofChiksika and his brotherTecumseh. Benge often took part in their raids and forays against the Americans. In one of the early raids, in spring 1777, Benge is said to have captured two women while raiding nearFort Blackmore, Virginia.[1]
Afterward he often ran with warriors led byDoublehead out of Coldwater Town at the head ofMuscle Shoals on theTennessee River (now in northern Alabama). He is credited with saving the population of the town ofUstally in 1788, which AmericanJohn Sevier had slated for destruction.
Benge raided as far north as theOhio River, deep into southwesternVirginia, all ofthe Washington District of North Carolina, and southeast intoGeorgia andSouth Carolina. These included a joint raid between his party and that of Doublehead into the Kentucky hunting grounds.[citation needed]
Benge was at Running Water when word came that the Cherokee had reached agreement withJohn Sevier to exchange hostages. The Brown family was mentioned by name, a group of settlers taken captive in 1788 when they reached Nickajack, after passing through the Five Lower Towns on theTennessee River. Only three of the surviving Brown family were still held by the Cherokee; the other three had been passed to theMuscogee.
Joseph Brown and his sister Polly were brought immediately to Running Water, but when runners were sent to Crow Town to retrieve Jane, their youngest sister, her owner refused to surrender her. Benge mounted his horse and hefted his famous axe, saying, "I will bring the girl, or the owner's head". The next morning he returned with Jane. The three were later transferred to Sevier at Coosawattee.
Benge came to a parting of the ways with his former close ally, Doublehead, over an incident at Cavett's Station. In 1793John Watts led a raid on theHolston River settlements, aiming atWhite's Fort (nowKnoxville, Tennessee). There, Benge negotiated the surrender of the garrison and its defenders with the promise of safe passage. Doublehead and his band violated the parole by attacking and killing them all: men, women, and children, as soon as they were outside the small fort. This was over the pleas of Benge, Watts, andJames Vann to honor the agreement. Benge never operated again with Doublehead after the incident. The massacre also contributed to a bitter animosity between Doublehead and Vann that led to a division between the Upper and Lower Towns after the end of the wars in 1794.
Benge raided as far as the westernmost counties of Virginia, attackingGate City, Virginia in 1791, andMoccasin Gap and Kane's Gap onPowell Mountain in 1793.[2]
He was killed April 6, 1794 in an ambush in what is in what is nowWise County, Virginia during an extended raid deep into enemy-held territory, while escorting prisoners captured from a settlement earlier in the day back to the Lower Towns. The militia took his scalp and sent it to the Governor of Virginia,Henry Lee III, who sent it on toPresidentGeorge Washington. Credit for killing Benge went to militia leader Vincent Hobbs Jr, son of one of the original white settlers of currentLee County, Virginia.