Chronicles of border warfare : $b or, A history of the settlement by the whites, of north-western Virginia, and of the Indian wars and massacres, in that section of the stateWithers, Alexander Scott
History
Chronicles of border warfare : $b or, A history of the settlement by the whites, of north-western Virginia, and of the Indian wars and massacres, in that section of the state
Withers, Alexander Scott
Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1750-1815; Ohio River Valley -- History -- To 1795; West Virginia -- History -- To 1950
Arbuckle as guide, advanced towards the Shawnee towns, eighty
miles distant in a straight line, and probably a hundred and
twenty-five by the circuitous Indian trails. The army marched
about eleven miles a day, frequently seeing hostile parties
but engaging none. Reaching the salt licks near the head of
the south branch of Salt Creek (in the present Lick township,
Jackson county, O.), they descended that valley to the
Scioto, and thence to a prairie on Kinnikinnick (not Kilkenny)
Creek, where was the freshly-deserted Indian village
referred to above, by Withers. This was thirteen miles south of
Chillicothe (now Westfall). Here they were met, early on the
24th, by a messenger from his lordship, ordering them to
halt, as a treaty was nearly concluded at Camp Charlotte. But
Lewis's army had been fired on that morning, and the place was
untenable for a camp in a hostile country, so he concluded to
seek better ground. A few hours later another messenger came,
again peremptorily ordering a halt, as the Shawnees had
practically come to terms. Lewis now concluded to join the
northern division in force, at Camp Charlotte, not liking to
have the two armies separated in the face of a treacherous
enemy; but his guide mistook the trail, and took one leading
directly to the Grenadier Squaw's Town. Lewis camped that
night on the west bank of Congo Creek, two miles above its
mouth, and five and a quarter miles from Chillicothe, with
the Indian town half-way between. The Shawnees were now
greatly alarmed and angered, and Dunmore himself, accompanied
by the Delaware chief White Eyes, a trader, John Gibson, and
fifty volunteers, rode over in hot haste that evening to stop
Lewis, and reprimand him. His lordship was mollified by Lewis's
explanations, but the latter's men, and indeed Dunmore's, were
furious over being stopped when within sight of their hated
quarry, and tradition has it that it was necessary to
treble the guards during the night to prevent Dunmore and White
Eyes from being killed. The following morning (the 25th), his
lordship met and courteously thanked Lewis's officers for
their valiant service; but said that now the Shawnees had
acceded to his wishes, the further presence of the southern
division might engender bad blood. Thus dismissed, Lewis led
his army back to Point Pleasant, which was reached on the
28th. He left there a garrison of fifty men under Captain
Russell, and then by companies the volunteers marched
through the wilderness to their respective homes, where they
disbanded early in November.--R. G. T.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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