The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
existed between them; but it did not last long, for Sewell removed
about forty miles further west, to a creek that still bears his name.
There the Indians found him and killed him.
Colonel Stuart gives a very detailed account of the campaign of General
Lewis in 1774, which resulted in the battle at Point Pleasant. That
battle was, in fact, the beginning of the revolutionary war; for it is
well known that the Indians were induced by the British to commence
hostilities, for the purpose of confounding and terrifying the American
people. It was thought that an Indian war would prevent a combination
of the colonies for opposing the measures of parliament, and would turn
their thoughts from resistance to the government, by engaging them in
the defence of their homes. The Shawanese, a fierce, warlike, and
numerous tribe, were employed on this occasion, and they were a tribe
not to be despised--for by them, with their allies, have the most
conspicuous battles in the West been fought. It was chiefly the
Shawanese that cut off the British army under Braddock in 1755, and
defeated Major Grant and his highlanders at Fort Pitt in 1758. It was
they who defeated an army composed of the flower of Kentucky at Blue
Licks--who vanquished Harmer and St. Clair, who were beaten by Wayne,
and conquered by Harrison.
The army sent against these formidable savages by Governor Dunmore, was
composed of Virginia volunteers, led by General Andrew Lewis, a
gentleman of whose military abilities General Washington entertained so
high an opinion, that when the chief command of the revolutionary
armies were tendered to himself, he recommended that it should be given
to General Lewis. He was the companion of Washington in the fatal
campaign under Braddock, and was a captain in the detachment which
fought at Little Meadows in 1752. He commanded a company of Virginians,
attached to Major Grant's regiment of Highlanders in 1758, and on the
eve of the battle in which the latter was so signally defeated, was
ordered to the rear, with his men, in order that he might not share the
honor of the expected victory. There he stood with his brave
Virginians, impatiently listening to the reports of the musquetry, at a
distance of more than a mile from the battle ground--until the
Europeans were defeated, when, without waiting for orders, he rushed to
the scene of slaughter, and by his coolness and skill, turned the scale
of victory, drove back the savages, and saved the regulars from
massacre. "When he was advancing," says the narrative before us, "he
met a Scotch Highlander under speedy flight, and inquiring of him how
the battle was going, he said 'they were a' beaten, and he had seen
Donald McDonald up to his hunkers in mud, and a' the skeen af his
heed.' Grant made his escape from the field of battle with a party of
seven or eight soldiers, and wandered all night in the woods," but
surrendered himself to the enemy in the morning, while the Virginians
marched home in triumph.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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