Volume I Part 16 (2/2)

11. Born December 11, 1750, near Hagerstown, Md.

12. Letter of Col. Wm. Preston, September 28, 1774. ”Am. Archives.”

13. Letter of one of Lord Dunmore's officers, November 21, 1774. ”Am.

Archives,” IV., Vol. I., p. 1017. Hale gives a minute account of the route followed; Stewart says they started on the 11th.

With the journal of Floyd's expedition, mentioned on a previous page, I received MS. copies of two letters to Col. William Preston, both dated at Camp Union, at the Great Levels; one, of September 8th from Col.

Andrew Lewis, and one of September 7th (9th?) from Col. William Christian.

Col. Lewis' letter runs in part: ”From Augusta we have 600; of this county [Botetourt] about 400; Major Field is joined with 40.... I have had less Trouble with the Troops than I expected.... I received a letter from his Lords.h.i.+p last Sunday morning which was dated the 30th of August at Old Towns, which I take to be Chresops, he then I am told had Col.

Stephens and Major Conolly at his Elbow as might easily be discovered by the Contents of his Letter which expressed his Lords.h.i.+p's warmest wishes that I would with all the troops from this Quarter join him at the mouth of the little Kanaway, I wrote his Lords.h.i.+p that it was not in my power to alter our rout.... The Indians wounded a man within two miles of us ... and wounded another, from this we may expect they will be picking about us all the March.” He states that he has more men than he expected, and will therefore need more provisions, and that he will leave some of his poorest troops to garrison the small fort.

Col. Christian's letter states that the Augusta men took with them 400 pack-horses, carrying 54,000 pounds of flour, and 108 beeves, they started ”yesterday.” Field marched ”this evening”, Fleming and his 450 Botetourt men, with 200 pack-horses, ”are going next Monday.” Field had brought word that Dunmore expected to be at the mouth of the Great Kanawha ”some days after the 20th.” Some Indians had tried to steal a number of pack-horses, but had been discovered and frightened off.

Christian was very much discontented at being bidden to stay behind until he could gather 300 men, and bring up the rear, he expresses his fear that his men will be much exasperated when they learn that they are to stay behind, and reiterates ”I would not for all I am worth be behind crossing the Ohio and that we should miss lending our a.s.sistance.” Field brought an account of McDonald's fight (see _ante_, p. 216), he said the whites were 400 and the Indians but 30 strong, that the former had 4 men killed and 6 wounded, the Indians but 3 or 4 killed and 1 captured, and their town was burnt. The number of the Shawnees and their allies was estimated at 1,200 warriors that could be put into one battle. The 400 horses that had started with the Augusta men were to return as fast as they could (after reaching the embarkment point, whence the flour was carried in canoes).

14. When the Revolutionary war broke out the Earl not only fought the revolted colonists with all legitimate weapons, but tried to incite the blacks to servile insurrection, and sent agents to bring his old foes, the red men of the forest, down on his old friends, the settlers. He encouraged piratical and plundering raids, and on the other hand failed to show the courage and daring that are sometimes partial offsets to ferocity. But in this war, in 1774, he conducted himself with great energy in making preparations, and showed considerable skill as a negotiator in concluding the peace, and apparently went into the conflict with hearty zest and good will. He was evidently much influenced by Conolly, a very weak adviser, however; and his whole course betrayed much vacillation, and no generals.h.i.+p.

15. Smyth's ”Tour,” II., p. 179.

16. ”Am. Archives,” p. 1017.

17. _Do_. Stewart says they reached the mouth of the Kanawha on Oct. 1st; another account says Sept. 30th; but this is an error, as shown both by the ”Am. Archives” and by the Campbell MSS.

18. Hale, 182.

19. Campbell MSS. Letter of Isaac Shelby to John Shelby, Oct. 16, 1774.

A portion of this letter, unsigned, was printed in ”Am. Archives,” p.

1016, and in various newspapers (even at Belfast; _see_ Hale, p.

187, who thinks it was written by Captain Arbuckle). As it is worth preserving and has never been printed in full I give it in the Appendix.

20. Stewart's Narrative.

21. Smyth, II., p. 158. He claims to have played a prominent part in the battle. This is certainly not so, and he may not have been present at all; at least Col. Stewart, who was there and was acquainted with every one of note in the army, a.s.serts positively that there was no such man along; nor has any other American account ever mentioned him. His military knowledge was nil, as may be gathered from his remark, made when the defeats of Braddock and Grant were still recent, that British regulars with the bayonet were best fitted to oppose Indians.

22. Some accounts say that he was accompanied by Kenton and McCulloch; others state that no messenger arrived until after the battle. But this is certainly wrong. Shelby's letter shows that the troops learned the governor's change of plans before the battle.

23. ”Am. Archives,” IV., Vol. J., p. 1017; and was joined by Col.

Christian's three hundred the day after the battle.

24. Campbell MSS. Letter of Col. William Preston (presumably to Patrick Henry), Oct. 31, 1774. As it is interesting and has never been published, I give it in the Appendix.

25. Many of the white accounts make their number much greater, without any authority; Shelby estimates it at between eight hundred and one thousand. Smith, who generally gives the Indian side, says that on this occasion they were nearly as numerous as the whites. Smyth, who bitterly hates the Americans, and always belittles their deeds, puts the number of Indians at nine hundred; he would certainly make it as small as possible. So the above estimate is probably pretty near the truth, though it is of course impossible to be accurate. At any rate, it was the only important engagement fought by the English or Americans against the northwestern Indians in which there was a near approach to equality of force.

26. Campbell MSS. Shelby's letter. Their names were Mooney and Hickman; the latter was killed. Most historians have confused these two men with the two others who discovered the Indians at almost the same time.

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