Battle at Point Pleasant

Meanwhile the Shawnoese--the fiercest of the Western tribes--had deserted their settlements (as Dunmore found) and were moving stealthily, with some Mingoes and Delawares, through the forests, to attack the camp of Lewis. So secretly had they approached, that the march was not suspected until they were discovered at early dawn on the morning of the 10th of October (1774), within a short distance of the camp of the Virginians, and preparing for battle. Within an hour, they and the white people were engaged in a fierce struggle for the mastery--Cornstalk, their leader, encouraging them by his bravery and fortitude, and frequently uttering the words: "Be strong!" The great struggle lasted from sunrise till noon; and from that hour, a desultory fire was kept up until sunset. Neither party could claim a victory. Lewis, however, held the field, and the savages fled across the Ohio under cover of the darkness that night. The Virginians lost full half of their commissioned officers, and almost one hundred and thirty men, killed and wounded. The Indians lost about two hundred and thirty warriors. Among the officers under Lewis were several who afterward appeared conspicuous in our history, and whom we shall meet again--Shelby, Campbell, Robertson, etc.

On the day after the battle, Colonel Lewis received an order from Dunmore to hasten to join him at a point in the Scioto Valley, eighty miles distant. The governor did not then know how Lewis had been smitten by the savages. The latter did not hesitate to obey the order. Leaving a small garrison at Point Pleasant, the Virginians pushed across the Ohio, traversed the pathless wilderness in the midst of perils and hardships, and on the 24th of October encamped on Pickaway Plains not far from old Chillicothe, now the borough of Westfall. Dunmore was encamped on the banks of Sippo Creek, about seven miles southwest from the present Circleville, and there he held a council with the Indian chiefs, who, acknowledging their weakness, sued for peace. At that conference, Cornstalk was the principal speaker for the savages; Logan, as we have seen, refusing to attend. A satisfactory treaty of peace was concluded, and then the Virginians returned to their homes, from which they had been absent about three months, having won great advantages for their colony and for civilization.

When these Virginians left home, all the delegates to the Continental Congress had been chosen. No tidings from the East had reached the little army during their absence, and they were ignorant of the state of public affairs on the sea-board. They were patriots, and were jealous of their honor as such. That honor might be impeached by military service under a royal governor of Dunmore's stamp. So, at Fort Gower, on the 5th of November, they, as a body, expressed their sentiments freely. They spoke of the grievances of the colonies; their zeal for the honor as well as the liberties of Americans; and their loyalty to the king and the government to whom they owed allegiance so long as they ruled justly. They said: "As 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, when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen." Their proceedings offended Dunmore, and the governor and the citizen-soldiery both returned home dissatisfied.

The elections for members of Parliament in the autumn of 1774, satisfied the ministry that they were strong in the affections of the people. The king was jubilant because of the result, and the government was not in a frame of mind to receive with complacency the state-papers put forth by the Continental Congress, especially the petition to the king. In September Gage had written to Dartmouth a truthful statement of the condition of affairs in the colonies, and especially in Massachusetts. It was a letter that gave that minister great concern. Gage declared that the act of Parliament for regulating the government of Massachusetts could not be carried into effect until the New England colonies were subdued by military conquest; that Massachusetts had warm friends and abettors in all the other colonies; that the people of the Carolinas were as crazy as those in Boston; that all over New England the rural population were actually preparing for war by military exercises and by the gathering of arms and ammunition, and that the civil officers of the crown could find no protection in Boston. The governor suggested that it might be well to discard the colonies--cut them loose from the empire, and leave them to suffer anarchy, and so bring about repentance; having grown rich by their connection with Great Britain, they would speedily become poor in their helplessness. Thoroughly wearied, Gage also suggested, in a private letter to Dartmouth, that it might be well to suspend the operations of the obnoxious acts for a season. When these statements and propositions were laid before the king, he said, with emphasis and bitter scorn, "The New England governments are now in a state of rebellion. Blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country, or to be independent." This was King George's ultimatum, to which he obstinately adhered; and Lord North, to whom the words of the monarch were addressed, acted accordingly in the Parliament which assembled at about that time. Joseph Warren, in a letter addressed to Josiah Quincy, Jr. (who had gone to England to seek restoration of health by a sea voyage and to watch the drift of public opinion there concerning American affairs), gave the ultimatum of the Americans in these words: