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Shortly after these events occurred was inaugurated the war known as Dunmores war, and which was concluded by the defeat of the Indians at Point Pleasant by Gen. Andrew Lewis on the 10th day of October, 1774. General Lewis and Lord Dunmore had arranged that the former was to raise a force of volunteers and by draft from the southeastern portion of the colony , and the latter was to raise a similar force for the same purpose from the northern and western portion of the colony. The force of General Lewis was appointed to rendezvous at Camp Union in the Greenbrier country, while the forces of Lord Dunmore were to rendezvous at Fort Pitt, and thence descend the river until they reached the mouth of the Great Kanawha, where Point Pleasant is located, where the two forces were to unite, and from which point they were to proceed against and attack the Indian towns on the Ohio side.

Upon the arrival of General Lewis at the place designated, finding that Lord Dunmore had not arrived, he felt chagrined and manifested surprise at the non-arrival of Dunmore, and hence determined to send scouts to Fort Pitt to ascertain the cause of his delay. Before the scouts had started on their mission, a communication was received from his Lordship, changing the whole plan of the campaign which had been arranged between him and General Lewis, without giving any reasons or explanations for so doing, which communication informed General Lewis that he intended to cross the river and proceed at once in the direction of the Shawnee towns, and at the same time ordered him to move with his force and form a junction with his force at the point designated by him near the enemy.

General Lewis had arrived with his army about the same date that Lord Dunmore with his arrived at Wheeling, to-wit, the 1st of October, 1774. On receiving the dispatch from Lord Dunmore, General Lewis immediately set about making the necessary arrangements to obey the orders which were disapproved of by a number of his men. But early on the morning of the10th of October and before the necessary preparations for crossing the river had been completed, an attack was made upon his forces by a large body of Indians, who had quietly secreted themselves behind the logs and fallen timber which abounded in this vicinity. The suddenness and severity of the attack which followed was unparalleled, and victory for a time hung evenly in the balance. But at length the pluck and superior discipline of the whites turned the balance in their favor and the Indians were badly worsted, but at the cost of many brave and useful lives.

Among those who fell was Colonel Charles Lewis, a brother of Gen. Andrew Lewis, a person greatly beloved by his troops, and endeared to all who had the privilege of his companionship and acquaintance. In honor of his memory, the legislature of his native state, Virginia, named the county of Lewis, now in West Virginia, after him.

The conflict between the white and Indians commenced at sunrise and continued with fluctuating fortunes between the belligerents until sunset. The Indians were commanded by Cornstalk Sachem of the Shawnees and who was also the head of the Northern Confederacy, one of the most influential and intelligent chiefs of his race.

After the battle, General Lewis crossed the river with the remainder of his force and pressed forward to form a junction with Dunmore, but before he had proceeded far into the enemys country he was met by an express from Dunmore to return at once to the mouth of the Great Kanawha. But disregarding the order, he persisted in his advance until he overtook Dunmore, who informed him that he was negotiating a peace which would avoid the necessity of a further advance, at the same time reiterating the order for his return. This order was received by his followers with loud murmurings and expressions of discontent, and they reluctantly obeyed and turned their backs upon the enemy.

These occurrences transpired at a time when the jealousies between the mother country and the colonies were daily growing more and more embittered and mens minds were being wrought to a high state of exasperation. The destruction of the tea in Boston harbor had occurred in the preceding month of March. The Boston Port bill, the primary cause of conflict between the mother country and the colonies, had been received by the House of Burgesses of Virginia, in May, and they had issued a recommendation that the 1st day of June following, the date when the bill was to become operative, be observed as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer imploring the Divine interposition to avert the heavy calamity, which threatened destruction to their civil rights, and the evils of a civil war.

It was on account of this action of the House of Burgesses that Gov. Dunmore prorogued the General Assembly. On his way down the river from Fort Pitt, Dunmore stopped his army at Wheeling, and while stopping there he received dispatches from the British government, but what the tenor of these were we are unable to state, but it is certain that the plan of campaign outlined between him and General Lewis was changed upon their receipt, without waiting to advise Lewis of the fact. It would not, however, be a violent conjecture, under all the circumstances, and in view of his dissolution of the Assembly, and the sudden change made by him in the plan of campaign while at Wheeling, to conclude that his government had instructed him to take steps to secure, if possible by treaty, the Indians as allies of Great Britain in the apprehended conflict which began to loom up in the near future. At all events it is certain, that under questionable circumstances he entered into a treaty with the savages.

While Logan, the great Mingo chief, assented to this treaty, he indignantly refused to be present at its consummation, but sent inclosed in a belt of wampum his famous speech with which every schoolboy is familiar, and which was first given to the public by Thomas Jefferson. Shortly after its publication by him, attempts were made to cast doubts upon it as being the production of a savage, and by some it was declared to have been the coinage of Mr. Jeffersons brain, which he emphatically denied in the appendix to his Notes on Virginia. The most prominent among these was the able, eloquent and distinguished Luther Martin, a son-in-law of Colonel Cresap, who pronounced it a sheer fabrication. A long and bitter controversy ensued which was participated in, not alone by the immediate persons interested therein, but by others not directly interested. Jefferson, however, came off victor, as is now generally admitted, he having produced evidence of a documentary character which if it did not silence cavillers, it did his opponents.

But to return from the digression which we have made, but one which we deemed necessary as being indirectly connected with our subject, we will now resume the thread of our narrative. That the Dunmore war was precipitated by the massacres in the vicinity of Wheeling by Cresap, Greathouse and others we think there can be no doubt and that such was the opinion of contemporaries we have evidence. The following letter of Colonel Zane to Hon. John Brown, senator in Congress from the state of Kentucky, and bearing date Wheeling, February 4,1800, we think is convincing. It reads as follows:

I was myself with many others in the practice of making improvements on lands upon the Ohio, for the purpose of acquiring rights to the same. Being on the Ohio, at the mouth of Sandy Creek, in company with many others, news circulated that the Indians had robbed some of the land jobbers. This news induced the people generally to ascend the Ohio. I was among the number. On our arrival at Wheeling, better informed that there were two Indians with some traders near and above Wheeling, a proposition was made by the then Capt. Michael Cresap to waylay and kill the Indians upon the river. This measure I opposed with much violence, alleging that the killing of those Indians might involve the country in a war. But the opposite party prevailed and proceeded up the Ohio with Captain Cresap at their head. In a short time the party returned, and also the traders in a canoe, but there were no Indians in the company. I enquired what had become of the Indians and was informed by the traders and Cresaps party that they had fallen overboard. I examined some bullet holes in the canoe. This fully convinced me that the party had killed the two Indians and then thrown them into the river.

On the afternoon of the day this action happened a report prevailed that there was a camp or party of Indians on the Ohio below and near Wheeling. In consequence of the information, Captain Cresap, with his party, joined by a number of recruits, proceeded immediately down the Ohio for the purpose, as was then generally understood, of destroying the Indians above mentioned. On the succeeding day Captain Cresap and his party returned to Wheeling, and it was generally reported by the party that they had killed a number of Indians. Of the truth of this report I had no doubt, as one of Cresaps party was badly wounded and the party had a fresh scalp and a quantity of property which they called Indian plunder. At the time of the last mentioned transaction it was generally reported that the party of Indians down the Ohio were Logan and his family, but I have reason to believe that this report was unfounded.

Within a few days after the transaction above mentioned a party of Indians were killed at Yellow Creek. But I must do the memory of Captain Cresap the justice to say that I do not believe he was present at the killing of the Indians at Yellow Creek. But there is not the least doubt in my mind that the massacre at Yellow Creek was brought on by the two transactions first stated. All the transactions which I have related happened in the latter end of April, 1774, and there can scarcely be a doubt that they were the cause of the war which immediately followed, commonly called Dunmores war. I am with much respect, yours, etc., Ebenezer Zane.

At the time of the transactions referred to in the foregoing letter the only regular forts on the frontier were those which were located at Redstone and Pittsburg. There were a few private forts and block houses scattered here and there, but these were insecure and indifferent in their importance, not being calculated to withstand a prolonged contest or siege. When it became evident that a general Indian war would speedily be inaugurated measures were taken to advise the settlers of the impending danger, and Dr. John Connolly, the Royal Captain Commandant of West Augusta, who was at the time on a visit to Fort Pitt, sent information to the settlement at .....ing (word missing) and instructed them as a necessary precaution to cover the country with scouts until the inhabitants could fortify themselves. In accordance with these instructions, scouts and rangers were sent out in all directions and the erection of a means of defense, consisting of a stockade, was at the same time commenced by settlers, who labored with indefatigable energy in the accomplishment of their undertaking, so that on the arrival of Lord Dunmore in the following October he found a well constructed work of defence, which, though hastily erected, was well adapted for its purpose, as the sequel will show.

It was built under the supervision of Col. Angus McDonald, as we have heretofore mentioned, in the construction of which he was assisted in its arrangement and adaptation by Col. Ebenezer Zane and John Caldwell, Esq., the work, as stated having been performed by the settlers. Upon its completion it was named Fort Fincastle, in honor of the Earl of Dunmore, this being his second title, his full titles being John, Earl of Dunmore, Viscount Fincastle, Baron Murray, of Blair, of Moulin and of Tillimet, and being at the time the royal governor of the colony. Prior to the establishment of the fort the settlement was called Zanesburg. The name of Dunmore was not retained for any great length of time, but was changed to Fort Henry in the year 1776, in honor of Patrick Henry, the first patriotic governor of Virginia. The first mention we find made of this fort is in the proceedings of the Virginia convention of 1775 in a report made by a committee of that body.

It is a fact that with the exception of the forts located at Redstone, Pittsburg and Point Pleasant, which last named was erected in the summer of the same year in which the fort at Wheeling was erected, there were no other regularly garrisoned forts on the frontier. The defence of the fort at Wheeling was left entirely to the intrepidity of the settlers, who, under Providence, always proved competent in the faithful and successful discharge of that responsibility.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FORT

The fort was in shape a parallelogram, with wooden towers or bastions at each corner, which projected over the lower story and which were pierced with port holes for the use of rifles and muskets. In case of attack the fighting was carried on from these bastions almost entirely. Between these bastions was stretched a strong and closely connected line of oak and hickory pickets, surrounding the entire enclosure, within which were located a magazine for powder, barracks and cabins for sheltering those who sought refuge within the stockade, On the roof of the barracks was mounted a swivel gun captured during the French and Indian War by the British. There was also a well of water within the stockade. On the west side of the fort outside of it on the side of the bluff was a never failing spring of clear, cool and limpid water, which was accessible providing there was no opposition from the river. The main entrance was on the eastern side, which was closed by a strong wooden gate. The ground in the vicinity was cleared, fenced and cultivated, extending to the base of the hill on the east, about an eighth of a mile distant. From the bluff on the south side of the fort extended the bottoms to the bank of Wheeling Creek. This expanse of ground was a level stretch of land and was used for a cornfield. As late as the year 1810 it was occupied by no buildings of consequence.

To the southeast of the fort and distant from it about 70 yards stood the residence of Col. Ebenezer Zane, located on a level with the Fort, built of rough hewn logs and which at the threatened attack on the fort by the Indians in the year 1781, was burnt by them The owner subsequently rebuilt the same, and it was occupied and held by him with a force of five men at the siege of the fort in the year 1782. When rebuilt by him he expressed it as his avowed purpose that in the event of an attack of the savages he would defend it to the last extremity. Attached to it was a magazine where ammunition was stored for emergencies. His cabin was built of the staunchest materials, and somewhat in the style of a block house, and was provided with loop holes from which the inmates could fire upon an enemy without exposing themselves. His successful defence at the last siege contributed much to the relief of the fort and its inmates, it having proved itself to be an impregnable outpost. There were a cluster of cabins around the fort, the homes of the settlers, a store house, and a smith shop.

As already indicated, Governor Dunmore had dissolved the legislature of the colony in the spring of the year 1774 for reasons then stated. The differences between the mother country and the colonies continued to multiply and the breach between them became wider and wider. All hopes of a compromise or a satisfactory understanding between them grew less probable. In the year 1775 the quarrel had become so pronounced that the royal governor became alarmed for his own safety and that of his family. He abandoned the capitol, and shipped his wife and children to England, and himself took refuge on a British man-of-war, then lying in the waters of the colony, upon which he took up his residence and from which he fulminated his edicts and issued his proclamations, all of which proved to be futile and harmless.

In the meantime a convention of authorized delegates was called together, who met in Richmond on the 20th day of March, 1775, which enacted such legislation and exercised such executive control of affairs as the public safety and protection demanded.

One of the first things which appears among its proceedings was the reception of a request in writing from a number of the inhabitants of West Augusta, asking for the admission of John Nevill and John Harvie, Esqs., as delegates to represent that district, whereupon it was resolved that the request be granted, and that they be admitted to seats in the convention, and take part in the proceedings of the same.