Dunmore's War

Dunmore's War (or  Lord Dunmore's War) was a war from 1773 to 1774 between the and the Indian nations of the  and. The was asked by, the British Royal Governor of , to declare a  with the hostile Indian nations and order up an elite volunteer  force for the campaign.

The context of the conflict resulted from escalating violence between British colonists who in accordance with previous treaties were exploring and moving into land south of the —modern and —and  who held treaty rights to hunt there. As a result of successive attacks by Indian hunting and war bands upon the settlers, war was declared to pacify the hostile Indian war bands. The war ended soon after Virginia's victory in the on,. As a result of this victory, the Indians lost the right to hunt in the area and agreed to recognize the Ohio River as the boundary between Indian lands and the British colonies. Although the Indian national chieftains signed the treaty, conflict within the Indian nations soon broke out between more radical tribesmen who felt the treaty sold out their claims and tribesmen who felt another war would mean only further losses of territory to the more powerful British colonists. When war broke out between the British colonists and the British government, the war parties of the Indian nations quickly gained power and mobilized the various Indian nations to attack the British colonists during the.

Background
The area south of the Ohio River had long been claimed by the Confederacy. Although they were the most powerful Indian nation in the Northern Colonies, other tribes also made claims to the area and often hunted the region. Thus, when British officials had acquired the land south of the Ohio River in the 1768 from the, Ohio Indians who also hunted the land refused to sign the treaty and prepared to defend their hunting rights. At the forefront of this resistance were the Shawnees, who as the most powerful anti-Iroquois Indian nation soon organized a large confederacy of anti-British, anti-Iroquois Shawnee-Ohio Confederated Indians to enforce their claims. British and Iroquois officials worked to diplomatically isolate the Shawnees from other Indian nations, however, and so when Dunmore's War broke out in 1774, Shawnees faced the Virginia militia with few allies.

Following the 1768 treaty, British explorers, surveyors, and settlers began pouring into the region. In September 1773, an obscure hunter named led a group of about 50 emigrants in the first attempt by British colonists to establish a settlement in. On, Boone's oldest son James and a small group of men and boys who had left the main party to retrieve supplies were attacked by a band of , Shawnees, and Cherokees who had decided, in the words of historian John Mack Faragher, "to send a message of their opposition to settlement…" James Boone and another boy were captured and gruesomely tortured to death. The brutality of the killings sent shockwaves along the frontier, and Boone's party abandoned their expedition. The massacre was one of the first events in Dunmore's War. For the next several years, the Indian nations opposed to the treaty increasingly attacked settlers, mutilated and tortured to death the surviving men, and took the women and children into slavery.

"Cresap's War"
Among the settlers was Captain, who was the owner of a trading post at (now ) on the. Under authority of the colonial government of, Cresap had taken up extensive tracts of land at and below the mouth of (now ), and had gone there in the early spring of 1774 with a party of men to settle his holdings. , afterwards a famed “Indian fighter” and guide, was engaged at the same time and in the same way with a small party of men on lands which he had taken up at or near the mouth of Sandy Creek. A third and larger group that included, who later became a general during the , had gathered at the mouth of the (the present site of ), and were waiting there for the arrival of other Virginians who were expected to join them at that point before moving downriver to settle lands in Kentucky.

While waiting for some days on the Little Kanawha, reports began to reach Clark’s group that hostile Indian nationals were robbing and occasionally killing traders, surveyors and others traveling down the Ohio, which caused them to believe that the hostile Indian nations of the Shawnee centered Ohio confederacy were bent on all-out war. With this in mind the group decided to attack the Ohio Indian village called Horsehead Bottom, which was near the mouth of the and on the way to their intended destination in Kentucky. The question arose as to who would lead the attack, as few in the group had experience in warfare. After some discussion the group decided on Cresap, whom they knew was about fifteen miles upriver from them and was intending to follow them into Kentucky, and who also had combat experience. Cresap was sent for and he quickly met with the group. After some discussion of their plan, Cresap dissuaded the group from the attack, saying that while the actions of the Shawnee-Ohio confederates were certainly hostile they didn’t indicate that war was inevitable. He further argued that if they carried out their plans he had no doubt of their success, but a war would surely result, and they could justifiably be blamed for it. Instead he suggested the group should return to for a few weeks to see what would develop, and if the situation calmed they would then resume their journey to Kentucky. The group agreed.

When they arrived at Wheeling they found the whole area in an uproar, panicked by survivors of the Indian depredations who told of their subjection and loss to the Indian savagery. Fearing for the lives of the women and children, the American settlers from the surrounding countryside flocked to the town for protection, and the ranks of Cresap’s group soon swelled with volunteers willing to fight. Word of the group’s arrival reached, and Capt. John Connolly, commander of the fort, sent a message asking that the group remain in Wheeling a few days, as messages had been sent to the local tribes to determine their intentions. A reply was sent to Connolly saying the group would do as he asked, but before it got to Fort Pitt a second message from Connolly was received, addressed to Cresap, stating the Shawnee-Ohio tribes had signaled they intended war.

A council was called April 26 and after Cresap read Connolly’s letter to the assembly, war was declared. The following day some Indian canoes were spotted on the river, and after chasing them fifteen miles downriver to Pipe Creek the settlers engaged them, and a battle ensued. Both sides suffered a few wounded. The following day, Clark's party abandoned the original idea of proceeding to Kentucky, as they anticipated retaliation would follow for the attack at Pipe Creek. They broke camp and marched with Cresap's men to his headquarters at Redstone Old Fort.

From Captain Hanson's Journal (Surveyor enroute to job site stopped at Point Pleasant this date. He found confirming news he had heard from the Kanawha Cherokee a few days earlier as his team canoed down the that the Ohio Indians were on the war path.  It was the talk by the locals all up and down all the rivers.) April "(sic)20th. We proceeded to the mouth of the Kanawha, 26 miles. At our arrival we found 26 People there on different designs - Some to cultivate land, others to attend the surveyors, They confirm the same story of the Indians. One of them could speak Indian language, therefore Mr. Floyd & the other Surveyors offered him 3 per month to go with them, which he refused, and told us to take care of our scalps. We passed but one bottom which is within 7 miles of the mouth of the River, & I am informed it runs 20 miles deep & is good Land, is on the South Side about 6 miles broad on the side of the River. On the North point, where we met the People is very fit for a fort, and to my opinion does not overflow which is not the case of the other bottoms. Mr. Floyd and the other Surveyors were received with great joy by the people here." 

Yellow Creek massacre
Immediately after the occurrence of the Pipe Creek incident came the killing of the relatives of the, who up to this point had been peaceful towards the settlers. Logan and his hunting party were camped on the west bank of the Ohio at Yellow Creek, about thirty miles above Wheeling (near present day ) across the river from Baker’s Bottom. On April 30 some members of the hunting party (Logan was not among them) crossed the river to Baker’s tavern for their customary ration of rum. With them was a small American child. It was not known if Chief Logan had been involved in the murders and kidnappings of the settler families or whether he had obtained the child from other Shawnee-Ohio Confederates. Nonetheless, word was sent to surrounding settlers. When the Mingos were intoxicated the group of settlers that had been lying in wait killed all of them and rescued the infant child. The settlers who did the killing were under the leadership of, a settler living near the mouth of King's Creek. When word reached Chief Logan he as did others at the time, believed that Capt. Cresap was responsible for attack as he had been considered the primary leader of the American war party. However, several people familiar with the incident (including George Rogers Clark) have stated that Daniel Greathouse and his party were the ones who committed the attack, and Cresap was not involved at all.

The settlers along the frontiers now realized that with this attack the remaining Indian nations of the Ohio would join the Shawnee-Ohio confederacy and the whole frontier would descend into savage warfare. Those settlers who remained on the frontier immediately sought safety, either in or by abandoning their settlements and flying eastward across the, with many traveling back across the. This fear was well founded: Logan, whose tribe had served as a partial buffer against the Shawnee-Ohio confederates now rose up and joined the genocide of the Virginian frontier settlements killing, raping, pillaging and ravaging all of the settlements on the west side of the Monongahela.

1774 - May 5 1774, The Shawanee then delivered the following Answer to the Condolence Speeches and Message sent them, wanting to speak with Lord Dunmore himself: (sic)[Note 1: 1 The Shawanee then delivered the following Answer to the Condolence Speeches and Message sent them: -- "Brothers: (Captain Connolly, Mr. McKee, and Mr. Croghan,) We have received your Speeches by White Eyes, and as to what Mr. Croghan and Mr. McKee says, we look upon it all to be lies, and perhaps what you say may be lies also, but as it is the first time you have spoke to us we listen to you, and expect that what we may hear from you will be more confined to truth than what we usually hear from the white people. It is you who are frequently passing up and down the Ohio, and making settlements upon it, and as you have informed as that your wise people have met together to consult upon this matter, we desire you to be strong and consider it well. Brethren: We see you speak to us at the head of your warriors, who you have collected together at sundry places upon this river, where we understand they are building forts, and as you have requested us to listen to you, we will do it, but in the same manner that you appear to speak to us. Our people at the Lower Towns have no Chiefs among them, but are all warriors, and are also preparing themselves to be in readiness, that they may be better able to hear what you have to say. "You tell us not to take any notice of what your people have done to us; we desire you likewise not to take any notice of what our young men may now be doing, and as no doubt you can command your warriors when you desire them to listen to you, we have reason to expect that ours will take the same advice when we require it, that is, when we have heard from the Governour [sic] of Virginia."--American Archives, Fourth Series, Vol. 1. p. 479.] 

Dunmore's expedition
Early in May 1774, Governor Dunmore received word of the hostilities that commenced at Yellow Creek and other points on the Ohio. In response he immediately requested from the legislature the formation of the general militia forces and funding for a volunteer expedition into the Ohio river valley. With his new forces, the Governor advanced toward the Ohio where he split his force into two groups: one would move down the Ohio from Fort Pitt, under the Governor himself, and another body of troops under Colonel would travel from  (now ) to meet Dunmore at the mouth of the. Under this general plan Governor Dunmore traveled to Fort Pitt and then he proceeded with his forces down the Ohio River, and on arrived at  (later ) which recently had been built at Wheeling by Dunmore's order. The force under Lewis, eleven hundred strong, proceeded from Camp Union to the headwaters of the Kanawha, and then downriver to the appointed rendezvous at its mouth, which was reached on. Lewis, not finding Lord Dunmore already there, sent messengers up the Ohio to meet him and inform him of the arrival of the column at the mouth of the Kanawha. On a dispatch was received from Dunmore saying that he (Dunmore) was at the mouth of the, and that he would proceed thence directly to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto, instead of coming down the Ohio to the mouth of the Kanawha as originally planned. At the same time Dunmore ordered Lewis to cross the Ohio and march to meet him at the Shawnee towns.

On, before Lewis had commenced his movement across the Ohio, he and his 1,100 men were surprised and attacked by warriors under Chief. The raged nearly all day and descended into hand to hand combat. Lewis's army suffered about 200 casualties, including Lewis's brother, but the battle resulted in the defeat of the Ohio Confederate warriors, who subsequently retreated across the Ohio River. Dunmore and Lewis advanced from their respective points into Ohio to within eight miles of the Shawnee town on the Scioto and erected a temporary camp called Camp Charlotte, on Sippo Creek. Here they met Cornstalk to begin peace negotiations. Chief Logan, although he stated he would cease fighting, would not attend any of the formal peace talks. The Shawnee accepted the terms but the Mingo did not; Major was therefore sent against one of the Mingo villages, called Seekunk, or Salt Lick Town. His force consisted of two hundred and forty men, with which he destroyed the village.

These operations and the submission of the Shawnee and Mingo at Camp Charlotte virtually closed the war. Governor Dunmore immediately set on his return, and proceeded by way of Redstone and the Great Crossings of the to, and then to the Virginia capital.