1st Siege Of Fort
Henry - 1777
1777 was
proving to be a bad year befroe it earned the nickname of the "Year of the
Bloody Sevens."
King George III's troops were racking up victory after
victory in a nearly unbroken string. Fort Ticonderoga had been given up without
a shot beinf fired. Come mid August things started to turn with the
victory at Bennington, Vermont thanks to an old Rogers' Ranger captain named
John Stark.
But things still sucked on the frontier. All summer
long, the Indians had been active, conducting nerarly simultaneous raids aong
the Ohio River. And to make things worse, a famine had started because, due to
the Indian pressure, crops could not be planted nor livestock tended. Plus
some blight ruined the wheat crop.
General Edward Hand, commander of the
Western Department based at the strongest fort, Fort Pitt, had received word
early in July 1777 of an impending attack against the Wheeling Settlement and
Fort Henry. Colonel David Shepherd, the county lieutenant for the new Ohio
County raced against the ticking clock to turn the fort from bascially a
stockade into a proper defensive position.
Nine companies of militia
were called up.
But nothing happened and no attack materialized.
Tired of waiting, and with crops and livestock to tend, all but Samuel Mason's
company were dismisssed and sent home, four days before the attack.
The
day before the attack Joseph Ogle came into Fort Henry with his company,
swelling the fort's defenders to about 45 men the day BEFORE the attack.
The fear of a widespread Indian attack had sent numbers of families back
east, and it was said the that road over Laurel Mountain in PA was chocked with
settlers seeking the safety of distance from the frontier.
On the
morning of September 1, 1777, Dr. James McMechen was prepeparing to pack up and
leave for the East with his family.
He sent his endentured servant, an
Irishman named John Boyd along with his black slave named Loudon, out to round
up and bring in his livestock. A third man named Jacob Drennan was supposed to
help, but he was afraid of Indian ambush, and would not leave the fort.
Boyd and Loudon left Fort Henry, taking the main dirt road to the crest
of Wheeling hill. And there they encountered a party of Indians in ambush
watching for anyone leaving the fort. The Indians opened fire, dropping
Boyd. Loudon was not hit, and ran back to the fort to give the Indian
Alarm.
It was decided that a party should go out, look for Indain signs,
and bring back Boyd's body for burial. As they aproached the site of the
ambush, the Indians were still there, and opened fire on them. Nearly
surroudned, Zane was forced to jump of the 70 foot hillside cliff, nearly in the
same spot that McColloch would make famous a bit later when he jumped his horse
there.
The Indians were part of a large war party numbering between 200
and 300 who had crossed the Ohio three miles below Wheeling, and who had
infiltrated the area around Wheeling for several days.
The main body of
Indians remained in the woods behind Fort Henry, up on the high ground where the
modern Grandview Street now runs. They did not see the optimum moment to attack,
and were watching the comings and goings at the Fort undetected. And they
were hoping that the militia would march out into their ambush.
The
Boyd/Loudon thing, and the burial detail under Andrew Zane had not been juicy
enough targets. But some of the impatient warriors could not
resist.
After some disscussion, and after seeing some Indians milling
aorund in the cornfields down at the mouth of Wheeling Creek below the fort and
down form Wheeling Hill, Captain Mason and 14 men were sent out to drive off
what they thought was just a pesky small raiding party before they could cause
any serious damages to the surround settlers' cabins, crops, or livestock.
The temperatrure had changed the night before, and the lowlands below
Fort Henry were covered in fog. Mason and his men left the fort's main
gates, spread out in a skirmish line, and advanced south down the gentle slope
of Wheeling Hill toward Wheeling Creek.
The Indians saw them coming, and
withdrew toward the East, hoping to lead them into an ambush by the main
force of Indians. Mason followed, but after 400 yards (near modern 16th
Street and Jacob Street), in the lead Mason and his sergeant named Steel spied
two Indians emerge from the fog. All four men fired at about the same
moment, dropping Steel, and the two warriors, and wounding Mason. And what
Mason did not know was that they blundered in an Indian ambush set up like the
letter "L". And the Indians opened fire.
Mason's lieutenant, a man
named Samuel Tomlinson, was sent running back to the fort for help.
Back
up on the hill, at Fort Henry, they had heard the intial four shots but could
not see anything in the fog. Then they heard the volley, followed by the
sporadic return fire of the Whites.
Tomlinson ran into the fort, and a
relief party of 12 men from Captain Ogle's company was quickly organized and
sent down the hill to help Mason. Rather than follow the "L" shaped trail
taken by Mason, Ogle's men ran diagonally straight towards the sounds of the
shooting in the fog. Before they could get to Mason's men, they ran into
Indians.
Blind in the fog, and outgunned, the survivors from Ogle's and
Mason's companies bolted for the fort. Watching from the fort, Shepherd
watched as his eldest son William was shot and fell 150 yards from safety.
Only ten men survived. Five made it back to Fort Henry. Five managed
to run through the Indians in the fog, gain the road, and make the six plus
miles to Shepherd's Fort (across from the McDonald's on Rt 40, the stone mansion
Shepherd later built there still stands now known as "Monument
Place".)
Up to now, it had been a militia fight, but the settlers in
their cabins scattered here and there with their plots, fields, and gardens, and
outbuildings, along dirt streets, became unsetteld when the sound of gunfire
stopped. Especially when the crack of longrifles stopped. And doubly
so when the sounds of gunfire were replaced with the screams of wounded
militiamen being killed and scalped were amplified by the fog. As the
settlers snatched up a few prized possessions and streamed into the fort, they
ran to the loopholes trying to see something, much to the dismay of the 20 or so
riflemen who needed to take their places there.
The Indians had been
scouting and watching the fort for days, and knew there to be few defenders,
especially against their greater numbers. The success of their ambush
emboldened them as they did a mental count of the dead and subtracted them from
who might remain to defend the fort. Twenty Indians, the boldest,
advanced up the gentle slope of Wheeling Hill, for some odd reason holding
hands. Perhaps to maintain contact in the denser patches of the fog.
In the meantime, the riflemen had cleared the settlers away, and had
taken up their positions at the loopholes and in the three man sentry boxes in
the corners of the fort. As the Indians drew close, a round of fire
erupted from the fort, scattering the Indians into the cover of an embankment on
the south side of the fort (their advancing north up the road). The
Indians dashed off to their right, circled around using the abandoned log cabins
and out buildings and the fog for cover to take up positions beyond the clearing
around the fort, and waited for the main party of the Indians by the cabins at
the base of the hill.
About then, the morning sun started to burn off
the fog, showing the defenders that they were outnumbers and surrounded, with
all avenues of escape blocked. Colonel Shepherd took inventory of
their situation. He had 18 men, and managed to add another ten men and
women from the settlers who could use a rifle. That made about 30
effectrive defenders.
At the same time, the Indians took stock of their
success and were pleased. Their plans had been perfect, and perfectly
executed. They had lured out what they thought were the majority of the
fort's defenders and routed them. But it ended there. The quick
victory they hoped to achieve ended when their advanced party of 20 had met a
fire from the fort and were unable to rush inside amongst the panicking settlers
and gain the inside of the fort.
All they could do was snipe at the
fort's defenders through loopholes, and try to avoid the return rifle fire if a
warrior was exposed too long.
The surprise attack had become deadlocked,
a stalement, and what the Indians disliked the most, a siege.
The Indians excellence at maneuvre and ambush
was now worthless. Whatever initial advantage they had gained with the aid
of the fog, was now gone. And, safe within the fort, the advantage had
swung over to the Whites, as accurate rifle fire, and the fear of accurate rifle
fire, kept the Indians at a distance, or skulking in and around the nearby
cabins and out buildings.
Stalemate.
About noon, a horseman
approached the fort from the hill to the east. It was Francis Duke, the
son-in-law of Colonel Shepherd. He saw the Indians, and thought he would
ride at full speed down the road and into the fort before the Indians could take
notice. But he was only partially right, and was shot down 75 yards from
the fort's gate where his body stayed in full sight.
Later that
afternoon, three mounted men rode up the hill from the east. In the lead
was Samuel McColloch, either on a faster horse or pushing his horse
harder. Surprised by Duke a bit earlier, they were more watchful, and a
number of Indians ran out to block the three horsemen. They wheeled and
around, and rode off back up the road.
As McColloch gained the crest of
Wheeling Hill, he ran into a large group of Indians coming toward Fort Henry,
AND another group coming up the road toward his left. He now had Indians
closing from behind, Indians closing from his front, and Indians closing from
his left. The only route open was to his right, the steep partially wooded
and exposed stone hillside and cliff that fell 300 plus feet to Wheeling Creek
and the flatland below.
He took one last look, made up his mind that he
did not want to risk being captured, and reined his horse right and over the
cliff.
SOMEHOW, McCOlloch and the horse slid and fell down Wheeling
Hill's side, splashed across Wheeling Creek, and rode off back to Van Metre's
Fort. And somehow, the other two riders managed to head south through the
Indians, down the hill, to Wheeling Creek. They turned north up the road,
and made it to Fort Henry.
The Indians realized that they had been
discovered by the three riders, and being unable to kill them, by their getting
away they knew that help would be coming. Now frustrated, the Indians
resorted to burning the cabins, out buildings, and crops, killing all livestock,
and taking plunder.
Just before dark, a thunderstorm moved in, and the
rains kept most of the of the fires from spreading or taking hold.
The
rain was the last straw for the Indians, and using the cover of darkness,
withdrew down to Wheeling Creek, and followed the Oho River trail south, and
disappeared.
Almost immediately, the settlers came out under armed
guards, went to the Ohio, and brought water to douse the remaining fires and put
out the embers.
The next day, relief arrived. From Holliday's Fort
Andrew Swearingen and 15 men had made a night "float" in a large canoe, and
arrived just after dawn. And from Catfish Camp to the east, two companies
of men under John Boggs and Reasin Virgin marched all night and arrived two
hours after sunrise. And Samuel McColloch arrived with 45 men form Fort
Van Metre.
Side Note: "Catfish Camp" is modern day Washington
(aka Little Washington so as not to confuse it with Washington, D.C.)
Previously it had been a small camp called "Wissameking" (Catfish Place)
belonging to the Delaware Chief "Catfish".
For the "siege", the Whites
lost 15 killed and five wounded. For the Indians, three dead and five
wounded.
Most of the White dead were killed in the ambush, roughly in
the modern 1300 block of Chapline St, in Wheeling. It was said that this
was the first encounter for most of the militiamen, many having arrived in
Wheeling since the last Indian problems in Dunmore's War in 1774. "Ambush"
was not really in their vocabularly, and their only "tactic' was to march out
and drive off the Indians in militia formation.
And they still would not
listen to the few frontiersmen among them when a few weeks later, seeing smoke
downriver at Tomlinson's Station, on September 26, 1777, 46 men left Fort Henry
to investigate under the comman of thee captains, William Foreman with 24,
Jospeh Ogle with 10, and William Linn with nine men.
And that would lead
to... Foreman's Massacre.