The Causes and Course of Dunmore's War, 1744-1774
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“SO CALAMITOUS A SITUATION”: THE CAUSES AND COURSE OF DUNMORE'S WAR, 1744-1774 James Phillip Rife A thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Approved: ________________________________________ Professor A. Roger Ekirch, Chair _______________________________________ ________________________________________ Professor Daniel B. Thorp Professor Frederic J. Baumgartner September 9, 1999 Keywords: Dunmore, Connolly, Shawnees, Virginia, Logan, Cornstalk Copyright 1999, James P. Rife “So Calamitous a Situation”: The Causes and Course of Dunmore’s War, 1744-1774 James Phillip Rife (ABSTRACT) Dunmore’s War was the last colonial war in America before the Revolution. This conflict was the culmination of nearly thirty years of intrigue and violence in the so- called “Western Waters” of the trans-Allegheny region of Virginia, which included the valleys of the Ohio River and its lower tributary system. This thesis traces the origins of the war, and suggests that, among other things, the provisions in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 for the westward extension of the Indian boundary line and soldier settlement contributed mightily to the instigation of the war between Virginia and the Shawnees. Indeed, Virginia’s former provincial soldiers took advantage of the waning authority of the royal government in the west to secure their bounty lands, at the expense of the Shawnees and their allies in the Ohio Valley. Matters reached a climax during the curious administration of Virginia’s last colonial governor, Lord Dunmore. Dunmore, who harbored his own western land ambitions, allied himself with the soldiers and land speculators, and instituted policies aimed at extending Virginia’s jurisdiction over the Ohio Valley and Kentucky against the directives of his superiors in London. Accordingly, the thesis examines the royal governor’s motivations, policies, and conduct in the events leading up to the conflict. Finally, the thesis contributes a fresh, complete narrative of the war itself, which has been lacking for some time in the field of Virginia History. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In researching and writing this thesis, I have become indebted to many people who have aided my efforts in a variety of ways. First, I wish to thank my committee members, Professors Roger Ekirch, Daniel Thorp, and Frederic Baumgartner for their friendship, expert guidance, and unwavering patience in the course of this work. On too many occasions, their encouragement and knowledge helped me overcome difficulties in research direction and historical perspective. I would also like to thank Professors Joseph Wieczynski and Young-Tsu Wong for their warm friendship and support during my tenure at Virginia Tech. I can only hope that my future colleagues will be as kind and considerate as they have been. I am also grateful to Professor Linda Arnold whose numerous suggestions and keen insight has substantially aided me in my graduate studies. Professor Crandall Shifflett likewise deserves special thanks for introducing me to the world of professional historical research. I simply cannot say enough about the History Department secretaries, Rhonda Wills, Linda Fountaine, and Janet Francis. They were always ready to drop what they were doing to help me, even with the most trivial of problems. It is doubtful that I can ever repay them for all they have done for me over the past two years. The staff of the Carol Newman Library, especially in the Interlibrary Loan and Special Collections departments, helped me locate old texts and other important primary sources that I so desperately needed in my research. My thanks goes out to all of those fine people. I would also like to thank my friends and fellow teaching assistants, Eric Bright, Kevin Roberts, David McCall, Regan Shelton, Caroline Neely, and Paul Grady. I will always treasure their friendship. I also want to express my gratitude to my mother and father, Fay and Phillip Rife. Over the years, they have strongly supported me in everything I have endeavored to accomplish and for that I am extremely thankful. Finally, I would like to thank my fiancée Samantha Jane Gaul for tolerating me throughout the past year. This thesis was researched and written at her expense, and I am in her everlasting debt for standing by me in the good times, and the bad. i CONTENTS Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….i Table of Contents.………………………………………………………………………...ii Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter 1 “Some as Fine Land as I Ever Saw”……………………………………….19 Chapter 2 “A Temporary Expedient”…………………………………………………43 Chapter 3 “Furth Fortune and Fill the Fetters”…………………………………….….80 Chapter 4 “Deep Strokes of Monopoly in the West”…………………………….….116 Chapter 5 “The Very Worst Kind of Military Government”…………………….…..125 Chapter 6 “An Indian War was Part of the Virginia Plan”…………………………..149 Chapter 7 “The Opportunity We Have So Long Wished for”……………………….180 Chapter 8 “There is Nothing but War, Confusion, & Consternation in this Country..207 Chapter 9 “Such a Battle with the Indians was Never Heard of Before” ……………217 Chapter 10 “Who is There to Mourn for Logan?”…...………………………………..254 Epilogue………………………………………………………………………………...273 Appendix I……………………………………………………………………..……….283 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………289 Vita……………………………………………………………………………………..308 ii Introduction On October 13, 1774, Virginia militiaman Colonel William Fleming wrote his wife Nancy a poignant letter from a battlefield at Point Pleasant, located deep in the backcountry at the junction of the Great Kanawha and Ohio Rivers. In his letter, the severely wounded Virginian reassured his wife that "I am yet amongst the living," and that "my wounds are in a good way."1 Fleming, who had "received three balls, two through my left arm & one in my left breast," also concisely related the details of the vicious fighting he had experienced three days earlier in open battle with the Shawnee nation and their allies. He wrote, in a grim understatement, "on Munday last, we were alarmed by some from Camp that had been pursued by Indians." In fact, the Shawnees, numbering approximately five hundred warriors, had very nearly overrun Colonel Andrew Lewis' Southern Division of 1,100 Virginians as they slept on the morning of October 10. The Indians had been stopped outside of the Virginians' camp and pushed back only after the surprised militiamen managed to rally and confront the Indians with superior numbers. In Fleming's words, "it was a hard fought Battle" that "lasted from 7 in the Morning to an hour by sun [dusk]" before Lewis "by timely & Opportunely supporting the lines secured under God both the Victory & prevented the Enemys Attempts to break into Camp." Fleming closed with a promise to Nancy that "if it please God to spare me I propose coming in to the Inhabitants the first Opportunity." The wounded officer, despite 1 "Colonel William Fleming to Nancy Fleming, October 13, 1774," Reuben Gold Thwaites and Louise Kellogg, The Documentary History of Dunmore’s War. (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, 1905), 253-4; Draper Manuscripts, including the Frontier Wars Papers, George Rogers Clark Papers, Kentucky Papers, Newspaper Abstracts, and the Preston Papers. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. Microfilm copy in Carol M. Newman Library, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, 2ZZ6, cited hereafter as DSS; William D. Hoyt, Jr. "Colonel William Fleming in Dunmore's War, 1774," West Virginia History: A Quarterly Magazine, volume III, number 2 (January 1942), 99-119. 1 being given "over for lost" by his compatriots, survived and kept his promise to Nancy, returning "home in safety" on November 22.2 The Battle of Point Pleasant, so concisely described by Fleming, was the climax of a conflict known to history as Dunmore’s War. This conflict was a fierce struggle between the Shawnees and Virginians that engulfed Virginia’s backcountry for the greater part of 1774. This war has received only scant attention by modern scholars in the fields of Virginia and Early American history. More often than not, the war is simply glossed over as a footnote, or as a secondary, even trivial sideshow to the more important political events occurring in Williamsburg and elsewhere during 1774. This tendency is unfortunate, since the war had some influence on the events that occurred in the following years, and was important for the settlement of Kentucky and the future western movement. Also, many previous historians have often portrayed the war merely as a curious anomaly instigated only by localized frontier animosities between encroaching settlers and the Indians. The roots of the conflict run much deeper, however. This thesis carefully traces the origins of the war through the activities of land speculators and the doomed efforts of the royal government to implement a comprehensive imperial management policy, beginning with the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The thesis contends that, among other things, the provisions included in the Proclamation for the future westward extension of the Indian boundary line and soldier settlement contributed heavily to the instigation of the war between Virginia and the Shawnees. Indeed, Virginia’s veterans of the French and Indian War took advantage of the waning authority of the royal government in the west to secure their bounty lands, at the expense of the Shawnees and their allies in the Ohio Valley. Matters reached a climax during the administration of Virginia’s last colonial governor, Lord Dunmore. Dunmore, who harbored his own western land ambitions, allied himself with the 2 "Col. William Christian to Col. William Preston, October 15, 1774," Thwaites, Dunmore's War, 266; "Fleming's Orderly Book," ibid., 360. 2 soldiers and land speculators, and instituted policies aimed at extending jurisdiction over the Ohio Valley and Kentucky against the directives of his superiors in London. The most spectacular manifestation of Dunmore’s determination to control the Ohio Valley is seen in the seizure of Pittsburgh by his agent provocateur John Connolly, which was the immediate backdrop for the war.