[FN] Notes on Virginia.
Colonel Cresap, a man infamous for the many murders he had committed on those much injured people, collected a party, and proceeded down the Kenhawa in quest of vengeance. Unfortunately, a canoe of women and children, with one man only, was seen coming from the opposite shore, unarmed, and not at all suspecting an attack from the whites. Cresap and his party concealed themselves on the bank of the river, and the moment the canoe reached the shore, singled out their objects, and, at one fire, killed every person in it This happened to be the family of Logan. [FN]
[FN] Jefferson.
It was not long after this that another massacre took place, under still more aggravated circumstances, not far from the present site of Wheeling, Virginia,—a considerable party of the Indians being decoyed by the whites, and all murdered, with the exception of a little girl. Among these, too, was both a brother of Logan, and a sister, and the delicate situation of the latter increased a thousand fold both the barbarity of the crime and the race of the survivors of the family.
The vengeance of the Chieftain was indeed provoked beyond endurance; and he accordingly distinguished himself by his daring and bloody exploits in the war which now ensued, between the Virginians on the one side, and a combination mainly of Shawanees, Mingoes and Delawares on the other. The former of these tribes were particularly exasperated by the unprovoked murder of one of their favorite chiefs, Silver-Heels, who had in the kindest manner undertaken to escort several white traders across the woods from the Ohio to Albany, a distance of nearly two hundred miles. [FN]
[FN] Heckewelder's History.
The civilized party prevailed, as usual. A decisive battle was fought upon the 10th of October, of the year last named, on Point Pleasant at the mouth of the Great Kenhawa in West-Virginia, between the Confederates, commanded by Logan, and one thousand Virginian riflemen constituting the left wing of an army led by Governor Dunmore against the Indians of the North-West. This engagement has by some annalists,—who however have rarely given the particulars of it—been called the most obstinate ever contested with the natives, and we therefore annex an official account of it which has fortunately been brought to light within a few years.
"Monday morning, [the 10th,] about half an hour before sun-rise, two of Capt. Russell's company discovered a large party of Indians about a mile from camp; one of which was shot down by the Indians. The other made his escape and brought in the intelligence; two or three minutes after, two of Capt. Shelby's men came in and confirmed the account.