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drunk with the liquor which he had sold them. Among the slain was the entire family of the celebrated Iroquoian chief Logan, who lived west of the Ohio and was a leader among the tribes dwelling along the upper courses of the river. Logan, who had usually been friendly to the whites, was moved to revenge, and the tribes immediately took the warpath, creating terror along the whole frontier.

Lord Dunmore, the governor of Virginia, immediately garrisoned the frontier forts and began raising an army to lead against the Indians. One wing he led in person to Fort Pitt, while the other, composed of levies from the west

ern and southwestern Lord Dunportions of the colony, more's War, was placed under the 1774 command of General Andrew Lewis. The latter was to collect his forces on the Greenbriar and proceed down the Kanawha to the Ohio, where it was agreed that Dunmore should meet him. When Dunmore got to Fort Pitt, however, he changed his plans, crossed the Ohio, and established himself in a fortified camp near the Indian town of Chillicothe. Cornstalk, the great chief of the Shawnees, who had under his command about a thousand warriors, now determined upon a bold piece of strategy. He decided to intercept General Lewis at the mouth of the Kanawha, destroy his division, and then return to face Dun

[graphic]

more.

LORD DUNMORE.

Meanwhile General Lewis, with troops from Augusta and Botetourt counties and from the distant Watauga settle

Battle of
Point
Pleasant,
October,
1774

ments, was proceeding down the Kanawha. On October 6, they camped on Point Pleasant, the point of land jutting out between the Kanawha and the Ohio, to await news of Dunmore. Four days later they were attacked before daylight by Cornstalk. The battle which followed was more hotly contested than any other Indian battle on record. The numbers engaged were about equal and they fought from early morning until nightfall. The Virginians lost seventyfive men killed and one hundred and forty wounded. The Indians sustained losses only about half as great, but they finally retired from the conflict sullen and crestfallen.

After the battle Lewis crossed the Ohio and marched to

join Dunmore. When he reached the camp he found that Dunmore had already made a treaty of peace with the Indian tribes. Logan alone refused to treat with him. To Lord Dunmore's messenger he delivered a speech which is considered the finest outburst of Indian eloquence recorded. It was soon evident, however, that Logan did not intend to continue hostilities and Dunmore marched home.

Results of
Dunmore's
War

The Virginians who were with Andrew Lewis resented Lord Dunmore's change of plan which cost them so dearly, and they also objected to his haste in making peace with the Indians who they thought deserved greater punishment. Afterwards, in view of Lord Dunmore's harsh conduct at the beginning of the Revolution, the view became current that he had acted with treachery toward Andrew Lewis and that he had made easy terms with the Indians in order that they might continue their ravages against the western settlements and thus aid England in the coming struggle with her colonists; but such a view seems wholly untenable. However that may be, Lord Dunmore's War had most important results. It kept the Indians quiet during the early years of the Revolution and

gave the frontiersmen who were pushing over the Alleghanies an opportunity to become well settled in Kentucky.

TOPICAL REFERENCES

1. The New Colonial Policy of George III: Channing, History of the United States, Vol. III, Chaps. I, II; G. E. Howard, Preliminaries of the Revolution, Chaps. I-VI; G. L. Beer, British Colonial Policy, 1754–1765, Chaps. IX-XI; W. W. Henry, Patrick Henry, Vol. I, Chap. III.

2. The Stamp Act Controversy: Channing, Vol. III, Chap. III; Howard, Chaps. VII-IX; Beer, Chaps. XIII, XIV; Henry, Patrick Henry, Vol. I, Chap. IV.

3. The Townshend Acts of 1767: Channing, Vol. III, Chap. IV; Howard, Chap. X.

4. The Dispatch of Troops to Boston: Channing, Vol. III, Chap. V; Howard, Chap. XI; Fiske, American Revolution, Vol. I, pp. 46-72.

5. Conditions on the Western Frontier: Howard, Chap. XIII; Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West, Vol. I, Chaps. VVII; H. A. Bruce, Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road.

6. Lord Dunmore's War: Fiske, Vol. II, pp. 94-101; Roosevelt, Vol. I, Chaps. VIII, IX; R. G. Thwaites and L. P. Kellogg, Documentary History of Dunmore's War.

CHAPTER VI

THE ATTEMPT TO COERCE MASSACHUSETTS

The burning of the Gaspee, 1772

WHILE the events narrated at the close of the last chapter were taking place along the western frontier, affairs were rapidly reaching a crisis in New England. The attempt to execute the revenue laws had led to serious trouble in Rhode Island. On June 9, 1772, the British armed sloop Gaspee, which had been particularly active in searching for smuggled goods, ran aground, and that night was boarded by an armed party from Providence, who seized the crew, bound and set them ashore, and burned the vessel to the water's edge. When news of this affair reached England, a commission was sent to America to hold an investigation, with authority to arrest the offenders and send them to England for trial.

Samuel

Adams proposes the

of local

In Massachusetts Samuel Adams was now the most active and influential leader. He was a man of great energy, courage, and tenacity of purpose and had a remarkable talent for political organization. On November 2, 1772, he moved in the Boston town appointment meeting "that a committee of correspondence be committees appointed to consist of twenty-one persons to state the rights of the colonists and of this province in particular, as men, as Christians, and as subjects; to communicate and publish the same to the several towns and to the world as the sense of this town, with the infringements and violations thereof that have been, or from time to time may be made." Other Massachusetts towns followed the example of Boston and appointed similar committees.

of correspondence,

1772

committees

The proposal for intercolonial committees of correspondence came from Virginia, and the step was taken as a result of the uneasiness created by the appointment of Interthe Gaspee commission and a proposal to send colonial Americans to England for trial. On March 12, of corre1773, on motion of Dabney Carr, the House of spondence Burgesses appointed a standing committee for proposed by the Virginia intercolonial correspondence. Among its mem- Assembly, bers were Richard Bland, Dabney Carr, Patrick 1773 Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Thomas Jefferson. The committee was instructed to inform itself on the subject of the Gaspee commission, and the other colonial assemblies were requested to form similar committees of correspondMassachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and South Carolina promptly complied with the request. The appointment of these committees laid the foundation for the union of the colonies.

ence.

In December, 1773, measures were taken by several of the Massachusetts towns to prevent the landing of tea and payment of duty. On December 16 a party The Boston of fifty or sixty men disguised as Mohawk Indians "Tea and directed by Samuel Adams boarded three Party," 1773 ships in Boston Harbor, broke open the chests of tea, and threw the contents into the bay. Similar occurrences took place within a short time at other ports. At Philadelphia a mob collected to destroy a cargo of tea, but the captain of the ship sailed back to England. At Wilmington, North Carolina, a cargo of tea was thrown into the sea.

At Charleston, South Carolina, the consignees, under the pressure of public opinion, refused to receive a large quantity of tea and it was seized by the collector and stored in cellars under the exchange. Three years later it was sold and the proceeds paid into the state treasury. At Annapolis, Maryland, more extreme action was taken. The Peggy Stewart, soon after her arrival with a cargo of tea, was boarded

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