200 to South Carolina, 100 to Cherokee lands
Lt Gov Dinwiddie of Virginia agreed at the convention of Governors in Philadelphia held by Lord Loudoun 14-23 March 1757 to send 400 Virginia Regiment soldiers to Charles Town (now Charleston) South Carolina. Dinwiddie finds out he cannot meet that promise.
After finding out from Colonel George Washington how low in numbers the effective fighting force is, Dinwiddie decided in a a letter date stamped 5 April 1757 to send initially 200 to Charles Town SC.
In that same letter in the last paragraph, Dinwiddie also orders 100 to the Cherokee lands with a wish that the Virginia Regiment recruit more to join the Regiment on the way there.
On 26 May 1757 in separate letters to Lt Col Adam Stephen and to Gov. William H. Lyttelton of South Carolina that 2 companies of 100 men from the Virginia Regiment are coming to South Carolina.
To Adam Stephen, Dinwiddie tells Lt Col Bouquet will be the leader of all the forces down there.
To Lyttleton, Dinwiddie explains. "that he was sending him “a Detachmt from our provincial Regimt 200 Men under the Command of Lieut. Colo. Stevens, which are one third of our Regimt, our Quota was to be 400, but at present I cd not possibly send the whole having only 400 Men to protect our extensive frontiers”"
All of this was is possible once Maryland's Dagworthy brings 300 of his Marylanders to garrison Fort Cumberland.
But Colonel George Washington cannot order his men to execute Dinwiddie's order until Fort Cumberland is reinforced by the Marylanders who have not arrived yet.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer published only on wix 4/18/2021 , updated 4/25/2021, and more updates coming
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Indian incidents during this time:
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Another account of this Indian action appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia) for 5 May 1757:
“While the Catawba’s were at Fort Cumberland, three of the Enemy, within a Hundred Yards of the Fort; fired on three of them in a Canoe, two of which they killed outright, but the third made his Escape to the Fort; when all rushed out, and tho’ they pursued for about six Miles, they could not come up with them, occasioned by the Falling of a heavy Rain, which washed out their Tracks, and obliged them to give over the Pursuit. About the same time Captain Waggoner, with a Party of ten Men, was fired upon within a Quarter of a Mile of the Fort, when he had one Man killed, and another taken Prisoner. He prepared to return the Fire, but about eighteen of the Enemy appearing, made him retire to the Fort.”
Source:
April 16, 1757 letter
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Previous year
1. For the party of Catawba that came to Winchester in October 1756, see GW’s Orders, 27, 28 Oct. 1756, GW to Dinwiddie, 9 Nov. 1756, n. 13, and 27 Dec. 1757, n.5.
Joseph Fent (Feint) enlisted in the Virginia Regiment in May 1756
and was a sergeant in Henry Woodward’s company. He was one of five soldiers and two Catawba supposedly killed in a skirmish near Fort Duquesne in November.
The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia), 10 Mar. 1757,
reported the erection of a monument at Fort Cumberland “to the Memory of Serj. William Shaw, Serj. Joseph Fent, Jeremiah Poor, James Cope, and Timothy Shaw, Soldiers of the Virginia Regiment . . . To testify the Love, Honour and Esteem, paid to them by their Officers, for their great Courage and valiant Behaviour.” Another of this group besides Fent eventually made his way back home. William Shaw, after cruel treatment at Fort Duquesne, was eventually exchanged and sent to England. He petitioned the House of Burgesses for compensation for his injuries and “helpless Situation” and was awarded £60 (JHB, 1758–1761, 66, 68).
2. The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia) for 2 June 1757
reported that Fent and his Catawba companion “have brought with them two Scalps, taken from two Shawnese Indians, whom they prevailed on to accompany them within Sight of the Fort, when watching a proper Opportunity they killed them both, and scalped them.”
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Source
GW to Dinwiddie 24 May 1757:
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Fort Loudoun, 29th May 1757. To Governor Dinwiddie. Honble Sir, Mr Atkins delay is productive of numberless ill consequences. I am teased incessantly by the Indians to know when he will come; and have put them off so long, that their patience is quite exhausted; and several of them are going off without waiting his arrival.1 Among these are three who I must beg leave to recommend to your Honors particular notice—The first is Capt. Aires, about Hixayoura; a Cuttawba: He was the Indian that took the scalp which King Hiegler brought to your Honor; and shewed a great desire to encourage his Brethren to go to war again, and did go himself with Capt. Butten.2 The next is Captain Tom, the Chief of the Nottoways: He has received less, and deserves more than any of them; as he used great pains to bring the Tusks, and has met with no reward for it, although he was promised one. and the last is a young Cuttawba fellow, who made his escape with Sergeant Feint, after having killed and scalped two of the enemy just by their own Town: The scalps he has with him.3 I am &c.
G:W. LB, DLC:GW.
1. In a letter to George Croghan, 8 June 1757, Edmond Atkin wrote from Winchester: “I got to this place the 3d Inst., where I found Wawhatchee with 46 of his people, (besides one woman) & Yatahnou [Youghtanno], with his 13, waiting on me, after their return from Maryland & Pennsylvania. . . . In my way to the Town, I was informed by an half Breed Cawtaba, that Wawhatchee’s Party had formed a Resolution of going into all the White Peoples Houses in their way homeward and of taking whatever they liked. . . . At my arrival, I was in the House Wawhatchee came with most of his people to see me, I seem’d to take but little notice of him, & in a few minutes he said he wanted to hear what I had to say. I told him when I was ready to speak to him, I would let him know it. When would that be? I said I had given an answer already” (Pa. Archives, 1st ser., 3:175–82). After several days of such maneuvering, some of the Cherokee left under escort for home, and some of Wawhatchee’s warriors went into Maryland without Wawhatchee. The latter warriors returned on 14 June. 2. As GW would hardly have misspelled Catawba Jimmy Bullen’s name in this way and as it is doubtful that he would have used this unlikely spelling for King Hagler, these are probably mistakes of the clerk who later copied the letter books. Captain Jacob Ayres (Colonel Ayres) became the king of the Catawba tribe after King Hagler was killed by the Shawnee in 1763. Hixa-Uraw was one of the Catawba names affixed to the treaty of alliance that William Byrd III and Peter Randolph negotiated in February 1756 (see Robert Dinwiddie to GW, 23 April 1756, n.6). Perhaps “about” was the copyist’s misreading of “alias.” For accounts of King Hagler’s and Jimmy Bullen’s movements, see Clement Read to GW, 15 Mar. 1757, and notes. 3. For Joseph Fent’s exploits, see GW to Dinwiddie, 24 May 1757, n.1.
Source
GW to Dinwiddie 29 May 1757.
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Capt. Bullen has proposed a scheme to Capt. Gist, for bringing in the Creek & Cherokee Indians: and I have desired them to communicate it to your Honor.3 If this cou’d be effected so as to have them here at a time when a body of troops was marching for Fort Du Quesne; it wou’d be a propitious circumstance and worthy of Bullen: whom I beg leave to recommend to your Honor as deserving particular encouragement for his endeavours to save the Country. He has spent more of his things to inspirit his own people, as well as £10 cash in bringing them in.
Source
GW to Dinwiddie May 30th 1757
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I’ve sent £240 to Mr Atkin to pay for the Scalps, brot in by the Swallow’s Party—As to the People’s Demand for Indians they shall be pd when produced;6 Money is not ready;
Source
Dinwiddie to GW June 20th 1757
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The Indians mentioned therein are likewise got here with their scalps: and altho’ I believe from several circumstances that the Enemy are bringing down no Artillery—
Source
Dinwiddie to GW June 21, 1757
4. On this day Dinwiddie wrote Edmond Atkin at Winchester: “This will [be] deliver’d Yo. by Mr Martin who comes Convoy to 10 Cherokees sent to our Assista[nce] by old Hop” (ViHi: Dinwiddie Papers). Mr. Martin may be John Martin, ordained on 7 June 1757 in Hanover County as a Presbyterian minister. Early in 1758 he was sent on a mission to the Overhill Cherokee where he remained only a few months before moving to South Carolina.
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