Don't ignore a Man's request for Whiskey
Seriously. When someone asks you for some whiskey, don't get up and turn your back and walk away ignoring such a request. I don't care who is asking you. Show some attention. Don't just turn your back and walk away, unless you got good reason. And maybe in this situation there was good reason, but still, even with good reason, perhaps some attention given the request or perhaps using delay tactics to soften the rejection could have been utilized.
But in this case we just don't know all the context.
Here's all we know:
Colonel George Washington is at Fort Loudoun Winchester VA when he receives a letter dated 21 May 1758 from Thomas Bullitt, reporting a kind of problem always possible between men at this time.
A Virginia Regiment soldier was asked by a Cherokee man for some whiskey.
That soldier didn't respond to the Cherokee.
He just stood up and turned his back to the Cherokee and walked away.
We know he turned his back because the Cherokee shot him in the back according to the letter below.
And if looks were true, you could probably say this is true because that soldier was described two years earlier as dark Complexion thick Sett, a villainous Countenance.”
This incident happened on the Patterson Creek.
It happened in a temporary Indian camp.
That makeshift Indian Camp was for a war party organized by both the Virginia Regiment and the Cherokee as independent co-equals, both making decisions on each mission.
Their overall mission was to "scour" the woods for enemy French and enemy Indians.
Location?
That camp may or may not have been near one of the only two forts on the Patterson.
Those two forts were two Ranger forts on the Patterson --- William Cock's and John (Jack) Ashby's. They were no longer staffed by the original Ranger companies.
That soldier who got shot in the back was originally on Thomas Cocke's roster of men in his company and now in Capt Joshua Lewis' Company -- both companies in the Virginia Regiment.
Notice the two --- Cock and Cocke --- are different?
The two names are often misspelled or mixed up.
To disambiguate the confusion between between Ranger Captain William Cock and Virginia Regiment Captain Thomas Cocke, see this link.
Somehow Thomas Bullitt finds out about it.
And you know he himself has a story. See that here in this link.
Thomas Bullitt finds out about this incident and sends men to the camp to investigate.
They find a dead Cherokee with his throat cut ear to ear.
Probably the same one who shot the soldier in the back?
And the soldier?
He might live if a doctor can be sent out quickly to this place.
Thomas Bullitt once again is careful at adjudicating anything involving the Indians. He did so carefully adjudge a similar and potentially even more explosive situation as temporary commanding officer at Fort Loudoun (Winchester VA) last months of March and April 1758.
But even still he is just careful wanting to know more before reaching a decision.
Even his men agree to delay opinion.
And the Indians certainly want delay of judgement. They ask for the Indian Interpreter Richard Smith to come.
Epilogue:
So did the doctor James Craik get there?
Did the Indian Interpreter Richard Smith get there?
We don't know.
The story goes silent, only to die with the memories of those men who knew about it.
We hand the baton to you dear reader.
We hand it to you not to actively pursue and investigate, but to keep it in the back of your mind if such a name of that soldier pops up in your readings of other stories.
John Waid.
A soldier in Cocke's Company, a man of "dark Complexion thick Sett, a villainous Countenance.”
That's the name.
But no name for the Cherokee Man.
We got a Cold Case. Still on the books. Still on file.
Here's the letter:
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To George Washington
from Thomas Bullitt,
21 May 1758
From Thomas Bullitt
Pattersons May 21th 1758
Dr Sir
As John Waid a Soldier in my Company [footnote 1 ]
was Seting at the Indian Camp Eating some Victuls,
one of the Cherokees Askt him for some whiskey,
he not giving him a Direct Answer,
pickt up his gun and shot him through the back.
I immediately sent out a Command to the Camp,
which place was found
Avacuateed by all of them but one
which was found dead
with his throat Cutt from Ear to Ear
by one of their own men,
by what I can Understand by them
it was he that Shott the Soldier,
some part of them Imediatly took to the woods,
the Others Remains att this place,
It took the Oppinion of the Gentlemen,
and it was agreed
not to Use any harsh means with them
till you were Acquainted with the Accidant.
Please send the Doctr down with all Immagenable speed as thire is some hopes of the mans Recovering
also the Indians Desires mr Smith to Come down as soon As Possibly he can I cant give you a true Light of the Affair till mr Smith comes down.
I’be Oblige to you if you’ll tell the Doctr to bring down some Sarve fore sore Leggs.2
I am Dr Sr your most Obtt Hble Thos Bullitt
ALS, DLC:GW.
Founders Online Footnotes:
1. John Waid (Wade) was a soldier in Capt. Joshua Lewis’s company in the fall of 1757. He joined the regiment in January 1755 in Northumberland County. In July 1756 he was identified as a 21–year-old English seaman, 5 feet 4½ inches tall, with “dark Complexion thick Sett, a villainous Countenance” (Thomas Cocke’s Muster Roll, 13 July 1756, DLC:GW).
2. The doctor was probably the regimental surgeon James Craik, and Mr. Smith was the Indian interpreter Richard Smith.
Source:
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Compiled and Authored by Jim Moyer, researched 5/24/2022, updated 5/27/2022, 5/29/2022
More side notes and links below.
Skip around.
Read bits and pieces.
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The Gif was created
by Jim Moyer
A gif maker and Pixlr were used to create this animation.
The Gif maker is here online:
Pixlr is used to modify an image.
For the Borrowed Images:
A cover of a Classics Illustrated story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was used for the White man depicting the soldier in the Virginia Regiment at the War party camp of Virginia Regiment soldiers and their co-equal allies, The Cherokee. Both consulted and decided equally on how to conduct each mission.
The Indian shooting
is a W.Britain model figure also sold by the Michigan Toy Company.
The Cherokees in the background
were taken from a Cherokee Website.
The Wounded Indian Peter Stephenson1848/1850
Peter Stephenson's heroic representation of a mortally wounded Indian ranks among the most beautiful and affecting works of American neoclassical sculpture.
It directly reflects the increasing acceptance in mid-nineteenth-century America of the Indian as Noble Savage - a natural man uncorrupted by the influences of civilization and thus embodying an innate nobility and grace.
At the same time, however, American Indians were being pushed further and further back into the frontier.
Notably, the Indian here has been felled not by a bullet, but an arrow.
This reflects the nineteenth-century belief that American Indians, as primitive people, were doomed whether white men bore arms against them or not.
While in Italy he surely encountered a variation of the Dying Gaul, the classical sculpture that served as inspiration for the pose of the Chrysler's sculpture.
Stephenson exhibited The Wounded Indian at the 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition in London.
His brief career ended with madness and his death at age thirty-seven, and surviving works by him are very rare.
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Some Internal Notes
Facebook Post 745am 5/29/2022
Sunday Word 1
A Virginia Regiment soldier was asked by a Cherokee man for some whiskey.
.
That soldier didn't respond to the Cherokee.
.
He just got got up and turned his back to the Cherokee and walked away.
.
We know he turned his back because the Cherokee shot him in the back according to the letter below in the link.
.
And if looks were true, you could probably say this is true because that soldier was described two years earlier as "dark Complexion thick Sett, a villainous Countenance.”
.
This incident happened on the Patterson Creek (now WV).
.
It happened in a temporary Indian camp.
.
That makeshift Indian Camp was for a war party organized by both the Virginia Regiment and the Cherokee as independent co-equals, both making decisions on each mission.
.
Their overall mission was to "scour" the woods for enemy French and enemy Indians.
.
.
Somehow Virginia Regiment company leader, Thomas Bullitt, finds out about it.
.
(And you know he himself has a story. See that here in this link in the blog. )
.
Thomas Bullitt finds out about this incident and sends men to the camp to investigate.
.
.
They find a dead Cherokee with his throat cut ear to ear.
.
Probably the same one who shot the soldier in the back?
.
And the soldier?
.
He might live if a doctor (James Craik) can be sent out quickly to this place.
.
Thomas Bullitt once again is careful at adjudicating anything involving the Indians. He did so carefully adjudge a similar and potentially even more explosive situation as temporary commanding officer at Fort Loudoun (Winchester VA) last months of March and April 1758 -- when he, Bullitt, and Col George Washington and President John Blair, acting Gov of VA -- all decided not to tell the Cherokee that Pennsylvania is current negotiating peace with their longtime Indian enemies.
.
But even still he is just careful wanting to know more before reaching a decision.
.
Even his men agree to delay opinion.
.
.
And the Indians certainly want delay of judgement. They ask for the Indian Interpreter Richard Smith to come.
.
Epilogue:
.
So did the doctor get there?
.
Did the Indian Interpreter Richard Smith get there?
.
We don't know.
.
The story goes silent, only to die with the memories of those men who knew about it.
.
We hand the baton to you.
.
We hand it to you not to actively pursue and investigate, but to keep it in the back of your mind if such a name of that soldier pops up in your readings of other stories.
.
John Waid.
.
A soldier in Cocke's Company, a man of "dark Complexion thick Sett, a villainous Countenance.”
.
That's the name.
.
But no name for the Cherokee Man.
.
We got a Cold Case. Still on the books. Still on file.
.
Here's the letter and more in this story link. . . . . and an interesting sculpture of a dying Indian made in 1850 . . . .
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