Smallpox cuts down the Catawba to 4 percent?
Just read this excerpt about the Catawba population cut down in 1759. Then, see the numbers of how many Catawba were here in Winchester VA between 1755- end of 1758.
Catawba warriors brought it home from the Pennsylvania frontier in early 1759 when they returned from the Forbes campaign against Fort Duquesne.
It "raged with great violence" through December [1759], when the Gazette [from Charleston SC] reported it had "carried off near one half" of the Catawba Nation.
The missionary, William Richardson, who visited the Catawbas after his short stint with the Cherokees, described the epidemic and its outcome. "The Smallpox spread among them surprisingly," he wrote,"on which they fled to the woods, and died in great numbers; which with the present disturbances, have made them leave their towns, so that they are at present out of my reach."
By 1760, fewer than 60 warriors remained.
The Catawba population now stood at 4 percent of it number at the time of Carolina's settlement less than a century earlier.
Only 8 warriors from the tribe joined Lyttleton's campaign.
More vulnerable to their traditional enemies [which is the Cherokee, despite both Cherokee and Catawba joining the Forbes Expedition], than ever before, Catawba warriors requested a reservation with a stockaded fort to house their women and children when they were gone. These long term Anglo Carolinian allies lost the influence they once enjoyed.
This disease was spread by Catwba warriors raiding Cherokee villiages in October 1759. It then raged for at least 6 weeks in Keowee. By January [1760] it swept through the Lower Towns.
End of Excerpt:
Pages 83 Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American .Southeast 1756-1763 By Daniel J. Tortora, published by the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2015.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer 8/7/2023, updated 8/8/2023
See when the Catawba came to Winchester VA.
Catawba in Winchester VA
Orders, 27–28 October 1756
Winchester, Thursday 28th October, 1756. As Colonel Washington is to hold conference with the catawba Indians, betwixt eleven & twelve o’clock1—He desires all the Officers in town to attend at that time. and during the time of conference, he orders a Sergeant & Drummer to beat through the Town, ordering all Soldiers & Towns people to use the Indians civilly and kindly; to avoid giving them liquor; and to be cautious what they speak before them: as all of them understand english, and ought not to be affronted. LB, DLC:GW.
1. The party of Catawba Indians lost two of their number on a scouting expedition with men from the Virginia Regiment and in late December began their return home. See GW to Dinwiddie, 9 Nov., 2 Dec., and, especially, Dinwiddie to GW, 27 Dec. 1756.
Source:
FALL-WINTER OF 1756
Founders Online footnote 5:
Letter TO George Washington FROM Robert Dinwiddie, 27 December 1756:
5. The Catawba Indians, who had arrived in Winchester in late October, left Fort Cumberland for Williamsburg on their way home near the end of December. See GW to Robert Dinwiddie, 9 Nov. 1756, n.13.
In DLC:GW
there are two addresses to the Catawba, both in Adam Stephen’s hand and perhaps written in the name of GW.
One, directed to the “Brothers Catabaws,
” expressed regret that the warriors were leaving and sorrow “for the Loss of the two Catabaws, and for our five white men.” (For the names of the five lost soldiers and the reappearance of two of the five, see GW to Dinwiddie, 24 May 1757, n.1). The first address went on to say “we are mighty sorry that the 40 Catabaws, which we Expected did not come to war, according to treaty made last spring; We are afraid that they hearken to much to what the traders Say, who tell them many lies, and want them to Stay at home to kill dear, and get Skins for them.” It followed this with a plea that they “tell the Warriors of the Catabaw Nation, that the Road is now Open and Clear, and that we want to Shake hands with them Early in the Spring. . . . We will take a great many Scalps, and prisoners, for which we will get a great deal of money, & thanks from the Gret King George our Common Father.”
The other address, directed to “Capt. Johnne,
” the leader of the little party, asked him “to go to the Cherokees, and tell them the Road is now clear and Open; We expected them to War last Spring . . .; but we are mighty Sorry that they hearken so much to the lies the French tell. . . . If they Continue to Listen to What the French Say much longer they will have great cause to be sorry. . . . Tell them we long to Shake hands with them; Let them get their knives and tomhawkes Sharpe . . .” (1756, DLC:GW). See also Dinwiddie to GW, 26 Jan. 1757.
Stories of Catawba in Winchester VA
Spring of 1757
Summer 1757
Founders Online footnote 2
located in Orders, 10 October 1755
2. Thomas Rutherford was lieutenant of John Ashby’s 2d company of rangers. GW recommended him to Dinwiddie for an ensign’s commission in the Virginia Regiment on 12 June 1757, but instead Dinwiddie appointed him Indian agent to conduct the Catawba Indians to British forts on the western frontier.
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SPRING 1758
The southern Indians started coming too early before the Forbes Campaign was ready to use them.
Capt. Abraham Bosomworth
of the 2d Battalion, Royal American Regiment,
submitted to General Forbes
“A Return of the Southern Indians Winchester April 21st 1758”
(ViU: Forbes Papers), from a return made by Christopher Gist.
The return indicates that 652 Indians had come to Virginia,
58 on 16 Nov. 1757
and the rest between 28 Feb. and 21 April 1758.
One party of 26 on 18 Mar.
and another of 24 on 20 Mar. arrived “at Augusta,”
while the other twenty-one parties arrived “at Winchester” (ibid.).
One hundred and sixty-five warriors in six parties had gone from Winchester to Fort Frederick, Md.;
174 in four parties had gone from Winchester to the South Branch;
one party of 26 had gone down from Augusta to the James River
and one party of 24 to the South Branch;
and one party of 25 had left Winchester for Fort Loudoun in Pennsylvania.
A total of 23 parties ranging in size from 7 to 75 with a median size of 41 made up the total of 652 who had come.
Twenty of the parties came from one or another Cherokee town,
two parties were Catawba
and one party contained Indians of both tribes.
By 21 April eleven parties totaling 364 warriors had left Winchester;
238 men in ten parties remained in town.
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Side note for later research on the Swallow Warrior Story
April of 1757
We believe this to be in 1757 inestead of 1756 claimed here.
In April of 1756, Step and fifteen other Nottoway joined the Cherokee warriors, following Isle of Wight’s Lt. James Baker to assist Lt. Colonel George Washington in Winchester.
William Fair writes this to GW 31 Mar 1757:
Lieut. Baker setting off with about Sixty of the Nottoway & Tuskarora Indians equipt with Arms &c.2 to joyn the Tribes of Cherokees & Catawbas before Sent under the Care & Conduct of Majr Lewis & Lieut. Williams will I hope be a welcome Reinforcement and productive of good Events—Capt. Jack Chief of the Tuskaroras produc’d to Me in Council your Letter of Invitation, wrote by Bryan Fx, who I wish, had not resignd but continued with You.
Our question:
Did Tom Step and the Nottoways join Lt Baker's group or Spotswood's group or Andrew Lewis; group?
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source of story published May 2023 on Tom Step.
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