Spring Onions and the Warrior Swallow
Next time you see Spring Onion growing at your feet, you will remember the story of Swallow and his son.
He should have never gone on that raiding party.
They all almost didn't.
The Cherokee all stood on the grounds of Fort Loudoun at 419 N Loudoun St, Winchester VA, arguing against it, because there were no "presents" as promised.
We continue our trek thru 1757.
Swallow, a Cherokee, had argued like a Greek God against going on this raiding party on the grounds of Fort Loudoun Winchester VA.
Then they all decide to go.
He gets shot in the head.
His son gets shot in both thighs.
The survivors better get away fast because an avenging party will be coming for them.
Should they leave Swallow's son behind?
They carry him for 4 days.
They survive only on Spring Onions.
But first some context:
As we trek thru 1757 in to June, we finally see some offense mounted by the Virginia Regiment with its Cherokee and Catawba allies.
1756 was full of receiving attacks from the French and their Indian allies. 1756 was all about white settlers so scared they just left. They left their homes, their livestock, their crops. Abandoned for the taking.
1757 was all about changing that.
Now the Virginia Regiment was joined by Cherokee, Catawba, and also Nottoway, Tuscarora.
We read in April and May how the Catawba first showed up. They appeared to have gotten "presents."
But the "presents' desired by the Cherokee who came after the Catawba were not there.
We read of some violence down in Lunenburg VA,. The Cherokee leave there for Winchester VA.
We then read of great speeches by the Cherokee held at Fort Loudoun in Winchester VA.
When we read those speeches we feel as if we are reading Agamemnon and Achilles arguing in Homer.
But despite the issue of "presents" not being given at Fort Loudoun, Winchester VA, the Cherokee decided to join the Virginia Regiment to scour the woods for the French and their Shawnee and other allies.
Douglas Southall Freeman tells the story of those raiding parties of June 1757.
When Washington had returned to Winchester
from Williamsburg he had found that several raids to the westward had been undertaken by the Virginians and their new Indian allies.
One such thrust
had been made by the natives who had brought in four scalps and two prisoners.
Major Andrew Lewis later had led toward the Ohio a scalping party of considerable size, but as he had not been able to prevail on the savages to take more than eight days’ provisions with them, he soon was back, with no scalps on any warrior’s belt.
Two parties remained out,
one of twenty Indians and ten soldiers with whom Capt Robert Spotswood had started in. the direction of Fort DuQuesne, and another under Lieut. James Baker, who had taken fifteen Indians and five white men toward Logstown With Baker had gone a renowned Indian fighter, known as Swallow Warrior.
Baker's Company
An express from Fort Cumberland brought news, June 12, 1757, that Baker had returned on the 9th with five French scalps and one French prisoner.
Washington was provoked that Baker apparently had failed to report directly to him and at once, but after he found that Baker duly had forwarded a dispatch, which in some manner was delayed, his satisfaction was unqualified.
It developed that on the 5th of June,
near the head of Turtle Creek [this is a map] , about twenty miles from Fort DuQuesne, Baker and his men had come upon ten French soldiers, including three Ensigns, who had separated the previous day from a company of raiding Shawnees.
The English and their Indians were naked when they flushed the enemy, and consequently could not be identified immediately While the French hesitated for a few seconds, the Virginians and the Indians fired.
Swallow Killed
Swallow Warrior, seeing his target fall, sprang forward to scalp the man and, at that instant, received a bullet through the head.
The other French broke and ran, but some of them found their pursuers fleet and cunning.
Two of the fugitives surrendered. The Indians brought them triumphantly back to Baker— only to turn on them furiously when they found that Swallow Warrior was dead.
One prisoner they killed in spite of Baker, the other he was able to save.
Two wounded Frenchmen were scalped and slam, two adversaries already were dead.
Swallow's Son was shot
Besides Swallow Warrior,
there had been another casualty on the English side in the person of his son, who was shot through both thighs.
The young Indian had to be removed, of course, because the escaping Frenchmen would sound an alarm that might bring an avenging force to the scene of the skirmish.
Mercifully, one of Baker’s men took the wounded warrior on a stout pair of shoulders and bore him until exhausted Then another and another carried the youth.
Spring Onions
This continued for the four days of the return journey, during which none of the party had any food except wild onions.
Source for above excerpt:
Douglas Southall Freeman's Young George Washington, Volume 2, Pages 249-251, published 1948, Charles Scribner's Sons
Contemporary Sources:
Colonel George Washington writes to Col Stanwix, 15 June 1757
GW tells of the success of this mission capturing a major French prisoner who is taken eventually to Fort Loudoun Winchester VA for questioning.
For the subject title of this story, it is this letter which mentions wild onions:
We sustained on our side the loss of the brave swallow warrior, & one other Indian wounded; whom the party brought in on a Bier, with no other sustenance for the four last days, than such as they derived from wild onions.
Nobody wrote GW to say they ate some wild onions. Was that just GW surmising they might have done so to get by? It is very likely they did so, since GW probably did so himself on many of his own travels through these woods and mountains.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-04-02-0128
James Baker writes to Col George Washington, 10 June 1757
Baker does not say who the wounded man they carry is Swallow's son. Baker does not mention onions.
We have suffered greatly on our return not tasting a morsel for four days, and carrying the Wounded Man on our backs.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-04-02-0117
To George Washington from James Livingston, 14 June 1757
Livingston does say the wounded man is Swallow's son.
Liut. Baker marcht this day at 11 oClock with all the Indians only 2 left with the Swallows Son which I’m afraid will die, Ive wrote to Mr Baker to Detain them at pearshalls untill they hear from you . . .
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-04-02-0127
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You could look at this story as one chapter of a story that started last year.
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The Timeline:
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Sandy Creek Expedition
Feb 1756
Despite the failure of this expedition, Major Andrew Lewis established a good relationship with Cherokee leadership.
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Cherokee forts
Major Andrew Lewis builds the first fort for the Cherokee. The Cherokee have been asking for a fort and trading post to help them fight off the French. But this fort Andrew Lewis builds is hardly used and falls into disrepair. The 2nd fort, Fort Loudoun in today's Tennessee is the 2nd fort built and is more substantial and is used.
Lunenburg VA
April 1757
Militia Colonel Read is afraid of the Cherokee and reports some violence to Lt Gov Dinwiddie. The Lt Gov Dinwiddie doesn't buy into this report. He suspects all the troubles were instigated by Richard Pearis and other White traders. And although Dinwiddie is right about 2 incidents of violence, he is not allowing for the truth that the situation of Cherokee demands was quite threatening to Col Read and his family who had a whole group of Cherokee set up homestead on his land with this family at beck and call to their every whim. Meanwhile the Cherokee feel ill used about the "presents" promised and not delivered.
The story on the Cherokee at Militia Col Read's place in Lunenburg VA:
Williamsburg VA
The Cherokee are treated to a parade and pageantry of visiting the House of Burgesses.
On the way to Winchester
Some Cherokee leave directly from Williamsburg, others go back to Lunenburg and then to Winchester. Before they arrive in Winchester they stay for a a little bit in Augusta VA.
Augusta VA
Fort Loudoun Winchester VA
The Catawba arrive first in April 1757
The Cherokee arrive at the end of April 1757
Story on the Catawba coming to and staying in Winchester:
Below are some of the debates the Cherokee had at Fort Loudoun, Winchester VA about helping the Virginia Regiment:
The Great Men of Virginia are liars:
More on the different warriors and their speeches in Winchester:
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Fort Loudoun PA
Often the Cherokee and Catawba would leave Winchester for Fort Frederick in MD and to another fort named Fort Loudoun in PA for presents too.
Scalping parties near Fort Duquesne:
Major Andrew Lewis company
Capt Spotswood company
Lt James Baker's company
June 1757
Click on the icon in Turtle Creek on this map. We guess on this location. We base it on Douglas Southall Freeman's words, "near the head of Turtle Creek [this is a map] , about twenty miles from Fort DuQuesne. . . ." We have not examined whether the headwaters is of Brush Creek dumping into Turtle or further along what is labeled as Turtle Creek.
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Updated by Jim Moyer 4/15/2024.
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When 130 Cherokees arrived at Fort Frederick on the New River to go on campaign against the Shawnees in the winter of 1755-1756, they did not receive the appropriate accoutrements of war from their better-equipped allies. Governor Dinwiddie provided them with shorter, but heavier naval guns while he sent to London for lighter trade guns.32 This supply problem continued throughout the war, straining the alliance between the Cherokees and Virginians at more than one juncture. In 1757, Cherokees from the lower towns, under the leadership of Wauhatchee and the Swallow Warrior, composed the first recorded sizeable group of warriors to come to the aid of Virginia’s back settlements during that year. Wauhatchee was obsessed with obtaining presents for his services. This was to be expected since gift-giving was the form of payment the Cherokees had been promised, and they remained sorely disappointed at the failure of the Virginia authorities to fulfill that promise. When Major Andrew Lewis escorted Wauhatchee’s gang of 148 to Winchester, there were no supplies awaiting them. These warriors had traveled approximately five hundred miles to assist the Virginians, who could not outfit them for war. Keerarustikee had stayed on at Winchester through the winter. He discouraged Wauhatchee’s gang even further by informing them that, when he and his men had found no supplies in Winchester, they had been sent two hundred miles to Williamsburg for supplies. Then, in the Virginia capital, the authorities had expressed surprise that the warriors had not been supplied in Winchester! The modern American military slang acronym snafu comes to mind.
The Cherokee efforts began to pay off quite well by early June of 1757. Lieutenant James Baker, assigned to a Cherokee war party ranging out of Fort Cumberland, penned a letter to Colonel Washington detailing the difficulties and the successes of a sortie.88 This was a tough service. The party of fifteen Cherokee warriors and five Virginia soldiers had started their ranging service on May 20. They had walked approximately 115 miles from Fort Cumberland to the head of Turtle Creek, engaged ten Frenchmen who had recently parted with fifty Shawnees, and then carried back a wounded warrior 115 miles without having anything to eat in four days, except wild onions.89 Washington instructed Lieutenant Baker to move to Pearsall’s Fort and remain there with his company. Baker was to encourage the Cherokees to bring the surviving French officer to Winchester.90 The officer was none other than the commander of French Fort Miamis, Marie Francois Picoté, Sieur de Belestre II, the leader of the 1756 summer campaign that had ravaged the Virginia settlements and destroyed Fort Vause. The French suffered a significant loss by his capture. As late as October 1758 Picoté was still a captive in Cherokee country even though the governors of Virginia and North Carolina attempted to pay for his release. The loss of their war leader, the Swallow, in the raid that acquired Picoté, meant that the Cherokees would not easily give up their important prisoner.91
While the Swallow and Lieutenant Baker conducted the raid toward Fort Duquesne, Ostenaco made his way to the front line.92 Washington informed General Stanwix that Ostenaco and his warriors left Winchester for Fort Duquesne before July 8, 1757, but Ostenaco became ill and had to stay behind on the South Branch (probably at Pearsall’s Fort), while one of the Virginia officers and nineteen of Ostenaco’s warriors continued on toward Fort Duquesne from Fort Cumberland on July 9. Ostenaco returned from Pearsall’s Fort to straighten out a royal mess caused by Edmond Atkin in Winchester when he imprisoned Mohawk and Cherokee peace emissaries heading toward Cherokee country. Washington, according to his own account, saved the day by sending an express (messenger) with an Indian “to their nation to prevent a massacre of all the traders and white people there.”93
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