of legality to their condemnation; and these were easily found. Lafreniere, Noyant, Marquis, Joseph Milhet, and Caresse were sentenced to be hung, and their property confiscated. The unfortunate Louisianians vainly implored of the inexorable O'Reilly a delay that he would enable them to have a recourse to the royal clemency. The only favor he could be prevailed upon to grant was the substitution of shooting for hanging. On the 28th of September, the day appointed for the execution, all the troops were drawn up under arms on the levee and in the public square; the gates were closed, the posts all reinforced, and a strong patrol paraded through the deserted streets; the inhabitants having all retired to their houses the evening before, that they might not witness the death of their friends. The five victims. were led out into the small square in front of the barracks, where they met their fate with the utmost courage and resignation It was attempted to blindfold them, when Marquis, a Swiss captain in the service of France, indignantly opposed it. "I have," said he, "risked my life many a time in the service of my adopted country, and have never feared to face my enemies." And then addressing his companions, "Let us," he exclaimed, "die like brave men; we need not fear death." Coolly taking a pinch of snuff and turning to the Spaniards, he said, "Take notice, Spaniards, that we die because we will not cease to be French. As for myself, though a foreigner by birth, my heart belongs to France. For thirty years I have fought for Louis le bien-aime, and I glory in a death that proves my attachment to him. Fire, executioners!" The other six prisoners, Boisblanc, Doucet, Marent, Jean Milhet, Petit, and Poupet, were sentenced, the first to imprisonment for life, and the others for a term of years. They were sent to Havana, and confined in the dungeons of the Moro Castle. DUNMORE'S WAR. THE war usually called Dunmore's, all the events of which were comprised within a few months of the year 1774, arose in consequence of cold-blooded murders committed upon inoffensive Indians by the Virginians, in the region of the upper Ohio. Among those murdered by Cresap and Greathouse, at Captina and Yellow Creek, in the vicinity of Wheeling, was included the whole family of the noble, generous, and unfortunate Logan. He had been the steadfast friend of the whites and the advocate of peace; but upon this, he seized the hatchet and sought revenge. The Shawanee, on the Scioto, was the principal tribe in the war, those north and west being in alliance with it. As soon as these murders were known, their revenge and fury knew no bounds, and all manner of savage barbarities were committed upon the frontier settlements. Their operations were mainly directed against the Virginians, as the authorities of Pennsylvania had taken the precaution to dispatch messengers to them, stating that these outrages had been committed by Virginians; and that, therefore, the settlers on the frontiers of Pennsylvania were not the proper objects of revenge. Upon the first outbreak of hostilities, consternation spread throughout the frontiers; some families fled to the mountains, others sought safety in forts and stations. The Colonial Legislature of Virginia, then in session, promptly made provisions for the emergency. While a larger force was collecting in Eastern Virginia, four hundred volunteers from the Monongahela and Youghiogheny, rendezvoused at Wheeling, in June, under Colonel Angus M'Donald. He invaded the Indian country on the Muskingum, and destroyed the Wappatomica towns on that river, a few miles above the site of Zanesville. This expedition only served to further exasperate the Indians. By September, Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, had collected a force of about three thousand men, destined for the reduction of the Shawanee towns on the Scioto. This force was in two divisions. The southern, comprising about eleven hundred men, under Colonel Andrew Lewis, collected in the Greenbrier country. They were ordered to march down the Great Kanawha to the Ohio, and there to join the northern division, while the latter, under command of Dunmore, in person, was to pass the mountains at Cumberland, strike the Ohio at Wheeling, and descend in boats to the mouth of the Kanawha, the point of junc tion. On the 6th of October, Lewis arrived with his division at the mouth of the Kanawha, on the site of the village of Point Pleasant and encamped, awaiting orders. On the 9th, messengers arrived in camp from Dunmore, the commander-in-chief, stating that his lordship had arrived with his division at Wheeling, and had so far changed his plan of operations as to descend only to the mouth of the Hocking, twenty-eight miles above Point Pleasant, from which point he was to march across the country to the Indian towns on the Scioto, where Lewis was ordered to join him. Preparations were immediately made for the transportation of the troops across the Ohio. The Battle of Point Pleasant.-Early on the succeeding morning, the 10th of October, two soldiers left the camp and proceeded up the Ohio River in quest of deer. When they had progressed about two miles, they unexpectedly came upon a large body of Indians, who, discovering them, fired and killed one, while the other made his escape to the camp with the intelligence. The main part of the army was ordered out, and when they had marched in two lines, under the command of Colonels Charles Lewis and Wm. Fleming, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, they were met and charged by the Indians. At the first onset Lewis fell, and Fleming was wounded, upon which both lines gave way and were retreating, when they were reinforced by Col. Field, and rallied. The engagement then became general, and was sustained with obstinate fury on both sides. The Indians formed in a line across the point from the Ohio to the Kanawha, and were protected in front by logs and fallen timber. In this situation they maintained the contest with unabated vigor, from sunrise until near sunset, bravely resisting successive charges, which were made with great impetuosity by the Virginians. The Indians were under the command of that distinguished and consummate chieftain, Cornstalk. His plan of alternate retreat and attack was well conceived, and occasioned the principal loss of the whites. If at any time his warriors were believed to waver, his voice could be heard above the din of arms, exclaiming in his native tongue, "be strong! be strong!" A warrior near him showed trepidation and reluctance to charge, fearing the influence of his pernicious example, he cleft his skull open with his tomahawk. Gen. Lewis seeing it impossible to dislodge the Indians by the most vigorous attacks, and aware of the great danger that must arise to his army if the contest was not decided before night, detached three companies, who followed up under the bank of the Kanawha under the covert of the weeds and brush beyond the upper end of the Indian line, and from thence gained the rear of the savages, and made an attack. The enemy, suddenly finding themselves encompassed on both sides, and supposing that in their rear was an expected reinforcement under Col. Christian, soon gave way, and about sundown, precipitately crossed the Ohio and made their way to their towns on the Scioto. The victory was dearly bought to the Virginians, two hundred and fifteen being killed and wounded, among whom were many valuable officers. The number of the enemy or their loss was never ascertained. They probably numbered about one thousand warriors, the flower of the Shawanee, Delaware, Mingo, and Wyandot tribes. This battle was the most bloody ever fought with the Indians within the limits of Virginia. Its sanguinary nature made it long remembered among the borderers, and its history is given in a rude song, which is even heard to the present day, among the mountain cabins of that region: Let us mind the tenth day of October, The battle beginning in the morning, Throughout the day it lashed sore, Till the evening shades were returning down Judgment precedes to execution, Let fame throughout all dangers go, Seven score lay dead and wounded By which the heathen were confounded, Colonel Lewis and some noble captains Kings lamented their mighty fallen O bless the mighty King of Heaven, Meanwhile Dunmore had descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Hocking, where he erected Fort Gower. From thence he marched toward the Indian towns on the Scioto, about four miles south of the site of Circleville, and thirty from that of Columbus. Lewis, with his army, pushed forward to the same point, maddened by the loss of so many brave men, and anxious to avenge their fate by the annihilation of the Shawanee villages. But before reaching the Scioto, the Indians, seeing the uselessness of attempting to oppose the army, sent messengers to Dunmore, asking peace. He listened to their request, appointed a place for the conference, and sent orders to Lewis to arrest his march. Lewis refused to obey; nor was it until Dunmore in person visited his camp, on Congo Creek, just south of the Indian towns, that he felt himself bound, though unwillingly, to give up his hostile designs. Lord Dunmore remained at his camp, called Camp Charlotte, four miles east of the Indian towns, where, matters having been arranged, a council was held with the Indian chiefs to negotiate peace. The deliberations were opened by Cornstalk, in a short and energetic speech, delivered with great dignity, and in a tone so powerful as to be heard all over the camp. He recited the former power of the Indians, the number of their tribes, compared with their present wretched condition, and their diminished numbers; he referred to the treaty of Fort Stanwix, and the cessions of territory then made by them to the whites; to the lawless encroachments of the whites upon their lands, contrary to all treaty stipulations; to the patient forbearance of the Indians for years, under wrongs exercised toward them by the frontier people. He said the Indians knew their weakness in a contest with the whites, and they desired only justice; that the war was not sought by the Indians, but was forced upon them; for it was commenced by the whites without previous notice; that, under the circumstances, they would have merited the contempt of the whites for cowardice, if they had failed to retaliate the unprovoked and treacherous murders of Captina and Yellow Creek; that the war was the work of the whites, for the Indians desired peace. The compact or treaty was at length concluded, and four hostages put in possession of Dunmore, to be taken to Virginia. The Indians agreed to make the Ohio their boundary, and the whites stipulated not to pass beyond the west side of that river. Thus was the Ohio, for the first time, acknowledged by the Indians as the boundary between the territory of the whites and the hunting-ground of the Indians. Great excitement, amounting almost to mutiny, prevailed among the troops at not being allowed to fight the Indians. They were highly dissatisfied with the governor and the treaty. The conduct of Dunmore could not be satisfactorily explained by them, except by supposing that he had received orders from the royal government to terminate the war speedily with the hostile tribes, and to make such terms with them as might secure their alliance in favor of England against the colonies, in case the growing difficulties with them should terminate in open war. Such too were said to have been the opinions of General Washington and Chief Justice Marshall. Map of the Ancient Shawanese Towns on the Pickaway Plains. [EXPLANATIONS.-A. Ancient Works, on which Circleville now stands. B. Logan's Cabin at Old Chillicothe. now Westfall, four miles below Circleville; from this place a trail led through Grenadier Squaw Town, from thence up the Congo Valley, and crossed to the opposite side of the creek, about one and a half miles from its mouth. C. Black Mountain, a short distance west of the old Barr Mansion. D. Conncil House, a short distance northeast of the residence of Wm. Renick, jr. The two parallel lines at this point represent the gauntlet through which prisoners were forced to run; and O. the stake at which they were burnt; which last is on a commanding elevation. F. the camp of Colonel Lewis, just south of the residence of George Wolf. E. the point where Lord Dunmore met with and stopped the army of Lewis, when on their way to attack the Indians; it is opposite the mansion of Major John Boggs. G. the residence of Judge Gills, near which is shown the position of Camp Charlotte.] Logan, the Mingo chief, still indignant at the murder of his family, refused to attend the council, or to be seen a suppliant among the other chiefs. Yet to General Gibson, who was sent as an envoy to the Shawanese towns, on a private interview, after weeping as if his very heart would burst, he told the pathetic story of his wrongs in the following words: |