A strong detachment was despatched by the English to relieve these posts. On reaching the neighbourhood of Fort Detroit, an attack on the Indian camp, about three miles off, was determined on. But, before the English approached, the Indians themselves began the attack, with the utmost fury, and the troops were compelled to retreat to the fort, with the loss of seventy killed and forty wounded. The Indians, however, soon despairing of success in their scheme of reducing the garrison, gave it up and withdrew.
The war still waged with fury along the whole western frontier. The siege of Fort Pitt was long continued, but after severe fighting, in which the loss of the Indians was great, they were beaten. Fort Niagara was also sharply assailed, but the enemy were finally driven back. At last the savages began to feel the necessity of peace, which was accordingly concluded in September, 1764, though the terms, being dictated by the English, were unfavorable to the Indians.
In the summer of 1774, hostilities again broke out. This war had its immediate origin in the incursions and outrages of the whites. The earlier stage of it is known in history as “Cresap’s War,” from the murder, by one Cresap, of the family of Logan, the Mingo chief,[13] who had settled among the Shawanese in Ohio. This base act of treachery and cruelty, which occurred in the spring of 1774, was followed by another atrocity, committed by a man named Greathouse, who invited a large number of Indians to drink with him and his men, and, when in a state of intoxication, fell upon them and massacred them. These and other outrages had the effect to combine several tribes in a war, which resulted in the desolation of many of the remote settlements. The governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, sent a large body of troops under General Andrew Lewis, who marched towards the junction of the Kenhawa with the Ohio. Here, on the morning of the 10th of October, just at sunrise, he was attacked by a body of Indians, estimated at from eight to fifteen hundred, consisting of Shawanese, Delawares, Mingoes, Wyandots, Cayugas, and other tribes, led on by Logan, aided by Cornstalk, his son, and the Red Eagle.
The Indians are said to have had the advantage of position, and in the early part of the battle they compelled the Virginia regiments to give way. But other troops being brought up, the Indians were, in turn, forced to retreat, and fall back behind a breastwork of logs and brushwood which they had erected. Here they made a valiant stand, and defended themselves till night had nearly set in. Cornstalk cheered on his men, crying out, “Be strong, be strong!” and he is said also to have buried his tomahawk in the head of one who was seeking safety in flight. The Indians, however, were at last outflanked by an unperceived movement of a body of troops, who passed to their rear, and drove them from their lines. Supposing that the Virginians had now received reinforcements, they fled across the Ohio, and retreated to the Scioto.
