Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1909-12-02
sdstown Jefferson County, West Virginia Thursday December g. 1909

fronted by the Indians marching IN Sollc
phalanx. Hughey was killed, but Moon
ey escaped back TO camp, where he scat
tered the alarm.
AS the drums beat to summons the Co.
lonial warriors to battle, they rolled from
their blankets and were ready in a mo-
ment for the fray. State Historian Virgil
A. Lewis says:
"Had that vast barbarian column swept
down in the darkness OF the morning upon
the army OF sleeping Virginians, ii would
have been doomed not only TO defeat
but to total destruction"
Colonel Charles Lewis, brother ot
General Andrew Lewis, was killed early
in the sanguinary conflict that lasted
throughout the day. He seemed to have
premonition OF his fate, for just two
months before he made his will in Staun-
ton, Virginia, before he began his west
ward march.
General Lewis and strategy won the
battle for the VirginianS. The Indian
army was surrounded by the Lewis army
and the flank movement made the Indians
believe that reinforcementS had come to
assist General Lewis. In reality the
reinforcements under Colonel Christian
did not arrive until II O'Clock that night
after the battle had been fought and won.
The Indians left the field about an hour
before sundown. A large portion OF the
Indian equipment had been left on the
field. An accurate number OF the Indian
losses has never been secured, for they
had carried away with them many OF
their fallen comrades, but the dead bodies
of those Indians remaining on the field OF
battle were left to decay upon the ground
where they expired.
Following the battle of Point Pleasant
Chief CornStalk led his defeated warriors
back to their tepees on the Pickaway
Plains and here he counSelled peace with
the Virginians. Never again did Corn
stalk take up arms against the colonistS,
for the treaty of Camp Charlotte was en-
tered into between CornStalk and Lord
Dunmore on the Pickaway Plains.
Cornstak's tragic death occurred No
vember 10th, l777. In that year the In
dianS, agitated by British agents, became
troublesome on the frontier, and Corn
stalk and Red Hawk, a chief OF Della
ware nation, paid visit TO the garrison
at Point Pleasant and informed the COL
onlsts of the disposition OF the Indians.
CornStalk and Red Hawk were held as
hostages.
While the two Indian warriors were
held at Point Pleasant, other Indians as
sassinated two Young white men who
were on hunt for deer. On the pre-
ceding day, CornStalk'S son, Ellinlpsico,
arrived from the nation to see his father.
II was then claimed that the Indians who
killed the young men had come with Eli
nipsico, but the son OF Cornstalk denied IT,.
Under the command OF Captain Hall the
garrison went to the fort to kill the host
ages, and as the men advanced TO the fort
Cornstalk rose up and met them. They
fired upon the great Indian chieftain, and
he fell with seven or eight bullets through
him. His son was shot dead as he sat
upon a stool. Red Hawk made an effort
TO get up chimney but was shot down.
Cornstalk and his son were buried in
the town of Point Pleasant, and today a
splendid monument has been erected to
the Indian chieftain, who was gifted with
oratory, craftsmanship, heroiSm, mill
tary strategist, straight in form and ma
jestic in movement. II was his anxiety
to preserve the Virginia frontier from
deSolation and death that prompted him
TO make this visit to Point Pleasant.
Roosevelt said: "CornStalk died a
grand death, by an act of cowardly treach-
cry on the part of his American foes. 1t
is one OF the darkest stains on the check
cred pages OF frontier history"