Battle of Point Pleasant

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Battle of Point Pleasant
Part of Dunmore's War

Monument to the battle in Point Pleasant
Date October 10, 1774
Location Present-day Point Pleasant, West Virginia
Result Virginia victory
Combatants
Shawnee, Mingo Virginia militia
Commanders
Cornstalk,
Pukeshinwa †,
Blue Jacket		 Andrew Lewis,
Charles Lewis †
Strength
300–1,000 1,100
Casualties
40 killed 75 killed, 150 wounded

The Battle of Point Pleasant, sometimes known as the Battle of Kanawha, was the only major battle of Dunmore's War. It was fought on October 10, 1774, primarily between Virginia militia and American Indians from the Shawnee and Mingo tribes. Along the Ohio River near modern Point Pleasant, West Virginia, American Indians under the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk attacked Virginia militia under Andrew Lewis, hoping to halt Lewis's advance into the Ohio Country. After a long and furious battle, Cornstalk retreated. After the battle, the Virginians, along with a second force led by Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, marched into the Ohio County and compelled Cornstalk to agree to a treaty, ending the war.

Contents

[edit] Preparations

Colonel Andrew Lewis, in command of about 1,100 men, was part of a planned two-pronged Virginian invasion of the Ohio Country. He anticipated linking up with another force commanded by Lord Dunmore, who was marching west from Fort Pitt, then known as Fort Dunmore. Dunmore's plan was to march into the Ohio Country and force the Indians to accept Ohio River boundary which had been negotiated with the Iroquois in the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix.

Shawnees had not been consulted in that treaty, however, and many did not want to surrender their lands south of the Ohio River without a fight. Officials of the British Indian Department, led by Sir William Johnson until his death in July 1774, worked to diplomatically isolate the Shawnees from other American Indians. As a result, when the war began, Shawnees had few allies other than a few Mingos.

Cornstalk, the Shawnee leader, moved to intercept Lewis's army, hoping to prevent the Virginians from linking up. Estimates of the size of Cornstalk's force have varied over the years, but scholars now suspect Cornstalk was greatly outnumbered, having around 300-500 warriors. Future notable Shawnee leader Blue Jacket probably took part in the battle.

[edit] Battle

Cornstalk's forces attacked Lewis's camp where the Kanawha River flows into the Ohio River, hoping to trap him along a bluff. The battle lasted for hours and was extremely intense; the fighting eventually became hand-to-hand. Cornstalk's voice was reportedly heard over the din of the battle, repeatedly urging his warriors to "be strong." Lewis sent several companies along the Kanawha and up a nearby creek in order to attack the Indians from the rear, reducing the intensity of the Shawnee offensive. At nightfall, the Shawnees silently withdrew back across the Ohio. The Virginians had held their ground, and so won the day.

[edit] Aftermath

The Virginians suffered about 75 killed and 150 wounded. The Shawnees had perhaps 40 killed; precise casualty figures for the Indians are uncertain, as they threw many of their dead into the river to prevent the bodies from being mutilated. (Scalping was routinely practiced by both sides in this era.) Among the dead was Pukeshinwa, the father of Tecumseh.

The outcome of the Battle of Point Pleasant forced Cornstalk to make peace with Dunmore at the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, ceding Shawnee land claims south of the Ohio (modern Kentucky) to Virginia.

[edit] Legacy and historical controversies

Before the Virginians had all returned home from Dunmore's War, the American Revolutionary War had begun at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. Before long, Lord Dunmore was leading the British war effort in Virginia against many of the men who had fought under him in Dunmore's War. Dunmore even sought to enlist American Indian allies—the very people he had defeated in 1774. As a result, over the years a legend arose that Dunmore had actually been collaborating with the Shawnees all along. According to this story, Dunmore deliberately isolated the militia under Andrew Lewis and directed the Shawnees to attack them, hoping to eliminate potentially troublesome American rebels. There is no evidence to support this conspiracy theory, but it was popular in the 19th century.

In 1908 the United States Senate passed a resolution declaring the Battle of Point Pleasant the first battle of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is honored as the first battle of the Revolution during "Battle Days", an annual festival celebrated in modern Point Pleasant.

[edit] References

  • Downes, Randolph C. Council Fires on the Upper Ohio: A Narrative of Indian Affairs in the Upper Ohio Valley until 1795. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1940. ISBN 0-8229-5201-7 (1989 reprint).
  • Lewis, Virgil A. History of the Battle of Point Pleasant. Charleston, West Virginia: Tribune, 1909. Reprinted Maryland: Willow Bend, 2000. ISBN 1-888265-59-0.
  • Randall, E. O. The Dunmore War. Columbus, Ohio: Heer, 1902.
  • Smith, Thomas H., ed. Ohio in the American Revolution: A Conference to Commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the Ft. Gower Resolves. Columbus: Ohio Historical Society, 1976.
  • Sugden, John. Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8032-4288-3.
  • Thwaites, Reuben Gold and Louise Phelps Kellogg, eds. Documentary History of Dunmore's War, 1774. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, 1905. Reprinted Baltimore: Clearfield, 2002. ISBN 0-8063-5180-2.

[edit] External links

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