Ancient Archives Among the Cornstalks by John A. Ward

Dunmore had done the same after the Treaty of Camp Charlotte.

So, Arbuckle’s behavior was not unprecedented. At the same time, Shawnee were well known to have participated in cross-border raids. Such prisoners served as de facto hostages and could be harmed if their kinfolk back home behaved in a manner the imprisoning entity did not like.

Seizing representatives from a potential adversary’s family, tribe, clan, community, country, etc. For his part, Arbuckle “was well satisfied the Shawanese are all our enemies.” In both cases, Arbuckle dispatched messages to Hand telling the general of his intentions to hold any arriving Shawnee until instructed otherwise by Hand. When Cornstalk himself came to the fort a few days later, as his son had promised, Arbuckle did just that.

Arbuckle resolved to take those Shawnee prisoner as well when they arrived. Cornstalk’s son arrived at the fort a week later to inquire about the detention and tell Arbuckle that some Shawnee chiefs would pay him a visit. Black was generally understood to be the color of war and death. The Shawnee also wanted someone to explain the meaning behind a black wampum strand delivered to them by the Delaware and originally said to have come from General Hand. It came to naught that fall, but that outcome still lay in the future. Indeed, Brigadier General Edward Hand was then planning a major offensive across the Ohio and frontier posts were busy gathering supplies for it. In October, 1777, after a summer of violence, two Shawnee, including the leader Red Hawk, arrived at Fort Randolph, professing peace and inquiring about a rumored invasion. In August 1777, Arbuckle reported to Brigadier General Edward Hand, the new Continental Commander at Fort Pitt, that two of his soldiers driving cattle into the fort had been killed and scalped, after which “they,” meaning Indians, had killed two more men, one child, one negro and taken one little girl prisoner from Greenbriar. Cornstalk had gone on the mission to lend weight to Wilson’s voice with those tribes. In 1776, he reported that Cornstalk had traveled to Detroit and was “Treating with the English.” Of course, this was William Wilson’s attempt to preserve the neutrality of tribes nearer Detroit by inviting them to a pace conference. He was already suspicious of the Shawnee in general, and Cornstalk in particular. Modern Replica of Fort Randolph in Point Pleasant, WV (Wikimedia Commons)Īt Fort Randolph, erected on the old Point Pleasant battlefield, Captain Matthew Arbuckle decided to take matters with the Shawnee into his own hands.

Ancient Archives Among the Cornstalks by John A. Ward