Siege of Fort Henry (1777)

In the summer of 1777, rumors began circulating throughout frontier areas of Virginia and Pennsylvania that Indians living in the Ohio Country were planning attacks on frontier settlements on and around the Ohio River. Fort Henry, which had been constructed in 1774 to protect the settlers in the area around what is now Wheeling, West Virginia, was one of the rumored targets.[1]

In early August, General Edward Hand, the region's commander at Fort Pitt warned Lieutenant Colonel David Shepherd and all of the local militia captains of the threat, ordering 11 militia companies to gather at Fort Henry. At least 6 companies arrived totalling over 350 men.[2][3] Minor skirmishes took place on August 2 and 4 resulting in two wounded enslaved men and one killed Native.

For a time thereafter, militia companies stayed at Fort Henry, improving its defenses and patrolling for Indians. However, the absence of any major threat led many of those companies to leave and return to their homes. By the end of August, only Captain Joseph Ogle's 25 man company from Buffalo Creek and the fort's local milita under Captain Samuel Mason remained.[4][5]

The battle is reported in some sources to have taken place on September 1, and in others on September 21. On the night of the battle, a mixed band of 200 - 300 Natives (predominantly Wyandot and Mingo, although there were also some Shawnee and Delaware) under the leadership of the Wendat chief Dunquat,[2][6] approached the fort in great stealth and secrecy.[4] Local men later joined from Fort Shepherd (in Elm Grove) and Fort Holliday to defend the fort. The total number of defenders on the first day varies by accounts from 42 to just under 100 militia. This is likely because accounts of the battle were recorded after the war and the local militiamen arrived sporadically alongside civilians taking refuge.[2][5][7]

When four men left the fort early that morning, the Indians attacked them, killing one. The other three escaped, including two who returned to the fort to raise the alarm.[5]

On hearing of the attack, Captain Mason led out marched out to search for the Indians. However, the Natives anticipated a sortie from the fort and had set up an ambush. One of Mason's men, Thomas Glen (sic),[8] spotted an Indian and shot him, prompting the Indians to open fire. Seeing that they were very nearly surrounded, Mason and his men retreated, with Mason suffering severe enough injuries that he was forced to hide by the path rather than go to the fort. When Ogle led some men out to assist, his party was also attacked, and he was forced to take cover. Despite taking casualties, he and Mason were eventually able to retreat to the fort.[9]

Shortly after the siege began, calls for help went out to militias throughout the region. Captain Van Swearingen was the first to respond with fourteen men from Cross Creek, about 20 miles north, and was able to enter the fort without issue. The second to respond was Major Samuel McColloch, who led a force of 40 men from Fort Van Meter along Short Creek to assist the besieged Fort Henry. As his men approached the fort, they were ambushed by Native forces. While covering his men's safe retreat into the fort, McCollock found himself cut off.

Upon his horse McColloch fled up Wheeling Hill, and there he found himself surrounded on three sides by Native forces, and on the other by a steep 300 ft (91 m) drop. Instead of being captured or killed, he chose to charge his horse over the edge of the cliff managing to save both himself and his horse without injury, and becoming a local folk hero for the story which has become known as McColloch's Leap.[7]

The Indians remained overnight outside the fort, dancing and demonstrating, but never attacked it directly.

They left the morning after McColloch's reinforcements arrived, having suffered nine wounded and one killed, while the Americans lost 23 people (14 or 15 of whom were militia men and 8 or 9 were local civilians), along with five wounded.[2][9] Over the course of the raid, the Native American force burned approximately 25 surrounding cabins and slaughtered or stole 300 cattle.[10]

Following the Revolutionary War, Captain Samuel Mason would later turn to a life of crime as a river pirate in 1797 at Cave-In-Rock on the Ohio River and a highwayman on the Natchez Trace.[11][12]