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.
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