I have only just noticed the correspondence about your post on a skirmish
between Cherokees and Virginians in 1758 and 1759.  The Cherokees and
Catawbas serving with Forbes’s expedition soon grew tired of his slowness
in advancing—as did most of the provincial forces serving with him and the
provincial assemblies funding them. During the late spring and summer of
1758 many individual groups of warriors left Forbes’s army and drifted
south and in many cases there were clashes between them and backcountry
settlers who were unable, or unwilling, to distinguish between ‘allied’
Cherokees and ‘enemy’ Shawnees and Delawares. You may be referring to one
of these incidents. They were most common in June and July of 1758, and
there were several different incidents particularly in Augusta and Bedford
Counties of Virginia.

Can I suggest three locations, which you should be able to access in
libraries in Pittsburgh, where you might look for further information on
the specific incipient in which you are interested? First W.W. Abbot, and
Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series.
Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, Volume 5. As
Washington commanded the First Virginia Regiment his papers contain a
wealth of information about any military activity in Virginia. Second,
George Reese, ed. The Official Papers of Francis Fauquier, Lieutenant
Governor of Virginia 1758-1768. Charlottesville Va.: University Press of
Virginia, 1980, Volume 1. Fauquier arrived in Williamsburg in June 1758.
If the event you are interested in took place after this time you will
probably find reference to it in his papers. Finally, perhaps an
unexpected location, Marion Tinling, ed. The Correspondence of the Three
William Byrds of Westover Virginia, 1684-1776, 2 Vols; Charlottesville,
Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1977, Volume 2. William Byrd played a
major role in Virginia’s negotiations with the Cherokees and also
commanded troops stationed in the colony in 1758. His correspondence
contains many references to skirmishes with Cherokees returning home.


On Sat, 8 May 2004 01:05:40 -0400, Curtis Cleveland <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>I have just joined the list and am seeking information about a conflict
>between Virginians ( presumably militia ) and Cherokee sometime in 1758 or
>1759. I've only been able to find vague accounts of it but apparently
>about 100 Cherokee and and unknown number of Virginians were on an
>expedition together against some other Indians ( presumably Shawnee ) when
>the Cherokee lost a lot of their equipment in a difficult river crossing.
>The Indians were in a difficult situation and the whites refused to share
>their supplies. The Cherokee stole some horses from the Virginians who
>pursued and attacked them.
>
>Supposedly this incident was a factor in stirring up the border unrest we
>have come to know as the "Cherokee War" but if it was an influential event
>it seems poorly documented. I can only find fragments on the Web. Does
>anyone know what happened and when?



Dr Matthew C. Ward
Department of History
University of Dundee
Dundee, DD1 4HN
Scotland
Tel +44 1382 344181

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