Thanks for the replies. I live in Pittsburgh so it's not likely I'll be
getting to a Virginian library anytime soon. The next time I'm likely to
be in the state is about 13 months away and that just to pass through on
our way to the Outer Banks.

I've been looking into this for a while before asking for help. I first
came across a reference in E Lawrence Lee's "Indian Wars in North Carolina
1663-1763" which, as I said, implies that the botched river crossing
occured during the Sandy Creek Expedition. That foray is well documented
on the Web but didn't include the river incident. Then I searched the web
and came up with a couple references to it but not enough to pin it down.
I got several hits on the horse gathering incident including "The Conquest
of the Old Southwest" but took it to be seperate. That incident is well
recorded. It is mentioned in Ian K. Steele's "Warpaths: Invasions of North
America" which I also own but didn't think to check until today. These
accounts only mention that the Natives were returning home from service
with General Forbes' expedition against Fort Du Quense here at the Forks
of the Ohio and not the river crossing incident. Another fragment I found
was here:

http://www.public.asu.edu/~stabler/Cherokee/database/CherokeeHistory1.html

The third to last paragraph reads in part:
"Incidents between Cherokee and white settlers during 1758 were hastily
covered over by another treaty, but the cooperation collapsed in 1759.
Almost 100 Cherokee accompanying a Virginia expedition against the Ohio
Shawnee lost their provisions while crossing a river and were abandoned by
their white "allies." Angry at this treatment, the Cherokee helped
themselves to some of the Virginians' horses and were attacked. After
killing more than twenty Cherokee, the Virginians scalped and mutilated
the bodies. They later collected a bounty for the scalps."

From this and the fact that I never saw the 2 incidents referred to
together I gathered that they were seperate. But today I decided to look
at some Cherokee history sites that perhaps didn't list all their
individual pages with Google and sure enough I found a story that includes
both incidents. ( The paragraph is about half way down the page to the
left of the graphic of Fort Loudon. )

http://cherokeehistory.com/1700thro.html

So this is where I am at. I still am not sure of anything but am beginning
to believe the following. Since Professor Henderson dates the horse
gathering incident to May 1758 and others state that the Cherokee were
returning home from the Forbes Expedition which at that time was far from
complete I suspect that what happened was that Forbes sent out some of his
Cherokee irregulars ( he had about 450 at his disposal ) with some whites
to strike at the Shawnee while his main army cut a road through the
Pennsylvania woods. It was then that the river crossing was botched and
the whites refused to share with the Indians and it was later, on the trip
home without provisions that the Natives helped themselves to the horses
and were attacked by Virginians.

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