McCulloch's Leap
McCulloch's Leap
McCULLOCH'S LEAP. After bringing reinforcements to Wheeling on 1 September 1777, Major Samuel McCulloch (or McColloch) was separated from his men and pursued by Indians. He later claimed to have escaped by riding his horse down an almost vertical, 150-foot precipice to the bank of Wheeling Creek and across the stream to safety. How much of this descent was free fall and how much of it was a perilous slide is uncertain. Although Benson J. Lossing speaks of a "momentous leap," he calls the cliff "almost perpendicular" and says the horse and rider "reached the foot of the bluff" and then "dashed through the creek," making good his escape.
SEE ALSO Wheeling, West Virginia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lossing, Benson J. The Pictorial Fieldbook of the Revolution. Vol. 2. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1851.
revised by Michael Bellesiles