Wheeling, West Virginia

WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA. 31 August-1 September 1777 and 11-13 September 1782. This site on the Ohio River was first settled in 1769 by Ebenezer Zane. During Dunmore's War, Fort Fincastle was built there in 1774 by William Crawford; in 1776 it was renamed Fort Henry for Patrick Henry. The exposed and isolated settlement in the Dark and Bloody Ground was often the target of Indian raids. On the last day of August 1777, however, it was attacked by almost four hundred Indians and besieged for twenty-three hours. Colonel Sheppard lost twenty-three men of his forty-two-man garrison in preliminary skirmishes during the early morning hours, yet refused to surrender, withstanding a six-hour fire delivered from the cover of the abandoned cabins. After a lull the Indians resumed their attack at 2:30 p.m. The next morning at 4 a.m, Colonel Swearingen got into the fort with fourteen reinforcements and Major McCulloch arrived later with forty mounted men. After burning the settlement and killing what livestock they could find, the Indians withdrew. None of the defenders was killed after the initial attack.

In what may technically be the last battle of the war (the alternative being at Johns Island, South Carolina, on 4 Nov. 1782), Fort Henry held off 250 Indians and 40 Loyalists during 11-13 September 1782. It was probably during the latter action that Elizabeth Zane performed her feat of valor: during a lull in the battle, she volunteered to leave the fort and get a keg of badly needed powder from her brother Ebenezer's cabin, sixty yards away across open ground. Zane argued that the Indians might be so surprised to see a woman walking out of the fort that they would be slow to fire. Either through shock or respect, the Indians did not fire on Zane as she strolled to the cabin. However, they did begin shooting when she emerged with the powder keg. Defying myths of eagle-eyed shots, not a single shot hit Zane as she raced across the open ground just a few feet from the Indians' position, reaching the fort unscathed.

SEE ALSO Crawford, William; Dark and Bloody Ground; Johns Island, South Carolina (4 November 1782); McCulloch's Leap.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Schneider, Norris F., and G. M. Farley. Betty Zane, Heroine of Fort Henry. Williansport, Md.: Zane Grey Collector, 1969.

                           revised by Michael Bellesiles