- Indian Attacks on Wheeling. 
father of Lewis, who was famous in the legends of hunting, and of 
Indian warfare, were amongst the first settlers of this place. Being, 
for many years during the Indian wars, the farthest advanced on the 
frontier, and the most exposed settlement, it suffered much from In- 
dian depredations. It sustained two memorable seiges from the 
savages, the inhabitants defending themselves with the greatest 
bravery. 
Attack of 1777.—The first assault was in Sept. 1777; when it 
was attacked by 380 Indians, headed by the notorious Simon Girty. 
Col. Zane, with thirty three men, assisted by the women, several of 
whom stood by the sides of their husbands or lovers, and discharged 
their rifles with fearless intrepidity. . Amongst the females was 
Betsy Wheat, a young woman of German extraction: when Girty 
urged the garrison to surrender, promising quarters, &c., and there 
was a parley amongst the men, as to what was best to be done, Betsy 
answered Girty with all the keenness of female irony, shamed such 
of the men as seemed disposed to surrender, and infused fresh cour- 
age into the disheartened garrison. The siege was continued for 
twenty four hours, during which time the Indians kept upa constant 
fire. Seeing no prospect of success, and fearing an attack them- 
selves from the neighboring garrisons, they retreated, after destroying 
nearly three hundred head of cattle, horses and hogs, and burning 
the houses in the village, then amounting to about twenty five dwell- 
ings. ‘The consequent distress of the inhabitants was very great, as 
most of them lost not only their furniture and provisions, but all 
their clothing, excepting what they had on; the suddenness of the 
attack giving them no time to remove any thing to the fort but their 
own persons. In this siege some of the garrison were wounded, but 
none killed; the main loss fel] on a reconnoitering party, who, hav- 
ing gone out early in the morning, were ambushed by the Indians, 
and twenty three of the number killed in sight of the fort. The loss 
sustained by the savages was never certainly known. 
Attack of 1782.—The second attack took place in the year 
1782. In its results, this siege was less disastrous to the whites 
than the first. ‘The assault was continued for three days and nights, 
and the defense conducted by Col. Ebenezer and Silas Zane, with 
their accustomed coolness and bravery. An interesting occurrence 
took place during this siege, so characteristic of the heroism of the 
females of that day, that I cannot forbear narrating it from the “ Bor- 
der Warfare.” ‘ When Lynn, the ranger, gave the alarm that an 
