In the Current of the Revolution 151 



Indians threatened to attack the fort itself, as well 

 as the villages it protected; passing around and on 

 each side, their war parties ravaged the country in 

 its rear, distressing greatly the people ; and from this 

 time until peace was declared with Great Britain, 

 and indeed until long after that event, the western- 

 most Pennsylvanians knew neither rest nor safety. 63 

 Among many others the forted village at Wheeling 

 was again attacked. But its most noteworthy siege 

 occurred during the succeeding summer, when Si- 

 mon Girty, with fife and drum, led a large band of 

 Indians and Detroit rangers against it, only to be 

 beaten off. The siege was rendered memorable by 

 the heroism of a girl, who carried powder from the 

 stockade to an outlying log-house, defended by four 

 men; she escaped unscathed because of her very 

 boldness, in spite of the fire from so many rifles, 

 and to this day the mountaineers speak of her deed. 64 



63 Do., No. 148, Vol. I, January 4, 1781; No. 149, Vol. I, 

 August 6, 1782; No. 149, Vol. II, p. 461; No. 149, Vol. Ill, p. 

 183. Federal garrisons were occasionally established at, or 

 withdrawn from, other posts on the upper Ohio besides Fort 

 Pitt ; but their movements had no permanent value, and only 

 require chronicling by the local, State, or county historians. 

 In 1778 Fort Mclntosh was built at Beaver Creek, on the north 

 bank of the Ohio, and Fort Laureas seventy miles toward the 

 interior. The latter was soon abandoned ; the former was in 

 Pennsylvania, and a garrison was kept there. 



64 See De Haas, 263-281, for the fullest, and probably most 

 accurate, account of the siege ; as already explained he is the 

 most trustworthy of the border historians. But it is abso- 

 lutely impossible to find out the real facts concerning the 

 sieges of Wheeling; it is not quite certain even whether there 

 were two or three. The testimony as to whether the heroine 



