4 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 1111. — 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 up a 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 fell 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 



