The Battle of Galudoghson took place in December 1742, at a site near present-day Glasgow, Virginia, when the Augusta County militia engaged in combat with Onondaga and Oneida Indians. These warriors had traveled to Virginia from Pennsylvania under the command of a Haudenosaunee chief named Jonnhaty, to participate in a campaign against the Catawba.Draper, Lyman C. Action at the Galudoghson December 14, 1742; Colonel James Patton, Captain John McDowell and the First Battle with the Indians in the Valley of Virginia; with an Appendix Containing Early Accounts of the Battle. Jared C. Lobdell, ed. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1995 The battle was the first armed conflict between settlers in Western Virginia and Native Americans.Charles E. Kemper, "The Early Westward Movement of Virginia, 1722-1734, As Shown by the Proceedings of the Colonial Council," Virginia Historical Society, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, July 1905, Vol. 13, No. 1; pp. 1-16 Several distinct accounts of the battle exist, with contradictory details. The Haudenosaunee regarded the battle as an unprovoked act of aggression, while the Virginia colonists claimed that the Haudenosaunee had raided Virginia settlements and killed livestock.Hofstra, Warren R. The Planting of New Virginia: Settlement and Landscape in the Shenandoah Valley. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. The battle was one factor that led colonial authorities to negotiate with Native American leaders for the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster.
Etymology
The altercation remained without any formal title until the 1995 posthumous publication of a collection of papers and analysis compiled by historian Lyman Draper, in which it was designated "the Battle of Galudoghson," using a Haudenosaunee name for the James River.
Background
At a series of conferences in Pennsylvania during the 1730s, the Six Nations repeatedly stated that they did not feel they had been fairly compensated for traditional homelands appropriated by European settlers. This led to fears, on the part of authorities in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, of violent retribution. Native Americans traveling through the region often helped themselves to food from settler's homes or took livestock, which led to tension. In 1737, a local militia captain, John Lewis, was told not to "offer any Violence to any of the said Indians passing quietly through their plantations...unless the said Indians do first Commit Hostilities."Richard Osborn, "William Preston: Origins of a Backcountry Political Career," Journal of Backcountry Studies, Vol 2, No. 2, 2007
In 1742, rumors spread through Maryland that "several nations of our own Indians [will] rise and cut off the English...assisted by 500 of the Shawan (Shawnee) & Northern Indians (Haudenosaunee) and about the same time the French with the Assistance of other Indians." During a July conference in Philadelphia, chief Canasatego stated that, if compensation was not received, "we are able to do ourselves Justice," which alarmed the Pennsylvania legislature. Gifts distributed to the Haudenosaunee representatives, intended to pacify them, included five hundred pounds of gunpowder, six hundred pounds of lead, and forty-five guns. When a group of twenty-two Onondaga and seven Oneida Indians warriors entered Virginia in December 1742 and began harassing settlers and killing livestock, many people believed that this was a sign that an attack was imminent, however the local militia commander, Colonel James Patton, attempted to prevent bloodshed by sending a militia company, under the command of Captain John McDowell, to escort the warriors out of Augusta County.
Virginia colonists' accounts of the battle
In an 1808 letter to Colonel Arthur Campbell, Captain John McDowell's son Samuel McDowell reported that, after entering Virginia, Jonnhaty's war party of warriors traveled south along the Great Indian Warpath to an area known as "Borden's Tract" in Augusta County and on 1 December, they stopped for a day at John McDowell's home, where they were given food and "treated with whiskey."Waddell, Joseph Addison. Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871. Virginia Historical Society, Staunton VA: C. R. Caldwell, 1902. Captain McDowell "directed them to a convenient hunting ground...a few miles off." The Indians then traveled to the James River (known to them as the Galudoghson), and camped near its confluence with the Maury River. Local settlers reported to Captain McDowell that the Indians had killed at least one hog belonging to them, and "went to Peoples houses, Scared the women and Children [and] took what they wanted, and in some instances shot some of the people's horses."Samuel McDowell to Arthur Campbell, 27 July 1808, in Draper Mss. 4ZZ 4 (microfilm edition, 1980, reel 121), State Historical Society of Wisconsin; cited in McCleskey, 1990, p. 250 On 15 December, Captain McDowell contacted his commanding officer, Colonel Patton, and Patton ordered McDowell and his 33-man militia company (which included Lieutenant James McDowell, one of McDowell's eight brothers, and their father Ephraim) to escort the war party out of Augusta County. The militia encountered the war party on 17 December near the homestead of John Peter Salling, and followed them at a distance for two days, until one of the Indians fell behind, then made a detour into the forest near Balcony Falls, possibly to relieve himself, at which point a militiaman fired at him. He let out a war-cry, and the other Indians then opened fire and killed two mounted soldiers and Captain John McDowell, who had ridden to the head of the Indian war party and was conversing with Jonnhaty. In the battle that followed, three or four of the Indian warriors (Samuel McDowell says seventeen) were killed. Three militiamen were wounded and seven killed besides McDowell.McCleskey, Nathaniel Turk, "Across the first divide: Frontiers of settlement and culture in Augusta County, Virginia, 1738-1770". Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623794, College of William and Mary, 1990.Patton, James. James Patton Letters, 1742; Dec. 18-22. Accession 21603. Archives and manuscripts: Personal papers collection. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA
Settlers who witnessed the battle reported that the Indians had killed several hogs, horses and cattle, and that Captain McDowell had approached the war party with a white flag "in order to parley with them, but they fir'd and kill'd him & some of his Men before one Shot was fir'd by his party." Lieutenant James McDowell, who was present, told The Pennsylvania Gazette that Captain McDowell approached the warriors (whom James McDowell identified as Shawnee) saying, "Gentlemen, we are upon peaceable terms, lay down your arms and no man shall molest you." He reported that the Indians immediately opened fire, and that Captain McDowell was shot three times: in the head, chest and abdomen, and that "eight men of each side were killed." Samuel McDowell states that the militia opened fire first, but places the blame for the battle on the warriors' refusal to respect the property rights of Virginia settlers, by killing their livestock.
James Patton's reports of the battle
Colonel Patton, in a letter to Virginia Governor William Gooch dated 18 December, stated that a man bearing a white flag had been killed by the Indians and that eight or ten warriors had been killed and eleven militiamen, including Captain McDowell. Patton reports that he rode to the scene with twenty-three reinforcements, arriving two or three hours after the fighting had ended.John Romeyn Brodhead, Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, eds. Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York, vol 6. Weed, Parsons, printers, 1855 On 23 December, Patton wrote an amended account of the battle in a second letter to Governor Gooch, stating that the number of warriors had been thirty-six and that on 19 December, two men had been sent forward with a white flag "desiring Peace and Friendship." Patton notes that, before opening fire, the Indians had called out, "O friends are you there, have we found you?" He says eight militiamen were killed but does not give the number of wounded. According to Patton, the Indians fled into the forest and were pursued for "several hundred yards" by Captain John Buchanan and eight militiamen."Notes and Queries: Letters of James Patton, 1742, and Governor Gooch, 1743." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 30, no. 1: January, 1922
Account of the battle by Native Americans
An account of the battle was given to Conrad Weiser by Shikellamy's grandson in February, 1743.Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, vol IV, 1735-1745, Theo. Fenn, Harrisburg, 1851 The grandson, who was among the warriors who took part in the battle, stated that, after they had crossed the Potomac River, they found no deer and would have "starved to death if they had not killed a hog now and then." When they reach the Shenandoah Valley, a group of white settlers, suspecting that this war party planned to raid Virginia settlements, surrounded them and tried to confiscate their guns. When one of the warriors took out a knife and threatened to stab them, the settlers let them go. Two days later, the warriors were confronted by ten settlers, armed with pitchforks, who accompanied them to a "big House" full of white people. The warriors were invited to enter, but only a few of the oldest dared to do so. A white man with a sword, identified by the warriors as a captain, tried to persuade the other warriors to come inside, but they refused. The warriors produced a written pass from the Pennsylvania authorities (a Justice Hogg, according to McKee) giving them permission to travel, but the settlers told them that they could not continue, at which point the warriors left the house. The "captain" then brandished his sword, commanding them not to leave, and the warriors prepared to fight, but were told by Jonnhaty "to be quiet till they were hurt."
McKee, in his deposition, reports that the Indians admitted to having entered a settler's home uninvited, and engaged in a struggle with the owner, who let them go after being threatened with a knife.
The war party traveled for three days and were camped, when a white man, evidently a scout, arrived and counted them. He told the Indians he was a hunter and left. The Indians were on the road when "a Great number of white Men on horseback" bearing a white flag, confronted them. Two boys who were with the war party became frightened and ran away, at which point some of the white men fired at them and missed. Jonnhaty cautioned his men not to return fire because "a white Colour [flag] was always a token of Peace among the white Men." The horsemen then dismounted and fired again, killing two warriors, one of whom was Shikellamy's cousin. The warriors returned fire and then attacked with hatchets. The white men fled, and Jonnhaty ordered his men not to follow them, saying that they had come to Virginia to fight Catawbas, not white men. They found eight white men killed and took several horses. Five warriors were wounded, but the number of dead was not reported. Ten warriors accompanied the wounded back to Great Island, (present-day Lock Haven, Pennsylvania) arriving on 12 or 13 January. They gave an account of the battle which was heard by community leaders and a trader named Thomas McKee, who reported what he had heard in a deposition to Conrad Weiser on 26 January. A summary of McKee's deposition was published in the Pennsylvania Gazette on 27 January.
Aftermath