In the 1750s, the central Shenandoah Valley was a thinly settled frontier. The French and Indian War officially ran from 1756 to 1763 — but counted from the first fatal attack in western Virginia to the last, violence on this frontier lasted until 1766.
George Washington's plans for Fort Loudoun, from his diagrams of frontier forts, 1756. George Washington Papers, Library of Congress
A frontier by design
| Year | |
|---|---|
| Early 1700s | Virginia encourages settlement in its far west — from the Potomac to the Mayo River near North Carolina, including today's West Virginia — as a buffer between the French and their Indian allies in the Ohio Valley and the mostly English settlers in the east |
| 1732 | Governor William Gooch grants 100,000 acres to German immigrant Jost Hite, who with partner Robert McKay already held 40,000; they settle it with 16 families from Pennsylvania |
| 1738 | the assembly creates Frederick and Augusta counties, exempts frontier settlers from taxes for 10 years, and eases naturalization for non-English settlers |
| 1752 | Winchester — then Frederick Town, founded by James Wood near a former Indian encampment called Shawnee Springs — is incorporated, the Valley's only town |
| 1753 | Virginia's Ohio Company offers settlers special terms on its 500,000 acres along the Ohio River |
French expansion into the Ohio Valley collided with Virginians' claims, and Native people saw the growing tide of settlers — especially in the Shenandoah — as intruders on their land.
War reaches the frontier
- November 1753: Ottaway warriors strike the first blow, killing Robert Foyle, his wife and five of their six children at their homestead in today's Randolph County, West Virginia — 100 miles west of Frederick Town. The surviving son warns the Taggert family, and all escape to Augusta County.
- September 1754: Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock is chosen to drive the French from their Ohio River posts; George Washington joins his staff as a volunteer.
- The following July: Braddock's army is attacked on the Monongahela, nine miles from its meeting with the Allegheny. Braddock is killed, and 67% of his army is killed, wounded, captured or missing.
Washington's forts
After the defeat, Washington proposed a chain of about 20 forts, a day's march apart (15 or 18 miles), each held by 80 or 100 men, with a command fort at Winchester.
- Fort Loudoun, the command post, was begun on May 23, 1756, and finished in 1758. Built of wood, it has long vanished.
- Maryland answered with Fort Frederick, begun in June 1756 near Hancock; built of stone, it still stands in a state park.
- Neither was ever attacked — and neither stopped raids on homesteads, some only a few miles away.
By the time war was declared in 1756, there were nowhere near enough soldiers for 20 forts, so Washington recommended just one each in Hampshire, Augusta and Bedford counties. Settlers relied on "settler forts": homes — log or stone, often two stories and built over a spring — ringed by stockades of upright logs, where neighbors gathered for safety.
Raids reach Cedar Creek
In 1757, settlers were killed or captured all along the central Virginia frontier, from the South Branch of the Potomac to Cedar Creek and the forks of the James; houses were burned and livestock killed. On September 19, 1757, raiders reached the area of Stephens' Fort, about 12 miles southwest of Winchester, and some 34 settlers were killed or captured.
Five forts on Cedar Creek
Within seven miles of one another, on and near Cedar Creek, stood five stockaded settler forts:
| Fort (south to north) | Built | Builder and story |
|---|---|---|
| Bowman's | about 1753 (log; the limestone house there today probably replaced it around 1770) | George Bowman Sr., Jost Hite's son-in-law, who came with Hite in 1732 and bought 1,000 acres; a tavern and boarding house on the Great Warrior Path (today's Route 11). In 1763 eight raiders led by Abraham Mitchell, a former settler who had turned on his neighbors, killed George Miller and his family and John Dellinger, and seized Dellinger's wife and baby — the baby was killed on the retreat |
| Nisewanger's | 1755 | John Nisewanger, 1.5 miles southwest of Middletown on land bought in 1749; his grandfather Christian had hunted in the Valley before Hite came, and Christian's widow Maria Magdalena married Hite in 1741 |
| Stephens' | — | Capt. Lewis Stephens of the Virginia militia, beside his mill on the east bank of Cedar Creek, in today's Marlboro; troops of Washington's Regiment were garrisoned here in fall 1757 |
| Froman's | early 1750s | Paul Froman, another of Hite's sons-in-law, a stockaded stone house; raiders struck nearby at least twice but never attacked it directly |
| Fry's | 1750 | Benjamin Fry, on 500 acres bought in 1744; in September 1757, 46 people fled here from the Great Cacapon River, and in 1758 it was base for 25 Rangers under Fry's son, Ensign Samuel Fry |
The last attack
Raids had nearly stopped by 1764, but a formal peace with the return of captives came only in 1766 — the year of the last recorded attack. About two miles south of Woodstock, near Narrow Passage Creek, five raiders attacked the Sheetz and Taylor families on their way to shelter. The men were killed; the women fought off the attackers with axes and led the children to safety. The widow Barbara Sheetz went on running her husband's grist mill on Narrow Passage Creek for years afterward.
Sources
Based on "French & Indian War Along Cedar Creek and in the Shenandoah Valley," by Barbara Magill, volunteer, Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park, National Park Service, drawing on Norman L. Baker's French and Indian War in Frederick County, Virginia and Robert Patrick Murphy's The French and Indian War in Shenandoah County; rewritten in hubnx's own words. The article dates the start of frontier violence to both 1752 and the first fatal attack of November 1753, so only the latter is given here.
In these publicationsCedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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