This is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

This program features historical reenactment that include Native American characters and cultural representations.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting has made every effort to hire Native American performers to portray key historical figures.

However, not all participants appearing in these reenactments are Native American.

Every effort has been made to ensure that all portrayals are handled with accuracy, respect, and cultural sensitivity, through the use of Native American consultants.

The victory at Point Pleasant and the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, this is going to have a galvanizing effect on the Shawnee, and it's going to lead to the further prominence of Chief Blackfish.

Dunmore negotiates this peace with Cornstalk and the others.

Lewis and other leaders of the militia that actually fought at Point Pleasant were not a part of those negotiations.

The Treaty of Camp Charlotte, which kind of ends Dunmore's War, is pretty lenient, actually.

It basically just forces the Shawnee to adhere to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix.

Meaning that they can't go east and hunt anymore in lands that are a part of western Virginia.

They have to give up the Ohio River and allow for navigation and trade along it.

Treaty of Camp Charlotte is another good example of how there are so many stakeholders, so many interested parties.

It's almost inevitable that one group or another is going to feel that its interests have not been paid attention to or preserved as a result of these negotiations.

When Lewis's men arrive at camp and they learn of this treaty, many o.. partly because they had survived this deadly ordeal at Point Pleasant.

But for many of them, this also showed a difference of opinion that had been developing ever since the French and Indian War.

They fear that a government that's far away from them is going to be making decisions for their lives.

That's one of the big reasons they didn't like the proclamation of 1763.

Why is a government in London telling us where we can live?

And Dunmore is, of course, the mouthpiece of the King and of Parliament, and he's making negotiations, and he's not an American born guy.

Right?

He's not one of them.

Governor Dunmore, now that he sees that the threat of the Native American attacks on the frontier is dissipated.

He actually orders that the sort of garrisons that had been set up during Dunmore's War be sort of degarrisoned.

Fort Dunmore, which is now Fort Pitt.

Fort Fincastle, which was built in 1774 at what's now present day Wheeling.

Fort Blair at Point Pleasant.

And this is a major turning point for many of the frontier militiamen who had fought valiantly in Dunmore's War, and are now only a few months later, questioning really the motivations of why is the governor doing this?

Why is this decision sort of being made?

The beginnings of the American Revolution are taking form.

Now on the way back from Camp Charlotte, Lewis and many of the other Virginia militia stop off at Fort Gower.

Fort Gower basically becomes the place in which the Virginians negotiate with the Ohio Indians for, I don't know, a year more or less before they build the more permanent Fort Randolph, which is actually built on the east side of the Ohio River in what becomes the town of Point Pleasant.

And they hear about the Continental Congress and.

Lewis and Arbuckle and the other leaders of the militia that actually fought at Point Pleasant.

They're seeing this as a part of them trying to gain control of their own destiny.

What do of the Virginia militia do?

They don't quite declare independence just yet.

They issue a public proclamation.

The Fort Gower Resolves, and it's one of the more important documents of this time period.

It's a powerful statement.

It's one month after the Battle of Point Pleasant.

A good six months or so before Lexington and Concord take place.

This is before the first shots have been fired.

The Virginia militia give allegiance to the Continental Congress right away.

Lewis approves The Gower Resolves on November the 5th, 1774.

They say in this document: “We can live weeks without bread or salt.” “We can sleep in the open air without any covering but that of the canopy of heaven.” “Our men can march and shoot with any in the world.” “Blessed with these talents, let us solemnly engage to one another in our country that we will use them to no purpose but for the honor and advantage of America in general, and Virginia in particular.” “We are a free people.

We will exert every power within us for the defense of American liberty and for the support of her just rights.” It gets published in all the major newspapers.

That even gets read before English Parliament in London.

Other counties in the western part of Virginia then immediately issued their own statements.

In the Greenbrier area.

They say “When an honest man of Boston has his property wrested from him, the hunter on the Alleghany must take the alarm, tender their guns, tomahawks and lives.” So they're immediately putting their side with the Continental Congress, saying that if the people in Boston are getting their rights trampled on, then we're next.

In the case of the Gower Resolves specifically Virginians tended to have less grievances than New Englanders, especially Bostonians who are sort of the first to feel the effects of the changes to British imperial policy.

They are expressing a version of American liberty where they are trying to straddle that fence in a way, year before the American Revolution officially starts to say we are loyal British subjects.

We are loyal Virginias, you know, we want to have close relations and maintain close relations with you and with the colonial government.

But in exchange, we want to be left one, we want to be able to settle this region.

We want to be able to defend it ourselves.

And a lot of that, in their words, is motivated by the fact it's not too long after they have fought a vicious battle at Point Pleasant.

So in a way, this is kind of like they're stamping a contract for themselves to say, what was that war for?

And the people i.. So you can't call it some kind of isolated culturally, you know, far away place that's out of the mainstream.

They're very much into what's going on.

So they're very much aware of what's going on in Philadelphia and what was happening up .. that really escalates into this serious conflict.

The confrontations at Bunker Hill or at Lexington Concord, those were primarily with British regulars and the New England Militia.

In 1775, the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia recognizes the need to expand the army beyond those militia units and to create a professional standing army.

Well, they started up the Continental Army, and they put George Washington in charge, the only one that shows up in military uniforms, the only one with military experience.

When the Continental Congress issues the creation of the US Army, they ask Virginia to raise companies of riflemen.

They know that they have strong traditions of militiamen in this region who have fought in the French and Indian War and Dunmore's War, and by this point, they're needing to support the efforts of those troops in Boston.

This is before the Declaration of Independence.

They don't know what's coming, but clearly they're beginning to identify with their fellow, their fellow colonists in different in different states.

They're willing to join this effort.

What it does is it creates this organized, full on resistance.

It's no longer just scattered remnants of militia that are, you know, waiting to see the white of their eyes at Bunker Hill.

This is now a formal army that we're creating, which is, of course, the big step in creating a formal country.

The Pennsylvania legislature was tasked with raising six units.

Maryland was tasked with raising two, and Virginia was tasked with raising two.

Each unit was supposed to be around 100 people.

And we know from the muster rolls from Hugh Stephenson's unit, there are 95 names listed in it.

The main commander in this regard, the ranking commander, was a man named Hugh Stevenson from Berkeley County, who raises a large company of men, and they are massing in what is largely German settlement in the eastern Panhandle called Mecklenburg.

Now we know this is the town of Shepherdstown in the far eastern Panhandle in Jefferson County.

Stevenson is the contemporary of most of the Shenandoah Valley landowners.

He knows these men, so he's very well connected.

And in that sense, that's kind of how he gets his officer status.

Initially, they were under just Stephenson and then Morgan's command.

When we think about the two leaders, our minds go to Daniel Morgan.

Talk about an asset for George Washington.

I mean, his, you know, Morgan's rifles.

They've been portrayed in movies and fiction and so forth.

It's all accurate.

I mean, he was a he was a strange guy.

And his people were outstanding fighters.

Daniel Morgan is a is a well-known here of the American Revolution.

Stephenson, and sadly because of his untimely death, is not very well known.

He's well known to people in Shepherdstown, but outside of this community, he certainly doesn't have t... There was no problem raising the nu.. by the Second Continental Congress, but the problem was that both units had to wait for the rifles to be built, because Winchester is also the home of the Virginia Regiment.

There's a long history of military presence in Winchester.

They were able to get the rifles sooner, so they leave a couple of days before Stevenson's Shepherdstown troop.

The thinking is that they'll both rendezvous at Frederick, Maryland, and then make their way up the wagon road and follow that all the way up the eastern seaboard in route to Boston.

And that leads us, of course, to the incredible feat that we call the Bee-Line, with the militia marching some 24 miles a day over the course of a month in order to get all the way to Massachusetts.

And so that's where the term Bee-Line March comes in, that they sort of make this kind of direct route north from Frederick, Maryland, through Pennsylvania, through New York, up through New England, and arrive in Cambridge, which is where Harvard University is, outside of downtown Boston.

When they arrive in Cambridge in the Shepherd.. martialed for desertion and the other who had taken ill.

Over time, they are incorporated within the wider sort of Continental Army, so this is important to note that while they want to maintain their distinctiveness in this separate, almost western Virginia company, they are patriotic to join and sort of be morphed into the wider U.S.

Army that's developing.

So they serve, you know, in Massachusetts, they will then.. in a number of campaigns throughout New York as well.

Individual soldiers will serve in Washington's command in the various battles that, you know, he fights, you know, in Pennsylvania, in New York and other and other theaters.

Dunmore's popularity obviously goes down very, very quickly after this.

A few months later, however, almost a year to the day after the Fort Gower resolves, Dunmore makes his own declaration.

The governor, who recognizes that one way to perhaps the British can win is to help recruit slave population to help the British to defeat the colonialists.

This wasn't really Dunmore’s civil rights project.

It was just his idea to try to divide the colonials and press an advantage over them.

The throughline is when given an opportunity to emancipate themselves, to demonstrate agency, The enslaved populations is not waiting around to be rescued or released.

No, they're taking advantage of opportunities to assert their humanity and to acquire their freedom as best they can.

That really upsets, obviously, many of the large landed plantation owners, people like George Washington, who had been the head of the Virginia militia.

And there are many people west of the coast of Virginia who also owned slaves, maybe a few slaves to work in, sort of cutting timber and working their farms and fields.

So this would have obviously upset a lot of landowners across Virginia.

Most folks who are moving west are making a small footprint.

They're trying to build a homestead.

They're not bringing in massive numbers of slaves to work the land.

That's just not who they are at this time.

I mean, do we do we have any evidence of it having any effect out west in the western frontier?

Not that I know of.

But I can't think of an example in which an enslaved person in western Virginia says, wow, there's a proclamation!

Now, I could go join the British and acqu.. I don't know of anyone ever saying that.

Partly out of desperation, that he's trying these various different ideas to thwart what the colonials are doing.

Once the Continental Congress makes its actions, creates the US Army, you see a sort of more regional and localized effort to regarrison these forts or to rebuild out the sort of military presence in the region.

Forts or decisive on the frontier forts are going to be there to defend the settlers and defend these communities from Native American attacks.

The forts that are built along the Ohio River, Fort Pitt, Fort Henry, and then, of course, Fort Randolph are the three most important forts on the frontier.

These forts are guarding the waterways, which are the main highways of Appalachia during the frontier period.

If you're at Point Pleasant and you're at Randolph, you are guarding access to the Kanawha River, which is, of course, the main artery into the interior of what is now West Virginia.

So if you can control those key water points with forts, you can prevent Native Americans from going further in and taking on these settlements.

So those forts are the front line of defense for the settlers and these forts, of course, are going to maximize the technological advances that the settlers have as opposed to what the Native Americans have.

It maximizes the ability of the Kentucky Long Rifle.

They clear out the areas around these forts, and because they're in these blockhouses that they have on the forts, that they're able to fire out of these long rifles that are accurate over long distances, they basically make the fort almost impregnable.

If you don't have cannons, if you don't have artillery, or if you don't have the ability to maintain a long siege, then once the forts are built up and as long as they are properly manned, it gives the colonials a decisive advantage over the Native Americans.

But for the most part, the largest and best garrison forts like Fort Pitt and Detroit are very difficult for native forces to capture because they lack heavy siege equipment.

So maintaining control of forts and the supply lines that connect them is basically the the point of conflict and contact between colonial and native forces.

And communication between these fortresses is vital to the defense of the frontier.

They have to keep track of where the Native Americans are.

They have to keep track of potentially British regulars coming through the area.

They don't keep communication with each other.

Then they cannot defend the frontier, because if there's a major attack, people are going to have to come from other places to help defend.

And so somebody is going to have to send messages.

Messengers like Anne trotter.

Anne Trotter is born in Liverpool, England, and she makes her way over into Virginia through her parents.

But both of her parents die when she's 19 years old.

Then she ends up marrying Trotter, who was killed in the Battle of Point Pleasant.

This was a very traumatic event in Anne's life.

She is going to be this famous person in the 1780s and 1790s in the Kanawha River Valley region, in particular for her exploits in sort of aiding some of the frontier fortresses in that region, for kind of adopting some of the characteristics of many of the frontier soldiers like her husband.

So dressing, you know, males clothing, riding a horse.

She wants to play an active role, and she gives off her child to friends to take care of, and she joins the militia.

Then she becomes a courier, and she gains a reputation for bravery and basically tenacity on the frontier as a courier, relaying messages back and forth.

Anne work to try to get people to join up with the militia.

And so she's going to have to stop off at these little trading outposts, little out of the way taverns.

When you see her walking into a tavern and tell them to man up, that you've got to stand up for yourselves.

You have to stand up for your your rights.

And these are tough guys.

But to have a woman come up to you and say, you're not being brave enough, that's that's certainly going to be a motivating factor.

I think she's going to be she was very, very effective in that way.

This woman is again, one of the more legendary figures during the frontier period.

This is one of those things where we kind of dance back and forth between history and legend.

I think.

Fiction really rounds out history from the.. It sort of makes it much more palatable to a lot of people, fit it into something that really happened.

Action.

What's wrong with drawing people in.. by making it interesting?

One of the ones that makes the most sense to me is the signing of the declar.. I mean, nothing happens.

It's don't you guys, you know, signing this piece of paper.

And John Hancock makes sure his signature is bigger than everybody else, you know, and little, little stories like that, but that changes everything.

You can almost though, use your mind's eye to, to kind of go back to that summer of 1776 where the declaration is issued in Philadelphia.

Copies are made and they're sent out to the four corners of the colonies, and messengers go, and they eventually make their way to places like Fort Pitt or make their way to Williamsburg.

And then from there, couriers, either on horseback or on boat, or going over the mountains or going through the misty rivers of Appalachia.

Making their way towards these forts.

Couriers like Anne Trotter.

We don't know if Anne Trotter would have ever delivered one of the copies of the declaration to one of the forts.

It's possible she could have.

We know that there was somebody headed towards these forts to deliver one of the most important documents, not just in the history of our civilization, but in the history of human civilization.

Causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Meanwhile, you have these men out there in these forts, and they're hearing these words for the very first time that are going to change the world.

And you can only imagine some of these guys hearing words, like, “All men are created equal”, that we have a divine right for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” That these ideals of the enlightenment and these ideals of individual liberty are reinforcing and backing up everything that these guys have already fought for and are continuing to fight for.

And it's validating.

It had to have been validating and inspiring for them to hear it, regardless as to whether or not they were in the midst of downtown Philadelphia or on the further most outpost of the frontier.

We mutually pledge to each other our lives and our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Huzzah!

Huzzah!

Huzzah!

Founding Fathers don't know they're the Founding Fathers.

There are just a bunch of guys.

Second Continental Congress.

The kind of courage because every one of those guys knows that if 200 British soldiers show up outside, they're going to be hanged.

So that moment which is beside me, obviously it's a keynote moment in American history, maybe world history, but in terms of just the war, it changes everything.

That's exactly right.

It does reveal a great deal of enth.. At that point.

The fight that had already gone on in the frontier and had been going on on the frontier since 1774, is now being waged for the express purpose of the creation of a new independent nation.

The British want to make sure that the militia and the people on the fron.. can't come to the aid of the Contin.. And McCulloch is somebody who's been in the region for a while.

He's a prominent figure in Ohio County.

McCulloch on his horse rides to the top of this Wheeling Hill, and according to the legends, he leads his horse over this steep embankment.

This has been a production of West Virginia Public Broa..