Fort Seybert
Encyclopedia
Fort Seybert was an 18th century frontier fort in the Allegheny Mountains
in what is now Pendleton County, West Virginia
, USA. In a 1758 surprise raid occasioned by the French and Indian War
(1754-63), most of the 30 white settlers sheltering there were massacred by Shawnee
and Delaware
warriors and the fort was burned. A similar number of settlers at nearby Fort Upper Tract had met the same fate on the previous day. Fort Seybert, of which almost no trace remains today, was situated about 8 miles northeast of the present town of Franklin
.
at the Battle of the Monongahela
(9 July 1755), the white settlers of the Allegheny Mountains
were largely unprotected from a series of Shawnee
and Delaware
Indian raids. By the end of the year, the Virginia Regiment
had increased its numbers by several hundred troops and began to temporarily man some of the settler forts that had been hastily thrown up by civilians or soldiers. Fort Seybert was built on the South Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River within about 100 yards of a pre-existing structure known as John Patton's Mill. Patton had owned the land since 1747, but sold it in 1755 to Jacob Seybert.
Colonel George Washington
, the new 24 year old commander of the Virginia Regiment, embarked on a campaign to protect the settlers of the upper South Branch and surrounding region by building up and manning frontier forts. Among the official records of forts, local militias and Indian raids, Washington and his officers occasionally mention both Fort Upper Tract and Fort Seybert, either by location or name, along with other forts on the South Branch and the South Fork. In August 1756 Washington wrote to Virginia Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie
to say that
, who had been ordered to regulate the militia of Augusta County, wrote to Washington of his concerns that the entire South Branch and South Fork region might need to be abandoned owing to lack of garrison troops.
According to a report provided much later to Col. Washington by Capt. Robert Mackenzie, Lieutenant Christopher Gist
had marched with six soldiers and 30 Indians, beginning on 2 April 1758, from the South Branch towards Fort Duquesne
. Impeded by deep snows on the mountains, they arrived at the Monongahela River
, where Gist was seriously injured and incapacitated by a fall from a steep bank. Part of the force stayed with Gist and the remainder, all Indians, divided into three parties and separated. A scout named Ucahala and two others found a large Indian encampment about 15 miles before they came to Ft. Duquesne. They judged it to be at least 100 warriors making directly for the frontier forts region. A little later, Gist and his men came upon the tracks of another large party pursuing the same route. It is likely that the warriors that attacked Forts Upper Tract and Seybert a few days later were among this force.
(known as John Killbuck) that their lives would be spared. Following the surrender, however, the Indians massacred 17 to 19 people; took eleven captive — including Seybert’s teenaged son, who returned to the region years later to render an account — and burned the fort. According to Seybert's son:
Six days later (4 May), Washington wrote to John Blair, Sr.
(then acting Governor of Virginia) from Fort Loudoun
(present day Winchester
) of the disasters at Forts Upper Tract and Seybert:
After the raids, Bemino's warriors were said to have left the region by the Indian trail that came to be known (for that reason) as the "Shawnee Trail
". Travelling back west, they took their prisoners and loot to the remote Ohio Territory.
” to this day) were handed down for generations. One of these, written by Mr. Alonzo D. Lough, was collected in the 1930s by Lee Keister Talbot:
, Wills De Hass provides a picture (a wood engraving
) of Fort Seybert without attribution. The sources and authority of this image have never been verified. It represents the fort as being a large, square stockade
, in the manner of a conventional combined trading post
/fort of a somewhat later date, large enough to provide for a large garrison. This image has been used repeatedly by amateur historians as a source of information. De Hass described the fort as follows: "It was a rude enclosure, cut out of the heart of the forest, but sufficiently strong to have resisted any attack from the enemy had the inmates themselves been strong." People living in the vicinity of Fort Seybert in the 1930s and interviewed by Lee Keister Talbot stated that they could still trace the depression in the ground where the palisade
s were set on end, and could well remember when the depression was more distinct than it was then. They considered it impossible that the fort had consisted of almost a dozen log houses (as in the De Hass image) built so as to form a square or rectangle.
Allegheny Mountains
The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...
in what is now Pendleton County, West Virginia
Pendleton County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 8,196 people, 3,350 households, and 2,355 families residing in the county. The population density was 12 people per square mile . There were 5,102 housing units at an average density of 7 per square mile...
, USA. In a 1758 surprise raid occasioned by the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
(1754-63), most of the 30 white settlers sheltering there were massacred by Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
and Delaware
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
warriors and the fort was burned. A similar number of settlers at nearby Fort Upper Tract had met the same fate on the previous day. Fort Seybert, of which almost no trace remains today, was situated about 8 miles northeast of the present town of Franklin
Franklin, West Virginia
Franklin is a town in Pendleton County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 797 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Pendleton County...
.
Background
After the defeat of General Edward BraddockEdward Braddock
General Edward Braddock was a British soldier and commander-in-chief for the 13 colonies during the actions at the start of the French and Indian War...
at the Battle of the Monongahela
Battle of the Monongahela
The Battle of the Monongahela, also known as the Battle of the Wilderness, took place on 9 July 1755, at the beginning of the French and Indian War, at Braddock's Field in what is now Braddock, Pennsylvania, east of Pittsburgh...
(9 July 1755), the white settlers of the Allegheny Mountains
Allegheny Mountains
The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...
were largely unprotected from a series of Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
and Delaware
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
Indian raids. By the end of the year, the Virginia Regiment
Virginia Regiment
The Virginia Regiment was formed in 1754 by Virginia's Royal Governor Robert Dinwiddie, initially as an all volunteer militia corps, and he promoted George Washington, the future first president of the United States of America, to its command upon the death of Colonel Joshua Fry...
had increased its numbers by several hundred troops and began to temporarily man some of the settler forts that had been hastily thrown up by civilians or soldiers. Fort Seybert was built on the South Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River within about 100 yards of a pre-existing structure known as John Patton's Mill. Patton had owned the land since 1747, but sold it in 1755 to Jacob Seybert.
Colonel George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, the new 24 year old commander of the Virginia Regiment, embarked on a campaign to protect the settlers of the upper South Branch and surrounding region by building up and manning frontier forts. Among the official records of forts, local militias and Indian raids, Washington and his officers occasionally mention both Fort Upper Tract and Fort Seybert, either by location or name, along with other forts on the South Branch and the South Fork. In August 1756 Washington wrote to Virginia Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie
Robert Dinwiddie
Robert Dinwiddie was a British colonial administrator who served as lieutenant governor of colonial Virginia from 1751 to 1758, first under Governor Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle, and then, from July 1756 to January 1758, as deputy for John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun...
to say that
...we have built some forts and altered others as far south on the Potomac as settlers have been molested, and there remains one body of inhabitants at a place called Upper Tract who need a guard. Thither I have ordered a party. Beyond this, if I am not misinformed there is nothing but a continued series of mountains uninhabited until we get over to the waters of the James RiverJames RiverThe James River may refer to:Rivers in the United States and their namesakes* James River * James River , North Dakota, South Dakota* James River * James River * James River...
, not far from the fort which takes its name from your Honor; and thence to May RiverMay RiverThe May River is a river in the Kimberley of Western Australia.The river is formed when the Lennard River splits into two channels just North of Mount Marmion and near the Kimberley Downs Station homestead, the other channel being the Meda River...
.
Mounting tensions
In November, Washington wrote again to Dinwiddie, in an effort to forestall panic among the settlers:In short, they [the inhabitants] are so affected with approaching ruin that the whole back country is in a general motion toward the other colonies; and I expect that scarce a family will inhabit Frederick, Hampshire or Augusta county in a little time.The same month Washington reluctantly agreed to a plan for a chain of 23 small forts along the wilderness frontier as proposed by the Virginia Assembly (he preferred fewer, but larger, stronger and better garrisoned, forts). On 1 September 1757 five people were killed and eight captured by Indians on the South Branch. Major Andrew Lewis
Andrew Lewis (soldier)
Andrew Lewis was an American pioneer, surveyor, and soldier from Virginia. He served as a colonel of militia during the French and Indian War, and as a brigadier general in the American Revolutionary War...
, who had been ordered to regulate the militia of Augusta County, wrote to Washington of his concerns that the entire South Branch and South Fork region might need to be abandoned owing to lack of garrison troops.
According to a report provided much later to Col. Washington by Capt. Robert Mackenzie, Lieutenant Christopher Gist
Christopher Gist
Christopher Gist was an accomplished American explorer, surveyor and frontiersman. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country . He is credited with providing the first detailed description of the Ohio Country to Great Britain and her colonists...
had marched with six soldiers and 30 Indians, beginning on 2 April 1758, from the South Branch towards Fort Duquesne
Fort Duquesne
Fort Duquesne was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in what is now downtown Pittsburgh in the state of Pennsylvania....
. Impeded by deep snows on the mountains, they arrived at the Monongahela River
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...
, where Gist was seriously injured and incapacitated by a fall from a steep bank. Part of the force stayed with Gist and the remainder, all Indians, divided into three parties and separated. A scout named Ucahala and two others found a large Indian encampment about 15 miles before they came to Ft. Duquesne. They judged it to be at least 100 warriors making directly for the frontier forts region. A little later, Gist and his men came upon the tracks of another large party pursuing the same route. It is likely that the warriors that attacked Forts Upper Tract and Seybert a few days later were among this force.
The attack
A surprise attack on Fort Seybert occurred on the foggy morning of 28 April 1758 when a number of the men were away, having gone across Shenandoah Mountain on business. There was a shortage of ammunition in the fort and apparently only three adult males on hand, including Captain Seybert, to defend it. Seeing the futile situation that he faced, Seybert surrendered on the basis of promises by the war chief BeminoBemino
Bemino — known as John Killbuck, Sr to white settlers — was a renowned medicine man and war leader of Shawnee and Delaware warriors during the French and Indian War . He was a son of Netawatwees, at one time principal chief of the Delaware, and his own son was Gelelemend , a Delaware chief during...
(known as John Killbuck) that their lives would be spared. Following the surrender, however, the Indians massacred 17 to 19 people; took eleven captive — including Seybert’s teenaged son, who returned to the region years later to render an account — and burned the fort. According to Seybert's son:
They bound ten, whom they conveyed without the fort, and then proceeded to massacre the others in the following manner: They seated them in a row upon a log, with an Indian standing behind each; and at a given signal, each Indian sunk his tomahawk into the head of his victim: an additional blow or two dispatched them.
Six days later (4 May), Washington wrote to John Blair, Sr.
John Blair
John Blair, Jr. was an American politician, Founding Father and jurist.Blair was one of the best-trained jurists of his day. A famous legal scholar, he avoided the tumult of state politics, preferring to work behind the scenes...
(then acting Governor of Virginia) from Fort Loudoun
Fort Loudoun
Fort Loudoun was the name of three British forts built during the French and Indian War in North America. They were named for John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun.*Fort Loudoun in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee...
(present day Winchester
Winchester, Virginia
Winchester is an independent city located in the northwestern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the USA. The city's population was 26,203 according to the 2010 Census...
) of the disasters at Forts Upper Tract and Seybert:
The enclosed letter from Capt. Waggener will inform your Honor of a very unfortunate affair. From the best accounts I have yet been able to get there are about 60 persons killed and missing. Immediately upon receiving this Intelligence I sent out a Detachment of the Regiment, and some Indians that were equipped for war in hopes of their being able to intercept the Enemy in the retreat. I was fearful of this stroke, but had not time enough to avert it, as your Honor will find by the following account which came to hand just before Capt. Waggener's letter, by Capt. Mackenzie.
After the raids, Bemino's warriors were said to have left the region by the Indian trail that came to be known (for that reason) as the "Shawnee Trail
Shawnee Trail (West Virginia)
The Shawnee Trail was the white settlers' name for an American Indian trail in what is now eastern West Virginia, USA. It was a segment of the much larger Indian trail network known as the Great Indian Warpath, which stretched from New York to Alabama. The GIW was referred to from this point north...
". Travelling back west, they took their prisoners and loot to the remote Ohio Territory.
Description
Traditional descriptions of the fort by those living in the vicinity (the local community is still called “Fort SeybertFort Seybert, West Virginia
Fort Seybert is an unincorporated community located in Pendleton County, West Virginia, USA. This town was named for Captain Jacob Seybert who built an early stockade here. It was captured by Native Americans in 1758, who spared only eleven lives...
” to this day) were handed down for generations. One of these, written by Mr. Alonzo D. Lough, was collected in the 1930s by Lee Keister Talbot:
Fort Seybert was located on the left hand side (west) of the South Fork River, and situated on an elevation which sloped rapidly to a ravine on the north and descended abruptly over a ledge of rocks to the river on the southeast. Westwardly a gradual incline sloped back to the mountain. The defense consisted of a circular stockade some thirty yards in diameter, consisting of logs or puncheonPuncheon (disambiguation)Puncheon may refer to:* Puncheon, a container for wine or spirits* Puncheon, a plank road* Puncheon, a figured stamp, die, or punch, used by goldsmiths, cutlers, etc* Puncheon, a short, upright piece of timber in framing; a short post; an intermediate stud...
s set on end in the ground, side by side, and rising to a height often of twelve feet. A puncheon door closed the entrance. Within the stockade stood the two storied block-house twenty-one feet square. From the upper loop-holes the open space about the fort could be swept by the rifles of the defenders.
The De Hass image
In his 1851 history, Wills De Hass provides a picture (a wood engraving
Wood engraving
Wood engraving is a technique in printmaking where the "matrix" worked by the artist is a block of wood. It is a variety of woodcut and so a relief printing technique, where ink is applied to the face of the block and printed by using relatively low pressure. A normal engraving, like an etching,...
) of Fort Seybert without attribution. The sources and authority of this image have never been verified. It represents the fort as being a large, square stockade
Stockade
A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls made of logs placed side by side vertically with the tops sharpened to provide security.-Stockade as a security fence:...
, in the manner of a conventional combined trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
/fort of a somewhat later date, large enough to provide for a large garrison. This image has been used repeatedly by amateur historians as a source of information. De Hass described the fort as follows: "It was a rude enclosure, cut out of the heart of the forest, but sufficiently strong to have resisted any attack from the enemy had the inmates themselves been strong." People living in the vicinity of Fort Seybert in the 1930s and interviewed by Lee Keister Talbot stated that they could still trace the depression in the ground where the palisade
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
s were set on end, and could well remember when the depression was more distinct than it was then. They considered it impossible that the fort had consisted of almost a dozen log houses (as in the De Hass image) built so as to form a square or rectangle.