HISTORY OF FOREMAN'S DEFEAT AT
MCMECHEN NARROWS IN 1777
FROM NEWSPAPER ARTICLE WRITTEN BY
PROF. J C SANDER CHAIRMAN MINERAL COUNTY
WASHINGTON BICENTENNIAL COMMISSION
At the close of the French and Indian War (1764)
the Indians were mostly driven west of the Ohio River but soon after
the beginning of the Revolutionary War they became allied with the
British and began to make incursions east and south of the Ohio in Virginia.
In the year 1777, Western Virginia became what was
then known as "The Back Door of the Revolution." Henry
Hamilton, the British Lieutenant Governor at Detroit, having
furnished the Indians with arms and ammunition, incited them to
attack the colonists south of the Ohio River. George Washington,
through the Governor of Virginia asked the various counties of the
state to raise individual companies to keep or drive the Indians west
of the Ohio River.
In Hampshire County this task was delegated to
Captain William Foreman, and he raised a company of 45 men. Many of
these names are familiar in Hampshire and Mineral Counties, such as
Riser, Wilson, Pugh, Powell and Johnson.
Captain Foreman with his men marched through to
Fort Henry, now Wheeling, arriving there on the 15th day of September
1777, just fifteen days after the seige of that fort.
On Sunday, the 26th of the month, in the evening a
dense column of smoke was seen down the river and the commanding
officer thinking that the Indians had set fire to the abandoned fort
at what is now Moundsville, sent Captain Foreman and his Hampshire
County men to investigate the cause of the smoke and to see if any
Indians were to be found. No Indians were found and on the next day
the company started to return to Fort Henry. When the troops reached
the narrow pass between a steep bluff and the Ohio River known as
McMechen Narrows, they were attacked by the Indians in ambush, and
twenty of Hampshire County's noble warriors fell. This sad event is
known in pioneer annals as "Foreman's Defeat", and long was
heard the sorrowful story in the homes of the South Branch and
Patterson's Creek Valleys.
On November 6, 1778, the General Assembly of
Virginia passed a resolution, on petition of John Wilson and others,
allowing pay to the following soldiers of Captain Foreman's Company
for losses in this battle.
|
NAME |
PROPERTY LOST |
L |
S |
P |
|
FOREMAN, CAPTAIN WILLIAM |
RIFLE, POUCH AND HORN, POCKET COMPASS AND BLANKET |
13 |
17 |
6 |
|
PETERSON, EDWARD |
RIFLE-GUN, SHOT POUCH AND BLANKET |
13 |
5 |
0 |
|
POWELL, BENJAMIN |
RIFLE-GUN, BLANKET, SHOT POUCH AND HORN |
15 |
10 |
0 |
|
FOREMAN, HAMBLETON |
RIFLE-GUN, SHOT POUCH, HORN AND BLANKET |
13 |
5 |
0 |
|
GREEN, JAMES |
RIFLE-GUN AND BLANKET |
11 |
17 |
6 |
|
WILSON, JOHN |
RIFLE-GUN, SHOT POUCH, HORN AND BLANKET |
11 |
10 |
0 |
|
PUGH, JACOB |
RIFLE-GUN, SHOT POUCH, BLANKET AND HORN |
10 |
3 |
9 |
|
HARRIS, ISAAC |
RIFLE-GUN, SHOT POUCH, BLANKET AND HORN |
14 |
17 |
6 |
|
MCGREW, ROBERT |
BLANKET |
1 |
2 |
6 |
|
SHIVER, ELISHA |
BLANKET |
1 |
2 |
6 |
|
RISER, HENRY |
BLANKET |
1 |
7 |
6 |
|
VIINEY, BARTHOLOMEW |
BLANKET |
1 |
2 |
6 |
|
MILLER, ANTHONY |
BLANKET |
1 |
2 |
6 |
|
VINCENT, JOHN |
BLANKET |
1 |
10 |
0 |
|
JONES, SOLOMON |
BLANKET |
1 |
10 |
0 |
|
INGLE, WILLIAM |
BLANKET |
1 |
2 |
6 |
|
FOREMAN, NATHAN |
BLANKET |
1 |
2 |
6 |
|
POWELL, ABRAM |
BLANKET |
1 |
17 |
6 |
|
LOWRY, SAMUEL |
BLANKET |
1 |
2 |
6 |
|
JOHNSON, SAMUEL |
RIFLE-GUN, SHOT POUCH, HORN AND BLANKET |
9 |
3 |
6 |
AMONG THE MEMBERS OF THE COMPANY WHO MADE NO CLAIM TO LOSSES WERE
|
WILSON, ENSIGN DAVID |
|
COLLINS, JOHN |
|
OGLE, JACOB |
|
HARKNESS, ROBIN |
|
LYNN, WILLIAM |
|
HARNESS, ISAAC |
This resolution of the General Assembly also recites that this
account ought to be charged against the United States of America.
Many descendants of these brave warriors are still living within
the confines of Hampshire and Mineral Counties.