The Battle that Sparked a Revolution
“It really starts at Point Pleasant, you know, the Battle of Point Pleasant. Now that’s not really where the revolution began, but it’s where it set everything in motion for West Virginia.”
When we think of the American Revolution, we usually picture the 13 colonies on the coast, but the frontier was a major part of the action. In Western Virginia, the conflict really kicked off with the Battle of Point Pleasant in October 1774. This battle is considered one of the three most important in West Virginia history, standing alongside the Battle of Blair Mountain and the Civil War’s Battle of Rich Mountain.
The tension in the region was high because the Proclamation of 1763 had forbidden settlers from moving past the Appalachian Mountains to keep peace with Native American tribes. However, settlers kept coming, and by the time of the Revolution, there were between 20,000 and 30,000 people living in what is now West Virginia. The Battle of Point Pleasant pitted the Virginia militia, armed with the Kentucky long rifle, against a confederation of tribes like the Shaunee, Mingo, and Delaware. This specialized rifle was a game changer because it could shoot further and with more accuracy than the muskets used by the tribes.
The Toughest March in History
“The Virginia militia form together and a huge chunk of them if not the majority of them were from West Virginia and they make what’s called the Beline March. They march from basically around the area of Harper’s Ferry to Boston 600 miles 25 days.”
West Virginians weren’t just defending their own backyards, they were right in the thick of the national fight. After the war broke out in Boston, the Virginia militia performed an incredible feat known as the Bee Line March. These frontiersmen marched 600 miles in just 25 days to join George Washington’s forces. That is roughly 24 miles a day through rough terrain without horses.
These men were famously tough, with a culture that prized hunting and marksmanship. In a resolution at Fort Gower, the militia even boasted that they could live for weeks without bread or salt and sleep in the open air without any covering but the “canopy of heaven”. This era is actually where the Appalachian “mountaineer” stereotype was born, complete with coon skin hats and long rifles. These soldiers went on to fight in major turning points of the war, including Saratoga, Brandywine, and Yorktown.
The Year of the Bloody Sevens and Local Legends
“Things remained peaceful until 1777 in West Virginia and they call it the year of the bloody sevens, and it was a bloody, bloody year.”
While many soldiers were away fighting on the coast, the British encouraged Native American tribes to attack the mountain settlements to keep the militia occupied. This led to 1777 being remembered as the “year of the bloody sevens” due to the sheer amount of violence. One of the most famous stories from this time is the second siege of Fort Henry in Wheeling in 1782, which some consider the final battle of the Revolution.
According to local legend, the fort was running out of gunpowder when a teenager named Betty Zane volunteered to help. She supposedly ran 40 yards out of the fort to her family’s cabin, filled her dress with gunpowder, and dashed back under heavy fire to save the day. While some people dispute the details, the story highlights just how tough the women of the frontier had to be to survive. This era of conflict also gave rise to the legend of Cornstalk’s Curse. After the Shaunee leader Cornstalk was murdered at Fort Randolph in 1777, folklore says he cursed the land, a story that many locals still link to the Mothman sightings in Point Pleasant years later.
To understand the chaos of this time, imagine it like “Game of Thrones on the porch every other day,” where different groups were constantly fighting for survival, land, and their homes.
Want to hear more about the brutal history of the frontier and the curse that still haunts the hills of Point Pleasant? You won’t want to miss the full deep dive in our original video.
