The Battle of
Point Pleasant
The
Battle of Point Pleasant was a conflict between the Native American
Confederation under the Shawnee chieftain Keightughqua, or
Cornstalk, and the colonial forces under General Andrew Lewis. This
was one of the bloodiest, hardest-fought battles ever waged between
the early settlers and the Indians. The Virginians suffered a loss
of eighty-one men and one hundred forty were wounded. Chief
Cornstalk's fatalities were enormous. He lost two hundred men and
had twice as many wounded. The result was a victory for the
Virginia colonists and the opening of the area for permanent
settlers. This opened the way to rapid western expansion. Some
historians consider the Battle of Point Pleasant the first battle
of the American Revolution in spite of the fact that this battle
actually took place six months before the documented beginning of
the war. However, no one questions the importance of this battle,
which thwarted an alliance between Native American forces and
British collaborators and established a peace with the Indians for
the first three years of the Revolutionary War. In the year of
1778, the great Chief Cornstalk, and his eldest son, Illinipsico,
were brutally murdered while in the garrison of Point Pleasant.
Their assailants surrounded the blockhouse where they sat; and in a
moment, a shower of rifle bullets pierced both bodies. This
incident incited hostilities between the Indians and the whites for
many years to come. Numerous massacres of whole settlements
occurred until May of 1791, when the last incursion took place in
Mason County.
One
of the most famous women in Mason County history was "Mad Ann
Bailey." Not all Indian fighters were men, and Ann Bailey is
renowned for her daring as a frontier scout. After hearing of her
husband’s death in the Battle of Point Pleasant, Ann Bailey dressed
in frontiersman's clothing and set out for revenge. The Indians
knew her as "White Squaw of the Kanawha." Ann became one of the
best scouts in the valley. She eluded the Indian parties time and
again and was able to deliver supplies and ammunition to the fort.
Most of the men would not even attempt the daring missions that
this woman undertook through hostile Indian territories. After the
war ended, Ann Bailey moved to Ohio with her son. Here she
continued to hunt and fish for another twenty years. At her death
at the (estimated) age of 120, her body was brought back to Mason
County and buried in Battle Monument State Park in Point
Pleasant.
The object of this cache is
to get you to this park. The cache is easy to find and is just a
micro with a log sheet. At the posted coords you will at the Ohio
River Museum just across the street from the State Park. Please
take some time and visit the State Park, a truly early American
Historical Place.