On September 12, 1782, Elizabeth Zane, age seventeen, braved death in a solo dash over open ground to retrieve a keg of gunpowder stored in a nearby blockhouse. Her action helped save her family and friends from certain death, becoming a wilderness legend in her own time. On September 11, 1782, a strong force of Native Americans and allied Loyalists attacked frontier settlers who had sought safety behind the protective walls of Fort Henry, present-day Wheeling, West Virginia. After beating back two assaults, by next morning, the fort had depleted its supply of gunpowder. Without that powder, historians speculated the garrison would not have been able to defend what would be the third and final assault. Someone had to run to for that powder. Only twenty men safeguarded the fort. None could be spared. Therefore, reason accepted Zane’s offer. Though Betty’s feat had been challenged years later by one of the last remaining witnesses of the event, further research set the record straight, confirming it was Elizabeth Zane who ran the gauntlet of whistling bullets to save her community.
Early Life
Elizabeth Zane, known as Betty or Betsy, was the daughter of Quakers William Andrew Zane (1712-1799), and Nancy Ann Nolan (1715-1761). Her parents were married in 1744 in Philadelphia, and around that time moved west into then Berkely County, Virginia. Betty was born on July 19, 1765, in Moorfield, Virginia, Berkely County now Hardy County, in the South Branch Valley (also named Wappatomake) of the Potomac River. Most accounts agree she was born in 1765; however, since it is recorded that her mother died four years earlier, some accounts list her birth as 1759, this leads to speculation as to the accuracy of her birth.[1] She was the youngest and sister to five brothers in order of age: Silas (1745), Ebenezer (1747), Jonathan (1743), Andrew (1749), and Isaac (1753). All siblings lived to adulthood. The children grew up during the French and Indian War where settlers along the fringe of wilderness experienced multiple Native American attacks and abductions.[2]
In 1762, Betty’s brothers, nine-year-old Isaac and eleven-year-old Jonathan were kidnapped while returning home from school. Jonathan was released after two years, but Isaac spent the next seventeen years living among the Wyandot.[3] As young adults, her three oldest brothers, Silas,[4] Ebenezer, and Jonathan, sought opportunities of debt free land west over the Appalachians. They explored west of the Potomac Valley into the Ohio Valley region; along the Ohio River just beyond the western Pennsylvanian frontier. In 1769, they illegally migrated west from Moorefield, ignoring the Royal Proclamation of 1763[5] that prohibited settlements of lands to the west of the Appalachian Mountains. They were among the first to establish a new settlement along Wheeling Creek and the Ohio River at present-day Wheeling,[6] Ohio County, West Virginia. The rest of the Zane family joined them and homesteaded what became Martins Ferry,[7] Belmont County, Ohio, across the Ohio River from Wheeling.
Betty, at some point after the family relocated west, was sent to Philadelphia to live with her aunt and attend school. Various sources describe her as thin and athletic with an independent spirit, an outgoing personality, and an attractive appearance. When her aunt died in 1781, she came to the Wheeling area and rejoined her family. Meanwhile, her brothers had become skilled frontiersmen and except for Isaac, who lived amongst his adopted Wyandot family, seasoned, tough ‘Indian fighters.’[8] Throughout the late 1760’s and into the 1770’s, strong antagonisms between settlers and Native Americans perpetrated great cruelty with frequent deadly attacks by both sides.[9] Tensions between the colonies and England intensified along with increased Native American raids along the western Virginia frontier. In May of 1774, Royal Governor John Murray of Virginia, Lord Dunmore and Viscount Fincastle, proclaimed war on the Shawnee and Mingo. To protect settlements in the South Branch Valley and act as a staging point for operations in the Ohio Valley, it was decided to build a fort at the small settlement founded by Ebenezer Zane.
Fort Fincastle
Fort Fincastle, named for Royal Governor Lord Dunmore’s Viscount title, was sixty miles southwest of Pittsburg on the left bank of Ohio, just above the mouth of Wheeling Creek. It stood at what is now Tenth and Main streets in downtown Wheeling, West Virginia. Ebenezer Zane and John Caldwell, along with other members of the Wheeling settlement, constructed the fortification in the summer of 1774. They were aided by 400 Virginia militia from Fort Pitt under the command of Major Angus McDonald and Capt. William Crawford[10]. The fort was finished by late July. Situated on a high bluff overlooking the Ohio River, it was 356 feet long and 150 feet wide, covering about a half to three quarters of an acre in the shape of a parallelogram. The fort was surrounded by a stockade fence (palisade) twelve feet high,[11] and had a three-foot walkway running along the inside. Bastions were placed at each corner and though it has been stated there were several cabins covering the interior, later research indicated there would not have been enough space for these buildings.[12] A swivel gun[13] was positioned on top of the second floor of the captain’s house.[14] The fort’s gate was to the east, facing the crude village of twenty to thirty log homes.[15] The area outside the fort was cleared all around and covered with cornfields and fenced farmlands. Betty’s brother, Ebenezer Zane’s house[16] was about seventy yards from the fort.[17]
From May to October, 1774, militias occupied and staged expeditions from the fort throughout what became known as Lord Dunmore’s War. After the militia victory at the Battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774, the Shawnee and Mingo, including Delaware and other Native American waring tribes, were forced to sign the Treaty of Camp Charlotte. The war ended, resulting in vast stretches of western lands south of the Ohio River ceded to colonial settlements.[18] As a result, Lord Dunmore was a hero. But as relations worsened between England and the colonialists, Dunmore’s popularity quickly declined. Six months after the Camp Charlotte agreement was signed, hostilities erupted at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, April 19, 1775. The American Revolution had begun and Dunmore’s days were numbered.
Fort Henry and Three Prior Attacks Before 1782
The year 1775 was not a good one for Royal Governor Lord Dunmore. By late December, he’d been defeated at the Battle of Great Bridge, December 9, 1775, and confined to a war ship amongst his fleet of merchantmen in the Norfolk Harbor. After Norfolk was shelled and destroyed, Dunmore’s fleet was eventually forced to sail for the Bahamas and New York City. Virginia had a new government and a new governor; patriot firebrand Patrick Henry. And soon after the Declaration of Independence was announced in July of 1776, records indicate Ebenezer renamed the fortification, Fort Henry, in honor of Governor Patrick Henry.
When the American Revolution broke out, the Zane brothers were recruited as officers to lead troops and militias into the wilderness. Often employed as scouts who ventured west and south into the Ohio Valley, they spied on predominately Native American allies[19] to England and Loyalist Rangers.[20] Prior to the 1782 attack on Fort Henry in which Betty Zane is noted for her dash to retrieve gunpowder, there were three other assaults on the fort by British allied forces; February, 1777, September 1777, and September 1781.
February 1777
Militiaman Colonel David Shepherd was in command of the fort. It is unknown if Betty was with her family at Wheeling, or in Philadelphia living with her aunt. There was no direct attack against the fort, but upon settlements. A band of Indians, composed of Wyandot, Shawnee, Mingo and Delaware raided the region. According to Colonel William Craford in a letter to Congress on April 22, 1777, the raiders “killed and scalped one man, the body of whom was much mangled . . . At Dunkard’s Creek they killed and scalped one man and a woman and took three children and at each of the above places they burned houses and killed cattle and hogs.” A scout, John Schoolcraft, said he had warned Wheeling and Fort Pitt about marauding bands of Indians at about this same time. Four months passed before word surfaced that the fort at Wheeling would be attacked by a much larger gathering of Native Americans and Loyalist Rangers.
September 1777
This attack was the most vicious and resulted in far more destruction and casualties than any previous and later assaults on the Wheeling community or fort. On July 26, 1777, Captain Arbuckle wrote that a friendly Indian had said that Wheeling, and Fort Randolph, would be attacked. That August, Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River in New York was under siege by Native Americans, Loyalists, and British Regulars (part of British General Burgoyne’s Campaign south from Canada). On August 6th, New York militia were soundly defeated at the Battle of Oriskany. Four Hundred miles south, at Fort Pitt, PA, the American commander, General Edward Hand, received word that a large concentration of Native Americans and Loyalist Rangers were assembling to attack Fort Henry, sixty miles southwest on the Ohio. He ordered Colonel David Shepherd and 11 local militia companies to gather at the fort. In August, around 300 men did so, but by the end of the month, except for a few skirmishes with small bands of native raiders, the attack did not materialize. With dwindling food supplies and restless, undisciplined troops, most militiamen returned home.[21] This left only 25 men under Capt. Joseph Ogle of Buffalo Creek and local leader Captain Samuel Mason, and local Wheeling settlers; fifty in total to defend the fort.
Meanwhile, by month’s end, approximately 300 warriors (Wyandot, Mingo with some Lenape and Shawnee) led by Wyandot Chief Dunquat, and the Lenape Chief Buckongahelas, approached the fort secretly. On the morning of September 1st,[22] four men left the fort and were ambushed; one was killed and three escaped, two to the fort. Captain Mason led a party from the fort to pursue what he thought was a band of raiders. The warriors ambushed the militiamen, forcing them to retreat. Captain Ogle led a sortie from the fort to assist Mason and was also ambushed, suffering casualties. Both commanders eventually fought their way back to the fort. Runners raised the cry for help and an additional fifty or so militiamen arrived under Captains Van Swearington and famed “Indian Fighter,” Major Samuel McCulloch.[23] Swearington arrived without be molested, but McColloch’s men were ambushed and fought their way to the fort.
Warriors surrounded the fort and remained throughout the day and through the night demonstrating before the fortress’ walls. By the next morning, prior to departing, they had laid the village to the torch, destroying twenty-five cabins, the Zane homestead included, and slaughtered 300 head of cattle. Twenty-three defenders were killed; militia suffered 15 dead and settlers lost 8, with a total of 5 wounded. Native American loses were estimated at 1 killed and 9 wounded. Except for the Forman Massacre[24] three weeks later and occasional raids by both Native Americans and vengeful settlers, the region would remain relatively quiet for the next four years.
September, 1781
There is no exact date and little had been recorded of this attack. David Shepard was still in command of Fort Henry with a small base of militia and local settlers for defense; around 40 men. Like the 1777 assault on the fort, word was received to expect an attack by a large body of Native Americans. Shepard was also warned by Colonel Daniel Brodhead, commander at Fort Pitt, to guard against sorties from the fort: “They intend to decoy your garrison, but you are to guard against stratagem, and defend your post to the last extremity.”[25] It appeared both warnings were ignored. A body of warriors succeeded in drawing the defenders out of the fort toward Wheeling Hill where they were ambushed. After a firefight, the defenders returned to the fort. There is no record of casualties on either side. Once more Native Americans burned crops and buildings, though not as many as the 1777 attack, and killed animals before leaving.
Ebenezer Zane Rebuilds Log Home & adds a Blockhouse. Fort Henry’s Decline
After the 1777 raid destroyed his home, Ebenezer Zane declared that he would rebuild a fortified home[26] that could withstand an attack; he added a sturdy two story blockhouse.[27] Next to the blockhouse on the south side, Zane added a summer kitchen; a smaller two story cabin between the blockhouse and the cornfield along Wheeling Creek. The front of Zane’s buildings faced Fort Henry, about sixty yards to the west,[28] allowing shooters in the kitchen and blockhouse to cover the front of the fort and the fields on the north and south sides. Likewise, those in the fort had a clear view of the front of Zane’s home, plus the north and south sides of the blockhouse and summer kitchen. As such, the cabin could only be attacked from the east in which the kitchen and blockhouse provided cover for each other. In future attacks, Ebenezer’s design proved to be very defensible.[29]
During the five years between 1777 and the next major assault on the fort in 1782, Fort Henry was sparsely occupied and fell into a state of disrepair. The western palisade, that facing a peach orchard, was so badly rotten, one could easily put their fist through the wood.[30] Colonel David Shepherd remained in command after the 1777 assaults. Between 1779 and 1781, Capt. Benjamin Biggs led the garrison, but Biggs lived seven miles north of Wheeling, in West Liberty,[31] and seldom visited the fort. In 1779, the focus of the American Revolution shifted to the south and New York City where the British army was bottled up. For nearly three years, as the war wound down, there was no full-time garrison. Ebenezer Zane sent a request to General William Irvine at Fort Pitt requesting a supply of powder and lead to be kept at his cabin for the fort. Zane promised to be responsible for the ammunition, stating in his letter that he would “personally account for any which is not expended at the enemy.”[32] Since the fort was usually unoccupied, Zane kept the powder and lead at his cabin to prevent theft.
Fort Henry Attack September 11 – 13, 1782
War Continues along the Frontier
In 1782 the war between America and England was basically over. The major combatants were working out details of peace negotiations in Paris. Hostilities had ceased, but for small skirmishes between patriot and loyalists, mainly in the south. But not so along the Ohio Valley frontier. The winter of 1781 -1782 was mild with increased raids by both sides. March 8, 1782, witnessed the horrific and brutal slaughter of 96 peaceful Native American Moravian Christians,[33] 70 of whom were women and children, by Pennsylvania settlers. The same settlers came upon and killed 30 peaceful Lenape who were allied to America. In late May, Colonel William Crawford, friend of General Washington, led a large expedition against Native American villages.[34] He and his men were soundly defeated. Crawford and some settlers were captured and tortured to death in retribution for the Moravian Massacre.
The savage murders during these major events in the spring of 1782 heightened tensions between sides. In the summer of 1782, Native and Loyalist allies decided to carry on the war in two major offences. One army of around 600 warriors[35] that included a band of Butler’s Rangers invaded Kentucky, leading to a victory against settler militiamen; August 19, 1782 and the Battle of Blue Licks.[36] The second army would attack along the Ohio frontier and northwestern Virginia, that included the settlement at Wheeling and Fort Henry. This band was commanded by Captain Andrew Bradt,[37] who led a company of Butler’s Rangers that numbered 50 Loyalists. The Native American force consisted of 250 – 350 warriors, among whom was George Girty, brother of famed Tory scout Simon Girty.[38]
Native and Loyalist Force Approaches
On Wednesday, September 11th, frontier scout John Lynn[39] spotted Bradt’s column advancing towards Wheeling and raced ahead to warn the settlers. He arrived only a few hours before the expected enemy were to arrive. Those living on farms in the immediate area gathered what they could and ran to Fort Henry to man the walls. There were two main defenses; the fort, and Ebenezer Zane’s blockhouse. Because the settlers in the region barely had time to get to the fort’s safety, they could not retrieve the additional ammunition stored at the blockhouse.
Twenty men and between 40 to 50 women and children gathered in the fort.[40] They were led by Captain John Boggs. Knowing they were undermanned to withstand a large enemy attack, Boggs volunteered to ride and return with reinforcements.[41] Captain Silas Zane, Betty’s oldest brother, assumed command of the fort. Her other brother Captain Jonathan Zane, who had scouted and fought with Continental troops, was is the fort; however, there is no record and only be assumed her brother Andrew was present. Betty sought refuge in the fort along with her sixteen-year-old friend Lydia Boggs.[42] Ebenezer remained home[43] to defend his blockhouse that also included all the fort’s ammunition and supplies needed for a long siege. With him were six others;[44] his wife Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ McCulloch,[45] Andrew Scott and his wife Molly, George Greer a friend, Sam (Ebenezer’s slave called ‘Daddy’), and Sam’s wife Kate. Sam and Kate defended the summer kitchen adjoining the blockhouse.
Demand Surrender and Attack
The Native American and Rangers arrived and immediately formed lines around the fort. They paraded British colors and either Bradt or one of his officers, under a flag of truce, demanded the fort to surrender. When it was directly refused,[46] he tried to pressure the garrison to capitulate, promising humane treatment if they did so. If not, all would be slaughtered. This too was refused. Bradt did not have artillery. He was therefore left with two options to take the fort; either by a long siege, or a direct assault; he chose the latter. Accounts vary as to if the Fort and blockhouse were attacked immediately after the call to surrender was refused, or under the cover of nightfall. Most reports concur that attempts to storm the fort began around midnight of the 11th.[47]
Three times, attacks to breach the walls of the fort and fire the blockhouse were driven back by small arms. Accordingly, and the stuff of later Hollywood movies such as “Drums Along the Mohawk,”[48] women actively cleaned and loaded firelocks to pass back to men to keep a continuous fire. It was reported that the swivel gun located on the barracks’ roof, loaded with buck shot, nails, and pieces of metal, basically a large shotgun, was fired to good effect.[49] The third failed assault included an attempt to torch the fort’s walls, but that too was driven back. Meanwhile Ebenezer and those within held their own against attacks on the blockhouse. Accordingly, planks were removed from the overhang at times to fire down upon those trying to set fire to the building. According to Alexander Scott Withers’ 1831 Chronicles of Border Warfare account, Sam, Ebenezer’s slave who defended the kitchen area, fired upon a man trying to set fire to the building, writing that the native hobbled away.[50]
Elizabeth Zane’s Run
Dawn, September 12th, witnessed both sides exhausted after three night-time attempts to storm and burn the fort and blockhouse. Accordingly, the British force kept a constant fire on the two fortresses while most withdrew to a nearby stream to rest. Within the fort things reached a critical stage. Men had arrived only with what powder and shot they could carry. By morning, almost all of it was depleted; the swivel gun alone used a good portion of powder to fire. So too, the garrison learned who it was they faced and the superior number of enemy present. A black man was sported outside the fort walls and was fired upon. He was taken prisoner and told he had escaped from the enemy. According to Ebenezer Zane, “About 8 o’clock next morning, there came a negro from them to us and informed us that their force consisted of a British captain and forty regular soldiers and two hundred and sixty Indians.”[51]
With little or no gunpowder left, and confronting a force fifteen times their number, it was doubtful the fort could withstand another assault. Zane’s blockhouse was frustratingly close with all the powder they needed. But the seventy-yard distance would be a deadly gauntlet; a suicide run under constant enemy fire. The defenders held a council and decided the powder need was too critical. One of them would have to risk it. Silas’ younger sister Elizabeth Zane called out and volunteered. Some objected that a man could run faster and carry more powder, but Zane was persistent, she should go as every man was needed in the fort for defense. Elizabeth’s response has been embellished over the generations, interjected with eighteenth century romanticism. Withers’ 1831 history captured the period pathos, recording her reply to the opinion a man should make the run, “and should he fall, his loss will be more severely felt. You have not one man to spare; a woman will not be missed in the defense of the fort.”[52]
Zane removed her undergarments and petticoat, anything that would slow her down. The gate was drawn aside and she suddenly charged out into the open. Not a shot was fired as she bolted for the blockhouse, approximately 60 yards distant over open ground. Most likely, the attackers were too surprised to shoot and somewhat amused as some taunted her. Whether those holed up in the fortified house tried to discourage her return run was not recorded. The women took one of Bessie Zane’s aprons,[53] some accounts describe a tablecloth was wrapped around her waist, folded the bottom up, and stitched up the sides to form a pouch. A keg of gunpowder, as much as they thought Betty could carry, was poured into the pouch, and then stitched the top. When she burst through the doorway for the mad dash to the fort, it must have dawned upon the raiders her purpose. By the time they opened fire, she was less than 100 feet from the fort.[54] Musket balls whistled around her and hit the dirt, kicking up dust which blew into her eyes, but she managed to finish the run unhurt with the precious supply of gunpowder.
Bradt and his native allies continued to fire at the fort and Zane’s blockhouse throughout the day. That night, at around 10 PM, they staged one last assault on the fort. Powder replenished, the settlers kept up a fierce fire that beat back the attack. On the morning of the 13th, the British force withdrew and faded into the wilderness. Ebenezer Zane reported that the defenders suffered only one wounded. The attackers’ losses remain unknown, outside the one reported shot by Sam at the blockhouse.
Betty Zane’s run was the subject of several illustrations over the years. Here are a few of them.
Afterward
Elizabeth Zane’s run quickly became the stuff of local legend during her lifetime. Generations afterward retold the ‘gunpowder exploit’ detailing and elaborating Betty’s heroic dash to save her family and friends. Fading memories of those who witnessed the event and told to others who parroted what they heard to future generations led to recorded differences. Secondary accounts wrote that Ebenezer’s brother Silas owned the blockhouse and placed Silas and his family defending the fortified house, not commanding the fort during the attack. Some early historians have Betty’s run reversed; that she ran from the blockhouse to the fort, where supplies were stored, then back to the fortified house that had run out of powder.
Three years after the famous gunpowder exploit, Betty, aged 19 or 20, was pregnant. Her baby’s father was Van Swearingen, age 43. Society required the father of pregnancy outside of wedlock to marry the woman. But Swearington had impregnated another woman and married her, so could not wed Betty.[55] Therefore, Swearington was ordered by the courts to deed over land to Betty, so she would not be a burden on the county.[56] Perhaps fearful or conceding to society’s scorn of unwed mothers, while still pregnant by Swearingen, Betty married Willaim Ephraim McLaughlin in January, 1786. The baby was born soon after and named Minerva Catherine Zane.
Betsy Zane and Ephraim McLaughlin raised Minerva and had four daughters together: Nancy Zane McLaughlin, born July 12, 1788; Mary Ann, born April 2, 1790; Hannah, born Oct. 12, 1791; and Rebecca, who born on an unknown date in 1797. Ephraim died in 1799, leaving Betty a widow with five children. His death has remained a mystery. While fishing on the Ohio, he failed to return that evening. His empty canoe was found later and it was assumed he had drowned. Within the year of Ephraim’s death, Betty was pregnant again, this time to Jacob Clark who married her in 1800. The child was a boy named Ebenezer Clark. They later had a daughter named Catherine.[57] Betty and Jacob lived across the river from Wheeling, in Ohio near St. Clairsville.
Death and Monument
Betty died on August 24, 1823, age 58[58] and is buried at the Walnut Grove Cemetery[59] in Martins Ferry, across the Ohio River from Wheeling in present Belmont County, Ohio. Jacob lived for several years longer, passing in 1840. Betty was buried alongside her brother Ebenezer Zane who died in 1815. A monument that depicts Betty carrying a sack of gunpowder was erected in 1928[60] through funds raised by the Martins Ferry schoolchildren. Martins Ferry holds an annual weeklong Betty Zane Days celebration every August in her honor. The cemetery is located at the dead end of North 4th Street, Martins Ferry, Ohio.
Challenge to Betty’s Run
In 1849, Lydia Boggs Cruger, former friend of Betty and who was with her at the fort in 1782, swore an affidavit to early historian Lyman Draper,[61] challenging Betty’s story. As a sixteen-year-old eyewitness to the event, Lydia claimed that the real heroine was Molly Scott, who was among those within the Zane blockade. That Molly had run from Colonel Silas Zane’s fortified house to the fort and back to retrieve the gunpowder.[62] Cruger also challenged that Elizabeth Zane was not present at the time, but in Philadelphia where she still attended school. Also, that Molly Scott was never in danger of being shot, for the British force had by then withdrawn outside the range of their firelocks. Cruger affirmed her affidavit when she was 83 with only one last surviving witness who could contradict her.
Historian William Hintzen’s 1990’s research[63] confirmed that the descendants of Molly Scott had always claimed that Elizabeth braved the run that enabled the defenders to defend the fort in the final assault. Molly Scott’s daughter stated that her mother often told the story of Betsy Zane’s gunpowder run and of how it had saved the fort. That Molly gave few details except to say that musket balls kicked up dust which blew into Betty’s eyes, making it difficult to see where she was going. An explanation for the contradiction, stating that Molly Scott delivered the gunpowder, may be Cruger’s tentative memory, which had faded over the years, confusing previous attacks on the fort. Modern author Jared Lobdell, who presented Cruger’s testimony and affidavit in detail, admits speculation as to Cruger’s motive writing “…even if Mrs. Cruger is remembering with advantages…”[64]
Wooden Cannon Myth
Often included with the 1782 attack on Fort Henry is a fantastical description of Native Americans capturing powder and shot upon which they construct a wooden cannon. When finished, the cannon was fired upon the fort. It exploded and shattered, wounding and killing the ‘savages’ manning it. Though logs were propped up facing a fortification or troops to trick them to thinking they were facing real cannon, there are no instances where anyone actually tried to fire a wooden cannon. Research has conclusively determined the firing of a log cannon at Fort Henry to be a myth.
It was first recorded in Withers’ 1831 Historical Journal.[65] He basically wrote that on the 12th, a boat arrived Wheeling from Fort Pitt heading to the Falls of the Ohio. It carried powder and cannon shot for use of troops stationed at the falls. The man in charge was wounded, but reached the fort. The natives supposedly procured a log with its center hollowed out to the size of the boat’s cannon balls. They bound the log closely with chains procured from a shop ‘hard’ by. They charged it heavily and pointed it toward the fort “When the match was applied, a dreadful explosion ensued. Their cannon burst; — its slivers flew in every direction; and instead of being the cause of ruin to the fort, was the source of injury only to themselves. Several were killed, many wounded, and all, dismayed by the event. Recovering from the shock, they presently returned with redoubled animation to the charge. Furious from disappointment, exasperated with the unforseen yet fatal result, they pressed to the assault with the blindness of phrensy. Still they were received with a fire so constant and deadly, that they were again forced to retire; and most opportunely for the garrison.”
Generations of racism and white ignorance portrayed the Native American as a nescient savage. This bias that tarnished their intellect, dismissing them as near mindless children, allowed the story of warriors fashioning a wooden cannon to be accepted by white narratives over the centuries.[66] Colonel Bradt, who led the 1782 attack on Fort Henry, and his native allies, many from the British Fort Detroit region, were all too familiar with artillery and its proper use. Many had joined British troops and Loyalist Rangers on many expeditions and raids in which field artillery was used. Nothing even remotely would substantiate their attempt to fire a hastily constructed wooden cannon.
Fort Henry & Zane Grey
The Treaty of Paris was drafted in November, 1782, ending the American Revolution. Word was received in America during the spring of 1783; the document was formerly signed on September 3, 1783. Though the 1782 assault on Fort Henry has been called the last land battle of the American Revolution, some argue the last major action occurred at Cedar Bridge, New Jersey, December 27, 1782. Fort Fincastle and later Fort Henry, had an active lifespan of about nine years. Constructed in July of 1774, it was the site of at least four major attacks before it faded from history sometime in 1783. Although parts of the fort were still standing as late as 1808, the site had been abandoned since 1782 and stores were no longer kept there but in the Zane blockhouse. The area became a pasture, known as “Zane’s Reserve,” and was opened for building several years later.
Zane Grey, prolific western author of ‘cowboy and Indian’ fiction, was a relative of Betty. He wrote his first book, Betty Zane, published in 1903, describing Betty’s run for ammunition. Two more books of a trilogy soon followed based on his ancestors who pioneered the Ohio Valley in the 1700’s.
If you would like to read more about Extraordinary Women during the American Revolution and the fight along the Frontier, we recommend the following books:
Ages 12 +
Of Similar Interest on Revolutionary War Journal
Reference
Anderson, Timothy & Schoen, Brian. Settling Ohio, First Peoples and Beyond. 2023: Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio.
Howells, William. Stories of Ohio. 1897: American Book Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. Reprinted and edited by Stephen Badgley as The Story of Early Ohio: Indians, Frontiersmen, Pioneers, Statesmen, and War. 2014: Published in Create Space by Stephen Badgley.
City of Wheeling Brochure. Undated c. 1937. Published by the Ohio Valley Board of Trade.
Ellet, Elizabeth. The Women of the American Revolution. Vol. II. 1848: Baker and Scribner, New York, NY.
Estes, Lindley. Sept. 16, 2025. “Betty Zane’s legend endures in Virginia and its surrounding states.” Cardinal News, Serving Southwest and Southside Virginia.
Klein, Richard S. & Cooper, Alan H. “The Fort Henry Story.” Extensive research on Fort Henry originally published by the Fort Henry Bicentennial Committee, 1982. Online posting by the Ohio County Public Library.
Kling, Stephen. The American Revolutionary War in the West. 2020: THGC Publishing, St. Louis, MI.
Lobdell, Jared. Indian Warfare in Western Pennsylvania and North West Virginia at the Time of the American Revolution. 1992: 2006: Heritage Books, Westminster, Maryland.
Lyon, Eilene. “The Trailblazer.” July 2020 (Week 31; #52 Ancestors): Myricopia
McMillan, Janice & Carr, Rebecca. “Adventures of the Zane Family: Jonathan Zane.” October 26, 2024. Muskingum County History.
Nicodemus, Earl. “The Mostly True Story of Betsy Zane.” Feb. 7, 2016: Weelunk
Sanderlin, Walter S. “A Study of the History of the Potomac River Valley.” 1967: Published by the Dept. of Interior, National Park Service.
Sterner, Eric. “Betty Zane and the Siege of Fort Henry, September 1782.” All Things Liberty. Jan. 14, 2020.
“Story of Myeerah.” Myeerah LLC of Newport, Rhode Island.
William Hintzen, “Betty Zane, Lydia Boggs, and Molly Scott: The Gunpowder Exploits at Fort Henry,” West Virginia History (West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, 1996), 95-109.
Withers, Alexander Scott Withers. Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites and Lyman Copeland Draper. Chronicles of Border Warfare or, A History of the Settlement by the White of North Western Virginia… 1831, reprinted 1903: The Robert Clark Company, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Endnotes
[1] Most accounts give July 19, 1776 as Betty Zane’s birthdate. Confusing, for her listed mother, Elizabeth Ann Nolan Zane, is recorded to have died in 1761, four years earlier. If that is true, then who was Betty’s mother? History does not record that her father, William, had remarried. Was she fathered out of wed-lock? Often, counties did not record the mother of children born out of wedlock. Or is the 1759 date accurate that some sources give, and her mother was Elizabeth Ann Zane. Also, could Elizabeth Ann Zane’s death be recorded incorrectly, and she was still alive in 1765 to give birth to Betty Zane?
[2] Early in the French and Indian War, after Braddock’s Defeat, July 9, 1755, the South Branch of the Potomac settlers experienced repeated attacks by Native Americans. Two battles between settlers and natives were fought nearby the Zane’s residence in Moorefield; The Battle of the Trough, March or April 1756, and the Battle of Great Cacapon, April 18, 1756.
[3] Isaac (White Eagle) returned to civilization in 1771, aged 18. He later returned to the Wydots in 1777, and at age 24, he married 19 year old Myeerah (Walk in the Water and White Crane to trappers and settlers) abducted French/Canadian daughter of Chief Tarhe (Craine). Later, Tarhe gifted Isaac his village on the Mad River, which became known as Zanetown, now Zansfield, Ohio. Isaac established the Old Forge Farm at the town’s site. Isaac and Myeerah Zane played crucial roles as liaisons between Native Americans and Americans, helping both cultures understand and cooperate with each other. They died at Zanesfield; Isaac on May 6, 1816 and Myeerah on August 23, 1823 (some sources give Feb, 1816).
[4] Silas Zane, the oldest son, was killed by Native Americans in 1785 at the age of 41 while fishing the Scioto River. His canoe was found, but not his body.
[5] The Royal Proclamation of 1773 established a boundary along the Appalachian Mountains that restricted colonial settlements westward. It was issued by King George III after the Treaty of Paris 1763 negotiations that ended the Seven Years War, French & Indian war in colonial America. This would anger colonists eager for expansion west. Ultimately leading to violence between Native Americans and settlers and fueling revolutionary sentiment.
[6] The settlement was generally called Wheeling after the creek that ran through the town and into the Ohio. It is believed the name Wheeling was derived from the Lenape word ‘weeling’ for head. Tradition and lore claimed Wheeling Creek was called such by the 1740’s after Native Americans severed the head of a white explorer and placed his head on a stake near the creek, warning against white settlement. There is no evidence when and why the h was added to the word. The oldest record of the name Wheeling Creek is on the Lewis Evans’ mop published in London in 1755.
[7] Martins Ferry was named for Absalom Martin, the first to purchase land legally in Wheeling and the first to hold a license to run a ferry across the Ohio River, granted in 1789.
[8] Some sources state that the Zane brothers hated and killed all Native Americans they encountered. The Zane brothers had skirmished with natives, Jonathan once having shot and killed five native raiders while they were swimming the Ohio River. However, evidence indicates that amongst the Zane family, friendships with local tribes developed to avoid unnecessary confrontations. Local warriors often visited the Zane homes, with whom they frequently hunted and fished.
[9] A letter composed in Detroit on Dec. 4, 1775 wrote of the Virginian settler’s savagery: “The Virginians are haughty, violent, and bloody. The savages have a high opinion of them as warriors, but are jealous of their encroachments and very suspicious of their faith in treaties . . . In the inroads of the Virginians upon the savages, the former have plundered burnt and murdered without mercy.” Also: “The inhabitants appear many of them, to be a wild ungovernable little less savage than their tawny neighbors race by similar barbarities have in fact provoked them to revenge.” Klein & Cooper.
[10] Some accounts state that George Rogers Clark was involved in constructing the fort. Clark only states that he passed through Wheeling, no mentioning the fort. Others have confused the two Clarks – stating it was built by George Rogers Clark of the Lewis and Clark fame; confusing the two Clarks in which it was William Clark who accompanied Meriwether Lewis on their famed trek to the Pacific.
[11] Some accounts state the palisades were 8 feet high.
[12] Withers Journal claimed there were several cabins. Klein & Cooper’s research of archeological digs states that between barracks and pen and buildings for horses and supplies, additional cabins would have been impossible.
[13] Swivel guns were principally used on the deck of sailing ships and in land forts. Weighing about 250 pounds and easily managed by two men, it’s arc (or swivel hence its name) allowed it cover wide angles of defense. It was often loaded with led and metal buckshot. Basically, a large shotgun, it was highly effective in showering destruction upon intruders trying to board a vessel, or against a land assault against a fort or fortification. A downside that effected a defense that had limited supplies of powder, it used a lot of gunpowder when fired.
[14] Klein & Cooper.
[15] Ellet.
[16] Some accounts state that the log house situated near the fort that later was transformed into a blockhouse was not owned by Ebenezer, buy by his older brother Silas.
[17] Wither’s Journal gives the distance from the fort as 40 yards, pg. 346.
[18] The Treaty of Camp Charlotte was signed on October 19, 1774, ending Lord Dunmore’s War. The Shawnee and other allied tribes agreed to surrender their hunting rights south of the Ohio and to cease attacks upon travelers on the Ohio River. The Ohio, running nearly north–south at its eastern end, was recognized as the boundary between the Indigenous lands of the Ohio Country to the west, and the British colonies to the east; in essence, opening Kentucky for settlement.
[19] British allied tribes included: North – Iroquois Confederacy (minus Oneida who allied with rebels) often led by Joseph Brandt (Thayendanegea); Mid-Colonies and Ohio Valley – Chickasaws, Lenape (Delaware) and Great Lakes area that included Ojibwa, Potawatomi, Sauk, Mingo, and Shawnee; South – Cherokee and Creek.
[20] Loyalist Rangers were specialized British provincial units during the American Revolution, known for guerrilla warfare tactics, reconnaissance, and raids. They often wore green uniforms, operated on the fringes of regular forces, used skills like tracking and maneuver warfare, and were composed of colonists loyal to the Crown. Butler’s Rangers were among the most famous – often accused of staging massacres against frontier settlements rebellious to the crown.
[21] Colonel Shepard wrote to General Hand on August 28th: “We have not seen any sign of the Indians since I wrote you last and we keep out scouts and spies every day . . . Captain Shannon’s men seemed uneasy to go home and as I saw no appearance of the Indians I let them go.“ Klein & Cooper.
[22] Some accounts give this date as September 21st.
[23] Major Samuel McCulloch was a famed ‘Indian Fighter,’ praised by white settlers and hated by Native Americans. Two of his sisters, Elizabeth and Katharine married into the Zane family; Ebenezer and Silas. McCulloch was killed by Native Americans on July 30, 1782, in retribution for his brother John’s participation in the brutal slaughter of peaceful Moravian Christian Natives. “John McColloch had killed a great chief, and now we had killed a greater one of the white man:” attributed to Native American.
[24] Foreman Massacre, September 27, 1777. Forty-two militiamen under Captain William Foreman sortied from the fort to investigate smoke and possible attack on a settlement. Foreman was warned of a possible ambush, but ignored the advice by six or seven men who split off from the main body to go a different route back to the fort. Foreman was attacked at was called the narrows, resulting in himself and 27 men killed. Later, militiamen from the fort buried the men in a mass grave at was called Grave Creek.
[25] Klein & Cooper.
[26] Some sources state that Ebenezer rebuilt his cabin after the 1781 raid, but if that is correct, then he would have had to rebuild his cabin twice as it was destroyed in the 1777 raid.
[27] A blockhouse has narrow portals from which one can level their muskets and rifles to shoot attackers. It has an upper story that extends out and overhangs the lower story. The overhang provides an elevated shooting platform. In addition, the thick planking in the floor of the overhang is constructed so that the defenders can shoot through the cracks between the planks to defend against anyone attempting to get near the cabin to set it afire. If need be, the planks could be removed for greater accuracy in firing.
[28] Forty yards according to Withers Journal.
[29] First constructed the year Ebenezer Zane founded the settlement at Wheeling,
[30] The peach orchard would play a key role in hiding the rotted wood in the western wall from 1782 attackers as the foliage blocked any weaknesses.
[31] West Liberty, seven miles north of Wheeling, became the first county seat of Ohio County, created by on act of the Virginia Legislature in October, 1778.
[32] Nicodemus.
[33] The Moravian Massacre, also the Gnadenhutten Massacre, was a horrific atrocity committed during the American Revolution. Pennsylvania militiamen, led by Colonel David Williamson, murdered 96 unarmed, peaceful Christian Native Americans (mostly Lenape and Mohican nearly 70 of whom where women and children) on March 8, 1782, in Gnadenhütten, Ohio Country. The victims were Native Americans who had converted to Christianity under the Moravian Church and practiced pacifism, remaining neutral during the war. They were put into two small buildings where they bludgeoned to death with clubs and metal rods before scalped. Williamson tried to do the same to a Moravian Village at Sandusky, but there were prewarned and escaped. Heading back to Pennsylvania, Williamson slaughtered 30 more, mainly women and children; Lenape who were allied to America. None of the Pennsylvanian settlers who committed the horrendous deed were punished – in fact – they were portrayed as heroes. Williamson would be second in command of the Crawford Raid, two months later. He escaped capture and subsequently did not suffer torture and death as others of the expedition. After the war, the murderer became a sheriff. With the blood of so many innocents on his hands, he led a full life, but died in poverty – perhaps some justice for an evil soul.
[34] Labeled the Crawford Expedition, from May 25 – June 12, 1782, Continental Army officer Colonel William Crawford led 500 Pennsylvania settlers on a punitive raid against Native American towns along the Sandusky River in the Ohio Valley. They were eventually surrounded by a large force of Native Americans and Loyalist Rangers (led by Simon Girty), with reinforcements from Detroit. After a series of battles, the American retreat became a rout with over 70 killed. The Native American and Loyalist loss was six killed. Those settlers captured, including Crawford, were executed for the brutal murder of Moravian Native Americans by Pennsylvania settlers.
[35] Wyandot, Shawnee, Mingo, Tawaa, Pottawatomie, Delaware – others may have included additional Iroquois.
[36] Battle of Blue Licks, Aug. 19, 1782; three hundred warriors and a band of Butler’s Loyalist Rangers (led by Capt. William Caldwell and Simon Girty) set an ambush for around 200 Kentucky settlers at Licking Creek; famed pioneer Daniel Boone was present. The settlers rushed to attack and were soundly driven back with huge casualties; 77 settlers were killed to 11 Native Americans and Rangers. Boone’s 23-year-old son Israel was shot through the neck and killed; Boone escaped on horse.
[37] Captain Andrew Bradt was a nephew to Colonel John Butler who led a company in Butler’s Rangers who participated in several massacres including Cherry Valley and the Wyoming attacks.
[38] Simon Girty was with the Loyalist/Native American force in Kentucky during the 1782 attack on Fort Henry. George Girty was the only Girty brother who had deserted from the American Army to join his brothers along the frontier fighting with Native Americans.
[39] John Lynn was a wilderness scout who throughout the American Revolution, warned settlers of various war parties approaching their settlements. He was with Captain John Foreman during the ‘Foreman Massacre,’ in which Lynn warned of a possible ambush and advised Foreman take a differ route along a ridge. Foreman ignored Lynn’s advice and was subsequently soundly defeated with him, and most of his command, killed.
[40] Sources disagree as to the number of those gathered within the fort; anywhere from 40 men to an equal number of women and children. Most accounts agree that the number of men was closer to 20 with around 40 women and children. Perhaps this mix up occurs from some accounts mixing up the 1777 assault on Fort Henry, with the 1782 attack; including most recent articles on the internet – like one of google AI’s favorites,’ RevolutionaryWar.us
[41] There is no precise record of where Capt. Boggs rode for reinforcements. Some sources say nearby forts – which would have been Fort Pitt and Fort McIntosh, both around 60 miles northeast. Perhaps while warning more distant settlements, Boggs hoped to return with a substantial number of militiamen.
[42] Lydia Boggs, 1766-1867 lived to be part of both the American Revolution and the Civil War. She always affirmed that Betty ran to the blockhouse for powder during the 1782 attack on Fort Henry. She soon after the attack married Moses Shepard and later Daniel Cruger after Moses died in 1832. She and Moses had a wealthy plantation at Wheeling which hosted many war dignitaries such as Lafayette. At age 101 she was described as one with full wits and good eyesight.
[43] Some accounts state that the blockhouse was owned by Silas Zane. These state that Silas was in the blockhouse and not the fort at the time of the attack; however, most primary sources place Silas in command of the fort – the blockhouse being owned by Ebenezer.
[44] Some accounts list an eighth, Miss McCulloch. Major Samuel McCulloch had two sisters, Elizabeth who married Ebenezer and who was present in the blockhouse, and Katharine, who married Silas Zane in 1780. Katharine McCulloch Zane would have been in the fort with her husband. Therefore, there was no Miss McCulloch in the blockhouse.
[45] Elizabeth McCulloch Zane, 1748-1814, was the sister to famed pioneer and ‘Indian Fighter’ Major Samuel McCulloch. Major McCulloch’s other sister Katharine married into the Zane family (Silas, 1780) after her first husband died. She would remarry a third time after Silas was killed by Native Americans in 1785.
[46] Accounts varied how the fort refused; declined, taunted their attackers, fired on the flag (Withers states they fired on the flag, pg. 357). Lydia Boggs recalled “…all the people in the Fort raised a defiant yell…ordered to do so, throwing up hats, caps, brooms, sticks, and everything in their reach.” Most accounts were given years later when details between the three different attacks on the fort was often jumbled.
[47] Withers’ 1831 Journal that recollected settlers’ accounts during this period (often later cited for inaccuracies) recorded that the two attacks against the fort occurred right after the demand to surrender was refused and they halted with nightfall, pg. 357. Further research places the two attacks around or after midnight on the 11th.
[48] John Ford’s classic 1939 movie that accounted the drama during the Mohawk Valley Fort Stanwix Siege, Aug. 2 – 22, 1777 by British combined forces of Native Americans, Loyalist Rangers, and a company of redcoats, all under Colonel Barry St. Leger.
[49] The swivel gun would fire a total of 19 times during the attacks.
[50] Withers pg. 357.
[51] Ebenezer in a letter Zane to Washington Irvine, Sept. 17, 1782. Washington-Irvine Correspondence, pg. 398.
[52] The quote is from Chronicles of Border Warfare… by Alexander Scott Withers and edited by Lyman Draper and Reuben Gold Thwaites. Another quote attested to Betty takes the cake for fluff – “Tis better a maid than a man should die.” Even by the mid-1700’s the use of ‘tis’ was already antiquated. Back to Withers’, it was first published in 1831 and edited and republished in 1912. Withers based his narrative on recorded faded memories of those who witnessed major frontier events. There are many errors in his accounts, though the text has remained very useful to historians as a base for research.
[53] Bessie Zane was Ebenezer’s wife.
[54] Later romanticized accounts described holes in her clothing from passing bullets, but no primary source recalled this.
[55] Some accounts state the affair with Captain van Swearingen and pregnancy occurred the year after Betty’s run – 1784. When Miriam Catherine Zane was born about 1784, in Ohio, Virginia, her father, Swearingen, was 43 and her mother, Elizabeth Zane, was 26 – this is based on some accounts that Betty was born in 1759.
[56] Nicodemus.
[57] Some accounts state Betty and Jacob had a third child together.
[58] Those sources that list Betty’s birth as 1759, since she could not be born in 1765 as her mother died in 1761, her age would have been 64. A few sources state she died five years later in 1728, but without evidence.
[59] Also referred to as the Walnut Grove Pioneer Cemetery – the land sold by the aged Minerva Zane (Betty’s daughter) to the town in in 1866 for $100.
[60] Speculate that some sources mistakenly state Betty died in 1828 because the monument at her grave was dedicated in 1928 – with some publicity listing it as the 100th anniversary of her death.
[61] Cruger’s statement to historian Lyman Draper and her affidavit are available in Jared Lobdell’s edition of Indian Warfare in Western Pennsylvania, 1992, Cruger describes the Wheeling region during and after the war on pp. 105 – 130. The 1782 attack is on pg. 115 and her affidavit to Draper is on page 153.
[62] Speculation why some sources reverse Betty’s run – stating she took off from Zane’ blockhouse to the fort.
[63] Hintzen, “Betty Zane, Lydia Boggs, and Molly Scott: The Gunpowder Exploits at Fort Henry,” 95-109; Hintzen, Border Wars of the Upper Ohio Valley (1769-1794), 345-358. Sterner’s “Betty Zane and the Siege of Fort Henry…” Journal of the American Revolution, Jan. 14, 2020.
[64] Lobdell, pg. 20.
[65] Withers, pp 357 – 358.
[66] Right until the 1950’s and beyond, Native Americans were portrayed as ignorant of ‘white man’s miracles.’ In the popular Adventures of Superman’ episode “The Test of a Warrior,” newspaper reporter Jimmy Olsen, friend of Superman, must temporarily take the place of a great chief as part of a tribal ceremony. To convince the tribe, whose members are portrayed with biased stereotypes, that he is the great chief who can “call lightning,” Jimmy uses the flashbulbs of his camera. This causes the Native American characters to be amazed and fall for the ruse.