ition, orders were issued
by Governor Dunmore for raising the requisite number of troops, and
for making other necessary preparations for the contemplated campaign;
the plan of which was concerted by the Governor, Gen. Lewis and
Colonel Charles Lewis (then a delegate from Augusta.) But as some time
must necessarily have elapsed before the consummation of the
preparations which were being made; and as much individual suffering
might result from the delays unavoidably incident to the raising,
equipping and [115] organizing a large body of troops, it was deemed
advisable to take some previous and immediate step to prevent the
invasion of exposed and defenceless portions of the country.--The best
plan for the accomplishment of this object was believed to be, the
sending of an advance army into the Indian country, of sufficient
strength to act offensively, before a confederacy could be formed of
the different tribes, and their combined forces be brought into the
field. A sense of the exposed situation of their towns in the
presence of an hostile army, requiring the entire strength of every
village for its defence, would, it was supposed, call home those
straggling parties of warriors, by which destruction is so certainly
dealt to the helpless and unprotected. In conformity with this part of
the plan of operations, four hundred men, to be detailed from the
militia west of the mountains, were ordered to assemble at Wheeling as
soon as practicable. And in the mean time, lest the surveyors and land
adventurers, who were then in Kentucky, might be discovered and fall a
prey to the savages, Daniel Boone was sent by the Governor to the
falls of Ohio, to conduct them home from thence, through the
wilderness; the only practicable road to safety, the Ohio river being
so effectually guarded as to preclude the hope of escaping up it.[13]

Early in June, the troops destined to make an incursion into the
Indian country, assembled at Wheeling, and being placed under the
command of Colonel Angus McDonald, descended the Ohio to the mouth of
Captina. Debarking, at this place, from their boats and canoes, they
took up their march to Wappatomica, an Indian town on the Muskingum.
The country through which the army had to pass, was one unbroken
forest, presenting many obstacles to its speedy advance, not the least
of which was the difficulty of proceeding directly to the point
proposed.[14] To obviate this, however, they were accompanied by three