Transcript
Lewis reached the Ohio in early October and encamped on a narrow tip of land called Point Pleasant.
“We looked on ourselves in a safe possession of a fine encampment and thought ourselves a terror to all the Indian tribes on the Ohio.” Captain William Ingles.
On the night of October 9th, one thousand Indian warriors and three whites, who had been raised with Shawnees, crossed the Ohio a few miles above Point Pleasant. In the darkness, they formed a circle around Lewis’s camp.
Allan Eckert: Just before dawn the woods began filling up with a fog rising from the Ohio River. Andrew Lewis was preparing to cross the Ohio River that day and he had given orders that no one was to leave the camp, but two men went out to hunt turkey early in the morning. They got about a mile away from the main campground, and the fog parted momentarily and suddenly here they saw before them, not turkeys but a vast line of Indians. One of the men was shot. The survivor ran back and alerted the camp and the battle began.
This was a very terrible battle, very closely fought because of the fog so it became a hand-to-hand battle from the dawning of day until mid-afternoon.
“The enemy disputed the ground with the greatest obstinacy. Often running up to the very muzzles of our guns where they as often fell victim to their rage.”
Narrator: Despite heavy casualties, Lewis’s men held their ground. That evening, Cornstalk withdrew.
