Fort Henry

Planned by General George Rogers Clarke and constructed in 1774 by Wheeling settlers, Fort Henry withstood a number of sieges. The first major battle came during the Revolutionary War in September 1777, when the British led 300 Wyandot, Mingo, and Shawnee Indians against the settlement. Originally called Fort Fincastle, it was later renamed Fort Henry in honor of Patrick Henry. The fort stood on the hill in what is now the 1000 block of Main Street. In 1777, Major Samuel McColloch narrowly escaped an Indian assault by riding his horse off Wheeling Hill over a 300-foot cliff after leading his troops into the safety of the fort and being cut off by hostile Indians; he escaped that day but was caught and killed five years later in July 1782. The final attack on Fort Henry came in September 1782 and is recognized as the last battle of the Revolutionary War. During that siege, when gunpowder was running dangerously low, Betty Zane dashed to retrieve gunpowder stored in a building outside the fort, and her run saved Fort Henry and its inhabitants. Early residents of the Ohio Valley, the Mingo Indians were related to the Iroquois Indians, lived by hunting deer, buffalo, fox, wild turkeys, beaver, and bald eagles, and also traded with Europeans.

Wheeling, West Virginia · United States