Bulltown was an important point in Washington's plan to establish water transportation to the West, and salt was made there as early as 1792. An attack by whites in 1772 on Captain Bull's Indian village there was among the causes of Dunmore's War. On October 13, 1863, a force of 400 Union troops under Captain W. H. Mattingly, entrenched on the hills to the northeast, repulsed an attack by Confederate forces under Colonel W. L. Jackson, who retreated after some loss into Pocahontas County.