Battle of Point Pleasant

Battle of Point Pleasant
Part of Dunmore's War
Monument to the battle in Point Pleasant
Date October 10, 1774 Location Present-day Point Pleasant, West Virginia 38°50′21″N 82°08′27″W / 38.8393°N 82.1408°W / 38.8393; -82.1408Coordinates: 38°50′21″N 82°08′27″W / 38.8393°N 82.1408°W / 38.8393; -82.1408 Result Virginian victory
Belligerents
Shawnee, Mingo	Virginia militia
Commanders and leaders
Cornstalk, Pukeshinwa † Blue Jacket	Andrew Lewis, Charles Lewis †, Thomas Buford †
Strength
300–500	1,000
Casualties and losses
at least 33 killed+ 8 DOW, unknown number wounded	ca. 75 killed, 140 wounded
Point Pleasant Battleground
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	SW corner of Main and 1st Sts., Point Pleasant, West Virginia
Area	5.3 acres (2.1 ha)
Built	1774
NRHP Reference #	70000656
Added to NRHP	January 26, 1970

ca. 75 killed, 140 wounded

The Battle of Point Pleasant — known as the Battle of Kanawha in some older accounts — was the only major action of Dunmore's War. It was fought on October 10, 1774, primarily between Virginia militia and Indians from the Shawnee and Mingo tribes. Along the Ohio River near modern Point Pleasant, West Virginia, Indians under the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk attacked Virginia militia under Colonel Andrew Lewis, hoping to halt Lewis's advance into the Ohio Valley. After a long and furious battle, Cornstalk retreated. After the battle, the Virginians, along with a second force led by Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, marched into the Ohio Valley and compelled Cornstalk to agree to a treaty, ending the war.

Colonel Andrew Lewis, in command of about 1,000 men, was part of a planned two-pronged Virginian invasion of the Ohio Valley. As Lewis's force made its way down the Kanawha River, guided by pioneering hunter/trapper Matthew Arbuckle, Sr., Lewis anticipated linking up with another force commanded by Lord Dunmore, who was marching west from Fort Pitt, then known as Fort Dunmore. Dunmore's plan was to march into the Ohio Valley and force the Indians to accept Ohio River boundary which had been negotiated with the Iroquois in the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix.

The Shawnees, however, had not been consulted in the treaty and many were not willing to surrender their lands south of the Ohio River without a fight. Officials of the British Indian Department, led by Sir William Johnson until his death in July 1774, worked to diplomatically isolate the Shawnees from other Indians. As a result, when the war began, the Shawnees had few allies other than some Mingos.