The Sandy Creek Expedition, also known as the Sandy Expedition or the Big Sandy Expedition,Andrew Cayton, Fredrika J. Teute, eds. Contact Points: American Frontiers from the Mohawk Valley to the Mississippi, 1750-1830. Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press, 2012. (not to be confused with the Big Sandy Expedition of 1861) was a 1756 campaign by Virginia Regiment soldiers and Cherokee warriors into modern-day West Virginia against the Shawnee, who were raiding the British colony of Virginia's frontier. The campaign set out in mid-February, 1756, and was immediately slowed by harsh weather and inadequate provisions. With morale failing, the expedition was forced to turn back in mid-March without encountering the enemy.
The expedition was the first allied military campaign between the British and the Cherokees against the French and their allied Native Americans,Douglas McClure Wood, "I Have Now Made a Path to Virginia": Outacite Ostenaco and the Cherokee-Virginia Alliance in the French and Indian War," West Virginia History, New Series, Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 2008, pp. 31-60. West Virginia University Press and Virginia's only military offensive taking place during the French and Indian War.
Background The campaign was initiated in early 1756 by Virginia's Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie in response to Indian raids on settlements in the New River, Greenbrier River, and Tygart River valleys,Alexander Scott Withers, Chronicles of Border Warfare, A History of the Settlement by the Whites, of North-Western Virginia, and of the Indian Wars and Massacres in that section of the State, Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Company, 1895 during which about 70 settlers were killed, wounded, or captured.Lyman C. Draper, "The expedition of the Virginians against the Shawanoe Indians, 1756," Virginia Historical Register and Literary Companion, Vol. V, Number II. Richmond: McFarlane & Fergusson, April 1852 Farms and communities were abandoned as survivors retreated east into the Shenandoah Valley. In June, 1755, Shawnee warriors captured Captain Samuel Stalnaker at his homestead on the Holston River, (near present-day Chilhowie, Virginia), and killed his wife and son."Captain Samuel Stalnaker, Colonial Soldier and Early Pioneer," excerpted from Leo Stalnaker, Captain Samuel Stalnaker, Colonial Soldier and Early Pioneer and Some of His Descendants, 1938. In July, Mary Draper Ingles and her children were captured during the Draper's Meadow Massacre, (near present-day Blacksburg, Virginia). Both Ingles and Stalnaker later escaped captivity and walked hundreds of miles to return home.William Henry Foote, Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical, Vol. 2; William S. Martien, 1855. After arriving home in November, 1755, Mary Draper Ingles informed her husband William Ingles of the general location and layout of Lower Shawneetown, where she had lived as a captive for about three weeks."The Virginia Ranger Companies, 1755-1763," History Reconsidered William Ingles may have suggested to Governor Dinwiddie the idea for an attack on this large Native American community, which was the main Shawnee village at the confluence of the Ohio River and the Scioto River.Johnston, David Emmons. A History of Middle New River Settlements And Contiguous Territory, chapter 2. Huntington: Standard Printing & Publishing Co., 1906 Stalnaker was also held at Lower Shawneetown, where Mary Ingles met him and other captives taken in settlement raids.Contemporary newspaper account of Mary Ingles' escape in the New York Mercury, 26 January 1756, p. 3, col. 1; in Early Documents Relating to Mary Ingles and the Escape from Big Bone Lick, transcribed by James Duvall, Boone County Public Library, Burlington, KY 2008 He escaped in May, 1756.
In retaliation against the Shawnee raids, Dinwiddie sent four companies of Virginia Rangers (each consisting of forty men) from Augusta and Hanover counties,Joseph Waddell, Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871, Virginia Historical Society. Second Edition. Staunton, VA: C. Russell Caldwell, 1902. four smaller volunteer companies, and 130 Cherokee warriors to attack Lower Shawneetown. Colonel George Washington (then in command of the Virginia Regiment) selected Major Andrew Lewis to lead the expedition.Pendleton, William Cecil, "Chapter V: The Sandy Expedition," in History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia: 1748-1920. W. C. Hill printing Company, 1920.
Preston's Rangers In 1755, Governor Dinwiddie had ordered the formation of several "ranging companies" to protect settlements from attacks by Native tribes allied with the French, to garrison forts and reinforce areas expecting attack. Captain William Preston established one of the first of these Virginia Rangers companies. In September, 1755, Dinwiddie wrote to him: "I approve of Y'r Intentions to range the Woods w'th Detachments from three Compa's, and by no means continue in one Place, but proceed wherever You think the Indians may come to annoy our back settlem'ts, and I expect a Number of the Cherokees will be with You this Winter." The only offensive action of the Virginia Rangers during the French and Indian War was the Sandy Creek Expedition."Captain William Preston's Company of Rangers," Culpeper Minute Battalion, 2013
Role of the Cherokees Cherokee leaders had recently been trying to improve trade relations with the Virginia colonial government, and had petitioned Governor Dinwiddie for some assistance in the long-delayed construction of a fort in South Carolina, to protect Cherokee communities from raids by French-allied Shawnee and Catawba Indians. Dinwiddie offered to finance the construction of a fort in eastern Tennessee, and in return the Cherokees sent 130 warriors to Fort Frederick to support the Sandy Creek Expedition.
On 14 December, 1755, the governor wrote to Colonel Washington: "The Cherokees have taken up the Hatchet against the French & Shawnesse, & have sent 130 of their Warriors to New River, & propose to march immediately to attack, & cut off the Shawnesse, in their Towns. I design they shall be join'd with three Companies of Rangers, & Capt. Hogg's Company, & I propose Colo. Stephens or Majr. Lewis to be the Commander of the Party on this Expedition.""To George Washington from Robert Dinwiddie, 14 December 1755," Founders Online, National Archives. Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 2, 14 August 1755 – 15 April 1756, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983, pp. 213–216.
The Cherokee warriors were under the joint leadership of Captain Richard Pearis and Chief Outacite Ostenaco. Dinwiddie had agreed to supply them with guns and ammunition, but could only obtain older, heavier rifles for the Cherokees, writing on 15 January, 1756: "I have sent 150 Small Arms, Powder and Shott...I know they are too heavy but I have desired they may have the lightest [that] are among our people..."Brock, R. A., Dinwiddie, R. The official records of Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1751-1758. Richmond, Va.: The Society.
The Cherokees offered to train Virginian soldiers in Indian-style warfare, which favored shooting from behind cover, using stealth and surprise, rather than firing in volleys from assembled ranks. Washington wanted Virginian troops to adopt these tactics,George Washington, "Remarks, 1787–1788," Founders Online, National Archives. Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, vol. 5, 1 February 1787 – 31 December 1787, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997, pp. 515–526. and noted, "...five hundred Indians have it more in their power to annoy the Inhabitants, than ten times their number of Regulars. For, besides the advantageous way they have of fighting in the Woods, their cunning and craft are not to be equalled; neither their activity and indefatigable Sufferings: They prowl about like Wolves; and like them, do their mischief by Stealth...It is in their power to be of infinite use to us; and without Indians, we shall never be able to cope with those cruel Foes to our Country...""From George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 7 April 1756," Founders Online, National Archives, Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 2, 14 August 1755 – 15 April 1756, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983, pp. 332–336.
On 13 January, 1756, Washington wrote to Dinwiddie: "I have given all necessary orders for training the Men to a proper use of their Arms, and the method of Ind'n Fighting, and hope in a little time to make them expert."Doug Wood, "Cherokees At The Potomac Forts," The Fort Edwards Web Page, The Fort Edwards Foundation of Capon Bridge, West Virginia, 2008George Washington, David Maydole Matteson, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931 Dinwiddie approved, writing to Washington on 23 January: "You have done very right in ordering the Men to be train'd in the [Indian] Method of fighting...""From George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 13 January 1756," Founders Online, National Archives. Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 2, 14 August 1755 – 15 April 1756, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983, pp. 278–281. The Virginians also needed to learn woodcraft and the art of tracking enemies through the wilderness. The son of the Cherokee chief Conocotocko I commented to Dinwiddie: "Our brothers [the Virginians] fight very strong, but can't follow an Indian by the Foot as we can."
Timing and route Major Lewis decided not to use the shorter and easier route to Lower Shawneetown, which would have been along the New River to the Kanawha River, because he was afraid the Shawnee would be more likely to learn about the expedition. Instead, he chose a less-traveled route through uninhabited mountains, following a war trail along "Sandy Creek," (now known as the Dry Fork), then following the Tug Fork to the Big Sandy River that forms the West Virginia-Kentucky border today. The expedition passed through present-day McDowell County and Mingo County. The decision to launch the expedition in February was based on the assumption that the Big Sandy would be swollen by snowmelt, making it easier and faster to descend by canoe. Also, Washington apparently had received intelligence indicating that many of Lower Shawneetown's warriors had "removed up the River, into the Neighbourhood of [Fort] Duquesne," leaving the town temporarily defenseless.
Expedition On 6 February, 1756, Dinwiddie wrote to Lewis: "The distance by Evans' mapThe "Evans-Pownall" map of eastern North America, circa 1755 is not two hundred miles to the Upper Towns of the Shawnees, however, at once begin your march."
On 9 February, the Virginians assembled at Fort Prince George, near Roanoke, Virginia and marched to meet the Cherokees at the newly built Fort Frederick on the New River. They brought with them over two thousand pounds of dried beef, intended as provisions for the campaign. Among the troops was Lieutenant William Ingles, husband of Mary Draper Ingles, and Captain William Preston, both survivors of the Draper's Meadow Massacre. On 19 February the full contingent of 340 men and 27 pack horses set out, crossing over the north fork of the Holston River and camping on 23 February at Burke's Garden.