The American Revolution in Western Pennsylvania: Capt. John Neville and his Independent Company take Possession of Fort Pitt and Preparations for a Conference with the Ohio Country Nations

On August 7th 1775, the Third Virginia Convention, being conducted in Richmond, ordered Captain John Neville to march his independent company of troops from Winchester, Virginia to take control of Fort Pitt at the Forks of the Ohio:

“Resolved, That John Nevill be directed to march with his company of one hundred men and take possession of Fort Pitt, and that the said company be in the pay of this colony from the time of their marching”

Draft resolution directing John Nevill to take command of Fort Pitt, Aug 7, 1775
Library of Virginia

The Third Virginia Convention was one of five revolutionary conventions conducted between August 1, 1774, and July 5, 1776 to govern Virginia following dissolution of the House of Burgesses in June 1774 by Virginia’s Royal Governor, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore. A year later on June 8th 1775, Lord Dunmore would flee the Governor’s Palace at Williamsburg, seeking refuge on a British warship in nearby York River.

John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore (1765)
National Galleries of Scotland

Fort Pitt previously was occupied by Virginia militia since the onset of Dunmore’s War in 1774; however, the garrison was disbanded by Dr. John Connolly, Lord Dunmore’s “Captain Commandant of the Militia of Pittsburgh and its Dependencies,” when Connolly fled local patriots in July 1775 to rendezvous with Dunmore.

John Neville had served under George Washington in the ill-fated Braddock expedition in 1755 during the French and Indian War and also led Virginia militia during Dunmore’s War in 1774. Neville resided in Winchester, Virginia, however, he also owned land near Fort Pitt. He was elected to the Second Virginia Convention as a representative from the West Augusta District (that region of southwestern Pennsylvania then claimed by Virginia), however, due to an illness he was unable to attend. In 1776, Neville was commissioned a Lt. Colonel in the Continental Army and promoted to Colonel in 1777, eventually receiving a brevet promotion to brigadier general. He later served as an Inspector of Revenue in the Pittsburgh area during the Whiskey Rebellion.

A silhouette of John Neville
Wikimedia Commons

Captain Neville and his Independent company from Winchester, Virginia arrived at Fort Pitt on September 11th 1775. Arthur St. Clair in a letter to Governor Penn on September 15th noted: “About one hundred men marched here from Winchester, and took possession of the Fort on the 11th.” They likely traveled along the Braddock Road, built twenty years earlier, passing through Cumberland, Maryland and fording the Youghiogheny River at Stewart’s Crossing (present day Connellsville PA).

Likely route taken by Neville and his company from Winchester to Pittsburgh was Braddock's Road, which was built in 1755 as part of the ill-fated British expedition to capture French Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War.

Neville’s company was dispatched to protect the inhabitants at the Forks of the Ohio as well as reinforce Virginia’s claim to the region. They also would support Virginia commissioners organizing a conference at Fort Pitt with Native American nations of the Ohio country.

One of the commissioners, James Wood, had arrived at Fort Pitt on July 9th (the fort at that time had been renamed Fort Dunmore for the Royal Governor of Virginia, as part of Virginia’s claim to the region). He was one of six Virginia Commissioners newly appointed by the House of Burgesses to negotiate with Native American nations living in the Ohio country, including the Shawnee, Delaware, Wyandot, and Seneca. Wood was on his way to invite leaders of the Ohio nations to meet with the Virginia Commissioners at Fort Pitt later that year in September.

James Wood was a member of the House of Burgesses from the town of Winchester in Frederick County and had served as a captain of Virginia troops in Dunmore’s War, in which he fought against Shawnee warriors at the Battle of Point Pleasant in October 1774. Wood also served as a Colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolution and after the war continued in politics, eventually being elected Governor of Virginia and serving from 1796 to 1799.

James Wood (1798)
Location of portrait unknown,
Original photograph of portrait in archives at the Library of Virginia

James Wood set-out from Fort Pitt on July 18th 1775 and returned on August 11th 1775, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. During his 24 days of travel throughout the Ohio country, Wood visited a number of towns including Goschachgunk, the chief town of the Delaware (present day Coshocton, OH), the Wyandot towns of Upper Sandusky (present day Upper Sandusky, OH), where he met with representatives of the Wyandot and Ottawa, and the Shawnee settlements of the Scioto Valley (present day Chillicothe and Circleville OH). He also visited the Lower Moravian Town known as Gnadenhutten (present day Gnadenhutten, OH), where he attended Sunday church services in which the minister of the German Moravian Sect “prayed in the Delaware Language, Preached in the English and sung Psalms in the German in which the Indians Joined...”

Depiction of a Shawnee village showing small, round dwellings known as wigwams and larger longhouse structures used for council meetings or communal living
Dann Woeller the Food Etymologist Blog

By September 10th, the date originally scheduled for the conference to begin, representatives of the Ohio nations had not yet arrived at Fort Pitt, however, reports indicated they were on the way. On September 12th, the Virginia commissioners dispatched John Gibson, a well-respected fur trader at Fort Pitt and member of the West Augusta Committee, along with Allaniwisica, a son of the Shawnee chief Hokoleskwa aka Cornstalk, with a message for the representatives encouraging them to hasten their travel to Fort Pitt.

Richard Butler, agent for the Middle Indian Department of the Continental Congress, was also traveling through the Ohio country at that time on a mission similar to Wood’s - inviting the Ohio nations to confer with Congressional commissioners in a concurrent meeting at Fort Pitt. Butler had departed on August 22nd and would return on September 20th accompanied by the Mingo-Seneca leader (Kiasota or Guyasuta). The Shawnee delegation arrived soon after and representatives from all of the Ohio nations were at Fort Pitt by the first week in October when the conference commenced.