[5] Shepherd to Hand, Sept. 15, 1777: "By the best judges here ... it is thought their numbers must have been not less than between two and three hundred." The Shepherd, Hand, Shane, and Doddridge MSS., in the library of the Wisconsin Historical Society, throw much light on this episode.--R. G. T.
[6] The Indians made their appearance on the night of August 31st--not September 1st, as in the text. The incident here related occurred at about sunrise of September 1st. Andrew Zane, young John Boyd, Samuel Tomlinson, and a negro, set out to hunt for the horses of Dr. James McMechen, because the latter wished that day to return to the older settlements, either on the Monongahela, or east of the mountains. Boyd was killed, but his companions escaped--Zane, by leaping from a cliff, the height of which local tradition places at seventy feet.--R. G. T.
[7] De Hass, in his _History of the Early Settlement and Indian Wars of West Virginia_,--a conscientious work, which depends, however, too closely on traditions,--says (p. 225), "out of the fourteen, but two escaped."--R. G. T.
[8] Among the survivors was Ogle who, like Mason, hid himself in the bushes until nightfall enabled him to return to the fort.--R. G. T.
[9] As a matter of fact, the Indians made no attack on the fort at this time, being content with the success of their ambuscade. After throwing up some rude earth-works and blinds, scalping the dead whites, killing all the live stock within reach, and setting fire to the outlying cabins, they retired across the Ohio in the night, and dispersed. Their loss was one killed and nine wounded; the whites lost fifteen killed and five wounded. The next day (September 2), the whites buried their dead, and unavailingly scoured the country for Indians.
Tradition has made sad havoc with the records, in regard to this first "siege" of Wheeling. Some of the deeds of heroism related below, by Withers, were incidents of the second siege--September 11, 1782, seven years later; but most of them are purely mythical, or belong to other localities. Perhaps no events in Western history have been so badly mutilated by tradition, as these two sieges.--R. G. T.
[10] This statement of Withers, that Simon Girty was at the siege of Wheeling, was long accepted as fact by Western historians. But it is now established beyond doubt, that neither Simon nor his brothers were present at that affair, being at the time in the employ of Indian Agent Morgan, at Fort Pitt. For details of the evidence, consult Butterfield's _History of the Girtys_, _passim_.--R. G. T.