Revolutionary War Roanoke: William Fleming's Powder Magazine

Although conveniently near the state operated lead mines near Fort Chiswell in modern Wythe county- the Revolutionary War era families of Southwest Virginia frequently had dangerous shortages of arms, powder, and flints; particularly after the mobilization of Virginia's 15 Continental regiments who then carried large quantities of arms outside of the State. A significant portion of these arms would never return to Virginia.

[Col. William Preston to Governor Henry July 8th 1778.]

 "... The Inhabitants of both mostly collected into Forts, and we are sorry to find that numbers of Our effective Men are not  armed, which we can only account for from the Number of Firelocks that were purchased in these parts, for the use of the State & the People being prevented from again supplying themselves, as the Importation from Germany fails the Gunsmiths being mostly engaged to work for the Publick.  This dificiency has induced us to Apply to your Excellency to get an order for one hundred & fifty riffles, or Muskets for each County as they can be spared from the publick magazine.  on any plan your Excellency shall think proper to adopt in the distribution, should you grant our request, we propose sending down from the Arms We forbear particularizing the Murders committed by the Enemy tho they are many at present as it is a desagreeable subject.

And subscribe Your Excellencys Most Obt Hble Servts

Wm Fleming.
Wm Preston."

Preston's request for additional firearms seems to have fallen on deaf ears, but plans to forward ammunition had already been set in motion.

   Governor Patrick Henry to Col. Wm Preston
"Wmsburg June 27th 1778.

Sir: I am favor'd with yours by Mr. Madison & Send by him £1,500 for furnishing provisions I also direct Colo Southall of Henrico to hire a Waggon & send in it 1,500lb powder of the best rifle kind & 5,000 Gun flints. This powder & the Flints to be lodged at Colo Flemings & to be for the general use of the So Western Frontier."

Scottish born physician and Virginia Provincial officer William Fleming served his new home of Virginia with distinction throughout the French and Indian war, and suffered multiple gunshot wounds while serving as a Volunteer at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. Those severe wounds would end his ability to actively serve as an officer in the field during the Revolution, although he would later travel extensively in Kentucky on business and would continue to practice his career in medicine.

After retiring from Virginia Provincial military service Fleming resumed his civilian life as a physician and land speculator, marrying and building a home for himself in what would become Roanoke, Virginia by 1768.

Fleming's home from Colonel William Fleming of Botetourt, by Edmund P. Goodwin

Fleming wrote Governor Henry that "I have built a house of squared timber 16 feet by 14, sufficient to hold any Stores necessary to this quarter." adding that "Six Men I thought necessary to keep here as a gard for our little magazine." Fleming's personal magazine appears to have been an above ground building near his personal home, unlike the in ground powder magazines he would have been familiar with at Fort Ligonier in Pennsylvania and Fort Chiswell. 

 

Conjectural drawing of Fleming's Magazine.

 

Copper hoops from English gunpowder casks excavated at Fort Ligonier (ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF FORT LIGONIER 1960-1965 by Jacob L. Grimm p79). The gunpowder stored by Fleming was likely French or possibly Dutch in origin.

 Fleming acknowledged receipt of the gunpowder and flints in July:

[Fleming to Henry ]July 19 1778]

"The 16th Inst I received 1462 lbs. of G: powder and the Flints agreeable to your Excellencys orders. 38 lbs. of the Powder was lost in the Carriage up by the heads of two of the Barrels being loose, this with what was in store before makes 2909 lbs. now in my care. Colo Southal desired the Waggon to be loaded down to lessen the expence. I derected the Waggoner to take a load of Country lead left near this. I am since informed he only took the half. should your Excellency think proper the remainder might be lodged here, as there is not 100 lbs. of Lead in store...Several persons have Applied to me for G. powder, as they could not be supplied elsewhere on this occasion, I let them take some from the County store at 12/ p. lb. which I suppose will reimburse the State An Account of which I keep. Your Excellency will receive with this a request from Colo Preston & myself in behalf of Montgomery & Botetourt counties for some fire arms." 

Despite being precluded from active field service as an officer by his injuries, Fleming played an active role in munition logistics and defensive planning for western Virginia during the Revolutionary war.

 

Worn flints from Cook's Fort, Monroe County, WVa via youtube

 

William Preston wrote to William Fleming that "I would be much obliged to you for 100 flints as several of my Guns are useless for want of them." [May 30, 1778]

"John Madison to Col Wm Fleming 2ZZ80 ALS
5th April 1779

My Dr Colo:
The frequent reports we have of the Hostile Intention of our Sable Neighbours is by no Means Clever, for which reason I would fain Put my Family in the best Posture of Defence I Possibly can, Say Good Sir can you spare me a Musquet or two at any Price or can you supply me with a little Amunition in case of Danger. I think you Intimated that I might have 2 or 3 Dozen of Gun Flints pray send them by Rowland for I have not one
I am with much Esteem Yr Obt Servant
John Madision." [John Madison to Fleming April 5, 1779]

 

Powder Horn marked "William Fleming His Horn 1782" MESDA

For further information on Fleming I highly recommend Colonel William Fleming of Botetourt, by Edmund P. Goodwin and William Fleming, Patriot, by Clare White.

Setting a Genteel table: William Preston's Imported Ceramics in the Virginia Backcountry

One of the most prominent figures in the history of the 18th-century Virginia backcountry was William Preston. During his lifetime, Preston wore many hats, serving as a Surveyor, a Soldier in two wars (both as a County Militia Officer as well as a Ranging company officer during the French and Indian War) and as a Politician: fulfilling several roles in Virginia's Colonial Government. Preston became one of the most wealthy men in the region, amassing large amounts of land and experimenting in numerous revenue streams including land speculation, farming, the slave trade and running a distillery. Preston lived at "Greenfield", in Botetourt county during the 1760s and around 1773 began building a new home named "Smithfield", in what would become Blacksburg in Montgomery County, Virginia near the site of Draper's Meadow.

Smithfield is an (unusual for the area) 18th century timber frame building that would look more at home in Virginia's Tidewater region than in the Virginia backcountry, and as such was a powerful demonstration of his wealth and status when compared with the more common small log structures of his neighbors.

A 19th century copy of an 18th century drawing depicting Colonial era military Officers and Gentry carousing while an exhausted enslaved Servant stands by the wall in Charleston, South Carolina. " Mr. Peter Manigault and his friends drawn by one of them (Mr Roupell) about the year 1754 from which this copy is now made in August 1854 by his Great- Grand - Son Louis Manigault Charleston So.Ca." Gibbes Museum of Art Gift of Mr. Joseph E. Jenkins 1968.005.0001

Recent excavations at his Greenfield property uncovered portions of a mid 18th-century Earthenware "clouded" or "Tortoiseshell" glazed plate as well as other artifacts including an English trade gun buttplate. Preston's choice of ceramics for his table at Greenfield mirrored that many of his middling neighbors who utilized sturdy utilitarian pewter and stoneware tablewares; the lower sort perhaps treen.

"Tortoise Shell Cups and Saucers" Advertised alongside a variety of ready made slop clothing and common goods in the North Carolina Gazette (October, 1759, page 4)

A mid 18th century molded "clouded" plate similar to fragments excavated at Greenfield in 2016-2018 (Private collection).

The mottled and molded clouded or tortoiseshell glazed plates from Greenfield were evidently replaced by the more fashionable "Creamware" style of molded earthenware in the upwardly mobile Preston family household by 1771. Preston was a very early adopter of this style in Virginia.

A ca. 1770-80 Creamware plate (Private collection).

Ann Smart Martin's Buying Into the World of Goods: Early Consumers in Backcountry Virginia mentions that: "The earliest reference to Queen's ware- also known as cream-colored ware- in Virginia dates from 1768; by the summer of 1771, a wealthy Tidewater planter had reported that Queen's ware had attained popularity among his peers. That [William] Preston also purchased "Queen's ware" on his 1771 trip [from Botetourt to Williamsburg] simultaneously illustrates his awareness of fashion and the absence of large sets in his own local market."

The earliest mention of "Queen's sets of cream coloured ware..." from the Virginia Gazette also references the universality of stone wares in the past and the novelty of the new cream wares. Virginia Gazette, Purdie and Dixon June 30, 1768 page 2.

Although he was one of the first to procure it in the backcountry; Preston wasn't the only man in Southwest Virginia who would own creamware. McCorkle's store in what is now Pulaski County, Virginia carried "Queen's china" around the eve of the Revolution, and scattered references are found in local estates and probate inventories, such as a 1773 court case involving the debts of a deceased blacksmith in Fincastle county and the 1776 will of Welsh immigrant and Chiswell's lead mine manager William Herbert.

Oval creamware platter from Fort Chiswell. Detail figure 48 from Excavations at Fort Chiswell (Funk/Hoffman/Holup/Revwer/Smith UVA Laboratory of Archaeology 1976).

At Fort Chiswell, "Creamware was one of the more common ware types found at the site and was included in every structure...But an earlier mottled glazed cream-colored ware (refined earthenware) known as "clouded" ware was produced in 1740. We have just one sherd of this type, located in Structure #2 in a sealed eighteenth century level..." (Excavations at Fort Chiswell p61).

Creamware became immensely popular and despite being fairly new in the remote Virginia backcountry in 1774 English Potter Josiah Wedgewood foreshadowed that "I apprehend our customers will not much longer be content with Queen's Ware it being now render'd vulgar and common everywhere". Wedgewood's prediction would eventually prove truthful, and feather edge creamware fragments were recovered at Fort Boonesborough, among numerous other Revolutionary War era frontier sites.

George Washington's Southwestern Virginia Frontier fort Tour, 1756

 George Washington by Peale, ca 1772, Washington & Lee, Lexington, Va.

On October 10th, 1756, Colonel George Washington sent an express to Lt. Governor Robert Dinwiddie including an overview of his "remarks and observations on the situations of our frontiers". Washington had left his quarters in Winchester for Augusta Courthouse (Staunton) in late September. Hoping to gather a large militia force to "scour the woods,..and,... fall in with the enemy", he waited in vain for several days before proceeding with only five men including Virginia Ranger Captain and militia officer William Preston to Colonel Buchanan's house at Looney's Ferry (modern Buchanan Virginia).

A modern, conjectural sketch of William Preston as a Virginia Ranging company officer, ca. 1756

From there he rode roughly 60 miles away to the modern town of Shawsville, Virginia at  "Vass's, on the Roanoke" where Virginia Provincial Captain Hogg was [re] building a fort." The earlier Fort at Vass or Vause/Vauxe/etc. (termed a "blockhouse" in the Boston and NY papers) was burned in a June 1756 raid by a war party led by Battle of the Monongahela veteran François-Marie Picoté, sieur de Belestre II- likely the southernmost attack conducted by Canadian troops in that war. Some of the prisoners from the Fort were carried into captivity as far off as Detroit and Quebec. Ranging Company Sergeant Peter Luney testified that he lost “a rifle Gun of the value of Four Pounds ten Shillings” when he was captured at  Fort Vause.

A 1740s French Marine musket, the stock is branded "Au Roy" Private Collection.

 Belestre would be in Virginia again after an unsuccessful raid on Fort Cumberland, Maryland in 1757; this time as a prisoner of the Virginia Provincials at Fort Loudon in Winchester. Belestre's nephew, Philippe Dagneau of Saussaye, St. Ours and three French soldiers were killed in the same ambush . Washington's account of Belestre's (aka "Velistre") capture can be found here and there is also his June 20th, letter mentioning Belestre's interrogation.


Washington reported that "We got safely to Vass's, where Captain Hogg, with only eighteen of his company, was building a fort, which must employ him till Christmas without more assistance."

Hogg would eventually be relieved of his command, and an interesting Inventory of the Stores Belonging to ye Garrison at Vasses survives from the next year when he was forced by Washington to relinquish the fort to Captain Thomas Bullitt.

 After a disappointing tour of Hogg's efforts, Washington reported that "From Vass's I came off with a servant and a guide, to visit and range of forts in this country; and in less than two hours after, two men were killed along the same road."  Then on to "within five miles of the Carolina line, as I was proceeding to the southernmost fort in Halifax, I met Major Lewis on his return from the Cherokees, with seven men and three women only of that nation."

Washington's final stop was Fort Trial in Halifax (near modern Martinsville). Fort Trial was later described by J.F.D. Smyth as "... a quadrangular polygon, inclosed with large timber, and cuts of trees split in two, about twelve or fixteen feet high above the ground, standing erect, and about three or four feet in the earth, and quite close together, with loop holes cut through about four or five feet from the ground for small arms. There was also something like a bastion at each angle, which, however, could scarcely be faid to flank the curtains; and a log-house, musket proof, on each side of the gate. ". Within the area, nearly in the centre, was a common house framed and boarded, filled in, to the height of fix feet, with stones and clay on the inside, as a de- fence against small arms; it was covered only with shingles made of pine, which could be easily fet on fire as well as every other part of the whole structure, without exception."

After leaving Fort Trial, Washington continued on to Captain Preston's Garrison on the Catawba, Fort William.

GW To ROBERT DINWIDDIE Winchester, November 9, 1756.

Honble. Sir: In mine from Halifax I promised your Honor a particular detail of my remarks and observations upon the situation of our frontiers, when I arrived at this place. Although I was pretty explicit in my former, I cannot avoid recapitulating part of the subject now, as my duty, and its importance for redress are strong motives.

Morgan Morgan, Indian Spy and travelling man....

Morgan Morgan, son of Nathanial Morgan (a fellow who just wasn't always very creative in naming his children) served in quite a few places during the revolutionary war, in addition to being a customer at McCorkle's store in New Dublin Va (see http://ofsortsforprovincials.blogspot.com/2011/06/self-sufficiency-mythor-what-was-in.html he served as a "spy" against Indians and Tories, was with Wm. Preston of Smithfield plantation in North Carolina, marched against the Cherokees and was part of the guard at Fort Chiswell.

Morgan's pension application from 1833 details his service:

http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/s31265.pdf

Morgan's father ran this ad in the Va Gazette in 1775 (NB the sideplate may have been marked MM for Morgan Morgan):

FINCASTLE, May 21, 1775. RUN away from the subscriber, living on Neck creek, near Mr.Thopson's mill, an Irish servant man named THOMAS BENSON, about 5
feet 9 inches high, wears his own long black hair tied, and has lost the half of his left hand little finger; had on a home made flax linen shirt, a pair of tow linen trousers, and carried with him a blue home made cloth coat, a red and yellow silk and cotton waistcoat, buckskin breeches, a rackoon hat, a brass mounted long smooth-bore gun, marked on the side-plate MM 1769, and on the barrel W. MORGAN, a shot-bag and powder-horn, a canister with 2 lbs. of powder, a falling axe, a pocket compass, &c. &c. He likewise stole his indentures, and, being a very good scholar, it is probable he may make an assignment on them. He is supposed to be with Samuel Ingram's servant man, as they both went off about the same time. Whoever secures the said servant, so that I get him again, shall have 5 l. reward, and, if out of the county, reasonable charges, paid
by
NATHANIEL MORGAN.


For more information about the family:

http://www.yeahpot.com/gedcom/morgan/pafg01.htm