A Virginia Scout

Groves of beeches, less desired by settlers, were noisy with satisfied squirrels. From river to ridge the air was alive with orioles and cardinals and red-starts.   In the preceding spring we realized it was only a question of time when we must “fort” ourselves, or abandon the back-country, thereby losing crops and cabins. When young James Boone and Henry Russell were killed by Indians in Powell’s Valley in the fall of 1773, all hope of a friendly penetration of the western country died. Ever since Colonel Bouquet’s treaty with the Ohio tribes on the collapse of Pontiac’s War the frontier had suffered from many small raids, but there had been no organized warfare.