Battle of Great Cacapon
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The Battle of Great Cacapon — also known as Mercer's Massacre — was fought on April 18, 1756[1] between members of Colonel George Washington's Virginia Regiment and French-allied Shawnee and Delaware Indians. Captain Mercer and a company of his men were pursuing some Indians when they were ambushed by a larger number of Indian raiders. Mercer and at least 16 of his men were killed.
Background
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Battle
A Delaware leader named Bemino, known as John Killbuck to the whites, a number of years after the incident, described how he and a band of Indians (probably composed of Delawares and Shawnee) killed two men near Fort Edwards, not far from the Cacapon River in what is now Hampshire County, West Virginia. Deliberately leaving a trail of corn meal, they established an ambush along a high stream bank. Captain John Mercer led a band of militia (said to number from forty to one hundred, depending on sources) in pursuit. When they passed the concealed Indians, the trap was sprung, and the Indians opened a murderous crossfire, killing Mercer and 16 men. More of the militia were chased down and killed, with Killbuck claiming that only six men escaped.[2][3]
Indians continued to raid in the area throughout the war.
References
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- ↑ West Virginia Archive report indicates Mercer's force as 100, while Killbuck (as recounted in Cartmell) claims 40.
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- Cartmell, Thomas Kemp (1909), Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and their Descendants
- Kercheval, Samuel; Faulkner, Charles James; Jacob, John Jeremiah. A history of the valley of Virginia
- Lucier, Armand French and Indian War Notices Abstracted from Colonial Newspapers: 1756-1757
- West Virginia Archives. Biennial report of the Department of Archives and History of the State of West Virginia, 1911
External links
- [1]
- https://web.archive.org/web/20131221124712/http://ns1763.ca/remem/7yw-timeline-w.html
- Battle of Great Cacapon? Where Exactly?
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- Pages with script errors
- Pages with reference errors
- Battles of the French and Indian War
- 1756 in France
- Conflicts in 1756
- Battles involving Great Britain
- Battles involving France
- Battles in West Virginia
- Pre-statehood history of West Virginia
- Pre-statehood history of Virginia
- Hampshire County, West Virginia
- 1756 in North America