The Battle of Point Pleasant, known as the Battle of Kanawha in some older accounts, was the only major battle of Dunmore's War. It was fought on October 10, 1774, primarily between Virginia militia and American Indians from the Shawnee and Mingo tribes. Along the Ohio River near modern Point Pleasant, West Virginia, American Indians under the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk attacked Virginia militia under Andrew Lewis, hoping to halt Lewis's advance into the Ohio Country. After a long and furious battle, Cornstalk retreated. After the battle, the Virginians, along with a second force led by Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, marched into the Ohio Country and compelled Cornstalk to agree to a treaty, ending the war.

Preparations

Colonel Andrew Lewis, in command of about 1,100 men, was part of a planned two-pronged Virginian invasion of the Ohio Country. He anticipated linking up with another force commanded by Lord Dunmore, who was marching west from Fort Pitt, then known as Fort Dunmore. Dunmore's plan was to march into the Ohio Country and force the Indians to accept Ohio River boundary which had been negotiated with the Iroquois in the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix.

Shawnees had not been consulted in that treaty, however, and many did not want to surrender their lands south of the Ohio River without a fight. Officials of the British Indian Department, led by Sir William Johnson until his death in July 1774, worked to diplomatically isolate the Shawnees from other American Indians. As a result, when the war began, Shawnees had few allies other than a few Mingos.

Cornstalk, the Shawnee leader, moved to intercept Lewis's army, hoping to prevent the Virginians from linking up. Estimates of the size of Cornstalk's force have varied over the years, but scholars now suspect Cornstalk was greatly outnumbered, having around 300-500 warriors. Future notable Shawnee leader Blue Jacket probably took part in the battle.

Battle

Cornstalk's forces attacked Lewis's camp where the Kanawha River flows into the Ohio River, hoping to trap him along a bluff. The battle lasted for hours and was extremely intense; the fighting eventually became hand-to-hand. Cornstalk's voice was reportedly heard over the din of the battle, repeatedly urging his warriors to "be strong." Lewis sent several companies along the Kanawha and up a nearby creek in order to attack the Indians from the rear, reducing the intensity of the Shawnee offensive. At nightfall, the Shawnees silently withdrew back across the Ohio. The Virginians had held their ground, and so won the day.

Aftermath

The Virginians suffered about 75 killed and 150 wounded. The Shawnee are supposed to have had 33 killed. The Indians threw many of their dead companions' bodies into the river to prevent them from being mutilated. (Scalping was routinely practiced by both sides for proof of claim for bounty reasons in this era.) Among the dead was Pucksinwah, the father of Tecumseh.

The outcome of the Battle of Point Pleasant forced Cornstalk to make peace with Dunmore at the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, ceding Shawnee land claims south of the Ohio (modern Kentucky) to Virginia.

Legacy and historical controversies

Before the Virginians had all returned home from Dunmore's War, the American Revolutionary War had begun at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. Before long, Lord Dunmore was leading the British war effort in Virginia against many of the men who had fought under him in Dunmore's War. Dunmore even sought to enlist American Indian allies—the very people he had defeated in 1774. As a result, over the years a legend arose that Dunmore had actually been collaborating with the Shawnees all along. According to this story, Dunmore deliberately isolated the militia under Andrew Lewis and directed the Shawnees to attack them, hoping to eliminate potentially troublesome American rebels. There is no evidence to support this conspiracy theory, but it was popular in the 19th century.

On February 21, 1908, the United States Senate passed Bill Number 160 to erect a monument commemorating the Battle of Point Pleasant. Contrary to common myth, the bill doesn't mention the Battle as being the first battle of the American Revolution. Additionally the bill was never enacted, failing in the House of Representatives. The battle is honored as the first battle of the Revolution during "Battle Days", an annual festival celebrated in modern Point Pleasant.