ornaments and clothing. After crossing the Ohio in boats--the
horses swimming--there was an auction of the booty, which was
appraised at L32,000, continental money, each man getting goods
or horses to the value of about L110. The Indian loss was five
killed at the town, and many wounded; the whites had seven men
killed. Little Chillicothe had been for the most part destroyed
by fire, and its crops destroyed. The newspapers of the day
regarded the expedition as an undoubted success.--R. G. T.

[21] George W. Ranck: "April 1. Robert Patterson, at the head
of twenty-five men, commenced a block house where Lexington now
stands."--R. G. T.

[198] CHAPTER XII.

In North Western Virginia, the frequent inroads of small parties of
savages in 1778, led to greater preparations for security, from
renewed hostilities after the winter should have passed away; and many
settlements received a considerable accession to their strength, from
the number of persons emigrating to them. In some neighborhoods, the
sufferings of the preceding season and the inability of the
inhabitants, from the paucity of their numbers, to protect themselves
from invasion, led to a total abandonment of their homes. The
settlement on Hacker's creek was entirely broken up in the spring of
1779,--some of its inhabitants forsaking the country and retiring east
of the mountains; while the others went to the fort on Buchannon, and
to Nutter's fort, near Clarksburg, to aid in resisting the foe and in
maintaining possession of the country. When the campaign of that year
opened, the whole frontier was better prepared to protect itself from
invasion and to shield its occupants from the wrath of the savage
enemy, than it had ever been, since it became the abode of white men.
There were forts in every settlement, into which the people could
retire when danger threatened, and which were capable of withstanding
the assaults of savages, however furious they might be, if having to
depend for success, on the use of small arms only. It was fortunate
for the country, that this was their dependence. A few well directed
shots even from small cannon, would have demolished [199] their
strongest fortress, and left them no hope from death, but captivity.

In the neighborhood of Pricket's fort, the inhabitants were early
alarmed, by circumstances which induced a belief that the Indians were
near, and they ac