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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
The Treaty of Camp Charlotte, negotiated with the Ohio Valley Indians after the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, ended Dunmore’s War. Among the treaty’s other terms, the Ohio River was recognized as the boundary between the Indians and settlers of European descent, and the Shawnees agreed to stop attacking travelers on the river. The treaty secured a temporary peace for Western Virginia settlers, which lasted through the early part of the American Revolution.
The October 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant, when Virginia militia under Andrew Lewis defeated the Indians led by Cornstalk, had been the major military action of the brief war. Virginia Governor Dunmore, absent from the battle, established himself with another force at Camp Charlotte, on the Scioto River south of present Columbus. It was here that the peace was negotiated at the end of the year.
Logan’s Speech, one of the most important orations of the early history of Western Virginia, was delivered by an intermediary to the negotiators at Camp Charlotte. Chief Logan, who had terrorized the frontier after his family was massacred by frontiersmen, himself boycotted the peace talks.
Written by Ken Sullivan
Downes, Randolph C. Council Fires on the Upper Ohio: A Narrative of Indian Affairs in the Upper Ohio Valley until 1795. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1968.