Dr. John Briscoe was traveling down the Ohio River with a load of supplies for settlers.  [When] he came to the Wheeling settlement [there] was a big surprise.  It had quickly become the regular stopping place for virtually all river travelers.  Many who passed discovered that Ebenezer Zane was willing to sell lots in the little community.  Now there were upward of 40 people in residence and a lot of building occurring,  - - - -  John Caldwell, newly arrived from Baltimore and another of those who bought a plot of ground from Ebenezer Zane, was busy putting the roof on his new little cabin when Briscoe stopped briefly at the settlement."    (page 38)

 John Caldwell was a member of the Company of men led by Capt. Meason that was ambushed by about 400 Indians and British officers on 1 Sept. 1777.  Capt. Meason and his 24 men were ambushed outside Fort Henry, Wheeling, VA as the part of the attack to wipe out Wheeling and the Americans on the frontier.

 "Two privates near the head of the line - John Caldwell and Robert Harkness - somehow missed being hurt, and both plunged into the underbrush, but not together.  Caldwell managed to get across Wheeling Creek, though several shots struck the water near him as he swam, and a couple of more smacked into the bank as he emerged on the other side.  It was densely brushy there, and he was able to disappear from sight quickly, but not before he saw one of the warriors plunge into the stream in pursuit of him.  It lent speed to his flight, and he continued to run as fast as he could , heading up stream towards the Forks (now Elm Grove in Wheeling) where Sheperd's Fort was located (about 6 miles)."    (page 126) 

"Pvt John Caldwell, who had escaped across Wheeling Creek from the ambush of the company of soldiers under Capt Meason, had finally reached Shepherd's Fort at the Forks of Wheeling Creek about an hour after the ambush.  He'd had no easy time of it.  His clothing was shredded from the briars through which he had plunged, and his flesh was scored and bleeding in a multitude of places from the cruel thrones.  He was exhausted, still teetering on the edge of panic and nearly incoherent, but gradually those in the fort pieced together from his inchoate phrases what had occurred.  They needed to know; there was not a person here at Shepherd's who did not have family or friends in Wheeling.

 "Caldwell related that the Wyndot warrior who had followed him across Wheeling Creek had been tenacious in his pursuit and gradually closed the gap until they were only about 30 yards apart.  In leaping over a fallen tree, Caldwell didn't clear it and sprawled headlong, becoming momentarily wedged between the far side of the tree trunk and a sapling growing beside it.  He struggled frantically to get loose, and by the time he did so and began running again, the warrior was  within a few yards, tomahawk upraised and shrieking in anticipated triumph.  That was when the Wyndot made a mistake: instead of rushing up and tomahawking Caldwell , as he certainly could have done, he threw his weapon at him ... and missed, Caldwell continued running, and when he glanced back, the Indian had picked up his tomahawk and was turning back."  (page 129)

 September 9, 1781

 "The earlier attacks in the isolated areas were, Col. Shepherd believed, only preliminaries to a major assault to be leveled against Wheeling itself.  Under his orders, this principal settlement braced itself for whatever was to come.  For three full days they were on utmost alert, and only this morning, believing the attack had been aborted for one reason or another, Shepherd reduced the full alert by one-half.

"Now, only moments before, distant shots had been fired and an orderly had run to Shepherd's headquarters room with the excited announcement that a small group of Indians--one of them believed to be Sam Gray--had appeared halfway up Wheeling Hill.  They had fired several random shots at the fort, then gone off in a manner that could only be described as casual, pausing now and then to bend over and slap their behinds toward the fort in an insulting manner.  It was more than some of the newly inducted settlers could tolerate and they snatched up their guns, opened the gate and began streaming out in pursuit, led by John Caldwell.

"By the time Col. Shepherd reached the gate and stopped others from following by threatening to shoot the next man who tried, Caldwell and nine other men were already at the base of Wheeling Hill and starting their ascent.  Above them, Sam Gray and the few Wyandots were still climbing uphill casually and just reaching the top.  There they paused and pointed at the men scrambling upward after them at top speed and laughed lustily.  Then they turned and walked out of sight over the crest.

Caldwell and his nine men were gasping for breath when they reached the summit, some 250 feet above the fort, arriving there hardly half a minute after the small party of Wyandots left.  They rushed over the crest, prepared to stop and shoot the instant they saw the departing Indians ahead of them.  What they found, instead, was a great horde of Indians in a semicircle before them and another group appearing behind, all of them leveling their own weapons and beginning to fire. Several of the whites fell in the first barrage, and more were killed as they raced to the only avenue of possible escape open to them--the precipitous slope to the northeast, plunging down to Wheeling Creek.

"Two of the men who made it to the lip of that steep drop off were David Herbert in the lead and his friend, John Caldwell, in the rear.  Scrambling and sliding, they started down, each losing his rifle almost immediately.  Within mere yards a ball struck Herbert in the back and he tumbled down 30 feet or more before wedging against a tree.  As Caldwell passed, Herbert called out, "John, don't leave me," but Caldwell didn't pause.

"Hearing a clattering of rocks behind him, Caldwell glanced back and saw two Wyandots scrambling after them, one wielding a tomahawk, the other, Sam Gray, a spear.  The former stopped at the motionless form of David Herbert and struck him with his tomahawk, but Sam Gray kept coming.  Two-thirds of the way down, with Sam Gray virtually at his heels, Caldwell tripped over an exposed root, fell and rolled up against a log wedged between a couple of saplings.

"Gray was very quickly upon him and thrust his spear with a powerful jab.  The point barely grazed Caldwell's hip, hit the top of the log and glanced upward, burying itself deeply in the sapling on the down side of the  log.  While Sam Gray struggled to pull the embedded spearhead free, Caldwell regained his feet and plunged on.  At the bottom he turned sharply right and raced along the narrow bottom back to the  level ground of the Wheeling bottom.  Fifteen minutes later, almost dead from exhaustion, he staggered to the gate of Fort Henry and was let in.  Some 20 minutes later another of the party came in with one of his arms broken and dangling.  All eight others had been killed.

"In the meanwhile, what Matthew Elliott and Monakaduto had been able to observe of Wheeling and Fort Henry convinced them that the place was teeming with soldiers and settlers and what the captive boy had told them was evidently true; the populace was in arms and ready, and whatever element of surprise the Indians had hoped to have had evidently been lost.  Monakaduto was convinced the only way the American frontier could have been brought to this state of readiness in anticipation of his arrival was by the Moravian missionaries, or their converts, relaying intelligence from the Tuscarawas and Muskingum to the Shemanese  leaders.  Now he was more pleased than ever that he had uprooted them and sent them to the Sandusky.  This present attack was finished, but next time, he was sure, the Americans would be receiving no early warning."

Also provided by Jerry is the following entry:

 Pvt VA, Rev War Pension
"DAR [Daughters of the American Revolution?] Patriot Index, Centennial Edition, Part I, p469"

 JOHN CALDWELL, OHIO COUNTY, PRIVATE VIRGINIA MILITIA, $80.00 ANNUAL ALLOWANCE
$240.00 AMOUNT RECEIVED, MARCH 20, 1833 PENSION STARTED, AGE 81 

Thanks again, Jerry!