Qualla: Fort Randolph

Fort Randolph: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ada Budell (illustrator), Public domain. Cornstalk came to Fort Randolph in November 1777 carrying a warning. The Shawnee chief had told the Americans about a Virginia expedition rumored to be advancing into the Ohio Country. He explained that some Shawnee wanted to stay neutral but that he could not guarantee the loyalty of the younger warriors. Captain Matthew Arbuckle Sr., commanding the fort, listened carefully and then made a decision he probably did not yet know how to walk back from. He detained Cornstalk as a hostage. Days later, an American militiaman was killed outside the fort by an unrelated Native American party, and the militiaman's friends burst into the prisoners' cell. They killed Cornstalk and three other Shawnees, including Cornstalk's son. Virginia's governor Patrick Henry prosecuted the killers. The juries refused to convict. The chief who had come to the fort to keep the peace died because the soldiers inside it could not.

Read more: Fort Randolph on Qualla

Image: Ada Budell (illustrator) | Public domain

Fort Randolph: The Point and the Forts Before It

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. The triangle of land where the Kanawha River joins the Ohio had been strategic long before any fort stood there. The 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix transferred Iroquois claims to the land south of the Ohio to the British Crown, opening it nominally to colonial settlement. George Was...

Read more: Fort Randolph on Qualla

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Fort Randolph: Building Fort Randolph

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. In May 1776, with the Revolutionary War underway, the Virginia Assembly ordered the post rebuilt. Captain Matthew Arbuckle Sr. led the construction, completing Fort Randolph in time for the summer campaigning season. The fort was named for Peyton Randolph, the first president of ...

Read more: Fort Randolph on Qualla

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Fort Randolph: The Murder of Cornstalk

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. On November 10, 1777, an American militiaman was killed outside Fort Randolph by Indians unconnected to Cornstalk. His fellow soldiers, blind with grief and rage, charged into the fort. They went straight for the Shawnee prisoners. Cornstalk - a respected chief who had risked his...

Read more: Fort Randolph on Qualla

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Fort Randolph: Siege, Abandonment, and Replica

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kevin Myers at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. In May 1778, about 200 Shawnee under Chief Blackfish, joined by Wyandots and Mingos under Dunquat - the Wyandot Half King - laid siege to Fort Randolph for about a week. The garrison held. The attackers moved on up the Kanawha to attack Fort Donnally, where they were also repulse...

Read more: Fort Randolph on Qualla

Image: Kevin Myers at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0