September 12, 1782. The last shots of the American Revolution hadn't yet been fired, but on the Ohio frontier, the war had already turned desperate.
Fort Henry — a rough-hewn palisade of wooden walls perched
on a bluff above the Ohio River at what is now Wheeling, West Virginia — had
been under siege since the evening of September 11. A force of roughly 260
Wyandot, Shawnee, Mingo, and Lenape warriors, accompanied by 40 soldiers from
Butler's Rangers, a British provincial regiment, had surrounded the fort and
demanded its surrender. The answer from inside was a flat refusal.
Through the night, the attackers had come in waves. Around
midnight, rangers and warriors attempted to storm the fort and set it alight,
but were driven back. Two more attempts were made that night. Each time, the
defenders held. But holding had a cost — and by morning, that cost had nearly
bankrupted them.
After beating back two assaults, the fort had depleted its
supply of gunpowder. Without that powder, historians speculated the garrison
would not have been able to defend what would be the third and final assault.
Silas Zane commanded the fort with fewer than 20 men, while
roughly forty women and children sheltered inside. Among them was his teenage
sister, Betty. Most of the powder and ammunition available had been stored in
Ebenezer Zane's blockhouse — a fortified cabin closer to the fort — because the
blockhouse was always occupied and considered a safer place to store the
community's powder than the normally-empty fort. That cabin was now sitting in
the middle of no-man's land, surrounded by warriors.
Someone had to go get it.
"You have not one man to spare; a woman will not be
missed in the defense of the fort," Betty is quoted as having said — and
then she volunteered to make the run herself.
What Betty Zane did not tell the men was that she had gone
40 hours without sleep, having spent the siege molding bullets for the Virginia
militiamen defending the fort.
At about noon, the gate of Fort Henry swung open and Betty
ran the 70 yards to the blockhouse. While she was taunted by the warriors, she
was not fired upon and reached her brother's house safely. The attackers,
perhaps stunned by the audacity of a young woman walking calmly into their
field of fire, hesitated. Startled to see her sprint across the open field, the
British and warriors held their fire.
That hesitation ended on the return trip.
On the way back, some of the warriors realized what she was carrying and opened fire — however, she escaped injury. Most sources record that Betty carried the gunpowder bundled in a tablecloth or apron. One shot reportedly tore her dress. She kept running.
Bradt made another assault on the fort that evening but was
again driven back and withdrew his forces the following morning. According to
Ebenezer Zane's report, only one person was wounded among those who sheltered
in the fort.
The legend of Betty Zane was born — but it would not go
unchallenged. In 1849, Lydia Boggs Shepherd Cruger swore out an affidavit
challenging the story, proclaiming the real heroine was Molly Scott, who had
made the run instead. There is no mention of the heroic act in any contemporary
account, including the official report Betty's brother filed with General
William Irvine. Its similarity to other frontier heroism tales added to
skeptics' doubts.
Yet the story endured. Betty Zane's great-grandnephew, the
author Zane Grey, wrote a historical novel about her titled Betty Zane,
published in 1903 — his very first novel, which he paid to print himself when
no publisher would take it. In 1923, a monument to Betty Zane was erected in
Martins Ferry, Ohio, her home following her marriage, and the town has hosted
an annual Betty Zane Days festival ever since.
Whether it was Betty, or Molly, or some combination of
courage the historical record could never quite pin down — someone ran. Someone
crossed that open ground with the powder that kept the fort alive through one
more night. And on the ragged, violent edge of a new nation, that was enough to
become legend.
Sources: Journal
of the American Revolution · Wikipedia –
Siege of Fort Henry (1782) · Wikipedia – Betty Zane · West Virginia Encyclopedia
· Revolutionary
War Journal
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