Michael Cresap (April 17, 1742 – October 18, 1775) was a frontiersman born in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

British America British America collectively refers to various British colonization of the Americas, colonies of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and its predecessors states in the Americas prior to the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War in 1 ...

Biography

Cresap was the son of the pioneer Colonel

Thomas Cresap Colonel Thomas Cresap (1702 1790) was an English-born settler and trader in the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Cresap served Lord Baltimore as an agent in the Maryland–Pennsylvania boundary dispute that became known as Cresap's War. ...

. He spent part of his adult years in the

Ohio Country The Ohio Country (Ohio Territory, Ohio Valley) was a name used for a loosely defined region of colonial North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and south of Lake Erie. Control of the territory and the region's fur trade was disputed i ...

as a trader and land developer. He led several raids against Native Americans who were hostile to white settlement. In April 1774, rumors spread that members of the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

tribe had murdered several settlers along the frontier. Cresap, believing the rumors, was apparently involved in a reprisal raid, and he or some of his followers killed two or three

mingo The Mingo people are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans, primarily Seneca and Cayuga, who migrated west from New York to the Ohio Country in the mid-18th century, and their descendants. Some Susquehannock survivors also joined them, a ...

in the vicinity of Captina Creek, in present day

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. None of the natives killed were in fact Cherokee. The war leader Logan of the

Mingo The Mingo people are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans, primarily Seneca and Cayuga, who migrated west from New York to the Ohio Country in the mid-18th century, and their descendants. Some Susquehannock survivors also joined them, a ...

, accused Cresap of murdering his family. Logan's wife and pregnant sister were among those murdered.Calloway, Colin G. The Indian World of George Washington: First Americans, the First President, and the Birth of the Nation. Oxford University Press, 2018. pp. 207-208 In fact, the killings were almost certainly perpetrated by Daniel Greathouse, yet Cresap was immortalized in the famous speech, '' Logan's Lament'' attributed to the chief — quoted in

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

's ''

Notes on the State of Virginia ''Notes on the State of Virginia'' (1785) is a book written by the American statesman, philosopher, and planter Thomas Jefferson. He completed the first version in 1781 and updated and enlarged the book in 1782 and 1783. It originated in Jeffers ...

'' (1785) as the murderer of Logan's family. As a result of the murders, Logan waged war on the settlements along the Ohio and in western

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, killing, perhaps, nearly thirty men, women and children. Lord Dunmore, the

Governor of Virginia The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The Governor (United States), governor is head of the Government_of_Virginia#Executive_branch, executive branch ...

, raised an army and appointed Cresap to the rank of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. The decisive battle of

Lord Dunmore's War Lord Dunmore's War, also known as Dunmore's War, was a brief conflict in the fall of 1774 between the British Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo in the trans-Appalachia region of the colony south of the Ohio River. Broadly, the war incl ...

was the

Battle of Point Pleasant The Battle of Point Pleasant, also known as the Battle of Kanawha and the Battle of Great Kanawha, was the only major action of Dunmore's War. It was fought on October 10, 1774, between the Virginia militia and Shawnee and Mingo warriors. Along ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

(now

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

). Dunmore's forces defeated a band of Shawnee led by

Cornstalk "Corn stalk" or "Cornstalk" may refer to: * The stem of a maize plant * ''Dracaena fragrans'' or cornstalk dracaena, a flowering plant * Cornstalk (Shawnee leader), a Shawnee Indian chief during the American Revolution (1720–1777) * Cornstalk, We ...

. After Lord Dunmore's War, Cresap returned to Maryland and subsequently raised a company of riflemen for the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

during the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. He died from illness in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

while in the service of the army; he is interred there in

Trinity Church Cemetery The parish of Trinity Church (Manhattan), Trinity Church has three separate cemetery, burial grounds associated with it in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The first, Trinity Churchyard, is located in Lower Manhattan at 74 Trinity Place, n ...

Legacy

*The Michael Cresap House ( 1764) Cresap's stone and brick house in western Maryland — was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1972. *Th
Cresap Rifle Club
a non-profit shooting range in Frederick, Maryland, has been open for almost a century and bears the surname of Michael Cresap.

References

External links

The American Revolution Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cresap, Michael 1742 births 1775 deaths People from colonial Maryland Continental Army officers from Maryland Burials at Trinity Church Cemetery American businesspeople in real estate 18th-century American merchants Cresap family

Biography

Legacy

See also

References

External links