Breckenridge and Dickinson, there is no want of a fort unto the mouth of John's Creek, a branch of Craig's Creek, at which place a fort is to be erected." John's Creek was 25 miles from Dickinson's fort. Fort William, 20 miles from John's Creek, and supposed to be the same as Breckenridge' s fort, was deemed "sufficient to guard that important pass," and the next place to the southwest, 13 miles distant, designated for a fort, was Neal McNeal's. The remaining places named for forts are, Captain James Campbell's, 13 miles from McNeal's; Captain Vaux's [Vass's], 12 miles from Campbell's; and Captain John Mason's on the south side of Roanoke, 25 miles from Vaux's. From Mason's "to the first inhabitants in Halifax county, south side of Ridge," was 20 miles.
The Council ordered, subject to the approval of Captain Peter Hog, that Fort Vaux be at least one hundred feet square in the clear, with stockades at least sixteen feet long, and be garrisoned by seventy men. The other forts were to be sixty feet square, with two bastions in each. The garrisons, besides Vaux's, were to be as follows: Mason's and McNeal's thirty men each, Dickinson's forty, Dinwiddle's sixty, and each of the others fifty men.
The length of frontier to be protected was estimated by the Council as two hundred and fifty miles, and the number of men to garrison the forts as six hundred and eighty. The scheme was abandoned, however, only one or two new forts having been built.
The Courts Martial record book gives the names of the captains of militia in 1756. The captains of horse were Israel Christian, Patrick Martin and John Dickinson; of foot, besides those already named, Samuel Norwood, James Allen,[1] George Willson, John Mathews, Joseph Lapsley, James Mitchell, Daniel
- ↑ Captain James Allen was one of the first elders of the stone church. One of his daughters married Captain James Trimble, and removed with her husband to Kentucky after the Revolutionary war. She was the mother of Governor Allen Trimble, of Ohio, and the late Mrs. James A. McCue, of Augusta, the mother of Major J. M. McCue. Another daughter of Captain Allen married the Rev. John McCue, the father of Mr. James A. McCue and others. Captain Allen's company, in 1756, consisted of sixty-eight men, and was composed of Walkers, Turks, Kerrs, Robertsons, Bells, Crawfords, Givenses, Craigs, Pattersons, Poages, and others.
