with the terms. A Virginia officer, Col. Benjamin Wilson, wrote of Cornstalk's speech to Lord Dunmore at Camp Charlotte: "I have heard the first orators in Virginia, Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, but never have I heard one whose powers of delivery surpassed those of Cornstalk on that occasion." American Revolution When the American Revolutionary War followed shortly after Dunmore's War, Cornstalk endeavored to keep his people neutral. In October 1775, Cornstalk, Nimwha, and other Mekoches represented the Shawnees in 1775 at a council held at Fort Pitt, seeking to maintain peaceful relations with the Americans. In the summer of 1776, he also visited the British in Detroit, hoping to establish friendly relations with them as well. Many Shawnees, nevertheless, hoped to use British aid to reclaim their lands lost to the Americans. Shawnees sent emissaries south to the Cherokees at Chota (present Tennessee) to seek aid. A young Cherokee chief, Dragging Canoe, accepted the call to arms. Shawnees and Cherokees began cooperating in a war against the Americans. In the autumn of 1776, Cornstalk returned to Fort Pitt, where he told U.S. Indian agent George Morgan that although some young Shawnee warriors were acting rashly, his people were committed to peace. Cornstalk had Morgan send a message to the Continental Congress, outlining Shawnee grievances and offering friendship. In the meantime, Cornstalk said he had decided to remove his followers to Coshocton, a neutral Delaware Indian town on the Tuscarawas River. By the winter of 1776, Shawnees were effectively divided between Cornstalk's neutral faction and militant bands led by such men as Blackfish. Although Cornstalk, Kisinoutha and other Mekoche leaders had made peace with the Virginians at Camp Charlotte, the other Shawnee divisions did not all agree with the loss of their hunting grounds and pursued their own agendas. In October 1777, two Shawnees visited Fort Randolph, an American fort that had been built at the site of the Battle of Point Pleasant (present-day Point Pleasant, West Virginia). They were detained by the fort's commander, Matthew Arbuckle, who had decided to hold hostage any Shawnees who fell into his hands. Cornstalk's son Elinipsico (Allanawissica) arrived a few days later to ask why they were being held. Cornstalk came to the fort soon after, and all four were detained. On November 10, an American militiaman stationed at the fort was killed by unknown Indians in the vicinity. In retaliation, angry