Revolutionary War Figure. The siege at Fort Henry at Wheeling lasted three days from September 11th to September 14th, 1782. The attacking forces consisted of forty British soldiers under Captain Pratt and two hundred and sixty Indians led by George Girty. A force of only twenty men, women and children occupied the fort. Elizabeth Zane was with them. During the assaults she occupied the sentry box with her brother Jonathan Zane and a man by the name of Salter, and loaded their guns for them. This position was the post of observation and the best marksmen were selected for it. It was also a prominent mark for the besieging forces. Elizabeth Zane was slightly wounded by the splinters knocked from the oak logs by the bullets of the enemy who kept up a constant fire at the loop-holes of the fort. Col. Zane and a few others occupied his fortified residence under the guns of the fort, and about sixty yards distant. Here the main supply of ammunition was kept as Col. Zane had pledged himself to be personally responsible for it. By reason of the repeated charges and attempts to take the fort by storm the powder in the fort was exhausted. After the mad attack following the bursting of the cannon made from a hollow log only a few loads remained. It was a fearful crisis. Another onset might be made at any moment. A supply of powder must be immediately obtained from Col. Zane's block-house. It was proposed that one of the fleetest men should endeavor to reach the house, obtain a keg and return with it to the fort. While the men were discussing who should undertake the dangerous race Elizabeth Zane stepped forward and asked that she be permitted to go. She was told that a man would encounter less danger by reason of his greater swiftness. She replied "You need all the men you have to defend the fort. If I go and am killed, I will not be missed like a man. I'll go if you will let me." Finally consent was given. She divested herself of her outer garments that her running might not be impeded. The gate was thrown open and she sprang forward toward the house. Her appearance caused such a surprise that the firing temporarily ceased, and the Indians yelled in derision, "A squaw"! "A squaw"! She reached the block-house in safety. A tablecloth was fastened around her waist and a keg emptied into it. She started on her perilous return. The besieging party discovered her errand and the balls whizzed around her so thickly that the dirt was dashed in her eyes and several bullets passed through her clothing, but she reached the fort unhurt and with the supply of powder thus brought the final attack on the fort was repulsed. The demand to surrender the fort was given in the name of the British and under the British colors. This siege was in reality the last battle of the Revolution and it is certain that the last shot fired by a British soldier in that war was fired at Fort Henry in Wheeling. Biography by her great-grandson, Frederick Bruce Jones.

∼The daughter of William Andrew Zane and Nancy Ann (née Nolan) Zane, and the sister of Col Ebenezer Zane (FAG Memorial 13414231), Silas Zane, Jonathan Zane, Isaac Zane (FAG Memorial 98417723) and Andrew Zane.

Elizabeth "Betty" Zane was married twice and was a mother of nine children.

Before her first marriage, she bore a daughter, Minerva Catherine Zane, also known as Miriam, by one Capt. Van Swearingen. Court records in Ohio County, Virginia, show an order for Van Swearingen to deed property to Betty Zane, so the daughter would be provided for and not become a burden on the county.

Zane's first husband was Ephraim McLaughlin with whom she had four daughters; Mary Ann "Polly", Sarah Nancy, Rebecca and Hannah McLaughlin.

After the death of her first husband, she married Jacob Clarke with whom she had a son, Ebenezer Clarke, and a daughter, Catherine Clarke.

Elizabeth "Betty" Zane was the youngest sister of the Zane brothers.  While her older brothers were founding the city, Betty stayed with relatives in Philadelphia.  She arrived on the frontier in 1782 when she was about 16 years old. The Indian Wars of the Upper Ohio Valley ran from 1774 to 1794.  Her arrival in 1782 was not quite at the midpoint of the conflict, but on the frontier, that year was one of the deadliest.

The winter of 1781-1782 had been relatively mild. As a result, the frontier did not get the seasonal Sabbath from Indians raids they normally enjoyed from November to April. The Moravian Massacre, Crawford's Defeat and several other smaller raids that spring and summer fueled enough vendettas to keep the frontier aflame in a bloody, no-quarter conflict.

Locally, the war reached its zenith on the afternoon of September 11th, 1782. A scout spotted a force of approximately 260 Indians and 40 British rangers a couple of hours west of Fort Henry. By early that evening they had laid a loose siege line around the fort and demanded the fort's surrender. Their demand was refused and the battled started in earnest. The emotional highpoint of the battle occurred about noon of the second day when the defenders found they were out of gunpowder. It was the firepower of the fort that kept the enemy at bay and without it the fort would fall.  More of it was stored at Ebenezer's blockhouse a short distance away, but who would go and get it. Betty Zane stepped forward, noting that, should she fall, she would be less missed than a man. Dashing out the south sally port, she made it to the blockhouse without a shot fired at her. As she stepped out to return, all hell broke loose as nearly every Indian and British ranger fired at her. Miraculously she made it back unharmed with her precious load of gunpowder, and the fort was saved.

That courageous act made her a legend in her own lifetime. With the publication of the book Betty Zane by Zane Grey in 1903, she would rank just under Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett in the pantheon of American frontier history for many years. Betty Zane's courageous act was the defining event of Wheeling's early days.

(Text by Joe Roxby from the book, Legendary Locals of Wheeling)

ZANE, ELIZABETH

Daughters of the American Revolution Ancestor #: A130537

Service:  VIRGINIA   Rank(s): PATRIOTIC SERVICE

Birth:  CIRCA 1760   SOUTH BRANCH OF POTOMAC RIVER AUGUSTA CO VIRGINIA

Death: CIRCA 1828    BELMONT CO OHIO

Service Source: WITHERS, CHRONICLES OF BORDER WARFARE, PP 220, 357-359

Service Description: 

1) CARRIED GUNPOWDER TO FT HENRY

2) UNDER FIRE FROM THE ENEMY