| Information copied from book "Benge!" by Lawrence J. Fleenor, Jr. |
| In the summer of 1791 Benge announced his plans to raid into his favorite hunting grounds in southwest Virginia. At Running Water Town he called for volunteers, and five men agreed to accompany him. Ferris's (Farris) Station guarded one of the most important intersections on the frontier. The Great Warrior's Path, or the Wilderness Trail, came down the Great Valley of Virginia from the east and merged briefly with the main trail connecting the Cherokee towns with the Shawnee in Ohio and then together they passed northward through Moccasin Gap. At the upper end of Moccasin Gap the trail to Ohio split off on its way by Fort Blackmore, while the Wilderness Trail took off on its western course. In between this fork lay the road to Carter's Fort at Rye Cove. August 26th Benge and his war party fell upon the Ferris's Station blockhouse and killed Elisha and carried his wife, a daughter referred to as Mrs. Livingston, Nancy Ferris, and a young child into captivity. The next day all but Nancy were murdered. On the same raid near the northern side of Moccasin Gap, Benge and his five warriors killed and scalped Mrs. William McDowell and seventeen year old Frances Pendleton. Reuben Pendleton was wounded and Mrs. Pendleton and a boy of eight were carried along with Nancy Ferris into captivity. Loaded with scalps and in possession of two young white females, and a young boy, and crowned with honor for having terrorized with impunity the main emigrant trails on the frontier, Benge and his war party returned to winter at Running Water Town. As proof of his successes, the State of Virginia offered a cash reward for him, dead or alive. See "Petition to the Governor of Virginia - April 1794" |