From the unpublished manuscript, Indian Atrocities Along the Clinch, Powell and Holston Rivers, pages 117-120.
On January 29, 1783, Col. Arthur Campbell, writing to the Governor of Virginia, (1) stated:
On Christmas day last (1782) the Indians attacked the house of John Ingles on Clinch, in this county, scalped and otherwise grieviously wounded a young man of the name of Fox, overtaken in ye field. The second day afterwards, as the enemy was making off towards the head of Sandy River, (they) came on three (3) hunters, two of whom they killed.
This attack at so uncommon a season, and not withstanding General Clark’s success, has disheartened the whole settlement of Clinch greatly - in so much that they have come to a resolution to abandon the river early in the spring, if some apparently effectual measures are not set on foot for their protection. A fort erect on Sandy River, west of the Laurel Ridge seems to me the only probable measure...
Colonel Campbell, in the above letter relating to the attack on the home of John English, (2) who in the year 1772, had settled on Sugar Hill overlooking the town of St. Paul, in now Wise County, Virginia, does not say what took place when the home was attacked. We must assume that no harm was suffered by the English family at this time. Campbell states that a young man named Cox, but gives no first name, was "overtaken in ye field" and slain. He does not say whether the field was at the English home, or at some more distant place. At that date the only record we have of a Cox family was those living in the vicinity of Blackmore’s Fort in now Scott County. It may be that Cox was killed in this vicinity.
Campbell further states that the second day afterwards, as the enemy was making off toward the head of Sandy River, they came across three hunters, two of whom they killed. In all probability these three hunters were James Green, and two whose names are doubtful, although some earlier historians has given their names as Charles Kilgore (error: Robert Kilgore, his brother), and a man named McKinney. There is, however, a discrepancy in dates given by Campbell and the actual date that James Green was killed. Campbell seems to "lump" all three events under the attack on Christmas day, and two days later, but in all probability it was the same band of Indians who were on the raiding party, and committed the acts to which he refers, commencing on the 25th of December, and committing the last act on the 31st, with the slaying of Cox sometime between.
E. M. Addington, History of Scott County, page 303, says:
In march, 1783 (incorrect date) Charles Kilgore (error: Robert Kilgore, his brother), James Green, and a man by the name of McKinney, left Ft. Blackmore and went to the Pound River in Wise County to hunt, and while there were surprised by the Indians, and Charles (Robert) and James Green were killed. McKinney made his escape and returned to the fort. A searching party led by McKinney found the bodies of Charles Kilgore (Robert Kilgore) and James Green, and buried them in the hollow of a large chestnut tree on the north bank of Pound Rive,r a short distance above the mouth of Indian Creek.
Mr. Addington is definitely wrong on the date that James Green was killed, but as to whether Charles Kilgore was killed or not there are facts that seem to deny it and others that seem to bear it out, as will be shown.
The date of the killing of James Green is proven by Russell Co., VA, Court Order Book 3, page 266, dated the 27th of December, 1803, which entry reads: "Ordered that it be certified to the Registrar of the Land Office that it is proven to this court that James Green is the son and heir at law of James Green, who was killed by the savages on the 31st of December, 1782, and that the said James Green, the younger was born on the 12th of February, 1783."
James Green who was slain was a son of Lewis Green, and had settled on Stony Creek near Blackmore’s Fort. He had married Jane, the daughter of Patrick and Ann Porter of Porter’s Fort, who was born September 9, 1761. James Green, Jr., born posthumously, was the only child of James and Jane Porter Green. James Green, Jr., married Dulcena, a daughter of Samuel and Jaelia Duncan Stallard. Sometime after the slaying of James Green, his widow married Robert Kilgore, and they built the old Kilgore fort house still standing in Scott Co., VA on Copper Creek, west of Nickelsville. Here they lived out the balance of their lives, and Robert, born June 30, 1765, dying on march 29, 1854, and his wife Jane, on September 25, 1842.
Charles Kilgore had emigrated from Orange Co., NC, and settled on the east side of Falling Creek, opposite Porter’s Fort, on a tract of 286 acres of land in the year 1773, with his wife, Winnie Clayton (error: Winnie was the wife of his brother, Robert Kilgore) and his family. He served and was wounded at the Battle of Kings Mountain. Both James Green and Charles Kilgore appear in the 1782 tithable lists of Washington Co., VA, but in 1783, only his wife Winnie appears, as does Jane Green, the wife of James. (Error: Charles Kilgore does appear on the 1783 Washington Co., VA Tithable list). This would seem to bear out the fact that both James Green and Charles Kilgore were dead in 1783.
Some aver that Charles Kilgore sold his land in Scott Co. and removed to Greene Co., TN, where he died. There is also evidence to bear out this assertion, that is, if the two Charles Kilgores were one and the same. Katherine Keagh White, in her book, King’s Mountain Men, says of this Charles that he was a Private under Campbell at King’s Mountain and was wounded. He was placed on the pension rolls of Greene Co. in 1809, and in 1820 he is listed as an invalid with an annual allowance of $48 a year.
Charles Kilgore had a son, Charles Kilgore, Jr., who was born in Orange Co., NC, January 4, 1764. Charles Kilgore, Jr., filed a Revolutionary pension claim in Davies Co., Indiana, in 1833, in which he tells of his serving on the Southwestern Virginia frontier as an Indian spy and guarding the frontier forts. No place in this pension statement does he mention being at the battle of King’s Mountain, but definitely lists all his services as on the frontier. This Charles Kilgore says that in 1787 he moved to Greene Co., TN, where he lived for six or seven years. If, as he says, he lived in Greene Co., six or seven years, then he could not have been the Charles who was pensioned in 1809. From Greene Co. he says he moved to Pendleton Co., SC, where he lived a few years, and then back t Washington Co., VA, thence to Wayne Co., KY, where he lived until 1815. This latter date would also eliminate him as the Charles who was allowed a pension in Greene Co., TN, in 1820. From Wayne Co., KY he moved to Lawrence, then on to Davies Counties in Indiana, where he died June 1, 1857. This Charles Kilgore was married to Avarilla Simpson, who was born February 28, 1776. She says in her application for a pension as his widow that they were married near a stream called "Cherokee River" in the state of Virginia. This probably means that they were married in Tennessee, which was at that time a territory of Virginia, and the "Cherokee" was another name for the Tennessee River.
(1) Virginia State Papers, Vol. III, page 424.
(2) This name is variantly spelled Ingles, Inglish, and English in the early records. John possibly may have been a brother of Captain Thomas Ingles whose family were captured in Burkes Garden in 1782. Thomas had a brother John.