The second siege of Fort Henry was a three-day engagement during the American Revolutionary War that began on September 11, 1782. A force of about 260 Wyandot, Shawnee, Mingo and Lenape attacked Fort Henry, an American fortification at what is now Wheeling, West Virginia. They were accompanied by 40 soldiers from Butler's Rangers, a British provincial regiment. The siege was one of the last engagements of the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, the story of the siege became well known to Americans due to the "gunpowder exploit" of Betty Zane.
Built in 1774 during Lord Dunmore's War on a bluff above the Ohio River, Fort Henry protected the settlers who began moving into the area in 1769. By 1782, roughly 25 families were living in the vicinity of the fort, including Ebenezer Zane and his brother Silas.
The fort's wooden palisade enclosed an area of about half an acre with bastions at each corner. Inside was a magazine, barracks, several cabins, and a well. A swivel gun was mounted on the roof of the barracks. Fort Henry did not have a regular garrison and was usually unoccupied. Most of the available gunpowder was stored in Zane's fortified house about 70 yards (64 m) from the fort.
During the Revolutionary War, the area was subjected to a number of raids by Native Americans. Before 1782, the most significant was a brief siege in September 1777 that saw a few hundred Wyandot, Mingo, Shawnee, and Lenape attempt to storm the fort.
During the summer of 1782, British Indian Department officials assembled an army of Wyandot, Shawnee, Mingo and Lenape warriors at the Shawnee village of Chillicothe. In August, several hundred of these warriors crossed the Ohio River with Captain William Caldwell's company of Butler's Rangers and attacked Bryan Station. They later defeated a body of Kentucky militia at the Battle of Blue Licks. In September, roughly 260 warriors and 40 Butler's Rangers under the command of Captain Andrew Bradt besieged Fort Henry.
John Lynn, an American scout, spotted Bradt's expedition a few hours before it reached Fort Henry. This gave the inhabitants time to flee to the fort and man the walls. Ebenezer Zane elected to remain in his fortified house along with a few family members, friends, and two slaves, while his brother Silas took command of the fort. Silas had fewer than 20 men to defend the fort, while roughly forty women and children sheltered inside. Silas's and Ebenezer's teenage sister, Betty, was among them.
Zane reported that when Bradt's force reached Fort Henry on September 11, they “formed their lines round the garrison, paraded British colors, and demanded the fort to be surrendered, which was refused." Around midnight, the rangers and warriors attempted to storm the fort and set it alight, but were driven back. Two more attempts were made that night, both on the fort and on Zane's blockhouse.
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) grew from colonial resistance to British taxation without parliamentary representation — a dispute that radicalized through the Stamp Act (1765), the Townshend Acts (1767), and the Boston Massacre (1770). Fighting began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775; the Continental Congress declared independence on July 4, 1776. The Continental Army under George Washington faced severe shortages of supplies and troops, enduring the brutal winter at Valley Forge (1777–1778) before French alliance and French financing turned the military balance. Major engagements included Bunker Hill (1775), Trenton (1776), Saratoga (1777) — which secured French intervention — and Yorktown (1781), where British General Cornwallis surrendered to Washington. An estimated 25,000 American soldiers died in service, from combat, disease, and captivity. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded British territory east of the Mississippi, though it left unresolved questions about Indigenous land rights and the status of Loyalists.
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