Archibald Scott

Much has been written about the Indian attack that claimed the lives of Archibald Scott and his children. See:

The Tragedy of Wallen's Creek http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~varussel/indian/68.html

and many others online.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~varussel/other/forts.html -

SCOTT'S FORT

Leaving the waters of Clinch and crossing through Kane’s Gap of Powell Mountain we come to the headwaters of Wallen’s Creek, a tributary of Powell River and Scott’s Fort. This was the home of Archibald Scott, built in 1775, and nothing more than a fort-house and not stockaded. It stood on a section of the old Kentucky Trace and was a noted stop-over for emigrants travelling to Kentucky.

Archibald Scott and his four children were massacred. Here on the evening of June 20, 1785, and his wife, Fanny, taken captive and carried north by the Indians, presumably led by the half breed Benge. She eventually escaped and returned to the Clinch frontier where her story has become one of the classical Indian stories of Virginia’s last frontier.

After the destruction of the Scott family the old fort became the home of Robert Duff, who had married Fanny Scott’s niece and remained a famous stop-over on the Kentucky Trace for many years afterwards.

Scott and his children were buried near the old fort house, but no markers were ever erected at their graves and today only the general location of their resting place is known. The Duff family graves are well marked and it is interesting to read the epitaphs of some four or five members of the family who served in the Confederate Army.