I have adapted this article from a secondary-school textbook published by Silver Burdett. I find the article to be thorough and easily understood; however, I have not verified all the information included. I have assumed that this history textbook is accurate, but if you know of any errors, please point them out.
Please note that there are many articles about the Lewis family. Here’s another one in The History of Greenbrier County.
A short while after Joist Hite settled near where Winchester now stands, then a part of Spotsylvania county, John Lewis came with his family into the upper Shenandoah Valley, and settled in Augusta County.
Lewis was an Irish gentleman with a Scottish heritage, and his wife, Margaret Lynn, was of noble ancestry. In Ireland, he lived on the property of a cruel landlord, who, becoming jealous of the prosperity of his tenant, tried to make Lewis give up his lease. When the latter refused, the nobleman came with some men, attacked Lewis's house, and fired upon it without notice, killing an invalid brother. This so enraged Lewis that, with his servants, he killed the nobleman and his steward.
He afterward fled from Ireland, came to America, and was perhaps the first white man to settle in Augusta County. His home was only a few miles from Staunton, which city he founded. The year was 1732. [However, other sources say 1737.]
Below: Staunton, Virginia, 125 years later (1857)
Soon after Lewis settled in the Valley, he visited Williamsburg, where he met with Benjamin Borden, who, greatly pleased with Lewis's accounts of the Valley, decided to cross the Blue Ridge and explore that region.
About an 80-hour (3 or 4 days) walk (current map)
At that time buffaloes roamed the Valley. One day the sons of John Lewis caught a little buffalo calf, which they presented to Borden. On returning to Williamsburg, Borden gave it to Governor Gooch, who was so delighted with this unusual pet that he authorized Borden to take up five hundred thousand acres of land at the headwaters of the Shenandoah and James Rivers (Augusta and Rockbridge counties), on the condition that he would send settlers into the Valley.
Borden at once brought colonists from England, and soon there were thriving settlements in this region, then a part of Orange County. In 1738, the country west of the Blue Ridge was organized into two counties: one called Frederick, and the other Augusta.1
The early inhabitants of the Valley were chiefly Irish Presbyterians, who, being of Scottish extraction, were called Scots-Irish. Though everybody in Virginia was supposed to conform to the Church of England, Governor Gooch allowed these Presbyterians to build homes in the Valley without any interference. They made a splendid defense for the frontier, and as a people were "firm, enterprising, hardy, and brave." Being violently opposed to any form of tyranny, they were among the first to take an active part against the King at the time of the Revolution.
The Lewises were Scots-Irish also, and their lives clearly indicated what type of men they were. The eldest son of John Lewis was Thomas Lewis, who, on account of his poor eyesight, could not take part in the Indian wars which harassed the settlers on the frontier. He was, however, a man of prominence in Augusta, which county he represented in the House of Burgesses when he voted in favor of Patrick Henry's famous resolutions of 1765 opposing the Stamp Act. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention that formed the first Virginia Constitution and of the convention which ratified the Constitution of the United States in 1788. His home was in that part of Augusta which was made into Rock-ingham county in 1778.
Another son of John was William Lewis, who fought in many wars against the Indians and was an officer in the Revolutionary Army when Tarleton drove the Virginia Legislature rom Charlottesville. At that time, William Lewis was unable to go to the defense of his state on account of sickness, but his wife told her three sons, who were only 13, 15, and 17 years of age, to prepare for war, saying: "Go, my children, keep back the foot of the invader from the soil of Augusta or see my face no more."
When this story was reported to Washington, he said, "Leave me but a banner to plant upon the mountains of Augusta, and I will rally around me the men who will lift our bleeding country from the dust and set her free."
For daring deeds, Charles Lewis, the youngest son, was well known, and many a story has been repeated about him around the firesides of the Valley. On one occasion, Charles was taken prisoner by the Indians, who, having bound his hands behind him, were marching him barefooted across the Alleghenies. All the while, he was looking for an opportunity to escape.
Finally, as he was passing along the edge of a deep ravine through which ran a swift mountain stream, he plunged fearlessly over the precipice, and as he did so, he succeeded in breaking the cords which bound his hands. The Indians jumped after him and chased him down the ravine. But he ran across a field, leaped over some fallen trees, and hid himself in the tall weeds. The Indians failed to find him, although they made a long and faithful search. While Lewis was lying hidden in the grass, he perceived a huge rattlesnake coiled and ready to attack. He knew that if he shuddered or even winked his eye that the rattlesnake would strike, so he kept perfectly still for more than an hour until the rattlesnake crossed over his body and crawled away. Charles Lewis became a major in the Virginia Militia and fell, bravely fighting the Indians, at Point Pleasant.
But the best known of the sons of John Lewis was General Andrew Lewis, who was born in Ireland, probably about the year 1716. In personal appearance, he was very imposing, being more than six feet tall. He had a giant's frame, and it was said that the "earth seemed to rumble under him as he walked along." He was stern of countenance and repulsive to those who did not know him well. To the Indians, the mention of his name brought terror.
When he was a very young man, he was engaged in many fights with the Indians, for the Valley had hardly been settled when Indians from the borders of the Ohio River crossed the Alleghenies, destroying many homes and killing many settlers. Among the first to take arms against the savages were the Lewis brothers.
In 1756, Governor Dinwiddie determined to send an expedition against the Shawnee Indians, who lived on the Ohio River near the mouth of Big Sandy River. For this undertaking, Major Andrew Lewis was selected to command the forces. His little army had a long march through a great wilderness, for there were few settlements west of the Allegheny Mountains, the first settlers having gone to that region about 1748.
After a month's time, all of the provisions of the little army had been consumed, but the troops managed to live upon the elks and buffaloes that they shot in the forests. Lewis, failing to find the Indians, returned to Augusta.
Governor Dinwiddie was displeased because nothing had been accomplished and wrote that "Major Lewis and his men did not know the way to the Shawnee towns." Although Lewis had been unsuccessful in this expedition, the governor soon afterward sent him with a force into the Cherokee country. Lewis proceeded and built a fort on the Tennessee River about thirty miles south of the present site of Knoxville.
In the meantime, it was reported that the French and Indians were marching from Fort Duquesne (in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania) and were going to attack Winchester, so the governor called out the militia of ten counties to serve under Washington. Lewis was ordered to raise a company of Cherokees and to join Washington, but the Indians were unwilling to serve, and when Lewis returned from Cherokee country, he brought only seven warriors and three women instead of four hundred warriors as had been expected. Governor Dinwiddie was again greatly disappointed, but he then learned that the Virginians could not hope to enlist the Southern Indians to fight the French and the Indians of the Northwest.
The people of Augusta were in constant fear of the Indian raids so long as the French remained in control of the Northwest; therefore, Lewis kept the militia of the county in readiness for any emergency. Great was their joy when it became known that William Pitt, the great English statesman, was determined to capture Fort Duquesne and Quebec and drive the French from North America. General Forbes was sent in 1758 to take Fort Duquesne, and Washington joined him with about eighteen hundred Virginia soldiers, of whom two companies were under the command of Major Andrew Lewis.
On arriving in the neighborhood of Fort Duquesne, Forbes sent Major Grant with eight hundred men, including Major Lewis and his two companies, to reconnoiter the place.
Major Grant, refusing to take advice, allowed himself to be entrapped by the Indians. Lewis was left to guard the baggage, while Grant and his troops went to examine the condition of the garrison. Suddenly, Grant was attacked by the Indians, who were hidden behind trees and could not be seen. The British regulars were driven back with great loss. Lewis, hearing the noise of the battle, hastened with his troops to the scene of action.
He and his men were attacked by the Indians with tomahawks and scalping-knives. Lewis fought hand-to-hand with an Indian warrior, whom he killed. Finding himself surrounded by the Indians, he surrendered to a French soldier in order to save his life. He was treated with great indignity, stripped of all his clothing and carried as a prisoner to the fort. It is not known how long he remained in prison, but he was probably released when General Forbes captured Fort Duquesne.
After the French were driven out of the Northwest, there were few Indian raids into Augusta County, and for some time, little was heard of Andrew Lewis.
Settlers came in great numbers to the Valley, so by 1769, it was felt that Augusta County ought to be divided again. The southern part, then including all of Southwest Virginia, was cut off and made into Botetourt County. In this section, not far from the present site of Salem, Andrew Lewis lived, and when Botetourt was formed, he was made a Justice of the Peace for that county.
In 1774, the Governor of Virginia was Lord Dunmore. Many settlers, by this time, had pushed their way across the Allegheny Mountains, and some had their eyes turned to Kentucky; but no county had been organized west of the Alleghenies. The Indians along the Ohio River, fearing that they would lose their lands, rose against the whites, burned many settlements and killed the settlers. In retaliation, some of the frontiersmen had attacked and killed the entire family of an Indian chief named Logan. This brought on a general war along the frontier, and Lord Dunmore at once prepared to defend the western settlements.
Andrew Lewis was appointed Brigadier General, and he immediately raised a force of eleven hundred men, chiefly from Augusta, Botetourt, Culpeper, and Bedford Counties. These men were bold and brave frontiersmen. They wore fringed hunting shirts died yellow, white, brown and even red. Quaintly carved shot-bags and powder-horns hung from their broad belts. They had fur caps or soft hats, moccasins, and coarse woolen leggings reaching halfway up the thigh. Each carried his flintlock, his tomahawk, and scalping knife.
With such men, Lewis marched from Lewisburg, in what is now Greenbrier County, one hundred and sixty miles through the wilderness to the juncture of the Ohio and the Kanawha Rivers, and took up his position on the point of land between the rivers known as Point Pleasant. Here, he expected to be joined by Lord Dunmore, who commanded an army raised in Frederick and the adjoining counties in Northern Virginia. Dunmore did not arrive, but sent messages to Lewis that he had gone to attack the Shawnee towns across the Ohio and ordered Lewis to cross the river and join him. Before Lewis could obey, he was attacked by the Indian leader, Cornstalk, with two thousand men. The battle was a fierce and bloody struggle. The fighting was done at close range. Each man sheltered himself behind a stump, a rock, or a tree trunk.
The Indians fully expected to gain the victory, but the frontiersmen under Andrew Lewis were too valiant for their enemy. When the savages began to waver, the voice of Cornstalk could be heard above the din of battle calling to his warriors: "Be strong! Be strong!" After a desperate resistance, the Indians broke and fled.
The victory was decisive, but it was expensive. The Virginians suffered heavy losses. Two colonels, seven captains, three lieutenants, and 75 militiamen were killed, and 140 wounded. Out of every five men one was dead or wounded. The Indians lost even more heavily and were never again able to meet the Virginians in open battle.2
Less than a year after the battle of Point Pleasant, the Revolutionary War was at hand, and the Virginians were preparing to drive Lord Dunmore from the colony. It was believed that Dunmore had encouraged the Indians at Point Pleasant, so that the Virginians might be made too weak to contend with England. Whether this is true or not, Lord Dunmore was certainly an unprincipled man. The honor of having driven him out of Virginia belongs to Andrew Lewis. When the Revolutionary War began, Andrew Lewis accepted a Brigadier-Generalship in the army at Washington’s request, and he took charge of the Virginia troops stationed at Williamsburg in 1776.3
Before this time, Lord Dunmore, for fear of the Virginia people, had left Williamsburg on his warship Fowey, and had seized Norfolk. Colonel Woodford of Caroline County was sent against him, and at Great Bridge, about twelve miles from Norfolk, a detachment of the British were defeated, whereupon Lord Dunmore was forced to abandon Norfolk. In May, 1776, Lord Dunmore, with five hundred men, including Negro slaves whom he had stolen from the Virginians, had established himself at Gwyn's Island in the Chesapeake Bay on the east side of Matthews County. Lewis at once went to Matthews County to drive Dunmore away or to capture him. Two batteries having been planted on the shores, a vigorous cannonade was opened against Dunmore's fleet which lay between the shore and the island. The fleet was badly damaged. The next day Lewis sent Colonel McClanahan with two hundred men to the island, but before he could land, the English had made their escape. When Dunmore sailed from Gwyn's Island, he left Virginia, never to return.
What loss Lewis inflicted on Dunmore's troops is not known. One hundred and thirty graves were counted on the island and many dead bodies were found, but most of the deaths were due to smallpox, which had raged on the fleet and among the slaves whom he had taken from their masters.
For four years of the Revolutionary War, Lewis served as a Brigadier General, in which position he never had a good opportunity to display his military genius. In 1780, he resigned his command in the Army, probably on account of ill health. He started home, but on reaching Colonel Buford's in Bedford County, he was taken ill and soon died. His body was carried across the Blue Ridge and buried on his plantation, "Dropmore," near Salem, in what is now Roanoke County, but at that time was a part of Botetourt.
Lewis's services to Virginia should never be forgotten. He, above all others, saved Virginia from the Indians, and drove from the state Lord Dunmore, the most unworthy governor that Virginia ever had. In 1857, when the famous Washington Monument in the Capitol Square at Richmond was unveiled, Virginia did honor to the services of Lewis by placing his statue on that monument along with Mason, Jefferson, Marshall, Henry, and Nelson. There you may see Lewis in the dress of a western pioneer, with his trusty hunting knife at his side and his faithful rifle in his hand.
SOURCE: Adapted from Makers of Virginia History, by Chandler, J. A. C. (Julian Alvin Carroll), published by Silver Burdett, 1904.
Augusta then included all the territory now embraced in Southwest Virginia and the seven states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, though as yet no pioneers had crossed the Allegheny.
We are not to suppose, however, that there were not Indian raids from time to time. These occurred frequently, and every pioneer barred his doors at night and kept his gun at the head of his bed as he slept, not knowing at what time the Indians might attack. The women, as well as the men, often engaged in warfare against the Indians. Such a woman was " Mad Ann" of Allegheny County, the wife of John Bailey, a soldier killed at the battle of Point Pleasant. She went about dressed in a woman's skirt and a man's coat, a rifle on her shoulder and a tomahawk and butcher knife in her belt. She could climb the steepest mountain whether it was severe winter or hot summer. She often left home and no one knew her whereabouts, and when she returned, she always brought the scalps of some Indians. Sometimes she engaged in hand to hand fights with the Indians. She lived to be a very old woman and died in 1825. Her story is but an indication of the rough pioneer life before and after the time of the Revolution.With the battle of Point Pleasant, open warfare with the Indians was at an end, but the settlers like " Mad Ann" often had to hunt their enemy as they would hunt wolves.
The story is told that Washington wanted Lewis to be made Commander-in-Chief, but Congress forced the position on Washington himself. He recommended Lewis for a Major-Generalship, but Congress chose someone else.