horses came in succession after us. But we went on expeditiously, under every disadvantage, and arrived at Point Pleasant about the 1st of October, where we expected the Earl of Dunmore would meet us with his army, who was to have come down the river from Fort Pitt, as was previously determined between the commanders. In this expectation we were greatly disappointed; for his lordship pursued a different route, and had taken his march from Pittsburg, by land, towards the Shawanee towns. General Lewis, finding himself disappointed in meeting the Governor and his army at Point Pleasant, despatched two scouts up the river, by land, to Fort Pitt, to endeavor to learn the cause of the disappointment; and our army remained encamped, to wait their return.

During the time our scouts were going express up the river to Fort Pitt, the Governor had despatched three men, lately traders amongst the Indians, down the river, express to General Lewis, to inform him of his new plan and the route he was about to take, with instructions to pursue our march to the Shawanee towns, where he expected to assemble with us. But what calculations he might have made for delay or other disappointments which would be likely to happen to two armies under so long and difficult a march through a trackless wilderness, I never could guess; or how he could suppose they would assemble at a conjuncture so critical as the business then in question required, was never known to any body.

The Governor's express arrived at our encampment on Sunday, the 9th day of October,—and on that day it was my lot to command the guard. One of the men's name was M'Cullough, with whom I had made some acquaintance in Philadelphia, in the year 1766, at the Indian Queen, where we both happened to lodge. This man, supposing I was in Lewis's army, inquired and was told that I was on

guard. He made it his business to visit me, to renew our acquaintance; and in the course of our conversation, hẹ informed me he had recently left the Shawanee towns and gone to the Governor's camp. This made me desirous to know his opinion of our expected success in subduing the Indians, and whether he thought they would be presump tuous enough to offer to fight us, as we supposed we had a force superior to any thing they could oppose to us. He answered, “Aye, they will give you grinders, and that before long" and repeating it with an oath, swore we would get grinders very soon. I believe that he and his companions left our camp that evening, to return to the Governor's camp.

The next morning two young men had set out very early to hunt for deer; they happened to ramble up the (Ohio) river two or three miles, and on a sudden fell on the camp of the Indians, who had crossed the river the evening be fore, and were just about fixing for battle. They discov ered the young men and fired upon them; one was killed, the other escaped, and got into our camp just before sunrise. He stopped just before my tent, and I discovered a number of men collecting round him as I lay in my bed. I jumped up and approached him to know what was the alarm, when I heard him declare that he had seen above five acres of land covered with Indians, as thick as they could stand one beside another.

General Lewis immediately ordered a detachment of Augusta troops, under his brother Colonel Charles Lewis, and another detachment of the Botetourt troops, under Colonel William Fleming. These were composed of the companies commanded by the oldest captains; and the junior captains were ordered to stay in camp, to aid the others as occasion would require. The detachments marched out in two lines, and met the Indians in the same order

of march, about four hundred yards from our camp, and in sight of the guard. The Indians made the first fire and killed both the scouts in front of the two lines. Just as the sun was rising, a very heavy fire soon commenced, and Colonel Lewis was mortally wounded, but walked into camp and died a few minutes afterwards; observing to Colonel Charles Simms, with his last words, that he had sent one of the enemy to eternity before him. During his life it was his lot to have frequent skirmishes with the Indians, in which he was always successful; had gained much applause for his intrepidity, and was greatly beloved by his troops. Colonel Fleming was also wounded; and our men had given way some distance before they were reinforced by the other companies issuing in succession from the camp. The Indians in turn had to retreat, until they formed a line behind logs and trees, across from the bank of the Ohio to the bank of the Kenawha, and kept up their fire till sundown.

[In this action] we had seventy-five killed, and one hundred and forty wounded. Amongst the slain on our side, were Colonel Charles Lewis, Colonel John Fields, Capt. Buford, Captain Murray, Captain Ward, Captain Wilson, Captain Robert McClenachan, Lieutenant Allen, Lieutenant Goldsby, Lieutenant Dillon, and other subaltern offi

cers.

[The loss on the other side was never ascertained.] The Indians were exceedingly active in concealing their dead. I saw a young man draw out three, who were covered with leaves beside a large log, in the midst of the battle. Colonel Christian marched out next morning over the battle ground, and found twenty-one of the enemy slain on the ground. Twelve more were afterwards found, all concealed in one place; and the Indians confessed that they had thrown a number into the river in time of the battle; so

that it is possible that the slain on both sides were about equal.

The Indians were headed by their chief, the Cornstalk warrior, who, in his plan of attack and retreat discovered great military skill. On the evening of the day before the battle, when they were about to cross over the river, he proposed to the Indians that if they were agreed, he would come and talk with us, and endeavor to make peace; but they would not listen to him. On the next day, as we were informed, he killed one of the Indians for retreating in the battle, in a cowardly manner. I could hear him the whole day speaking very loud to his men; and one of my company, who had once been a prisoner, told me what he was saying; encouraging the Indians,— telling them-" be strong, be strong!"

After the battle, we had different accounts of the number of Indians who attacked us. Some asserted that they were upwards of one thousand; some said no more than four or five hundred. The correct number was never known to us; however, it was certain they were combined of different nations-Shawanese, Wyandotts, and Delawares. Of the former there is no doubt the whole strength of the nation was engaged in the battle.

None will suppose that we had a contemptible enemy to do with, who has any knowledge of the exploits performed by them. It was chiefly the Shawanese that cut off the British army under General Braddock, in the year 1755, only nineteen years before our battle, when the General himself, and Sir Peter Hackett, second in command, were both slain, and a mere remnant of the whole army only escaped. It was they, too, who defeated Major Grant and his Scotch Highlanders, at Fort Pitt, in 1758, where the whole of the troops were killed and taken prisoners. After our battle, they defeated all the flower of the first bold

and intrepid settlers of Kentucky, at the battle of the Blue Licks. There fell Colonel John Todd and Colonel Stephen Trigg. The whole of their men were almost cut to pieces. Afterwards they defeated the United States army, over the Ohio, commanded by General Harmar. And lastly, they defeated General Arthur St. Clair's great army, with prodigious slaughter. I believe it was never known that so many Indians were ever killed in any engagement with the white people, as fell by the army of General Lewis, at Point Pleasant.

General Lewis's army consisted chiefly of young volunteers, well trained to the use of arms, as hunting, in those days, was much practised, and preferred to agricultural pursuits by enterprising young men. The produce of the soil was of little value on the west side of the Blue Ridge— the ways bad, and the distance to market too great to make it esteemed. Such pursuits inured them to hardships and danger. We had more than every fifth man in our army killed or wounded in the battle,-but none were disheartened; all crossed the river with cheerfulness, bent on dẹstroying the enemy; and had they not been restrained by the Governor's orders, I believe they would have exterminated the Shawanese nation.

This battle was, in fact, the beginning of the revolutionary war that obtained for our country the liberty and independence enjoyed by the United States, (and a good presage of future success ;) for it is well known that the Indians were influenced by the British to commence the war to terrify and confound the people, before they commenced hostilities themselves the following year at Lexington, in Massachusetts. It was thought by British politicians, that to excite an Indian war would prevent a combination of the colonies for opposing Parliamentary measures to tax the Americans. The blood, therefore, spilt upon this mem