sent at this battle is
uncertain; but his well-known character for ability and courage, renders
it probable that he took a part in the action.

The settlers, now aware that a general warfare would be commenced by
the Indians, immediately sent an express to Williamsburg, the seat of
government in Virginia, communicating their apprehensions, and
soliciting protection.

The Legislature was in session at the time, and it was immediately
resolved upon to raise an army of about three thousand men, and march
into the heart of the Indian country.

One half of the requisite number of troops was ordered to be raised in
Virginia, and marched under General Andrew Lewis across the country to
the mouth of the Kenhawa; and the remainder to be rendezvoused at Fort
Pitt, and be commanded by Dunmore in person, who proposed to descend the
Ohio and join Lewis at the place mentioned, from where the combined
army was to march as circumstances might dictate at the time.

By the 11th of September the troops under General Lewis, numbering about
eleven hundred men, were in readiness to leave. The distance across to
the mouth of the Kenhawa, was near one hundred and sixty miles through
an unbroken wilderness. A competent guide was secured, the baggage
mounted on pack horses, and in nineteen days they arrived at the place
of destination.

The next morning after the arrival of the army at Point Pleasant, as the
point of land at the junction of the Kenhawa and the Ohio was called,
two men were out some distance from the camp, in pursuit of a deer, and
were suddenly fired upon by a large body of Indians; one was killed,
and the other with difficulty retreated back to the army; who hastily
reported "that he had seen a body of the enemy covering four acres of
ground, as closely as they could stand by the side of each other."

General Lewis was a remarkably cool and considerate man; and upon being
informed of this, "after deliberately lighting his pipe," gave orders
that the regiment under his brother, Colonel Charles Lewis, and another
under Colonel Fleming, should march and reconnoiter the enemy, while he
would place the remainder of the troops in order for battle. The two
regiments marched without delay, and had not proceeded more than four
hundred yards when they were met by the Indians, approaching for the
same purpose. A skirmish immediately ensued, and before the contest had
continued long, the colonels of the two regiments fell mortally wo