University of Virginia Library

GENERAL ANDREW LEWIS.

We greatly regret our inability to give in the present edition,
a comprehensive biography of this distinguished man.
We were promised through a member of the family, material
necessary to prepare the sketch proposed, but having been
disappointed, it will be impossible to do more now than present
a brief notice of the family, written by a gentleman of

the Valley, whose position and relationship enables him to
state many interesting facts of family history which otherwise
might have escaped attention.

"John Lewis was a native and citizen of Ireland, descended
from a family of Huguenots, who took refuge in that
kingdom from the persecutions that followed the assassination
of Henry IV. of France. His rank was that of an esquire,
and he inherited a handsome estate, which he increased by
industry and frugality, until he became the lessee of a contiguous
property, of considerable value. He married Margaret
Lynn, daughter of the laird of Loch Lynn, who was
a descendant of the chieftains of a once powerful clan in the
Scottish Highlands. By this marriage he had four sons,
three of them, Thomas, Andrew, and William, born in Ireland,
and Charles, the child of his old age, born a few months
after their settlement in their mountain home.

"For many years after the settlement at Fort Lewis,[15] great
amity and goodwill existed between the neighboring Indians
and the white settlers, whose numbers increased until they
became quite a formidable colony. It was then that the
jealousy of their red neighbors became aroused, and a war
broke out, which, for cool though desperate courage and
activity on the part of the whites, and ferocity, cunning and
barbarity on the part of the Indians, was never equalled in
any age or country. John Lewis was, by this time, well
stricken in years, but his four sons, who were grown up, well
qualified to fill his place, and to act the part of the leader to
the gallant little band, who so nobly battled for the protection
of their homes and families. It is not my purpose to go
into the details of a warfare, during which scarcely a settlement
was exempt from monthly attacks of the savages, and
during which Charles Lewis, the youngest son of John, is
said never to have spent one month at a time out of active

and arduous service. Charles was the hero of many a gallant
exploit, which is still treasured in the memories of the descendants
of the border riflemen, and there are few families
among the Alleghanies where the name and deeds of Charles
Lewis are not familiar as household words. On one occasion
he was captured by the Indians while on a hunting excursion,
and after travelling over two hundred miles barefooted, his
arms pinioned behind, and goaded by the knives of his remorseless
captors, he effected his escape. While travelling
along the bank of a precipice some twenty feet in height, he
suddenly, by a strong muscular exertion, burst the cords
which bound him, and plunged down the steep into the bed of
a mountain torrent. His persecutors hesitated not to follow.
In a race of several hundred yards, Lewis had gained some
few yards upon his pursuers, when, upon leaping a fallen
tree which lay across his course, his strength suddenly failed
and he fell prostrate among the weeds which had grown up
in great luxuriance around the body of the tree. Three of
the Indians sprung over the tree within a few feet of where
their prey lay concealed; but with a feeling of the most
devout thankfulness to a kind and superintending Providence,
he saw them one by one disappear in the dark recesses of the
forest. He now bethought himself of rising from his uneasy
bed, when lo! a new enemy appeared, in the shape of an
enormous rattlesnake, who had thrown himself into the deadly
coil so near his face that his fangs were within a few inches
of his nose; and his enormous rattle, as it waved to and fro,
once rested upon his ear. A single contraction of the eyelid—a
convulsive shudder—the relaxation of a single muscle,
and the deadly beast would have sprung upon him. In this
situation he lay for several minutes, when the reptile, probably
snpposing him to be dead, crawled over his body and moved
slowly away. `I had eaten nothing,' said Lewis to his companions,
after his return, `for many days; I had no fire-arms,
and I ran the risk of dying with hunger, ere I could reach
the settlement; but rather would I have died, than made a
meal of the generous beast.' During this war, an attack was
made upon the settlement of Fort Lewis, at a time when the
whole force of the settlement was out on active duty. So
great was the surprise, that many of the women and children
were captured in sight of the fort, though far the greater
part escaped, and concealed themselves in the woods. The
fort was occupied by John Lewis, then very old and infirm,
his wife, and two young women, who were so much alarmed
that they scarce moved from their seats upon the ground floor
of the fort. John Lewis, however, opened a port-hole, where
he stationed himself, firing at the savages, while Margaret
reloaded the guns. In this manner he sustained a siege of
six hours, during which he killed upwards of a score of
savages, when he was relieved by the appearance of his
party.

"Thomas Lewis, the eldest son, labored under a defect of
vision, which disabled him as a marksman, and he was, therefore,
less efficient during the Indian wars than his brothers.
He was, however, a man of learning and sound judgment,
and represented the county of Augusta many years in the
House of Burgesses; was a member of the convention which
ratified the constitution of the United States, and formed the
constitution of Virginia, and afterwards sat for the county
of Rockingham in the House of Delegates of Virginia. In
1765, he was in the House of Burgesses, and voted for
Patrick Henry's celebrated resolutions. Thomas Lewis had
four sons actively participating in the war of the Revolution;
the youngest of whom, Thomas, who is now living, bore an
ensign's commission when but fourteen years of age.

"Andrew, the second son of John Lewis and Margaret
Lynn, is the General Lewis who commanded at the battle of
Point Pleasant.

"Charles Lewis, the youngest of the sons of John Lewis,
fell at the head of his regiment, when leading on the attack
at Point Pleasant. Charles was esteemed the most skilful of
all the leaders of the border warfare, and was as much beloved

for his noble and amiable qualities as he was admired
for his military talents.

"William, the third son, was an active participator in the
border wars, and was an officer of the revolutionary army,
in which one of his sons was killed, and another maimed for
life. When the British force under Tarleton drove the legislature
from Charlottesville to Staunton, the stillness of the
Sabbath eve was broken in the latter town by the beat of the
drum, and volunteers were called to prevent the passage
of the British through the mountains at Rockfish Gap. The
elder sons of William Lewis, who then resided at the old fort,
were absent with the northern army. Three sons, however,
were at home, whose ages were seventeen, fifteen and thirteen
years. Wm. Lewis was confined to his room by sickness, but
his wife, with the firmness of a Roman matron, called them
to her, and bade them fly to the defence of their native land.
`Go my children,' said she, `I spare not my youngest, the
comfort of my declining years. I devote you all to my
country. Keep back the foot of the invader from the soil of
Augusta, or see my face no more.' When this incident was
related to Washington, shortly after its occurrence, he enthusiastically
exclaimed, `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.'

"I have frequently heard, when a boy, an anecdote related
by an old settler, somewhat to this effect:—The white, or
wild clover, is of indigenous growth, and abounded on the
banks of the rivers, etc. The red was introduced by John
Lewis, and it was currently reported by their prophets, and
believed by the Indians generally, that the blood of the red
men slain by the Lewises and their followers, had dyed the
trefoil to its sanguine hue. The Indians, however, always
did the whites the justice to say, that the Red man was the
aggressor in their first quarrel, and that the white men of

Western Virginia had always evinced a disposition to treat
their red brethren with moderation and justice."

Andrew Lewis, with four of his brothers, were in the expedition
of Braddock, and exhibited marked courage and
caution. Samuel commanded the company, and acquitted
himself with great ability. Andrew Lewis was twice wounded
at the siege of Fort Necessity. After the amnesty, and
as the Virginians were marching off, an Irishman became
displeased with an Indian, and "cursing the copper-headed
scoundrel," elevated his gun to fire. At that moment, Major
Lewis, who, crippled, was passing along, raised his staff and
knocked up the muzzle of the Irishman's rifle, thus doubtless
preventing a general massacre.

Major Lewis was made prisoner at Grant's defeat, and his
bearing on that occasion (elsewhere noticed) on discovering the
treachery of Grant, was a true characteristic of the man.

Washington, at an early day, formed an exalted opinion of
General Lewis's ability as a military commander. On the
breaking out of the Revolution, he recommended him to Congress
"as one of the major-generals of the American army—
a recommendation which was slighted, in order to make room
for General Stephens. It is also said, that when Washington
was commissioned as commander-in-chief, he expressed a
wish that the appointment had been given to General Lewis.
Upon this slight in the appointment of Stephens, Washington
wrote General Lewis a letter, which is published in his correspondence,
expressive of his regret at the course pursued
by Congress, and promising that he should be promoted to the
first vacancy. At his solicitation, Lewis accepted the commision
of brigadier-general, and was soon after ordered to
the command of a detachment of the army stationed near
Williamsburg. He commanded the Virginia troops when
Lord Dunmore was driven from Gwynn's Island, in 1776, and
announced his orders for attacking the enemy by putting a
match to the first gun, an eighteen-pounder, himself.

"General Lewis resigned his command in 1780, to return
home, being seized ill with a fever. He died on his way, in
Bedford county, about forty miles from his own house, on the
Roanoke, lamented by all acquainted with his meritorious
services and superior qualities.

" `General Lewis,' says Stuart, in his Historical Memoir,
`was upwards of six feet high, of uncommon strength and
agility, and his form of the most exact symmetry. He had
a stern and invincible countenance, and was of a reserved
and distant deportment, which rendered his presence more
awful than engaging. He was a commissioner with Dr.
Thomas Walker, to hold a treaty, on behalf of the colony of
Virginia, with the six nations of Indians, together with the
commissioners from Pennsylvania, New York, and other
eastern provinces, held at Fort Stanwix, in the province of
New York, in the year 1768. It was then remarked by the
governor of New York, that "the earth seemed to tremble
under him as he walked along." His independent spirit despised
sycophantic means of gaining popularity, which never
rendered more than his merits extorted.' "