Military experiences
In 1794, when Lewis was twenty years of age, the so-called
Whisky Rebellion, against a federal excise tax, broke out in
Western
Pennsylvania, and threatened to spread
into Virginia and Maryland.
President Washington
issued a requisition
for some thirteen thousand
militia from New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Virginia,
and this force
promptly marched towards the seat of
disturbance, thus speedily causing the subsidence of
what was
practically an insurrection against the national government.
Lewis enlisted as a private in this little army, and at the close
of
the disturbance was given employment in the regular service
—
originally as ensign in the First Infantry (May 1, 1795),
later as first
lieutenant, and then captain (1797) in the same
regiment. He served with
distinction under General Wayne,
in the latter's Northwestern campaigns,
and in the first year
of his captaincy was in charge of the infantry in
Captain Isaac
Guion's expedition to take over the Spanish posts in Mississippi.
[5]
He also
was for several years the paymaster of his
regiment.
[6]
