Both officers were wounded, Charles Lewis
fatally. The battle, which continued from dawn until an hour
before sunset, was the bloodiest in Virginia's long series of
Indian wars. The frontiersmen fought as such men ever
fought--with the daring, bravery, swiftness of attack, and skill
in taking cover which were the tactics of their day, even as at a
later time many of these same men fought at King's Mountain and
in Illinois the battles that did so much to turn the tide in the
Revolution.*
* With Andrew Lewis on this day were Isaac Shelby and William
Campbell, the victorious leaders at King's Mountain, James
Robertson, the "father of Tennessee," Valentine Sevier, Daniel
Morgan, hero of the Cowpens, Major Arthur Campbell, Benjamin
Logan, Anthony Bledsoe, and Simon Kenton. With Dunmore's force
were Adam Stephen, who distinguished himself at the Brandywine,
George Rogers Clark, John Stuart, already noted through the
Cherokee wars, and John Montgomery, later one of Clark's four
captains in Illinois. The two last mentioned were Highlanders.
Clark's Illinois force was largely recruited from the troops who
fought at Point Pleasant.
Colonel Preston wrote to Patrick Henry that the enemy behaved
with "inconceivable bravery," the head men walking about in the
time of action exhorting their men to "lie close, shoot well, be
strong, and fight.
Pages:
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130