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APPENDIX A 
SKETCH OF COLONEL CHARLES LEWIS 

Lewis County, whose pioneers made a brilliant rec- 
ord in the Revolution and the Indian wars which suc- 
ceeded it, was appropriately named for Colonel Charles 
Lewis. Of all the Indian fighters of Virginia he was 
perhaps the most intrepid in time of danger, the most 
tireless in pursuit and the most skillful in planning a 
campaign. He had no peer among the scouts on the bor- 
der. Fifty years after his death there were few fam- 
ilies in Northwestern Virginia in which the name and 
deeds of Charles Lewis were not familiar household 
words. 

Colonel Lewis, like most of the people of western 
Virginia, was of Scotch-Irish descent. He was born in 
Virginia a short time after the emigration of his parents 
to the New World in 1730. In 1733 his father settled 
near the present site of Staunton in what is now Augusta 
County, Virginia. The pioneer home of the Lewises 
was then on the most western frontier of Virginia, and 
the primeval forests surrounded it on every side. Young 
Charles Lewis during his early life was inured to the 
perils and hardships of the wilderness. From his earliest 
recollections he had been taught to fear and hate the 
Indians. As soon as he was old enough he entered the 
service of the Virginia colony against the French and 
Indians, and it is said that from the time of his first en- 
listment until the date of his death he was never out of 
the service a whole year. In the French and Indian war, 
he was regarded as one of the most promising young 
officers in the Virginia service. When Lord Dunmore 
led his expedition against the Ohio Indians Charles 
Lewis was in command of one of the regiments in the 
army of his brother, General Andrew Lewis. 

When the Virginia army was surprised by the In- 
dians at Point Pleasant Colonel Lewis formed his men 
hastily, and without taking time to remove the red coat 
which he was wearing, he led his men to repel the as- 
sault. His conspicuous dress made him an easy target 
for the Indian marksmen, and he fell mortally wounded 
at the first onset. Against his will he was removed to 
his tent where he expired within a few hours. 

Withers, in his "Border Warfare", pays the follow- 
ing tribute to the hero of the battle of Point Pleasant: 
"Few officers were ever more, or more deservedly, en- 
deared to those under their command than Col. Charles 
Lewis. In the many skirmishes, which it was his for- 
tune to have with the Indians he was uncommonly suc- 
cessful; and in the various scenes of life, thro' which he 
passed, his conduct was invariably marked by the dis- 
tinguished characteristicks of a mind, of no ordinary 
stamp. His early fall on this bloody field, was severely 
felt during the whole engagement; and to it has been 
attributed the partial advantages gained by the Indian 
army near the commencement of the action." 

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