POINT PLEASANT, BATTLE OF, Oct. 10, 1774, between colonial troops of Vir ginia under gen. Andrew Lewis, and the Shu•anees, Delawares, and other Indians of the northern confederacy, led by Cornstalk as sachem of the Shuwanee tribe. Its field was on the e. bank of the Ohio river, just above its junction with the Great Kanawha. The village of Point Pleasant has since grown up on the spot where this battle was fought; and in the region the battle has always been spoken of as•the first in the revolu tion. Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, had been busy in the interests of England, iu stirring up a hostile feeling between the white settlers and the various tribes of Indi ans, the object of which had become apparent. At last a crisis was reached. The leg islature took action, under which gen. Andrew Lewis gathered together 1200 men at Lewis Spring, now Lewisburg, W. Va., and proceeded to Point Pleasant, acting, as was understood, in concert with the colonial governor, who, in person, led about 1000 men through the wilderness, striking the Ohio at Wheeling, from which point he was to meet gen. Lewis. All this time, unknown to gen. Lewis, the agents of lord Dunmore had been busy concentrating the Indians in the neighborhood of Point Pleasant, and subsequent events indicate that he never intended to join his force with the troops under Lewis.
In this bloody battle about one-fifth of the entire army of gen. Lewis were either killed or wounded, and of the Indians the number must have been even greater. It was fought, on both sides, from behind trees, in a dense forest of primeval growth on one of the richest bottoms of the Ohio. It was wholly unexpected—the object being, on the part of gen. Lewis, in fulfillment of the purposes of the legislature, to proceed with an overpowering force in conjunction with governor Dunmore from Point Pleasant, to the Indian settlements on the Scioto beyond the Ohio. In vain did the brave Lewis look for
the troops from Wheeling. During the night of the 9th and 100, a body of Indians was reported by a scouting as having encamped near the site of an old Shuwanee village about 0 in. above. At the same time adviees were received that lord Dunmore would cross the country direct to the Scioto. Before sunrise on the morning of the 10th a hunting party returned and brought the startling report of a large body of Indians about a mile above the camp of gen. Lewis. The party had been fired upon. At once, on receipt of this news, the main body of the troops under col. Charles Lewis and col. Fleming, were mustered into line. The battle, which soon began, raged with varied for tune through nearly the entire day. The brave col. Lewis fell mortally wounded. Col. Fleming was soon after disabled, when col. Field, who had come up with a re-enforce ment, took command. This officer had learned a lesson under the unfortunate Brad dock; but he, too, soon fell. At times the battle raged like a tempest. The roar of musketry was continuous. The clarion voice of Cornstalk was nevertheless everywhere heard bidding his warriors "be strong !" " be strong !" Seeing a warrior shrink he sunk his tomahawk into his skull. Late in the afternoon three companies under capts. John Stewart, Isaac Shelby, and George Matthews, that had been detained in camp, perhaps on account of Indians in large numbers on the opposite shore of the Ohio, reached the rear of Cornstalk by a well-planned movement, and decided the fortunes of the day.