By the 11th of September the troops under General Lewis, numbering about eleven hundred men, were in readiness to leave.  The distance across to the mouth of the Kenhawa, was near one hundred and sixty miles through an unbroken wilderness.  A competent guide was secured, the baggage mounted on pack horses, and in nineteen days they arrived at the place of destination.

The next morning after the arrival of the army at Point Pleasant, as the point of land at the junction of the Kenhawa and the Ohio was called, two men were out some distance from the camp, in pursuit of a deer, and were suddenly fired upon by a large body of Indians; one was killed, and the other with difficulty retreated back to the army; who hastily reported “that he had seen a body of the enemy covering four acres of ground, as closely as they could stand by the side of each other.”

General Lewis was a remarkably cool and considerate man; and upon being informed of this, “after deliberately lighting his pipe,” gave orders that the regiment under his brother, Colonel Charles Lewis, and another under Colonel Fleming, should march and reconnoiter the enemy, while he would place the remainder of the troops in order for battle.  The two regiments marched without delay, and had not proceeded more than four hundred yards when they were met by the Indians, approaching for the same purpose.  A skirmish immediately ensued, and before the contest had continued long, the colonels of the two regiments fell mortally wounded, when a disorder in the ranks followed, and the troops began a precipitate retreat; but almost at this moment another regiment under Colonel Field arriving to their aid and coming up with great firmness to the attack effectually checked the savages in the pursuit, and obliged them in turn to give way till they had retired behind a breastwork of logs and brush which they had partially constructed.

Lewis, on his arrival at the place, had encamped quite on the point of land between the Ohio and Kenhawa, and having moved but a short distance out to the attack, the distance across from river to river was still but short.  The Indians soon extending their ranks entirely across, had the Virginians completely hemmed in, and in the event of getting the better of them, had them at their disposal, as there could have been no chance for escape.

Never was ground maintained with more obstinacy; for it was slowly, and with no precipitancy, that the Indians retired to their breastwork.  The division under Lewis was first broken, although that under Fleming was nearly at the same moment attacked.  This heroic officer first received two balls through his left wrist, but continued to exercise his command with the greatest coolness and presence of mind.  His voice was continually heard, “Don’t lose an inch of ground.  Advance, outflank the enemy, and get between them and the river.”  But his men were about to be outflanked by the body that had just defeated Lewis; meanwhile the arrival