CHAPTER VIII.

French and Indian Wars.

If Orange as a County ever sent an organized command to any of the French and Indian Wars no record of it has been found. The records do disclose that sundry of her citizens participated in these wars, but in every instance in a company or regiment from some other county; the names of but few appear in the record—among them that of Ambrose Powell, ancestor of Gen. A. P. Hill—who rose to the dignity of a commission during all the years that these wars were waged.

Therefore, any detailed account of these wars would be out of place here, and only such facts will be narrated as may throw some light on the services of citizens who did participate in them.

In 1758 an expedition, the second one, was set on foot for the capture of Fort Duquesne, (the modern Pittsburg, then believed to be in the limits of Augusta County), under General Forbes, a British officer. Washington was commander of the Virginia troops which consisted of two regiments, his own and Col. William Byrd's, about two thousand men in all. A Colonel Bouquet, of Pennsylvania, commanded the advanced division of the army, and Captain Hogg, of Augusta, had a company in Washington's regiment.

The fort was finally captured, but the loss in Washington's regiment alone was 6 officers and 62 privates. Colonel Byrd was of the "Westover" family, an ancestor of the Willises of Orange. The Captain Overton referred to in the extracts following, was from Hanover, but he was in an earlier expedition in 1755.

His company was the first organized in Virginia after Braddock's defeat, and the great Presbyterian preacher, Rev. Samuel Davies, addressed it by request on the eve of its departure for the frontiers. The history of these wars is narrated at large in Waddell's "Annals of Augusta County," second edition, and in Withers's "Chronicles of Border Warfare." The order books show as follows:

August, 1779. David Thompson, soldier in Captain Hogg's Rangers, 1758; sergeant in Colonel Bouquet's regiment in 1764.

Jacob Williams and Jacob Crosthwait, in Colonel Byrd's regiment, 1758.

September Term. Benjamin Powell, sergeant, Thomas Fitzgerald and John Williams, soldiers, in Colonel Byrd's regiment, 1758.

Isaac Crosthwait, Thomas Walker, Charles Walker, in Hogg's rangers.

October. Daniel McClayland, Colonel Byrd's regiment, 1759. William Vawter, sergeant, John Furnes, (Furnace), Hogg's rangers.

James Cowherd, ensign, Colonel Bouquet's regiment; William Bullock and William Rogers, in Colonel Washington's regiment, 1758; Francis Hackley, John Lucas, Thomas Powell, Richard Lamb, John Lamb, James

Gaines, Thomas Morris, Charles Pearcey, William Cave, soldiers, and Michael Rice, sergeant, in Colonel Byrd's regiment.

Henry Shackleford, Henry Hervey, John Warner, Simon Powell, soldiers, and James Riddle, non-commissioned, Hogg's rangers.

1780. William Brock, in Colonel Stephen's regiment, 1762. Colonel Adam Stephen was probably from Frederick County, where Stephensburg is named for him.

Patrick Fisher, Littleberry Low, William Lamb, David Watts, Charles Watts, James Lamb, soldiers, William Cave, non-commissioned, in Colonel Byrd's regiment; William Watson, in "Captain Overton's company of regulars for defence of this State," in 1755.

William Sims and Francis Gibbs, in Hogg's rangers; James Roberts, in "Captain Wagoner's company of regulars for defense of this State," 1757; Ambrose Powell, Gent., staff officer in Virginia forces, 1755. William Smith, Captain Hogg's rangers.

In Thwaites's edition of Withers it is said that Col. William Russell, at one time high sheriff of Orange, did some frontier service in the early part of these wars, and in 1753 was sent as a commissioner to the Indians in the region where Pittsburg now stands. His son, of the same name, was at the battle of Point Pleasant; was second in command at King's Mountain, and retired at the end of the Revolution as brevet brigadier-general.

The records in the Land Office at Richmond show that the following Orange people received bounty land for service in these wars. Their names are also listed

in Crozier's "Virginia Colonial Militia:" Jacob Crosthwait, Francis Gibbs, William Smith, William Brock, William Rogers, Richard Bullard, James Gaines, Michael Rice, John Lamb, Richard Lamb, William Cave, James Riddle, Thomas Morris, John Furnace, David Thompson, Isaac Crosthwait, William Vaughan, Ambrose Powell, Littleberry Lane, Henry Shackleford, Patrick Fisher, Charles Watts, Simon Powell, David Watts.

Francis Cowherd, long known as Major Cowherd, who was a justice of the peace and high sheriff of Orange after the Revolution and who attained the rank of captain in the Revolutionary army, was a soldier in Colonel Field's regiment at the battle of Point Pleasant. His home, "Oak Hill," is about two miles northeast of Gordonsville, and is still owned by his descendants. Just before the battle he and a comrade named Clay were out hunting, a little distance apart, and came near to where two Indians were concealed. Seeing Clay only, and supposing him to be alone, one of them fired at him; and running up to scalp him as he fell, was himself shot by Cowherd, who was about a hundred yards off. The other Indian ran off. (Withers's Chronicles.)

Another anecdote related by his cotemporaries is, that in the battle of Point Pleasant Cowherd was behind a tree, fighting in Indian warfare fashion, when Colonel Field ran up to the same tree. He offered to seek another, but the Colonel commanded him to remain where he was, saying it was his tree, and that he would go to another. In making his way to it he was

killed by the Indians, greatly lamented by the army. He was of the Culpeper family of Field, was a lieutenant of a company from that county at Braddock's defeat, and was greatly distinguished as an Indian fighter. (See again Withers's Chronicles.)

Mention is made of the Chew brothers, distinguished in these wars, in the Biographical Sketches.

Hancock Taylor, a brother of Colonel Richard, father of the President, was killed by the Indians in Kentucky in 1774.

There is a so-called "patriotic" association, known as the "Society of Colonial Wars," and descendants of those who participated in the French and Indian wars are eligible to membership therein.