1774 Militia List, Capt. Evan Shelby, Fincastle (Washington) Co, Virginia and later Sullivan County, Tennessee

The above list does not include the names of the officers or noncoms, but according to both Ramsey and Summers,* they included Evan and Isaac Shelby (Capt. and Lieutenant respectively), and Sergeants, James Robertson and Valentine Sevier

*The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the 18th Century by J.G. Ramsey, Walker and Jones, Charleston, SC, 1853, pp. 113-117; and The Annals of Southwest Virginia, 1769-1800 by Lewis Preston Summers, Abington, Virginia, 1929, Vol. II, p. 1314.

As noted above, both Ramsey and Summers identify this roster as Evan Shelby's Militia Company at the Battle Point Pleasant (the men mustered due to Shawnee uprisings). Summers' heading for this militia list is "A List of Captain Evan Shelby's Company of Volunteers from the Watauga Valley, in the Fincastle County Battalion" (Vol. II, p. 1413). The minutes of Fincastle County for 6 Dec 1774 include an order "that John SHELBY be appointed Surveyor of the Road none [known] by the name of the Watago Road in the Room of Isaac Riddle and that he with the Tithable that usually worked on the same be Clear and keep the same in repair according to law." (ibid., Vol. I, p. 634). Ramsey indicates elsewhere (page not noted) that John SHELBY'S Fort was the southern of the two on the above map. Neither Ramsey nor Summers make mention of the six men from Capt. Harbert's Company. Both men included this list in their books, neither with a date (the Battle of Point Pleasant took place in September of 1774). There were differences in their transcription (from both the above and each other; to wit:

Ramsey and Summers both show Sayers as Sawyers (see also below); Ramsey shows Carmack as Camack; Summers shows Torrence as Terrence; Ramsey shows Torney as Forney; Ramsey shows Hensley as Handley;* Ramsey shows Herrell as Handley and Summers as Herrill; both Ramsey and Summers show Casidy as Casey; Ramsey shows Williams' given name as Mack and Summers as Mark; Conrad Nave was omitted by Summers; Ramsey shows Burck as Burk; Ramsey shows Elija Robison as Elijah Robertson, and Julias Robison as Julius Robertson, and in the latter case, Summers shows Julius Robinson; both Ramsey and Summers show Fieldon as Fielder (quite possibly correctly); Ramsey shows Grayham as Graham, and Summers as Grayum; and both Ramsey and Summers show Ogullion as O'Gullion;** Ramsey shows Hughey as Jas. and Summers as Joseph; and Ramsey shows Basilael Maxwell as Basileel Maywell and Summers as Bazaleel Maxwell.

* Ramsey's Handley vs. Hensley was probably based on his personal knowledge of the presence of Samuel Handley at Point Pleasant. See also Samuel Hensley survey on Cove Creek, North Fork Holston River, Washington County, Virginia in 1797 (Squabble State Land) and Revolutionary War Pensioner Samuel Hensley, formerly of Sullivan County, Tennessee, but now a resident of Washington County, Virginia." and Samuel Hansley [sic] on the 1797 Grainger County Intruders List.

** The minutes of Fincastle County Court include an order on 7 Feb 1775 that "on the motion of John O'Guillion who made oath according to Law Certificate is Granted him for obtaining Letters of Administration of the Estate of Hugh O'Guillion deceased..." (Summers, Vol. I, p. 637).

These same minutes also appoint "Joseph Buchanan as Surveyor of the road from the ford of Reed Creek at McCauls to the foard of the said Creek this side of Katharins Mill in the room of John Finley..."

The following excerpts from Ramsey describe the battle of Point Pleasant (located in present-day Mason County, West Virginia):

Point Pleasant 1774

"...the battle of Point Pleasant furnished the first occasion for the display, by the pioneers of Tennessee, of the adventure and prowess which have so signally characterized her volunteer soldiery in all periods of her history..."

"1774} A large number of surveyors and woodsmen had been sent under the authorities of Virginia to the wilderness of Kentucky, for the purpose of locating and selecting lands under royal grants and military warrants. This was viewed by the Indians as an encroachment upon their rights, as they still claimed these lands. Hostilities had, indeed, already been commenced by the Shawnees, who attacked the party of Boon the October previous. The murder of the whole family of the generous, but unfortunate Logan, who had been the friend of the whites, and an advocate for piece among his red brethren, aroused the vengeance of that bold warrior and influential chieftain. The Shawnees, in alliance with the warriors of other northern and western tribes, began the work of destruction and massacre, in detached parties, on the whole Virginia frontier. The emergency was met by Lord Dunmore with great vigour, and measures were immediately adopted to repress the hostilities, and punish the audacity of the enemy. General Andrew Lewis* was ordered to raise four regiments of militia and volunteers, from the south-western counties, to rendezvous at Camp Union, and to march down the Great Kenhawa [now New River] to the Ohio. Captain Evan Shelby raised a company of more than fifty men, in the section of country now included in the counties of Sullivan and Carter. With these he marched on the 17th of August, and joined the regiment of Colonel [William] Christian, on New River. From this place the regiment proceeded to the great levels of Green Brier, where they joined the army of General Lewis. On the 11th of September, the army set out for the designated point. The route lay through a trackless wilderness, down the rugged banks of the Kenhawa--through deep defiles and mountain gorges, where a pathway had never been opened. Twenty-five days were consumed in slow and toilsome marches. On the 6th of October, the army reached the Ohio and encamped upon its banks. The camp was upon the site of the present town of Point Pleasant. The troops being upon short allowance, select parties of hunters were kept constantly on duty to supply them with food. On the morning of the 10th, about daylight, two of the men belonging to Captain Shelby's volunteer company, James Robertson and Valentine Sevier, who had been out before day hunting, very unexpectedly met a large body of hostile Indians advancing toward the camp upon the provincials. They were on the extreme left of the enemy, and fired on them at the distance of ten steps. As it was yet too dark to see the assailants, or to know their number, the firing caused a general halt of the enemy, while Robertson and Sevier ran into camp and gave the alarm.

"Two detachments, under Colonel Charles Lewis and Colonel William Fleming, were immediately ordered forward to meet the Indians, and break the force of their assault upon the camp. These detachments had scarcely proceeded beyond the sentinels, when they encountered the enemy advancing upon them. A most violent and hard fought engagement ensued. Fleming and Lewis were wounded in the first assault—the latter mortally—but refused to leave the field until the main line came to their relief. The contest lasted the whole day, with varied success—each line receding or advancing alternately, as the fate of war seemed to balance between the two armies. In the evening, General Lewis ordered the companies commanded by Captains Shelby, Matthews and Stewart, to advance up the Kenhawa River, under the shelter of the bank and the undergrowth, so as to gain the rear of the Indians, and pour in a destructive fire upon them. In the execution of this order, the men were exposed to a galling fire from some Indians, who had taken a position behind a rude breast-work of old logs and bushes and were from that point giving a deadly fire. One of Shelby's men, the late John Sawyers, of Knox county, wishing to shorten the conflict, obtained permission to take a few others and dislodge the Indians from the shelter which protected them. His bold conception was gallantly executed. A desperate charge was made—the dislodgement of the Indians was effected, and the three companies having gained the enemy's rear, poured in upon the savages a destructive fire. The Indians fled with great precipitation across the Ohio and retreated to their towns on the Scioto.

"The battle of the Kenhawa is, by general consent, admitted to have been one of the most sanguinary and well contested battles which have marked the annals of Indian warfare in the West. On the part of the provincials, twelve commissioned officers were killed or wounded, seventy-five non-commissioned officers and privates were killed, and one hundred and forty-one were wounded.*

*Monette—J.G.R.

"Of the company of volunteers from what is now East Tennessee, Evan Shelby was captain, and his son, Isaac Shelby, lieutenant. After the fall of his Colonel, Captain Shelby took command of the regiment. This was early in the action, and through the rest of the day Isaac Shelby commanded his father's company. "Two privates [sic], Robertson and Sevier, had the good fortune on this occasion to make an unexpected discovery of the enemy, and by that means to prevent surprise and defeat, and possibly the destruction of the whole army. It was the design of the enemy to attack them at the dawn of day, and to force all whom they could not kill into the junction of the river." The heroic charge of the little detachment under Sawyers is admitted to have had a decided influence in shortening the obstinate conflict. Many of the officers and soldiers in the battle of Kenhawa, distinguished themselves at a later period in the public service. Thus early did the "Volunteer State" commence its novitiate in arms...

"1775} After the battle at Point Pleasant, and a further invasion of their country, the Indians made a treaty with Lord Dunmore, in which they relinquished all their claim to the lands south of the Ohio. To a large extent of this territory, the Cherokees, with other southern tribes, pretended also to hold title. Early in that century they had expelled the Shawnees, and had since occupied their country as hunting grounds. Daniel Boon still adhered to his darling project of planting a colony upon the Kentucky River, which he had sen, and desirous of obtaining the consent of the Cherokees, had stimulated Colonel Richard Henderson and others of North-Carolina, to effect a treaty with them for that purpose. Henderson, accordingly, associated with him other men of capital, viz: Thomas Hart, John Williams, James Hogg, Nathaniel Hart, David Hart, Leonard H. Bulloch, John Luttrell and William Johnston. Two of these, Colonel Henderson and Colonel Nathaniel Hart, accompanied by Daniel Boon, proceeded to the Cherokee towns, and proposed a general council, for the purpose of purchasing land [Henderson Purchase]..."

Return to
Sullivan County, Tennesseans of the Revolution
Sullivan Co, TNGenWeb
Tennesseans in the Revolutionary War
Tennessee Genealogical Records Repository
The TNGenWeb Project

Tennesseans in the Revolutionary War is a Special Project of TNGenNet, the volunteer organization of the TNGenWeb Project.

TNGenNet is a service mark of the Tennessee Genealogical Network, a nonprofit public benefit corporation registered in the State of Tennessee. See also TNGenNet's Bylaws and the History of TNGenWeb).