Narrator: In retaliation for Indian raids, Dinwiddie ordered a surprise attack on the Shawnees in the winter of 1756 and put Andrew Lewis in command. A veteran surveyor who had served with Washington, Lewis was strict, dependable, and unemotional. “He is reserved and distant,” wrote a relative. “His presence more awful than engaging.”

At Fort Frederick on the New River, Lewis assembled 200 militiamen including Mary Ingles’ husband, William, and 80 Cherokees, traditional enemies of the Shawnees.

Lewis planned to march from Fort Frederick to the Big Sandy River, follow it to the Ohio, then assault Shawnee villages.

On February 18, 1756, the expedition set out. Hoping to move quickly and hunt for game along the way, Lewis carried only a 15-day supply of food. Preston’s company didn’t even bring tents.

Almost immediately, heavy rains and the rugged terrain slowed the march. Then, the rain turned to snow as food supplies dwindled.

Preston suggested eating the pack horses. His men refused and threatened to desert if food wasn’t found soon.

“Major Lewis would direct as he thought proper. The common soldiers were by him scarcely treated with humanity. We were now in pitiable condition. Our men looking on one another with tears in their eyes, and lamenting that they had ever entered into a soldier’s life.” —Thomas Morton.

“The major stepped off some yards distance and desired all that was willing to serve their country and share his fate to go with him. Not above 20 or 30 joined him. It is impossible to express the abject condition we were in both before and after the men deserted us.” —William Preston.

Narrator: As order disintegrated, Lewis abandoned the expedition. Starving soldiers straggled back to Fort Frederick.