of Augusta, was then only twenty years of age. There was, however, another person of the same name, living at the time in Eastern Virginia, and he may have been the member of the court martial referred to.
During December, 1755, or earlier. Governor Dinwiddle planned an expedition against the Shawnee town supposed to be on the Ohio river, at or near the mouth of the Big Sandy. This expedition has been known as the "Sandy Creek Voyage." Washington did not approve of it, but at the request of the Governor, appointed Major Andrew Lewis to command. The distance from the settlements was too great; supplies for a large body of men could not be transported such a distance over so rugged a route, and the army could not find subsistence in the wilderness, and, moreover, it was doubtful whether there was any Indian settlement at or near the Big Sandy. But the Governor was full of his plans, and could not be dissuaded. He entertained high expectations, and wrote on the subject to nearly everybody—to Major Lewis and his subordinate officers, and to public functionaries in America and England.
In a letter of January 2, 1756, Governor Dinwiddle speaks of his efforts to conciliate the Cherokees, and says: "It had its proper effect, for they took up the hatchet and declared war against the French and Shawnesse, and sent into Augusta county one hundred and thirty of their warriors to protect our frontier. These people proposed marching to the Shawnesse town to cut them off. I agreed thereto, and ordered four companies of our rangers to join them."
As much doubt remains in regard to many facts connected with this famous expedition, as surrounds the wars between the Greeks and Trojans. Various writers state that the expedition took place in 1757, and that the men were recalled, when near the Ohio river, by order of Governor Fauquier; but the Dinwiddle papers show that it occurred early in 1756, and that the survivors returned home more than two years before Fauquier became Governor of Virginia. To this day, however, the number of men led out into the wilderness by Lewis is uncertain, and also how many companies there were, and who commanded them. Governor Dinwiddle, in his instructions to Major Lewis, not dated, says he had ordered Captain Hogg, with forty of his company, to march on the expedition; that a draft of sixty men
