another as eighty; while his statements of the number of white men vary from two hundred to three hundred. Among the captains usually mentioned are, Peter Hogg, William Preston, John Smith and Robert Breckenridge, besides Captains Overton and Woodson. These were captains of rangers, then employed in guarding the frontier. Archibald Alexander commanded a volunteer company, and, it is said, that Captains Montgomery and Dunlap led other companies also raised for this special service. Certainly there was no scarcity of captains, but the size of the companies was small, and we are not sure that all the persons named accompanied Lewis. Captain David Stuart acted as commissary.
Of Peter Hogg and William Preston we have already spoken. John Smith was the ancestor of the late Judge Daniel Smith of Rockingham, Joseph Smith of Folly Mills and others.
Dr. William Fleming was a lieutenant, but in whose company does not appear. From a letter addressed to him, February 6th, by Governor Dinwiddle, it seems that he acted also as surgeon of the expedition, and was to be paid for his "extra trouble." Medicines were furnished by Dr. George Gilmer, physician and apothecary in Williamsburg.
Captain Overton's company was raised in Hanover county, and was the first organized in the colony after Braddock's defeat. To this company the Rev. Samuel Davies preached, by request, August 17, 1755, from the text: "Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God," &c. 2 Sam. x, 12. The preacher asks: "Is it a pleasing dream? Or do I really see a number of brave men, without the compulsion of authority, without the prospect of gain, voluntarily associated in a company to march over trackless mountains, the haunts of wild beasts, or fiercer savages, into a hideous wilderness, to succor their helpless fellow-subjects, and guard their country?" But the sermon is memorable chiefly on account of a note by the preacher, in which he speaks of "that heroic youth. Colonel Washington, whom," he says, "I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner, for some important service to his country."
Archibald Alexander was the executor of Benjamin Borden, the patentee, and ancestor of the well-known Rockbridge family of that name, and the late Mrs. McClung, of Staunton.
