He was commissioned an ensign in Col. William Clapham's Augusta regiment on the 23d of April, 1756, having then only completed his sixteenth year, and was promoted to a lieutenancy, December 7th, 1757.[1] The testimony of Major James Burd, at about that date, is that he was sprightly, spirited, possessed of culture, and attentive to his duties.
In the summer of 1757, he narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Indians. He and Sergeant Samuel Miles, long companions in arms, went together about half a mile from Fort Augusta to gather plums. The trees stood in a cleared space near a spring which has since borne the name of “The Bloody Spring.” While they, heedless of danger, were busily engaged in plucking and eating the fruit, a party of the wily foe, under cover of the wood and brush, had succeeded in getting almost between them and the fort. As it chanced, however, just at that time a soldier of the Bullock Guard came to the spring to get some water, and the Indians, unable to resist the temptation or fearing discovery, fired at and killed him. His misfortune saved Miles and Atlee, who forsook their banquet of plums and hastened with all speed to the fort.[2]
Atlee participated in the Forbes' Campaign against the French and Indians, and was engaged in a battle near Fort Du Quesne, September 15th, 1758, and in another at Loyal Hanna, October 12th, 1758. He was commissioned a captain. May 13th, 1759, and was in the service altogether eleven years, during which time he was taken prisoner, once by the French, and another time by the Indians. From a letter written to Major Burd, June 6th,
