To George Washington from Andrew Lewis, 28 October 1756
From Andrew Lewis
Augusta Octr the 28th 1756
Sir
I Received a Letter from Capt. Paris Deated the 21t of ⟨thi⟩s Month, he tels me that he Sent for Guns and other Necessarys for the Indians with him.1 the Indians are highly pleased with the Arms and the Large preparations made for them the wareour proposed sending a Runar to the Nation with one of the guns, and Likewis to Aqueant them what is provided for them. he makes no Dout of a great Numbers Coming in. he would not Do any thing in the Mater Before he had my Aprobation. I aproved of his Scame and has wrot to Capt. Pearis to Dress the Runar as well as posable and send a white man with him which is the wareours Desire,2 I have wrot to Outosity and aquented him of Evry thing prov⟨ide⟩d he will publish it in that Nation if he has not Marched Before he Receivs my Letter3—the Indian and white men who were apointed to go to Houlsons River is Now on thire March in Order to make the Discovery—the Enemey are Frequantly Seen Neare Vauss, what few Indians we have are there Now, in Sarch of them.
Sir as Sarjt McCully has ben in the Service from the Begining and has Behaved well, I hop Sir you will Advance him. he has been Long over Lookd.4
I ame Much Recovered I purpos to take my Journy for Willmsburg to Morrow or Nixt Day5 I ame Sir your most obedt & very Hume Sert
Andw Lewis
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Lewis left Richard Pearis behind when he returned from the Cherokee country in September, but Pearis was now back in Augusta County with his party of six Cherokee men and two women. For Dinwiddie’s instructions to Pearis and Lewis to conduct the eight Cherokee to GW at Winchester, see Dinwiddie to Pearis, 14 Nov., and Dinwiddie to Lewis, 15 Nov. 1756, in , 2:550, 551.
2. Capt. Raymond Demeré wrote Gov. William Henry Lyttelton from the South Carolina frontier on 23 Dec. 1756: “On the 18th came an Express from Virginia. One Mr. Allen, a young Man that was [here] at the building of Chette Fort [see Dinwiddie to GW, 20 Aug. 1756, n.1]. . . . This young Man from Virginia came with one of the Indians that went last Wall [fall] with Capt. Paris. There was but seven that went [see After Orders, 17–19 Dec. 1756, n.1]” (, 2:280–84). John Allen took letters to headmen of the Cherokee from Capt. John McNeill and Dinwiddie as well as from Lewis (see note 3). See Dinwiddie to Lewis, 15 Nov. 1756, in , 2:551, for his instructions that Allen be sent with an interpreter to take his (Dinwiddie’s) letter to Ostenaco dated 14 Nov.
3. “Outosity” was Otacite Ostenaco, or Judge’s Friend, who lived at this time at Tomatly, a town of the Overhill Cherokee on the Little Tennessee River. He was a leading man of the Overhill Cherokee at whose request Andrew Lewis built the Virginia fort across the river from their principal town of Chota. Although his name was Ostenaco, he was frequently called Otacite, which was actually a title indicating his rank. Ostenaco had led a party of Cherokee on the Sandy Creek expedition early in the year and had remained, by and large, a friend to the English. Andrew Lewis’s letter to Ostenaco, dated 30 Oct., urged him to come ahead to Virgina “with as many young fellows as you can” (P.R.O., W.O. 34/47, 146a). Ostenaco did lead a contingent of Cherokee to the Augusta frontier in the summer of 1757. See Robert Dinwiddie to GW, 16 June 1757.
4. Lewis’s longtime associate in arms, Sgt. John McCulley, was made an ensign in 1758. See Peter Hog to GW, 14 June 1756, n.5.
5. Lewis, who had been very ill when GW saw him on 10 Oct., finally got back to Augusta from his journey in the Cherokee country on 17 October.