Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-02-14

They rushed on the blockhouse in vain
Swift sped the round ball from the rifle
The foremost invader was slain;
And ere they could bear back the fallen
The dead of the foemen were twain
So firmly and sternly he fought them
And steadily, six hours or more;
And often they rushed to the combat,
And often in terror forbore;
But never they wounded John Lewis,
Who slew of their number a score.
All, woe TO your white hair, old hanter
When powder aud bullet be dor&s.
You will die by Che slowest Of toftdres
When these shall the battle have won
Look, then, to your Maker for finercy
The Mingo will surely have n6ne.
A shoutl tbs the neighbors returning
Now, Mingos, in terror fall backl
1t is well that your sinews are lusty,
And well that no vigor ye lack;
He is best who in motion Is fieetest,
When the white man is out on his track
Oh, then there was trouble and terror
Oh, then how the enemy ran;
For each hunter, in chosen position,
With GOODNESS of vengeance began
To take a good aim with his rifle,
And send sure shot to his man.
Oh, then there was racing and chasing,
And fastly they hurried away;
They feared at those husbands anc
fathers.
And dared not stand boldly at bay;
And in front of his men, Kiskepila,
Ran slightly the fastest, they say.
And well for the lives Of the wretches
They lily from the brunt OF the fight
And we'll fnrtheir lives that around them,
Are falling the shadows of night;
For life is in distance and darkness.
And death in the nearness and light.
But deep was the woe of the hunters,
And dark was the cloud DER their life
For some had been riven of children,
And some of both children and wife
And woe to the barbarous Mingo
If either should meet him in strife.
John Lewis said calmly and coldly,
When gazing that eve on the slain;
eve will bury our dead on the morrow
But let these red rascals remain;
And the wandering wolves and the buz.
yards
Will not of our kindness complain. -
Years after when men called John Lewis
AS brave as a brave man could be,
He lit him his pipe made of corn-cob,
And drawing a draught long and free;
''The red rascals kept me quite busy
With pulling the trigger" said he.
"And though got slightly the better
OF insolent foes in the strife,
| may as well own that my triumph
Was due unto Maggie, my wife;
For had she not loaded expertly
The Mingos had reft us of life.
"And through all that terrible combat
She never was scared at the din;
But carefully loaded each rifle
And prophesied that we would win
Yet why should she tremble? Her fathers
Were the terrible lords of Loeb Linn. -
(e)
= - ## y y
John Lewis commanded the fortress;
John Lewis was army as well;
John Lewis was master of ordinance;
John Lewis he fought as 1 tell;
And, gathered long since to his fathers,
John Lewis lies low in the dell.
But braver old man or a better,
Was never yet known to exist:
Not even in olden Augusta,
Where good men who died were not
missed,
For the very particular reason;
Good men then were plenty, Yist.
(a) The elder Lewis father of the
Hon. Thomas Lewis, General Andrew
Lewis (who commanded in the battle of
Point Pleasant, and whom Washington
declared was the proper person for
commander-in-chie in the Revolution)
Colonel Charles Lewis (who fell at the
head of his regiment in the same action)
and Major William Lewis "a brave of
ficer in the Revolution) was the pioneer
settler of what is now Augusta county,
in Virginia. Then Augusta extended
indefinitely westward John Lewis was
the descendant of Huguenot gentle
man, who fled from France at the revo-
cation of the edict of Nantes, and set.
tied in Ireland. John had considera.
BILE estate, though it was mostly lease
hold. The lord of the fee, powerful
nobleman, on some pretext, undertook
to evict him. He resisted, although
the nobleman's force was numerous,
and there was no one in his house but
his sick brother, his wife and children
and q few servants. An affray ensued
during which his wife was insulted, anC
the nobleman fired shot in his house
and killed the sick brother in his bed
John Lewis killed both the noblemar
and his steward, and dispersed his force
Knowing his opponents were too strong
to contend with, be left the country
with his family and thirty of his tenants
and settled in the wilds of Augusta
On an after investigation, the facts O
the case appearing, the king pardoneC
the outlaw, and gave him a grant of
large tract of land in Virginia, tn
patent of which is still preserved-o
was until recently.
(b) Little Eagle. He must not b
confounded with the chief of the SAM
name, killedby Captain Gibson, at Cros
Creek, near what is now Steubenyille
Ohio.
(c) John Lewis was quite an old ma
when the occurrence we detail too