Andrew Lewis ( soldier ) Andrew Lewis ( October 9 , 1720 – September 26 , 1781 ) was an American pioneer , surveyor , and soldier from Virginia . He served as a colonel of militia during the French and Indian War , and as a brigadier general in the American Revolutionary War . He is most famous for his 1774 victory in the Battle of Point Pleasant in Dunmore ' s War . Early years . Lewis was born in County Donegal , Ireland to John Lewis and Margaret Lynn . In 1732 John Lewis had fled to America after killing his landlord in an altercation . He brought his family to Virginia , including his sons Andrew and Thomas . The family were among the first settlers in western Augusta County . Andrew Lewis received a basic education and learned the skills of a surveyor . Early in the 1740s Lewis married Elizabeth Givens , daughter of Samuel and Sarah ( Cathey ) Givens , formerly of County Antrim , Ireland . They established their own home , called Richfield , in what today is Roanoke County near Salem . They would have seven children : Samuel ( c . 1748 - 1763 ) , John ( 1750 – 1788 ) , Thomas ( 1752 – 1800 ) , Andrew Jr . ( 1759 – 1844 ) , Ann ( 1760 ) , William ( 1764 – 1812 ) , and Charles ( c . 1768 - 1781 ) . Lewis spent the next fifteen years farming and working as a surveyor in southwestern Virginia . He surveyed much of the Greenbrier District of Augusta County , later Greenbrier County , West Virginia . He became county lieutenant and later a captain in the Augusta County militia . French and Indian War . The French and Indian War brought conflict to the Virginia frontier . The militia was more formally organized , and Lewis became a captain in George Washington ' s regiment . He was at Fort Necessity when Washington was forced to surrender to the French in 1754 . Washington ' s proposal for a series of frontier fortifications was approved , and Lewis was promoted to major to oversee the region along the Greenbrier River . On February 18 , 1756 , the Big Sandy expedition , commanded Lewis left Fort Frederick with a mixed force of militiamen Cherokees to raid the Shawnee towns along the Big Sandy and Ohio rivers in retaliation for Shawnee attacks . He was engaged in several expeditions against both Indian settlements and French outposts . As part of the Forbes Expedition , he joined in Major James Grant ' s attack on Fort Duquesne , and was captured in September 1758 . Lewis was taken to Quebec and held as a prisoner until his release late in 1759 . Between wars . When relative peace returned , Lewis entered politics . When Botetourt County was formed in 1769 he was elected to the House of Burgesses . He was a member from 1770 to 1780 , though the American Revolution prevented him from attending in the later years . The Proclamation of 1763 officially restricted Virginia ' s western expansion , but Lewis continued his hunting and exploration trips into what later would become West Virginia . In 1774 , Dunmore ' s War broke out against the Shawnees . Governor Dunmore led a force from Fort Pitt into the Ohio Country . Lewis , now promoted to colonel , led a second force by the southern route . Lewis was attacked by the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk when he was camped at the Ohio River crossing at Point Pleasant . His victory in the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10 , 1774 , secured his military reputation . American Revolution . When the American Revolution began , Governor Dunmore prorogued the Burgesses . The Whigs ( soon to become American rebels ) formed a provisional congress . Both Andrew Lewis and his brother Thomas were delegates . The Continental Congress created a Continental Army in 1775 , and George Washington asked that Lewis be made a brigadier general . However , the Continental Congress had decided there should be only one general from each state , and Virginia ' s position had already gone to Charles Lee . In March 1776 , Lewis was appointed a Brigadier General in the Continental Army . He oversaw the defense of Virginia and raised men for the Continental Army . Governor Dunmore still launched attacks along the coast , and the called on Lewis to stop them . On July 9 , 1776 he led Virginia ' s forces to capture Dunmore ' s last stronghold , a fortified position on Gwyn ' s Island in the Chesapeake Bay . Lord Dunmore escaped by sea to sail to the Caribbean , never to return . On April 15 , 1777 , Lewis resigned his commission because of poor health . He remained active in the Burgesses , and in 1780 , Governor Thomas Jefferson appointed him to the Council . The following year , Lewis fell ill while returning home from a council meeting ; he died of a fever in Bedford County on September 26 . He was buried in the family plot at his home . In 1887 General Lewis ' remains were re - interred in the East Hill Cemetery at Salem , Virginia . Legacy . Lewisburg , West Virginia , is named after Andrew Lewis . His statue is among those honoring Virginia patriots ( including Thomas Jefferson , Patrick Henry , George Mason , Thomas Nelson , and John Marshall ) on Richmond ' s Washington Monument in Capitol Square . A memorial at the Salem Civic Center in Salem , Virginia , features a statue of Lewis next to a cannon . Andrew Lewis High School , now Andrew Lewis Middle School , opened in 1931 in Salem . Some residents petitioned unsuccessfully for the new high school in Salem to bear the name Andrew Lewis , but it opened in 1977 as Salem High School . On March 13 , 2001 , the General Assembly of Virginia designated the portion of Interstate 81 that traverses Rockbridge , Botetourt , and Roanoke Counties , and the city of Salem as the " Andrew Lewis Memorial Highway . " The General Andrew Lewis Scout Reservation in Ona , West Virginia ( near Huntington ) is operated by the Tri - State Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America .