Augusta Men in the French and Indian War

Jos. Lyon Miller, M. D.

Beginning in 1753 war raged along the frontier of Virginia, for more than ten years. War in its most horrible form, for it was war waged with a savage people of the most cruel nature and elided by one of the most civilized nations of Europe. It was the French and Indian war; the traditions of whose ambuscades, butcheries, and scalping are yet repeated by the descendants of those Scotch-Irish pioneers of Augusta, which at that time extended from the Great Lakes on the north of Tennessee on the south and the Mississippi on the west. It is seen that the present state of West Virginia was therefore a part of that county a large part of "West Virginia was peopled by the growth westward of the Augusta settlements, and so it may be of interest to West Virginians to learn something of their warrior ancestors. The battles, if they may be called such, and the isolated murders of this war with its other horrors have been so well written up Hon. Jos. A. Waddell in his Annuals of Augusta County that I shall not attempt to touch upon that part of the war. Some on probably asks, what then is left to tell? It may be answered, the names of those who had part in the war. In this day of patriotic societies, such as Sons of Colonial Wars, sons of the "Revolution. &c, and ancestor hunting, a list of soldiers of those early days is welcomed warmly by a great many people who have not the opportunity themselves of searching original records or rare old books lithe military record of some ancestor.

In Richmond is a great mass of certificates of soldiers was proved their services in the French and Indian war, and received grant of land from Virginia in payment thereof. These certificates are being copied for the Virginia Historical Society, which no doubt will print a list or index of the same in future numbers of the Va. Historical Magazine. The following lists of more than a thousand names are taken front: Volume seven of Henning's Statutes at Large of Virginia, which has been out of print sine 1820: from the so called Preston Register, a part of the Draper historical collection belonging to the Wisconsin Historical Society. This list was printed in the Virginia Historical Magazine in 1894, and in the Annals of Augusta County in 1902. I have picked out the Augusta men from some lists published several year ago by the Virginia Historical Society. My object in reprinting these lists is to bring them to the notice of a greater number of people in this State than they would have in the first named publications.

My first list of 729 names is taken from Henning. I wish first to offer a few explanatory notes before giving the list of names. In the original there are twenty-two pages of names jumbled together with our any arrangement either alphabetically or by commands. Mixed through the list of soldiers are the names of people who furnished provisions and horses to the troops, and others who worked on the forts, &e. Many of the names appear several times, although the different items probably refer to the same man. Where there is no distinguishing mark as Sen., Jun., or rank I have designated the number of entries for that name by a number immediately preceding the name.

Several of the names show some slight changes in spelling, and these I have grouped under the commonly accepted form, as for example McClung, appears as McClong, McClunge and MeClung. I have thought best to not take up the large amount of space in the magazine that would be needed to give the amount of money each person received.

Although there are some names in the following lists of undoubted English or German origin I have thought best to include them with those of the Scotch-Irish.

In September 1758 the House of Burgesses appropriated £20,000 to settle the arrears in the pay of the militia, that had been engaged in the French and Indian war previous to that date, together with the accounts due for furnishing provisions, &c. to the troops, and for work on the forts. Of this amount the Augusta people received £3,866-3s-5d or nearly three times the sum received by any other county.

List of Militiamen

West Virginia AHGP

Source: West Virginia Historical Magazine Quarterly, Charleston, West Virginia, April 1903.