In 1774 the Shawnees and other Indian tribes assailed the western frontier of Virginia. Lord Dunmore, Governor of that State, called for volunteers to resist the invasion, and of those enlisted from southwestern counties of the colony, a regiment under Col. Christian assembled at New River. To it a company of more than fifty men from Sullivan and Carter counties (East Tennessee), commanded by Capt. Evan Shelby, joined themselves, and with it went to Greenbrier, where Gen. Lewis, commander in chief, assembled his forces. From there the army marched with difficulty for twenty-five days through the wilderness, along the rugged banks of the Kanawha River, to Point Pleasant on the Ohio. Two of Capt. Shelby’s men were instrumental in preventing the Indians, before day on the 10th of October, from surprising and probably overthrowing the army of Gen. Lewis. In the hotly contested battle which immediately followed, some of the same company dislodged a body of the savages from an important vantage ground, and thus ensured victory to the Americans. The defeat of the Indians was so complete that they were subdued into a peace which lasted for two years. Judge Haywood, in commenting upon the unexpected discovery of the enemy by men from East Tennessee, to the salvation of the whole army of the provincials, remarks: “Thus it has happened that East Tennessee, in the earliest stages of her infancy, has been called on to contribute all in her power to the common defense, and seems to have been made much less for herself than for the protection of her neighbors.” In the resistance made by the American Colonies to the Government of Great Britain, these settlers early expressed their sympathy. Important events touching the welfare of a people may be remotely separated in space while they are closely related in time. On the fifth day of September, 1774, when the army of Gen. Lewis at Greenbrier was about starting on its hard march down the Kanawha River, to win a victory that would compel the Indians into peace, the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, to deliberate for the liberty and welfare of the American people. The King of Great Britain rejected the offers of that Congress. The British Parliament met in November, and again after the holidays. The twentieth day of January was the first day of the session in the House of Lords. On the very same day the men of the settlements beyond the Alleghanies, where the Watauga and the Holston flow to the Tennessee, united with the men of the southwestern corner of Virginia in council near Abingdon. On hearing what Congress had done, they unanimously declared their adhesion to it. To the Virginia delegates in Congress they wrote: