Press Releases

Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) today issued the following statement in honor of the Battle of Point Pleasant, which took place on October 10, 1774:

“Today marks the 249^th Anniversary of the Battle of Point Pleasant, credited by the U.S. Senate as the first battle of the American Revolution.

“Lord Dunmore, Governor of the Virginia Colony, ordered Colonel Andrew Lewis to raise an army from western Virginia and meet him at Point Pleasant, in what is now West Virginia. After several weeks of travel, Lewis and his men arrived a day early.

“They were then attacked by an army of Shawnee and Mingo warriors, led by Shawnee Chief Cornstalk. The battle lasted many hours and by nightfall, Cornstalk and his men withdrew back across the Ohio River, from which they came.

“The defeat of Chief Cornstalk’s army meant that settlers could now pour across the ridge of the Appalachians, which was previously banned by an order of King George III, and enforced by the Indian Nations. They were led in large part by Daniel Boone who led settlers through the Cumberland Gap into the Kentucky Territory. Because of the large number of settlers who crossed the Appalachians after 1774, the British were forced to cede everything west to the Mississippi River to the United States instead of the ridge of the Appalachian Mountains.

“So, on this date we remember this important battle, as it had lasting consequences for the Revolution and the burgeoning American colonies and was fought by the western Virginians.”

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