Sir Joshua Reynolds – John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore . Joshua Reynolds [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Augusta County, Virginia
Captain Alexander McClanahan’s Company
Francis was the father of Israel Meadows who also participated in Lord Dunmore’s War. Like his son, Francis was among the men who joined the militias raised to answer the threat from hostile Indians that had begun attacking settlers south of the Ohio River. Francis served under Captain Alexander McClanahan in the forces commanded by Colonel Andrew Lewis. Approximately 1,000 men traveled down the Kanawah River and were to join forces with Lord Dunmore’s troops. While in camp at present day Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774, Cornstalk’s forces attacked Lewis’s. The resulting battle raged on for an entire day and at times devolved into hand-to-hand combat amid thick forest. Ultimately, Lewis’s men held their ground and the Indian’s crossed the river in the night and slipped away.
Lord Dunmore apparently intended to use the Indian attacks on the frontier as a rallying point for the colonists thereby bringing their allegiance back to the King of England and distracting them from the troubles so pronounced in the colonies in the years following the French and Indian War.