At the close of the war of the Revolution, the soldiers were given lands in payment for their services. The territory comprising Union County is all "Virginia Military Lands," being a part of that between the Scioto and the Miami Rivers, all of which was set apart for the Revolutionary soldiers by the United States Government.
     Many of these old patriots took up these lands and in this way quite a number found homes in Union County. From this grand old Revolutionary stock sprang Union County's brave and patriotic sons who fought in the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the War of the Rebellion.
     Of these old heroes of '76, several are buried in the ceme­teries of this county. But little can be learned, even tradi­tionally, of their services, although many of their descendants reside in the county. Some of them are known to have fought at Yorktown, Monmouth, White Plains, Germantown and other historic battlefields of the war of the Revolution.
     Colonel James Curry and Henry Shover both served in Virginia regiments during the war of the Revolution. Mr. Shover enlisted in Louden County and emigrated to the terri­tory in which Jerome County is situated, before the breaking out of the War of 1812, and two of his sons, Adam and Simon, served in that war. No information can be secured of the service of Henry Shover in the War of the Revolution. Colonel Curry resided near Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia, and as shown by the records in the War Department, he served as an officer in the Fourth and Eighth Virginia In­fantry, Continental Line.
     He was a private in the Staunton, Virginia, Company, un­der General Lewis, in Dunmore's war with the Indians on the Ohio River was severely wounded at Point Pleasant, Va., Oc­tober 10th, 1774, in battle with Indians under Cornstalk. He was a private in the 4th Virginia Infantry, Continental Line, at beginning of the Revolution; Second Lieutenant, Eighth Virginia, December, 1776: First Lieutenant, June 24th, 1777; transferred to Fourth Virginia September 14th, 1778; Captain, September 23rd, 1779; was in battles of Brandywine, Germantown, etc.; at Valley Forge, 1777-78; taken prisoner with Lin­coln's army at Charleston, May 12th, 1780; exchanged June, 1781; on staff of General Nathaniel Gist; severely wounded at siege of Yorktown; acted as second in two duels between officers while in service; with Washington at triumphal entry into New York, November 25th, 1783; served nearly eight years; subsequent to war, was Brigade Inspector of Virginia militia, Clerk of Court of Augusta County, Virginia, Colonel of Ohio militia, County Judge, and member of Ohio Legislature.

The battle of Point Pleasant, Virginia, is called "A First Battle of the Revolution" by Chambers' Encyclopedia, from which the following account of the battle is copied. As it was fought before war was declared and at least one citizen of the township was a participant, it will be of interest to all citizens of the township.

"An important battle, fought October 10th, 1774, between Colonial troops of Virginia, under General Andrew Lewis, and the Shawnees, Delawares and other Indians composing the Northern Confederacy, led by Cornstalk as king and sachem of the Shawnee tribe, on the east bank of the Ohio River, and just above the great Kanawha. The village of Point Pleasant has since grown up on the spot where this battle was fought, which was and is to this day spoken of as the first battle of the Revolution. The 'Boston Tea Party' had already been held in the spring of the same year, and the 'Boston Port Bill' was received in May—the signal of actual conflict between the colonies and the Mother Country. Lord Dumore, Governor of Virginia, had been busy in the interests of England by way of stirring up a hostile feeling between the hardy white settlers and the various tribes of Indians, the object of which had be­come apparent. At last a crisis was reached. The legislature took action, under which General Andrew Lewis gathered to­gether 1,200 men at Lewis Springs, now Lewisburg, W. Va., and from thence proceeded to Point Pleasant, acting as was understood, in concert with the Colonial governors, who in person led about 1,000 men through the wilderness, striking the Ohio at Wheeling, from which point he was to meet General Lewis. All this time, unbeknown to General Lewis, the agents of Lord Dunmore had been busy concentrating the Indians in the neighborhood of Point Pleasant, and subsequent events show that he never intended to join his forces with the troops under Lewis. Our space will not admit of our giving the various facts substantiating this statement made so em­phatic in the history of the 'Border Wars' by Withers and others.

"In this bloody battle, about one-fifth of the entire army of General Lewis were either killed or wounded, and of the In­dians, the number must have been even greater. It was the most severely contested battle of the kind of which we have any account, and was fought on both sides from behind trees in a dense forest of primeval growth, on one of the richest bottoms of the Ohio. It was wholly unexpected, the object being on the part of General Lewis, in fulfillment of the purposes on the part of the legislature, to proceed with an over­powering force in conjunction with Governor Dunmore, from Point Pleasant to the Indian settlement on the Scioto, beyond the Ohio. In vain did the brave Lewis look for troops from Wheeling. During the night of the 9th and 10th, a body of Indians was reported by a scouting party as having encamped near the site of an old Shawnee village, about six miles above.

"At the same time advices were received that Lord Dunmore would cross the country directly to the Scioto. Before sunrise on the morning of the 10th, a hunting party returned and brought the startling report of 'four acres of Indians,' about a mile above the camp of General Lewis. The party had been fired upon. At once, on receipt of this news, the main body of the troops, under Colonel Charles Lewis and Colonel Fleming, were mustered into line. The battle soon began, and raged with varied fortune through nearly the entire day. The brave Colonel Lewis fell mortally wounded. Colonel Fleming was soon after disabled, when Colonel Field, who had come up with a reenforcement, took command. This of­ficer had learned a lesson from the unfortunate Braddock; but he, too, soon  fell. At times the battle raged like a tempest. The roar of the musketry was continuous. The clarion voice of Cornstalk was, nevertheless, everywhere heard bidding his warriors, 'Be strong!' Be strong!^' Seeing a warrior shrink, he sunk his tomahawk into his skull. The most unyielding and desperate courage was on both sides displayed until late in the afternoon, when three companies that had been retained in camp, perhaps on account of the Indians in large numbers on the opposite shore of the Ohio, under Captains John Stewart, Isaac Shelby and George Matthews—distinguished names— reached the rear of Cornstalk by a well-planned movement, and decided the fortunes of the day.

"A treaty was entered into at Camp Charlotte, in Ohio, at which Lord Dunmore was present, who seemed to have a perfect understanding with the Indians; though the colonists were indebted mainly to Cornstalk for the treaty of peace which Dunmore seemed determined to postpone, as we might show. It was in view of the surprising valor displayed by the troops under General Lewis in this decisive battle that Washington, in the darkest days of the Revolution, was led to exclaim: 'Leave me but a banner to plant upon the mountains of Au­gusta, and I will rally around me the men who will lift our bleeding country from the dust and set her free."