Andreas (Andrew) Kissinger
Born 25 Dec 1756 in Lancaster, Pennsylvaniamap
Son of Matthias Henry Kessinger and Judith (Sipes) Kessinger
Biography
Andrew Kissinger (Kiesinger, Kessinger) and his father Mathias volunteered in Greenbrier County, Virginia in 1774 under company commander Captain John Lewis in the regiment led by Colonel Andrew Lewis. They met at Lewisburg and marched west along the Kanawha River to the mouth of the Ohio. They arrived at the fort of Point Pleasant about the first of October. They were at the fort a week when a band of Shawnees attacked about sunrise on October 10. The battle lasted, in Andrew's words, "till about sun setting of the same day."
For a great many, the battle was the last day of their lives, but Andrew reported that the greater loss was among the Indians. Their retreat was made across the Ohio above the mouth of the Kanawha on timber rafts. Andrew and his father reportedly were hiding in drift wood under the Ohio River banks when the battle ended.
In the fall of the year 1776, he again volunteered in a company under Captain John Henderson whose regimental colonel was William Arbuckle. They again met at Lewisburg and returned to Point Pleasant.
At this point Hokolesqua, known as Cornstalk (1720-1777) Shawnee-45, chief of the Shawnees at Sinloto at the junction of the Ohio and Scioto Rivers (Shawneetown), the Chalahgawtha sect of Shawnees, enters the picture. Andrew remembered the episode this way: "Eight Indians came to the fort and pretended friendship with us, among whom was an Indian king by name of Cornstalk. Four of their members were detained as hostages. Soon after, an army came on past the fort in pursuit of the Indians and the son of old Cornstalk came in to our camp the same time and as some of the soldiers were hunting across the Kanawha, : one of them was killed by the Indians, which being known in camp, the five Indians there with us were immediately put to death." Andrew thought it was done "without the orders of the officers."[1]
Andrew volunteered for a third time in the company of Captain John Wood in the spring of 1779, as well as he remembered gathering at Lewisburg and marching into the interior of Kentucky. It was a two-month tour and they returned home without engagements with the Indians.
Following that tour, his record indicates that he was in the campaign of Logan and others, but no details are given.
Andrew lived in southwest Virginia until about 1815, at which time he spent 12 years in Knox and Monroe counties, Tennessee, and then to Owen County, Indiana about 1826. He applied for a pension in 1834 but was rejected.
Copy of Application for Pension from National Archives #R 5818 Keisinger, Andrew (Kiesinger). Copy from Giles County Historical Society, Pearisburg, Va., obtained by Irving Blabon. Owen County, Indiana: Owen Probate Court May term 1834. ...Andrew Kissinger..aged 77 years...at the county of Greenbrier in Virginia...volunteered ...September 1774 ... in the company of Captain John Lewis...from Lewisburg marched westwardly to the Ohio River to a fort called Point Pleasant ... at the mouth of the Kanawhay River...guard against the hostile Indians ...arrived at the fort the first of October (1774) ... served again in 1776 ... served again in 1779 ...He was born 25th day of December 1756 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania ... moved to Greenbrier County when he was about 10 years of age ...at the end of the Revolutionary War moved to Giles and then to Montgomery Counties in Virginia ... moved to Knox County in Tennessee thence to Grainger County thence to Monroe County, Indiana and then to Owen County Indiana where he now resides...lived in Virginia ... till about the year 1815, in Tennessee about 12 years in Indiana about 8 years past ... Application for Pension for service in the Revolutionary War was rejected. Owen County, Indiana.
The following is a direct quote, taken from the Draper Collection Papers held by the Wisconsin Historical Society: “ Among the soldiers was an old Dutch man of the name of Kishioner and his son Andrew, who, when the battle commenced hid themselves in drift wood under the banks of the Ohio—after the battle ceased at night, the old man crept out, and seeing danger was over called out, ‘You may come now, Andy.’” The conversation was recorded by Rev. James Haynes. [2]
Roster of Soldiers and Patriots of the American Revolution Buried in Indiana.
Marriage: Marriages performed by Rev. John Alderson of Linville Creek Baptist Church. 1785 18 January. Sovaney Nossman, Nestor, married Andrew Cissiner.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kissinger-153
