In June, 1755, Shawnee warriors captured Captain Samuel Stalnaker at his homestead on the Holston River, (near present-day Chilhowie, Virginia), and killed his wife and son.

[3] In September, 1755, Dinwiddie wrote to him: The only offensive action of the Virginia Rangers during the French and Indian War was the Sandy Creek Expedition.

[2]: 34–35 On 14 December, 1755, the governor wrote to Colonel Washington: The Cherokee warriors were under the joint leadership of Captain Richard Pearis and Chief Outacite Ostenaco.

Dinwiddie had agreed to supply them with guns and ammunition, but could only obtain older, heavier rifles for the Cherokees, writing on 15 January, 1756: "I have sent 150 Small Arms, Powder and Shott...I know they are too heavy but I have desired they may have the lightest [that] are among our people..."[13]: 324 The Cherokees offered to train Virginian soldiers in Indian-style warfare, which favored shooting from behind cover, using stealth and surprise, rather than firing in volleys from assembled ranks.

"[18][19]: 286  Dinwiddie approved, writing to Washington on 23 January: "You have done very right in ordering the Men to be train'd in the [Indian] Method of fighting..."[13]: 325 [20] The Virginians also needed to learn woodcraft and the art of tracking enemies through the wilderness.

The decision to launch the expedition in February was based on the assumption that the Big Sandy would be swollen by snowmelt, making it easier and faster to descend by canoe.

[2]: 41  Also, Washington apparently had received intelligence indicating that many of Lower Shawneetown's warriors had "removed up the River, into the Neighbourhood of [Fort] Duquesne," leaving the town temporarily defenseless.

[19]: 286 On 6 February, 1756, Dinwiddie wrote to Lewis: "The distance by Evans' map[21] is not two hundred miles to the Upper Towns of the Shawnees, however, at once begin your march.

Cutting trails through the thickly-forested valleys, scaling steep slopes, and crossing rivers and creeks repeatedly was slow and exhausting due to harsh weather and streams swollen with snowmelt and rain.

Captain Preston wrote in his diary for that day: Rations were by now nearly exhausted and men began to desert, trying to make their way home in small groups, most of whom did not survive.

Two companies had already decided to turn back, and Lewis himself was finally forced to make the decision to abandon the campaign and return home.

Preston's diary ends with: Alexander Scott Withers (using material from Hugh Paul Taylor) says that on the way home, the troops were attacked by Shawnee warriors on 15 March and two soldiers were killed.

Lieutenant Alexander McNutt then proposed that they proceed to Lower Shawneetown and complete their mission, in hopes of capturing the town and getting food there, but Major Lewis decided to continue home.

[4] Thomas Lloyd, the surgeon, later wrote that they had to kill almost all their pack horses for food[3]: 15  and at one point were forced to eat boiled leather and "tugs" of buffalo hide.

On 15 April, 1756, the journal of the Virginia House of Burgesses reads: Word of the expedition evidently reached Lower Shawneetown, and a defensive force consisting of "1,000 Indians and six French officers" arrived at the town on 9 May, 1756, where it was observed by Samuel Stalnaker, who was still in captivity.

[3]: 16  On 27 July 1756, Colonel John Buchanan presided over a council of war, held at the Augusta County Courthouse, "to meet and consult on the most proper places to build forts along the fronteers for the protection of the Inhabitants."

On 3 April 1758, Captain John Smith submitted a proposal to the Virginia House of Burgesses offering to lead another expedition against the Shawnee, but no action was taken.

[2]: 49–50 Four primary sources describing the expedition exist: the diary of Captain William Preston, published in 1906,[9]: 24–29  a fragment of Lieutenant Thomas Morton's diary, found after his death and published in 1851,[24] and a letter from Thomas Lloyd (Preston's indentured servant and one of two surgeons on the expedition, together with William Fleming), written to a friend in October, 1756.

Alexander McNutt...On his return to Williamsburg he presented it to [Lieutenant-]Governor Francis Fauquier by whom it was deposited in the executive archives," but it appears to have been lost.