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The basis of these Annals was prepared as a contribution to the "Historical and Geographical Atlas of Augusta County," issued by Messrs. Waterman, Watkins & Co., of Chicago. That sketch was executed very hurriedly, and the space allotted to it in the Atlas was limited. Therefore some errors appear in the work, and much matter then on hand was necessarily omitted. Moreover, the work was hardly in press before I found new matter, not known or not accessible to me previously. My interest in the subject having been quickened, information in regard to the history of the county came to me almost unsought, and often from unexpected sources. This augmented result is intended as well to correct former errors, as to relate the history more fully from the first settlement of the county, in 1732, to the year 1871.

The county of Augusta originally extended from the Blue Ridge to the Mississippi river, east and west, and from the great lakes on the north to the northern boundary of the present State of Tennessee on the south. The history of this vast region properly belongs to our Annals until the year 1769, when Botetourt county was formed. As the limits of Augusta were reduced by the formation of other counties out of her territory, from time to time, the scope of the history is simultaneously and correspondingly contracted.

I have taken the utmost pains to secure perfect accuracy. The errors in details of most writers who have alluded to our county affairs and people, are remarkable. The writers referred to have not only copied from one another without investigation, and thereby repeated erroneous statements, out some of them have contradicted themselves in the same volume. Even the statements of the public records, especially in respect to dates, often require to be verified. From the order book of the County