FLEMING, Thomas, soldier, born in Botetourt County, Virginia, in 1727; died there in August 1776. He commanded 200 men at the battle of Point Pleasant, with the Indians, in 1774. Point Pleasant is at the junction of the Great Kanawha and Ohio rivers. General Andrew Lewis, of Augusta County, Virginia, and the Indians by Cornstalk, commanded the whites. The soldiers of Colonel Fleming's division concealed themselves behind trees and held out their hats, which the Indians fired at. The hats dropped, the Indians ran out to scalp their victims, and were tomahawked by the settlers, who were all backwoodsmen. Colonel Charles Lewis, kinsman and neighbor of Colonel Fleming, commanded the first division.

The Indians numbered about 1,000; the whites, 400 and Colonel Fleming's division was attacked on the bank of the River, a low bottom, hemmed in on both sides by mountains. After leading his soldiers with great bravery and discretion in two charges, Colonel Fleming was severely wounded, two balls passing through his arm and one through his breast. After cheering on the officers and soldiers, he retired from the field. In March 1776, he was appointed colonel of the 9th Virginia regiment in the Revolutionary army. He died of disease that had been contracted by fatigue and exposure in camp.