century economic boom has been cited a major origin of the American Revolution. Mathews took an increasingly active role civic affairs during this period. In Augusta County he served as a vestryman from 1763 to 1768, high sheriff from 1770 to 1771, and justice of the peace from 1769 to 1770 and 1773 to 1775. He was appointed a captain of militia in 1766. Mathews first gained wider recognition for his role in the October 4, 1774, Battle of Point Pleasant. In the fall of 1774, Royal Governor Lord Dunmore assembled an invasion of Native American territory along the Ohio River, culling a thousand troops largely from the Virginia frontier. The Native Americans, under the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk, attacked Virginia militia, attempting to halt its advance into the Ohio Country. Rembert Patrick described the battle as "a typical Indian battle where every man found a tree, and military discipline in the English sense was unknown." Mathews, dressed in a hunting shirt and moccasins, killed 9 Indians while remaining uninjured himself. The tide of the battle turned when the militia enacted a flanking maneuver late in the day, initiating Cornstalk's retreat. Credit for this maneuver has typically been given either to Andrew Lewis or George Mathews. From his newfound celebrity, Mathews won a special election to what became the last session of the House of Burgesses in 1775. Mathews served alongside Samuel McDowell and succeeded Charles Lewis, who had died in battle before the session began. He had already represented Augusta County in Virginia's first Revolutionary Convention in August 1774, alongside both Lewis and McDowell. However, Governor Dunmore dissolved the prorougued assembly before it convened in 1776. American Revolutionary War Mathews eagerly sought a military commission on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. On the creation of the 9th Virginia Regiment in the Continental Army in January 1776, he was commissioned lieutenant colonel. The regiment joined General George Washington's army in December 1776, in which it embarked on Washington's Philadelphia campaign. By February 1777, Mathews was promoted to colonel of the 9th Virginia Regiment. Mathews's regiment saw its first significant action during the September 11, 1777, Battle of Brandywine. The battle, fought between Washington's army and the British army of General Sir William Howe, was both the largest battle of the Revolution, with nearly 30,000 total belligerents, and the longest single-day battle of the war, with continuous fighting for 11 hours.