William buried the bodies and for the next several years he lived off the land in the manner of his Indian friends who taught him how to survive, hunt and fish, and more importantly, how to fight. On many occasions William joined them on raids against the British who had been dispatched to drive them over the Appalachian Mountains and out of Virginia.

Increasing oppression from King George III pushed the colonists into open rebellion and soon the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed. When the British launched a campaign in the southern colonies, William gathered together a company of men. Commissioned as a Captain in the Virginia Militia and was placed in command of the company. For the next several years they fought the British using highly unorthodox methods of warfare for the day.

The colonists succeeded and a new nation of thirteen untied states emerged from the former colonies. With the war over, Andrew returned to the Roanoke Valley were he was granted nearly two thousand acres by the Commonwealth of Virginia next to the homestead that his father had established.

William founded the Austin Plantation in 1783 and built a fine home and settled in to work the land and raise his family. He and his wife raised four children, having lost two in infancy. With time three of their children and their families set out for new opportunities in Kentucky and Tennessee. Only Francis remained to inherit the plantation, who established a sawmill along the river at the west edge of the plantation. It was a profitable business as timber was plentiful and lumber was in demand as new settlers were coming into the Roanoke Valley. With the demand for land, he became wealthy by selling off portions of the plantation.