William Christian was a military officer, planter and politician from the western part of the Colony of Virginia. He represented Fincastle County in the House of Burgesses and as relations with Britain soured, signed the Fincastle Resolutions. He later represented western Virginia in the Virginia Senate and founded Fort William, as well as helped negotiate the Treaty of Long Island of the Holston, which made peace between the Overmountain Men and Cherokees in 1777. He was killed in 1786 at the outset of the Northwest Indian War, leading an expedition against Native Americans near what is now Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Christiansburg is a town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States.The population was 21,041 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Montgomery County. Christiansburg, Blacksburg and the city of Radford are the three principal municipalities of the Blacksburg–Christiansburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses those municipalities, all of Montgomery County, and three other counties.