The American Revolution came as a fire storm. No section of America was untouched or unaltered. The British Colonists who were in open rebellion against the crown in 1775 found themselves embroiled in a conflict that would last well beyond the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The war cost them dearly—in resources, […]
In 1777, the third year of the American War for Independence, little had gone in the favor of the Patriots especially in the borderlands. They controlled Fort Pitt and several other outposts, but they were far from the main fighting; the region was considered a backwater theater. British governor of Detroit Henry Hamilton issued a […]
The settlers who chose to make their homes in the upper Ohio in the mid to late eighteenth century faced a wide variety of challenges to survive in this backcountry, ranging from the distance to centers of trade and population to the difficulty in practicing agriculture in old-growth forests. That this frontier, the area surrounding […]
During the American Revolution, British-allied Native Americans raided American homesteads and settlements all along the Ohio Valley. As the war progressed, the increased frequency and ever-widening circle of Indian raids forced the Continental Congress and Army to respond. In 1778, a Congressional committee studied the matter and concluded that a defensive war “would not only […]
There is no dignity in being forgotten. A case in point is Virginia Lt. Col. Richard Campbell, a Continental officer who died bravely for his country but lies today in an unmarked grave far from his home. “Killed near the end of the battle at Eutaw Springs,” wrote the authors of a 2017 study of […]
Following the Battle of Monmouth in late 1778, the traditional narrative of the American Revolution becomes lost for many non-specialists. With the existing dichotomy of “American Patriot” versus “British Redcoat” in popular culture, newcomers are often bewildered by the terrible brand of violent politics that so typifies the war on the frontiers of New York […]
