About This Book

The War for the Ohio Country that Gave the Colonies the Critical Time to Debate and Declare Independence

Known to history as “Dunmore’s War,” the 1774 campaign against a Shawnee-led Indian confederacy in the Ohio Country marked the final time an American colonial militia took to the field in His Majesty’s service and under royal command. Led by John Murray, the fourth Earl of Dunmore and royal governor of Virginia, a force of colonials including George Rogers Clark, Daniel Morgan, Michael Cresap, Adam Stephen, and Andrew Lewis successfully enforced the western border established by treaties in parts of present-day West Virginia and Kentucky. The campaign is often neglected in histories, despite its major influence on the conduct of the Revolutionary War that followed.

In Dunmore’s War: The Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era, award-winning historian Glenn F. Williams describes the course and importance of this campaign. Supported by extensive primary source research, the author corrects much of the folklore concerning the war and frontier fighting in general, demonstrating that the Americans did not adopt Indian tactics for wilderness fighting as is often supposed, but rather used British methods developed for fighting irregulars in the woods of Europe, while incorporating certain techniques learned from the Indians and experience gained from earlier colonial wars.

As an immediate result of Dunmore’s War, the frontier remained quiet for two years, giving the colonies the critical time to debate and declare independence before Britain convinced its Indian allies to resume attacks on American settlements. Ironically, at the same time Virginia militiamen were fighting under command of a king’s officer, the colony was becoming one of the leaders in the move toward American independence. Although he was hailed as a hero at the end of the war, Lord Dunmore’s attempt to maintain royal authority put him in direct opposition to many of the subordinates who followed him on the frontier, and in 1776 he was driven from Virginia and returned to England.

Glenn F. Williams is a historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort McNair, Washington, DC. He has served as the historian of the National Museum of the U.S. Army Project, the Army Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration, and the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program. He is the author of a number of books and articles, including the award-winning Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign against the Iroquois. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Maryland.

Praise for Dunmore’s War:

“Far-reaching and insightful analysis. . . . Dunmore’s War will become the standard work on the conflict.”—Journal of America’s Military Past

“An outstanding example of how to write history.”
—Daily News (Galveston, Texas)

“Mr. Williams is at his best in campaign history, mining new primary source material about the organization, training, operations, and tactics of the Virginia militia. He shows how its members effectively adapted conventional European tactics to the American woods, learning from Indian fighting techniques and past conflicts to evolve their own brand of bush fighting. Dunmore’s War sufficiently quieted the frontier for the two critical years in which the colonies passed from resistance on particular issues to fighting a united national war for republican independence.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Glenn Williams has produced the most deeply researched campaign study of Dunmore’s War, and sets the new standard. At last, we have a gripping narrative of that pivotal event that cuts through the historical misunderstanding that still surrounds it.”—David L. Preston, author of Braddock’s Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution

“Glenn Williams has brought to vivid life a largely forgotten chapter in America’s revolutionary story. More important, he has given readers a new understanding of the complexity and significance of Dunmore’s war in the looming war with George III’s England. If there is such a thing as the last word on large historical topic, this is it.”—Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty! The American Revolution

“Glenn F. Williams has unearthed a largely hidden piece of American history—Lord Dunmore’s War. This finely researched and well-written narrative promises to be the definitive history of this this significant saga.”—Patrick K. O’Donnell author of Washington’s Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Unit Who Changed the Course of the Revolution