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. As an immediate result of Dunmore’s War, the frontier remained quiet for two years, which allowed colonies to debate and declare independence before Britain convinced its Native allies to resume attacks on American settlements. 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 he was driven from Virginia and returned to England in 1776. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of this campaign, historian Glenn F. Williams describes the course and importance of Dunmore’s War by correcting the folklore concerning the war and frontier fighting in general.
About the Speaker
Glenn F. Williams was the senior historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort McNair, D.C. Prior to that, his positions included historian of the National Museum of the U.S. Army Project, historian of the Army Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration, historian of the American Battlefield Protection Program of the National Park Service, curator and historian of the USS Constellation Museum and assistant curator of the Baltimore Civil War Museum – President Street Station. He is the author of several books, including Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign Against the Iroquois (Westholme Publishing, 2006) and Dunmore’s War: The Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era (Westholme Publishing, 2017). In 2018, he received the Shelby Cullom Davis Award from the Society of Colonial Wars and the Judge Robert K. Woltz Award from the French and Indian War Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Maryland, College Park.