American Revolutionary War

conflict=American Revolutionary War

War in the West

Main article: Frontier warfare during the American Revolution

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In the American West?which was then west of the Appalachians, south of the Great Lakes, and east of the Mississippi River?the American Revolutionary War was an "Indian War." The British and the Continental Congress both courted Indians as allies (or urged them to remain neutral), and many Native American communities became divided over which path to take. Like the Iroquois Confederacy, groups such as the Cherokees and the Shawnees split into factions. Delawares under White Eyes signed the first Indian treaty with the United States, but other Delawares joined the British.

Related Topics:
American West - Appalachians - Great Lakes - Mississippi River - Indian War - Iroquois - Cherokee - Shawnee - Delaware - White Eyes - First Indian treaty

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The British supplied their Indian allies from forts along the Great Lakes, and tribesmen staged raids on Patriot settlements in New York, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Joint Iroquois-Loyalist attacks in the Wyoming Valley and at Cherry Valley in 1778 helped provoke the scorched earth Sullivan Expedition into western New York during the summer of 1779. On the brutal western front, every man, woman, and child — regardless of race — was a potential casualty.

Related Topics:
Wyoming Valley - Cherry Valley - 1778 - Scorched earth - Sullivan Expedition - 1779

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In the Ohio Country, the Virginia frontiersman George Rogers Clark attempted to neutralize British influence among the Ohio tribes by capturing the outposts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes in the summer of 1778. When General Henry Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, retook Vincennes, Clark returned in a surprise march in February of 1779 and captured Hamilton himself.

Related Topics:
Ohio Country - George Rogers Clark - Kaskaskia - Vincennes - Henry Hamilton - Detroit

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However, a decisive victory in the West eluded the United States even as their fortunes had risen in the East. The low point on the frontier came in 1782 with the Gnadenhutten massacre, when Pennsylvania militiamen — unable to track down enemy warriors — executed nearly 100 Christian Delaware noncombatants, mostly women and children. Later that year, in the last major encounter of the war, the Battle of Blue Licks, a party of Kentuckians was soundly defeated by a superior force of British regulars and Native Americans. For generations in the United States, the exploits of George Rogers Clark were practically the only stories told about the Revolution in the West; other parts of the tale were apparently best left unremembered.

Related Topics:
1782 - Gnadenhutten massacre - Christian - Noncombatant - Battle of Blue Licks

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