STATEHOUSE CALENDAR

Lord Dunmore’s War is a designation that is applied to a series of bloody hostilities between the frontier population of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and the Native Americans living in the Ohio Country, especially the Shawnee and Ohio Seneca-Cayuga in the year 1774. Attacks and atrocities were committed by both sides in a back and forth manner that literally kept the frontier in flames. In August of 1774, Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia raised a large force of Virginians to carry the war into what is now central Ohio.

Lord Dunmore and his force left Fort Pitt (present day Pittsburgh) and descended the Ohio River as far as the mouth of the Hocking River within the present limits of Athens County, Ohio. Here he landed, formed a camp, and built a fortification which he called Fort Gower. After the successful conclusion of this campaign deep in the Ohio Country, Dunmore’s army returned to Fort Gower, where the officers received anxiously awaited news about the decisions of the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The news was exciting as Congress had made strongly worded declarations asserting the rights of British Americans. Perhaps feeling emboldened by their recent success, the officers of the army signed several resolves that asserted their rights. These resolves were an expression of the increasing spirit of American independence as the American Revolution was about to begin. This exhibit explores these early events in Ohio history.