Lord Dunmore's War

Dunmore's War (or Lord Dunmore's War) is fought from 1773 to 1774 between the Colony of Virginia and the Indian nations of the Shawnee and Mingo.The House of Burgesses had been asked by Lord Dunmore, the British Royal Governor of Virginia, to declare a state of war with the hostile Indian nations and order up an elite volunteer militia force for the campaign.The context of the conflict results from escalating violence between British colonists who in accordance with previous treaties are exploring and moving into land south of the Ohio River—modern West Virginia and Kentucky—and American Indians who hold treaty rights to hunt there.As a result of successive attacks by Indian hunting and war bands upon the settlers, war is declared "to pacify the hostile Indian war bands" as the British colonists see it.

The war ends soon after Virginia's victory in the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774.As a result of this victory, the Indians lose the right to hunt in the area and agree to recognize the Ohio River as the boundary between Indian lands and the British colonies.Although the Indian national chieftains sign the treaty, conflict within the Indian nations soon breaks out between more radical tribesmen who feel the treaty sold out their claims and tribesmen who feel another war will mean only further losses of territory to the more powerful British colonists.When war breaks out between the British colonists and the British government, the war parties of the Indian nations quickly gain power and mobilize many of the various Indian nations to attack the British colonists during the Revolutionary War.

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