Brutal Warfare Continues on the Frontier in 1782

American Revolution
Written By Tom Hand

Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington at Yorktown in October 1781, but the harsh warfare in Kentucky continued unabated. Forty-seven Kentuckians were killed or captured in the first three months of 1782, and it got worse after that. But the ruthlessness on the frontier cut both ways. In March, three hundred Pennsylvania militiamen went in search of hostiles, but only found a tribe of Christian pacifists known as the Moravian Indians. Frustrated by years of suffering at the hands of Indians, the militiamen rounded up ninety-six innocent Moravians and proceeded to tomahawk and scalp all of them, including twenty-nine women and thirty-nine children.

Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses the brutal warfare inflicted on the frontier in 1782, and why it still matters today.

Images courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery, Library of Congress, The New York Public Library, Wikipedia.

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Although Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown in October 1781 and peace talks began in Europe soon thereafter, the brutal warfare in the Ohio Country and Kentucky continued unabated. Little did talks taking place in comfortable parlors thousands of miles away affect the Indians and Kentuckians, they were dealing with a daily dose of life and death affairs on the frontier.

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On the eve of the American Revolution, the lands west and south of the Appalachians were ripe for conquest. All that was needed to exploit this cauldron of trouble and take over this vast land was an intrepid man with a vision and a band of determined followers. That leader would emerge in the person of George Rogers Clark, and his extraordinary efforts would secure the Ohio River Valley for the United States.

Tom Hand
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