In August 1782, Loyalist Captain William Caldwell led three hundred warriors into Kentucky and attacked Bryan’s Station. Caldwell’s men could do little against the palisaded walls of the stockade and withdrew towards the Ohio when they learned of the approach of a relief force led by Colonel John Todd and Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Boone. The Kentuckians surprisingly caught up with Caldwell at a river crossing known as Lower Blue Licks, but Daniel Boone sensed an ambush. A hotheaded Major named Hugh McGary accused Boone of cowardice, jumped on his horse, and yelled for all to hear, “Them that ain’t cowards follow me.”

Since the attack on Logan’s Fort in May 1777, the settlements of Kentucky had been under constant assault by tribes north of the Ohio. In September 1778, Blackfish, a Shawnee chief, led a large contingent of warriors to Boonesboro. The siege lasted 12 days, but Daniel Boone’s efforts saved the post and Blackfish was forced to retire. In the spring of 1780, the British, in conjunction with their invasion of the southern colonies, launched an offensive to recapture the Illinois Country, but Colonel George Rogers Clark repelled that force near Cahokia on May 25. Clark’s army then crossed the Ohio in August and headed north into Shawnee territory to exact some revenge.

After serving in the American Revolution as a captain in the Virginia militia, Daniel Boone was quite successful, serving in the Virginia General Assembly and being promoted to colonel in the militia. However, civilization soon got the better of Boone, and losses from his business dealings forced him to sell off all his Kentucky lands.

Daniel Boone was one of the greatest American explorers from our founding era. Born in 1734 in southeastern Pennsylvania, his family moved to North Carolina in 1750, where he joined the local militia and participated in the ill-fated Braddock expedition at the Battle of the Monongahela. In 1756, Boone married Rebecca Bryan, with whom he raised 10 children. He spent the next decade ranging far and wide into the Appalachians, getting his first glimpses of Kentucky and honing his mountain skills.