Virginia’s Western War, 1775–1786 ed. by Neal O. Hammon, Richard Taylor (review)

Book Reviews Neal 0. Hammon and Richard Taylor. Virginia' s Western War, 17751786 . Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books,2002. ISBN: 081171389X ( cloth), 29.95. men fought alongside federal troopS who defeated the Northwest Indian confederacy and opened the future state of Ohio to white settlement. Neal Hammon and Richard Taylor's new book is a lively and lavishly detailed account of the struggle of Kentuckians first for survival and later for dominance of the region during the Revolutionary era. The authors describe the first surveys ot the Bluegrass region, Shawnee raids on Kentucky farms in 177677 , Indian sieges of Fort Henry Wheeling) and Boonesborough, George Rogers Clark' s counteroffensive against Native American r-" the settlement of the Trans-Appalachian West by white Americans and African American slaves constitutes one of the most dramatic and farreaching consequences of the American Revolution. In 1770, only a few thousand white traders and squatters lived between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, and 3 Native Americans controlled the region. By 1800, however, over Virginia's Western War 150, 000 white farmers resided 1775-1786 in Kentucky,Tennessee, and the r.4 ' Northwest Territory, and the i --1 s :".'' 2 1, ri, r s41" 8 :, 4. Ir' T'. .. 1.... I .. 1%'. ...