Historical Background
Lord Dunmore’s War was a confrontation between Virginia and the American Indians of the Ohio Country in 1774.
In the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768), the Iroquois agreed to give all of their lands east and south of the Ohio River to the British. However most Ohio American Indians, including the Delaware, Seneca-Cayuga and Shawnee, did not. British colonists immediately began to settle into the region and by the spring of 1774, violent encounters escalated as the American Indians, especially the Shawnee, tried to drive the British colonists back across the Appalachian Mountains.
In August 1774, Pennsylvania militia entered the Ohio Country and destroyed several abandoned Seneca-Cayuga villages.
At the same time, the governor of Virginia, John Murray – known as Lord Dunmore, sent one thousand men to the Kanawha River in present-day West Virginia in order to force the Shawnee to accept the terms of the 1768 treaty and solidify Virginian control of the area.
Shawnee leader Cornstalk sent his warriors to drive Dunmore’s force from the region.
A Southern division of 1,000 men, led by Colonel Andrew Lewis and marching to join Dunmore, were camped where the Great Kanawha river meets the Ohio. With 300 to 500 warriors, Cornstalk set to ambush them before they could join with Dunmore’s Northern division. But a hunting party from Lewis’s camp stumbled directly into the advancing Shawnee and gunshots alerted the Virginians of the impending attack. Commading his troops from the camp, Lewis ordered his troops to form two columns and move forward to meet them. Instead of employing their usual ‘hit-and-run’ tactics, the Shawnee and their allies met the troops head on.
After several hours of intense and often hand-to-hand fighting, the British drove Cornstalk’s followers north of the Ohio River.
Fearing that Dunmore intended to destroy them, the Shawnee immediately agreed to terms before more blood was shed.
The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. The rest is history?
Battle Notes
Shawnee Army
• Commander: Cornstalk
• (5) 4 Command cards & 2 Combat cards Shawnee start with 5 Command cards. Do not draw a card after your first Command card is played. Command is reduced to 4.
• Move First
British Army
• Commander: A. Lewis
• 4 Command cards & 3 Combat cards
Victory
7 Victory Banners
Special Rules
- Shawnee gain one permanent victory banner when occupying a camp (outlined in red) at the start of their turn. Remove the camp hex and collect a banner.
- Indian War Cry is in effect.
- The Ohio and Kanawha rivers are impassable except at the six River Crossings (outlined in blue).
- River Movement is in effect and usable by both players.
- Indian Warriors
- Indian War Cry
- River Crossings
- River Movement