250th anniversary of Cornstalk’s Campaign

In West Virginia, the year 2013 will be marked by numerous commemorative events highlighting the year 1863. This special commemoration is fitting, for the American Civil War brought about great changes to our Nation, not the least of which was the federal recognition and creation of West Virginia as the 35th state. Subsumed in the 150th birth year celebration is another anniversary of no less importance and perhaps with even greater impact on the future course of history in the region that one hundred years later became "The Mountain State". That is the 250th

anniversary of Shawnee Warrior Cornstalk's Raid on the western Virginia Euro-American settlements in the TransAllegheny region. The schedule is listed below. Find more information for activities at each event site on additional pages.

There is little question that Cornstalk's leadership of the Shawnee led to the most successful campaign of all American Indian operations in western Virginia. In terms of the number of enemy settlements abandoned, the number of captives taken, and the number of enemy killed, no other field commanders' campaigns in the region came close to Cornstalk's success in 1763. This campaign honed Cornstalk's skills at war and alliance-building. His experiences in 1763 made him a formidable foe during Dunmore's War eleven years later, an effective peace-maker after that war, as well as an astute ally of the American cause during the beginning years of the American Revolution. His 1763 military campaign changed the attitudes of succeeding generations of western Virginians towards their American Indian neighbors. His murder in 1777, while he was on a peace mission to Fort Randolph, was a revenge-slaying committed by family members of western Virginians killed in 1763 by Cornstalk's warriors.

Immerse yourself in history in 2013!

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