The frontier War for American Independence

Abstract

The frontier war for American Independence, at once genocidal and decisive, is obscured within the American Revolution's broader history and even more powerfully vivid and enduring myths. But the largely conventional war along the eastern seaboard was paralleled and at times intersected by a war without mercy along the frontier. Battles won or lost there could and did decide the revolution's fate. Indeed, the most critical campaign of not juуst the frontier but the entire war took place in 1777, when the Americans captured an entire British army at Saratoga. That encouraged France to ally with the United States in 1778 and made possible Washington’s capture of another British army at Yorktown in 1781. This article explores the strategies, tactics, diplomacy, logistics, participants, cultures, and psychologies of America’s frontier war for independence.

Keywords

• frontier, America, independence, frontier war, strategies, tactics, diplomacy, logistics, participants, American Revolution