This book addresses a subject that has received scant notice by historians over the years, the history of the Revolutionary War in the Ohio Country.

The book begins by giving a short but concise history of the conflict in the western country. Though not generally known today, there was much bitter fighting between the British allied Ohio tribes and the American settlers on the frontier in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Virigina in the years between 1777-1782 with both sides commiting terrible atrocities. The Americans became deterimined to stop the raids by launching an attack against the British stronghold at Detroit, the support center for the Shawnee, Mingo, Wyandot, and Miami Indians who were raiding up and down the frontier. Though the Delaware were largely allies of the Americans, they later threw their lot in with the other tribes late in the war after the infamous massacre of Christian Delawares at Gnadenhutten.

Fort Laurens, named for Continental Congress president Henry Laurens, was built by order of General Lachlan McIntosh and was intended as the first step to securing, through military occupation, the wilderness of the Ohio Country. It was also intended to serve as a first step toward the ultimate goal of reducing Fort Detroit. Sadly, the fort was so far removed from its supply base at Fort Pitt and surrounded by a wilderness infested with hostile tribes that the maintenance of the fort soon became impossible. Despite its best effort, the garrison commanded by Col John Gibson, lacking food and supplies and finding themselves under nearly constant attack by the Indians and British rangers, was finally forced to abandon the post. This halting attempt to subdue the Ohio tribes was a total failure.

This is a short book but contains alot of good info on a little known subject.

This is a good introduction to the site of Ft. Laurens in Bolivar, Ohio. While it takes three or four chapters to actually get to the fort itself, all of this preliminary information is needed to understand the context in which the fort operated. The one thing I wish would have been done differently was the use of footnotes or endnotes--there were none. However, there was a useful Note on Sources at the end of the book. The final chapter is devoted to the archaeological excavations performed at the site in the 1970s. This is a very interesting section, and now that more excavations are currently being conducted, perhaps an updated edition of the book could be prepared.