(1774) Attack by Virginia militia on the Shawnee in Kentucky.
The militiamen seized Fort Pitt on the western border, renaming it after their royal governor, Lord Dunmore, who had ordered attacks against the Shawnee, seen as a threat to white settlers then spreading into the Indian hunting grounds. Defeated at the Battle of Point Pleasant, the Shawnee signed a treaty giving up their hunting grounds. The war was probably started to divert Virginians from disagreements with royal administrators; as such, it has been called the first battle of the American Revolution .