Virginia's Independent Frontier Companies, Part One: 1775-1776

When the American Revolution began, the Virginia Colony faced not one military-territorial contest, but four. Its ousted Royal governor, Lord Dunmore, was in the Chesapeake actively plotting a forcible return to power. A longstanding dispute with Pennsylvania over the headwaters of the Ohio had turned violent. A formal peace with the Shawnee on the northwest frontier was still pending after Col. Andrew Lewis’s October 1774 victory at Point Pleasant. A new war was brewing with the Cherokee to the southwest. Virginia’s early military preparations had to account for all of these threats.

​In July 1775, Virginia created two full-time provincial regiments and a network of regional minute battalions to supplement the militia system. Seven more regiments were authorized in December. These regiments were intended for service in the east opposing the Crown and were taken into the Continental Army in 1776.

The pre-history of Virginia's
​8th, 12th, and 13th regiments.

Vast Fincastle County covered what are now southwest Virginia, southern West Virginia, and all of Kentucky. It was protected by Capt. William Russell’s company. (Author)

Largely forgotten are the colony’s independent provincial companies that were created at the same time to handle the western threats. They are often misidentified as militia and are glossed over in most histories, which reflects their short existence and the limited information in the surviving record. Just three of the companies are listed in E.M. Sanchez-Saavedra’s A Guide to Virginia Military Organizations in the American Revolution, 1774-1783. Another standard reference, Robert K. Wright’s The Continental Army, correctly notes that there were actually five original companies but provides little additional detail.

...click here to read part two of this series.

The frontier companies formed in 1775 were posted along the Ohio River at Fort Pitt, Fort Henry, and Fort Randolph and where needed in Fincastle County.

More from The 8th Virginia Regiment

...read Part Two of this series.