Dr. Glenn Williams
This presentation explains the causes and conduct of the last Indian War before the start of the American War for Independence. Set during what some would call the “Quiet Time,” many historians pay it little attention or misinterpret its historical significance. However, John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia, led the colony’s soldiers “in his majesty’s service” in a defensive war that culminated in a successful offensive military expedition. Set against the backdrop of the deepening constitutional crisis that soon spun out of control, the campaign’s decisive battle was fought as delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies met at Philadelphia in the First Continental Congress. Although the victorious Lord Dunmore returned to Williamsburg in triumph and at the height of his popularity in December 1774, before another year ended he would be vilified by Virginians and flee his capital.
At the conclusion, participants will learn that Revolution was not necessarily inevitable in 1774 Virginia. Furthermore, Dunmore’s War had a surprising beneficial effect that favored the Americans in the early years of the Revolutionary War. It will also inform participants, and dispel many “myths”, about the organization, composition, and tactical doctrine of Virginia’s colonial militia before the Revolution. The information is based on research for Lord Dunmore’s War: the Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era (Westholme Publishing, 2017).
Meet the Speaker:
Glenn F. Williams is a retired Army officer who entered public history as a second career. He recently retired from federal civilian service as a Senior Historian
at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort McNair, DC, where he facilitated staff ride exercises for military units at historic battlefields and was the project officer for the Army 250th Birthday and Semiquincenttial of the Revolutionary War. He is the author or co-author of three monographs in CMH’s U.S. Army Campaigns of the Revolutionary War series: Opening Shots in the Colonies, 1775-1776, Northern Campaigns, 1778-1781, and The War on the Frontier, 1775-1783, to be released in 2024. His previous positions included Historian of the National Museum of the U.S. Army and Historian of the Army Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. He has also served as Historian of the American Battlefield Protection Program of the National Park Service, Curator / Historian of the USS Constellation Museum, and Assistant Curator of the Baltimore Civil War Museum – President Street Station. Outside of CMH, he is the author of several books, including Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign Against the Iroquois (Westholme 2005), recipient of the Thomas J. Fleming Award for the Outstanding Revolutionary War Book of 2005, and named one of “The 100 Best American Revolution Books of All Time” by the Journal of the American Revolution in the spring 2017 issue. For his book, Dunmore’s War: The Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era (Westholme 2017), Glenn was recognized for contributions to the study of 18th Century American military history with the Shelby Cullom Davis Award of the Ohio Society of Colonial Wars and the Judge Robert K. Woltz Award of the French and Indian War Foundation. Glenn has also written several journal and magazine articles, is a contributor to Battles of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812: Two Interpretive Maps (National Geographic 2012) and the essay “Let It Begin Here” about the battle of Lexington and Concord in The Ten Key Campaigns of the American Revolution (Regnery History 2020). He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Maryland, College Park.
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