Historic Little Miami River
Spring Valley Township, Greene County, Ohio
Marker Inscription
In 1780 and 1782 militia commanded by George Rogers Clark, and guided by Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone, crossed the river and camped two miles north of Caesar’s Creek.
Erected by Ohio History Connection
The Story
During the Revolutionary War's western frontier, the Ohio Country was a violently contested borderland, and George Rogers Clark led Kentucky militia north across the Little Miami on punitive expeditions in 1780 and 1782 against the Shawnee towns. Guiding the columns were two of the frontier's most storied woodsmen, Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone, whose knowledge of the trails and river fords made such deep strikes possible. The men who camped here two miles above Caesar's Creek were part of a war being fought far from the coastal battlefields most Americans remember, in the forests and canebrakes west of the Appalachians.
Why it matters
This quiet river crossing marks the Revolution's often-forgotten western theater, where the fate of the Ohio Valley — and the future of American expansion beyond the mountains — was decided by frontier militia rather than Continental armies.
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Related people
- · George Rogers Clark
- · Simon Kenton
- · Daniel Boone
Related events
- · George Rogers Clark's 1780 and 1782 expeditions against the Shawnee in the Ohio Country
Themes & tags
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