Withers' Chronicles of Border Warfare, an excellent example of the genre of frontier history, was originally published in 1831. In 1895, Reuben Thwaites, editor of Wisconsin Historical Collections, prepared an annotated edition of the Withers book based on materials not available to the author, among them the extraordinary collection of primary sources assembled at the Wisconsin Historical Society by Lyman C. Draper. Clearfield Company is pleased to reprint the revised edition of Withers' Chronicles at this time.
The focal point of Chronicles of Border Warfare is the American settlement throughout the northwestern portion of colonial Virginia (an area which today encompasses parts of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania) from the French and Indian War to the Battle of Fallen Timbers, and the ensuing clashes with the indigenous population. While the watershed events of the advancing frontier (the arrival of scouts, establishment of forts, and the ultimate triumph of the U.S. Army) give a structure to Withers' account, what the book is really about are detailed, often grisly, descriptions of contacts between the races. Not something to be read by the squeamish, it is full of graphic accounts of massacres and reprisals. While the Chronicles purport to be essentially historical in nature, genealogists will appreciate the numerous references to the intrepid scouts and settlers along the frontier furnished by the author and amplified by Mr. Thwaites. All such persons are readily found in the index at the back of the volume.