Edgar W. Hassler

Old Westmoreland : a History of Western Pennsylvania During the Revolution Edgar W. Hassler

Westmoreland County was established as Pennsylvania's eleventh county in 1773. Constituting most of southwestern Pennsylvania at its inception, it included the counties of present-day Westmoreland, Fayette, Greene and Washington, parts of Allegheny and Beaver counties south of the Ohio River, about two-thirds of the county of Indiana, and one-third of the county of Armstrong. Written in a clear, accessible style, Hassler's Old Westmoreland was the first effort to render a coherent account of the Revolutionary War in western Pennsylvania, which essentially comprised the operations in the great transmontane region centering on Fort Pitt from 1775 to 1783. Unlike the events in the eastern theater of the Revolution, most of the battles in Westmoreland County pitted Pennsylvania Patriots against the Iroquois, Senecas, Tuscarawas, and other indigenous peoples allied with the British along the frontier. These momentous and often horrific encounters, as well as the evolution of the Patriot cause, are narrated in detail in vignettes about the [Patriot] Association of Westmoreland, Flight of the Pittsburgh Tories, Massacre of Wyoming, Sullivan's Expedition, the Destruction of Coshocton, George Rogers Clark in Western Pennsylvania, Planning Another Campaign Against Sandusky, the Peace Journey of Ephraim Douglass, and much more. Mr. Hassler's research was conducted from primary and secondary sources available to him at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and he has listed his authorities at the beginning of his volume for all to see or double-check.