Westmoreland County was set off from Bedford County in 1773 and during the Revolution encompassed the western quarter of Pennsylvania. Hassler tells the story of the county during the Revolution, episode by episode, with detailed accounts of individuals who took part in the military expeditions.    

The author opens with a discussion of the earliest settlers in the county, and also describes the conflicts arising from the claims by Virginia to much of the same territory. For several years both Virginia and Pennsylvania courts operated in much of this territory.

Hassler then begins his Revolutionary account with events in 1774, including the establishment of a committee of correspondence. Chapter by chapter, he narrates each episode occurring in this territory, in which those sympathizing with the Revolutionary side were in conflict with Loyalists, British, and Indians allied with the former two groups.

The various stories tell of espionage, transportation of gunpowder from New Orleans and St. Louis, commando raids, and straightforward military operations. Since most of these events were quite small and limited in time compared with the fighting further east, the author is able to investigate in detail the activities of many ordinary participants.

The various accounts are well documented, with citations to a wide range of both published and manuscript original sources, such as private letters and diaries and official reports, as well as secondary sources prepared during the nineteenth century.



The CD includes high-quality images of every page as originally published (not just a transcript) and is fully searchable using Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 5 or later recommended) on any Windows, Macintosh, or Unix computer. The data on this CD is completely self-contained, and requires no installation.