The Battle of Gwynn's Island saw Andrew Lewis lead patriot soldiers from Virginia against John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore's small naval squadron and British loyalist troops. In this American Revolutionary War action, accurate cannon fire from the nearby Virginia mainland persuaded Dunmore to abandon his base at Gwynn's Island. While camping on the island, the loyalists suffered heavy mortality from smallpox and an unknown fever, particularly among the escaped slaves that Dunmore recruited to fight against the American rebels.
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) grew from colonial resistance to British taxation without parliamentary representation — a dispute that radicalized through the Stamp Act (1765), the Townshend Acts (1767), and the Boston Massacre (1770). Fighting began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775; the Continental Congress declared independence on July 4, 1776. The Continental Army under George Washington faced severe shortages of supplies and troops, enduring the brutal winter at Valley Forge (1777–1778) before French alliance and French financing turned the military balance. Major engagements included Bunker Hill (1775), Trenton (1776), Saratoga (1777) — which secured French intervention — and Yorktown (1781), where British General Cornwallis surrendered to Washington. An estimated 25,000 American soldiers died in service, from combat, disease, and captivity. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded British territory east of the Mississippi, though it left unresolved questions about Indigenous land rights and the status of Loyalists.
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