Lord Dunmore's War was a focal point in Western history. In either wing of the army were gathered men who, by daring enterprise, had made their way to the frontier and had carried American institutions across the Appalachian barrier. In a pitched battle, they met and subdued nearly an equal number of their most redoubtable foes. From Point Pleasant and Champ Charlotte they scattered far and wide to fight the coming battle for independence—some on the shores of the Atlantic, some in the forests of the Southwest, and others on the prairies of Illinois. The victory at Point Pleasant opened an ever-lengthening pathway to Western settlement, and thenceforward new vigor was infused into the two chief forces of the future century: American expansion and American nationalism.