The early battles of the Revolution were fought while Boon's comrades were laying the foundations of their commonwealth.
Hitherto the two chains of events had been only remotely connected; but in 1776, the year of the Declaration of Independence, the struggle between the king and his rebellious subjects shook the whole land, and the men of the western border were drawn headlong into the full current of revolutionary warfare.

From that moment our politics became national, and the fate of each portion of our country was thenceforth in some sort dependent upon the welfare of every other.

Each section had its own work to do; the east won independence while the west began to conquer the continent.

Yet the deeds of each were of vital consequence to the other.
Washington's Continentals gave the west its freedom; and took in return for themselves and their children a share of the land that had been conquered and held by the scanty bands of tall backwoodsmen.
The backwoodsmen, the men of the up-country, were, as a whole, ardent adherents of the patriot or American side.

Yet there were among them many loyalists or tories; and these tories included in their ranks much the greatest portion of the vicious and the disorderly elements.