Historian Patrick K. O'Donnell notes that colonial riflemen stated their intent to remain free months before the 1776 Declaration of Independence. On October 10, 1774, those marksmen with Pennsylvania long rifles held off Shawnee and allied warriors under Chief Cornstalk at Point Pleasant in what is now West Virginia, after which Lord Dunmore secured peace at Fort Gower.

On November 5 the same men issued the Fort Gower Resolves, tying allegiance to King George III to his rule over a free people and pledging their rifles to defend American rights. O'Donnell recounts them in his forthcoming book Revolutionary Snipers.