Knights of The Golden Horseshoe Expedition - Legacy

Legacy

When Spotswood returned to Williamsburg, he actually claimed that the intention of the Expedition was to look for a way to Lake Erie, with a view to eventually thwarting the growing French presence in the region. He also sought permission from Britain to make a second expedition to scout for an outpost location on the Great Lakes, however he never received it.

At a practical level, word of the expedition, and descriptions of the fertile valley land beyond the mountain range, apparently didn't do much in the short-term to open the Shenandoah Valley for development from the east. The mountain range was a formidable barrier. Instead, most of the early settlers came down the Valley from the north, many of German and Scottish descent. Groups of Mennonites migrated from Pennsylvania, and settled in the general area of present-day Rockingham County and Harrisonburg, where their descendants may still be found today.

Spotswood's expedition, which from all reports, traveled at a leisurely pace, encountered little or no loss of life or conflict with Native Americans, and included frequent stops for celebrations and libations, earned a somewhat legendary status. The expedition's fame can also be attributed to providing further evidence supporting Virginians' self-image as being hospitable and loving of drink and conviviality. The fame was further enhanced when it was romanticized in The Knights of the Golden Horse-Shoe, an early chivalric romance, authored by William Alexander Caruthers, and first published in 1845.