[5] Crawford's first cousin, Benjamin Lewis, led a campaign along with Thomas Jefferson in December 1768 on the need for expanded surveys in the Kanawha and Ohio region after the ratification of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in November.

Crawford under the direction of Washington eventually led subsequent surveys of the Kanawha, Ohio and Kentucky region in the years afterwards through 1773.

In 1758, Crawford was a member of General John Forbes's army which captured Fort Duquesne, where Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, now stands.

Governor Robert Dinwiddie had promised bounty land to the men of the Washington's Virginia Regiment for their service in the French and Indian War.

Crawford also made a western scouting trip in 1773 under the approval of Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia which was led by Thomas Bullitt.

[8] He also led an expedition which destroyed two Mingo villages (near present Steubenville, Ohio) in retaliation for Chief Logan's raids into Virginia.

Crawford's service to Virginia in Dunmore's War was controversial in Pennsylvania, since the colonies were engaged in a bitter dispute over their borders near Fort Pitt.

[9] When the American Revolutionary War began, Crawford initially was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the 5th Virginia Regiment on February 13, 1776.

[10] The 5th Virginia was raised in the counties around Richmond and originally based in Williamsburg,[11] where Crawford joined the regiment to participate in training of the recruits.

Similar uncertainty surrounds narratives that state Crawford was with Washington at the crossing of the Delaware and the Battles of Trenton and Princeton.

Crawford wrote to Washington from Fredricktown Maryland on February 12, 1777, to inform him he was coming from the frontier, where the officers of the regiment already had recruited about 500 men.

[25][26] The Continental Congress resolved on February 17, 1777: "That 20,000 dollars be paid to Colonel William Crawford for raising and equipping the regiment under his command, part of the Virginia new levies.

[29] But with increased attacks on frontier settlements by Native Americans allied with the British in early 1777, a Council of War was held at Fort Pitt on March 24, 1777, that decided the 13th Virginia should not be deployed to the East at that time.

"[32] However, Colonel William Russell was now commander of the 13th Virginia and on June 9, 1777 a detachment of the regiment under Major Charles Simms marched eastward to Philadelphia.

[37] During the Philadelphia campaign, Crawford was placed in command of a scouting detachment as part of the light infantry corps for Washington's army.

Washington sent Maxwell's Light Infantry to delay the British march along the main road to Wilmington at a crossing of the Christiana Creek known as Cooch's Bridge.

On September 3, 1777, the fighting was intense between Maxwell's light infantry and the British vanguard, as John Chilton of the 3rd Virginia Regiment recorded in his Diary: "3d Septr.

"[42] Being outnumbered and outgunned, the light infantry was driven from Cooch's Bridge and fell back to the main American lines near Wilmington, Delaware.

On October 11, 1777, militia units from the Virginia counties of Prince William, Culpepper, Loudoun, and Berkley were formed into a brigade and placed under Crawford's command.

In 1782, General William Irvine persuaded Crawford to lead an expedition against enemy Native American villages along the Sandusky River.

However, the Indians and their British allies at Detroit had learned about the expedition in advance, and brought about 440 men to the Sandusky to oppose the Americans.