It is possible that because of New London's central location in Bedford County it was a natural place for the county militia to drill and assemble for war. The county militia participated in several frontier conflicts including the French and Indian and Anglo-Cherokee wars. During the early French and Indian war, the Cherokees were allied with the British. That all changed when a series of misunderstandings and thefts led to a confrontation in 1758 between a Cherokee war party and colonists from Bedford County that left at least five Virginians and thirty Cherokees dead. This incident near New London exacerbated the already tense relationship between the British and the Cherokees and helped set in motion the events that led to the Anglo-Cherokee War.