Daniel Brodhead

During the American Revolution, Daniel Brodhead served for a brief time period as the commander of Fort Pitt. A colonel in the Continental Army, Brodhead determined to break ties between the Native Americans in the Ohio Country and their English allies in 1781. He led three hundred soldiers from Fort Pitt to Goshgoshgunk (modern-day Coshocton), a major settlement of the Delaware Indians. For most of the conflict, the Delawares had tried to remain neutral, but as an American victory appeared imminent, they began to ally more solidly with the English. The Delawares feared that an American victory would allow the whites to stream across the Appalachian Mountains and drive the natives from the region. Ever since the Proclamation of 1763, the English government had tried to prevent the colonists' entry into the Ohio Country.

Brodhead's men destroyed Goshgoshgunk, as well as numerous smaller villages in the vicinity. The Delawares put up minimal resistance and quickly fled the area. Most moved north to the Sandusky and Scioto Rivers. Brodhead's expedition against the Delaware Indians illustrates the difficulties Ohio Country natives faced during the American Revolution. Both the Americans and the English hoped to secure native allies, but both groups did not completely trust the Indians. Also, once the Americans secured the Ohio Country through the Treaty of Paris (1783), it was only a matter of time before the whites began to move into the area in even greater numbers, displacing the native residents.