Western theater of the American Revolutionary War The Western theater of the American Revolutionary War ( 1775 – 1783 ) was the area of conflict west of the Appalachian Mountains , the region which became the Northwest Territory of the United States as well as the states of Kentucky , Tennessee , and Missouri . The western war was fought primarily between American Indians with their British allies in Detroit , and American settlers south and east of the Ohio River . Background . When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775 , the Ohio River marked a tenuous border between the American colonies and the American Indians of the Ohio Country . This border had its origins in the Proclamation of 1763 , which forbade British colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains . The British Crown had issued the Proclamation after the French and Indian War ( 1754 – 1763 ) in order to prevent conflict between Indians and colonists in the vast territory newly acquired from France . Settlers and land speculators in Britain and America objected to this restriction , however , and so British officials negotiated two treaties with American Indians in 1768 — the Treaty of Fort Stanwix and the Treaty of Hard Labour — which opened up land for settlement south of the Ohio River . Thereafter , tensions between British officials and colonists over western land policy diminished . Most of the Indians who actually lived and hunted in the Ohio Valley — Shawnees , Mingo s , Delawares , and Wyandots — had not been consulted in the 1768 treaties . Angry with the Iroquois for selling their lands to the British , Shawnees began to organize a confederacy of western Indians with the intention of preventing the loss of their lands . British and Iroquois officials worked to diplomatically isolate the Shawnees from other Indian nations , however , and so when Dunmore ' s War broke out in 1774 , Shawnees faced the Virginia militia with few allies . After Virginia ' s victory in the war , the Shawnees were compelled to accept the Ohio River boundary . Shawnee and Mingo leaders who did not agree with these terms renewed the struggle soon after the American Revolutionary War began in 1775 . 1775 to 1776 – Neutrality and small raids . Initially , both the British and the Continental Congress sought to keep western American Indians out of the war . At Fort Pitt in October 1775 , American and Indian leaders reaffirmed the boundary established by Dunmore ' s War the previous year . Without British support , Indian leaders such as Chief Blackfish ( Shawnee ) and Pluggy ( Mingo ) raided into Kentucky , hoping to drive the settlers out . Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia wanted to retaliate by attacking Pluggy ' s Town in the Ohio Country , but he canceled the expedition for fear that the militia would be unable to distinguish between neutral and hostile Indians , and thus make enemies of the neutral Delawares and Shawnees . Nevertheless , Shawnees and Delawares became increasingly divided over whether or not to take part in the war . While leaders such as White Eyes ( Delaware ) and Cornstalk ( Shawnee ) urged neutrality , Buckongahelas ( Delaware ) and Blue Jacket ( Shawnee ) decided to fight against the Americans . In Kentucky , isolated settlers and hunters became the frequent target of attacks , compelling many to return to the East . By late spring of 1776 , fewer than 200 colonists remained in Kentucky , primarily at the fortified settlements of Boonesborough , Harrodsburg , and Logan ' s Station . In December 1776 , Pluggy was killed in an Attack on McClellan ' s Station , which was located on the site of present Georgetown , Kentucky . 1777 – Escalation . In 1777 , the British launched a major offensive from Canada . In order to provide a strategic diversion for operations in the Northeast , officials in Detroit began recruiting and arming Indian war parties to raid American settlements . Unknown numbers of American settlers in present Kentucky , West Virginia , and Pennsylvania were killed in these raids . The intensity of the conflict increased after enraged American militiamen murdered Cornstalk , the leading advocate of Shawnee neutrality , in November 1777 . Despite the violence , many Ohio Indians still hoped to stay out of the war . This was a difficult task because they were located directly between the British in Detroit and the Americans along the Ohio River . 1778 to 1779 – American advances . In the early years of the war , the Virginians had attempted to defend their western border with militiamen garrisoning three forts along the Ohio River — Fort Pitt , Fort Henry , and Fort Randolph . Defending such a long border proved to be futile , however , because American Indians simply bypassed the forts during their raids . In 1778 , the Americans decided that offensive operations were necessary to secure their western border . Problems at Fort Pitt . The first American expedition into the Ohio Country was a debacle . In February 1778 , General Edward Hand led 500 Pennsylvania militiamen from Fort Pitt on a surprise winter march towards Mingo towns on the Cuyahoga River , where the British stored military supplies which they distributed to Indian raiding parties . Adverse weather conditions prevented the expedition from reaching its objective , however . On the return march , some of Hand ' s men attacked peaceful Delaware Indians , killing one man and a few women and children , including relatives of the Delaware chief Captain Pipe . Because only non - combatants had been killed , the expedition became derisively known as the " squaw campaign " . Besides unruly militia , Loyalist sentiment around Pittsburgh also contributed to Hand ' s problems . In March 1778 , three men with close ties to the British and American Indians left Pittsburgh , defecting to the British and Indian side . They were Simon Girty , an interpreter who had guided the " squaw campaign " , Matthew Elliot , a local trader , and Alexander McKee , an agent for the British Indian Department . All three would prove to be valuable British operatives in the war . Amid much criticism , and facing a congressional investigation for allowing the men to defect , Hand resigned in May 1778 . Treaty making and fort building . Following the escalation of the war in 1777 , Americans on the western frontier appealed to the Continental Congress for protection . After an investigation , a Congressional commission recommended in early 1778 that two regiments of the Continental Army be stationed in the West . Furthermore , because a defensive line of forts had little effect on Indian raids into the American settlements , the commissioners called for a fort to be built on the Indian side of the Ohio River , the first in a line of forts which would enable the Americans , it was hoped , to mount an expedition against Detroit . Hollidays Cove Fort was a Revolutionary War fortification constructed in 1774 by soldiers from Ft . Pitt . It was located in what is now downtown Weirton , West Virginia , along Harmons Creek ( named for Harmon Greathouse ) , about three miles from its mouth on the Ohio River . It was commanded by Colonel Andrew Van Swearingen ( 1741 – 1793 ) and later by his son - in - law , Captain Samuel Brady ( 1756 – 1795 ) , the famous leader of Brady ' s Rangers . In 1779 , over 28 militia were garrisoned at Hollidays Cove . Two years earlier , Colonel Van Swearingen led a dozen soldiers by longboat down the Ohio to help rescue the inhabitants of Ft . Henry in Wheeling in a siege by the British and Indian tribes in 1777 . That mission was memorialized in a WPA - era mural painted on the wall of the Cove Post Office by Charles S . Chapman ( 1879 – 1962 ) . The mural features Col . John Bilderback , who later gained infamy as the leader of the massacre of the Moravian Indians in Gnadenhutten in 1782 . In order to build a fort in the Ohio Country , the Americans sought the approval of the Delaware Indians . In September 1778 , Americans negotiated the Treaty of Fort Pitt with the Delawares , which resulted in the building of Fort Laurens along the Tuscarawas River . American plans soon went awry , however . White Eyes , the Delaware leader who had negotiated the treaty , was apparently murdered in 1778 by American militiamen . His rival , Captain Pipe , eventually abandoned the American alliance and moved west to the Sandusky River , where he began receiving support from the British in Detroit . Furthermore , because of intense warfare in eastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York , Congress was unable to provide the manpower for operations against Detroit . Fort Laurens was abandoned in 1779 . Clark ' s Illinois campaign . In late 1778 , George Rogers Clark , a young Virginia militia officer , launched a campaign to seize the sparsely garrisoned Illinois Country from the British . With a company of volunteers , Clark captured Kaskaskia , the chief post in the Illinois Country , on July 4 , 1778 , and later secured the submission of Vincennes . Vincennes was recaptured by General Henry Hamilton , the British commander at Detroit . In February 1779 , Clark marched to Vincennes in a surprise winter march and captured Hamilton himself . To American frontiersmen , Hamilton was known as " the Hair - buyer General " because , they believed , he encouraged Indians to kill and scalp American civilians . For this reason , Governor Thomas Jefferson brought Hamilton to Williamsburg , Virginia , to be tried as a war criminal . After British officials threatened to retaliate against American prisoners of war , Jefferson relented , and Hamilton was exchanged for an American prisoner in 1781 . 1780 – Major British and Indian offensive . Over the next several years of the war , both sides launched raids against each other , usually targeting settlements . In 1780 , hundreds of Kentucky settlers were killed or captured in a British - Indian expedition into Kentucky . George Rogers Clark responded by leading an expedition in August 1780 which destroyed two Shawnee towns along the Mad River , but doing little damage to the Indian war effort . In late May Spanish - held St . Louis was attacked by a British force mostly made up of Indians and was successfully defended by the mixed Spanish and French creole force . Fort San Carlos , a stone tower in modern downtown St Louis , was the center of this defense . In the Illinois territory , French officer Augustin de La Balme assembled a militia force of French residents in an effort to take Fort Detroit . The force was destroyed in November by the Miami under Chief Little Turtle . At the same time , the nearly abandoned Fort St . Joseph was raided by Americans from Cahokia . On their return trip , however , they were overtaken by British loyalists and Indians near Petit fort . 1781 . Spanish Governor Francisco Cruzat , in St . Louis , sent a force of about 140 Spanish soldiers and American Indians under Captain Eugenio Pourré to capture Fort St . Joseph . It was captured and plundered on February 12 , 1781 . In late 1780 , Clark traveled east to consult with Thomas Jefferson , the governor of Virginia , about an expedition in 1781 . Jefferson devised a plan which called for Clark to lead 2 , 000 men against Detroit . Recruiting enough men was a problem , however . In time of war , most militiamen preferred to stay close to their homes rather than go on extended campaigns . Furthermore , Colonel Daniel Brodhead refused to detach the men because he was staging his own expedition against the Delawares , who had recently entered the war against the Americans . Brodhead marched into the Ohio Country and destroyed the Delaware Indian capital of Coshocton in April 1781 , but this only made the Delawares more determined enemies and deprived Clark of badly needed men and supplies for the Detroit campaign . Most of the Delawares fled to the militant towns on the Sandusky River . When Clark finally left Fort Pitt in August 1781 , he was accompanied by only 400 men . On August 24 , 1781 , a detachment of one hundred of his men was ambushed near the Ohio River by Indians led by Joseph Brant , a Mohawk leader temporarily in the west . Brant ' s victory ended Clark ' s efforts to move against Detroit . Between the combatants on the Sandusky River and the Americans at Fort Pitt were several villages of Christian Delawares . The villages were administered by the Moravian missionaries David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder . Although non - combatants , the missionaries favored the American cause and kept American officials at Fort Pitt informed about hostile British and Indian activity . In response , in September 1781 , Wyandots and Delawares from Sandusky forcibly removed the Christian Delawares and the missionaries to a new village ( Captive Town ) on the Sandusky River . 1782 – " The Year of Blood " . In March 1782 , 160 Pennsylvania militiamen under Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson rode into the Ohio Country , hoping to find the Indian warriors who were responsible for ongoing raids against Pennsylvania settlers . Enraged by the gruesome murder by Indians of a white woman and her baby , Williamson ' s men detained about 100 Christian Delawares at the village of Gnadenhütten . The Christian Delawares had returned to Gnadenhütten from Captive Town in order to harvest the crops that they had been forced to leave behind . Accusing the Christian Indians of having aided Indian raiding parties , the Pennsylvanians killed the 100 Christian Indians — mostly women and children — with hammer blows to the head . Colonel William Crawford of the Continental Army came out of retirement to lead 480 volunteer militiamen , mostly from Pennsylvania , deep into American Indian territory , with the intention of surprising the Indians . The Indians and their British allies from Detroit had learned about the expedition in advance , however , and brought about 440 men to the Sandusky to oppose the Americans . After a day of indecisive fighting , the Americans found themselves surrounded and attempted to retreat . The retreat turned into a route , but most of the Americans managed to find their way back to Pennsylvania . About 70 Americans were killed ; Indian and British losses were minimal . During the retreat , Colonel Crawford and an unknown number of his men were captured . The Indians executed many of these captives in retaliation for the Gnadenhütten massacre earlier in the year , in which about 100 Indian civilians were murdered by Pennsylvania militiamen . Crawford ' s execution was particularly brutal : he was tortured for at least two hours before being burned at the stake . The failure of the Crawford expedition caused alarm along the American frontier , as many Americans feared that the Indians would be emboldened by their victory and launch a new series of raids . Even more defeats for the Americans were yet to come , and so for Americans west of the Appalachian Mountains , 1782 became known as the " Bloody Year " . On July 13 , 1782 , the Mingo leader Guyasuta led about 100 Indians and several British volunteers into Pennsylvania , destroying Hannastown and killing nine and capturing twelve settlers . It was the hardest blow dealt by Indians in Western Pennsylvania during the war . In Kentucky , the Americans went on the defensive while Caldwell , Elliott , and McKee with their Indian allies prepared a major offensive . Fort Estill was attacked by Wyandot Indians in March 1782 . Colonel Benjamin Logan , commanding officer of the region , and stationed at Logan ' s Station , learned that the Wyandot warriors were in the area on warpath . The Indians , aided by the British in Detroit , had raided from Boonsborough past Estill ' s Station along the Kentucky River . Logan dispatched 15 men to Captain Estill at Estill ' s Station with orders to increase his force by 25 more men and reconnoiter the country to the north and east . Following orders , Captain Estill reached the Kentucky River a few miles below the mouth of Station Camp Creek and camped that night at Sweet Lick , now known as Estill Springs . On the day after they left Estill ' s Station , a body of Indians appeared there at dawn on March 20 , they raided the fort , scalped and killed a Miss Innes in sight of the fortification and took Monk , a slave of Captain Estill , and killed all the cattle . As soon as the Indians retreated , Samuel South and Peter Hackett , both young men , were dispatched to take the trail of the men and inform them of the news . The boys found them near the mouth of Drowning Creek and Red River early on the morning of March 21 . Of the 40 men , approximately 20 had left families within the fort . They returned with the boys to Estill ' s Station . The remainder crossed the Kentucky river and found the Indian trail . Captain Estill organized a company of 25 men , followed the Indians , and suffered what is known as Estill ' s Defeat , later known as the Battle of Little Mountain ( March 22 , 1782 ) in Montgomery Co . In July 1782 , more than 1 , 000 Indians gathered at Wapatomica , but the expedition was called off after scouts reported that George Rogers Clark was preparing to invade the Ohio Country from Kentucky . The reports turned out to be false , but Caldwell still managed to lead 300 Indians into Kentucky and deliver a devastating blow at the Battle of Blue Licks in August . With peace negotiations between the United States and Great Britain making progress , Caldwell was ordered to cease further operations . Similarly , General Irvine had gotten permission for a Continental Army expedition into the Ohio Country , but this was cancelled . In November , George Rogers Clark delivered the final blow in the Ohio Country , destroying several Shawnee towns , but inflicting little damage on the inhabitants . Peace and legacy . The war in the Northwest , in the words of historian David Curtis Scaggs , " ended in a stalemate " . In the war ' s final years , each side could destroy enemy settlements , but could not stay and hold the territory . For the Shawnees , the war was a loss : the Americans had successfully defended Kentucky and increased settlement there , so that prime hunting ground was now lost . Although the Indians had been pushed back from the Ohio River and were now settled primarily in the Lake Erie basin , the Americans could not occupy the abandoned lands for fear of Indian raids . News of the pending peace treaty arrived late in 1782 . In the final treaty , the Ohio Country was signed away by Great Britain to the United States , even though " not a single American soldier was north of the Ohio River when the treaty was signed " . Great Britain had not consulted the Indians in the peace process , and the Indians were nowhere mentioned in treaty ' s terms . For the Indians , the struggle would soon continue as the Northwest Indian War , though this time without the explicit support of the British .