When General Lachlan McIntosh was sent to relieve General Edward Hand at Fort Pitt it was expected that the frontiers would be made safe, as General Washington ordered the Eighth Pennsylvania and the Thirteenth Virginia detached from Valley Forge and marched to the Western post.
The plan of General McIntosh was to attack Detroit, which involved a march of 300 miles through a wilderness inhabited by savages, most of whom were hostile to the American cause. This army must be carried far from its base of supplies, and Fort Pitt was never strong. This was a stupendous enterprise.
The Delaware tribe, who had removed from the central part of Pennsylvania, were now living on the Tuscarawas and the Muskingum, and were the only Indians who had maintained neutrality between the Colonists and the British.
White Eyes, the head sachem and the greatest chieftain ever produced by this remarkable Indian nation, was devoted to the American cause. He revealed a spirit of intelligent sympathy with the struggle for liberty and even hoped that a Delaware Indian State might form a fourteenth star in the American Union.
Preparations were made for a formal treaty of alliance, and June, 1778, Congress ordered it to be held at Fort Pitt July 23 following, and requested Virginia to name two Commissioners and Pennsylvania one.
On account of the Continental troops being too far distant the treaty was postponed until September.
Colonel Brodhead and the Eighth Pennsylvania, which had been recruited in Western Pennsylvania, reached Fort Pitt September 10, 1778. Already the Delaware Indians were encamped near the shore of the river a short distance above the fort. Two days later the conference began.
This was probably the most remarkable treaty ever made in the interest of the United States.
By this treaty, the United States entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with a tribe of savage Indians, recognizing them as an independent nation, guaranteeing its integrity and territory. Each party bound itself to assist the other against enemies.