Lochry's force was part of an army being raised by George Rogers Clark for a campaign against Detroit, the British regional headquarters.

Clark, the preeminent American military leader on the northwestern frontier, worked with Governor Thomas Jefferson of Virginia in planning an expedition to capture Detroit, by which they hoped to bring an end to British support of the Indian war effort.

Indians of the Ohio Country, primarily the Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, and Wyandot, hoped to drive American settlers out of Kentucky and reclaim their hunting grounds, which they had lost in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) and Lord Dunmore's War (1774).

[3] The Americans sought to hold on to Kentucky and to secure territorial claims to the region by launching sporadic expeditions against hostile Indian settlements north of the Ohio River.

George Rogers Clark, a Virginia militia officer in Kentucky, believed that the Americans could ultimately win the border war by capturing Detroit.

Jefferson devised a plan which called for Clark to lead 2,000 men against Detroit, with the hope of preventing a rumored British offensive against Kentucky.

[14] In addition to volunteers, Jefferson also arranged for a regiment of 200 regular Continental soldiers under Colonel John Gibson to accompany Clark.

Colonel Daniel Brodhead, the Continental Army commander at Fort Pitt, refused to detach men for Clark's campaign because he was staging his own expedition against the Delaware Indians, who had recently entered the war against the Americans.

On July 4, Lochry wrote to Joseph Reed, the President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania: We have very distressing times Here this summer.

[25] Thanks to an effective intelligence network, British officials and their American Indian allies were aware of Clark's planned expedition as early as February.

[26] The commander at Detroit was Major Arent DePeyster, Henry Hamilton's replacement, who reported to Sir Frederick Haldimand, the Governor of the Province of Quebec.

[34] An apparent unofficial cause was that Brant, who was usually a moderate drinker, had been transferred after getting into a drunken fistfight with an Indian Department officer at Fort Niagara.

[37] In early August, Clark moved his troops by boat down the Ohio River to Wheeling, where he was to rendezvous with Lochry and his men.

[40]Writing from Middle Island on August 9, Clark replied to Lochry: I am heartily sorry that after waiting so long for you I would set out but a day before your arrival....

I am exceeding unhappy at our not joining at Weelind [Wheeling], but don't know that either of us are to blame, the militia with us continue to desert, and consequently I cannot remain long in one place otherways should be happy in forming a junction here....

[23] Meanwhile, Clark left Major Charles Cracraft with provisions and a small group of men on Camp Three Island to await Lochry's arrival.

[23] Further down the Ohio, Clark stopped at the mouth of the Kanawha River, but again he decided to keep moving in order to prevent desertion.

[44] On the night of August 18, Clark and his men floated past the mouth of the Great Miami River, near the present-day border between Ohio and Indiana.

According to historian Randolph Downes, "Students of the life of George Rogers Clark have never sufficiently emphasized how close he and his expedition came to utter destruction as they descended the Ohio River in 1781.

Although Lochry knew that he was in hostile territory, he landed his little flotilla after two days of nonstop travel because he needed to feed his men and horses.

[54] After landing, the Americans cooked fresh buffalo meat for breakfast and cut grass for their horses, apparently not taking proper security precautions.

[63] Leaving a detachment to guard the prisoners, the combined Indian and British force of about 500 set off towards Fort Nelson in pursuit of Clark's main army.

Satisfied that the campaign had been successfully concluded, most of the British-Indian army dispersed, although McKee convinced 200 men to accompany him on a raid into Kentucky,[64] which culminated in what Kentuckians called the "Long Run massacre".

[68] Lochry's Defeat, as the battle generally came to be called in American history, was a devastating blow to the people of Westmoreland County.

On December 3, General William Irvine, the new commander at Fort Pitt, wrote to Joseph Reed: I am sorry to inform your Excellency that this Country has got a severe stroke by the loss of Colonel Lochry and about one hundred (tis said) of the best men of Westmoreland County, including Captain Stockely & his Company of Rangers.

Indeed there is great reason to apprehend that the Savages, & perhaps the British from Detroit will push us hard in the Spring, and I believe there never were Posts—nor a Country—in a worse state of defence.

Clark still advocated carrying out an expedition into the Ohio Country, saying that "I am ready to lead you on to any Action that has the most distant prospect of Advantage, however daring it may appear to be.

"[72] Given the lateness of the season and the shortage of available men, the council overruled Clark and decided instead to remain on the defensive, although they proposed that another campaign against Detroit should be carried out the next year.

I find myself enclosed with a few troops, in a trifling fort, and shortly expect to bear the insults of those who have for several years been in continual dread of me.

[75] Several letters of Lochry, Joseph Reed, and General Irvine are published in the Pennsylvania Archives, 1st series, vol.