campaign 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. 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. In September 1778, the United States negotiated the Treaty of Fort Pitt and secured Lenape support for an attack on Detroit the following month. The campaign was abandoned after the death of Lenape leader White Eyes. Problems at Fort Pitt The first American expedition into the Ohio Country was a debacle. In February, 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 Lenape Indians, killing one man and a few women and children, including relatives of the Lenape 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, 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