Fort Laurens, 1778-1779

While the main action of the Revolution swirled along the Atlantic seaboard. Ohio was a no man's land between the Colonists' Fort Pitt and the British Fort Detroit. A campaign to neutralize Detroit and win the allegiance of the Indians in Ohio was instigated by General Washington in 1778, and in the fall of that year Fort Laurens was erected on the banks of the Tuscarawas River as the planned first step to secure the Western Frontier.