Pontiac (Ottawa leader) exaggerated. Historians today generally view him as an important local leader who influenced a wider movement that he did not command. The war began in May 1763 when Pontiac and 300 followers attempted to take Fort Detroit by surprise. His plan foiled, Pontiac laid siege to the fort, where he was eventually joined by more than 900 warriors from a half-dozen tribes. Meanwhile, messengers spread the word of Pontiac's actions, and the war expanded far beyond Detroit. In July 1763, Pontiac defeated a British detachment at the Battle of Bloody Run, but he was unable to capture the fort. In
Coshocton, Ohio moved further west to the Sandusky River area, closer to the British Fort Detroit. From there the British and Lenape raided colonial frontier settlements. The Lenape sympathetic to the new United States stayed near Coshocton. Chief Newcomer signed the Fort Pitt Treaty of 1778, by which the Lenape hoped to secure their safety during the War, and he promised scouts and support to the rebel colonists. They also hoped to lay the base for a Native American state in the new nation. In retaliation for frontier raids by hostile Lenape and British, Colonel Daniel Brodhead of the American militia ignored