Detroit Clair, and south to Monroe and downriver suburbs, the French Canadians of Detroit, also known as Muskrat French, remain a subculture in the region today. During the French and Indian War (1754–63), the North American front of the Seven Years' War between Britain and France, British troops gained control of the settlement in 1760. They shortened the name to "Detroit". Several Native American tribes launched Pontiac's Rebellion (1763), and conducted a siege of Fort Detroit, but failed to capture it. In defeat, France ceded its territory in North America east of the Mississippi to Britain following the war. Following the
Siege of Fort Henry (1777) of Virginia and Pennsylvania that Indians living in the Ohio Country were planning attacks on frontier settlements on and around the Ohio River. Fort Henry, which had been constructed in 1774 to protect the settlers in the area around what is now Wheeling, West Virginia, was one of the rumored targets. In early August, General Edward Hand, the commander at nearby Fort Pitt warned Lieutenant David Shepherd and all of the local militia captains of the threat, ordering them to gather at Fort Henry. For a time thereafter, militia companies stayed at Fort Henry, improving its defenses and patrolling for