Fort McIntosh, built from 1778 to 1788 by General Lachlan McIntosh's Continentals of the 8th Pennsylvania and 13th Virginia, veterans of Saratoga, Brandywine, Germantown, and Valley Forge, along with Virginia Militia, was the first fort built north of the Ohio by the United States. In 1784 and 1785 it served as headquarters of the largest army west of the mountains during the Revolution and became the first post of what was, except for small detachments at West Point and Fort Pitt, the whole United States Army. The Treaty of Fort McIntosh, and the manner in which it was imposed, became the basic United States policy in later Indian treaties and made possible landmark legislation that opened the Northwest Territory to settlement.
