Brodhead took over command of the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment after the death of its commander, Aeneas Mackay, early in 1777 and was promoted to colonel. Brodhead led his troops during the Philadelphia Campaign in 1777 and wintered with the Continental Army at Valley Forge in 1777–78. “On the 5th of March, 1778, the regiment was ordered to Pittsburgh for the defense of the western frontiers, and by directions of Gen. Lachlan McIntosh, Col. Brodhead made, about the 12th of July, a detour up the West Branch to check the Indians who were ravaging Wyoming and the West Branch valley. He was at Muncy, on the 24th of July, and had ordered Capt. Finley’s company into Penn's valley, where two of the latter’s soldiers, Thomas Van Doren and Jacob Shedacre, who had participated in the campaign against Burgoyne, were killed, on the 24th, in sight of Potter's Fort, by the Indians. Soon after, Col. Hartley with his regiment relieved Col. Brodhead, and he proceeded with the 8th to Pittsburgh”. (Several histories incorrectly state that Washington sent Brodhead and the 8th Pennsylvania to rebuild and re-garrison the frontier outpost of Fort Muncy. However, in addition to the above information from the Pennsylvania Archives, the Orderly Book of the 8th Pennsylvania Regt and the Muster Rolls at Fort Pitt 1778 show that Brodhead led the 8th Pennsylvania regiment to Fort Pitt in the summer of 1778.)
