CHAPTER XI.

INDIAN WARS AND MILITARY OPERATIONS BY THE UNITED STATES NORTH OF THE OHIO RIVER.-A.D. 1787 To 1795.

Argument.-Unsettled State of the Indian Tribes from 1784 to 1790.-Extent of Indian Depredation and Murders up to 1790.-General Harmar prepares to invade the Indian Country.-Advances to the Maumee.-Is defeated in two Engagements.-Retreats to Fort Washington.-Indian Hostilities renewed.-General Scott marches an Expedition against the Wabash Towns.-Colonel Wilkinson leads another against the Towns on Eel River and Tippecanoe.-General St. Clair prepares to invade the Maumee Country.-Marches toward the St. Mary's.-Meets with a disastrous Defeat. --Terrible Onset of the Savages.-Their Number and Allies.-The Remnant of the Army arrives at Fort Washington.-Colonel Wilkinson commands at Fort Washington. He proceeds from Fort Jefferson to the Scene of the Defeat.-Overtures of Peace tendered to the Indians in 1792.-The Federal Government authorize a strong Force for the Humiliation of the Savages.-General Wayne Commander-in-chiefIndians continue their hostile Demonstrations.-Excited by British Emissaries. General Wayne concentrates his Forces at Fort Greenville.-The advanced Posts harassed by Indians.-Plan of Encampment at Greenville.-Lord Dorchester.-President Washington's Views of Indian Tactics.-Fort Recovery built.-Is attacked by Indians in 1793.-General Scott arrives with the mounted Riflemen.-General Wayne takes up the Line of March for the Maumee.-"Fort Defiance" commenced.-"Fort Deposit" at the Head of the Rapids.-Force concentrated at this Point.-Battle of the Miami, August 20th, 1794.-Utter Defeat of the Savages.-The Army returns to Fort Defiance, which is strongly fortified.-Army advances to Miami Villages.-Fort Wayne erected.-Army retires to Winter-quarters at Greenville.-Indians sue for Peace.

[A.D. 1787.] ALTHOUGH the northwestern Indians had resumed hostilities against the frontier settlements of Kentucky, and those in the western part of Virginia and Pennsylvania, as early as 1789, the Federal government had taken no active measures to enforce peace and the observance of their recent treaties entered into at the Great Miami and at Fort Harmar. The Federal executive studiously abstained from any military operations against the hostile savages, vainly relying upon the success of negotiation and treaty, from which they disdainfully retired. Partisan expeditions from Kentucky and other portions of the exposed settlements, for the defense of the Ohio frontier, were the only defensive measures adopted, and they were undertaken at individual expense, and sustained by individual enterprise, and without the sanction of the Federal government.

The extent and nature of the hostile operations of the savages against the frontier people, and the emigrants upon the

Ohio River, have been enumerated in another place, to which the reader is referred.*

[A.D. 1790.] To such an extent had these hostilities and depredations been carried in the spring of 1790, that in a communication from Judge Harry Innis to the Secretary of War, dated July 7th, he states that, to his knowledge, about fifteen hundred persons had been killed or captured by the Indians on and near the Ohio since the peace of 1783. The number of horses seized or stolen from the new settlements and from emigrants during that time was estimated at not less than twenty thousand, besides household furniture and other property taken or destroyed to the value of fifteen thousand pounds, or about fifty thousand dollars.

At length, all overtures and efforts at negotiation on the part of the Federal government having been rejected by the savages, the president determined to organize a strong military force for the invasion of the Indian country, and the destruction of the towns upon the head waters of the Miami and Maumee Rivers. Orders were accordingly issued by the Secretary of War to General Harmar on the 7th of June, 1790, to plan, in conjunction with Governor St. Clair, a vigorous expedition against the Indians of the Maumee. The governor was authorized to call out the militia and volunteers of Western Pennsylvania and Kentucky to co-operate with the Federal troops. Agreeably to this authority, a requisition was made by Governor St. Clair upon the western counties of these states, as follows: From the counties of Washington, Fayette, Westmoreland, and Alleghany, in Pennsylvania, five hundred men, to rendezvous at M Mahon's Creek, four miles below Wheeling, on the 3d of September; from the District of Kentucky, embracing the counties of Nelson, Lincoln, and Jefferson, three hundred men, to rendezvous at Fort Steuben, near" the Falls," on the 12th of September; and from the counties of Madison, Mercer, Fayette, Bourbon, Woodford, and Mason, seven hundred men, to rendezvous at Fort Washington on the 15th of September.†

On the 27th of September the advanced detachments were in motion, and on the 30th the line of march was taken up for the towns on the St. Mary's River. The route pursued was the "Old War-path" of the Indians across the head waters of the

*See chapters v. and x. of this book.

↑ See American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i., p. 105, 106, General Order.

Little Miami and Mad Rivers, where the villages had been deserted by the enemy. Thence the march was directed westward, crossing the Great Miami at Piqua, a few miles below the mouth of Loramie's Creek. Here the first three Indians were seen, and they appeared to be spies reconnoitering the force and movements of the army. A small detachment of mounted men were sent in pursuit, who succeeded in capturing one; the others escaped.* This was evidence that the enemy were observing their advance.

From Loramie's Creek the march was continued west of north, and on the west side of that stream about thirty miles, crossing the head stream of the St. Mary's River. The army was now about one hundred and thirty miles from Fort Washington, and about fifty miles from the principal town at the confluence of the St. Mary's. The whole force consisted of three hundred and twenty regular troops, and eleven hundred and thirty-five volunteers and militia.

Colonel Hardin and Major Paul of the Pennsylvania line were detached in advance with six hundred men, to surprise and capture the town at the confluence. On the second day, October 16th, Colonel Hardin approached the Indian stronghold, and found it deserted and burned by the savages. The only resistance made was from some straggling Indians, who exchanged a few shots with the advanced guard of the troops. This detachment remained four days encamped at the village, awaiting the arrival of General Harmar with the main body of the army, during which time no important movement was made against the enemy. The Indians, in the mean time, were making vigorous efforts to repel the invaders. They began to assemble in great numbers in the vicinity of the camp, and every foraging detachment was either cut off or driven back.

On the 20th, Colonel Hardin, with one hundred and fifty Kentucky militia and thirty regulars, was detached to surprise and destroy an Indian town on the St. Mary's, six miles above the confluence. This detachment marched without interruption until within half a mile of the town, when suddenly they found themselves in the midst of several hundred Indians in ambuscade, concealed by the high grass and brushwood on each side of the path in the margin of the prairie. The marching column was suddenly assailed by a destructive fire from * American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i., p. 105, 106.

the concealed enemy, and, being thrown into confusion, the militia fled precipitately. The regulars maintained their position with the utmost courage, defending themselves with the bayonet as the Indians rushed upon them with the tomahawk, until nearly the whole number were killed. Two privates and two officers escaped the massacre by concealing themselves behind logs in an adjacent swamp. Twenty-three regulars were killed upon the ground, and several others in their retreat. Ten of the militia were killed, and others wounded.

General Harmar, alarmed at this foreboding of disaster, resolved to take up the line of march for Fort Washington. On the following morning he broke up his encampment, and marched eight miles on the retrograde route, when he encamped for the night. While at this place, intelligence was received that the Indians had taken possession of the town immediately after it had been evacuated by the army. Colonel Hardin, mortified with his recent disaster, and in hopes of retrieving his military character, solicited permission once more to give the Indians battle, and to drive them from the town. Permission was granted, and he was dispatched with six hundred militia, and sixty regulars under Major Fontaine, to attack the town. The attack was made with skill and great courage; but the Indians had arranged matters to complete his discomfiture. At first they made a strong show of resistance, and then fell back across the Maumee, and retreated up the St. Joseph's, drawing the militia after them, and leaving the regulars to be overpowered by superior numbers in the rear. The militia continued the pursuit for nearly two miles, when, unable to bring them to an engagement, they retired. In the mean time, two ambuscades had been laid; one to fall upon the regulars after they had been abandoned by the militia, and another to intercept the militia on their return. The plan succeeded to their most sanguine expectations. The militia had pressed on after the retiring Indians, heedless of danger, while the regulars on the opposite side of the river were attacked by an overwhelming number of savages, who rushed furiously upon them with the tomahawk and war-club. They fought with desperate courage, defending themselves with the bayonet until nearly every man was killed. Lieutenant-colonel Wyllis and Major Fontaine fell valiantly fighting, the latter pierced by eighteen balls; and around them laid the bodies of fifty of their brave

men. The militia on both sides of the St. Joseph's were severely harassed in their return by the Indians in ambuscade upon elevated ground near their path. The whole loss of the militia under Colonel Hardin was one hundred privates and ten officers killed, besides the wounded.* Only eight of the regulars survived.

Thus terminated the whole of General Harmar's operations against the northwestern savages upon the waters of the Maumee. In two disastrous enterprises, conducted by Colonel Hardin, he had lost in one week no less than one hundred and eighty-three men killed, besides about forty wounded, leaving no evidence of more than about fifty Indians destroyed. The town at the confluence of the St. Joseph's and St. Mary's, known as "Girty's Town," and which was consumed by the savages, contained about two hundred and fifty cabins. The entire injury sustained by the Indians was trivial compared to the number of troops in the field and the loss of life sustained by the Americans.

A portion of the orders to General Harmar, which were utterly neglected after his disasters on the St. Mary's, required him to advance westward from the Maumee for the destruction of the Wea towns upon the Upper Wabash, as well as others upon Eel River, noted as the residence of several hostile bands which had been active in their incursions against the frontier population upon the Ohio; yet, gratified in his reverses by the slightest success, and fearful of other disasters, he ordered an immediate retreat, consoling himself with the reflection "that we are able to lose ten men to their one;" also, that one great object of the expedition had been accomplished in" the destruction of the Miami towns." The retrograde march was immediately commenced for Fort Washington, leaving the slain upon the field of battle, unburied, and having the savages in his rear almost to the Ohio.

The campaign of 1790, instead of producing a salutary restraint upon the savages, served only to provoke them, and render them more confident and daring. During the winter and spring, war parties continued their incursions against the unprotected settlements near the Ohio River, from Fort Pitt down to the "Falls," while marauding parties infested the

* Butler's Kentucky, p. 194. Marshall's Kentucky, vol. i., p. 364, 365. Atwater's Ohio, p. 135.