USA > Indiana > The history of Indiana > Part 9
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The work of General Clark was disavowed by Vir- ginia, whereupon Congress ordered Gen. Josiah Har- mar to proceed to Vincennes and dispossess the dis- orderly garrison. In the meantime, the superintendent of Indian affairs was directed to meet the Indians at the appointed time. However, after trying in vain all summer and during a large part of the year 1788, it was found impossible to get the Indians to attend. The English hold could not be broken.
General Harmar was instructed to dispose his regi- ment so as to protect the frontier. On an average one boatload of settlers passed the mouth of the Muskingum river, where Harmar was stationed, every day. Noth- ing was better calculated to arouse the Indians than this steady stream of immigrants. Harmar prepared at once to visit the posts to the west and establish gar- risons. The Indian council summoned by Clark was called off, and Harmar soon afterwards learned that the irregular troops at Vincennes under Captain Dalton had been disbanded ; so he floated leisurely down the Ohio, reaching the Falls in June, 1787, on his way to Vincennes. Hardly had he left the upper Ohio when he was warned that the Delawares and Wyandots were in arms.
General Harmar's orders were to march overland from the Falls, but after collecting supplies and investi- gating means of transportation he decided to go by boat, and drive his cattle up along the bank of the
109
HARMAR AT VINCENNES
Wabash from its mouth to Vincennes. On July 6 the advance of the little army under Capt. David Zeigler9 set off down the river with a fleet of light boats con- taining three months' provisions for 300 men. They were ordered to land at Buffalo creek and march over- land, driving the cattle and eighteen horses. Harmar also wrote Col. J. M. P. Legras and Maj. Francis Bosseron at Vincennes apprising them of the nature of this expedition, and asking them to reassure the In- dians. But some British traders operating on the Wabash a short distance above Vincennes also heard of the approach of Harmar, and, no doubt, lost little time in explaining it to their dusky customers. When the expedition reached Delaware Old Town, eight miles above the mouth of Green river, the troops disem- barked, leaving Maj. John F. Hamtramck10 to continue by the river. The troops plunged into the wilderness and marched due north, reaching White river fifteen miles below its forks in five days. The first part of this journey of seventy miles, they reported, was through swampy, boggy lands, but most of the way was through fine, open, upland forests, interspersed with meadows or prairies. The land, they thought, would be a farm- er's delight. In fact, one reason for wishing to march overland was to report on the quality of the land to Judge John Cleve Symmes, who was about to lose his lands in Ohio, and was contemplating locating farther down, perhaps on the Wabash.
Vincennes they found to be a considerable village of 400 houses, log and bark, with a population of 900 French and 400 Americans. Most of the Americans had come since Clark's invasion, a large part being militia from the lately disbanded army.11
9 Heitman, Historical Register Officers of Continental Army, 448.
10 Heitman, Historical Register Officers of Continental Army, 207.
11 St. Clair Papers, II, 23-26.
110
HISTORY OF INDIANA
Major Hamtramck arrived at Vincennes eight days later than Harmar, having been attacked on the way up the Wabash, and having lost a few of his men killed and some captured.
After an extended visit to the Illinois posts, on which he retraveled the path of Colonel Clark's army eleven years before, Harmar returned to Vincennes to meet the Weas and the Upper Piankeshaws in council. Only a few of these small tribes attended and no negotiations looking toward a general peace were be- gun. After a liberal distribution of presents, includ- ing plenty of whiskey, of which Harmar says "they were amazing fond," the Indians were dismissed to their homes and the American commander turned his attention to the proper disposition of his little army in order to furnish the best protection for the frontier during the approaching winter.
A cordon of little forts had been built from Presque Isle to Kaskaskia, over on the Mississippi. It was obviously impossible to garrison these with one regi- ment of about 500 men. In place of this, General Har- mar decided to leave a small battalion of ninety-five men under Major Hamtramck at Vincennes with orders to build a fort, to be named Fort Knox12 when com- pleted, and to take the rest over on the Ohio where they would be in striking distance of any threatened point. Having determined on this, Harmar left Vincennes October 1, and, following Clark's Trace, reached the Falls in six days, a march of 130 miles. The country, he observed, was hilly, but would be excellent for wheat. He left Captains Walter Finney and John Mercer13 at the Falls-Fort Steuben-and, on October
12 Located on a bluff overlooking the Wabash, about two miles above Vincennes. See Map of Illinois, by John Melish, 1818.
13 Heitman, Historical Register Officers Continental Army, 291.
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MILITARY POSTS ON THE OHIO
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THE OHIO VALLEY
From Joseph Scott's Gazetteer, 1795
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112
HISTORY OF INDIANA
28, he continued his voyage up the Ohio to winter quarters at the Muskingum.14
Everything now waited on the new government of the Northwest Territory, which was duly organized early in the year 1788. The governor, Gen. Arthur St. Clair, was a veteran of the Revolution who, the pioneers thought, would soon restore peace and order to the dis- tracted border. The Secretary of Congress delivered him a carefully drawn set of instructions for the gov- ernment of this, the first American colony.
A glance at his instructions will show that the Indian question was the storm center in western poli- tics. He was to examine with care the temper of the Indians ; was to remove causes of possible controversy and restore peace; was to defend the boundaries laid down at previous treaties unless he could make better ones; was to seek out head men, and win them over with gifts; and finally he was to break up all con- federacies and combinations by lavish gifts to the tribesmen themselves, for which Congress set aside $26,000; always keeping in mind the acquisition of as much territory from them as he could.
St. Clair did not find the practice of Indian diplom- acy as easy as the theory. The mere mention of a land cession was enough to break up a council. He sent out invitations to all the tribes to meet him, arranged all the preliminaries, had his presents ready to distribute, but the Indians came not. Out of deference to those Indians who had sent a friendly message to Congress, this meeting had been appointed for the Falls of the Muskingum, about seventy miles up that river. On second thought it had been decided to hold it under the protection of Fort Harmar. The Indians, as usual, met on the Maumee to confer with the English agents, but the desire for peace prevailed and all started for the treaty ground on the Muskingum. For some un-
14 St. Clair Papers, II, 33.
113
INDIAN TREATIES
known reason the main body never arrived. It was said that they met, on the way, a messenger from the governor who made known to them that the governor had no power to restore the Ohio river boundary line, and that they forthwith resolved on war. This report may be true as to the Wabash Indians, but a few of the Wyandots and Iroquois attended, and, on January 9, 1789, signed what is known as the Treaty of Fort Harmar. The substance of this was merely a reaffirma- tion of previous treaties. Only a few of the warlike tribes attended, and St. Clair was not slow to make up his mind that war was the only means of restoring peace. Neither was evidence lacking or misunderstood as to the part the English were playing; but the gov- ernment was in no position to take up that question, and meanwhile the western agents had to bear the im- pertinence of the English with what grace they could.15
During all these negotiations Governor St. Clair had been preparing for the last resort. He wrote the Secretary of War, September 14, that all the north- western Indians were hostile and suggested a plan to reduce them. This plan consisted in sending a number of expeditions that would strike the Indian towns at the same time; a column of 1,000 men could, he sug- gested, reach the Wea towns in 150 miles from Clarks- ville; a column of 1,400 men and two guns could reach the Miami towns (Fort Wayne) from the mouth of the Little Miami in 200 miles ; a column of 1,000 men could strike the Cuyahoga towns from Beaver creek in ninety miles ; and a column of 500 men could destroy the Ver- milion towns from Vincennes in ninety miles. John F. Hamtramck, Josiah Harmar, John Wyllys, and John Doughty, were suggested as capable leaders.16 The request for two guns for the expedition against the
15 St. Clair Papers, II, 101, 105.
16 All had been officers in the Continental Army, Heitman, Historical Register Officers of Continental Army (index).
114
HISTORY OF INDIANA
Miami towns is significant. The British had con- structed a fort for the Indians on the Maumee, and St. Clair was expecting what Wayne actually found five years later.17
During the year 1789, the Wabash valley was like a hive of angry bees. No large war parties were organ- ized, but small bands of young warriors, five to twenty in a band, ranged the settlements from Pittsburgh to Kaskaskia. They vied with each other in the cruelty they could inflict. Some hung around the remote set- tlements, where they contented themselves with steal- ing horses; others in a spirit of deviltry penetrated 100 miles into the settlements to burn and murder. Some of their prisoners they carried to Detroit and sold for ransom, others they treated to unspeakable brutalities, and at last tortured to death at the stake. There is a tradition that a secret society or fraternity of Miami warriors of approved courage and cunning met at stated intervals at the site of Fort Wayne, and included in the program of every such entertainment the burning of at least one captive, and in its banquet the eating of his flesh.18
The government, especially President Washington, was reluctant to go to war. Though hostilities had never ceased since the Revolution, the older Indian chiefs kept sending word that they had buried the hatchet. Indian councils, directed by English agents and American renegades, resolved on peace, and deplored, in language meant for the government ear, the lawless acts of the young bucks. One who reads the negotiations of these bloody years cannot escape the evidence of Indian or British duplicity.
The white men were no doubt often too aggressive. Members of Congress as well as Washington pointed out that the Indians were the ancient owners of the
17 St. Clair Papers, II, 89.
18 American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 58.
115
CONDITIONS IN THE WEST
soil to which they still had a just title. If it was intended that the Mississippi valley should be a hunt- ing preserve for a few savages without hope of progress, then the Americans were wholly wrong. But if it was intended that it should be the home of a powerful nation, the seat of the highest civilization, then it was high time our ancestors were entering into their homes and going about their work.
The Kentuckians did not bear these savage hostili- ies tamely. A raid was planned for the Wabash towns, but resulted in nothing more than the destruction of the villages of a few half-friendly Piankeshaws on the lower Wabash. The little garrisons of regular troops could do nothing to protect the settlers from the roving bands of savages.
There were other circumstances that caused the government much anxiety at this time for its western territories. Sir Guy Carleton, later Lord Dorchester, was playing high stakes for the recovery of the whole Northwest. He was the instigator of the Eng- lish Indian policy, and now, hearing that the Ken- tuckians were chafing at the restraints placed upon them by the general government, and at the same time left unprotected, sent the infamous Dr. John Conolly, a loyalist refugee,19 among the Kentuckians to promise them protection from the Indians and the free navi- gation of the Mississippi, if they would declare their independence. But the memory of Sir Guy Carleton and his conduct was too strong.
About this same time the Spanish commandant at St. Louis sent a letter to the creoles at Vincennes inviting them to settle on the west side of the Missis- sippi, where he would give them free land and the free navigation of the river to New Orleans. Major Ham- tramck intercepted one messenger before he could de-
19 Sabine, American Loyalists of the Revolution, I, 331.
116
HISTORY OF INDIANA
liver his letter, but he did not know how many had escaped him.20
Realizing by the close of 1789 that the treaty of Fort Harmar and the distribution of gifts made at that time were not going to pacify the tribes, St. Clair determined to visit the western country, and try once more to get the Indians to meet him in a general coun- cil at Fort Knox. He set out from Marietta about New Year, and reached the Falls at Clarksville Jan- uary 8, having stopped at Cincinnati long enough to lay off Hamilton county and name Cincinnati. He remained at Fort Steuben (Clarksville) nearly a month, appointed some civil officers, ordered a boatload of corn to be sent to the starving people at Vincennes, composed a long letter to the Wabash Indians, and sent it to Major Hamtramck, by whom it was to be forwarded by a trusty interpreter to the tribes.21
From the Falls St. Clair continued his voyage to Kaskaskia. He found the people of that country in the last stages of distress. The coming of the Virginians had been a plague to these western communities. They had disposed of all their goods for Virginia money which soon depreciated and later was repudiated. Many of the American soldiers had remained in the country to continue a mock government under which they robbed the people. Thrice in successive years the Mississippi had destroyed their crops and the crop of the preceding year had been completely ruined by an untimely frost.22
St. Clair could do little more than listen to their tales of sorrow. While engrossed in these affairs a let- ter from Hamtramck notified him that the Wabash Indians were in arms, and an army of 1,000 savages was liable at any time to deluge the frontier in blood.
20 St. Clair Papers, II, 101, 105.
21 St. Clair Papers, II, 130.
22 St. Clair Papers, I, 165.
117
GAMELIN'S JOURNEY
Bands of marauders robbed and murdered the emi- grants on the Ohio. Settlers were not safe on that river or anywhere to the north of it.
§ 20 THE CONQUEST OF THE MIAMIS
IMMEDIATELY on receipt of the letter which St. Clair had written him from Clarksville, Major Ham- tramck dispatched an interpreter to the Indians with it. This interpreter reached the Vermilion towns, but in consequence of a threat against his life hastily returned to Fort Knox. The commandant at once dis- patched Antoine Gamelin with the letter. This
Frenchman was well known to the Indians and suc- ceeded in his mission. A detailed study of his visit will show clearly the attitude of the northwestern Indians, the nature of the Miami Confederacy, and their dependence on the English at Detroit.
He set out from Fort Knox, April 5, 1790, on his way to Miamitown at Fort Wayne, intending to visit all the towns near the Wabash as he went. The first place he made was the Kickapoo village of Chief Crooked Legs. This being a detached tribe and near Fort Knox, was well disposed and returned the mes- senger a pleasant answer. Thence Gamelin pro- ceeded to the Vermilion Piankeshaws. The head chief and nearly all the warriors were at home, and received the proposals of the Americans gladly. How- ever, they refused to make any answer until they had word from their elder brothers, the Miamis. The head chief cautioned the messenger against the Lake Indians, who, he said, were under the British influence. The Shawnees were also on the warpath, he observed. After promising to stop on his way back, Gamelin continued his journey. On April 10, he met a war party of Kickapoos, but they said they were going against the Chickasaws. He asked them to go past Vincennes on their way, and shake hands with the
118
HISTORY OF INDIANA
commandant. Next day he reached a large Kickapoo village, and at once called a council of the head chief and warriors. He presented, along with St. Clair's letter, two belts of white wampum. It was at this town the former messenger had been turned back. The chief informed Gamelin that the threat of war in his letter was very displeasing. This threat read: "I do now make you the offer of peace: accept it or reject it as you please." Gamelin at once changed it. They next found fault with him for bringing no gifts. He was told, however, that he might continue his journey to the upper towns in safety. As far as making him a formal answer was concerned, they would have to defer that until they could learn the pleasure of the Weas who owned the lands. They had confidently expected from the agent of their American father a draught of milk to put the old men in good humor, some powder and ball for the young men in their hunting, and some broth for the children.
On April 14, the Weas and Kickapoos were assem- bled and the letter read. Again the answer was, they could do nothing without the consent of the Miamis. The agent was told to continue to the Miamitown, see what the head chiefs said, stop on his way back, and let them know the answer. Our young men, they said, are under the influence of the English at Detroit so that we cannot restrain them. Again he was told that when the Indians met the Americans in council, they always came away naked. They asked if St. Clair's legs were broken so that he could not visit them himself. The English call us women if we do not take up the ax. Our old men are for peace, but our young men are gone to war.
On the 18th he arrived at L'Anguille, or the Eel River Town. Neither the sachem nor war chief was present. The speeches were read to such of the war- riors as were at home, who seemed well pleased, invited
119
THE WABASH INDIANS
the messenger to stop on his return, and sent some of their men with him to Miamitown. On the 23d, Gamelin arrived at the Miami capital. The next day he called the Miamis, Shawnees and Delawares into council, and read them his letters. The French and English traders were also invited to be present. To each nation he delivered two belts of wampum. Game- lin then called their attention to the treaty of Mus- kingum, which they disavowed, saying it was made by irresponsible young men without the tribe's knowl- edge or consent. The only purpose at this time, he continued, was to reestablish peace. The head chief said he was pleased with the spirit and would soon answer. In a private conference the chief told the messenger not to place any significance on what the Shawnees said. They were soreheads and were always disturbing the peace of the nations. He denied that the Miamis had done any of the mischief on the Ohio river. His young men only went out to hunt. It was the Shawnees that did all the mischief.
On the 25th, Gamelin visited Blue Jacket, the Shawnee chief, in his tent. Blue Jacket said that they all understood his speech and were pleased with it, but that they could give no definite answer till they had heard from their father at Detroit. They had decided to return the wampum and send the mes- senger on to Detroit to speak to the English. "From all quarters," he continued, "we receive speeches from the Americans and no two are alike. We suppose that they intend to deceive us-then take back your branches of wampum."
On April 26, five Pottawattomies arrived with two negroes, whom they sold to the traders. Next day Gamelin again called on LeGris, the chief of the Miamis. His war chief was also present. He was told not to mind what the Shawnees had said, but to wait and his letter would be presently answered.
120
HISTORY OF INDIANA
On the 28th, he was told he might return when he pleased, as they could make no positive answer till they had advised with the Lake Indians and the com- mandant of Detroit. The chief asked for and took the wampum refused by the Shawnees. Agents of the Five Nations were present, conferring with the west- ern Indians on some important affairs. Three Wyan- dots also arrived at the council house with their belts of wampum, but LeGris would not disclose the pur- pose of their mission.
That night at supper, Blue Jacket, the Shawnee, again insisted that Gamelin go to Detroit and meet the English. Next day at a grand council Gamelin informed them that his mission was at an end; that his orders were not to go to Detroit unless forced. Blue Jacket assured him that what he said in reference to going to Detroit was merely a suggestion; they did not mean to force him. All declined any formal answer, though they promised within thirty nights to send messengers to Vincennes with written answers.
On May 2, Gamelin turned homeward, visiting all the tribes on his return and finding evidence on every hand of the hostile attitude of the savages. The whole trouble lay in the British influence at Detroit and the desire for the Ohio river as their boundary line. The arms, ammunition and other supplies came from Detroit, and the constant irritation that kept the sav- ages ill-tempered came from the American squatters north of the Ohio. Gamelin arrived at Vincennes May 17, and the substance of his report was communi- cated to Governor St. Clair at Kaskaskia. As soon as that officer learned of the threatening conditions he hastened back to Fort Harmar to meet the bursting storm.23
Word also reached St. Clair of Shawnee depreda-
23 St. Clair Papers, II, 132, 135. The Journal of Gamelin Ív given entire in American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 93.
1
121
HARMAR'S EXPEDITION
tions on the Ohio. Two boats had been captured at the mouth of the Scioto. A few days later two more were taken containing property worth $7,000. Some men boiling salt at Bullitt's Lick, fourteen miles below Louisville, were attacked and killed. A man coming down the river a mile above the Falls was ambushed and killed.24
Under these conditions St. Clair hastened back to Cincinnati in order to hold a conference with General Harmar. Congress by acts of the previous year had authorized St. Clair to call out the Virginia and Penn- "sylvania militia. The governor of Pennsylvania paid no attention to the call and an additional 500 men had to be levied on Virginia. Three hundred of the militia who were to rendezvous at Fort Steuben were thence to march to the aid of Hamtramck at Fort Knox in an attack on the Weas and Kickapoos. The remain- der of the militia gathered at Fort Washington to aid
Harmar. The appearance of the militia did not encourage Harmar. ' They had neither axes nor cook- ing utensils. Their arms were bad and out of repair. It seems in many cases broken guns were brought purposely to have them repaired by the gunsmiths of the regular army. The inspector gave it as his opin- ion that all the firearms in Kentucky unfit for use were brought by the volunteers to Cincinnati. The most distressing fact was the endless jealousy and bickering over the command. Col. John Hardin25 was senior commander, but Colonel Trotter was a personal favorite of the men. Instead of hushing up the quarrel the latter officer encouraged it. The difficulty was increased by the fact that a great many of the militia were old men and boys who had never trained before.
24 American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 84-95. These are only samples of the scores of such crimes committed.
25 Heitman, Historical Register Officers Continental Army, 209.
122
HISTORY OF INDIANA
A compromise was effected by making Colonel Trot- ter, commander of the Kentucky battalion, and Colonel Hardin, commander over all the militia. The con- tractors supplied the army by means of pack horses. This service required 868 horses equipped with pack- saddles, rope and bags. The department was in charge of a horsemaster-general, eighteen horsemasters, and 130 pack-horse drivers
All told, the little army numbered 1,453, of whom 320 were regulars under Majors John Wyllys and John Doughty. They took up the march to the Indian towns on the last day of September, 1790. By October 15, the advance had reached the Maumee Towns, which were deserted. No Indians were seen, though plenti- ful signs indicated that a large force was in the imme- diate neighborhood. As soon as General Harmar was satisfied that there was to be no resistance by the Indians, he decided to march on the Wea Towns of the Wabash. On inquiry it was found that the pack- horses had been stolen by the Indians. Colonel Trot- ter was sent out with 300 men to scour the country for Indians. The militia was disorderly and nothing at all was accomplished. The next day Colonel Har- din, while making a circuit with the same troops, stumbled on a small party of Indians near the St. Joseph, and lost thirty men in the fight. The militia fled at the first sight of the Indians, some throwing away their loaded guns. The little party of regulars was deserted and twenty-two out of the thirty men killed.
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