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The administration of the general government now began to be convinced of the perfidy of the Indians, and the impossibility of relying upon treaties alone to preserve the peace of the frontiers. The Executive was indeed in favor of more ener- getic measures than Congress would sanction,* after having exhausted magnanimous offers of peace. So soon as the failure of negotiation with the Indian tribes was ascertained, the gov- ernment took the most effective means in its power, to make them feel the force of arms. Brigadier General Harmar "an intelligent and gallant officer" of the revolutionary army, who had been appointed under the Old Congress, was placed at the head of the United States troops. These amounted to 320 men. The General was authorized to call upon Virginia and Pennsylvania for detachments of militia, which made his whole force amount to 14 or 1500. Insignificant as this may now appear, it was at that day, an imposing force for Indian operations. The march commenced on the 30th of September, 1790, from Fort Washington, now the site of the flourishing city of Cincinnati, with a view of attacking the Miami towns, often called Omi by a corruption of the French Au, the seat of the present Fort Wayne, on the south side of the Maumee at the junction of its head branches. After seventeen days'
. Marshall's Washington, vol. 2, p. 193. 208.
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march the army reached the great Miami village, which they found set on fire by the Indians. The enemy, Parthian like, with their usual agility kept out of the way of the unwieldly movements of the main body; till they found their own time and opportunity. The destruction of the town with that of large quantities of corn and other provisions was completed. These are the most fatal blows, which can be struck against such a foe, next to his personal destruction.
While our troops were encamped at the Indian towns a trail of the enemy being discovered, a detachment of one hundred and fifty Kentucky militia with some thirty regulars under Captain Armstrong and Ensign Hartshorn, commanded by Col. Hardin, set out in pursuit. After having marched about six miles the detachment was surprised by a body of Indians, who were concealed in the thickets on each side of a large plain; which they had effected by going on, in their trail for some time, and then returning on each side of it, to lay in ambush for their pursuers. When these had fairly got between the Indian lines, a fire was received "as by a signal, from* about seven hundred Indians on both sides of the ambuscade, which put the militia to disgraceful flight, without firing a single shot, and left the handful of regulars to meet the whole brunt of the action. The Indians, under the command of the celebrated Little Turtle, whose Miami name was Michikinaqwan or Meche- cunaqua, as they did at the Blue Licks, now rushed upon the overpowered remnant of' regulars, which defended itself "at their bayonet points with the greatest possible obstinacy," till they were all killed except the two officers and two or three privates. Ensign Hartshorn was saved by falling behind a log in the retreat, which screened him from the eye of his pur- suers; while Captain Armstrong was preserved by plunging into a swamp, in which, he sank up to his neck within two hun- dred yards of the field of action. Here he remained the whole night a spectator of the war dance performed over the dead and wounded bodies of the poor soldiers, who had fallen the previous day, amidst which, the shrieks of the wounded
* Captain Wells, who was with the Indians-Western Review, vol. 2, p. 181.
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were mixed with the horrid yells of the savages. A circum- stance, which seems to imply most unusual bravado on the part of the Indians; only equalled by the unaccountable inactivity of the main army but six miles from the scene of action, and after many fugitives must have come in from the flight. Indeed the two officers, so wonderfully preserved, came into camp in the course of that very night. In the mean time the Indians poured in from the contiguous towns, to reinforce their coun- trymen. Some skirmishing then ensued with Harmar's scouts, but nothing material happened until two days after the army had left the Miami village; when at seven or ten miles' distance, the General ordered a halt, and on the night of the 21st* de- tached four or five hundred militia with about sixty regulars under Major Willis, again placed under the chief command of Col. Hardin,t who was ordered to march back and endeavor to surprise the town. On entering it, a small body of Indians was discovered, which immediately fled and decoyed the militia in front, into a pursuit in different directions, leaving the regular soldiers by themselves. When the dispersion of the militia was thus effected, the main body of the Indians under the same distinguished chief as before, which had reserved itself for this blow, attacked the regulars with the utmost fury, notwith- standing the return of some of the militia on their rear. Noth- ing could exceed the intrepidity of the savages on this occa- sion;# with all undauntedness conceivable, they threw. down their guns, and with their tomahawks rushed upon the bayonets of the soldiers; a destructive warfare to them and very differ- ent from their usual economy of life: but with their relative superiority, which our tactics of fighting by detachment had given them, still more destructive to the whites. While a sol- dier had his bayonet in one Indian. two others would sink their tomahawks in his head. The defeat of the regular soldiers was most bloody and fatal, not one escaped; they all fell with
* Marshall's Washington, vol. ? , p. 208 -. Metcalf's Collection, p. 102.
t The father of the late Gen. Martin D. Hardin of distinguished abilty and worth.
: Judge Marshall reprewats this action to have taken place on both banks of the St. Joseph's; one column under Col. Hardin marched on the west bank, and two others on the eastern side under Major Willw with the regulars and Major McMillan with the mili- lia-volume 2d, page 2uz.
R
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+
their gallant Major at their head, bravely defending the cause of their country; while double the whole detachment and four- teen times the numbers of the regular portion of that detach- ment, were but eight or ten miles off. Why this wanton expo- sure to be beaten by detail should have been encountered, while the main force was kept inactive and not moved into support- ing distance, the author is not military critic enough to know. To his mind it appears to have been a most unnecessary waste of life, and sacrifice of superiority in favor of the enemy.
The militia before the complete destruction of the regulars, had returned from the pursuit, which had so fatally divided the detachment; and a portion of them, with their Colonel was brought into action. The contest was maintained for some time with equal effect, until they were overpowered by a supe- rior foe flushed with his triumph over the regulars; but Hardin was compelled to retreat, leaving the dead and the wounded in the hands of the enemy; who did not, however, dare to pursue, much as they delight in wreaking their vengeance on a flying enemy, next to his surprise. The latter indeed, they seem to think the very criterion of generalship.
Great discontents arose between the regular and militia por- tions of the troops; as usually happens in the train of other misfortunes. One party reproached the other with unequal exertion; to both the destruction was heavy, the militia lost from ninety-eight to one hundred and thirty of their number, and had ten wounded; while the regular troops had lost nearly seventy-three out of three hundred and twenty. It may well be called Harmar's defeat; when he kept two-thirds of his troops, as unavailing to the support of his detachment, as if they had been on this side of the Ohio. What was the use of superior numbers, when they were not brought into action or even to appear before the enemy, which was but ten miles off? The troops returned to Fort Washington, by easy marches, with all their artillery and baggage by the 4th of December. Courts martial were called on both General Harmar and Col. Hardin; both were, however, honorably acquitted. The former, though sustaining a high character as a disciplinarian and most gallant
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officer, was not again ordered on command and resigned. On the whole, this expedition ineffectual as it proved in the main, and defeated as it was twice in detachment with great loss, gave the Indians reason to triumph in their opposition to so formidable an invasion: accordingly the depredations of the Indians on the settlements of Kentucky increased in ferocity and number, par- ticularly on the Ohio.
In the instance of Captain Hubbell* descending the Ohio, in a family boat with nine men, the engagement with the Indians in canoes was desperate beyond the constant horror of these savage contests: after losing three of his men, having three more wound- ed, and himself shot through the arm, he repulsed the enemy from the gunwales of his boat with sticks of wood, and finally escaped. The distinguished heroism of the transaction will en- title it to a place in the appendix. At the same time, the boat of Greathouse was taken without resistance, so great is the differ- ence of character: himself and a boy of fourteen were instantly killed, and a number of others found whipped to death, after hav- ing been stripped, tied to trees and with the appearance of lashes given by large rods, which were lying by, worn with use. It might have been observed before this time, that Judge Innest in a letter to Secretary Knox of the 7th July, 1790, had declared, that he had "been intimately acquainted with this district from November 1783, to the time of writing; and that fifteen hundred souls have been killed and taken in the district and migrating to it; that upwards of twenty thousand horses have been taken and carried off; and other property to the amount of at least fifteen thousand pounds."
To give greater effect to the defence of the frontiers, small posts were established round the remote settlements, consisting of from twenty to five men, which were found very serviceable by giving security and satisfaction.
On the 13th of December the President of the United States recommended the adoption of the new State of Kentucky into the Union, in both affectionate and honorable terms, which were reciprocated in the addresses of both houses; then usual in reply
+ Metcalf's Collection, page 146.
į Political Transactions, page 58.
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to the President's communication. These affectionate expres- sions of the different departments were realized on the 4th of February, by passing an act to admit Kentucky into the Union on an equality with the other States. The year 1791 was most busily marked with Indian hostilities, and military expeditions on our part, to repel and punish them.
In pursuing this defence of the frontiers, the administration on consultation with Mr. John Brown, then the only member of the House of Representatives of the United States from the western country of Virginia, including the district of Kentucky as a distant precinct; adopted the following plan. Messrs. Scott, Innes, Shelby, Logan and Brown, were appointed a local board of war for the western country, to call out the militia on expeditions against the Indians, in conjunction with the com- manding officer of the United States, and to apportion scouts through the exposed parts of the district. This plan was the result of considerable consultation and some compromise. When Gen. St. Clair's name was mentioned by (ien. Hamilton to Mr. Brown, as the commanding officer in the west, the latter gentle- man remarked, that without laying any stress upon his misfor- tunes during the Revolutionary war, his sentiments upon western interests rendered him unpopular in Kentucky. But, said Mr. Brown, if a local power can be deposited in the district, to or- ganize mounted expeditions against the Indians in the old way; he would withdraw any objections to the appointment of Gen. St. Clair. This gentleman was accordingly invested with this command. and the board of war organized as mentioned above. In consequence of this arrangement, an expedition was appoint- ed and placed under the command of Gen. Charles Scott, with Wilkinson as second in command, at the head of 8 or 900 mounted men. The march took place on the 23d of May. *"By the 31st the party had marched one hundred and thirty- five miles over the country cut by the branches of White river and many smaller streams with steep muddy banks, presenting bogs of deep clay from one to five miles wide, rendered almost impervious by brush and briars. The rain fell in torrents every
· Metcalf, page 110.
---- ---- -
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day-wearing down the horses and destroying the provisions. On the 1st of June an Indian was discovered on horseback in an extensive prairie, whom it was in vain attempted to intercept; the march was now hurried with all possible rapidity, and having come one hundred and fitty-five miles from the Ohio, two small villages were discovered on the Wabash. The main town was now discovered to be four or five miles in front. Col. John Hardin was now detached with sixty men, and a troop of light horse under Capt. McCay, to attack the towns on the left, while Gen. Scott marched with the main body against the prin- cipal village, whose smoke was discernable. The attack was
gallantly commenced by Capt. Price, and as the troops reached the high ground overlooking the Wabash, the Indians were dis- covered in great confusion, endeavoring to make their escape over the river in their canoes." Wilkinson was ordered to rush forward with the first battalion; and the General then says, it "gained the bank of the river, just as the rear of the enemy had embarked, and regardless of a brisk fire kept up from a Kickapoo town on the opposite bank, they, in a few minutes, by a well directed fire from their rifles destroyed all the savages with which five canoes were crowded. The enemy still kept possession of the Kickapoo town. "{ determined" says Gen. Scott, "to dislodge them; and for this purpose ordered Captains King and Logsdon's companies to march down the river below the town, and cross under the command of Major Barbee. This movement was unobserved, and my men had taken post before they were discovered by the enemy, who immediately abandoned the village. About this time word was brought me that Col. Hardin was encumbered with prisoners, and had dis- covered a stronger village to my left, than those I had observed; which he was proceeding to attack. I immediately detached Capt. Brown with his company to support the Colonel; but the distance being six miles, before the Captain arrived the busi- ness was done, and Col. Hardin joined a little before sunset, having killed six warriors and taken fifty-two prisoners," Lieut. Colonel Wilkinson was now detached with three hundred and sixty men in front, all who could be found in a capacity to R *
1
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undertake the enterprise. This party attacked the important town of Kethlipecanunk at the mouth of Eel river, a western branch of the Wabash. "Our party came into the vicinity of the town before eleven o'clock and remained on their arms until four o'clock, when in half an hour more, it was assaulted in all quarters. The enemy was vigilant, gave way on my approach and crossed Eel creek, which washed the northeast part of the town. The creek was not fordable, but the troops rushed to the water's edge and poured in a volley, which in five minutes drove the enemy from their covering. On the same day, after having burned the towns and adjacent villages; and destroyed the growing corn and pulse; the detachment began its march for the rapids of Ohio, where it arrived on the 14th, without the loss of a man by the enemy and five only wounded; having killed thirty-two, chiefly warriors of size and figure, and taken fifty- eight prisoners." The Colonel very humanely discharged six- teen of his feeblest prisoners with a friendly talk to the Wabash tribes. These soldierly expeditions, more brilliant, however, in appearance than destructive to the enemy, were followed in the month of August by a second volunteer expedition, which was placed by the board of war under the command of Wil- kinson. This party after struggling with great difficulties, arising from the ground and their ignorance of the country; at length on the 7th inst. struck the Wabash four or five miles above the mouth of Eel river; crossed the former river until they came opposite to the town of L. Anguille, or according to the Indian sound, Kenapacomaqua .* Here, the enemy was found on their flight; a charge was ordered, which was obeyed with the utmost elacrity. "Six warriors and (in the hurry and confusion of the charge) two squaws and a child were killed; thirty-four prisoners were taken and an unfortunate captive re- leased, with the loss of two men killed and one wounded." The same cruel course of destroying the crops was unavoidably pursued, to the amount of four or five hundred acres of corn, chief- ly in the milk. This had been replanted since the destruction in the previous June, and was again in high cultivation. For an
* The site of the present Logansport, Indiana.
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enemy less ferocious and amenable to the laws of civilized warfare, miserable as they are, the heart would grieve over this blasting the labor of the year and the principal subsistence for women and children. But it is one of the worst curses of war, to steel our hearts against the sufferings of our enemies, and shut up the very sources of compassion. In justice to Gen. Scott and Col. Wilkinson, it ought to be mentioned, that they sternly forbade the practice of scalping* the enemy, which had hitherto characterized the white warrior as much as the red one. Both these gallant officers, to whom the western country is so much and deeply indebted for military services, had fought in fields of too fair fame (for they were chiefs in the revolutionary struggle,) to sully their arms by these barbarian practices. They begin by overleaping the boundaries of mercy and humanity in one instance, almost inevitably prompting their violation in others; till there is is no restraint on the out. rages of temper. This portion of Kentucky history almost en. tirely lay on the northwestern side of the Ohio river; where the struggle between the white and the red men, was now trans- ferred; and which was mainly throughout the contest supported by the blood and valor of Kentucky.
The general government, particularly the legislative depart- ment,t finding so little effect from the expedition of General Harmar, determined with perhaps too little respect for the en- emy in their own fastnesses, to terminate the war with the cam- paign; this is manifest by the short enlistment of the troops for six months. In the course of the ensuing September, the differ- ent bodies of men were collected at Cincinnati, then Fort Washington, from the points at which they had been enlisted, to form the new expedition against the Indians. The officers are represented to have been the very elite of the revolutionary
* This savage custom is represented as prevailing with some difference, among the Scythians in the time of Herodotus. "They rarned a with them at all times this savage mark of triumph: they out a circle round the urk, and stripped of the skin, as they would that of an os. \ httle image found aun ng the Calmnues, of a Tartanan deity, mounted on a horse, and sitting on a lamat som, with grains pendent from the breast; fully illustrates the custom of the Bestluan progestors, as described by the Greek histo. rian." Pennant as quoted by Dr. Godmau, vol. I. p. 49 of his Natural History.
t Marshall's Washington, page 193, vol. 2, foot note.
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army; the men, however, were of the most ordinary character, as is likely to have been the case, just after the close of a long war; and the general engagement of the more promising of them in the walks of civil life. But a source of difficulty greater than inferiority of character, presented itself in the little time afforded to discipline the army; and unite men and . officers in one cordial and efficient band. Levies raised in the summer, marched to the field early in the fall, against an en- emy requiring no common portion of skill and experience to understand and to repel its covert, wily and ferocious tactics; could scarcely have warranted any sanguine anticipations of success. The hardy and dextrous habits of the frontier settler, rivitted and confirmed by a life led in the woods, and in the mimic warfare against their tenants, are all brought into full, and too often unequal requisition, in this tremendous encounter of conflicting states and habits of society. How inadequate then must have been the preparation of those troops, many of whom had been gathered from the lazy and corrupt haunts of towns! No wonder then, that this hurried movement with such materials; added to the want of confidence in regular troops, which possessed the Kentuckians; particularly since the heavy loss of life with no adequate effect, under Harmar, prevented any volunteers from offering themselves in Kentucky. Yet her hardy and adventurous people had ever borne the brunt of In- dian hostility with the eagerness, which amusement, rather than a most horrid warfare, full of hardship and danger, was calcu- lated to inspire. No general officer in Kentucky could be found to take the command, and the requisition of the general gov- ernment for troops had to be filled by reluctant drafts, for one thousand men, the command of whom was given to Colonel Oldham .* The army amounted to about two thousand regulars, including a corps of artillery and several squadrons of horse; w.Lich with the militia, made an aggregate of three thou- sand men. The expedition lett Fort Washington about the first of October by the way of Fort Hamilton, situated on the
* The father of our worthy citizens Major Oldham and his brother the Judge of that name in this city, and who was killed in this action.
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Great Miami, in the direction of the Miami towns, that were the object of the campaign; and which lay upon the Miami, or Maumee of the Lake. The old difficulties of Indian war- fare again presented themselves, which had always attended the operations of regular armies, against the savages of North America: roads were to open, bridges to build for the convey- ance of artillery and stores; and moreover, forts to erect in order to keep up the line of communication with the Ohio river, the base from which provisions and reinforcements were to be drawn .. These various exertions were to be made at the close of the season for active operations with ill clad troops, and by no means the best affected, or under the best discipline. An ardent and vigorous commander, might well have failed in com- batting these numerous difficulties; but the government had chosen Arthur St. Clair, "a veteran of the revolution, possessed of both talents and experience. but old and infirm." The stern and trying scenes of war, and a war above all others with wily barbarians, amidst their own embarrassing fastnesses, call for sleepless energy and inexhaustible activity; these qualities sometimes survive the ardent period of youth and middle age; but much more generally share the decline of the other physical powers. In no service is age, even a green old age, more generally misplaced, than in a war against such an enemy as the Indian. When disease is added to these natural sources of debility, what but failure ought to be expected? Was not the employment of our Dearborns and Hulls in the late war against Great Britain, a repetition of the same errors as that of St. Clair in 1791? This unfortunate officer was so affected by gout, that he could not walk, and could neither mount or dis- mount a horse without assistance. Moreover, as if these dis- heartening circumstances were not sufficient, the enlistments of most of the men had expired before the campaign ended, and attempts had been made to re-enlist them under circum- stances which greatly disaffected them; one or two hundred mil- itia too deserted. Against all these omens, General St. Clair felt it to be his duty. to satisfy the expectations of the govern- ment, by urging his march to the Indian towns. Before he
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reached them, he had been obliged to detach the first regiment under Major Hamtramck to bring back his militia deserters and to protect several convoys of provision, the plunder of which had been threatened by them. On the 3d of November, the army came to a village situated on a small tributary stream of the Wabash* about twelve yards wide; which Gen. St. Clair mistook for the St. Mary's, a branch of the Maumee. Here the troops were encamped in the following order,t "upon a very commanding piece of ground in two lines, having the above mentioned creek in front, the right wing composed of Butler, Clarke and Patterson's battalions, commanded by Major General Butler, forming the first line; and the left wing consisting of Bedinger and Gaither's battalions and the second regiment com- manded by Colonel Darke, formed the second line; with an interval of about seventy yards, which was all the ground al- lowed.# The right flank was pretty well secured by the creek, a steep bank, and Faulkner's corps; some of the cavalry and their piquets covered the left flank. The militia were thrown over the creek in advance about a quarter of a mile, and en- camped in the same order." The next day the General had intended to throw up a slight work, the plan of which was con- certed that evening with Maj. Ferguson; and to have moved on to attack the enemy, as soon as the first regiment had come up. The wily enemy did not wait for this junction of the force opposed to them; but about half an hour before sunrise on the fatal 4th of November and just after the men had been dismissed from parade, the attack began on the militia. This portion of the army soon gave way and rushed into camp through the battalions of Butler and Clarke, throwing them into considera- ble confusion, and followed by the Indians at their heels; the fire of the front line checked them; but almost immediately, a very heavy attack began upon that line, and in a very few min- utes it was extended to the second likewise; the great weight of it was directed against the centre of rach; where the artil- lery was placed, from which the men were repeatedly driven with great slaughter. General St. Clair, who, notwithstanding
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