USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1 > Part 43
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Wilkinson's party took the old trace which had been followed by Gencral St. Clair. On the first night they encamped near Mount Pleasant, where subsequently was Cary's Academy, and on the following night at Fort Hamilton. On the next day they rcached Seven Mile creek and a day later Fort Jefferson, at that time the far- thest limit of the fortifications. The season was so bitter that Wilkinson was obliged to issue an order here announcing the abandonment of his intended attack upon an Indian town on the branch of the Wabash, fifteen miles below. He therefore sent back the regulars to Fort Wash- ington and proceeded with the mounted volun-
teers to the battle-ground with a large sled to bring off such of the artillery as might be recov- cred. Two days later they came on the field of battle.
Judge Matson of North Bend contributed to Mr. Cist the following description of the scene : "On this day's march, and when we were about half way to the battle-field, we arrived where the pursuit had ceased, and on counting the number of dead bodies which appeared to have been dragged and mutilated by wild beasts, I made it seventy-eight, between that spot and the battle-ground. No doubt there were many more who, finding themselves disabled, crawled into the woods and perished there.
"We were ordered to encamp directly where the artillery, etc., had been left, I suppose with the view of bcating down the snow to facilitate finding what we werc in search of. Here we found the artillery dismounted, except one piece, a six pounder. Some of the carriages had been destroyed, as far as they could be, with firc. We brought off that piece and two carriages, with the irons of the rest, together with several muskets. We previously buried the dead by the fatigue parties digging a large pit, into which as many of the dead were thrown as it would contain. We had not a sufficiency of spades, etc., to do justice to the undertaking, and left great numbers unburied, as we worked little more than the residue of that day. The men had been all scalped, and so far as their clothing was of much value, all stripped. Hardly one could be identified, the bodies being blackened by frost and exposure, although there did not appear any signs of decay, the winter having set in early, and proving very severe. One corpse was judged, by Gcn. Gano and others, to have been that of Gen. Richard Butler. They had noticed the spot where he fell during the action, and entertained little doubt as to his identity. He lay in the thickest of the carnage, the bodies on one side actually lying across each other in some instances. The pile in the pit was so nu- merous that it raised quite a mound of earth above the surface of the ground when we cov- ered it up. The main body had been encamped on a large open flat, and the advanced corps of Kentuckians occupied timbered ground in front, from which they were driven in by a general assault of the savages, who then occupied shel- tered ground, to pour in a destructive fire on the Americans. Two ravines, one on each side of the main encampment, put down to the creek,
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which were also occupied by the Indians, who were thus enabled to creep under shelter of the edges to attack their enemies.
"We then traveled to Cincinnati, where the public horses were given up, and the troops dis- persed home, many of the volunteers being frost bitten on the route.
"Most of the pieces of artillery had been car- ried off, and of course escaped our search at the time. Several were afterward found in the bed of the creek. One piece, a six-pounder, was plowed up a number of years after, on the battle- ground, by some person who occupied the field, and taken down to Cincinnati and sold for sixty dollars to a Captain Joseph Jenkinson, who com- manded a volunteer artillery corps in the place." (Cist, Cincinnati in 1859, p. 71.)
This certainly seems a sad ending for the gal- lant Gen. Richard Butler. He was an Irishman who had come to America previous to 1760. He served in the Pennsylvania line in the Continen- tal Army, where he was lieutenant-colonel, and in Morgan's rifle corps in 1777. He served throughout the war and was made agent for In- dian affairs in Ohio in 1787. He had previously as we have seen been one of the commissioners to negotiate peace with the Indians, particularly at Fort Finney and Fort Stanwix.
As to the matter of torture the following pas- sage appears in a letter of Captain Buntin to St. Clair : "In my opinion those unfortunate men who fell in the enemies' hands with life were used with the greatest torture and having their limbs torn off ; and the women have been treated with the most indecent cruelty, having stakes as thick as a person's arm driven through their bodies. The first I observed when burying the (lead, and the latter was discovered by Colonel Sargent and Dr. Brown."
THIE CONSTERNATION OF THE SETTLERS.
Symmes is of course a prejudiced witness. He had as we have seen become involved in a controversy with St. Clair and felt that he had not been treated with proper respect. His inter- est too in the settlement of the purchase made the defeat touch him in a sore point. In his let- ter to Dayton of January 17, 1792, he speaks of the condition of affairs at Miami.
"On my arrival in the purchase about the 20th1 of November, I found the settlers in the greatest consternation, on account of the late defeat. Several had fled into Kentucky, and many others were preparing to follow them, and it was with
the greatest difficulty that I prevailed with people to stand their ground. The timely arrival of Mr. Dunlap greatly contributed to this suc- cess, as he had the good fortune to prevail with his settlers who had abandoned Colerain to re- turn again with him and re-establish their sta- tion. Colerain has ever been considered the best barrier to all the settlements, and when that place became re-peopled, the inhabitants of the other stations became more reconciled to stay. General St. Clair, by much importunity, gave Mr. Dunlap a guard of six soldiers. With these the settlers returned to Colerain. In a very few
days after the station was re-settled, the Gov- ernor ordered the six soldiers back again to Fort Washington. But the next day General St. Clair set out for Philadelphia, and Major Zieg- ler came to the command. His good sense and humanity induced him to send the six men back again in one hour's time, as I am told, after General St. Clair left Fort Washington, and he assured Mr. Dunlap that he should have more soldiers than six, rather than the station should break. Majors sometimes do more good than generals."
One strange result of this defeat was the throwing upon the market of a large number of beeves which had been provided by the govern- ment contractors and which were made unneces- sary by the destruction of the army. The emi- gration feature, however, is as usual the one which occupies his mind :
"I expect, sir, that the late defeat will entirely discourage emigration to the purchase from Jer- sey for a long time. Indeed, it seems that we are never to have matters right.
"What from the two succeeding defeats of our army, and the Governor's arbitrary conduct towards the settlers, still more discouraging at the time than even the defeats, many settlers became very indifferent in their attachment to the purchase, and numbers had left it on account of the Governor's conduct before his unparal- leled defeat. Of this shameful defeat by less than half their number of Indians, as is sup- posed, I have treated a little in my address to Doctor Boudinot. It is an event on which I could write a folio, and the subject not then ex- lausted; but I cannot, with any degree of pa- tience, reflect thereon. You will therefore ex- cuse me, sir, that I am now silent on the over- throw of our army. I am extremely anxious to hear how the dreadful news was received by
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Congress. From the ample provision made by Government I think the news must have been very unexpected at Philadelphia. But the whole has been retrograde in this country."
His estimate of the new commander of Fort Washington is of interest, especially in view of subsequent events : "I flatter myself that the nation will find a valuable officer in Lieutenant- Colonel Wilkinson, who is appointed to the com- mand of the 2d Regiment-he now commands in Fort Washington. I take him to be a temperate man of considerable military talents. He has youth, activity, ambition, bravery, of clear un- derstanding, and, ever since I have been in this country, he has always intimated to me that a military life was what he was ever anxious to attain to. He has one advantage beyond many other men who might be appointed to the com- mand in this country. In him are found those talents which will render him agreeable to the regular troops, at the same time that his familiar address and politeness render him very pleasing to the militia of Kentucky, by whom he is much respected and loved, and on this body of militia the United States must very much depend in their future operations against the Indians ; they are nigh at hand, and they are mostly riflemen."
.. Two days later Symmes records that no mis- chief had been done in the purchase by the In- dians since the defeat and scarcely a track had been seen by hunters. He announces Mr. Lud- low's intention to go as far as the battle-ground in his surveying if he meets no Indians while he is out.
St. Clair's defeat was a great shock not only to the settlers of the West but to the whole United States. The nation was as yet but loosely knit together and the public interest in the West was not general, but the feeling was strong that the Western settlements were not worth the blood and money that they were cost- ing. The Indians on the other hand had been much encouraged and began to feel and hope that they might drive the whites back across the Ohio. The first consequence of the defeat, the lack of interest in the East, was an effort to make peace with the Indians.
THE DEATH OF TRUEMAN AND HARDIN.
In April, 1792, Major Trueman was ap- pointed by the President to negotiate with the Western Indians. Upon Trueman's arrival at Fort Washington, Colonel Wilkinson, who had been promoted to the rank of a brigadier-general and who was in command, associated Colonel
Hardin with Trueman. Hardin and Trueman left the fort some time in June, accompanied by Isaac Freeman, and proceeded to the Indian towns. The forebodings of Wilkinson are indi- cated by him in a letter of May 24, 1792, to Capt. John Armstrong, in which he says: "Hardin and Truman left us day before yes- terday, the former for Sandusky, the latter for the Maumee, I think it is equivocal, what may be the event, but do not expect they will return."
The event, so far as Trueman was concerned, was indicated in a letter written by Armstrong to the General. on July 13, 1792:
"One man taken prisoner on the 19th October. 1791, belonging to the detachment of Federal troops, then under my command, and one taken the 4th of November, 1791, in Gen. St. Clair's defeat, are also here. They made their escape from an Indian village 50 miles above Miami on ' the St. Joseph's, passed that village the second day, and on the morning of the third, reached Fort Jefferson. They came through the field or place where our army was defeated, and say that their different Flags from us have been received at the Auglaize River, and the messengers were then tomahawked-that the last was a Captain -poor Truman."
The news had been brought on the 3rd of July from Vincennes to Cincinnati by Colonel Vigo. ` The story was that four white men who were approaching the Indians under a flag of truce had been fired upon. Three of them were killed at once and the fourth, who was bearing the flag and had on his person the credentials and other papers of the expedition, was held as a prisoner for a day and murdered with great barbarity on the following day. The prisoners escaping from the Indians soon made clear that this party was that of Trueman and Hardin. The third member of the party was Isaac Free- man, who had made so many expeditions on friendly missions to the Indians. Hardin seems to have felt that he would not return alive, as he was assured that his presence would prompt the savages to attack the whole party. The exact details of the attack were never known, nor was it known whether the outrage was sim- ply from pure wantonness and without pre- arrangement, or whether it was the result of orders given by one of the councils. When the chiefs wrote to Washington they spoke with great indifference without expressing regret for the occurrence: "You sent us at different times different speeches, the bearers whereof our fool- ish young men killed on their way."
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Various stories have been told about True- man's death. One recited by William May in his deposition taken by General Wayne at Pitts- burg was to the effect that in order to allay the fears of two Indians whom he fell in with on his journey he permitted them to tie him and the . others during the night and as a matter of course was murdered in the morning. This story, however, does not have the air of proba- bility. According to Judge Burnet, Hardin stated to his friend, Capt. James Ferguson, prior to his departure that he was convinced that the Indians would violate the flag and assassinate him, and assigned as a reason that they had long feared and hated him.
Rufus Putnam aided by the Moravian mis- sionary, Heckewelder, succeeded in negotiating a treaty with the Wabash and Illinois tribes in the fall of 1790, and in the spring of the follow- ing year three commissioners met various chiefs headed by Brant in an effort to conclude a peace. The Indians, however, supported by the British, insisted upon the Ohio as a boundary and would accept no other terms and the mission ended in failure. Strangely enough the commissioners sent home a remonstrance against the activity displayed by the new commander on the Ohio, General Wayne, whose conduct had angered the Indians and was considered by the British un- fair and unwarrantable. Says Mr. Roosevelt : "This was a preposterous complaint ; throughout our history, whether in dealing with Indians or with other foes, our Peace Commissioners have invariably shown to disadvantage when com- pared with the military commandants for whom they always betray such jealousy." (The Win- ning of the West, Vol. IV, p. 55.)
WAYNE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.
General Wayne had been appointed major- general in command of the army in April, 1792, and had accepted the command "with the ex- pressed stipulation that he should not be re- quired to march into the wilderness until the army was full and so far disciplined as to jus- tify him in assuming the responsibility to which such a movement would subject him. The mis- fortunes of those who preceded him were known. He had investigated their causes and ascertained that they were occasioned principally by want of discipline and want of material necessary for an army. He had seen two of his Revolutionary associates censured, the one for a total defeat, and the other for heavy losses under circum-
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stances which neither skill nor bravery could have prevented. With these lessons before him he determined to avoid the rock on which they had made shipwreck and therefore accepted the appointment on the condition before stated. A few days after this appointment James Wilkin- son, then a lieutenant-colonel in the army, was promoted to the rank of brigadier and became the second officer in command. This organiza- tion having been made, measures were imme- diately commenced to recruit the army and per- fect the arrangements necessary for the ap- proaching campaign." (Burnet's Notes, p. 133.)
The Indian ravages became more severe than ever. The English supplied the red men with arms, besides paint and tobacco, of which they made good use. After one skirmish with the Americans, a party of Delawares and Shawanees brought in to the British agent six scalps, which were received with gratification. Boats were waylaid as they descended the Ohio and the set- tlements in all directions were scourged by the red men.
Anthony Wayne was a Pennsylvanian by birth, the grandson of a Yorkshire man who had removed first to County Wicklow in Ireland, where he had fought at the battle of the Boyne and had emigrated in 1722 at the age of 63 to this country. His son Isaac took part in the colonial wars and was a member of the Colonial Assembly of Pennsylvania. Anthony Wayne was born January 1, 1745, in Easton. It is recorded of him that in his early days his uncle, who was educating him, complained to his father : "One thing I am certain of and that he will never make a scholar. He may make a sol- dier ; he has already distracted the brains of two- thirds of the boys under my direction by re- hearsals of battles and sieges ; * * some laid up with broken heads, others with black eyes. During noon, instead of the usual games and amusements, he has the boys employed in throwing up redoubts, skirmishing," etc. An- thony became a surveyor and at the age of 20 he was selected by Benjamin Franklin and asso- ciates to lead a band of settlers to Nova Scotia, where the great philosopher had become in- volved in a land speculation. The difficulties with England stopped emigration and Wayne returned to take part in the conventions and assemblies that led up to the Revolution. He was provincial deputy in his own State in 1774 and 1775. His record in the Revolutionary War is well known. No other general, American,
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British or French, says Mr. Roosevelt, "won such a reputation for hard fighting and for dar- ing energy and dogged courage. He felt very keenly that delight in the actual shock of battle which the most famous fighting generals have possessed. He gloried in the excitement and dan- ger, and shone at his best when the stress was sorest; and because of his magnificent courage his soldiers had affectionately christened him 'Mad Anthony,' but his head was as cool as his heart was stout. He was taught in a rough school ; for the early campaigns in which he took part were waged against the gallant generals and splendid soldiery of the British King. By ex- perience he had grown to add caution to his dauntless energy." (The Winning of the West, Vol. IV, p. 67.)
At the end of the war, Wayne had made a successful campaign against the Creek Indians in Georgia. He afterwards attempted to enter Congress from that State, but lost his seat upon a contest.
CAMP HOBSON'S CHOICE.
Immediately after his appointment, Wayne began his preparations. He went to Pittsburg in June, 1792, where just below the old Logs Town at a place now called Legionville, he began the training of his soldiers. The army when or- ganized was to be known as the "Legion of the United States." Wayne began immediately to re- cruiting the men to fill up the deficiency and to drilling them for action. Some of the men under his command are reported as being so terrified with the name Indian that on one occasion one-third of the sentries deserted their posts upon the mere rumor that savages were in the neighborhood. By St. Patrick's Day he had to a large extent brought order out of chaos, and in May, 1793, he dropped down the Ohio with his legion to Fort Washington. He located his soldiers at a point a little below the fort on the banks of the Ohio, between the village itself and Mill creek. To this encampment, which occupied the place about where the present gas works are located, he gave the name "Hobson's Choice," it being the only place in the vicinity suitable for the purpose.
Judge Burnet tells the following story as to the origin of the name: "On the arrival of General Wayne at Cincinanti with the troops from Legionville, late in 1793, he ordered the quartermaster, with two or three of his officers, to make a careful examination of the grounds
adjoining the town and select the most eligible spot for the construction of an encampment. After a careful execution of the order they re- ported that there was no situation near the town on which the army could be conveniently en- camped ; and that the only ground which was in any degree calculated for the purpose was on the river bank between the village and Deer creek. The General replied, 'if that be so we have Hob-' son's Choice and must take it.' From that ex- pression the place selected was immediately called Hobson's Choice and has been known by that name ever since." This statement disposes of the story that the name has any connection with the present Cincinnati Gas & Electric Com- pany. General Wayne placed a sentry box on the top of the mound which was near by and from which a view of the entire plain could be had. This was the mound at the northeast corner of Fifth and Mound streets. Here he waited the re- sult of the negotiations already spoken of which were then in progress. As soon as he received in- formation of General Knox that "every offer has been made to obtain peace by milder terms than the sword but the efforts have failed under circumstances that leave us nothing to expect but war," he replied from Camp Hobson's Choice, "I will advance to-morrow with the force I have."
On October 7th he broke camp and by the 13th his army was encamped on a branch of the Miami, eighty miles north of Cincinnati at a spot to which Wayne gave the name Greenville in honor of his commander and friend, General Greene. It is the site of Greenville in Darke County. His march was by an old Indian trail up Mill creek by Ludlow's Station, thence to White's Station at the third crossing of Mill creek and on to Cunningham's and thence to Runyan's, and was known afterwards as the old Wayne trace or Wayne road. Down this trail the Miamis had passed on their way to Ken- tucky and afterwards a part of General Clark's army took this trail in 1780. In 1790 General Harmar's left wing marched by this route and the following year, in 1791, a portion of General St. Clair's army passed over it. Over this road too was carried the body of Col. Robert Elliott on its way to Fort Washington. Mr. Olden's "Reminiscences" say: "General Wayne left Camp Hobson's Choice at Cincinnati on the 7th day of October, 1793, and followed 'the general course of the old track running along the Mill creek valley and which had previously been
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opened as a great road as far as White's Station. He camped for the night on the grounds lately occupied as a race course and known as the Buckeye Club grounds near the present village of Elmwood. The following day he passed through White's Station and along what is now Wayne avenue through Maplewood and Lock- land; thence through Tucker's Station, and where the town of Springdale now is, to Fort Hamilton, where he encamped the second night." It is said that along this trail, just above White's Station about the year 1780, a great battle was fought between two hostile Indian forces and that afterwards when the pioneers came to build a station they found Indian bones thickly scat- tered over the ground intermingled with battle axes, arrows and other implements of savage warfare. The number engaged in the battle is said to have been almost four thousand. Wayne passed the winter at Fort Greenville, which was about six miles in advance of Fort Jefferson, which had been built by St. Clair in October, 1791.
FORT RECOVERY.
About Christmas Day he sent out a large detachment to St. Clair's battle-ground, where he built a fort called Fort Recovery. His idea was that it was inconsistent with success' and with the dignity of the nation to give up an inch of ground. On October 17, 1793, Lieutenant Lowery, with a command of ninety non-commis- sioned officers and privates, having in charge military stores, was attacked near Fort St. Clair by a much superior force. Lowery and 13 oth- ers, who had been abandoned by the greater part of the escort, were killed after an obstinate re- sistance and the savages carried off seventy pack horses. Lowery was from New Jersey and had served under St. Clair in the previous year, and for good behavior in that campaign had received his commission in the regular army. After the construction of the fort at Greenville, however, no further fears were felt. for the safety of the army as the place was so commodious and so . strongly fortified as to defy any assault that could be made upon it. Wayne occupied himself in instructing and improving the troops in military tactics. On June 26th, General Scott arrived with sixteen hundred mounted Kentuckians, among whom was William Clark, a brother of George Rogers Clark and later known for his passage of the Rockies. The Indians were con- stantly lurking about, however, and would at- tack any party that ventured any distance from
a fort. The commander at Fort Jefferson and his orderly were killed and scalped about three hundred yards from his command. A prede- cessor, while hunting in the same neighborhood, had been attacked, and although he escaped his son and a soldier were killed. Near the same fort a dozen men were surprised while haying, of whom four were killed and eight captured. Four of the captives were afterwards burned at the stake.
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