USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1 > Part 44
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At. Fort St. Clair not only had Lowery's party been attacked, but in November of the previous year a party from Kentucky, of mounted rifle- men under Major Adair, who were convoying a large number of pack horses, were assaulted by the Indians just at dawn. Most of the horses were driven off or killed and the men driven to the fort, but a number of them rallied and drove off the Indians. In this engagement Adair lost six men killed and five wounded. Fort St. Clair was about 26 miles south of Greenville, near where Eaton now stands.
In May, 1794, Capt. William Clark, just men- tioned, was sent from Fort Washington with twenty dragoons and sixty infantry to escort pack horses to Greenville. When he had ad- vanced but 18 miles on his way, he was attacked by Indians, but he succeeded in putting them to flight ; two of his men were killed, however. On the last day of June a severe and bloody battle was fought under the walls of Fort Recovery between the detachment of American troops con- sisting of ninety riflemen, fifty dragoons com- manded by McMahon and a very numerous body of Indians and British, who rushed on the detachment and assailed the fort on every side. Over two thousand warriors had been gathered by the efforts of the Indian agents at the Miami and their attack upon the fort was intended to be a surprise. With them were a number of French and English rangers painted and dressed like Indians. McMahon's party had escorted pack horses from Greenville the day before and were encamped outside the walls, but could make no resistance to such overwhelming nuin- bers. They rushed for the fort after losing 19 officers and privates and two pack horsemen killed and three captured. An effort to storm the fort was unsuccessful, but the attack was kept up all day and at night they took off their dead. The next day they withdrew, after hav- ing suffered heavy loss and much discouraged at the failure of the largest expedition the Indians had undertaken. The exact extent of the loss
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was never known, but it must have been very large, as it became apparent at the treaty at Greenville that the chiefs had never ceased to mourn the distressing loss of that occasion. There seems to be no question that the Indians were accompanied by a number of whites. From statements made afterwards by Americans who had been prisoners among the Indians and had escaped, and by Indians who were captured it was apparent that this effort to crush the fort, which was the farthest advance yet made by the whites into the Indian territory, was regarded by the Indians as a supreme one and for that rea- son they fought with the greatest desperation and lost twice as many men in the attack as had been lost at St. Clair's defeat. They had been led to believe that the British who were at De- troit were about to join them with field pieces and fifteen hundred troops.
Among the wounded at this battle was Lieu- tenant Darke of the "Legion," who fought with extraordinary bravery, even to the point of reck- lessness. He was in charge of the infantry, and although severely wounded insisted upon being the last to enter the fortification. Lieutenant Darke some time previous had been 'insulted by a brother officer at Fort Washington, but from conscientious scruples against dueling had re- fused to call him out. This had subjected him to considerable criticism, some even going so far as to imply that it was due to lack of courage that he refused to fight the duel. His conduct on this day vindicated him in this respect.
Wayne continued his daily drills and the ex- ercise of his men with saber and bayonet, until Greenville from morning till night had the ap- pearance of a military school. He certainly did not bear out at this time Washington's written estimate of him that he was "more active and enterprising than judicious and cautious. No economist it is feared. Open to flattery, vain ; easily imposed upon and liable to be drawn into scrapes. Too indulgent to his officers and men." If this was ever a just characterization of him, the circumstances were such as to change him completely and justify the hope expressed by Washington to Lee that "time, reflection, good advice and above all a due sense of the impor- tance of the trust will correct his foibles or cast a ·shade over them.". He seemed fully to realize the importance of his trust as well as the dan- gers that were to_be guarded against. His dis-
cipline was very severe, but although Wilkinson, the senior officer in command under him, had been spending much of the previous year in cul- tivating an unfriendly feeling against him among the officers, he succeeded in retaining in the main their friendship and gained the affection of his men. As a result of the constant drills lie turned his force, which was originally not of a promising character, into a perfect fighting ma- chine of a compact organization. One of his militiamen from . Tennessee wrote home that Wayne's riflemen were as good shots as any of the marksmen he had seen contesting in the matches at home, and spoke in the highest praise of the handling of their horses and swords by the cavalry. Wayne, as is well known, was a great believer in cold steel and gave particular attention to the use of the saber and the bay- onet.
WAYNE'S SCOUTS.
Another matter to which he gave great atten- tion was that of spies and scouts. He had a large number of these, almost fifty under his command, some of whom were Chickasaw or Choctaw Indians. The scouts and rangers were under the command of Ephraim Kibby of Co- lumbia. The commander of the spies, of whom there were seven or eight, was the well known William Wells. Wells had been captured by the Miamis when a young boy and had grown up amongst them. He married a sister of Little Turtle, and was known among the Indians as Black Snake. This name, by the way, was a name given at first by the Indians to Wayne because of the tortuous course of his advance, but afterwards when his methods developed the qualities and resembled that of a tornado he was called Big Wind. Wells had fought against Harmar and St. Clair by the side of Little Turtle and at the defeat of the latter had killed several soldiers with his own hand. Strangely enough this fact preyed upon his mind and, moved by the fear that he might have slain some of his own kins-people, lie resolved to return to his own race. He left his Indian wife and half-breed children at the time, after giving notice of his purpose to Little Turtle, and joined Wayne. He was placed at the head of the scouts and gave very loyal and valuable service. After the peace he was joined by his wife and children, but was finally slain by the Indians at Chicago in 1812. llis children became respected citizens in the community.
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Another one of the spies was the celebrated Robert McClellan, immortalized by Irving by reason of his adventures in later years as a Rocky Mountain explorer. Two others were the . Miller brothers, William and Christopher. They had been captured by the Indians when young and had grown to manhood among them. The elder, William, rejoined his own people. Dur- ing the Wayne campaign, Wells, McClcllan and Miller were on a scont scarching for an Indian whom they could bring in captive to Wayne, who desired information. They came upon three Indians crouching about a fire. The agree- ment was made that Wells and Miller should fire at two of the Indians, while McClellan as they fired should dash in and endcavor to overthrow the third. The scheme succeeded. To the sur- prise of the party, after McClellan and the In- dian whom he had assaulted ceased struggling, the prisoner turned out to be Miller's brother Christopher. After a show of reluctance he joined Wayne's scouts and also acted as inter- preter.
Another one of the scouts was a man named May, who lost his life, however, as a result of a foolhardy expedition in which he was accom- panied by Wells, McClellan and another scout. From pure deviltry, dressed and painted as In- dians and speaking the Indian tongue, they 'rode into an Indian camp and began firing. When they had discharged their weapons they turned and ran, but May was captured bccause of an accident to his horse. He was recognized as having been a former adopted brother of their tribe and was shot to death the next day. The adventures of these spies seem numberless and Mr. King well says that "by their feats and hair- breadth escapes they became the very paladins of early Ohio romance."
Another expedient adopted by Wayne to mis- lead the Indians as to his plans was the cutting of roads in various directions which left the savages in complete uncertainty as to which road he was liable to take with his army. By such devices as these and the assistance of scouts and pioneers, he was able not only to learn with con- siderable accuracy the proceedings of his ene- mies, but to keep them uninformed as to his own intentions .. When he did move he moved with great celerity with troops in open order and ready for battle at all times and the scouts well out so as to avoid an ambush or surprise. He surrounded his camps at night by breastworks of fallen trees. , The Indians who watched his
march reported that he went twice as far in a day as St. Clair, and that he never slept. In order to deceive the Indians shortly after the affair of Fort Recovery, he turned his march to the westward as far as Girty's town at the cross- ing of St. Mary's River, 24 miles from Green- ville. Here he halted long enough to build a fort, which he called Fort Adams.
FORT DEFIANCE.
In July he turned to the eastward and marched seventy miles to the junction of the Auglaize and the Maumee, Here began the hos- tile Indian villages and here were their immense fields of corn stretching for miles. The savages had been taken by surprise and fled without offering fight. On August 8th, Wayne halted here and spent a week building a strong long stockade with four large blockhouses, which he called Fort Defiance. This point was within sixty miles of the British fort at the rapids of the Maumee, which Simcoe had erected in American territory as an outpost of Detroit. The erection of this fort had aroused Washington's indigna- tion and he called it the most open and daring act that the British had attempted, and Wayne's instructions were modified to the extent that if it became necessary to dislodge this garrison he should do so. The soldiers delighted in the im- mense quantities of fresh vegetables and roast- ing ears which they found in the Indian fields and for the time that they remained there they enjoyed a continuous feast. From Fort Defi- ance, Wayne sent a letter to the Indians offering to treat with them. This letter was carried by Christopher Miller and conveyed the warning that if Miller was injured Wayne would put to death seven Indian prisoners that he had with him. Wayne appealed to the Indians that "they should be no longer deceived or led astray by the false promises of bad men, nor shut their ears to this last overture for peace." He did not wait for an answer, but proceeded on his ad- vance towards the British fort, and on his way met his ambassadors returning with a request for delay. It seems Little Turtle was inclined to have the Indians accept the offer of peace. He had been alarmed at the sleepless vigilance of Wayne and the inability of his own spies to break the linc of American scouts.
THE BATTLE OF FALLEN TIMBERS.
On August 15th, the "Legion" moved forward towards the foot of the rapids and in the direc- tion of the British fort, which was constructed
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on the most approved principles of modern mili- tary architecture and was supplied with artillery and strongly garrisoned. Wayne himself was suffering from gout and sat his horse swathed in flannel. On his staff as aide was William Henry Harrison, who so feared the impetuosity of his chief when in action that he asked for orders in advance for fear they would not be given after the fight had been begun. The army itself was full of confidence, both in its own prowess and training and in its commander. It numbered about three thousand men, of whom two thousand were regulars. Opposed to them were the Indians, including the Miamis, Shawa- nees, Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippe- was, Pottawattamies and the Iroquois, between fifteen hundred and two thousand in number, and some seventy rangers from Detroit under Captain Caldwell. The scene of the battle was at a place called Fallen Timbers, because it was covered with a large number of dead forest trees which had been overturned by a whirlwind. It was in sight of the British fort. The Kentucky militia of mounted volunteers marched in front down the left bank of the Maumee. Next to the river on the right was the regular cavalry. The infantry were stretched in two long lines; at the left of the first line were the regular riflemen and light troops. The Indians were stretched in a long line for almost two miles, lying behind the logs and concealed by the woods and high grass.
As Wayne's force advanced they were re- ceived by a heavy fire which disconcerted for a moment the horsemen struggling over the trees. The first line of infantry with the other cavalry immediately came to their support. Their orders were to fire, charge and continue firing as they ran. They were to advance with trailed arms so as to arouse the savages from their cover before firing for the first time. At the first assault two captains in command of the squadron were shot down, but after the first charge of the militia the battle was over. The Indians delivered a volley and they were then poked out of their hiding places by the bayonets and as they fled they were shot down and driven so hard that they were unable to halt or reload. Only the first line of regulars was able to take part in the fighting, "there not being a sufficiency of the enemy for the Legion to play on." The entire action was less than forty minutes in length and more than one thousand Americans were en-
gaged in it. The cavalry and infantry scram- bled over the trees in full pursuit of the enemy and drove them two miles to the very walls of the fort. As they approached the fort, there were no signs of any relief being offered to the Indians by the English, who realized at last that their game was up. As in the past the English who goaded the Indians to desperation and pre- vented them from making peace deserted them when their aid was needed.
Wayne's loss in killed and wounded was a little over one hundred. It is supposed that the enemy's loss was more than twice as many. Many dead bodies were found on the field and the woods were strewn for some distance with them. It was denied that there were any white men assisting them. A number were found among the dead and one white ranger was cap- tured. Eight Wyandot chiefs were killed, and the defeat was the most severe ever inflicted upon the Northwestern Indians during the forty years fighting, of which it was the end.
Wayne took occasion after the battle, in com- pany with General Wilkinson and Lieutenant Harrison and several others of his officers, to approach the British fort closely and examine it critically. This led to a very ridiculous corre- spondence between him and Major Campbell, commanding the fort. Major Campbell wrote General Wayne on the next day "that an army of the United States of America said to be under your command have taken post on the banks of the Miami for upwards of the last twenty-four hours, almost within reach of the guns of this fort. Being a post belonging to his Majesty the King of Great Britain, occupied by his Majesty's troops, and which I have the honor to command, it becomes my duty to inform myself as speedily as possible in what light I am to view your making such near approaches to this garrison."
To this polite missive General Wayne respond- ed on the same day calling attention to the fact that his army was in the acknowledged jurisdic- tion of the United States but that he thought he might without breach of decorum observe "that were you entitled to an answer the most full and satisfactory one was announced to you from the muzzles of my small arms yesterday morning in the action against the hoards of savages in the vicinity of your post which terminated gloriously to the American arms." He further intimated that had the Indians been driven under the Eng- lish guns, the progress of his victorious army would not have been much impeded.
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Major Campbell on the following day replied that Wayne's letter fully authorized any act of hostility on his part but that he had forborne for two days to resent the insults to his flag by approaching within pistol shot with arms and that he did not desire to wage war with individu- als but that if Wayne's threatening manner con- tinued he should be obliged to have recourse to measures which would be regretted by thousands of both nations. Wayne's response was a de- mand that he should withdraw his troops, artil- lery and stores from the territory of the United States, Campbell referred Wayne to the ambas- sadors of the two nations and refused to with- draw until he had received orders from his su- periors. Wayne paid no further attention to Campbell but contented himself with destroying the traders' huts and all the Indian supplies and everything of value within view of the fort up to the muzzles of his guns. After spending three days in this work, he marched slowly up the river destroying corn fields for fifty miles on each side of the stream. Upon arriving at Fort Defiance he strengthened that post and then marched up the Maumee and to the confluence of the St. Mary and St. Joseph, which he reached on September 17th, where by the 22nd he had completed Fort Wayne which he left in charge of Major Hamtramck. Wayne reached Green- ville on November 2nd, and went into winter quarters. He had completed an arduous tour of 97 days during which they had marched upwards of three hundred miles through the heart of the enemy's country and had cut a wagon road the whole way and erected three forts. This campaign may well be credited as being the final and completing act in the winning of the West.
THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE.
The Indians began sending in messengers in- dicating their desire to make terms of peace. The English emissaries tried for a time to stir up a new confederacy but they were unsuccess- ful. The terrible shifts to which they were driven by the destruction of all their crops and stores made the hard winter very difficult for the Indians to bear. As a result arrangements were made for the gathering at Greenville in the sum- mer of 1795.
On Wednesday, July 15th, the council met at that fort for the purpose of concluding a treaty. There were present chiefs of the Wyandots, Del- awares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Miamis, Wabash and Pottawattamies. Wayne opened the pro- ceedings by reading his commission and stating
generally the preliminary requirements. On Saturday, July 18th, the council met again and Little Turtle responded. He expressed entire ignorance of the provisions of the treaty of Fort Harmar which the Indians had always main- tained had not been made with proper represent- atives of their race. Other chiefs stated that they had never heard of it. Finally on the 20th of July, Wayne read to them the treaty of Fort Harmar and explained its provisions and called attention to a number of chiefs present who had been present at the signing of the treaty. The speeches continued for a number of days, Little Turtle taking the leading part. Throughout the conference, the reluctance of the Indians to sur- render their lands was no more marked than the interference of the English. For example, the Crane spoke as follows : "I view you lying in a gore of blood. It is me an Indian who has caused it. Our tomahawk yet remains in your head-the English gave it to me to place there." On the 27th, Wayne read to them his proposed treaty and on the 30th he received the approval of all the nations present calling upon each in turn. The tribes again assembled on August 3rd, to receive the necessary copies of the treaty. A parchment copy was given to the Wyandots and a paper copy to each tribe. The speeches throughout the whole conference were remark- ably eloquent and characteristic of the manner of the Indians in such gatherings. A very large number of tribes were represented, there being not less than eleven hundred and thirty Indians present at the treaty grounds. Innumerable strings, belts and road belts, some white and some blue and some blue and white and some mixed and one with a man and a house upon it, another with nine white squares and in fact every possible variety of wampum strings were exchanged. The relationships of the various tribes to each other were commented on at length and the chiefs took great pains to explain their relative position in their communities. The United States on its part distributed a large num- ber of silver commemorative medals. The line agreed upon, which was afterwards marked by Ludlow, gave to the whites some twenty-five thousand square miles south of it between it and the Ohio. It began at a point on the Ohio River opposite the mouth of the Kentucky, running northerly to Fort Recovery and thence castward- ly to the upper Muskingum from which point it extended along the portage of the "Cayuhoga" to Lake Eric. West of the fine there were 16
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reservations each a few miles square including the one at Fort Wayne and that of the portage of the Maumee and Wabash near by, the one at the mouth of the Chicago River and the grant which Virginia had made to George Rogers Clark at Louisville. Mr. King in his history says: "To the bold spirit of Pitt, Earl of Chatham, it is due presumably that the people on the Mississippi Valley are not to-day Canad- ian French. Next in honor with. the people of the Northwest as among their founders might well be placed the lion hearted Anthony Wayne, who opened the glorious gates of the Ohio to the tide of civilization so long shut off from its hills and valleys." Again he says: "As a settler's guide to the Northwest the Ordinance of 1787 has been compared to the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. It might be added that it was by General Wayne and the treaty of Greenville that they were brought into a prom- ised land. Till then the Indians never for a moment relaxed their hold upon the Ohio so solemnly pledged to them at Fort Stanwix by the King with the acquiescence of the commis- sioners of Virginia and Pennsylvania. And never after that treaty to their honor be it remembered, did the Indian nation violate the limits which it established. It was a grand tribute to General Wayne that no chief or warrior who gave him the hand at Greenville ever again lifted the hatchet against the United States. There were malcontents on the Wabash and Lake Michigan who took sides with Tecumsch and the Prophet in the War of 1812 perhaps for good cause, but the tribes and their chiefs sat still. It was a year or more before the Western people could be- lieve there was peace. The Indians coming and crossing the line to hunt and trade, as the treaty allowed, assured them of it. "The siren song of peace and agriculture' in the figure of a Ken- tucky historian was heard through the land. Plowmen and churchgoers no longer carricd their rifles. Surveyors might now camp by the fire and sleep without hiding away from it, a luxury unknown to hunters and trappers afore- time. The vocation of the ranger and scout was gone. After twenty years of this daring life of border warfare these men generally poor and lit- tle used to farming or traffic beyond the mere bartering of their peltries were now to drop into insignificance or disappear among the new com- ers, with their dexterons arts of land speculating and money getting." (Ohio, pp. 261-263.)
Several things occurred during the negotia- tions to mar the tranquillity of affairs. Massie was contemplating the erection of a town on the Scioto which afterwards became Chillicothe. A number of people who were from Kentucky, who were removing because of the dislike of slavery, including Rev. Robert W. Findlay and others, being a party of sixty, while crossing the coun- try from Limestone to the Scioto in June, 1795, came upon the Indian encampment on Paint creek. The Indians were attacked but the next morning they fell upon the whites who were able to beat them off and escape to Kentucky. As a result the Indians, sixty or seventy Shawa- nees under Pucksekaw one of the chiefs, started on a raid towards the river. Wayne's complaint to Governor St. Clair that "if the real object of Parson Findlay and Mr. Massey and their party was to form a settlement on the Scioto they took a very improper mode to effect it by attacking and plundering the Indians who were in a peace- able hunting camp in place of gaining their friendship and confidence by acts of kindness and hospitality. This Mr. Findlay cannot be a disciple of the meek Jesus, otherwise he would not, thus wantonly bring war and desolation upon the innocent by the sinful aggressions of his guilty hordes of plunderers." (St. Clair Papers, . Vol. II, p. 375.)
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