USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Extracts from the history of Cincinnati and the territory of Ohio, showing the trials and hardships of the pioneers in the early settlement of Cincinnati and the West > Part 12
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While engaged upon Fort Defiance the American commander received full and accurate accounts of the Indians, and the aid they would receive from the English and Canadian volunteers from Detroit and elsewhere, and considering the spirit of his troops, officers and men, regulars and volun- teers, he determined to march forward, and settle matters at once
Yet true to the advice given by Washington, he sent Christopher Miller, who had been naturalized among the Shawnees and had been taken prisoner on the 11th by Wayne's spies, as a special messenger offering peace.
Unwilling to waste time the troops moved forward on the 15th, and on the 16th met Miller returning with the message from the Indians to the effect that if the Americans would wait ten days at Grand Glaize they would decide
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for peace or war, to which Wayne replied only by marching straight on. On the 18th the legion had advanced forty-one miles from Grand Glaize, and being near the long looked for foe, began to throw up some slight works called Fort Deposit, wherein to place the heavy baggage during the expected battle. On that day five of Wayne's spies, among whom was May, the man who had been sent after Truman and had pretended to desert to the Indians, rode into the camp of the enemy; in attempting to retreat again his horse fell and he was captured. The next day, the day before the battle, he was tied to a tree and a mark was made over his heart and he was shot at as a target.
On the 19th the army still labored on the works. On the 20th at seven or eight o'clock, all baggage having been left behind, the white forces moved down the north bank of the Maumee; the legion on the right, its flank covered by the Maumee; one brigade of mounted volunteers on the left, under Brigadier-General Todd, and on the other in the rear under Brigadier- General Barbee. A select battalion of mounted volunteers moved in front of the legion, commanded by Major Price, who was directed to keep suf- ficiently advanced so as to give timely notice for the troops to form in case of action, it being yet unknown whether the Indians decided for peace or war.
During this time the chiefs of the several tribes in council discussed the question of peace or war; but having been successful against Harmar and St. Clair they were for war, except Little Turtle, who had command of the Indians against Harmar and St. Clair. He advised against going to battle, saying : "You have been successful twice, but you cannot always expect to succeed ; you have to fight an officer now who never sleeps; the night and the day to him are alike." They did not heed his advice.
After advancing about five miles Major Price's corps received so severe a fire from the enemy, who were secreted in the woods and high grass, as to compel them to retreat. The legion was immediately formed in two lines, principally in a close thick wood which extended for miles on its left and for a considerable distance in front, the ground being covered with old fallen timber, probably caused by a tornado, which rendered it impracticable for the cavalry to act with effect, and afforded the enemy the most favorable covert for their mode of warfare.
The savages were formed in three lines within supporting distances of
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each other, and extending to near two miles at right angles with the river. General Wayne in his official report says: "I soon discovered from the weight of their fire and extent of their lines that the enemy were in full force in front, in possession of their favorite ground and endeavoring to turn our left flank. I therefore gave orders for the second line to -advance and support the first, and directed Major-General Scott to gain and turn the right flank of the savages with the whole of the mounted volunteers by a circuitous route; at the same time ordered the front line to advance and charge with trailed arms and rouse the Indians from their coverts at the point of the bayonet, and when up to deliver a close and well directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge so as not to give them time to load again. I also ordered Captain Campbell, who commanded the legionary cavalry, to turn the left flank of the enemy next to the river, and which afforded a favorable field for that corps to act in. All these orders were obeyed with spirit and promptitude, but such was the impetuosity of the first line of infantry that the Indians and Canadian militia and volunteers were driven from all their coverts in so short a time that although every possible exertion was used by the officers of the second line of the legion and by Generals Scott, Todd and Barbee, of the mounted volunteers, to gain their proper positions, but part of each could get up in season to participate in the action; the enemy being driven in the course of an hour more than two miles, through the thick woods already mentioned, by less than one half their number. From every account the enemy amounted to two thousand combatants; the troops actually engaged against them were short of nine hundred. This horde of savages with their allies abandoned themselves to flight, and dispersed with terror and dismay, leaving our victorious army in full and quiet possession of the field of battle which terminated under the influences of the guns of the British garrison, as you will observe by the enclosed correspondence between Major Campbell, the commandant, and myself upon the occasion.
"The bravery and conduct of every officer belonging to the army, from the generals down to the ensigns, merit my highest approbation. There were, however, some whose rank and situation placed their conduct in a very conspicuous point of view, and which I observed with pleasure and the most lively gratitude, among whom I must mention Brigadier-General Wilkinson and Colonel Hamtranck, the commandants of the right and left
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wings of the legion. To those I must add the names of my faithful and gallant aids-de-camp, Captains DeButt and T. Lewis and Lieutenant Har- rison, who, with the Adjutant-General Major Mills, rendered the most essen- tial service by communicating my orders in every direction, and by their conduct and bravery exciting the troops to press to victory.
" We remained three days on the banks of the Maumee, during which time all the houses and cornfields were consumed and destroyed for a con- siderable distance above and below Fort Miami, as well as within pistol shot of the garrison (British), who were compelled to remain quiet spec- tators of this general devastation and conflagration, among which were the house, stores and property of Colonel McKee, the British Indian Agent and principal stimulator of the war now existing between the United States and savages."
On the 14th of September the army marched from Defiance towards Miami village at the junction of the St. Mary and St. Joseph, which it reached on the 17th, and on the 18th General Wayne selected a site for a fort. On the 22d of October the fort was completed and garrisoned by a detachment under Major Hamtranck, who gave it the name of Fort Wayne, now the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. During this period the army suffered much from sickness and want of provision-so much so that a pint of salt, it is said, was sold on the 24th of September for six dollars. On the 14th of October the mounted volunteers from Kentucky, who had become dis- satisfied and mutinous, were moved to Fort Washington and immediately mustered out of the service and discharged. On the 28th of October the legion marched from Fort Wayne to Greenville, where the General again established his headquarters.
During the month of June the representatives of the northwestern tribes began to gather at Greenville, and on the 16th of that month Wayne met the Delawares, Ottawas, Pottawattamies, and Eel River Indians, and the conference which lasted until the 10th of August commenced. On the 21st of June Buckingahelas arrived, and on the 23d the Little Turtle and other Miamis; on the 13th of July Tarke and c .ndotte chiefs, and upon the 18th Blue Jacket, with thirteen Shawnee's, and Masass with twenty Chippewas. The treaty then made is dated August 3, 1795, which closed the old Indian war of the west, which had lasted for six years. It was rati- fied by the Senate of the United States December 22, 1795. Thus ended
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one of the most remarkable campaigns in the history of our country, not only for the ability with which it was conducted, but also in its results. It gave peace to the Northwest, subdued an enemy that for many years had prevented the peaceful settlement and development of one of the most fertile territories then known to man, and established an empire in itself. The pioneers could now leave the block houses and forts, and clear and cultivate the land, and literally " turn their swords into plowshares, and the spears into pruning hooks," and live in peace under the banner of civil and religious liberty guaranteed by that greatest of ordinances-of 1787-ever penned by man. Cincinnati, then but a village of ninety-five log cabins, and ten or twelve rough log houses, was soon to become the centre of a lucrative trade of an extensive and fertile territory on every side-its population scarcely five hundred, and composed of a large number who only awaited the result of Wayne's campaign to determine whether they remain, return east, or seek homes elsewhere, where they would be protected from savage barbarity. Wayne's campaign decided the issue, and resulted in the assur- ance of their safety and the rapid settlement of the territory northwest of the Ohio.
From this period dates the history of Cincinnati as a business place. All the privations, hardships and dangers suffered by the pioneers they endured with a heroism unparalleled in the history of any country. They have passed away and lie in the burying-grounds and battle-fields of the west, but their works live after them.
" Illustrious men! though slumbering in the dust, You still are honored by the good and just. Posterity will shed a conscious tear, And pointing, say, 'There lies a pioneer.'"
The Cut of the First Presbyterian Church, page SS, represents it as it was when removed to Vine street, in 1814 instead of 1804.
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