USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Two > Part 33
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murdered by the hostile Indians. General Putnam, accompanied by the missionary Heckewelder, ap- pointed Assistant Commissioner by the War Depart- ment, reached Fort Knox where he met thirty chiefs, representing ten of the Wabash and Illinois tribes, who agreed to friendly relations with the government. Dur- ing the time extending from the summer of this year (1792) to the fall of 1793, many councils of more or less importance were convened, at Detroit, Au Glaize, Rapids of the Miami, Sandusky, Niagara and other points. The proceedings of these meetings, drawn out with lengthy debates and grandiose ceremonies, are found in the American State Papers, for Indian Affairs. At these gatherings, among the British representatives were Elliott, McKee, Simcoe and John Butler; the more conspicuous Americans were Benjamin Lincoln, Timothy Pickering, and Beverly Randolph. Brant, tactful and treacherous, Red Jacket and Cornplanter, advocates of peace, were the leading speakers for their people. The Americans sought the cessation of hos- tilities, but the retention of all rights under existing treaties. The tribesmen were divided in their desires, a few tribes, especially the implacable Shawnees, were for war to the knife, mostly the chiefs contended for peace, many wished to disregard the previous treaties of Stanwix and McIntosh, and demanded that the boundary line between the white and red men be "finally fixed at Ohio River." The British at first pretending passivity gradually revealed their hostile attitude, insidiously urging on the tribesmen to an
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offensive action, and becoming almost insolent in their expressions touching their policy toward the young Federal Republic.
The evidence of the bravado of the Canadian authori- ties is sufficiently set forth in an address of welcome to some tribal chiefs by Lord Dorchester on his return (February 10, 1794) from a visit to England. His words were: "Children since my return I find no ap- pearance of the line [boundary] remains; and from the manner in which the peple of the United States push on and act and talk, I shall not be surprised if we are at war with them in the course of the present year, and if so the line must be drawn by the warriors."
Furthermore the situation of the National govern- ment at this time was made still more delicate and critical by the active but clandestine policy of Spain towards the United States. The Spanish authorities, for reasons it is not our province to here explain, were inciting the southern tribes to warfare against the Americans, whose representatives were meeting in councils the Creeks, Cherokees and other nations, with the purpose of retaining the amicable disposition of those tribesmen. The proceedings of these meetings, reported in the American State Papers, disclose the crafty hand of the Spaniard. For instance, at Knox- ville, March, 1793, James Carey, an Indian interpreter, stated to William Blount, then territorial governor of the tract that later became the state of Tennessee, that the Cherokees, and allying southern tribes, were prepared to join the northern tribes in war against the United States, because of the "promised support of the Span- iards, the expected support of the British, and the
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victories obtained by the northern tribes over the armies of the United States." Moreover the southern Indians as well as the northern, were well aware of the inability of the American government, at this time, to finance an extended war.
The series of peace councils with the northern tribes reached its close. The tribesmen were not to be ap- peased, believing in their strength and relying upon British complicity, their voice was for a renewal of the hostilities. No other alternative was left the government but to once more unsheathe the sword- and that was to be the sword of the invincible Wayne.
CHAPTER XXIV. FALLEN TIMBERS AND THE GREENVILLE TREATY
T HE Americans, as we have seen, and as Albach tersely puts it, were not disposed to yield even to this "Hydra" of British, Spanish and Indian hostility. Washington, patient, persistent and wary, directed the preparatory plans of Wayne, who spent the summer of 1792, at Pitts- burg, where some twenty-five hundred men were enlisted and organized into companies of horse, foot and artillery. In the fall of this year the troops were moved twenty miles down the Ohio to Legionville, near the old historic Logstown, where temporary quarters were occupied until April, 1793, when they descended the Ohio to Cincinnati; the infantry and artillery going into camp at a point called "Hobson's Choice"-"because it was the only ground which was in any degree calculated for the purpose." The four companies of cavalry were sent over to a camp in Kentucky, "where," says King in his "Ohio" history, "bushwacking and charging through the woods and broken grounds on the Licking was prac- ticed all summer." Wayne in due time, considered his army sufficiently well drilled and disciplined to enter upon the campaign and in October he began his forward movement into the country of the enemy. He did not, however, proceed far before meeting his first decisive opposition, which in a letter to the Secre- tary of War, he calls "a little check to our convoys, which may probably be exaggerated into something serious by the tongue of fame." He had crossed the Great Miami some distance above the Four Mile Creek, where on October 17th, Lieutenant Lowry, in command of a detachment of some hundred men
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and twenty wagons, was attacked by Little Turtle, with a band of savages, at Ludlow Springs, about seven miles north of Fort St. Clair. Lieutenant Lowry was killed with some thirteen non-commis- sioned officers and privates. The exultant warriors carried off about seventy horses but left the wagons and camp stores standing in the road. Fort St. Clair, near where this incident occurred, is here mentioned for the first time and deserves descriptive mention. It was another advantageous link in the chain of secure stations to extend from the Ohio to the Maumee and was located nearly midway between Forts Hamilton and Jefferson. It was a small stockade military post, established by the orders of General Wilkinson, in January, 1792, after the latter's return from the scene of St. Clair's defeat. It was built by Major John S. Gano and during the erection, the sentinels, guarding the work, were under Ensign William Henry Harrison, at this time a youth of twenty, but so energetic and promising as to incur the jealousy of many officers. His first appearance in this campaign was with Wilkin- son in the latter's inspection of the scene of St. Clair's disaster. It was at this point, Fort St. Clair, in the Fall of 1792, that Little Turtle, the ubiquitous and unconquerable warrior, with a band of Mingoes and Wyandots, ambuscaded a company of Kentucky riflemen, under Captain John Adair, several of whose command were killed and wounded.
The fate of Lowry and his brave companions betok- ened to Wayne that his progress was to be contested by the enemy at every step of the way. He pushed doggedly on and took up winter quarters on the south-
ANTHONY WAYNE
Born in Chester County, Pa., January 1, 1745, died at Erie, Pa., December 15, 1796. One of the most brilliant generals in the American Revolution. Led the Western Army that finally conquered the Ohio Indian Confederacy at Fallen Timbers, August, 1794. Presided at the Green- ville Treaty a year later.
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HAYAT TVOHTVA
and, twenty
withnaillind and odtfto onder How Springs, about
sioned officers and .19SI MpeY S VISATT oliv Tife exultant warrior
carried off about horses but left the wagon and camp storms winding in the road. Fort St. Clair. near where ihls landet occurred, is here mentione for the first me und deserves descriptive mention It was al advantageous link in the chain of secur stations in suled from the Ohio to the Maumee and wat wwsled warty midway between Forts Hamilton and Jeffery Ii was a small stockade military pont otabiichod by the orders of General Wilkinson, Tx January, 1792, alter the latter's return from the scent of St. Clair's defeat. It was built by Major John S Gano and during the erection, the sentinels, guardini the work, were under Ensign William Henry Harrison ar this Girac a youth of twenty, but so energetic and pontuar as in bour the jealousy of many officer Ha SHI -wwur in the campaign was with Wilkn w in 15 birey isuselos of the scene of St. Clair' discen. It -a point, Fort St. Clair, in ali Fall of Love, thay Losle Turtle, the ubiquitous as un conquerable warrien with a band of Mingoes an Wyandots, embuscaded a company of Kentuck riflemen, under Captain John Adair, several of wh command were killed and wounded.
The late of Lowry and his brave companions berk- ened to Wayne that his progress was to be contested by the enemy at every step of the way. He pusho doggedly on and wol up winter quarters on the south
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west branch of the Stillwater, some six miles in advance of Fort Jefferson, where he erected a stockade of un- usual size and strength, twenty-five rods in length, and some twelve in width, enclosing fifty acres of land. The soldiers were sheltered in comfortable huts, and there were officers' quarters, a magazine, storehouses, etc. Every precaution was taken and all provisions secured for the safety and comfort of the men. This capacious post Wayne named Fort Greenville in honor of his old comrade in the Revolution, General Greene. It is now the site of the thriving city of that name. At this fortified encampment the exercising of the soldiers in active frontier warfare was continued during the winter of 1793-94. The troops were made familiar with all the devices known to backwoods warfare. Especially was every possible precaution taken to avoid being surprised, for Wayne was determined to avoid the fates of Braddock, Harmar and St. Clair, and he attached to his army a corps of most daring and expert scouts, spies and rangers, the latter, about forty in number under Captain Ephraim Kibby, being on foot. The spies, seven in number, were mounted, and were led by William Wells, the son-in-law of Little Turtle, and who had acted as scout for his father-in-law, the Miami chief, in the Harmar and St. Clair campaigns. Just how Wells now came to be with Wayne does not seem to be clearly recorded. The usually accepted story is that after the defeat of St. Clair, in which Wells killed several Americans with his own hand, his deeds preyed upon his mind, and thinking he might have slain some of his own kins- men, he resolved to abandon his Indian wife and half-
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breed children and return to his native people. The tradition continues that on the eve of his separation he invited Little Turtle to walk with him, and together they passed to an elevation on the banks of the Mau- mee, from which point the picturesque scenery up and down the river could be viewed in its mid-summer beauty. There Wells broke the news of his decision, saying, "My father, we have long been friends, but I now must leave you to return to my people, and we will remain friends until the sun reaches its midday height, and from that time on we will be enemies, and if you wish to kill me you may, and if I wish to kill you I may." They warmly embraced each other, "and the large tears coursed down the sun-bronzed cheeks of the chieftain, who was unused to manifesting emotion." Certain it is Wells deserted the Miamis and joined Wayne and served him with devoted loyalty. After the campaign he was reunited to his Indian wife and children but ever remained friendly and faith- ful to the American cause, for which he was finally slain, in 1812, at the Chicago massacre, by Indians, who ate the heart and part of the body of the renowned scout and high-minded man. His adventures, particu- larly those while scout for Wayne, are related in the "Biographical Sketches," by John McDonald, himself a spy in Wayne's army. Other daring scouts with Wayne were the brothers William and Christopher Miller, and Robert McClellan; the exploits of the latter are set forth at interesting length in the "Pioneer Biography" by James McBride, and in the entertain- ing autobiography of the Rev. James B. Finley.
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With these scouts, aided by a few Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians, the country was scoured in all directions and many Indian captives secured, from whom Wayne extracted much information concerning the movements and strength of the savage foe, and learned likewise of the activities of the British in behalf of the tribesmen. Meanwhile Wayne's wood choppers were cutting roads in various directions so as to deceive the Indians as to the route he expected to pursue. They were at loss to determine whether he intended to strike for the head of the Maumee, the Rapids, or the middle course down the Auglaize. From these deceptive maneuvers and stealthy tactics the Indians gave him the title of Sukachgook, the Delaware name for Black Snake.
On Christmas day (1793) a detachment, under Captain Alexander Gibson, sent forth by Wayne, took possession of the field of St. Clair's defeat. The previous burial work of Wilkinson had, necessarily, been only partially done and the bones of the slain he had interred had become in large part uncovered and exposed. The "American Pioneer" quotes a letter written by one present, to the effect: "Six hundred skulls, were gathered up and buried; when we came to lay down in our tents at night, we had to scrape the bones together and carry them out to make our beds." Here was erected a stockade called Fort Recovery, as significant of the American reoccupation of the ground, which was now properly garrisoned and placed under the charge of Captain Gibson.
The winter and spring (1794) gradually wore away and still Wayne delayed, waiting for the arrival of
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provisions and a thorough readiness before setting forth. Meanwhile the hordes of Little Turtle grew impatient and bold and under their intrepid leader advanced, in June, to make an assault on Fort Recovery which was then garrisoned by one hundred and fifty men, commanded by Major William McMahon. The warriors were estimated to be from one to two thousand strong, while Wayne in his report to Knox, says: "Certain facts and circumstances which amount almost to proof [show] that there were a considerable number of British and militia of Detroit mixed with the savages, in the assault." The fort was assailed on every side with great fury, the savages, though repulsed again and again with great loss, continued the siege for two days and the intervening night, but were ultimately compelled to retreat from the very field on which they had been so proudly victorious less than three years before. The American loss was twenty-two killed and thirty wounded. Simon Girty fought, with con- spicuous fearlessness, with the Indians, and Butter- field says it was the last battle against his own country- men in which he took an active part. The disastrous result of this assault was not only an unexpected reverse to the savages, whose loss was unusually great, but also to the British, who stood as sponsors to the move- ments of the tribesmen, for the British were not only redoubling their assistance to the tribes, supplying them with arms and munitions but were in their own behalf taking bold measures of offensive warfare. For it was at this time, April (1794), that under the orders of Governor Simcoe, three British companies, commanded by Colonel Richard England, proceeded
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to the foot of the Maumee Rapids and built a fort, a veritable stronghold on the left or northern bank of the Maumee, "an encroachment of nearly forty miles upon the American soil." This fortification, called Fort Miami, was thoroughly armed and garrisoned under the command of Major William Campbell, while only a mile and a half above the fort and near the river rapids was the British agency of Superintend- ent Alexander McKee, under whose management pro- visions and arms were distributed to the Indians. The British, as noted by Slocum in "The Ohio Country," also built another post twelve to fifteen miles within the American territory, situated on Turtle Island, just outside the Maumee Bay, twenty miles or so northeast from the Fort Miami.
At Fort Miami, as well as at Fort Lernoult, as the Detroit post defense was now called after its com- mandant, Lernoult, all movements of Wayne's army were promptly reported and precautions defensive were taken or operations offensive made accordingly, as if the advance of the American army was a campaign hostile to the British no less than to the Indian tribes- men. Certainly these martial movements, so open and flagrant, in violation of the peaceful treaties and relations then presumptively existing between England and the Republic, not only aroused the indignation of Washington, and the protest of Jefferson, but not a little alarmed the citizens of the country. At this time Mr. Jay was in London engaged in the treaty negotiations between American and England and to him Washington wrote concerning the Miami Fort episode: "Can that government, or will it attempt,
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after this official act of one of its governors, to hold out ideas of friendly intentions toward the United States, and suffer such conduct to pass with impunity? This may be considered as the most open and daring act of the British agents in America, though it is not the most hostile or cruel; for there does not remain a doubt in the mind of any well informed person in this country, not shut against conviction, that all the difficulties we encounter with the Indian-their hos- tilities, the numbers of helpless women and innocent children along our frontiers-result from the conduct of the agents of Great Britain in this country; in vain is it, then, for its administration in Britain to disavow having given orders which will warrant such conduct, whilst their agents go unpunished." etc.
To what extent the effrontery of the Canadian authori- ties represented the acquiescence, possibly the initia- tive, of the English government at London, is a question too discursive to our purpose. That the British home ministry had guilty knowledge, if not actual participa- tion in it all-as implied by Washington's letter to Jay-is clearly proven in the Canadian Archives and concisely stated in the authoritative pages of Justin Winsor's "Westward Movement."
On the 26th of July, General Charles Scott, with sixteen hundred mounted men from Kentucky, whither they had been sent to remain during the past winter, joined Wayne at Greenville and two days later the legion left its quarters and moved forward. It was a tedious progress for roads had to be cut, log bridges thrown across the streams and the swamps made pass- able by fillings of stubble, brush and timber. In five
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days the St. Mary's River was reached on the banks of which was built a small stockade thereafter known as Fort Adams. It was while directing the erection of this small fortress that a portion of a falling tree struck General Wayne nearly putting an end to his existence, as related in the diary of Lieutenant Boyer. A week later, August 8th, brought the army to the confluence of the Auglaize and the Maumee, a place which Boyer states "far excels in beauty any in the western country and believed to be equalled by none in the Atlantic states; here are vegetables of every kind in abundance and we have marched four or five miles in corn fields down the Auglaize and there is not less than a thousand acres of corn round the town." This location Wayne called "the grand emporium of the hostile Indians of the West." At this strategic point Wayne, without delay, proceeded to erect another strong and capacious log stockade, with four good blockhouses as bastions, which he christened Fort Defiance. It was here that began the string of Indian towns that extended along the banks of the Maumee to the Lake, "the margin of the beautiful Miami of the Lake [Maumee]" wrote Wayne, "appeared like one continued village for many miles." At the approach of the army the savages deserted their habitations and fled down the river.
From this Auglaize camp Wayne received full and accurate accounts of the strength and position of the Indians and the aid they would receive from the British. From here he also sent a final offer of friendship to the Indians, asking them to select deputies to meet him, "in order to settle preliminaries of a lasting peace" which might eventually restore to them their posses-
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sions on the Maumee and Auglaize and preserve their hapless women and children from danger and famine. He further warned them to "be no longer deceived or led astray by the false promises and language of the bad white men [British] at the foot of the Rapids." The chiefs asked ten days' delay for deliberation. But Wayne would waste no time in parleyings, his reply was an immediate forward march.
On the 18th the army had advanced forty-one miles from Fort Defiance, adown the river, "and began throwing up works wherein to secure and deposit the heavy baggage during the expected battle. The enclosure was called Fort Deposit. On this day, Boyer's diary reads: "May, one of our spies, fell under the enemy's hold; what his fate may be must be left to future success." What that fate was is told in the narrative of the captivity of John Brickell, as related by himself and published in the "American Pioneer." Scout May, in 1791, was taken prisoner at a settlement on the Allegheny River, by Delaware Indians under George Girty. The latter led Brickell, then a lad of ten years of age, to the Tuscarawas River. Thence he was carried to the region of the Maumee, where he was adopted by a tribesman named Whingy Pooshies -known as Big Cat-who must have been a most influential chief among his people for at the victory over St. Clair, his share of the spoils was "two fine horses, four tents, one of which was a noble markee, which," says Brickell, "made us a fine house in which we lived the remainder of my captivity." Brickell and his Indian captors were at the Rapids on Wayne's approach, and it was into the camp of Whingy Pooshies
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that May intruded and met his capture. Brickell, who says the captors knew May, for he had been their prisoner once before, then briefly relates the sequence. They told May: "We know you-you speak Indian language-you not content to live with us; to-morrow we take you to a tree-(pointing to a very large burr oak at the edge of the clearing which was near the British fort)-we will tie you up and make mark on your breast and we will try what Indian can shoot nearest it." It so turned out. The next day, the very day before the battle, the savages bound May to the tree, made a mark on his breast and riddled his body with bullets, shooting at least fifty into him. This ended poor May, the over-brave scout.
The overtures of peace proposed by Wayne were not accepted. A day or two before the battle, the chiefs held a council. Little Turtle was wise and advocated peace, for as he said, he saw certain defeat if they ventured battle, saying, "We have beaten the enemy twice under different commanders, we cannot expect the same good fortune always to attend us. The Americans now have a chief who never sleeps. The night and day are alike to him. During all the time he has been on our villages. Notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young men we have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is something whispers in my mind it would be well to listen to his offers of peace." But Blue Jacket and other chiefs were for war. Little Turtle then proposed a plan of battle, that he thought would win the day. It was for the savage army to be divided; one half to meet and hold Wayne in check but fall back, letting
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Wayne advance, while the other Indian wing should ford the Maumee in the night and ascend the south bank to Fort Deposit, take or destroy the supplies, then hasten along the north bank to the rear and left flank of Wayne's army. But Blue Jacket rejected the plan; they would boldly meet Wayne in front. In this decision doubtless Tecumseh the Shawnee warrior acquiesced.
On August 20th the advancing army reached the place on the river bank, near the British Fort, known as Fallen Timbers, because the land was strewn with the rows of dead trees of a former thick forest, over which a hurricane some two years previous had swept. The night before the encounter, the plan of battle was outlined by Lieutenant William Henry Harrison, then on the staff of Wayne. It was early in the morning when Wayne's columns confidently moved into line opposite the Rapids. The order of the advance as stated by Wayne in his subsequent official report was: "the legion on the right, its right flank covered by the Miamis [Maumee] one brigade of mounted volun- teers on the left, under Brigadier General Todd, the other in the rear, under Brigadier General Barbie. A select battalion of mounted volunteers moved in front of the legion, commanded by Major Price, who was directed to keep sufficiently advanced, so as to give timely notice for the troops in case of action, it being yet undetermined whether the Indians would decide for peace or war." We let Wayne's report in the American State Papers relate the succinct but authentic account of the battle: "After advancing about five miles, Major Price's corps received so severe a fire from
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