USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and Its Centennial Celebration, Volume II > Part 35
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Ensign STEELE.
The letter to Clark is as follow:
HEAD QUARTERS, PITTSBURGH, 26th Nov. 1793.
SIR :-
You will immediately Embark the Detachment of Riflemen, now drawn out, taking with you four days' provisions, & land at Legion Ville, from thence (without attempting to exchange or to take any men from the detachment now there) you will proceed to big beaver block house taking along with you from this place two soldiers belonging to that Garrison who will serve as guides. Upon your arrival at the block house, if upon due enquiry you find that there have actually been Indians recently discovered in that vicinity you will order Ensign Steele to join you with one half his Garrison, & all the spies or scouts that may then be there, & endeavor to come up with & punish the savages for daring to come upon our frontiers, for which purpose you will proceed as far out as the salt licks-you can be supplied with provisions at the Block house.
If you meet with Capt. Sparks you will order him to join you. Should you not be able to make any discoveries of Indians-and that you find it has been a false alarm you will punish in the most exemplary manner those persons who occasioned it, or bring them prisoners to Legion Ville, to which place you will return in the course of a week with your own detachment, leaving Ensign Steele with his people at the Block house.
. You will inform Capt. Sparks that it is my positive orders that he
1 From the collection of manuscript letters of Wayne in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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shall return with you, & render an account to me of his conduct & proceedings
Wishing you success & happiness I am Sir
Your most Humbl Ser't ANT'Y WAYNE. I
Major JOHN CLARK.
The position selected by General Wayne for his winter camp on the Ohio below Pittsburg was, as may be seen by the passing traveler to-day, a perfectly ideal one. He himself, in a letter to General Knox, dated "Pittsburgh, Nov. 14, 1792," writes of it as follows:
I have made choice of an encampment on the bank of the river (from which all the Indians in the wilderness could not Dislodge us) with a fine level creek on the right flank which forms a secure harbour for our boats & an easy water communication, (provided we have water in the river) in fact it is the only spot in which the boats could possibly be secured from inevitable destruction by the ice for a considerable distance above Pittsburgh to that place, not a boat cou'd be saved at Pittsburgh or in its vicinity, such an idea was never contemplated at this place, the construction of the Kentucky boats being only calculated for the purpose of descending the river the same season they are built, & after the landing the families, sent adrift; those of the army are broke up for the use of the fort & Garrison so that this may be considered as the first attempt that has been made to save or secure one of those kind of boats over winter, in order to be used the next season. This
" As our knowledge of this early period is, at best, but scanty, every fragment that can be rescued from the past is of value: we have therefore copied from the collection of Wayne letters in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania the following which are of local interest :
"BIG BEAVER CREEK BLOCK HOUSE, Aug't 15, 02.
"SIR :- " As we have not more than three Days' Provisions at this Post-I have sent A Corp'l & four men up with a Canoe To bring down whatever Quantity of provisions you should Direct- "The spys are twice a week out have never made any Discoveries of any Indians on the frontiers since I came down So I Remane
" Your sincere friend & Humble Servant JOHN STEELE, Ensign.
"To A. WAYNE, Command. In chief of the Troops of the U. S."
"HEAD QUARTERS, PITTSBURGH 3d Nov. 1792.
" SIR. " I have received your letter of the ad instant, and am pleased to learn the good state of your command with regard to health, and with your conduct in practicing your men to fire at marks.
"There is herewith sent you fifty pounds weight of rifle powder, and half that quan- tity of lead, together with the paper you require.
" I am Sir Your hunh'l Ser''t ANT !! 'Y WAYNE.
Ensign STEELE, Big Beaver."
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we shall effect but with a good deal of labour & some expense in repairing them, however this shall be done & everything in readiness to descend the Ohio at an early period in the spring, by which time I most ardently hope the Legion will be compleated to its full compliment.
In November he broke camp at Pittsburg and transferred the army to Legionville, and the animated scenes in connection with his departure are indicated in the two following extracts from letters written by Major Craig.ª In a letter to Samuel Hodgdon, Q .- M .- General, dated November 9, 1792, he writes:
This morning a detachment of the troops and the artificers, with the necessary tools for building, set off for the winter ground below Logstown, on the Ohio; in a few days the whole army will follow.
On the 30th of the same month he writes to General Knox:
This morning, at an early hour, the artillery, infantry and rifle corps, except a small garrison left in Fort Fayette, embarked and descended the Ohio to Legionville, the cavalry crossed the Allegheny at the same time and will reach the winter ground as soon as the boats. As soon as the troops had embarked, the General [Wayne] went on board his barge, under a salute from the militia artillery corps of this place, and all have, no doubt, before this time, reached their winter quarters.
In his new camp at Legionville, as at Pittsburg, Wayne con- tinued the work of turning his raw recruits into a compact and efficient army. His labors were unceasing by day and by night, for his men were totally inexperienced, and even his officers were for the most part without military training. The frightful defeats of Harmar and St. Clair had unnerved the soldiers, and the very bravest could not look forward to an encounter with the savages without foreboding; the commander had therefore not only to give his troops the training of soldiers, but he had also to lift them from despondency and inspire them with the confidence of victory against a capable and ruthless enemy. He had, moreover, to perform all these arduous duties while suffering from a malady that seriously threatened to cut him off at any moment. That he faced death in his tent as calmly as ever he did on the field of battle, and that in the midst of
1 From the Ferdinand J. Dreer collection of manuscripts in the possession of the His- torical Society of Pennsylvania. The creek mentioned in this letter is marked on Leet's survey of 1785 as Logstown Run (see map p. 973); about 1840 it is called "General Wayne's Run " (Road Docket No. 1, p. 433).
" Craig's History of Pittsburgh, page 215.
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his military preparations he found leisure to think of his loved ones at home and provide for their future, will appear from the following letter, written from Legionville, December 28, 1792, to his brother-in-law, Captain William Hayman of Chester County, an officer of the Revolutionary navy, who married Wayne's sister:
DEAR SIR :-
It's now seven months since I left Waynesborough without having received a single line, either from my own family or you-you may reply that this is the first from me-true, but that's not the case with Mrs. Wayne-besides, every moment of my time is absorbed in public business. The defence of a portion of upwards of one thousand miles, and in providing for and disciplining a new army who have yet to learn the dreadful trade of Death.
You have undoubtedly had rumors of a general peace with the In- dians, but the contrary is the fact; in the western country it is serious war.
However, neither war nor politics were the motives of this letter. I will therefore come to the point. When I parted with you you had the goodness to promise to see that satisfaction was entered upon all judg- ments obtained in the Supreme or other courts against me. Is that business done? I have very recently had a serious caution to be prepared for an awful change, and my monster still continues to visit and warn me of its approach.
I have had a most serious and an alarming attack from a violent lax and bilious vomiting, nor has it been in the power of the physicians to check it, but as I have some knowledge of my own constitution I have peremptorily insisted upon taking an emetic which they assured me was both improper and dangerous to the last degree in my present weak condition. However, I have found considerable relief from it, and by the aid of barks, which I have also taken contrary to their opinion, I have the tone of my stomach altered for the better, yet I am very weak and rather more reduced than when I first arrived with the army from Georgia in 1783.
Notwithstanding, I have almost every fair day been able to ride for one or two hours at a time to direct our redoubts and chain of defences which are so far perfected that all the Indians in the wilderness could not force them.I
But as life 's uncertain and mine at this time rather more so than usual, I wish to settle the property I may leave behind me so as to pre- vent any litigation after I am gone hence, for should I survive this attack, my breast is not bullet-proof, nor can I step a single foot aside to shield it. Therefore, I pray you let me know what you have done in the pre- mises as soon as possible.
1 See on page 1003 plan showing remaining intrenchments of this camp; also note on page 1002.
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My best-perhaps last-and kindest love and wishes to my dear old mother, sisters and friends, and believe me to be with sincere esteem Your affectionate humble servant
Captain WILLIAM HAYMAN
ANTHONY WAYNE.
(Addressed)
Captain William Hayman in Willistown, Chester County.
Per favour of Sharp Delany, Esq.1
Despite his physical weakness and suffering, Wayne kept at work, and soon had his camp so strongly fortified, and the morale of both officers and men so much improved, that the soldiers began to look forward with exultation instead of dread to meeting the savages. This result was not attained without an exercise of the sternest discipline, as will be seen by any one who reads his orderly books, the greater portion of which is taken up with the record of courts-martial .? Much criticism was directed against the commander for this severity, especially for the execution of Sergeant Trotter at Pittsburg before the army was moved down to Legionville, but when the character of the material with which he had to work is considered, the men being as a rule of the same sort as those who had served under Harmar and St. Clair, and the defeats of those generals being largely due to the want of just such discipline in their forces as Wayne insisted upon, his course seems to be justified. Though severe, he was kind, and the devotion shown toward him by the troops during the campaign which followed proves that they finally realized that he was their friend.
Life at Legionville was not all dull routine, but was enliv- ened by sham fights and reviews, and the exercise, among the officers at least, of the graces of hospitality and the arts of oratory. In illustration of this we cannot forbear to quote from Craig, though it is rather long, a graphic description by an eye-witness of a general review and jollification held there on
' From the Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 27, 1895; original owned by Mr. Francis M. Brooke.
" The lash was freely used in punishment of wrong-doing. We have read in the orderly books of many sentences in which it was prescribed in allopathic doses. The following note found among the papers of Major Craig is significant:
"LEGIONVILLE, Feb. 22d, 1793.
" Major Craig, please send down some whip cord for cats,-they have no cats to whip men with.
JOHN FINLEY." History of Pittsburgh, p. 216. The writer was Captain Finley, a soldier in the Revolu- tion and at that time Assistant Quartermaster.
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Washington's birthday in 1793, the order for which we have recently seen in the Orderly Book ' of Justus Gibbs, an officer in the Legion, and which reads as follows:
HEAD QUARTERS,
LEGIONVILLE, the 19th February 93.
Fryday the 22d instant being the anaversary of the Pres- ident of the U. States birth Day the Review of the Legion is further Postponed ontil 10 o'Clock of that morning when it is expected that every individual will appear in the true Caracter of a Soldier which is in Sepperable of that of Gentleman.
We now give the account of the display referred to, written by one who signed himself "Spectator":
LEGIONVILLE, February 24.
The 22d instant, being the anniversary birth day of the PRESIDENT of the United States, Major-General Wayne, commander-in-chief of the American army, issued the following orders for a general review in honor of the day. The Legionary corps consisting of cavalry, artillery, infantry and corps of riflemen.
HEADQUARTERS, LEGIONVILLE, Feb. 20, 1703.
The Legion will be reviewed the day after to-morrow, at 10 o'clock A.M., when every soldier capable of doing duty, must appear as a soldier ought to do, and for which the respective officers will be accountable.
The cavalry, artillery and infantry will march in two columns; the right platoon in front of the right and the left platoon in front of the left. The artillery and cavalry equally divided in front and rear of each column. The guards for the redoubts No. 1 and 2, will form the van and rear-guards of the right column. Those of No. 3 and 4 will be the van and rear-guards of the left column. When the columns display, the cavalry, artillery, van and rear-guards attached to the right column will form on the right, those attached to the left column will form on the left. The right wing of rifle corps will march in open files, forming a column of flankers to the right-the left wing of rifle corps will march in the same order, forming a column of flankers on the left, and will form to the left. The signal for marching will be a gun from the park of artillery.
The Legion were drawn up on their usual parade, and took up the line of march as directed in the orders for the day, strongly flanked by the rifle companies, and gained a commanding eminence some dis- tance in front of the grand cantonment, drew up in form, and preserved the utmost regularity throughout the whole of their manœuvres. Each officer and soldier appearing in perfect military dress.
" This book from which we give several extracts in the text is in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The first page is thus inscribed "JUSTUS GIBBS-HIS ORDERLY BOOK, COMMENCING JANUARY IST, 1703, LEGIONVILLE." This officer was neither a good scribe, nor a good speller, and his sins in grammar and orthography when tran- scribing orders must not be laid to the charge of Wayne, who was generally pretty accurate and always strong as a writer of English.
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Considerable time took place in going through the various evolutions and firings, highly pleasing to every spectator.
The legion formed in two columns as before, with the artillery and ammunition wagons in the centre, continuing their march to the left, previous to which, a considerable number of infantry and rifle-men were detached, with orders to possess certain strong grounds, in front of the line of march, when, on the approach of the columns, a brisk engagement took place, and soon became general, bearing with it much the ap- pearance of a real action for upwards of 20 minutes, owing to the inces- sant peals of cannon and musketry.
The columns having formed a hollow square, the cavalry in the centre, whence they sallied forth, and with the light troops made a brisk charge and terminated the engagement, which was obstinately maintained in every direction.
The firings having ceased, the legion regained the grand parade, and having formed the line in front discharged three times with their usual regularity. The artillery were then advanced in front of the line and commenced the federal salute of three times fifteen shells from howitzers, highly delightful to behold in their ranges, and explosions in the air, each re-echoing the day so estimable in the remembrance of each patriot citizen and soldier.
About three o'clock in the afternoon the legion returned to their cantonment in the same manner they marched off in the morning, and on being drawn up on their accustomed parade the commander-in-chief passed in review and received the salute of the line. The troops being dismissed, the General gave all the officers off duty the polite invitation of dining with him, at which agreeable interview hospitality presided, and brotherly love pervaded the whole. The dinner being ended, the following patriotic toasts were given:
I. The PRESIDENT, and the day-May he see many happy returns of it.
2. May our meeting with the savages produce conviction to the world, that the American Legion are the only troops proper to oppose them.
3. The American Fair .- May the legion at all times merit their smiles.
4. The memory of those heroes who fell in defense of American liberty.
5. The American Legislatures-May their laws be founded in wisdom, and obeyed with promptitude.
6. The non-commissioned officers and privates of the late army and of the present legion.
7. The nation of France-May her arms be triumphant and her liberty permanent.
8. Our friend and brother La Fayette-May a generous nation for- give his errors (if any) and receive him to her bosom.
9. The land we live in-May America prove a secure asylum to the unfortunate.
Thus ended the day with the most hilarity and good order through out the whole army, and in the evening brilliant fire-works were exhibited in the artillery park.1
1 History of Pittsburgh, pp. 217-20.
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We shall now give a number of extracts from Gibbs's Orderly Book. The strict order that was maintained in and around the camp at Legionville will appear from these extracts, and it will be seen also that Wayne had, for his day, a most remarkable hatred for intemperance, confining the use of intoxicating liquors to the smallest possible allowance. Thanks to the les- sons of sobriety and self-control and the steady drill in marks- manship which he gave them, his men, at first unpromising enough, developed into as fine an army as any general could wish to command.' In his own fashion Gibbs enters an order as follows:
HEADQUARTERS
LEGIONVILLE the 4th of March 93.
The Dangerous and fatal Consequences that may result from so fre- quent and Disorderly practice of firing in the Vicinity of Camp can no longer pass with impunity as it has a Direck tendency to Lul the Guard and Sentery in a State of Security in the very arms of Danger and of Which an artful and Savage Enemy will most Certainly avail themselves when lest expected nor Should any non commissioned officer or Soldier be suffered to pas the guards or Sentinals or over the river with fire arms in their hands upon any Pretence what ever without a written permit from Headqrs. The Respective officers of the Day & Guards will be held Responsible for the Due Execution of this order.
But if "disorderly firing" was prohibited, the greatest im- portance was attached to regular practice in shooting. Another order reads:
HEADQUARTERS LEGIONVILLE March 7th, 1793.
an Object which the Commander in chief has much at hart is to teach the Soldiers to become expert marksmen so that on all occa- tions they may Be Enabled to place their Shot In a Deadly Direction and to convince the world that they are superior in action than all the Savages in the Wilderness-he therefore Directs and Orders that the first and Second Best Shot at Each Days Practice of the Guards shall Receive the following premiums (Viz.) the first one pint and the Second one half Pint Whisky aGreable to the Principles mentioned in orders of the 25 August 1792. All and every Discription of Daily Guards are to assemble on the Grand Parade Immediately after being Relieved their
' In The Winning of the West (Part V., p. 203) Mr. Roosevelt says :
"The perfection of fighting capacity to which he had brought his forces caused much talk among the frontiersmen themselves. One of the contingent of Tennessee militia wrote home in the highest praise of the horsemanship and swordsmanship of the cavalry, who galloped their horses at speed over any ground, and leaped them over formidable obstacles, and of the bayonet practice and especially of the marksmanship of the infantry. He remarked that hunters were apt to undervalue the soldiers as marksmen, but that Wayne's riflemen were as good shots as any hunters he had ever seen at any of the many matches he had attended in the backwoods."
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to form and march under the officer of the Day with the musick of the Legion to the Summit of the Hill in front and Practice under his Enspec- tion and to march back in the same order to the Grand Parade and then to be Dismissed which is to be Considered as a standing order.
Wayne was of Irish descent, and was a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick (an Irish-American, not a Catholic society), and he gave due respect to the day sacred to the memory of the saint, as appears from the following order of March 16th:
as our Continuance upon this Ground will be for a Short period it will be only Lost Labour to proseed in Gardening and fencing-the Officers will turn their whole attention to the Disapline and manover the troops and to the Immediate Repiration of the Clothing armes and ac- cuterments of the Respective Companies or Detachments wich they are hereby most pointedly Enjoined to attend to with out Remission-on the twenty fourth Inst. that is to-morrow a week every non Commis- sioned officer and private Soldier must appear on parade with Blue [clothes?] the Respective officers will Be Responsable for the Compliance of this Order the commissary will Issue one Gill Whisky to Every non Commissioned officer and Soldier actually on Perade or Guard to-morrow in honor of Saint patrick who being a holy and a Good man the Com- mander in chief hopes and trusts that his sons will not disgrace his mem- ory by any unsoldierly or Disorderly Conduct
That the commander's wishes were gratified we learn from another source. Towards the close of March he writes:
The progress that the troops have made both in manœuvreing and as marksmen astonished the savages on St. Patricks day; and I am happy to inform you that the sons of that Saint were perfectly sober and orderly, being out of the reach of whiskey, which BANEFUL POISON is prohibited from entering this camp except as the component part of a ration, or a little for fatigue duty or on some extraordinary occasion.1
Continuing our quotations from Gibbs's Orderly Book we have the following:
HEAD QUARTERS, LEGION VILLE, 11th Feb. 1703.
Drunkenness is Considered by the Commander in Chief as the Cardinal Crime which introduces almost every other Vice which is the Common Cause that Intimates and Induces the soldiers to violate the rules and articles of War which is always attended with every Disagree- able & often fatal Consequences and as there is nothing so repugnant and distressing to the feelings of the Gen'l as to be reduced to the neces- sity of punishing a soldier he therefore calls seriously upon every Indi- vidual belonging to the U. S. Legions to be Guarded against that Vice
1 Major-General Anthony Wayne, by Charles J. Stille. p. 324.
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which both from Duty as well as inclination to check & punish without favour or partiality to any-and as a first step to Guard against it-
The Q. M. and officers Commanding Companies and Detachments will not permit any Man to receive more than a single ration per Day which they are to receive regularly in future on parade every morning after revelee. All and every soldier who does not appear in parade in one time unless on Guard or whose arms or amunition are not in perfect order shall forfeit that part of the Dayly Ration for each & every neglect or Default in Addition to such other punishment as may be inflicted upon them to be disolved from the Comp'y or Detachment fatigue. And fur- thermore for the more thorough preservation of order & Discipline no Merchant or Storekeeper shall furnish any non commissioned officer or soldier or follower of the army any article whatever after tatoo in the evening, or before twelve in the morning.1
There is a tradition that on one occasion, when a distiller on Crow's Island, opposite the camp, had sold liquor to some of the soldiers, Wayne sent a solid shot dangerously near the distillery as a warning of what punishment a repetition of the offense would bring to the culprit, and in the old orderly book from which we have been quoting we find the following instance of the enforcement of the order in question:
HEAD QUARTERS, LEGIONVILLE Jan. 10th, 1793 Officer of the day to-morrow from the Infantry Agt. Vance.
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