The Gloomiest Battle in the American West's History

On October 4, 1781, Governor St. Clair led an army of untrained forces from Cincinnati northward.  St. Clair made no secret of his plans nor did he protect his men from ambushes.  They made their way slowly through the deep forests, chopping down their own path, making only five or six miles a day.  The weather was good, game was plentiful, but the men were not content and desertions were a daily occurrence.  The men only made $2 a month and most men had no taste for Indian warfare, so their commander's threats did little to maintain order.

In November,  the remaining 1400 men camped on the eastern banks of the Wabash River, 100 miles north of Cincinnati near the Indian border.  In the early hours of November 4th, masses of Indians surrounded the troops giving them little chance of victory.  St. Clair called for his men to save themselves as best as they could.  Half of St. Clair's men were killed, less than 500 survived without injury and the remainder retreated starving and disheartened. 

The battle was one of the gloomiest defeats in the history of the West.  St. Clair's character and courage allowed him to be exonerated, but he resigned his military command but retained the governorship.

The situation went from serious to desperate.  The British along with aiding the Indians, invaded the disputed country and built a stockade at Fort Miami near the present site of the city of Toledo.  The Americans were once again told that "the Ohio will remain the boundary line between us." 
The new western campaign needed a new commander.  Washington's first choice was "Light Horse Harry" Lee, but the final assignment went to one "Mad" Anthony Wayne.

Next time...Mad Anthony Wayne
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On March 14, 1814, Albert Einstein is born as the son of a Jewish electrical engineer in Ulm, Germany. Einstein's theories of relativity greatly altered man' view of the universe, and his work in energy helped modernize our lives.

You Will Not Plant Corn North of the Ohio

One of the serious obstacles in the Ohio country was the Indian population.  Most of the tribes had been pushed northward to the Miami, Scioto, and Wabash Rivers.  The Treaty of 1785 was designed to keep them there.  It was unrealistic to think that such an arrangement would last unless backed up by force. 

The Indian villages were in the swamp forests of northern Ohio and Indiana.  They were pretty squalid and they fostered bitterness and rebellion among the tribes.  Their hunting grounds were slipping away and they saw their cession of land as one of fraud by the Americans.  "White men shall not plant corn north of the Ohio" became their rallying cry.

There were seven or eight fortified posts still held by the British in the north and west.  Detroit was one of them.  There the British systematically encouraged the Indians to aggressively resist any American advance.  The  British wanted the Indians to help protect their rich fur trade for one thing.  Ammunition and supplies were given as well as gifts - all used with deadly effect against the Ohio frontiersmen.

By 1789 the situation was serious, so Washington called for the nation to prepare for the first war since independence.  Militiamen from Kentucky and Pennsylvania gathered in Fort Washington (Cincinnati) in 1790 under General Josiah Harmar.  The goal was an expedition north against the Miami.  The troops reached the Maumee country on the site of present day Fort Wayne where they destroyed Indian huts and burned a great quantity of corn.  It wasn't enough as the militia was forced to retreat against overwhelming odds.  They gained nothing but experience (which they needed), but it did stir the Indians to more aggressive means and they followed Harmar's men closely as they retreated.

Governor Arthur St. Clair was replaced as commander and promised 2000 troops for six months, trained for ambush and surprise attacks.  Again everything went wrong from troops gathered from prisons and the streets, to supplies being grossly inadequate.  St. Clair, however, was a man of honest intentions, but he was old and in poor health.  He also had a limited military ability.  On October 4, 1791 he led his untrained men from Fort Washington  northward once again to conquer the Ohio country.

Next time...St. Clair's Expedition
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Today in Pioneer Pieces History:  "On March 11, 1818, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus is published by 21 year old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.  It is frequently called the world's first science fiction novel (101 years ago) where a scientist animates a creature constructed from dismembered corpses.