Natives versus Settlers: The Big Bottom Massacre, January 2, 1791

An unfortunate rule of thumb in American history is that instances of Natives resisting trespassers on their hunting range are always called massacres, no matter the wrongs or the rights of the situation.  In the period of the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795), these incidents happened time and time again, with death and tragedy often accruing to both sides.

In the decades following the Revolution, the United States government opened more and more frontier land to settlement, particularly in the Ohio Valley.  Deeds to land companies and individuals were often vague and faulty, with the result that many settlers simply squatted on whatever parcel they happened to claim, hoping the mess would sort itself out eventually.  These individuals or small groups of settlers were the most vulnerable to Native attack.  One such land company, the Ohio Company of Associates, received a large grant of land along the Muskingun River.  The Company's main base was the town of Marietta, but settlers, whether affiliated with the Company or not, began to settle on pieces of land along the river.  In those days, the flood plain of a river was known as a bottom.  A group of 36 settlers had gone further east up the River and settled in one of these flood plains known as Big Bottom.

Their presence attracted the attention of bands of Wyandot and Delaware/Lenape Natives.  The Company leaders hoped to keep on good terms with the Natives and having squatters settle on Native hunting range was not the way to do it.  Word reached Col. William Stacy, whom we've already met at Cherry Valley.  Knowing the Natives would protect their land, in late December, 1790, he strapped on a pair of skates and made his way up the frozen Muskingum to warn his two sons, John and Phillip or Philemon and the other men that they were in harms way.  The settlers at Big Bottom were in process of building a blockhouse to protect the settlement, but it wasn't completed.  On January 2, 1791, a Delaware and Wyandot war party swarmed the partially-constructed blockhouse, killing 9 men, a woman and two children.  John Stacy was killed in the attack.  Phillip and three others were taken prisoner, with Phillip dying days later.  Other Settlers escaped into the woods. 

Attacks such as these convinced the United States government to take more of a hand in the Ohio Valley.  Congress authorized a large portion of land bordering the Ohio Company lands as a Donation Tract, a buffer zone between Native and Settler land claims.  However, squatters soon invaded this area, too.  There was nothing left to do but to expel the Natives permanently from their land, which they were forced to give up in the Treaty of Greenville, 1795. 

Places: Fort Recovery, Ohio

What to do when morale is still at a low ebb following one of the worst defeats of an American army at the hands of Natives?  To Mad Anthony Wayne, the answer was simple.  Build a fort on that very spot and give it an appropriate name, Fort Recovery.

And that's just what he did.  In November, 1791, a force under Little Turtle of the Miami and Blue Jacket of the Shawnee laid a devastating defeat on the forces of General Arthur St. Clair, which saw 933 soldiers and militia either killed, wounded or captured.  President George Washington was furious, and looked around for the right man to put the desire to fight back into a demoralized United States Army.  General Anthony Wayne was a Revolutionary War veteran who wasn't called mad for nothing.  In addition to strict training and discipline to get his men ready for the next battle, Wayne needed a staging area.  He decided to build a new fort on the site of the Battle of the Wabash and named it Fort Recovery. 

In June, 1794, Fort Recovery would weather its first attack.  On June 30, 1794, a supply column left Fort Recovery headed to Fort Greenville.  It was attacked by Blue Jacket's Shawnee, including a young warrior named Tecumseh.  The column returned to Fort Recovery.  That night, a scouting party under William Wells, who we've run across before, found out what the Shawnee had been up to.  British officers had been present with the Natives, though they took no part in the fighting.  They had brought cannon balls and powder but no cannon.  The Natives thought they would be able to salvage St. Clair's cannon, which the Natives had buried after the battle.  Little did they know that Wells, a son-in-law of Little Turtle, had tipped Wayne off to where the buried guns were located.  They were now dug up and safely inside the Fort.  The next day, July 1, 1794, the Shawnee attempted an assault on the Fort itself, but soon gave it up.

Fort Recovery was a reference point in the boundaries established by the Treaty of Greenville, in 1795.  In 1800, when Indiana Territory was separated from Ohio Territory, the Fort was again used as a reference, since it was then directly on the boundary.  However, when Ohio was admitted as a state, the boundary had been adjusted by two miles and the reference point was no longer needed.  This Fort, like others of the area, crumbled into disrepair and was ultimately abandoned.  In 1891, excavation began on the battle sites, recovering the remains of 1200 people.  They were reinterred in a memorial park in the town of Fort Recovery, Ohio.  In 1908, President Taft appropriated money for the building of a monument to those killed at the Wabash and in the attack on Fort Recovery.  An obelisk was erected and dedicated to their memory in 1913.  A reconstruction of the Fort exists today, administered by the Ohio State Historical Society, along with a visitor's center that shows dioramas and explanations of the battles.