Friday Reprise: Little Turtle of the Miami

We've already discussed Buckongahelas and I intend to do a more lengthy post on Blue Jacket, but today we're looking more closely at the third member of the Native command team at the Battle of the Wabash.  Michikinikwa (c-1747-1812), was considered to be one of the foremost Native commanders of his day, along with Buckongahelas and Dragging Canoe.  He was born near what is now Whitley County, IN, the most likely place being a village near present-day Chorobusco, IN.  His tribe, the Miamis, had nothing to do with Miami, Florida.  That city was named for another Native tribe in the Southeast, also called the Miamis.  We'll get to Florida's extinct tribes later.  Michikinikwa grew up to be a strong men, well over six feet tall, who disdained alcohol.  Although the most famous portrait of him is the one with no adornment on his head, those who described him said that he loved to wear silver ornamentation, so I've included both images here.

Michikinikwa earned his rank as war chief by defending his people during the Revolutionary War.  In October, 1780 a force of French allied with the Americans and commanded by French adventurer Aguste de la Balme plundered the principal Miami village of Kekionga, near what is now Fort Wayne, IN.  Michikinikwa raided la Balme's camp in retaliation, killing him and several of his men.  He led raids against American settlements in Kentucky, working on behalf of the British.  After the Revolutionary War ended, the Americans began to divide off the land of the Northwest Territories to sell for much needed cash. The Miami banded with the Shawnee, the Lenape/Delaware and several other Indian tribes in what became known as the Western Confederacy to try to enforce the Ohio River as a boundary between White settlement and Native territory.  Michikinikwa soon emerged as a leader of this Confederacy and one of the Native leaders of the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795), which became known at the time as Little Turtle's War. 

As we discussed yesterday, Brig. Gen. Josiah Harmer was the first to feel the weight of the Natives' wrath in two separate defeats.  But the war would get even more personal for Michikinikwa.  In August, 1790, his daughter was captured in a raid by James Wilkinson.  The Natives won a stunning victory at the Battle of the Wabash in November, 1791, the most punishing defeat ever suffered by United States forces at the hands of Natives.  In October, 1792, Michikinikwa planned another raid to mark the Wabash anniversary, which showed the Americans that some of their advance forts in Ohio were indefensible.  But Michikinikwa realized that they'd met their match in General "Mad" Anthony Wayne in 1794, and counseled caution.  He gave up his role in the central command of the Native forces, but still led the Miami contingent at Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794.  One of the factors inducing him to caution might have been the fact that his White son-in-law, William Wells, whom he'd been genuinely fond of, changed forces and began scouting for the United States.

The ceremonial signing of the treaty of Greenville was tragic in several ways.  Not only was the Natives alliance broken, but Michinikinikwa's wife died the day of the ceremony.  The American forces gave her a military funeral in respect for a powerful enemy.  After the war, Michikinikwa continued to counsel cooperation with the Americans.  He met with George Washington, who presented him with a ceremonial sword.  He also met with Thomas Jefferson and agreed to allow Quaker missionaries onto Miami land to teach the Miami farming.  He suffered a humiliating break with his own people during negotiations with William Henry Harrison, when other Miami leaders refused to sell any more land to the Whites.  Harrison stated that Michikinikwa was no longer considered a Miami.  Michikinikwa retired to a village near what is now Columbus, IN, but in 1809, this village was among those that Harrison ordered destroyed, forcing the old man to uproot again.  He died at the home of his son-in-law, William Wells, in 1812, suffering from gout and rheumatisim.  A statue and a plaque mark his grave.

Friday Reprise: Buckongahelas of the Delaware, 1720-1805

Buckongahelas (c 1720-1805) was a war leader of the Delaware/Lenape people.  The Lenni Lenape are an Algonquian-speaking people whose name for themselves translates as 'pure man'.  Settlers called them Delaware, because their original home range was along the Delaware River, including parts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.  Buckongehalas was born somewhere in present-day Delaware, but would live to see his people pushed into the Ohio River Valley by advancing settlement.  His known family included a son, Mahonegon, who was killed by a settler in 1773. 

Buckongahelas was already a noted warrior by the time of the French and Indian War (1755-1763), where he took the side of the Settlers against the French.  Sources conflict as to whether he was a titled chief, or a war leader.   Either way, he was a fierce opponent in battle and his enemies, Native or European, did not take him lightly.  During the Revolutionary War, he sided with the British against the Americans.  He broke away from a larger band led by White Eyes, and moved his followers closer to the village of Blue Jacket, a Shawnee leader.  The two men became close friends and allies in war.  A number of Lenape had converted to Christianity and lived at the Moravian mission village at Gnadenhutten in Ohio.  Buckonghelas told them that the Settlers would have no regard for the fact that they were Christians and would kill them anyway.  He urged these vulnerable Delaware to leave with his band.  They refused and in March, 1782, most of these Natives were killed in the Gnadenhutten Massacre.

After the Revolution, Buckongahelas joined his Shawnee allies in several skirmishes aimed at repelling American settlement into the Ohio Valley.  These clashes led to the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795).  Eventually, the Americans prevailed, forcing the British to leave the Ohio Valley.  American forces now occupied the home territory of the Shawnee, the Lenape and their allies, and the conflict continued.  His warriors, along with Blue Jacket's Shawnee and Little Turtle's Miami, were present at the Battle of the Wabash, on November 4, 1791, where they inflicted a decisive defeat on American General Arthur St. Clair, who lost 600 men.  This battle was the most devastating military defeat suffered by American forces at the hands of Native Americans up to that time.  Nevertheless, the Americans rallied and defeated the Native alliance at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, 1794.  Buckonghelas was among those leaders who signed the Treaty of Greenville I 1795, and the Treaty of Vincennes in 1804, seeking to preserve his people's Ohio Valley homeland against further White encroachment. 

Buckonghelas lived out his final years near what is now Muncie, Indiana.  He died in 1805 from either smallpox or influenza.  Some of the Delaware believed that the illnesses, whatever they were, were brought on by witchcraft and executed a few of their own.  The despair and sense of defeat of the Delaware and the other peoples in the Ohio Valley led to the rise of the Shawnee Prophet and Tecumseh, who would try again where Buckongahelas and White Jacket had left off.  Although there are no likenesses of Buckongahelas, he was described as being 5' 10" and a strong, powerfully-built man.  A statue of him cradling the body of his dying son was erected in a park in Buckhannon, West Virginia, commemorating his assistance to the settlers during the French and Indian War.

(This entry first appeared in May, 2016).

  

Great Warrior: Matchekewis of the Ojibwe

Matchekewis first appears in the historical record in 1763 in the windup to Pontiac's Rebellion, when he and other Native leaders besieged Fort Michilimackinac and took it from the British.  This was a rare feat, happening only one other time during the Seven Years War, when Cherokee captured Fort Loudon in what is now Tennessee.  After Pontiac's Rebellion, Matchekewis led his people to what is now Michigan, trying to keep away from Settlers, but to no avail.  He later allied with the British during the American Revolution, and led a war party of over 750-1,000 warriors from combined tribes against the Spanish outpost at St. Louis, Missouri in 1780.  Unfortunately, this time, faced with a tipped-off ragtag garrison of volunteers, he faced defeat.

Not to be outdone, Matchekewis was also active in the Northwest Indian War, 1785-1795, but like many other leaders, came to believe that resistance to the American would only prove futile and harmful to his people in the end.  He was a signatory of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, ceding Bois Blanc Island in Lake Huron.  After the treaty parley, he disappeared from the historical record.

Treaty: Fort Harmar, 1789

Treaties between Natives and the federal government often caused more confusion and havoc than they stopped.  Treaty terms were misinterpreted, misrepresented and misunderstood.  Boundary lines were indistinct, and moved time and again.  Tribes who claimed the same hunting range were often overlooked.  The result was more war, leading to further treaties, and yet more war.

The two Treaties of Fort Harmer in 1789 were a case in point.  Both were negotiated at Fort Harmar, in what is now Marietta, Ohio.  Lt.Col. (Bvt. Brig. Gen.) Josiah Harmar, the namesake of the Fort, was the chief negotiator of the two agreements, along with ill-fated General Arthur St. Clair.  A separate treaty was signed with the Iroquois Six Nations concerning their hunting range in the Ohio Valley.  Another agreement covered the rights of the Wyandot, Delaware, Sauk, Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi.  As usual, the Shawnee were left out of the talks, as were the Miami.  The two treaties were supposed to address boundary line discrepancies in Fort Stanwix II of 1784, and the Treaty of Fort McIntosh of 1785.  In reality, the Treaties of Fort Harmar simply reiterated the muddled boundary lines of those two prior agreements and did nothing to address current grievance.

The biggest grievance of the tribes was the increasing influx of settlers into an area known as the Western Reserve.  The Western Reserve was a portion of land in Northeastern Ohio claimed by the colony and later state of Connecticut.  It had ceded its claims to the federal government, which had some vague plans of creating a long-illusive Native buffer state to house the local tribes.  The plans never came to fruition and New England settlers claimed this territory much like settlers from Pennsylvania, Virgnia and the Carolinas claimed Kentucky and Tennessee.  Secretary of War Henry Knox had authorized St. Clair to give a portion of the Western Reserve known as the Firelands back to the Natives but St. Clair, on scene and far away from Washington, wasn't about to cede an inch to the Natives.  Threatening, bribing and deceiving Native leaders about what they were ceding, he kept the Firelands firmly under Native control. 

Fed up with the lack of follow-through on keeping settlers off land supposedly meant for them, the Natives soon returned to fighting.  The Shawnee and Miami, as the tribes most aggrieved by the new treaties, were particularly active under leaders such as Little Turtle and Blue Jacket.  St. Clair and Harmar would receive stinging defeats at the hands of Native commanders in 1791, and it would take Mad Anthony Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers in 1794, and the Treaty of Greenville before the United States took possession of thousands of acres of Native land in Ohio Territory for good.

Natives versus Settlers, Little Turtle's War, 179-1794

We've devoted posts to Little Turtle of the Miami (1747-1812), a renowned war leader of the same caliber as Dragging Canoe, Buckongahelas, Blue Jacket and others whom we've already met.  We've also covered the Northwest Indian War (1785-1794).  Now it's time to drill down on a specific subset of that war known as Little Turtle's War.  That he had an entire portion of the larger war named after him shows just how effective a leader Little Turtle was, particularly at capturing the attention of his enemies.

The Treaty of Paris of 1783 which ended the American Revolutionary War did not deal with any land claims by the original inhabitants of the Ohio River Valley.  It only specified that the British would surrender their forts there and leave, which they had no intention of doing.  Native leaders, particularly White Eyes of the Delaware, conceived of the Ohio Valley as being a Native buffer state, where Natives could live without any encroachment by Settlers.  But it was not to be.  Even before the Revolution ended, Settlers were pouring into Ohio and skirmishes with local Natives were inevitable.  Little Turtle was already a renowned war leader by 1785 and led several war parties against American settlers, often cooperating with Blue Jacket of the Shawnee, with whom he is most closely associated.  By 1790, he would command a share of fame of his own with two ambushes against columns led by Josiah Harmer. 

In 1791, Little Turtle's daughter was captured in a raid led by James Wilkinson.  More on him later, because he was one of the more disreputable men ever to live on the frontier or just about anywhere else.  Little Turtle made getting his daughter back a priority.  He was one of the Native commanders at the Battle of Wabash, on November 4, 1791, when a combined force of Miami, Wyandot, Delaware and others inflicted a defeat on General Arthur St. Clair that was far worse than that suffered by Custer.  For comparison, the loss at Little Big Horn (Greasy Grass) was 268 killed and 46 wounded.  The Battle of the Wabash saw 632 killed/captured, along with 264 wounded.  Civilian casualties were 24 killed, 14 wounded, bringing the total to approximately 933. 

Little Turtle would add to his record with a raid in 1792 on Fort St. Clair, in present-day Preble County, Ohio, that would make American military planners wonder if holding onto the Ohio Valley was even feasible.  The Washington Administration turned to one commander whom George Washington knew from Revolutionary days and believed he could trust, Anthony Wayne.  Like George Rogers Clark before him, Anthony Wayne garnered a reputation among the Natives as a formidable enemy.  On June 30, 1794, Little Turtle's contingent of Miami participated in an attack on Fort Recovery, near the present-day town of Fort Recovery, Ohio.  The fort held out and Little Turtle knew that they faced an enemy of a more skilled caliber than Arthur St. Clair or Josiah Harmer.  Prior to the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794, he counseled caution and that perhaps their best course lay with negotiating with Wayne rather than fighting him.  Nevertheless, when the consensus was to give battle, he led his Miami warriors with his usual skill.  This time, it was not enough.  Wayne inflicted a resounding defeat on the Natives.

Little Turtle was a signatory to the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.  During the gathering for the treaty signing, his wife died and was given a military funeral out of respect for this formidable adversary. 

 

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. 

Agent: William Wells

Life on the frontier for anyone connected with Natives was never easy.  These people, who were White but often adopted into Native tribes or married to Natives, faced a constant tug-of-war of emotions and loyalties.  William Wells and his relationships with his in-laws, Little Turtle and the Miami, is a classic case in point.

William Wells (c 1770-12), was born in Jacob's Creek, Pennsylvania, the son of a Revolutionary War veteran who later moved his family to Kentucky.  Wells' father died when he was nine and he was taken in by a neighbor.  At the age of 13, Wells and three other boys were captured by a raiding party of Wea and Miami and taken to Indiana.  Wells had bright red hair, earning him the name Apekonit, Miami for carrot.  He was given to a Miami chief, Porcupine, and taught the ways of a Miami warrior, which he readily became.  He eventually married a Wea woman and seemed content to remain with the Natives, though he visited his birth family in 1789.  His wife and daughter were later captured in a raid by General James Wilkinson (more on him in a later post), and Wells remained attached to Little Turtle's band of Miami, serving as a sharpshooter during the Battle of the Wabash, November, 1791. 

At this point, things became a little murky.  In 1792, Wells, still seeking his wife and daughter and other Native hostages, returned to his family in Louisville.  His brother urged him to meet with Indian Agent Rufus Putnum in Cincinnati.  There, Wells agreed to work with Putnum to urge the Natives to agree to treaty terms in return for freeing the hostages.  Putnum then hired Wells to spy on various Native counsel in 1793 and report Native plans to the Americans.  Wells thus became a double agent, and remained one the rest of his career.  He had by this time married Little Turtle's daughter, Wanagapeth (Sweet Breeze) and had four children by her.  Their three daughters married White men and his son would follow in David Moniac's footsteps at West Point.  As Wells attempted to work with the Natives behind the scenes to put an end to the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795, he was thwarted at every turn by British Agents, Alexander McKee and Simon Girty, a personal nemesis.  Wells was able to bring Wayne warning that he was facing a force of over 1500 warriors ready to attack Wayne's Legion of the United States.

Wells was given a captain's rank and become the leader of a group of scouts and spies who worked directly under Anthony Wayne's direction as scouts, spies, interpreters or whatever else needed doing.  He led Wayne's forces to the battleground of the Wabash and pointed out to him where Natives had buried the cannon left behind.  Although he was wounded in the lead-up to Fallen Timbers in 1794, he was able to give Wayne advice that helped Wayne win that battle.  Later, Wells was one of the main interpreters at the negotiations leading up to the Treaty of Greenville of 1795.  As he urged his father-in-law Little Turtle to sign the treaty, did Little Turtle know that his daughter's husband was playing a double role?  Most likely not, as Little Turtle was adamant that Wells should be the Indian Agent appointed to the Ohio Tribes. 

As Indian Agent, Wells escorted delegations of Native leaders to Philadelphia and later Washington.  He also worked to urge Natives to sign treaties with the government, then urged them quietly to back away from what they'd signed.  Like Little Turtle, he believed that the Quakers could teach the Natives better methods of farming, but he did not push other aspects of Jefferson's civilization program for Native Americans.   As Tecumseh's movement gained grounded, both sides became suspicious of Wells, who negotiated his last treaty, the Treaty of Fort Wayne, in 1809.  As the incoming Madison Administration began investigating Wells and Little Turtle on allegations of corruption, Tecumseh was also spreading mistrust of the Agent.  Wells was fired in 1809, though he continued to work unofficial as an interpreter and tried to warn the Madison Administration of the gravity of Tecumseh's movement. 

Wells
would spend the rest of his life trying to get his job back.  Fortunately, he did not have long on this earth.  In 1812 he became aware of that Potawatomi supporting the British and Tecumseh were going to attack Fort Dearborn in present-day Chicago.  He rode with a delegation of peaceful Potawatomi, among them Black Partridge, to try to warn Captain Nathan Heald, commandant of the Fort and married to William's niece, Rebekah.  Believing that it was safe to march the garrison out, on August 15, 1812, Heald led a force of regulars, militia, women and children out of Fort Dearborn, where they were ambushed by the Potawatomi in the Battle of Fort Dearborn.  Wells died trying to protect women and children.  Most likely, family, his own or anyone else's, had been his motive all along. 

Natives versus Settlers: Harmer's Defeat, 7-22 October, 1790

The latter portion of the Northwest Indian War (1790-94) is often called Little Turtle's War with good reason.  Little Turtle of the Miami racked up several impressive victories against White commanders, his most famous being the Battle of the Wabash in 1791.  However, before he met Arthur St. Clair, he'd run into Josiah Harmer no less than three times in October, 1790.

The Northwest Indian War in general (1785-1795) saw some of the bloodiest conflicts on the frontier.  Natives raided American settlements and isolated farms and blockhouses, opposing encroachment on their homelands and hunting ranges.  But the settlers just kept coming.  Finally, several tribes in the Ohio Valley, including the Miami, Shawnee and others, banded together to form large enough war parties to hopefully put an end to the trespassing for good.  At the time of the three skirmishes known collectively as Harmer's Defeat, Little Turtle of the Miami was acting in concert with Blue Jacket of the Shawnee, in command of over 1,000 warriors of various tribes.  Josiah Harmer was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, with experience and a track record that caused Washington to put confidence in him.  Harmer marched toward the main Miami village of Kekionga, now Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a force of 320 Regulars and 1100 militia.  Their objective was a punitive mission against the Shawnee and Miami for raids on American settlements, but Harmer's men were the ones who would feel the pain.

Harmer began his march along the Great Miami River, approaching Kekionga.  However, when he sent his second in command, John Hardin of Kentucky, to launch a surprise attack on the village, they found that its inhabitants had burned it to the ground and fled.  Harmer turned his attention to other Miami villages, but they likewise had been evacuated.  The Native command team were well aware of Harmer's intentions and movements and awaiting their moment to strike.  Near present-day Churubusco, Indiana, on October 19, 1790, Hardin's men encountered a lone Native warrior on horseback.  They took the bait, pursuing him as he led them right into an ambush.  The Native horsemen led the Americans into a swamp, where Little Turtle's forces attacked.  This skirmish, called either the Battle of Heller's Corner, or Hardin's Defeat, cost 22 Regulars, 40 militia killed and 12 Americans wounded.  Some of Hardin's men had to hide in the swamp to escape with their lives.

Harmer next sent a scouting party of 300 men under Ensign Phillip Hartshorn.  (Ensign in those days could also be an army rank).  On October 20, 1790, they walked right into an ambush not far from the burned village of Kekionga.  This skirmish, called Hartshorn's Defeat, happened so fast that the Americans had to pull away from Kekionga and leave their dead on the field, further dispiriting American morale.  A rift developed between Harmer, the Regular Army officer and Hardin, a militia commander who wanted to take a larger force and try to strike back at the Natives or at least bury the bodies properly.  Hardin himself was in bigger trouble, soon enough.  On October 21, 1790, he returned to the area of the burned-out Kekionga and found Little Turtle's main force of 1,000 warriors.  He sent back word to Harmer for reinforcements.  Harmer, possibly drinking, got cold feet.  Instead of marching to Hardin's relief, he bunched his remaining 800 men into a square formation and hunkered down.

It didn't go well for either Hardin.  Hardin divided his men into smaller groups and tried to attack the Natives on al sides.  Little Turtle was on to him and baited the militia into foolish charges until he could isolate the regular force.  Little Turtle's men then swooped down on the regulars in an encounter known as Harmer's Defeat (though he wasn't there) or as the Natives remembered it, the Battle of the Pumpkin Fields.  The origin of this name was grim enough.  Hardin lost 180 men and the bare skulls reminded the Natives of pumpkins steaming in the autumn air. Native losses were about 120 men.  Harmer, still sitting tight with his remaining men, determined that he could not attack and began a retreat.  Until St. Clair's defeat the following year, this was the worst defeat handed to the Americans by the Natives and it was a military and political nightmare for the Washington Administration.

Washington was furious and lost his proverbial temper, saying "my mind is prepared for the worst, that is for an experience without honor or profit."  Harmer demanded a court martial and was white-washed, but his career was stymied after these battles.  None of these men knew that the worst was yet to come, courtesy of Little Turtle, Blue Jacket and their colleagues. 

Great Leader: Tarhe of the Wyandot

Tarhe (1742-1818) was one of several Native leaders who tried to maintain peace with Settlers, only to see little but hardship and betrayal for all his hard work.

Tarhe was born in the Ohio Valley, but little is known of his early life or how he came to be a leader among the Wyandot.  Settlers nicknamed him "The Crane" because he was tall and slender, described as handsome in appearance.  He does not appear in the record for the Seven Years War (1756-1763) but became active after that time, opposing encroachment on Indian Land.  He, like Cornstalk of the Shawnee, first fought against the Settlers in Lord Dunmore's War, though he later adopted a position of neutrality, keeping his people out of the American Revolution and the early part of the Northwest Indian War.  He was among the members of the Native command team at Fallen Timbers (1794), though he later signed the Treaty of Greenville (1795) and reverted once more to a position of neutrality and co-existence with settlers.

He was not in favor of Tecumseh's Confederacy and again worked to keep his people out of the conflict, although other Wyandot leaders, including some of his own relatives, joined Tecumseh.  Tarhe was present at the Battle of the Thames, among the Native auxiliaries assisting Harrison.  He later died near the present-day town of Upper Sandusky, Ohio.

Places: the Wabash River

This river, which arises in Ohio, flows across Indiana to form part of the border between Indian and Illinois before draining into the Ohio River, is packed along most of its 503 miles with history.  Wabash is an English corruption of the French Ouabache, which itself is a corruption of a Miami word meaning White River or River of White Stones, referring to the clarity of the water in certain areas.  The French considered the Ohio a tributary of the Wabash before realizing it that it was the other way round.  The Wabash is the main northern tributary of the Ohio.

Several Battles have been fought along or near this River, including some we've already touched on.  In date order, they are: Battle of Vincennes, 1779; Harmer's Defeat, 1790, St. Clair's Defeat, 1791; Attack on Fort Recovery, 1794, Battle of Tippecanoe, 1811, Siege of Fort Harrison, 1812; and Siege of Fort Wayne, 1812. 

Settlers v. Natives: The Battle of Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794

The Northwest Indian War saw some of the finest Native commanders in the history of warfare in North American.  We've already met Little Turtle, Buckongahelas and Blue Jacket in other posts and seen some of their work in other battles.  At this battle, which ended the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795), they would meet their match.

Mad Anthony Wayne (1745-1796) was born in Easttown Township in what is now Chester County, Pennsylvania.  A tanner and surveyor by trade, he became a soldier during the American Revolutionary War when, in 1775, he raised a regiment of militia that became the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment.  A quick learner with a natural knack for all things military, he was a stern disciplinarian, a hard marcher who didn't back down to anybody in battle.  Hence his well-known nom de guerre of mad.  After the Revolution, he retired a wealthy man and married the widow of Nathanael Greene.  He tried politics but when the Northwest Indian War broke out Washington knew who to call back into service.  Wayne was named commander of the Legion of the United States, as the reorganized Army was then known.

During the Northwest Indian War, Native leaders had scored impressive victories against American commanders who were less than skilled in fighting on the frontier.  Men like Arthur St. Clair, Josiah Harmer and James Wilkinson, all trained officers with impressive Revolutionary service, lost careers and reputations fighting in against men who could and did run circles around them every time they met up.  The frontier was the place where reputations went to die.  They would discover a different opponent in Mad Anthony (great-grandfather of Bruce Wayne, aka Batman if you're into superheroes).  Rather than lunge at the Natives, Wayne spent two years drilling his force of militia into an army.  These men may have heard of a mutiny on the Pennsylvania Line during the final months of the Revolution where Mad Anthony had not been afraid to shoot men of his own county for insubordination. 

When he felt he was ready, Wayne marched his force from Fort Washington in what is now Cincinnati, with 2,000 men.  Choctaw and Chickasaw auxiliaries served as scouts and forward skirmishers.  Blue Jacket selected his ground on the Maumee River near present-day Toledo.  A recent storm had blown down a stand of trees that would serve as a defense position, hence the name of this battle, Fallen Timbers.  The Native command team consisted of he most feared triumvirate on the frontier, Blue Jacket, Little Turtle, and Buckongahelas composed of Shawnee, Miami, Delaware, Wyandot, Potawatomi, Mingos and many others.  They were supported by a band of Canadian militia led by Captain Alexander McKillip. 

On August 20, 1794, Mad Anthony opened the battle quickly enough.  He ordered his cavalry to flank the Native positions and attack from the rear, while his infantry conducted a bayonet charge straight at the improvised breastworks.  The Natives finally broken and headed for the safety of a nearby British fort, Fort Campbell, where the British commander decided he waned nothing to do with Anthony Wayne and closed the gates against them.  Wayne finished his decimation of the Native force within sight of the British fort.  Casualties for the Americans included 33 killed and 100 wounded, the Natives lost 25-40 killed and unknown numbers of wounded. 

The American victory prompted the British to speed up their evacuation of the Ohio River Valley, depriving the Natives of a crucial ally.  With a new general in the field who could match them in skill and ability, many native leaders saw the wisdom of signing the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, ceding most Native land in Ohio to the United States.  Among the few Natives who refused to sign the Treaty of Greenville was a young Shawnee named Tecumseh whose brother Cheeseekau had been killed in other fighting in 1794.  He would be back to fight another day.  Mad Anthony decided after this battle to hang up his gear again and return, this time to Pennsylvania where he died he following year.  The site of the Battle is now a National Historic Site with federal and state monuments to Wayne, his men, the Native commanders and their men.  Fort Wayne, once a military garrison and now the city in Indiana, is named for Mad Anthony.