Northwest Indian War - Course of The War

Course of The War

Still opposed to the US, some British agents in the region sold weapons and ammunition to the Indians and encouraged attacks on American settlers. War parties launched a series of isolated raids in the mid-1780s, resulting in escalating bloodshed and mistrust. In the fall of 1786, General Benjamin Logan led a force of Federal soldiers and mounted Kentucky militia against several Shawnee towns along the Mad River. These were protected primarily by noncombatants while the warriors were raiding forts in Kentucky. Logan burned the Indian towns and food supplies, and killed or captured numerous Indians, including their chief Moluntha, who was murdered by one of Logan's men. Logan's raid and the execution of the chief angered the Shawnees, who retaliated by escalating their attacks on American settlers.

Indian raids on both sides of the Ohio River resulted in increasing casualties. During the mid- and late-1780s, American settlers south of the Ohio River in Kentucky and travelers on and north of the Ohio River suffered approximately 1,500 casualties. Settlers retaliated with attacks on Indians.

In 1790, President George Washington and Secretary of War Henry Knox ordered General Josiah Harmar to launch the Harmar Campaign, a major western offensive into the Shawnee and Miami country. In October 1790, a force of 1,453 men under Brigadier General Josiah Harmar was assembled near present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana. Harmar committed only 400 of his men under Colonel John Hardin to attack an Indian force of some 1,100 warriors, and Hardin was handily defeated in Hardin's Defeat. He lost at least 129 soldiers.

Washington ordered Major General Arthur St. Clair, who served as governor of the Northwest Territory, to mount a more vigorous effort by summer 1791. After considerable trouble finding men and supplies, St. Clair was somewhat ready, but the troops had received little training. At dawn on November 4, 1791, St. Clair's force, accompanied by about 200 camp followers, was camped near where Fort Recovery, Ohio is now, with weak defenses set up on the perimeter. An Indian force of about 2,000 warriors, led by Little Turtle, Blue Jacket, and Tecumseh, struck quickly. Surprising the Americans, they soon overran the poorly prepared perimeter. The barely trained recruits panicked and were slaughtered in St. Clair's Defeat, along with many of their officers, who frantically tried to restore order and stop the rout. The American casualty rate was 69%, based on the deaths of 632 of the 920 soldiers and officers, with 264 wounded. Nearly all of the 200 unarmed camp followers were slaughtered, for a total of about 832 deaths—the highest United States losses in any of its Indian battles. In 1792 Washington's emissaries Colonel John Hardin and Major Alexander Truman were murdered while on peace missions in Shelby County and Ottawa, Ohio.

After St Clair's disaster, Washington ordered General "Mad" Anthony Wayne to form a well-trained force and put an end to the situation. Wayne took command of the new Legion of the United States late in 1793. After extensive training, his troops advanced into Indian country and built Fort Recovery at the site of St. Clair's defeat. In June 1794, Little Turtle led an unsuccessful attack on Fort Recovery. Wayne's well-trained Legion advanced deeper into the territory of the Wabash Confederacy. Blue Jacket replaced Little Turtle in command, but the Indian forces were defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794.

Blue Jacket's warriors fled from the battlefield to regroup at British-held Fort Miami. However, they found themselves locked out of the fort. Britain and the United States were by then reaching a close rapprochement to counter Jacobin France during the French Revolution.

In 1795 the United States signed two treaties that recognized the changes in power. By the Treaty of Greenville, the northwest Indian tribes were forced to cede most of Ohio and a slice of Indiana; to recognize the U.S., rather than Britain, as the ruling power in the Old Northwest; and to surrender ten chiefs as hostages until all American prisoners were returned. Also that year, the United States negotiated the Jay Treaty with Great Britain, which required British withdrawal from the western forts while opening up some British territory in the Caribbean for American trade.